Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon

The Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon is organized in the following ranks:

• The Draconic Eminence leads the Temple as the top authority and holiest spiritual figure. The Eminence is chosen by Ishkibal from a roster of the Temple's greatest paladins and priests
• Temple Elders are the top priests immediately under the Eminence, who act as their advisors and who manage core temple functions
• Ecclesiarchs are the top priests of larger regions, chosen from Ecclesia (regional councils) by the Eminence or Ishkibal
• Archpriests are the regional priests, who manage temple clusters. Chosen either by priestly election or by the Ecclesiarch.
• Temple Priests manage individual temples or congregations
• Acolytes are apprentice priests who serve the temple full-time. They may become Temple Priests or they may take on other administrative work.
• Shrinekeepers are pious layfolk who serve the temple but often also work other jobs

This is a fairly centralized system, but it does empower regional and local leaders when one gets further from Asalay. In the city of Asalay, the Temple's power is substantial. They have their own guards in the city, control access to the megadungeon there, and even have their own bank.   The current Draconic Eminence is Mathri the Pious, a charismatic paladin with a long history of adventuring and Ishkibite worship in the city of Asalay. Mathri is quite popular in the city that they hail from and is uniquely spiritually connected to the creatures and spirits of that place. While Mathri has been an adept politician in Asalay and has brought great wealth to the Temple, their focus on the City of Gold has come at the cost of focus and control over the other Ecclesia. The other Ecclesiarchs have become quite content acting independently and have even defied Mathri's orders to pursue their own plans.   This system organizes followers into geographic zones called Ecclesia. Each Ecclesia is composed of different regional Conclaves (overseen by their associated Archpriests). Ecclesia are perhaps the most important regional division, as they have significant autonomy.   There are six Draconic Ecclesia, pictured below:   This map also includes territories not under Ishkibite political control but which Ecclesia lay claim and preach to.   Of these six Ecclesia, only four serve the Draconic Eminence alone:

• The Azalen Ecclesium is the core of this organization and is more or less directly controlled by the Draconic Eminence.
• The Otanan Ecclesium preaches in the West and often conflicts with the Halikvar there. Very evangelical and intolerant of rival organized religions.
• The Okethi Ecclesium preaches in the North and is known for its sly political games. They also have a lot of competition with the Halikvar, but they are known to be far more cordial and cooperative with the druid-priests there. Still, the Okethi Ishkibites are working to achieve political dominance over the Halikvar in the region's great kingdom of Lurelay.
• The Beleth Ecclesium preaches in the South and ministers to the tropics. This Ecclesium is known for their evangelizing missions, syncretic leanings, and their complete rejection of Traditional Ishkibite prejudices.

There are two Ecclesia that report to the Draconic Eminence but also other Ishkibite Temples:

• The Dinaketh Ecclesium preaches in the Northeast, and is entirely focused on the brutal wars of religion there in Dinaketh. Decentralized, militarized, and zealous. Also reports to the Traditional Temple.
• The Ecclesium of the Reach is a Draconic Ecclesium in the Izekran Isles and the Flower Coast. This is a group of Ishkibites loyal to the Draconic Eminence, but they are in competition with several parallel Ecclesia in the region who serve the Traditional Temple and the Eastern temple.

While these divided Ecclesia can be points of friction, the Temples prioritize cooperation against external threats thanks to the guidance of Ishkibal and his paladins.

Draconic Ishkibism is far less focused on the needs and bodies of Humans than mainstream Ishkibism and does not prioritize Humans and Cats as inherently more pure. That isn't to say that Draconic Ishkibism is perfect in navigating the differing needs of different species.   In terms of theology, resources, and medicine, Draconic Ishkibism tends to view Humans, Cats, Dryads, and (to a lesser extent) Prisms as the four "base races" that need to be understood and catered to. Less-common species tend to be written off as "essentially" one of the main four, which can impact their access to resources and their treatment in medical practice. Temple imagery tends to focus on Human, Cat, and Dryad actors as well, making them the "defaults" in many communities.   Draconic Ishkibism also has certain special protection rituals for non-mammalian species, which are inherited from mainstream Ishkibism. According to dogma, non-mammalian species are descended from the souls that were enslaved by the Demon Gods who were then freed by the Divine Dragon at the start of the current age. This doesn't mean that those species are inherently more sinful, but it does mean that they are under greater threat by evil spirits.   The Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon puts a great deal of emphasis on magical and material purity as a kind of physical reflection and conduit for moral goodness. The same is true for impurity. Exposure to waste products like sewage, poisonous chemicals, or corpses is seen as correlating to temptation and sin, if not corrected by a purification rite. This is even true for species who would not normally have health risks from exposure to that kind of waste (like Prisms). This can lead to some ill-treatment of sanitation workers, gravekeepers, and cleaners, though the official dogma does teach that such work is noble if the workers cleanse themselves afterwards. People who choose to interact or work with unclean materials for no benefit to the greater good are seen as morally dubious and in need of correction. This is the root of the Temple's general dislike of necromancy, even if that necromancy is harmless. Necromancers and others who handle the unclean voluntarily are accepted if they prove their action's value to society, though: then it becomes a necessary impurity, like sanitation work.   On the other hand, certain creatures and things are treated with great care and sanctity in this form of Ishkibism. Flowyrms are perhaps the holiest creatures in this religion as they are gifts and blessings from the Divine Dragon that serve as conduits of its will. Killing or harming a Flowyrm is considered a dire sin. Caring for and performing acts of piety around Flowyrms, meanwhile, is morally good.   Celestial Blood, which rains down in Izekra and Desmia during the Day of Blood, is treated as a kind of holy substance that can be quite unholy if used incorrectly. Celestial Blood is a conduit with the divine, which can be a deadly poison or the ultimate spiritual cleansing agent. Divine Contact Incense is treated in a similar way, though to a lesser extent.   Monsters, items, and locations in The Underworld are constantly assessed by the Temple for their moral value and purity. Some things are evil, some things are good; the evil must be destroyed and the good must be protected. The Temple considers the Underworld to be their domain and they often butt heads with non-Ishkibite adventurers who don't care about the Temple's categorization system.

The Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon has very old roots in the area around Asalay, though it has only blossomed in the last few centuries.   In the oldest days known to history, the people of the Asalay Isthmus worshipped the Goddess Asala as their patron deity. Asala was seen as a powerful goddess and ancestral hero who was the first of their people and who watched over them from her prison in the Underworld. She was the spirit of the megadungeon there who was said to manifest as a powerful silver dragon who often walked as a woman with silver hair in the magical depths under Asalay. The Azalen people and the city of Asalay borrowed their names from this patron Goddess, it is said (though it is a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg situation).   In the 500s ME, the keepers of the magical realm under Asalay organized as a warrior-cult devoted to Asala known as the Order of the Dragon. Asala became known as Asala-Yakara, or Draconic Asala, as reports and interactions with her the mysterious silver-dragon woman grew. The Order of the Dragon grew in religious importance as their expeditions became more profitable and important to all parts of society. And when they brought Flowyrms from the Underworld, the Azalen people agreed that these creatures were proof of Asala’s blessings.   The Order of the Dragon fell into civil war and was subsumed by a rising monarchy in the 750s ME, but their doctrine and rituals remained. And as the Kingdom of Asalay expanded militarily, they brought their patron God and their religious beliefs with them. This early religion was tolerant of conquered gods and beliefs and wasn’t very dogmatic, but these conquests still spread Asala’s cult and introduced it into new political contexts.   In 875 ME an Ishkibite missionary converted Asalay’s monarch, Efeden Melidanvia, to Ishkibism. Efeden didn’t just convert and bow to the Ishkibite Eminence, though. He built his own priesthood, which incorporated many leaders of the old Dragon cult into the new temple structure. The old traditions would, in Efeden’s thinking, keep these foreign priests under the monarch’s control. And so a highly syncretic local temple was formed. This early Temple of the Dragon was very fluid and unstable theologically. Some members rejected traditional beliefs, while others just draped Ishkibism over them.   For centuries after, Asalay’s religion was a weird mix of state-sponsored cults all wearing the shared symbols and labels of Ishkibism. Over time, these cults learned to get along and found a common language of symbols and stories to bridge the gap between them. And as Dungeoneering into the Underworld grew into a larger source of income and influence, foreign Ishkibites came to respect Draconic Ishkibism as a necessary form of mysticism for generating wealth and power for the whole religion.   In the mid-late 1000’s ME, Ishkibal himself began intervening in favor of the Draconic Temple. In prior centuries, he had plainly disagreed with the Draconic legends and beliefs of the Temple. But suddenly, the Sage himself began to agree with the Draconic Temple as more correct than his original one. This led to a whole crisis of theology in the First Temple, which was eventually resolved by the priests in Kenahai deciding that the older writings were inherently more correct. But this sudden change in favor led to some dissident priests going to Asalay to find the “true Ishkibism”. These dissident priests were far more concerned in “truth” and “dogma” than prior Draconic cults, and their writings formally differentiated the Temple in Asalay from the Temple in Kenahai. By 1150 ME, the Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon was a full competitor to the Kenahai temple.   Before the two Ishkibisms could fight, an outside force suddenly invaded that forced cooperation under Ishkibal’s guidance: the Halikvar invasion of 1150. This began centuries of religious war between Ishkibites, Halikvar, and Orthodox Desmianism. All this war created strong institutions binding the different Ishkibite sects together. And over time it became far more profitable for the First Ishkibite Temple and the Draconic Temple to cooperate than to squabble over dogma. If Ishkibal approves, why not work with them?   In 1250 disaster struck Asalay: tunnels collapsed in the Underworld, monsters swarmed those that remained, and the city’s trade in magical materials and precious metals suddenly halted. While the crisis subsided and repairs were made, the damage to the city was lasting. In the 1300s, a major civil war collapsed Asalay’s government, leaving the Draconic Temple autonomous but in a state of dwindling influence and wealth. The new government completely cut the Draconic Temple out of government, opening The Underworld to outsiders and selling off sacred lands.   The Draconic Temple fought back, but increasingly had to rely on a powerbase outside of the city of Asalay. A long period of decline followed, during which the First Temple once again threatened to absorb the Draconic one. The Draconic Temple became more militaristic and defined itself more and more through the rejection and wars with the Halikvar and the Desmians.   In the late 1400s, as Asalay began booming once again, the Draconic Temple used what influence it had to re-assert its power over the Underworld and its rights to power in Asalay. An assertive and ambitious Draconic Eminence, Benethin the Brave of Oketha, gambled everything on a grand political push in Asalay. And while Benethin appealed to the citizenry’s sense of piety and sanctity, he also positioned the Temple as a financial institution in the city. The Temple became a merchant house, adventuring sponsor, and monstercrafting guild, using its moral authority and financial clout to consolidate control over the largest entry into the Underworld - what would become known as the Golden Gate.   This bold strategy made the Temple many enemies, including the royal dynasty of Asalay at the time. The Temple battled with mercenary companies, rival noble factions, and the crown itself over the next century. This culminated in the monarch’s attempt to abolish the Draconic Temple in 1590, which failed and led to the Draconic Eminence ousting the monarch in 1595. A period of intense political and violent conflict ensued from 1595 to 1616. In 1616, a new dynasty, the Yakaranvias, seized the throne and launched a series of purges targeting unruly mercenaries and nobles. The Yakaranvias reconciled with the Draconic Temple and forged a new peace between secular and religious authority in Asalay.   After the 1616 pact between King Malven Yakaranvia and Her Draconic Eminence Meldatha the Shrewd, the Draconic Ishkibite Temple was back to being stable and influential. The Temple was also quite autonomous from secular authority, after centuries of distance between church and crown. The new dynasty also wanted a state with room for foreigners of many faiths, to best capitalize on growing foreign immigration and trade. The new dynasty invited an ambitious selkie clan known as Clan Mikiraka into negotiations with crown and temple, and over the 1700s a number of leading priests were quite dissatisfied with the surging number of heathens in their holy city. And yet, the 1616 pact guaranteed space in the city for them.   The late 1700s and 1800s were a time of institutions - and the 1616 Pact and Mikiraka Pact provided legal foundations for a new system: the Banots. The Banot system has old roots in early foreign enclaves and the rules around them, but the Temple and Crown overhauled this system into an elaborate formalized ruleset in the 1700s. There was a lot of fear surrounding mixed-faith neighborhoods. These were finally legalized in 1840, following the 1830s succession crisis and the rise of a new royal branch (the Laranharta-Yakaranvias). This easing of the Banots came with even more lawmaking and court precedence. The Temple of Ishkibal had gone from overtly mystical back in the 1500s to extremely legalistic, as the city had entered a new era of institutions and control. While Eminences of old had been suspicious of foreign heathens in the sacred Underworld, new Eminences played the game of capitalism quite well. Indeed, by 1962, the Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon’s bank had become the kingdom’s de-facto public bank and a major financial institution for corporations foreign and domestic.   While the Draconic Temple has perfected its role as the “chill, nice Ishkibites” in Asalay, they have certainly done their share of warring and espionage against neighboring heathen kingdoms. But even that has begun to wane: in 1980, the Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon signed an Edict of Co-existence and Tolerance with the Halikvar of the Kingdom of Lurelay. In doing so, the Temple has set a precedence for peace over war - soft influence over hard violence.

Once, the world was a seed carried on a cosmic wind across the Great Nothing, to a patch of lonely water and empty mud. The seed took root in that darkened soil and from it came many gods and spirits who dredged up mud from the sea and who shaped the water and sky. This Myriad Pantheon grew the world from a seed into a thriving planet, which all people came from. These ancient people were half-spirit and danced in many shapes and ways.   But all was not peaceful in that age of unchecked magic and wonder. The ancient people struggled to live and build, for the Gods were quick to bicker and destroy. Two great divine families were most glorious of all: Gods of Sky and Gods of Earth. The Gods of Sky included the kind-hearted Moon Goddess Wenta, who sought to make a garden for people to live in. She borrowed life and abundance from the jealous and terrible Earth God Lupathi, King of the Underworld, and convinced the gentle Earth Goddess Utara to tend to and protect the early people. Lupathi allowed this but demanded a terrible price: Wenta’s Firstborn child, as a hostage. For Wenta was pregnant and she was excited to be a mother. Wenta wept but she agreed. She gave birth to twins and Lupathi took the first of them. The second twin was Wenta’s to keep and that child became the Second Moon.   The first twin, the stolen twin, was a spirit of immense power who embodied the sacrifice that Wenta had made. This spirit, known as Yakara, terrified Lupathi with its innate power. He smothered the child underground but it revived every dawn. He opened a door to the Great Nothing to throw the child away, despite all the warnings he had been given. And through that door came great spirits of evil: the Demon Gods, hungry to feed on the sin and hate of this world. Lupathi was terrified of these intruders and hid Yakara away underground. He built a citadel for Yakara to survive and grow in, where it became the Divine Dragon.   While Yakara grew, the Demon Gods overturned the old world. They took away the magic and the spirits withered away into ghosts and memories. They captured every soul they could find and corrupted them into demonic servants, which they turned loose onto the world. The Demon Gods could not create, so they were forced to destroy and dominate. The Myriad Pantheon was either devoured or fled far away into the corners of the world. This continued for an age, for which there is no history.   But in the gardens of the moon, humanity and catkind continued. They created good deeds and good rituals and when they died they became stars. The Demon Gods hungered for their souls and hunted them for a thousand years.   Eventually, the Demon Gods found the Gardens of the Moon. They could not get in, but the Demon Gods used trickery to deceive the humans inside to open the doors for them. The Demon Gods appealed to the Human’s ignorance and their hatred; they appeared as rich and wise humans and claimed that they alone had the weapons to kill the demons. The Demon Gods ran rampant through the Garden, but the good spirits gave the humans hidden and magical boats to flee them with. By strength and guile, mortals fled the Garden and inhabited the corrupted world.     The Humans and Cats were beset by demons and souls enslaved to the Demon Gods, but they persisted. One group found the Citadel where the Divine Dragon was growing and appealed to the spirit there. The Divine Dragon awoke and by its blessing the world was saved. It returned magic to the world and it severed the chains by which the Demon Gods enslaved so many souls, freeing the “demons” from evil and allowing them to live together. All people began as a single people, after all, who took many shapes. The Divine Dragon returned all people to one people. Demons had begun as natural (the Demon Gods cannot create, after all) so they could be saved by a Greater Good. All remaining evil spirits and demons were summoned and bound into the Underworld, where the Divine Dragon keeps them imprisoned. This is why the Underworld has evil monsters in it as well as good spirits.   But not all people knew this. Those who had been tricked became the Desmian people and they waged perpetual war to seek penance for opening the Garden’s Gates. But without guidance, they only committed greater and greater sins. But the Divine Dragon knew that these people were not to blame for opening the Garden’s Gates and set about redeeming them. They took the form of a maiden of moonlight and visited a great hero of the Desmian people. She taught him secrets of magic and ways to bring prosperity to his people, and laid with him. One moonlit night, their child appeared in his home: a demigod child named Ishkibal.   Ishkibal was the mortal essence of the Divine Dragon who embodied its wisdom and its truth. But Ishkibal was also mortal and fallible. He set aside what he knew was right for what his teachers told him and he became a warrior for their sinful ways.   Recognizing Ishkibal’s unparalleled strength and power, the Desmians sent him with their finest warriors to conquer their great enemies: the Rukrin, who lived across the sea from them. The Rukrin had lived in harmony, but the Demon Gods had tempted Rukrin’s King Mazel into committing terrible sins and devouring his subjects. Mazel became a demon and he had befriended and tricked the Desmians into attacking the Dryads under him who had rebelled against his evil. Knowing this, the Divine Dragon visited Ishkibal on his journey and urged caution. The Desmians had fallen for the same trick - but Ishkibal realized it for what it was. Ishkibal talked with the rebel leader, Autumn, and with the king’s bodyguard Rosha, and held patient council. Ishkibal and his allies slew the evil king and he was crowned the new King of the Rukrin for his wisdom.   The Demon Gods saw Ishkibal’s wisdom and light and grew envious. They visited him to tempt him, but in response he worked to redeem them. In their love for the things they had corrupted, Ishkibal saw compassion and the potential for forgiveness. Finally, Ishkibal was ready to fix the world. On a moonless night, Ishkibal was beset by the Demon Gods a final time. He took a sword of pure goodness and cut each Demon God in half: one good, one evil. The hobbled Gods fled and Ishkibal descended with the Four Redeemed God-parts into the Underworld. Realizing his destiny as the Divine Dragon embodied, Ishkibal journeyed through the Underworld to where the Moons lay sleeping. There, they gave him a place to sleep and to lead the world until he needed to physically descend to save the world once more.   Ishkibal was not the only God to be welcomed to the Moons: nine other heroes visited the Moons and together they purified the Gardens of the Moon to become a sanctuary for heroic souls. These are The Lunar Pantheon.   This began the True Struggle: the struggle to redeem evil itself. Once all the demon gods have been purified, the path to redemption will be clear to all sentient creatures, who will ascend to eternal paradise.

Ishkibite cosmology sees Good and Evil locked in an eternal battle. Every good act strengthens the ancestors and Gods; every evil act feeds the Demonic Gods. The Struggle is not only a physical contest of arms, but the everyday choices to be honest, to be welcoming, to be dutiful, to be pious over temptation. The afterlife is divided between the Pure Lands of the just and the Torment of the Impure.   Evil and good are transformative both spiritually and physically. By performing evil acts, humans can become demons; by seeking redemption, any physical demon is transformed into a person.

Draconic Ishkibites attend a weekly purification ritual, known as the Cleansing March in mainstream Ishkibism. Unlike in other sects, the Draconic Cleansing March has very few physical training components and is far more oriented to moral guidance, penance, and community identity building.   During the Day of Blood, which is thankfully not a day where much or any actual blood rains, the Draconic Ishkibites hold a grand feast and sanctify each member by dousing them with ritually-prepared water. This water represents the Celestial Blood of Ishkibal and may include red dyes. Some elites actually get real Cursed Blood from Izekra and Desmia for their rituals, or provide this blood to favored communities as a spiritual donation. The faithful often pay tithes before this holiday as well.   Outside of these community rituals, individual Ishkibites may give prayer to Ishkibal and the Divine Dragon for blessings or to ask for forgiveness.

Draconic Ishkibite priests wear black and white robes to mark their status. Priests are recruited from among the Acolytes, who wear mostly-Black with white fringes, and who act as apprentice priests and temple staff. Temple Priests often handpick their successors, but if there is no pre-ordained heir the Archpriest selects their replacement. Archpriests may also select promising Acolytes to become full missionary priests, detached from a Temple and sent to minister to foreign lands.   Priests preach to the public, conduct community purification rituals, hold penance meetings with the faithful (during which the faithful report sins and ask for the appropriate act of penance for forgiveness), and oversee temple functions.   Archpriests often wear a white collar or neckband, usually sewn with a sword-like pattern.   Ecclesiarchs often wear red or purple fringes. Red usually signifies a war-footing, while Purple is more expensive and marks a desire to redeem.