Temples, Belthels and Shrines
The Patheon worshipped in Pasaulis (the known world) centers around the constellations. The Creator is not usually worshipped at all, at least not formally. There are no clerics sanctified to the Creator, no temples are dedicated to Him and His nature and intentions are not known.
Toresta is part of a civilization which honors the deific beings most concerned with The Tale Of Magic. Those are Cassia, The Princess; Straznik, The Guardian; Mysilwi Gwiazd, The Hunter; and the " Straznicy Gwoazd" (Guardians of the Stars), Astraios and Noctis, who are the Patrons of Toresta. No one worships the Dark Queen, at least not openly.
Physical buildings and sites dedicated to the deities are located throughout Toresta. In this general area of the world practices are similar in other cities and towns, and visitors to Toresta will be generally familiar with religious practices as carried out in the city, their own likely being more or less the same, though they may highlight a different deity.
In Toresta the Temple district is built around the Torestan Temple to the "Straznicy Gwoazd" (Guardians of the Stars). Astraios and Noctis are patrons of the city and their temple, the Star Temple (Swiatynia Gwiazd) is the center of worship in the city. There is also a small temple dedicated to Cassia and Straznik in their aspect as The Lovers.
Separate from the temple are the 'bethel". A bethel is many things. It contains a shrine to its patron, in Toresta this means to the Twins. All bethels contain a public library. (Mundane and religious books only). Bethels are as much community centers as worship areas. There is a common oven and kitchen. Classrooms where the children learn to read and do their numbers. Usually a large meeting room where town, or in Toresta, community leaders can meet.
Most small towns are built around their bethel. In those towns the bethel keeper is an important person.
Shrines are ubiquitous throughout Toresta. Most are dedicated to the Twins, but there are also shrines to Cassia and Straznik (The Lovers). Mysilwi Gwiazd (The Hunter) has a prominent shrine on the Entering Road between the Dividing Gate and the Entering Bridge in Outer Toresta. Shrines are considered sacred spaces and creatures often visit them to conduct prayers, religious rituals or make offerings.
Purpose / Function
Temples
Temples in Toresta, as in the rest of Pasaulis, are places of prayer and worship. Offerings are typically spiritual in nature, though material objects or money intended for the caretaking of the building or support of the priests and religious are also common. The Star Temple, like many such structures includes monastic quarters for the priests and religious, as well as classroom space for the teaching of apprentice priests and religious.
In Toresta people visit the temple all year round, some coming to the city particularly to petition the Twins at their major temple. However the temple is most busy during the Spring and Fall Equinox Holidays, when the whole city is celebrating the Twins.
Bethels
Bethels are not just shrines, schools, libraries and community centers, in Toresta they are neighborhood and district hubs. They serve their worshippers by providing child day care, serving meals, particularly on holidays and during festivals. Adults meet at night to study and sometimes pray in community. Most people learned to read at their bethel. They learned arithmetic there. Often they meet their mate there. Guilds sometimes sponsor a bethel near their guild hall, or sometimes even part of it.
Shrines
Shrines are places where a deity or deities is worshipped. It can be as simple as a statue or as complex as the multiroom, open Sventove seen in some of the more prosperous areas of Toresta. Unlike the bethel, which is primarily oriented to the worshipers and their relationship to each other and the deity, a shrine is oriented to the deity almost exclusively.
The central hub of the sventove (complex shrine) is the icon or statue dedicated to the deity or deities, (in Toresta commonly the Twins or the Lovers). Next to the icon, but separated from it, typically by a low rail, is a worship hall where visitors pray. The grounds of the shrine are always prominently demarcated to separate the area of the shrine from the mundane world outside.
Shrines are seldom staffed by anyone. Periodically priests or more commonly religious will come to the grounds to clean and maintain them, though it is considered a great sin to desecrate the sacred grounds of a shrine.
Design
Shrines always contain a set of tubular bells, or in the case of a small roadside or house shrine a chime, that is used to get the deities' attention. They are sometimes rung on other occasions, as for the death of a ruler to point out to the deities the passing of an august person.
Shrines are always separated from the mundane world, either by building walls or symbolic halfwalls.
Architecture
The Star Temple (Swiatynia Gwiazd)
Composed primarily of black and white marble, the Star Temple is an imposing structure. Its main worship space, built around two 27 foot statues of Astraios and Noctis, is large enough to hold 500 people (humanoid creatures). The complex also includes a cloister, that is a square building with covered galleries, constructed around a garth, where there is a garden. In these buildings are the residences of the priests and religious that live and work at the temple.
The temple uses pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses which allows for tall, but light structures enabling large windows, which brings a massive amount of light into the interior of the building. The grounds of the temple is separated from the area around it by a dividing rail. The ornate gate leading into the temple grounds signifies the movement from the mundane to the divine. Only temples and shrines use this style of architecture, making these buildings stand out.
Bethels
Bethels tend to be built following whatever conventional building methods are used where they are built. In Toresta most are constructed of brick with gray slate, flat roofs. Their shrine is typically located in the lobby or foyer area near their front door. Other rooms tend to follow function. The large common oven is typically located away from other rooms with large windows, to allow summer breezes to enhance cooling, with large shutters to keep heat in when its cooler. The classrooms usually are built off the library. Most bethels in Toresta have good size libraries, which are set up as lending libraries, at least to members of the bethel. Strangers are permitted to visit and read volumes in the bethel. Community meeting rooms are located to allow privacy and confidentiality.
Shrines
A simple shrine might consist only of an icon with its sacred area delimitated by stones placed at its boundaries.
Sventove shrine complexes are typically built with ribbed vaults which support ceilings and roofs, held up by flying buttresses. Shrines typically have open outer walls, with half height inner walls to separate inner rooms. Doorways seldom have doors. The open airy feel of the shrine is deliberate. The shrine's outer parameter is designated by a rail, typically set at 3 to 4 feet. The purpose of the rail is not security, indeed it is hardly a real barrier at all. It is merely to indicate the bounds of the sacred space. An ornate gate gives entrance.
Religious are acolytes who dedicate their lives to the worship of a particular deity and to the service of their temples, shrines and bethels.
Bethels are looked after by a bethel keeper. Bethel keepers are seldom clerics, though most have the Magic Initiate Feet (Cleric) and know some magic. They are considered in the highest level of the religious calling, not including priest(ess).
Priests are usually clerics, though often of very low level. They are allowed to marry and may be of any gender. They direct the religious of their patron deity, serve at temples and generally are responsible to their patrons for their actions. Priests who are not faithful often find their access to clerical magic is withheld from them and particularly unfaithful ones might be purged by a powerful cleric at the order of their patron.
