Newsletter 03-01-06-Role of Church

The Role of the Church

Many fantasy tales include gods and other such powers in their worlds. These beings are often active participants in the fate of the worlds they oversee. Sometimes the gods themselves are characters in the story, others they are watchers from afar, nudging events in the directions they wish them to go. One thing that is fairly constant is that the people tend to be aware of them, and often worship them, much like in our world. As such it is only natural that people would develop rituals and organizations dedicated to these beings. For simplicity I refer to the organizations as Churches and the rules and rituals as Religions. Even without physical appearances by a god, churches of the god or gods in your story can play a vital and active role. I will illustrate many ways that a church can be used, which can apply equally well to an invented fantasy world as to a modern fantasy with the same established churches we know in our lives.

1) Antagonist-this one is fairly self explanatory. The church of an evil god whose interests go against our heroes goals will be opposed to them. On the other hand, it is equally possible that churches of non-evil gods will also oppose the heroes. Perhaps the heroes seek to destroy an artifact that another church seeks to use against an evil they are fighting. Contradictory goals can drive two generally heroic groups to be at odds with each other. This can lead to some interesting subplots right up to the climax of the story. Also remember that for an evil antagonistic church, the villains can use it for the same sorts of things the heroes can use their own churches as outlined below.

2) Repositories of ancient knowledge-churches normally have records of things going back to the beginning of time, and if you ask them nicely or are on a quest they approve of may let the heroes look at them. A lot of valuable information can be found this way. In a modern context, forbidden texts, ancient scrolls and other things that might provide clues to what is going on could well be in the hands of a well known church, and the heroes may have to negotiate with them to get it.

3) Sources of local information-in addition to ministering to the spiritual needs of a community, churches are often social centers. As such the leaders of a local church, the parish priest of village minister or whatever, may know far more about the comings and going of his locale than most anyone else. This could be an interesting twist on the local tavern keep, as a priest is liable to come upon information the tavern keeper might not be aware of, such as the true causes of mysterious deaths or other such things.

4) Sources of higher learning-in older times, churches were the sole places you could get an advanced education. In many fantasy stories churches play a similar role. If you are in need of someone who can read a dead, ancient language, the local parish might just know who to ask to find you one. In modern settings, many churches sponsor their own colleges and universities so that relationship can exist in those settings as well.

5) Patrons-if a particular goal is in line with a church's philosophy, then it might help the heroes out in many ways. They might provide equipment and advice to the heroes, give them a holy writ allowing them access to church archives around the nation, or offer any number of other services. The church may well be the one who initiates the whole story, either openly or behind the scenes.

6) Practitioners of specialized skills-many churches do charitable work for their communities. This can result in a church having access to a wide variety of skilled tradesmen for their projects. The obvious one is healers. Churches often ran hospitals. Carpenters, shipwrights and so on might also be in the employ of some churches, particularly those with a lot of missionary workers. Any church that sponsors knights will have some blacksmiths available. Depending on the nature of the god in question the possibilities here are pretty much endless.

7) Magic-churches often specialize in types of magic not available to regular wizards. Perhaps the church is the only on in a nation permitted to practice magic. Maybe divinations are only granted to followers of a certain god. Miracles, sort of a subset of magic in fantasy, are far more likely to come from a church member or official than an average citizen of any nation. All these things can be of use to a group of heroes.

8) Companionship-if a quest is of strong enough interest to a given church they may supply manpower. A priest accompanying a group can add an air of legitimacy to such a task. A small band of knights can provide protection for otherwise less combative heroes. A church scribe may be the only one who can translate the scrolls that show how the evil may be stopped. An interesting and rarely used alternative is also out there. Churches typically run orphanages and homes for wayward youth. If the heroes need someone with, shall we say less savory skills, they might be able to find them in such places. Sure the church is trying to reform them, but using such abilities in a good cause might be just what these youth need, or so the priest might reason. Again there are nearly endless possibilities in this area.]

Notice, the presence or manifestation of a god was not part of any of these roles, except possibly #7. Using a church for something other than a place where a god can appear and speak can bring some new life to a fantasy story and more firmly set it in a vibrant living world. Give it a try, you might find you like it.