Maelstrom Campaign - The True Faiths: The Teacher

Followers of the Teacher claim that the purpose of life is to seek worldly perfection by pursuing an orderly, scholastic life. Central to their entire belief is the goal to make the world a more ordered and civilised place. Those who strive to accomplish this are placed highly in the Teacher’s court when they join Him in the afterlife. Followers of the Teacher tend to be scholars, philosophers, teachers, lawmakers, even soldiers. The Teacher gave the gift of writing to the peoples of the earth and in many shrines He is depicted as a white robed scholar with a scroll. With writing comes law and learning; the two things that separate the civilised from the barbarian. A scroll with a quill and the sun are often symbols used to denote the Teacher.

Followers of the Teacher believe that once a perfect harmony of order is established on the earth then the world will become one with the heavens. The devoted either try to determine the natural laws that govern the world or more often seek to write and impose the laws that bring order to the cities and kingdoms of the world. The Church of the Teacher is extremely active in the New World. They have used their influence to encourage the foundation of colonies in the New World to convert the heathens. The more scholastic branches of the religion are convinced that understanding the new continent will be vital to understanding the laws of nature.

The Church of the Teacher is the most organised and arguably the most powerful Church in the Known World. Fidelia is the undisputed centre of worship of the Teacher and many devotees make a pilgrimage here at some point in their life. The Hierophant rules Fidelia as well as acting as the head of the Church. The Yugorskian paladins supported by hordes of wild Fidelian tribesmen serve the will of the Hierophant helping to maintain order in Fidelia and abroad.

The Commandments of the Teacher

Leave the world a more ordered place on your last day, than it was on your first.
Seek to perfect and uphold the written law.
Use reasoning and learning to enlighten yourself and others.
Do not let personal feelings cloud your judgement.
To doubt your judgement is to doubt the worth of the law you judge by and the learning you judge with.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.