Religious Order

 

There are many different kinds of religious orders, from enormous, global churches with millions of followers to tiny regional sects and cults that worship different deities, or simply different interpretations of the same deities. Needless to say, these different organizations may have radically different internal structures, but regardless, the successful ones all tend to have a few things in commmon; they tithe the faithful, those in their hierarchy have ever more exclusive levels of access to their gods, and the indoctrination more followers (thus gaining access to their tithes) is the goal. In return, they offer negotiated access to the gods for the masses, as well as learning (especially magical) and power to those who devote their lives to the religion.

Religious organizations will very often have militaristic arms, typically formed as knightly orders who claim to serve and fight in devotion to their deity or pantheon. Additionally, they will commonly also support (covert) intelligence agencies as a way to gain influence and control within larger political structures. These offshoot organizations can, and often do, become fearsome, powerful organizations of exploitation, subjugation and domination when charge religious conflict boil over and overzealous warriors and inquistors are freed from moral constraint by divine imperative.