Temples, Rites, and Practice
"You do not go to a temple to find the Sovereigns. You go to remember you already found them." — Inscription above the east door of the Cathedral of the Sovereign Host, Korth
Temples
Temples to the Sovereign Host are traditionally built of stone, though wood suffices in poor or forested communities. They stand near other buildings and areas of significance — marketplaces, civic halls, major crossroads — to symbolise both their importance and their accessibility. Most have sloped roofs, but they rarely match the magnificent sweeps of Silver Flame cathedrals. In a faith where the divine is understood to be everywhere at all times, the temple's purpose is not to house the gods but to give the community a place to acknowledge what is already present.
Religious doctrine does not mandate the number of floors, but every temple must have nine doors or windows opening to the outside — one for each Sovereign. In larger buildings, multiples of nine on each floor are acceptable, and at least one door or window must face in each cardinal direction. The interiors are adorned in shades of gold and deep blue, the colours of the Octagram. Black is frowned upon for normal use, though it may appear on somber occasions such as state funerals or days of national mourning.
The main chapel contains pews or individual chairs for congregants. At the front of the room rises a raised platform, reached by precisely nine steps from the floor — the height and depth of each step is irrelevant, but the number is not. Atop this platform stands a podium or lectern, an altar for the display of holy items and the making of sacrifices, and behind it all, the Octagram hanging on the wall facing the assembly. The icon of Aureon is displayed above the altar, a reminder of his role as the ordering principle of the faith. In some traditions — most notably in the temples described in Rising from the Last War — the Octagram is engraved directly into the floor rather than mounted on the wall, and the walls themselves depict images of all nine Sovereigns.
Dragonshard Resonance
The priesthood especially favours building on sites where Eberron dragonshards were once found. It does not matter if the land still contains shards; their prior presence alone is held to create a sacred resonance. Vassals believe the gods are present in all aspects of the world, and since legend holds that the Progenitor Dragon Eberron created (or became) the world, Vassals regard Eberron as having a closer link to the Host than the other two Progenitors. Although very few temples actually stand on sites of dragonshard discoveries, the priesthood makes every effort to erect new ones in or near such places when the opportunity arises.
Shrines
Shrines to individual Sovereigns follow different rules. They are usually small structures, built of wood as often as stone, and they lack the raised platform of a full temple. Instead, shrines arise where people feel a particular deity is close — and this intuitive connection determines both their location and their character.
A shrine to Aureon might occupy a corner of a library. A working forge doubles as Onatar's holy ground. A tavern could serve as a shrine to Olladra, and the rites of Boldrei or Arawai typically occur outdoors, under open sky. Balinor's shrines are constructed of wood, often covered in furs or greenery to blend into the surrounding forest, and they are rarely found within a town's walls — though one might be only a few minutes' walk outside them. Kol Korran's temples, whether stone or wood, always use the finest available materials; the most opulent are decorated in tapestries and silks of gold and silver, while those in the poorest communities sport whatever riches can be spared and are painted to appear grander than they are. Dol Dorn's temples resemble small fortresses more than religious edifices, with narrow windows and thick, easily defensible doors — even modest shrines have surrounding fences or ditches and can serve as temporary fortifications in a crisis. Boldrei's shrines, by contrast, are warm and homey, furnished for comfort and easily mistaken for cottages, reminding visitors that she is the patron of the home itself.
Each shrine prominently displays the symbol of its Sovereign. The altar is typically decorated with objects symbolising the deity's domain: stalks of grain and growing vines for Arawai, tools and finished metalwork for Onatar, gaming tokens or a domino for Olladra, feather-down and foods cooked over the hearth for Boldrei.
Overheard at a tavern in Tavick's Landing, Sharn:
"No, I don't go to temple. Why would I? Olladra's right here in this glass, and Kol Korran's in every galifar I spend buying it. You want me to walk twenty minutes uphill to find what's already sitting in front of me?"
The Priesthood
A Sovereign priest's role is not simply to act as an intermediary to the divine — anyone can talk to the Sovereigns. Rather, priests offer guidance and clarity, helping people understand the path they are on. They serve as teachers, mediators, subject-matter experts, and community pillars, and they often perform practical functions alongside their spiritual ones. The Great Hall of Aureon in Sharn is a library as well as a temple. Shrines to Kol Korran sit at the centres of public markets. Aureon's priests are expected to be educated, many serving as magistrates or government officials; Arawai's priests are knowledgeable about farming and natural lore, and most were farmers, woodcutters, or herbalists before taking the cloth; Onatar's priests are crafters of some kind, for Onatar preaches that everyone should contribute to the material betterment of society; Dol Dorn's priests must prove their martial prowess and seek out physical contests in service to some greater purpose; and Kol Korran's priests are expected to learn enough of business and accounting to counsel the entrepreneurs who seek their advice.
Worship is organised on a temple-by-temple basis, with no centralised hierarchy exercising control across congregations. Only the major cities have full-time professional clergy. In smaller communities, a single priest — or even an untended shrine and a local person considered especially close to a particular Sovereign — suffices. The priest conducts ceremonies, offers counsel, and works to support their community in accordance with the principles of the Host. Larger towns are more likely to have shrines to specific Sovereigns, while smaller settlements might simply have a holy symbol affixed to a wall.
Funds come from both congregational donations and direct support from local nobles. During the eighty-year period in which the Blood of Vol served as Karrnath's state religion, many temples fell into disrepair and priests were forced to rely entirely on their secular occupations. The last two decades have been a period of significant restoration for the faith in Karrnath, symbolically led by Prelate Alinda Roerith of the Cathedral of the Sovereign Host in Korth, who was elevated by the crown as an example to all Karrns after her heroic defence of the city during the third siege of Korth in 971 YK.
Monasteries and Knightly Orders
The majority of Vassal monasteries are not martial orders but traditional friaries — small collections of buildings fenced off from local communities or built atop nearby hills. The priests and friars who dwell there tend gardens, herd sheep, and minister to the spiritual well-being of nearby townsfolk. They believe that more effective worship can be found by removing the distractions of everyday life, and so they choose to dwell slightly apart from society. Most are not spellcasters, though an occasional adept or cleric might join a monastery. A typical monastery consists of a central building that doubles as both temple and meeting hall, surrounded by spartan living cells, kitchens, herbalist stores, and workshops for carpentry or smithing.
The Sovereign Host does not have many knightly orders — those that do exist are based primarily on geography and politics. Many such groups sprang up during the Last War to fight alongside their nation's military, but most faded after the Treaty of Thronehold. The only significant survivor is the Brotherhood of the Wall, based primarily in Aundair with several fortresses in the Talenta Plains and Thrane. Founded during the Last War specifically to counter the undead armies of Karrnath, the Brotherhood still holds vigil in case that nation should ever again field armies of the walking dead.
Rites and Worship
Daily Practice
The Sovereign Host is a faith of small moments rather than grand ceremonies. The average prayer of thanks involves nothing more than a few reverently spoken sentences, and even most minor rites take no longer than the time necessary to light the appropriate flames and burn the appropriate offerings. While especially zealous Vassals might engage in hours of prayer, most spend less than half an hour per day in total — but because the observances are spread throughout the day, they serve as a constant reminder of the divine woven through daily life. A Vassal does not set aside a single block of time for devotion; instead, they acknowledge each Sovereign in the moment their domain is felt. A prayer to Arawai at planting. A word to Kol Korran before a negotiation. A brief hymn to Boldrei upon returning home.
Song Over Speech
Formal prayers to the Sovereigns almost always involve song rather than spoken word. This is one of the faith's most distinctive characteristics. Specific hymns invoke each Sovereign, seek their favour, acknowledge blessings received, and recognise their presence. Celebrants sing the songs of Boldrei and Aureon at weddings. Soldiers sing Dol Dorn's marching songs on the move and Dol Arrah's hymns at dawn before a battle. Even people who are not devout Vassals know many of these songs — they are part of the cultural fabric of the Five Nations, as familiar as nursery rhymes or folk ballads.
The Colours of Faith
Vassal practice is colour-coded as much as it is verbal. Hunters burn brown and red candles for Balinor. Brides wear orange to honour Boldrei. A Vassal carries tokens in the colours of the Sovereigns they most often invoke: green and bronze for Arawai, red and silver for Dol Dorn, gold for Kol Korran. Temples display the deep blue and gold of the Octagram, while individual Sovereigns have their own variant colour schemes. This visual language means that a knowledgeable observer can often tell which Sovereign a Vassal feels closest to simply by the colours they wear or the candles they keep.
Sacrifices
Most rites to the Sovereigns involve sacrifices appropriate to each deity's domain. The offerings are practical, never arbitrary — they reflect the worshipper's understanding of what the Sovereign values.
Sacrifices to Arawai consist of grains and consumable produce. Balinor accepts animal flesh, but it must come from a creature slain for food, fur, or tools — killing an animal solely for sacrifice is an insult to the Sovereign of the Hunt, and tradition holds that the better the cut of meat offered, the more likely Balinor is to hear the request. Rites to Kol Korran require the supplicant to melt money or similar valuables, sacrificing a small amount of wealth in exchange for earning far greater. Onatar prefers petitioners to make something during their rites rather than destroy something; since this is not always practical, he accepts offerings of old tools and weapons that have served their purpose well. Sacrifices to Boldrei consist of items representing the comforts of home — feather-down, foods cooked over the hearth. Dol Dorn's sacrifices often require the petitioner to shed their own blood, proving willingness to endure pain for what is right. Olladra is less particular than most — she accepts any valuables — but looks most favourably on offerings acquired through luck: gambling winnings, found coins, unexpected gifts.
The Mockery is invoked just before a killing, whether through assassination or armed combat, and his sacrifices consist of things valued by the petitioner's enemies. The Fury's rites are deeply personal affairs. Even the Keeper receives his due: across the Five Nations, funerary rites include a discreet offering placed in the grave so that the Keeper might take that instead of the soul.
Major Rites and Life Events
Major rites — harvest festivals, coronations, funerals, births, weddings — involve priests and often invoke multiple Sovereigns simultaneously. These require the full attention of the clergy and, in larger communities, represent the principal occasions on which multiple full-time priests collaborate.
Childbirth is celebrated by the entire Vassal community, with rites invoking Arawai (the love that brings life) and Boldrei (the community that will raise the child).
Weddings invoke Boldrei and Aureon — the home and the law that protects it — and are among the most colour-rich ceremonies in the Vassal calendar. The bride traditionally wears orange for Boldrei. Both partners sing their vows rather than speak them.
Funerals are solemn affairs drawing on the domains of several Sovereigns, depending on the life the deceased led. A soldier's funeral features Dol Dorn's hymns; a scholar's invokes Aureon. The secret offering to the Keeper is universal, placed in the grave or on the body, though few Vassals will discuss this practice openly. Current Vassal funerary rites were adopted thousands of years ago from a culture that worshipped its ancestors — the original intent was to introduce the newly deceased to the spirits of the dead, who were said to linger in crowds. Adding sacrifices of thanks made the practice fit within Vassal theology, and over the generations, the original meaning was lost.
Coronations are among the most symbolically loaded of all Vassal rites. At Karrnathi coronations, the priest raises the Octagram immediately after the crown is placed upon the monarch's head — a deliberate signal that the Host sits above any mortal ruler, even while blessing one.
A Brelish funerary hymn, typically sung by the eldest surviving family member:
Walk well through the grey, friend. Boldrei's fire remembers you. What Aureon has written, no flood will wash away, And what Dol Arrah lit in you Will burn until the world is done.
The War and Its Aftermath
The priesthood of the Sovereign Host took no unified stance during the Last War. For the most part, Vassals and even priests fought alongside their compatriots against enemies among the Five Nations. Whether one's foes were fellow Vassals or followers of other faiths was meaningless; only their nationality mattered. Both sides of any given battle might boast priests and clerics of the same war god — and each side would insist, with perfect sincerity, that Dol Dorn blessed their cause.
Throughout most of the war, the liturgical councils — the closest thing the faith has to a pan-national coordinating body — continued to meet. They deliberately avoided issues related to the conflict itself, knowing that raising such matters could only cause dissension. Instead, they focused on theological questions: interpreting scripture, determining the effect of the war on religious practice, debating points of doctrine. On the subject of the war, the councils agreed on only one directive: congregations should avoid damaging temples or shrines to the Host, even in the midst of enemy territory.
The war's effects on regional practice have been lasting and, in some cases, irreversible. With decades of severed contact between nations, the customs of individual communities became ever more insular. Weddings and funerary rites now differ more from region to region than at any point since before the founding of Galifar. At present, only the most basic similarities exist across borders. A common theme of Host services in the modern day is forgiveness and the reforging of bonds — a deliberate effort by the clergy to counter the national and regional hatreds that still linger.
Political Influence
The priesthood makes no overt attempt to control governments, but it would be naive to call it apolitical. At least three of the Five Nations are Host-dominant, and it is a safe assumption that their rulers worship the Sovereign Host — meaning that even if the priesthood does not try to sway a monarch's decisions directly, those decisions are unlikely to threaten the dominance of the faith or its priests.
On the local level, influence is far more visible. Mayors, town councils, governors, barons, and even dukes might well belong to a congregation of Vassals and regard the high priest as an authority figure. Most nobles keep a religious advisor on staff. The best of these advisors serve their communities without leveraging their spiritual position for personal gain — but more than a few ambitious priests regard the title of reeve or mayor as just another stepping stone to power.
The faith is most politically vulnerable in Thrane, where Vassal minorities living under the Silver Flame theocracy face discrimination that ranges from subtle — poor service, price gouging, shoddy goods — to, in some regions, active persecution. In these areas, the Host's priesthood does not oppose the local government directly. Instead, priests encourage Vassals to support one another, to convert others quietly, to attain positions of authority so they can improve their companions' lives, and to protest mistreatment loudly enough that the government acts to quell it, if only to save face.
In Droaam, the monsters do not hate the Host with the same consuming passion they reserve for the Silver Flame, but they react with hostility to overt displays of the faith within the small human and shifter populations. In Darguun, the faith has been slowly introduced to some goblinoid communities — some revere Balinor, Dol Arrah, and Dol Dorn — but others worship the Shadow or the Mockery exclusively and regard the broader Host with suspicion or contempt. In such areas, overt worship of the "wrong" Sovereigns can result in persecution, imprisonment, conversion by the sword, or worse.
Where the Host is suppressed, the priesthood conducts ceremonies in secret, with shrines hidden in the wilderness or inside unassuming structures. They preach resistance through subtle means rather than visible uprisings that would surely be crushed. Leaders who persecute Vassals might find themselves short on supplies or the victims of unexplained fires and convenient accidents, while the Vassals quietly identify sympathisers among those in power and work toward their conversion.
From a pamphlet circulated among Vassal communities in rural Thrane, unsigned and undated:
"They may burn the Octagram. They may silence our songs. But they cannot burn the rain from Arawai's sky or silence the hammer in Onatar's forge. The Sovereigns do not need our temples. They need only that we remember."