The Faith of Nesirie

This meant that the treatment of the most holy relic of Nesirie, the Necklace of Nesirie's Nine Pearls, will have to be adapted to the new situation. This necklace consists of eight black pearls and one white pearl. Each pearl is 5 cm (2 inch) in diameter. The eight black pearls symbolize the eight different branches of the faith and the white pearl symbolizes the paladin order. This necklace circulates among the Wavemistrresses and the Foammistress. Every 25 years it is handed on.
The Nine recognized temples of Nesire are:

• The Eastern Temple of Nesirie (26); Aerenwe: 17, Mieres: 6, Ilien: 3
  
• Peaceful Seas of Nesirie (21); Taeghas: 16, Brosengae: 4, Halskapa: 1
  
• Temple of the Ancients (16); Mesire: 6, Aftane: 5, Ariya: 3, Zikala: 2
  
• Sailing Song of Neira (15); Müden: 15, HolyTemple of Nasri 14, Ghamoura: 14
  
• Sailors Home (11); Grabentod: 11
  
• Church of Eternal Seas (8); the Magian?s Realm 4, Merasaf 2, Suiriene 2
  
• Coastal Temple of Nesirie (3); the Siren's Realm: 3
  
• Waters Blessing (2); Chimaeron: 2
  

Five years from now at the next conclave the necklace is to return to the Eastern Temple of Nesirie. Since the Water Blessings group seceded from the Eastern Temple the matter will have to be resolved by then.

The temple is divided in two streams, the Sailing Stream, and the Shore Stream. The Sailing Stream consists of Nesirie?s Holy Navy and Nesirie?s Floating Word. The Shore Stream is subdivided into the Flame of the Way, and the Solace of the Word.
The Sailing Stream
This branch of the church comprises the floating part of its people. Nesirie's Holy Navy consists of a Galleon and two Caravels (ETN fleet). Its crew consists of members of the faith who donate their services for six months, and priests. The priests form the officer cadre, the faithful (always experienced seaman) form the crew. Every man who thus donates his services to Nesirie may call himself Veteran of the Seas and receives a Trident symbol which ensures him of help from Nesirie's followers everywhere should he need it. The trident is considered a badge of honor among sailors as it stands for service and competence. Some of the great shipping guilds sponsor crew if they wish to serve the faith in this capacity and important shipments often are carried on ships crewed with only Veterans. Officers of Nesirie's Holy Navy are always priests of the faith. Captains are at least 4th level,
Commodores 7th level, the Admiral is always the Wavemistress(master) of the faith. The Grand Admiral is the Wavemistress who holds the Necklace of Nesirie at this moment.
Nesiries Floating Word is a group of priests who sail the sea region assigned to a branch of the faith and bring the word of Nesirie to everybody who wants to hear it. They often hold services in small coastal towns, or on a ship they meet on the open seas. This group of priests starts at 2nd level since they must have done at least one stint as officer on a ship of the navy. It consists of some of the most individualistic priests of Nesirie, the older priests who keep at this posting often feel that solitary communing with the sea is the best way to become one with Nesirie. Normally priests get another posting at 4/5th level (At the moment the highest level priest of Nesirie(ETN) Amrita L15 is one of these priests. He comes into shore maybe 2 times a year)
The Shore Stream
This branch of the church comprises all the people who work on land.
Flame of the Way is the section of the faith that is responsible for manning the various lighthouses in the region. While lighthouse normally are built and maintained by the local landed lord the maintenance and lighting of the fires is a holy duty falling to the faithful of Nesirie. This kind of posting is often used either as retirement posting or for punishment duty. As a consequence the level of the priests in a lighthouse can vary from a level 1 priest with two level 0 acolytes or a level 8+ priest.
Solace of the Word is the group which maintains the temples in the different provinces and cities. The training of novices is done at the seminary of Calrie. When a priest graduates he either chooses to serve his stint in the Navy first, or to first take a landed post. If he chooses a landed assignment first then he will take a position of pastor in one of the temples and serve there for a year after which he will be transferred to the Navy. People who choose the Navy first are encouraged to transfer to land duty but are not obligated to do so. After a rotation in the Navy priest can either continue in the Navy, transfer to the Floating Word, or transfer to the Solace of the Word. Captains of the Navy always have to have had one year of shore duty. Commodores of the Fleet always have to have served one year as M(P)atriarch of a temple. Normally a M(P)atriarch of a province has performed at least 3 tours in the Navy.
The intention of this changing of posts is to let every priest perform at least one rotation at sea and to enable the shore-bound priests to get to sea as well. The priests who rise to senior positions in the hierarchy of the temple have to swap duties regularly.
The exceptions to the above rotation are the priests who choose the path of the Word of the Waves. When they end their duties at level 4/5 they first get a short posting with the navy to accustom them to being around other people again. Then they usually transfer to the seminary where they train the new novices. After a year of such a duty they often get a choice of position.
The Order of the Trident
The Order of the Trident must not be confused with the Trident which Veterans of the Seas get after they serve in the navy. No, the Order of the Trident is the paladin order of Nesirie.
It is headed by the Foammistress (as opposed to the Wavemistress) and all members must be female. It is an Anuirean order, but exceptionally gifted students from other races are sometimes sponsored by the other temples of the faith (at the moment there are circa 25 Brecht/Khinasi paladins, there are no Rjurik paladins at this time).
Novices in the order are trained in the arts of war and the ways of the sea at a secret island located somewhere in the Sea of Storms. After the basic skills are learned the aspirants are placed with one of the faiths where they receive advanced training in religious matters and people skills. When this part of the training is over they return to the island where they are instructed in the more advanced paladin skills. When they successfully complete this training (level 3) they promoted to Seals.
The Seals function as marine-officers in the Holy Navy. When they have become experienced enough (level 5) they gain the title Singer of the Sea and are released for detached duty. This means that they will operate independently to further the cause of Nesirie. These are the basic type of wandering type paladins fighting injustice. At 7th level they are promoted to Pod Leaders and reassigned to the Holy Navy, this time in the capacity of Captain of the Marine detachment.
At 9th level the paladin becomes senior member of the order, a Whale. This means a return to the training island. There they will teach the novices while they themselves receive training in the magic arts from the most senior members of the order. After this training is over they are again free to do as they wish. At 13th level paladins gain the title of Elder of the Seas and are eligible for positions in the top of the order: Mistress of Novices, Marine Admiral, and Podmaster. The Mistress of Novices is in charge of all training activities, the Marine Admiral is in charge of all Marine officers in the Holy Navy and the Podmaster is in charge of all free roaming paladins. The Foammistress is elected from one of these three posts.
This page was originally based on articles from br.net, author unknown.