Purdue Fantasy Club

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====== Isis/Aset ======
Everyone deserves a life, everyone deserves a chance, everyone deserves a choice. One of the most widely worshipped gods, The Mistress of Life, holds domain over mortal lives from birth until death with specific focus on family, health, and peace. Championed by her priests who serve as a benevolent force for good, she brings with her good health and peaceful times. 

Isis is known as the Mistress of Life and the All-Mother. Her domain presides over healing, life, and fertility, with her taking up an occasional role as a goddess of family and the hearth. Her priests manage the ceremonies and processes surrounding marriage and new birth, often serving as midwives for expectant and postpartum mothers. Many Isisites also serve in hospitals, where they are some of the most effective doctors known to Jaern and Cahyali both. When a person reaches Isis with a Divine Intervention role, she may decide to spare their soul from the clutches of [[gods:anubis|Anubis]], restoring them to life.

On [[settings:jaern|Jaern]], Isis is known to be compassionate to a fault. Her title has changed hands many times in recorded history, with the most recent incarnation being only about a decade and a half old. Still, she serves her post dutifully. On [[settings:cahyali|Cahyali]], she takes a similar role, with the difference lying in that, compared to Jaernian Isisites, many Asetites will participate in war and violence, often in the role of a combat medic or a battlefield healer.

===== Aspects =====
==== Isis: Life in Continuance ====
Life is a gift, and thus should be celebrated and enjoyed. A shapeshifter taking the form of all her children, Isis asserts that all mortal life must be preserved so it can be enjoyed to its fullest. She is commonly depicted in a loose turquoise dress with gold embellishments and jewelry. Two defining accessories are a golden crown of laurels and a staff with a brilliant spark of green at its head. Her physical body varies widely, covering the entire gender and racial spectrum. 

As an aspect, she represents the belief that all mortals deserve both internal and external peace to pursue their hearts desires. When in their presence, many mortals describe any conflict that pains them simply melting away, leaving room for whatever it is they wish to fill it with. Their goal is always to give mortals the opportunity to appreciate life. How they appreciate it is up to them. 

==== Aset: The Unending Service ====
Life is a gift, and thus should be dedicated to others. Embodying the ideals of selflessness and service, Aset often appears in practical doctor's attire with small, barely noticeable golden embellishments resembling hands woven in. Disrupting the simple white of the clothes is always a patch of blood, usually on the sleeves or chest. They carry with them two tools of her trade, a golden shield of radiant light and a cutting implement slick with blood. The type of cutting tool has changed with time, with older accounts describing bloody scissors used for cutting bandages while modern portrayals include a scalpel with fresh blood on its blade. She appears as a dark skinned feminine human with long and straight black hair tied up and out of the way. 

Tasked with the physical wellbeing and health of mortals, this aspect is consistently occupied with her duties. Perceived by some in the faith as a martyr-like aspect, Aset never rests until all prayers and requests have been answered, which they never can be. When in their presence, mortals can feel their vitality growing as transparent hands of red and golden light reach out to mend their injuries. She is most commonly seen on battle fields and in hospitals. 

==== Brigide: Mother of Mortals ====
Life is a gift, and thus deserves the chance to change and grow. Appearing as an older woman of dwarvish persuasion, she is always seen with a well groomed beard. Typically depicted in natural clothes and furs, she reminds any that behold her of a mothers love and care. Her eyes are worn with age, smile lines lying next to scars on her rugged skin. 

As her title implies, this aspect represents the goddesses’s domain over family in addition to growth and change. Mistakes and shortcomings are bound to happen, such is life, and mortals are far from perfect. Brigide encourages mortals to not shy away from their failures, from their loss, but rather embrace them, grow, and change. Never should this be mistaken for forgetting past mistakes as she will just as swiftly remind a mortal of their shortcoming as provide guidance and comfort. 

===== Servitors =====
As long as there is life, there are an infinite number of tasks that must be done. Mortals experience life as a default constant, but it is far from constant. As such, Isis has countless servitors under her stewardship, though few are individually powerful or prominent enough to be recorded in religious text. 

==== Peace ====
Simply being in their presence is enough to dull any blade and fighting spirit alike. Peace spends the majority of their time in Isis’s divine plane, Vitania, enjoying the company of the souls and servitors that live there. The crystallization of the Goddess's desire for peace and an end to conflict, many priests send prayers and make offerings to Peace for protection and blessings of sanctuary. 

==== Arsynoe: The Shattered Servitor ====
Created to be Aset’s emissary on Cahyali in ancient times, Arsynoe fulfilled her duty to her goddess with pride, taking a keen liking to mortal kind. Then on The Day of Solar Wrath, appalled and angered by the gods’ reluctance to intercede and spare the people of Dahabu from their fate, Arsynoe disavowed the gods believing them to be of no use in her mission to protect mortal kind. Forming the Starbreakers Guild, she spent the next centuries among the best and the brightest on Cahyali until another cataclysmic event known as The Fist of God.  Believing the only way to survive the cataclysm, she cast aside her divinity using her own sword to shatter her celestial soul. She was believed dead by her goddess until her presence was felt in congruency with a plot to cut the god’s connection to Cahyali. Her presence quickly faded again just before the threat was ended. 

===== Origins =====
Jaernian myth posits Isis as having once been mortal, with the seat of preservator of life having gone unfilled until her ascension in the time of ancient [[settings:torandor|Torandor.]] She is also said to be the long-lost consort of Anubis, the two having been separated by cruel twists of fate and the interference of the rest of the old pantheon. Her compassion and understanding for mortals is attributed to this mortal origin.

More recently, Isis had channeled a significant amount of her divine energy into a mortal priest named Anna, in order to avoid a calamity foretold to the gods by At’ena (the [[history:jaern:gods_and_dragons:reckoning|Day of Reckoning]]). Anna’s mortal body could not contain the entirely of the divine energy inside of it, and this caused a minor disease to transform into a global plague that threatened all life on Jaern. 

Eventually, Anna realized what had happened and performed a ritual to bring back Isis, and her body was vaporized in the process. Isis returned, cleansed the plague of divine energy, and due to the time spent inside Anna’s body, was forever changed, and imbued with aspects of Anna’s soul. 

The origins of Aset on Cahyali are more unclear. Few records remain containing ancient [[settings:cahyali:dahabu|Dahabu]] mythology, and what myths survive to this day seem to mention her as an entity that has always existed as long as life has. Regional aspects of her, however, do point to an origin [WIP]

===== Priesthood =====
==== Initiation ====
One doesn't have to be divinely empowered to become a member of the church, and as such that there are really two initiation rites. Every priest of Isis has received one if not both. The first is referred to as The Response and is when an Isisite receives their first spell. In order to receive The Response, an Isisite must wish to save someone and believe that saving them is possible and that they must be the one to do it. If this conviction and prayer is strong enough, the priest will receive their first spell from the Mistress as a sign of approval. 

The other rite is referred to as The Call, and is required of all members of the Church of Isis, divinely empowered or not. This initiation ritual, initially started by The Church of Isis, is recognized by all sects in some way or another. The rite of The Call is a years-long process where an initiate strives to find their purpose, their calling, as a servant of the Mistress and mortal kind. The Call begins with a few years of study at a temple, learning the basic tenets of the faith and being of service to the community. Once the initiate is deemed prepared, a mentor at the temple may sponsor them to undertake a journey of exploration where they are free to travel the world in search of those in need. This journey can be taken alone, with others also on The Call, or with the mentor sponsoring them. They are only allowed to return once they have found their calling; a goal or struggle they wish to commit themselves to for the foreseeable future. Upon returning to their home temple, they make their case to the leadership there and receive each individual’s blessing. Once the blessings are received and the initiate is set on their calling, they are considered a full member of the Church of Isis. It is very common for Isisites and Asetites to share their callings with each other as it is usually a point of personal joy. Additionally, many Isisite and Asetite adventurers got their start during their journey of exploration. [WIP]

==== Sects ====
=== The Church of Isis ===
This is the largest group that makes up the vast majority of Isisites and Asetites. Unless stated otherwise, it is safe to assume an Isisite or Asetite belongs to this group. Most temples in settlements are operated by this group, prioritizing the physical health and wellbeing of those in the area. Their temples often double as hospitals and places of refuge for those in need. It’s very common to see members of the Church working with Zephrinites due to their shared interest in the physical health and fitness of patients.

Being the largest, it also has the largest variety of opinions and interpretations of Isis’s tenants, with slight differences observable from place to place. While they all abhor death and wish to preserve life at all costs, what ‘all costs’ looks like varies from temple to temple and priest to priest. 

=== Shields of Aset ===

Not every injury can be healed, so it must be prevented. Thus is the philosophy of members of the Shields of Aset, referred to simply as Shields. Picking shields and armor alongside their skills in healing a medicine, it is common to see a Shield taking an active role in the defense of those on the battlefield. While some Shields were raised in the sect from the beginning, many joined as a part of The Call initiation. 

The Shields of Aset see non-aggressive violence as a necessary evil to protect others. They are quick to examine the actions of themselves and other Shields as the line between necessary violence for protection and unjustified violence towards others is a very thin one.

Every Shield is always seen with two staple items; their titular shield and a personal journal. A Shield receiving their personal shield from a mentor is a grand achievement, showing the trust they have earned from their mentor to make the right and difficult calls necessary in their line of worship. A Shield’s journal is often filled with scripture and notes of personal reflection. 

=== Red Guard ===

Physical injuries are not the only kind of ailment that plague mortals. Members of the Red Guard care for those suffering from mental disorders or illnesses that are a danger to themselves or others. Commonly working alongside members of The Church of Isis, they specialize in diplomacy, counseling, and if absolutely necessary, subduing patients with minimal harm. They get their name from the red fabric they wear on their arms, a toll used to restrain those that are unruly or interfering with their work. 

Like all Isisites and Asetites, they prioritise talk and discussion before resorting to any physical altercation. When physicality is necessary, the Red Guard developed a fighting style that utilizes pins and targeted attacks to subdue an opponent with minimal harm to the target. 

=== Children of Peace ===

Considered radicals by other Isisites and Asetites, The Children of Peace are a small fringe sect that abhor any and all violence. While it is common for those that follow the Mistress of Life to be pacifists, the Children of Peace believe that any and all violence is a crime against their goddess. As such they will refuse to treat any injuries that are a result of violence, regardless of the circumstances. The Children of Peace will never involve themselves in any physical conflict, be it a raging war or a simple bar fight. 

Where The Children of Peace excel is remedying natural alignments and the use of magic to prevent physical altercations. In events of plague, The Children of Peace will leave their isolated communities to treat ailing civilians. In accordance with their pacifism they are completely unarmed and result to only discussion and mediating magic to resolve conflict. Some Children of Peace even go as far as to bind their hands together as to prevent any way of inadvertently harming another individual.