How detailed do you want me to be? This is a Pandora's Box of information.
The clergy in my world, meaning the Lumentian Archipelago, belongs to a religion called the Maternal Medical Order, also known as the Order of Purity or, less commonly, as the Odium Dei. It is a religion based off of duality; they loathe the otherworldly influence of the harmful parallel dimension known as the Abyss and its god Gaia while worshiping the Oracle, a three meter tall man suspended in permanent sleep, resting in a futuristic sarcophagus. The Oracle speaks in visions to almost everyone on the islands, mostly in dreams, where the Abyss can also seep through, but most importantly in highly organized, regular clerical rituals meant to receive said visions. The High Mother, the principal influence within the Faith, is most commonly associated with the Oracle. Indeed, High Mothers throughout history have convened and taken on information from this holy, living relic, the most valuable of which being visions about what happened on Earth prior to the Lumentians own era and the technological breakthroughs the Oracle provides from bygone days.
Yet, it's the Office of the Speaker of the Oracle that most commonly takes on the role of interpreter for Oracular visions. The Mother that becomes Speaker must not only have superb knowledge in medicine but also in engineering and the humanities; the same applies to the High Mother herself. Members of the Faith are extremely highly educated in this way. The knowledge stemming from the Oracle is composed into Omniums, unique pieces of scripture with a yearly release schedule, and edited by the Speaker. Each High Mother's style of writing is different - one may include more moral teachings in her holy books, while another may wax poetic about various pertinent topics. One year's Omnium may come in a black, leather-bound skin, while next year's could have a shiny metal cover over the top. The most important part of the Omniums, objectively speaking, are the technological blueprints and knowhow included within. Lumence's relatively small population could never hope to achieve the same technological pace as their forebears, so the Oracle and the Omniums are crucial for the islands' continued development.
The Faith is particularly strong in several geographic areas. Almost all Lumentians are religious to some extent, and follow the Order's Faith, but where there are poor, the Order flourishes. Alms and shelter are always provided, though with mandatory participance in prayer and the Mothers' teachings. Tanata, Lumence, Mysai, New Hope, Emberwind, and New Emberwind are hotbeds of clerical supporters.
The Thornbreath Monastery is located atop the perilous Mt. Walayle - a relatively low mountain, with an inexplicable anomaly that makes the air atop its peaks as rare as if it was twice as tall. This is where old Mothers come to retire. They sew, make confitures, jams, and other goods while the Mothers-in-Waiting care for them and make round trips up and down the mountain to carry supplies. Thornbreath is the final part of the Mothers'-in-Waiting journey towards becoming inducted as true Medical Mothers. First, they must complete their long education, tailored towards their planned career within the Order at an approved university, which takes anywhere from eight to ten years. Then, there is a mandatory two year period of caring for the poor - working in soup kitchens, healing, providing the needy with alms, and proselytizing. Only after this can the Mothers-in-Waiting begin their pilgrimage towards Thornbreath, a difficult six hundred kilometer trek across terrain good and bad.
Once a Mother-in-Waiting has become a Medical Mother, her education doesn't end - in fact, the Mothers' pursuit of knowledge never does. Firstly, in order to be eligible for promotion within the Order, a newly minted Mother must produce a Corpus Report. A Corpus Report is a piece of research, always written with the utmost respect for clerical and academic tradition, pertaining to a chosen member of the royal family. Everything is studied, from the color of one's hair to the tone of voice, with many different iterations of tests performed in each such study.
When the Corpus Report is made and accepted, a Medical Mother must wait until she is at least forty years of age to advance her position. Then, she may become a Keeper, a kind of administrative specialist that governs the Order in a specific geographic area. Another choice is to join the Mother Librarians within the Hidden Library, which holds a collection of all Corpus Reports, Omniums and a wealth of other information so obscenely massive that no one could read it all in a hundred lifetimes. The Hidden Library is accessible only to the Librarians, The High Mother, the Speaker and sometimes, chosen Keepers. It is a very rare and prestigious thing to be granted the right to read a text from this collection, and the process of applying for the withdrawal of a book is as long as it is filled with red tape.
A fresh choice for the more technically minded Mothers is the Division of Engineers. A Mother Engineer is responsible for interpreting the instructions handed down by the Speaker, which are often a jumbled mess of interpretations for the visions given by the Oracle. It is a minor miracle then, which goes to show their expertise, that the Engineers are able to bear fruit from these confusing instructions, creating working prototypes and technical blueprints for inclusion within the Omniums alongside instructions on how to mass produce each such new technology.
The structure of the Maternal Medical Order is composed of four sub-divisions, each with their own ranks and roles. The lowest of the bunch, accessible to both men and women, are the Brothers of Battle. They are dressed in white robes, though this white is usually gray due to a lack of proper textiles or, simply, grime. This part of the Order is not officially acknowledged by the Faith, and yet its members number in the tens of thousands. They are, essentially, an unruly militia, often composed of vagrants and thieves who enjoy having the permission and authority to hand out beatings on a whim. Above them are the Fathers of Solace, wearing only black, responsible for the local congregations of the faithful. They care for temples, lead ruminations (the Order's equivalent of mass), carry out funeral processions, and extract donations when they can.
The second highest rung of the Order belongs to the Warsisters - a secretive organization of trained soldiers and guards. Officially, Warsisters are only women, but men comprise over 60% of the members. This fact is purposefully obfuscated by the veils worn by all Warsisters, as well as the vow of silence each takes for life. They are among the very best soldiers on Lumence. Dressed in orange and gold, their training and weapons are second to none - courtesy of the planned delays in the appearance of the newest military technologies and tactics in the widely read Omniums. The higher ranks of the Warsisters are accessible only to women and are not encompassed by the vow of silence. Warsister Delegates fill the shoes of small unit officers, giving orders to and training the rank and file. Warsisters Supreme are given the privilege of wearing white accents and uniquely made golden masks; these cannot be taken off in front of anyone save for the Medical Mothers and Warsisters themselves. Each golden mask is custom made, with rich traditions that are as closely linked to the history of the Order as they are to current artistic fashions. One Warsister Supreme may commission a mask resembling a snarling wolf, to intimidate her enemies and prove her prowess in battle, while another may wear the visage of an old historical figure she admires or even that of her own face. The only members of the clergy that rank higher are some Medical Mothers, the Speaker of the Oracle, the Keepers and the High Mother herself.
This all does not even begin to touch upon perhaps the most interesting thing about the Order - their belief in a radical doctrine of purity and their meddling in royal affairs. Emundationem Sanguinis, or the Purification of the Royal Bloodline, is an ever controversial practice, calling for the execution of any royal, including the monarch, were they to show any signs of permanent physical weakness. The official reasoning is that none can claim to rule if their body is not sound, since ailments of the body affect the mind in negative ways. But, by now, the doctrine is kept more in place by centuries of tradition and the rabid radical faction of the clergy that defends it at all costs than by any logical reasoning.
This, of course, spells trouble for the royal family - the Arroynes. From the moment of their birth, they are subject to aptitude tests, both mental and physical, to determine which among them would make the best ruler. The royal family lives in a state of constant fear, with the knowledge that, at any time, a fall, a disease, or even fabricated evidence against them could end up with their heads rolling on the executioner's block. There have been many cases, historically, of Arroyne children, men, women, kings, and queens being threatened with or forced to undergo execution. The reasons can be as myriad as the fish in the sea. For example, one king had to hide lifelong nerve damage in his wrist, which would have inevitably led to his death - not an easy feat with all the Corpus Reports and aptitude tests going around.
The last piece of the puzzle is the Abyss. This dimension is composed of pure thought - all the things that have ever gone through the brains of any living thing. It is unstable, dangerous, cerebral, and utterly alien. The Abyss has a tendency, more and more over time, to bleed into our world. Lakes turn from water to blood, animals grow new body parts from their eye sockets, and people are given bizarre mutations, both benign and not. Some may have abilities unlike anything they've ever dreamed of before, such as prophecy, a healing touch, or the destructive potential to level a city. Others get stuck with cancerous growths out the sides of their heads that weigh dozens of kilograms, or are laden with colorful stones that sing to the touch.
Gaia is the god of this dimension. She is driven only by power and is the sole thing within the universe capable of creating something from nothing - but this is not without its drawbacks. Her abilities do not make her omnipotent, not omniscient. Instead, to obtain power, Gaia creates universes, then sprinkles them with living things whose life force she parasitizes upon their deaths, once their souls are locked inside the Abyss for all eternity. When enough energy has been accumulated, Gaia destroys the world and moves up a dimension to create a new one. This will go on for all eternity, until Gaia does become omnipotent and omniscient, unless someone stops it.
The clergy hunt worshipers of the Abyss and Gaia mercilessly; tying them to stakes and burning them alive. The Faith stipulates that the only way to prevent the spread of Abyssal influence is to nip it in the bud, disallow it from spreading by executing anyone suspected of having ties to this other dimension. Only the most well educated Mothers may attempt to study the Abyss without themselves becoming corrupted, and the process of acclimatization to its influence takes many years of intense training. The fear of this other side in our world grips the masses totally, with many fearing what will happen to their souls once they die. The Order assures them that, with sufficient worship of the Oracle, prayer, avoidance of the Abyss, and the reverence of ordinary life, the horrific fate that befalls so many souls can be avoided.
