Conduits and Censors

"Conduit" and "censor" are not titles within any church—they are jobs or ranks. An abbot, rector, even a bishop may be, or may have been, a conduit or a censor. Conduits and censors are those members of the church expected to go out into the world and actively, sometimes very actively, represent their saint's ethos. It is for this purpose conduits and censors are given access to powerful prayers.

Any sufficiently large organization has conduits and censors just like they have shadows and wizards. The thieves' guild needs healers, just as the church needs spies! A conduit who works for the thieves' guild still serves their saint which implicitly means the church approves of the guild's activities and the two organizations are at least pointing in the same direction if not actively allied.

Churches have bureaucracy just like any organization and while some prelates, abbots, bishops, or hierarchs are conduits, many are not. They are normal people who serve the church in administrative, political, or bureaucratic roles. While they know the same minor orisons every acolyte and abbot know, they do not go out into the world righting wrongs, and so do not gain access to the powers of the conduit or censor.

The prayers acolytes perform in churches are little more than magical rituals. They say the right words, make the right gestures, touch the appropriate fetish or talisman, and wounds close, curses are lifted, blessings bestowed. There's no direct connection in these examples between the acolyte and their god or saint. Though, even a lowly acolyte can expect to find their prayers fall on deaf ears if they fail to uphold the tenets of their faith.

Should the acolyte continue in their studies and deeds and earn the rank of conduit or censor, they gain access to greater prayers granted them by their saint. As they advance in their faith they call upon their saint more directly, and they begin to form a personal relationship with their saint. It is a feeling that develops whereby the conduit learns the... mood, for lack of a better term, of their saint or hero.

As they gain experience, a conduit or censor may even enter into dialogue with their saint. When they call upon their saint for power in battle, their saint personally answers them. They might literally be on first-name terms. At even higher levels, conduits begin to get a sense of the greater power behind the saint or legendary hero: their god, who begins answering prayers directly. They become, in effect, little mini-saints. The pathway from high-level conduit or censor to saint is now obscure, but was once well-known. In earlier ages of the world, it was expected that certain holy heroes who had served their god and saint well would—should appropriately dramatic circumstances reveal themselves—be elevated to sainthood.

The Deities and Domains table and the Saints and Domains table summarize each of the gods and saints mentioned in this chapter and their available domains.

Deities and Domains Table

Saints and Domains Table