Board Thread:Custom Lore Development/@comment-26535281-20171005003602

The Ecclestum, officially known as the: "Divine church of the holy Pantheon and the Emperor" and is the largest religious organization within the known universe with many uncountable trillions paying lip service to the Ecclestum and it's gods, even more practice the basic rituals or pay tithes to the church. So large is the Ecclestum that their leader known as the 'Grand Pontifex'.

The Ecclestum at it's very core is built around the traditional Rin pantheon as well as spreading the message of the superiority of the Rin culture and by extent the Empire itself. Throughout the universe it's preachers can be found spreading the word by word or by the blade.

The Ecclestum is a massive affair with cathedrals and churches on most civilized worlds and they have even been granted their own estates and worlds (Cardinal worlds) to directly govern. In return they are expected to pretty much keep the population loyal through religion and to recruit massive amounts of fanatics to fight for the church and the state.

On the actual cardinal worlds the church rules with impunity with all of these worlds subject to the complex and dogmatic laws of the Ecclestum as well as tithes, hereditary slavery, and many other tasks. For the greater good of course.

The Ecclestum is lead by a priest hood who's traditions and customs stretch back to before the Empire was formed. They are lead by a governing body known as the 'Cardinals' with each Cardinal being in charge of one of the many Arch-Diocese which are massive administrative regions generally spaced out over a sector and with a Cardinal world as it's capital. All the Cardinals sit upon a 'council' of sorts and make the important decisions the church must make to survive. Upon the passing of the current Grand Pontifex the Cardinals are expected to meet and elect a new one from their own ranks. How Cardinals themselves are elected varies from world to world some are hereditary, others appointed, and very rarely some are elected. Cardinals have some of the finest palaces and the grandest estates in the Empire with many Cardinals owning land upon the Paradise worlds themselves!

Under these are the local bishops and priests running the churches and cathedrals as well as their spiritual and administrative needs. Each of these priests run a parish which is usually a city or two and sometimes a bit larger. Each of these priest have rather large villas and estates as well as hoards of servants.

Under all of these are the monks of the Ecclestum who in all, but name are slaves. They generally are the natives of the Cardinal worlds, hereditary servants, or individuals who have volunteered for monastic duties. They are the basic workers of the church doing such jobs as repairs, signing the holy chants, lighting the candles, tending the grounds, and even scribe work or guard duty.

In between both of these are the street priests and missionaries who spread the word across the Empire generally with shows of 'miracles' or brute force. They are either kind souls that truly believe or fanatics with really big swords and a small private army.

Now the church runs it's own affairs for the most part (due to ancient accord signed with first the republic and then the Empire later on), but they are not above the Empire by any means if necessary the state can order the Ecclestum around as they see fit and even the highest of Cardinals are under the watchful eye of the State.

The Ecclestum does not have a total monopoly on Religion either (a deliberate 'check' on the Ecclestum's power) many cults and faiths exist both under the nose of the Ecclestum and out in the open directly challenging their authority and legally they can't do anything about it. Privately however many hidden wars between the followers of both groups exist and sometimes these wars burst out into the open with the largest leading to planet wide civil wars. 