The Sentinels: Defenders of Alar

The Sentinels

Defenders of Alar

The sentinels are a sect of Alarian worshippers that came about in the second epoch. They believe Alar's work is best exemplified through self-defense and protection over participating in war and conflict. They believe that Alarian clergy should recede from any secular power that would have them influence wars or states. They believe that large cathedrals, arena grounds, and anything meant as a show of religious power are decadent wordly things. They believe that Alarians should not take ideological sides and should work for the protection of common people. 

Sentinels came out of the massive changes happening over the course of the Epoch of Flame. With the fall of secular theocratic powers like the Firmament of Alar and the Dominion of Prythe there was precedence that those sort of worldly attempts at control were unfeasible and possibly even against the will of the gods. The origins of sentinel thought came from monasteries that lived apart from the world but still served the people outside their walls and through various philosophical and religious debates and thinking. Their conclusions were based on the good work their brothers and sisters did that worked errantly including those dedicated to different gods like the Gravestone Templars of Sothe. This work was done in the protection and defense of people against monsters, undead, cultists, predators, and evil. The impact of this work was seen as good and it left fewer scars and collateral damage than secular attempts at controlling the world. So it must be that good holy work involves direct individual work of using conflict against evil should work like a scalpel rather than attempting to use a state or religious power in an unwieldy hammer. From these monasteries sentinel theology was formed. 

Mainline Alarians consider sentinels to be a heretical sect that preaches concepts that are ultimately damaging to world stability and the ability for the religious to carry out the will of Alar and uphold the will of the Five. Along with this, the mainline Alarians believe that while sentinels seem to praise self-defense and receding from political life they are actually political opportunists consolidating their power to take over the power of Alarian temples. Some even whisper they are a secret equilibratist conspiracy, an infiltrative hellish cult, or a new Firmament.

Sentinels may have weight to their legitimacy of thought. While they pray to the same god, the miracles their clerics and paladins are given differ from mainline Alarians. Their suite of invested powers are defensive in nature such as miracles giving protection from magic and weapons, the creation of defensive forces and walls, and certain spells of healing that cross over into Liestra's domain which has created an allied sect in the temple of Liestra that recognizes their legitimacy. Monasteries that produced sentinel thought have also produced many errant Alarian paladins and clerics who travel the lands to hunt monsters and raiders that would prey upon defenseless villages or vulnerable populations in cities and towns.

Regardless of legitimacy, for near half of the second epoch sentinels were seen as a dangerous cult and they were often outlawed throughout the realms. One that espoused their beliefs or worked in their name could be jailed and then even executed in some cases. Their members were also locked away in mental institutions due to them being claimed as delusional or dangerously unstable. They would gain mainstream acceptance due to their work in major events.

Sentinels had some chafing against orders of Prythe that believed the work of defense was the work of the law and that mixing the god of conflict in the areas they worked in would create collateral damage in the form of the loss of lawful evaluation that Prythians were trained in. Agents of the god of war sent to areas of peace would invite war, basically. However, these same Prythians would also give sanctuary to these same people in places where they were discriminated against. 

The most likely place to find a sentinel doing their good work was Shudder, the land of the black spires. Their errant work was valuable not only in climbing the towers but also in defense of travellers and settlers against threats outside the towers. A large source of their legitimacy came from aeroship and railroad companies using them in defense of their workers.

In the second half of the second epoch, they would be gradually legitimized in the eyes of the temples and seen as another sect. Then another split would occur between those that believed they had lost their original principles by complying with the mainline temples to the point that they lost their sense of identity and those that believed they could coexist with others and that those that would try to "go their own way" invites instability and a return to their jaded past.

Sentinel NPC stats to come: