Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 02-24-06, 09:22 AM	Inspirations: Fraticelli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraticelli), Straight Edge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_edge), various religious youth movements "They scare me. They're polite and all, and they haven't given me any trouble yet, but... look, they're these teenagers, twentysomethings, and they're dead-serious, somber all of the time. They wear this white imitation-livery, they don't let their hair grow more than half an inch, they don't drink, they don't eat meat, they don't **** unless they're married, and they sit around with their cups of maleko discussing social ethics. If this is what they're like when they're eighteen, what are they going to be like at fifty?" - Varsha Mardbell, gnomish magewright of Zalanberg, on the Headers The Arrowhead is an independent, non-centralized social movement that has been spreading across Khorvaire since about a year after the end of the Last War. It is loosely based on the same principles as the Church of the Silver Flame, but it is not officially affiliated with it in any way. Members of the Arrowhead, known as Headers, are often official members of the Church of the Silver Flame as well, but there are many Headers who are not members of the official Church, seeing it as simultaneously too corrupt, too narrowminded, and too soft, and most members of the Church have little truck with Headers, whom they frequently think of as a step away from heresy. From the Church's side, some higher level clergy of the Church of the Silver Flame call for declaring the Headers heretics, and expelling them from the Church, while others call for some form of official recognition of the Headers, and incorporating them into the existing Church hierarchy. Most do not yet have a position on the Headers, and are content to let them exist as an unofficial fringe of the Church. Thus far, Jaela has not made any moves. The Arrowhead calls for an intuitive, mystical relationship with the Silver Flame and Tira Miron. They see no need for the hierarchy, scripture, or doctrine of the Church. This means that Headers are less likely to be corrupted by the temptations of bureaucratic conformity, power, prestige, or wealth than many members of the official Church, but at the same time, their emphasis on the an intuitive, direct relationship with the Flame leaves them more vulnerable to the voice of the Flame-bound demon, and they may be manipulated by the Quori in their dreams, thinking that it is the voice of the Flame visiting them, where a more conventional member of the Church would write it off where it conflicted with doctrine. Generally, the Arrowhead calls for a borderline ascetic lifestyle. Headers generally eschew alcohol, pre-marital sex, meat, milk, eggs, leather, and many luxury items, such as jewelry, art, cosmetics, and fashionable clothing. Males and females both generally keep their hair cropped short. Music is allowed, but generally Arrowhead groups create their own lists of prohibited and permitted varieties. Bawdy bardic songs are frowned upon. Although they do not always wear it at all times, the Headers do have a typical uniform: an inexpensive white tunic or doublet, with a simplified version of the holy symbol of the Silver Flame -- the blue arrowhead -- embroidered onto it. The prototypical header is a clean-shaven, eighteen-year old, hair cropped austerely near the head, wearing a cheap white tunic, with a sky blue arrowhead-shaped piece of cloth stitched on. The Arrowhead has especially gained popularity in the poorer neighborhoods of various urban environments. In some of the more crime-ridden neighborhoods, Headers have formed their own gangs -- known as "Arrowhead Militias" -- which have attempted to fight against crime. Sometimes these are well organized, volunteer nieghborhood watches, with a good working relationship with official law enforcement -- such as the Karrlakton Arrowhead Militia -- while other times, they are disorganized and incompetent vigilantes, and in some cases -- such as East Starilaskur Arrowhead Militia -- they are just another gang, extorting local shopkeepers in the name of the Flame and behaving no better than the other gangs they combat. The most feared Arrowhead Militias are known as the "spiritual militants," who go beyond law enforcement and fighting crime into enforcement of the extreme edicts of Arrowhead morality, banning most types of music, closing brothels, prohibiting bars from serving alcohol, stripping the markets of animal products, and enforcing "modest" dresscodes throughout their neighborhoods. In most cases, these militias face constant conflict with official law enforcement. Arrowhead militias typically consist of approximately half 1st level commoners and half 1st level warriors, as well as an adept, magewright, or expert or two. Approximately one third of leaders of Arrowhead militias have a PC class (urban ranger being the most common PC class), the rest usually being warriors. Traditionally, the leader of an Arrowhead Militia must own and be proficient with the use of the longbow, the Silver Flame's weapon. Other members of the Arrowhead militia use slings, clubs, morningstars, saps, and light crossbows. They sometimes have bucklers or light shields, as well as padded, scale, or chain shirt armor (but rarely leather). Within the Arrowhead, there is controversy about the Arrowhead Militias. Some claim that the Arrowhead should be an exclusively peaceful movement, and have even claimed that Headers should not bear arms, even in the form of military service, and the Arrowhead Militias should be disbanded. Others see the key point of the Arrowhead as being to combat evil, and believe that good Headers are obliged to fight the evil of crime if the local government cannot or will not do so. Regardless, such debates can hardly disband existing Arrowhead Militias, regardless of outcome, due to the decentralized nature of the movement. While the Arrowhead has alienated many more traditional members of the official Church of the Silver Flame, they have been more successful than most Church-affiliated groups at reaching out to those with whom the Church has had a difficult relationship in the past. For example, while many shifters are wary of the Arrowhead (as, indeed, are many humans, half-elves, etc), young shifters have joined the Arrowhead only slightly less than their fraction of the total population would lead one to expect. Although most shifters find the Arrowhead discomfiting, for the same reasons that many humans, gnomes, and other races do (their mysticism, zeal, poverty, and other eccentricities), they do not hold the actions of the Church against the Arrowhead, and do not think of Headers as being any more prejudiced against shifters than most groups in Khorvaire, and sometimes less so. Like members of the Church of the Silver Flame, Headers tend toward being Lawful Good. However, whereas members of the Church, when they veer from Lawful Goodness, tend to stay lawful and move toward evil, Headers are equally likely to move toward chaos or evil. In the Church of the Silver Flame, a Lawful Evil priest is more common than a Chaotic Good one, whereas among Headers, Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good headers are equally common.
Rechan 02-24-06, 12:03 PM	Looking over this, it seems pretty good, and logical. I like the addendum about the alignments, and the voice of the fiend in the flame. Nice touch.
PoeticJustice 02-24-06, 12:06 PM	It certainly is an intriguing idea, one I'd have never thought of. I'd like you to take it a bit further though, a there is ample room for development. How would the Arrowhead feel about Dreamlily imports to Sharn? What about the overtures the Sovereign Host has made to include the Silver Flame into its pantheon? Does it view the Warforged as celebrants who cannot experience intoxication or abominations that mock the purity of the humanoid form? Interesting idea, indeed.
JulesCARV 02-24-06, 12:57 PM	How would the Arrowhead feel about Dreamlily imports to Sharn? What about the overtures the Sovereign Host has made to include the Silver Flame into its pantheon? Does it view the Warforged as celebrants who cannot experience intoxication or abominations that mock the purity of the humanoid form? Interesting idea, indeed. Thanks for the questions. I think that as a matter of general consensus, they'd be dead-set against Dreamlily imports. As with alcohol, it's a corrupting influence on the mind. I think that Sharn itself should have a lot of independent Arrowhead Militias -- maybe four to eight -- each representing an "archetype": i.e., at least one group of upstanding, straight-laced, clean-shaven citizens always willing to give the police a hand, at least one group of incompetent, amateurish vigilantes, at least one group of common gangsters who merely use the Arrowhead name as a cover for typical protection schemes, dreamlily dealing, and the like, and at least one group of spiritual militants who enforce a code of purity, hunting down and possibly killing dreamlily dealers. It could be interesting to have a civil war within an Arrowhead Militia between a "common thug" faction and a "spiritual militant" faction, with the "common thugs" dealing dreamlily while the "spiritual militants" try to destroy it, and the ordinary people of the neighborhood pray that they end up destroying each other so that they don't end up either having to pay protection money while their children are pushed into getting high on dreamlily or end up with fanatics forcing all of the local pubs to stop serving wine and meat. As for the Warforged, I don't think that Headers have a problem with them. Like the situations with the Shifters, they aren't as prejudiced as the Thranish royalist types. Some of the extreme headers, like the spiritual militants, might disagree, but in general, I think that they would be more open to the warforged. It's mainly a demographic issue, really: the Arrowhead consists mostly of young people, and young people tend to be more accepting of new elements in society, while older people tend to be more change-resistant, so, as with the shifter situation, the Arrowhead is usually fairly accepting of Warforged. As for bringing the Silver Flame into the Sovereign Host, I think that the Arrowhead wouldn't really care about that, mostly. To them, that's a bureaucratic, doctrinal, organizational issue -- the sort of issue that they don't care about. So long as they can still intuitively connect with the Flame (or at least believe they can, whoever's voice they're REALLY hearing when they do it), and worship it in a mystical manner, they don't care what the high priests and bigwigs in the hierarchy do. Members of the Arrowhead who are also simultaneously members of the Church of the Silver Flame in good standing are more likely to have an opinion on this, because of its affect on life in their parish (or whatever the unit of organization is called).
JulesCARV 02-26-06, 07:57 PM	Any ideas for Arrowhead characters? Wilhelm Metzgar Human Warrior 1/Healer 4 Chaotic Good Age: 27 Home Region: Karrnath Wilhelm Metzgar was once a conscript in the Karrnathi armies, fighting in Cyre in the Great War. He was a patriot, and although he would rather not have been drafted (preferring that someone else do the fighting, like most patriotic draftees), he was a dutiful and effective soldier. He was on the borders of Cyre when the Mourning hit. The experience changed him profoundly. Or, to put it more bluntly, he was driven insane. He also gained some strange powers. Formerly a not-very-devout worshipper of the Sovereign Host, he converted to the Church of the Silver Flame, claiming that in the mists of the Mourning, Tira Miron herself visited him and told him to convert. He gave up all of his material possessions, and became a wandering monk and preacher. However, his sermons took on a strange tone, that only loosely conformed to the doctrines of the Church. The Church expelled him from their ranks, and he took up with the Arrowhead, although even they found him to be a loose cannon. Those who hear him report that he screams during the nights, afflicted with horrid nightmares. His appearance has become increasingly guant, and his eccentricities have only increased. He began to preach the doctrines of the Arrowhead to wild animals, calling on the birds to repent for their sins. He became prone to fits of spontaneous laughter, and strange visions. He wandered barefoot from place to place, never staying anywhere for long, using his healing powers to heal the poorest and most destitute in the ghettos and impoverished rural lands where House Jorasco would not go. Metzgar is also mortally ill. The Mourning did more than drive him insane and give him healing powers. The magical radiation also afflicted him with cancer in his brain, bone marrow, and pancreas, beyond even his own healing powers. He is ravaged with constant pain, and only his autohypnotic discipline keeps him functioning at the level he is. It is estimated that, barring a miracle, he will die in four more years. Sarhanna Felton Half-elf Expert 3 Lawful Good Age 32 Home Region: Breland Sarhanna Felton has as good a claim as anyone to being the founder of the Arrowhead, although exactly who started it is difficult to say: her Khoravar parents had long been devotées of the Church of the Silver Flame. She remains a member in good standing of the Church to this day, and often acts as a de facto liason between the Arrowhead and the Church. While a theological scholar and aspiring priestess of the Silver Flame, she submitted an a short essay, which first appeared in a local newsletter, but which eventually spread to the op-ed pages of the Korranberg Chronicle, on the nature of the faith, where it was widely read, drawing immense response, positive and negative. She wrote that she believed that many of the crimes the church had admittedly committed were a result of excesses of bureaucratic and hierarchical structure, and called on members of the Church to develop a more intuitive relationship with the Flame and Tira Miron. Well ahead of her time, she also warned of the dangers of carrying this tendency to excess, saying that the Church, built around Flamekeep and Jaela, was a necessary and just institution, but that the faithful must develop a compromise between total submission to the Church's authority and complete lack of structure. Although sometimes considered the "founder" of the Arrowhead movement, some Headers do not consider her a true Header. Many headers feel that she is too cavelier in speaking on behalf of the movement. Also, she does not "look" like a header in the same sense many do (for instance, her clothes, while not elaborate, don't look as austere as those of many headers, and she doesn't keep her hair clipped short). Ekatya Duvalle Halfling Urban Ranger 2 Neutral (strong, roughly equal good, evil, lawful, and chaotic elements) Age 24 Home Region: Aundair Like Sarhanna Felton, Ekatya Duvalle is another likely claimant to the title of "founder" of the Arrowhead. Her mother was a recent immigrant from the Talenta plains, and she inherited -- whether genetically or socially -- a fierce sense of violent honor. She is also the the most likely claiment to being the founder of the spiritual militants, being the former leader of the Arrowhead Militia of Passage. She was known for the extreme measures she took to preserve her modesty, wearing shawls which covered her hair and dresses than came to her ankles even in combat situations. A firey preacher and fanatical follower of the Silver Flame, she mobilized other young arrowheads to form the militia, and used it first to control crime, and late to impose her puritanical vision on the neighborhoods of the city in which she held sway. Both sexes, but women especially, were forced to wear modest clothing. Alcohol was confiscated and dumped into Lake Galifar. Animals destined for the slaughterhouse were set "free" in the surrounding wilderness, soon to be eaten by wolves. Anyone in possession of Dreamlily was summarily executed, without trial. Adultery was made a capital offense. Indigents were put to work on public projects, where they received a stipend to ensure that they could receive adequate food, shelter, and medical care, paid for through the confiscation of the property of her enemies, and luxury items more generally, such as jewelry, art, and other "trivialities." Her reign of terror was eventually stopped through military suppression. Ekatya was captured, and is currently in jail. Leaderless, her militia become fragmented and ineffectual.
Joni-san 02-27-06, 08:08 AM	This is a great idea. It fits the flavor and has historical precedence. :clap: I think I may add the Headers or a group similar to it in my games one day :plotting:
Kemmotar_veon 02-27-06, 02:18 PM	I really liked them... Actually If you don't mind I'm going to use them... they would work just perfect in my new campaing...
CTHUHLU_THE_GROOVY 02-27-06, 03:52 PM	I like them. They are an (equally flawed) alternative to the order and decadence of the common church. Am I the only person who is reminded of the Sunlight Home boys from the Talisman? 82ish Peter Straub/ Stephen King.
JulesCARV 02-28-06, 05:44 PM	I really liked them... Actually If you don't mind I'm going to use them... they would work just perfect in my new campaing... Go ahead. I think one neat thing about Eberron is that, since religions aren't dependent on a deity explicitly bossing her followers around, you can have religions be more like abstract philosophies -- like Planescape's Sigil factions. I think that that's what subconsciously drove me to create this: I wanted something with the feel of a Sigil faction (albeit without a factol), yet still making sense within Eberron.
Good Agnostic 02-28-06, 08:14 PM	One of the reasons that the Sovereign Host has become the most successful adn widespread religion in Khorvaire is that it adapts (incorporates) the smaller local religious traditions it encounters. Host Evangelists never tell the locals they are wrong for worshipping the customary War God, they just reveal that the God they are worshipping is really Dol Dorn - they have previously known him by one aspect, but know the full truth is revealed. Host Evangelists feel the same way about the Silver Flame. SF worshippers are really worshipping Dol Arrah (Tira Minon was a Paladin of.....Dol Arrah) - they have just focused on one aspect, the silver flame. In time, they will realize they are truly worshipping Dol Arrah. THe Arrowhead movement may be the first mass revealation of this truth. These young believers know that there is truth adn power in the flame itself, but not in this church hierarchy. Perhaps they will come to realize that the full truth of the Silver Flame can only be found in Dol Arrah.
Decree Of Boredom 02-28-06, 08:39 PM	I'm really liking this idea, despite getting a bit of a Hitler Youth vibe from it. This might be showing up in my games pretty soon.