You spent your life in the service of a temple to a specific god or pantheon of gods. You acted as an intermediary between the realm of the holy and the mortal world, performing sacred rites and offering sacrifices in order to conduct worshipers into the presence of the divine. You are not necessarily a cleric—performing sacred rites is not the same thing as channeling divine power.
Choose a god, a pantheon of gods, or some other quasi-divine being, and work with your DM to detail the nature of your religious service. Were you a lesser functionary in a temple, raised from childhood to assist the priests in the sacred rites? Or were you a high priest who suddenly experienced a call to serve your god in a different way? Perhaps you were the leader of a small cult outside of any established temple structure or even an occult group that served a fiendish master? Maybe you were the head of a temple or just a faithful dedicated.
Until one night when something happened. Maybe you did something or maybe it was done to you but regardless your temple has shunned you. You are not welcome in that community. All of the followers that you knew and loved have turned their backs on you. If you are seen or spotted by these people and they know who you are, they may try to bring you to "justice," through the elders or through personal means.
When you fell:
You did something. You did something you knew better than to do or stumbled across something that caught your curiosity and you are now paying for it. You burned the wrong offerings or uttered a diving phrase wrong. Perhaps you were you tempted into the darkness of the outside world by another god, or the idea of freed thought. Those whispers you heard could have been some dark god(s) trying to take you down or corrupt your soul so that you would weaken the faith or just the stress of all the rules.
Someone did something to you. A person may have done this to you so they could take your place or just get you out of the way for something that would benefit them. Maybe they just made a decision that you pay for instead. Are you still a believer or do you even care? Perhaps this is your path out of a lifetime of forced servitude to a god that didn't matter to you. Do you seek justice of your own? Are you trying to atone, or seek to restore your name if you were framed? How are you going to go about this? Where does your moral line lie in regard to what you are willing to do to prove your innocence?
No matter what happened talk with your DM to decide the details
- Skill Proficiencies: Religion, Arcana, or History
Deception, Insight, Investigation, or perception
- Tool Proficiencies: One of the following: calligraphers supplies, cook's utensils, glassblowers tools, jewelers tools, leatherworkers tools, painters supplies, potters tools, smiths tools, weavers tools
An instrument of your choice
- Languages: Celestial
- Equipment: A cracked or broken holy symbol (originally a gift to you when you first entered the priesthood/dedicated group of the temple you lived at/near), a prayer book or prayer wheel, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp
You got kicked out. What happened?
| d6 | The incident |
|---|---|
| 1 | I shoved a priest that was forcing himself upon me, and somebody saw but it was self defense, you have to believe me! |
| 2 | The elder that constantly berated me got what was coming to her. Too bad I wasn't able to stay and watch the poison do the deed. |
| 3 | I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got blamed for something somebody else did. |
| 4 | I never wanted to be a part of the priesthood of a faith I didn't believe in. So I renounced the god(s) and left. Now, the temple is angry because I was sworn to their god(s). |
| 5 | I was accused of desecrating the largest idol of our god(s) we had. |
| 6 | These gods don't hear us anymore, there aren't enough believers for them to pay attention. Why pray to something that doesn't care anymore? |
As a forner acolyte, you are not welcome at any of the temples of your previous faith. Those who know of your transgression, whatever it may be, call for you to be brought before the temple elders so they may allot justice upon you when you are spotted. Depending on the individual who has seen you, they may follow and cause you trouble. As such, you must avoid the temple you served at; however, you can sneak in and masquerade yourself as a priest or priestess at another temple of the same faith due to your knowledge and upbringing. This will have consequences if you are discovered.
Suggested Characteristics
Acolytes are shaped by their experience in temples or other religious communities. Their study of the history and tenets of their faith and their relationships to temples, shrines, or hierarchies affect their mannerisms and ideals. Their flaws might be some hidden hypocrisy or heretical idea, or an ideal or bond taken to an extreme.
| d4 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I don't know quite what to do with myself now that I no longer have the structure of the temple. |
| 2 | The world is wonderful and now that I am no longer beholden to the rules of some dumb god, I am going to immerse myself in the full experience of material living. |
| 3 | I have spent so much of my youth away from everyday society and I come off awkward due to social queues and nuances that I tend to miss because of the cloistered way I was raised. |
| 4 | I often misquote the sacred texts of my previous faith as a joke, or to turn a situation to my favor through fake rhetoric. |
| d1 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nihilism. I have seen with my own eyes that the gods either don't exist, or don't care. We're all just pawns in their games of supposed divinity. So why should I listen? (Any) |
| d4 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | My sibling stayed in the faith. |
| 2 | A friendly guard that I've known outside of the faith believes that I can be brought back to the path of light. |
| 3 | One of the shunned keeps giving me cryptic messages and follows me around when they see me, waiting for something amazing to happen to them too. |
| 4 | A witch of the old gods is also persecuted by my religion. We once shared solace in their woods. |
| d3 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | Since becoming part of society, I have found it hard to resist... Well, they're known as extracurricular activities and I don't really care if they are legal or not. |
| 2 | I grew up too sheltered and am now definitely too naive and gullible for my own good. |
| 3 | I have been alone for so long now that everyone that I meet I try to make friends with. Even if its an obviously bad idea. |
Contacts
Your varied and complicated past has given you a plethora of opportunities to make both friends and rivals within and without of your temple and faith. The connection of peoples in the faith is like a giant spider web that has allowed for you to befriend or make enemies with all sorts of people in high and low standing.
| d4 | Contact |
|---|---|
| 1 | I had a secret relationship within the cloistor, even after everything that happened they have chosen to stay in touch with me. |
| 2 | As a child, I was the handmaiden to one of the High Priestesses. |
| 3 | A state official who also shares the shame of being shunned has taken pity on me. Long ago they changed their fate and now plan to help me do the same. |
| 4 | An elder of the faith was personally snubbed by my desertion or sentencing and keeps trying to contact me. |