Paladine's Sash of Preaching

D&D 3e (3.0/3.5) Rules

by Harthan

In the early days of the Church of Paladine, back in the Age of Dreams, there were many who flocked to his worship. A great demand rose up for intelligent priests. However, before the great days of Istar came, teaching grounds and temples for these priests was few and far between. Those priests not located within a short distance of great cities or regional centers were generally untrained, and some of them had nary a book to their name. In fact, few of them could read.

To correct this problem, the high priests of Paladine came together and wrote down the complete and true doctrine of Paladine as it was far before the Kingpriest. It was penned in a great volume, but they realized an inherent problem with this; some of those would be clerics who had the heart necessary to preach could not read. Therefore, the priests took a ceremonial sash and infused all the words of the book into the sash. All those who donned it could access mentally all the resources of the book. It was granted to a high ranking priest who went into the world.

Going into the more remote regions of the world, this priest (known as the Missionary) could impart to the clerics there all they needed to know to truly worship Paladine. Because of the vast resources of the Sash, new clerics could be trained or current ones brought to standard in a matter of days. The Missionary wandered the wilds of the world, preaching and training all over.

The First Missionary, as all things do, passed, and the Sash passed hands into another cleric, though after some time. The heads of the church recognized the problem in this, and so they provided for an Order of the Missionary, who would learn from and aid the reigning Missionary and from their ranks would come the next Missionary. They travelled together at all times and became elite clerics.

The centuries passed and the order aided greatly in establishing a powerful church on Ansalon. Once the Kingpriest was established in 280 PC, the Order of the Missionary went to Istar and aided the various Kingpriests throughout the years in making a firmer vhurch. However, as the Kingpriests began to break away from the true doctrine, the Missionary set up a "renegade" (though in fact true) church, which was antagonized by Istar.

When Beldinas Pilofiro came to power, it was one of his acts to destroy the temple, slay all those of the order, and seize the Sash. He declared it unholy, a blaspheming object that corrupted Paladine's "true" message. He quickly had it locked away, realizing what an affront to his power it was.

Anyone wearing the Sash, as said, was capable of accessing the truths of Paladine as far as he had revealed them. The designated wearer was known as "The Missionary". It was an artifact of the purest Good, so anyone not of a Good alignment could not don it on risk of extreme pain. The wearer also received exceptional speaking and teaching power, able to preach at an advanced level. However, these blessings were never granted to someone who knew nothing; it was expected of the wearer to already, through their own efforts, know much about Paladine before they could don it.

It appears as a golden sash that covers the body from shoulder to hip. It is largely unadorned, with a faint glow permeating from it. It has small tassels at the bottom.

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