How princes and potentates worship the Nine
This a companion piece to How ordinary mortals worship the Nine, focusing on the rich and powerful. For this article I am mostly going to say "kings and queens" but these basic tenets can apply to any Scarterran in a position of wealth and privilege.
Most of the basic tenets of how ordinary mortals worship the Nine apply to kings and queens. A peasant family is going to venerate the Nine with prayers and rituals and hope the Nine will bestow good fortune on their family, or at least avoid bestowing bad fortune on them. The royal family is going to hope that their prayers and rituals will convince the Nine to bestow good fortune on their kingdom, or at least avoid bestowing bad fortune on them.
There are many famous stories of kings and queens offending one or more of the Nine and suffering legendarily awful and dramatic fates , but these stories are very apocryphal and vague. The kings and queens are never named and it happened "long ago in a distant land." The thing is, most monarchs have heard these tales and even though these are apocryphal stories cloaked in metaphor, they still cause monarchs to lose sleep at night.
The Nine can bestow health or sickness, abundance or starvation. If a kingdom has a bad year for their crops, the royal family probably isn't going to go hungry, but a lot of their subjects are going to suffer and die. Suffering subjects may rebel against their king, or at the very least are likely to engage in the passive resistance of willful disobedience. Most monarchs care at least a little bit about the welfare of their subject. Even if the kings that view their subjects as simple resources understand that their people are valuable resources.
Much as a peasant is going to pray to the Nine to safeguard his/her house, a king is going to pray to the Nine to safeguard his entire land and all the people on it.
But beyond appeasing the Nine themselves, kings and queens have to appease dozens if not hundreds of priests and priestesses.
Small religious rituals are usually performed on the personal or family level, medium level rituals are performed at the community level, and large rituals are performed at the national level.
Priests and priestesses conduct the rituals, but they need support to do so. Kings and queens are usually the ones providing the resources for large veneration rituals for the Nine, mid-level nobles like Barons and Counts usually provide similar support for community level rituals.
It can be expensive and time consuming, but this is usually pretty straightforward. Very few kings are foolish enough to interfere with priests carrying out rituals for the benefit of their land. Very few priests are foolish enough to hold a large ritual hostage in order to gain a short-term political advantage. The Cult of the Compact is Scarterra's primary inter-deity priesthood with a strong ritual focus. They effectively handle scheduling, so Maylar and Korus festivals aren't scheduled concurrently.
Ecclesiastical politics normally covers what kings and priests do in between major rituals, and this is where things can get messy and complex.
History
The various priesthoods control lots of valuable resources, and kings and queens want to turn these resources to the services of the state.
Conversely, kings and queens make a lot of decisions every day as rulers and the various priesthoods want rulers to make decisions in line with their values.
This push and pull quid pro quo forms the core of Scarterran religious politics in every nation and era.
For details on what the major Nonagon factions usually want and how they go about trying to get what they want, faction-by-faction breakdowns can be viewed in the sidebar.
Execution
The Pillars of a Leader's Power
Rulers cannot rule without the consent of the ruled. Maybe not in the sense of a modern democracy, but they need to have enough supporters to enforce their will. On Earth, many political scientists state all regimes (regardless of government type) the backing of at least one of the following groups: the military, the merchants, the priesthood, and the bureaucracy. There is also a theoretical fifth column representing the general good will of the people. In Scarterra, the greater priesthood is commonly nicknamed "the Nonagon". The priesthood is pulled in nine different directions which dilutes their political power relative to a real Earth nation where most of the populace follows a single priesthood, but the Nonagon collectively controls almost every theurgist in Scarterra Theurgists' wield real tangible mystic power that all kings and queens want on their side, so theurgy can easily be used to wield political power. Beyond this, the Nonagon has substantial influence over the guilds (aka the merchants), professional soldiers and mercenaries (the military), and various scholars, craftsmen, and experts (the bureaucracy). They also have influence and sway over the general good will of the people. Every king and queen wants to win the favor of as many Nonagon factions as possible, or at the very least, they want to avoid making enemies with as many Nonagons factions as possible. This is a difficult balancing act. pretty much every priestly faction in Scarterra has a rival. Can a king appease the Masks without simultaneously angering the Lanterns and visa versa? Complicating the issue is that no major Nonagon faction is a truly unified political bloc. If the King backs the wrong Mask banker he could face opposition from not just the Lanterns but the banker's rivals among the Masks.Components and tools
Potential Strategy: Encourage Friendly Competition
Kings and queens are often desperate to win over Nonagon factions, but Nonagon factions are often desperate to win over kings and queens. Every priestly fashion wants their local rulers to pass laws and edicts favorable to them and their gods. This means they are often eager to win over kings and queens through flattery, bribery, and the occasional veiled threats. If a king is crafty, he can maneuver them to focus on flattery and bribery. If the various high priests are trying to outbid each other offering political and magical favors to the king, than that is a good place for a king to be in. This is the situation most Scarterran monarchs strive to be in because they can get lots of ecclastical support with minimal investment. If a priestly faction can't win over the royal family, they will try to win over the dukes and duchesses. And if they can't win over the ducal families, they will focus further down the ladder. So pretty much every landed noble in Scarterra is going to have at least a few priests and priestesses playing politics with them.Potential Strategy: Octagoning
"Octagoning" is a Scarterran religious slang term for shutting out one of the Nine or shutting out one of their priesthoods at least. The rationale is: "No matter what I do, _______ faction will be unhappy with me, so I'm not even going to try to placate them anymore." When a king employs this tactic, is usually only shutting out the priesthood, not the deity itself. A king can still sponsor Maylar veneration rituals while also refusing to talk to Maylar's priests and priestesses. Rather than a zero-sum binary, a king doesn't have to publicly shun a Nonagon faction entirely in order to "octagon" them. Many choose to keep a Nonagon faction at arms' length while paying them polite lip service for appearances' sake.Potential Strategy: Putting your eggs in one basket
The counterpart to "Octagoning", A king or queen may decide to blatantly favor one Nonagon faction over all the others. Often this is hereditary with generation after generation of a ruling family being politically intertwined with a particular Nonagon faction. One obvious way a king can show great favor to a single Nonagon faction is to send his heirs to them for education. Another way is to directly appoint priests or clergy into his court. The Elven Empire is politically in bed with the Keepers. The Kingdom of Kantoc is politically in bed with the Guardians. The nation of Kahdisteria was founded with the Children embedded in their political system. One a smaller scale, many noble families below the monarchial level have opted to ally themselves with a Nonagon faction. House Frymar is politically tied to the Masks, House Fremiss-Bryallan is politically tied to the Guardians. This is a good way for a ruler to get many powerful theurgists and other useful people in their corner, if the king has a plan for avoiding a backlash from that factions' rivals that is. Since lower ranking nobles don't get as much scrutiny as the royal family, it's easier for a count or baron to get away with this strategy than it is for a king.Participants
Kings and queens in Scarterra understand that no matter how mighty they are, the the Nine are mightier than them.
It get fuzzier when dealing with the Nine's priests, priestesses, and theurgists. Politeness and diplomacy should, but sometimes rulers and priests will posture and flex on each other for dominance. Most priests with a half a brain will be very deferential to kings and queens, but many of them can be awfully bold when talking to Barons and Baronesses, going as far to talk down to them.
Clergyman and women may represent the Nine on the mortal planes, but they are still very much mortal. They have the same mortal biases, foibles, and personal agendas that the representatives of secular special interests groups have. Personal agendas get mixed in with godly agendas all the time.
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