[H] The Sacrarium

"When we look back on the times of peace and plenty that were, we look back at a lost age. It is an ugly truth, but one that must be faced.
For nearly half a century, Azeroth has been beset by countless wars that have both broken nations and decimated populations. But it is clear to me now, that whether it is the fight between orcs and humans, a campaign waged upon another world, the rise of a ‘Lich King’ or even the return of the Black Aspect, these struggles are something more than the wars that came in centuries before. They are signs.
For these are the End Wars, the final confrontation between good and evil where one will unmake the other. The Sacrarium knows this, and we know that further sacrifices must be made if the Ultimate Good is to prevail. We will do whatever it takes, for we refuse to cede the floor to the belligerents and the heretical scum of the world; we will dedicate our lives to the Cause and root evil out wherever it may hide.
I know this is a typical lamentation, but there is no other path left to us... The End Wars wait for no one, so every battle we fight shall be a prayer, a hymn to the glory of the Light, and the Sacrarium shall be the choir that sings at the final mass."

~Cale Lightsinger, Patriarch of the Sacrarium

General Info
The Sacrarium is a new guild run by a core of experienced RP’ers. We are looking for dedicated members that want to be part of something great from the start, and we would also be happy to hear from other guilds that may be interested to form IC partnerships, rivalries, etc.
We have the outspoken ambition to help promote more spontaneous RP in the various RP hubs across the lands of Azeroth, and as we believe this is best achieved through cross-guild collaboration we would like to get in touch with likeminded people in the community to see what can be done.

For more information about the guild, read on below or visit our private forums at:
http://thesacrarium.actieforum.com

For contact about recruitment or other forms of cooperation, either whisper one of our officers ingame (Cále – Sonyä – Mirrâ) or send me a PM here.


Guild Concept
Seeing itself as a religious order in service of the Holy Light, the Sacrarium is in actuality more of a militarized cult. Its members constantly travel all over Azeroth to seek out and battle heresy and corruption, with the ultimate goal of creating a world unified under the Light; a paradise free from war and evil, purest amongst the worlds in existence, a holy shrine to be the beacon of the universe – a Sacrarium.

The End Wars
The Sacrarium’s religious dogma centers around the belief that the “End Wars” are upon the world of Azeroth. Basically the World of Warcraft is called the World of WARcraft for a reason, and the past half-century of more or less constant conflict, strife, and steady depopulation of the world has convinced the members of the Sacrarium that what they are seeing is actually the final battle between good and evil in the world, and consequently that it is fought over the survival of Azeroth.

The Sacrarium naturally believes that the Holy Light represents the Ultimate Good of the world, and all other sides represent varying degrees of evil or heresy, but they are willing to form temporary alliances with the “lesser evils” such as the Horde, or at the very least tolerate their existence, as they rid the world of the greater evils first.

The Three Vocations
The Sacrarium is divided into three branches, called “Vocations”. These are the three callings that new initiates can choose from when they seek a specialization within the order.

The Templars: As an embodiment of vindictive fury, the Templars are the holy warriors that make out the main body of the Sacrarium Army, serving as both a bulwark and a vanguard against the evils that must be cleansed from Azeroth.
The Inquisition: While the Templars are the conventional army designed to engage enemies on the battlefield, it is the Inquisition that directs the Sacrarium’s attention to the threats that need immediate attention. Inquisitors have versatile roles as spies, assassins and interrogators, skilled at blending into crowds, eliminating high-priority targets, and obtaining sensitive information.
The Clergy: Lastly, the third Vocation of the Sacrarium is the Clergy. They are the preachers and the propaganda machine, and they groom spellcasters to aid as heavy support on the battlefield, or as needed by the Inquisition to achieve other objectives.

Ranks and Explanations
Patriarch – The leader of the Sacrarium is known as the Patriarch. He is the ultimate authority and father figure for all his followers, not entirely seen as an avatar of the Light, but definitely seen as holding divine authority.
Matriarch – The female counterpart of the Patriarch has very similar responsibilities, and as the secondary leader she speaks on the Patriarch’s behalf when he is not present.
Champion – The Champion is the cult’s greatest warrior, considered to have been granted his or her authority by the Light itself. The Champion is occasionally forced to defend his or her title against worthy challengers, but in the interim periods, the Champion has full authority over all Sacrarium ranks from High Overseer and descending.
High Overseer – Officer Rank. There may be three High Overseers at any one time, one for each Vocation, which they are tasked to run.
Overseer – Sub-officer rank. The Overseers aid with administration in their respective Vocations.
Light-Ascendant – Elite Soldier Rank. Light-Ascendants are the finest soldiers from any of the three Vocations, overshadowed only by the Sacrarium Champion.
Adept – Standard Soldier Rank. The Adept is someone who has found their Vocation, and been properly inducted into it.
Initiate – Beginner rank for someone who has just chosen a Vocation and as such started their journey up the ranks in the main body of the Sacrarium cult. Initiates still await the opportunity to truly prove themselves and be embraced as Adepts.
Follower – Who says a member of the Sacrarium must even pick a Vocation? A Follower is an undecided initiate, or a civilian that perhaps chooses to support the cause more passively and without taking any active role within a Vocation.
Associate – Mainly an OOC rank. It is left for alts of members, or players that want to RP with the guild, but without their character being a part of it.


What We Offer

Cultist/Religious RP – We wouldn’t be a proper cult if we didn’t host sermons and secret meetings, and then of course there’s the part where we spread propaganda, “investigate” (spy on) suspected heretics, and also furthering our own purposes by trying to gain leverage over important people in other organizations through infiltration and blackmailing (this will naturally have to be pre-agreed upon with the other parties involved).

Casual RP – The whole point of us being a cult rather than an open religious order is that the Sacrarium, with its current dogma, would not really last long if it didn’t remain secretive. As such, our members are bound to live double lives where they behave like normal civilians as well, or perhaps even public figureheads or as members of other factions such as the Blood Knight Order – anything to provide a good cover!
This means that more spontaneous “civilian” RP is likely to happen just as often as cultist RP, and it is also for this purpose that we have included the “associate” rank for the guild, so to include people that desire to RP with us, but not as part of the Sacrarium itself.

Cross-Guild – Our ambition is to have the Sacrarium travel a lot ICly, meaning we will be stationed near various RP hubs at different times. We will try to work with other guilds that are based in these areas to see if we can get some interesting RP going.

PVP (RP and non-RP) – We encourage our members to gear up for RP Campaigns as well as general World PVP to take out griefers or to simply intimidate them enough to stay clear when we RP in zones where you can’t unflag. We also do it for the fun of it in the form of Battlegrounds and Arena-games, and you are likely to find several people willing to help you get that weekly cap of Conquest Points.

Social/PVE – As a rule of thumb, we prefer our members to have their characters at or near max-level, so there are fewer to no restrictions on where in the world that they can come along for events. We will help you level up by boosting you through dungeons, and furthermore, if you need help to run certain raids for that Transmog Gear you always wanted, then we will chime in with that as well. In return, we hope that you will do the same when other members ask.


What We Expect Back
A good and friendly attitude means that you are more than welcome, we simply expect you to follow our Code of Conduct. It can be summarized as this:
-Adhere to basic RP etiquette and common sense when you roleplay.
-Know well enough to keep IC and OOC separate.
-Take any arguments out of Guild Chat.
-Mature language is fine, but abusive language will not be tolerated.

Furthermore, it is absolutely fine if you are new to RP. We will help you out with anything you might need, BUT we’ll expect you to actually make an effort to learn the ropes and read up on some basic lore. Likewise, we want all members to familiarize themselves with the Guild Concept so to limit confusion during RP.

Lastly, be careful with your use of the Guild Tabard when you are In Character. Remember that we are a low-profile cult; so flashing it outside that type of RP might get you in trouble – especially if you are unmasked and recognizable as well.


Further Clarifications

What races and classes do we accept?
The Sacrarium is mainly a Blood Elf guild, for obvious reasons. But any other race that could reasonably make sense in our RP would be welcomed as we have every OOC ambition to be as inclusive and accommodating as we can. It should be said that forsaken and death knights are a complete no-no though, but we do have an “associate” rank for members that wish to move in OOC alts or to RP with us on characters that are not part of the Sacrarium itself.

Furthermore, it should also be mentioned that all forms of magic except for Light (even the Arcane schools) are seen as “impure” at best if not outright heretical, but fundamentalist leadership is nothing if not hypocritical, so members wielding non-Light magic are naturally just seen as “brave martyrs” who would sacrifice the purity of their souls for the greater good.

Does your character have to be a linear zealot to fit into The Sacrarium?
No. The Sacrarium as a faction is fundamentalist in most ways, but that doesn’t mean it can’t see the merit in accepting people of other callings so long as they fight for the Patriarch. Desperate times demand desperate measures, after all…

Your character could have several reasons to join, and we encourage you to be creative with your persona as it generates interesting character conflicts and intrigues in RP; perhaps he or she isn’t really religious, but believes the Sacrarium ultimately fights for a good cause, or perhaps they have been scared by the “End Wars” propaganda... Perhaps your character is in it because his or her friends joined up, or they are there out of servility or loyalty to a specific person in the faction. Your reasons can be pretty much as custom-tailored as you want, and we will labour to help anyone who wants to join, to also fit in.

An obvious question comes to mind.

Do you see other Light-devotees on the Alliance side as friends and allies?

I ask mainly because your concept of an "End War" is pretty much canonicly shared with the Draenei. Velen makes explicit references to it in the game. How does your guild feel about the spacegoats?

Thelos wrote:An obvious question comes to mind.

Do you see other Light-devotees on the Alliance side as friends and allies?

I ask mainly because your concept of an "End War" is pretty much canonicly shared with the Draenei. Velen makes explicit references to it in the game. How does your guild feel about the spacegoats?

The answer to this can somewhat be hinted at in the guild name. By "Sacrarium", the cult sees itself as the holiest of holies, so in accordance with its dogma this means that there can be friends and allies out there, but it is important to stress that these are not entirely seen as equals. The Sacrarium can play nice to further its goals, but all "lesser" groups must eventually submit or die - even if this might be decades or centuries down the road.

It is also implied that the Sacrarium ignores, or even allies with "lesser evils" in a rather hypocritical fashion whenever it is convenient to do so, and as the spacegoats would be pretty far down their "shit list" unless circumstances dictate otherwise, that means they may or may not share common goals at some point.

As always, cultists are fairly irrational and unpredictable, and we hope this will help our overall RP take some interesting twists and turns down the road. But at this point the Sacrarium would be taking a more or less neutral or indifferent stance as they have no formal contact with the Alliance side, and that's really the best answer I can give.

I would have appreciated it if it was done with another diety than the Light, since the Light has always been shown to be indiscriminate and inclusive but I can see where you want to go with this.

Best of luck to you all!

I would have appreciated it if it was done with another diety than the Light, since the Light has always been shown to be indiscriminate and inclusive

I'd say that greatly differs to be honest, the Light can be many things depending on what the specific followers believe is right and just, even if the heart of it is as you say.

Although it seems a bit too zealous for my character (Cenalia) I think she can easily be convinced into believing that it's a necessary thing to do, so I might seek you out.

Thelos wrote:I would have appreciated it if it was done with another diety than the Light, since the Light has always been shown to be indiscriminate and inclusive but I can see where you want to go with this.

Best of luck to you all!

Fair enough, but any faith, however indiscriminate and inclusive, can be taken to a bad extreme - especially when the arrogance of the believers and opportunism of religious leaders come into play. A real world example would be Christian Unitarianism as opposed to the "Jesus Camp" type of people, and an ingame example (which also includes the Light) would be the Scarlet Crusade.

To motivate the choice of Light rather than another diety, it was because I personally wanted to add a twist to the old trope that most if not all cults in storytelling tend to worship something dark or demonic. You may notice we have tried to sidestep the stereotypical "Apocalypse Cult" in the same way, by making it more of a paranoid belief that the apocalypse is indeed coming (in a sense), but can be altered for a better outcome.

It also felt like a bad idea to step on anyone's toes since we already have a few darker-alligned cults on the Horde side, and I felt if we went the same way it wouldn't really have much potential to enrich the server RP.

But thank you for the well wishes!

Gor'Thrak Frosthowl wrote:Although it seems a bit too zealous for my character (Cenalia) I think she can easily be convinced into believing that it's a necessary thing to do, so I might seek you out.

You would be more than welcome. As stated, there are plenty of ways to fit your character in. ^^

Hello there, my this seems mighty interesting. I just have a small question, it may have been addressed already- yet I'd like it just spelled out to me in simplist terms.

I do notice that you could have allies amoungst the alliance, yet I also note this is a Horde side guild. Thus it raises this question:

How does this "cult" deal with defiled beings, such as the Forsaken? Are we allies? Are you sympathetic to the curse that has befallen us mighty beings? Or do you take the approach of the Scarlet Crusade?

In addition, I'd just like to wish you all the very best of luck with this venture.

As us hearty forsaken say - "Suffer well."

Dr. Haluthious Vouten wrote:Hello there, my this seems mighty interesting. I just have a small question, it may have been addressed already- yet I'd like it just spelled out to me in simplist terms.

I do notice that you could have allies amoungst the alliance, yet I also note this is a Horde side guild. Thus it raises this question:

How does this "cult" deal with defiled beings, such as the Forsaken? Are we allies? Are you sympathetic to the curse that has befallen us mighty beings? Or do you take the approach of the Scarlet Crusade?

In addition, I'd just like to wish you all the very best of luck with this venture.

As us hearty forsaken say - "Suffer well."

I suppose I could have expanded more on this, it sort of got buried in the wall of text in the OP. Sorry for that!

The Sacrarium is largely skeptical about anything defiled, and when it pushes into undeath it becomes a little too much to stomach. As was stated in the OP, neither Forsaken nor Death Knights can ICly be part of the Sacrarium.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the forsaken can "reproduce" now they wouldn't have been as much of a concern, but as it stands the Sacrarium would be very careful with them. Fighting alongside them in Horde campaigns is one thing, but outside of that, the hope is to have a more antagonistic relationship with the Banshee Queen and her followers than with the rest of the Horde races.

I hope that clears things up. And once again thank you for the well wishes! =)

This would have been absolutely PERFECT for my now unfortunately dead paladin. She was preaching about the "final day" constantly and before her death had a pretty good wrap sheet on killing what she called "Darklings", which would be warlocks and other corrupted entities.

I find this concept incredibly exciting, and I have a level 90 priest sitting around doing pretty much nothing. It might be time to race-change it!

I am however pretty saturated on Blood Elf characters, do I would rather make it a forsaken or a troll.

-This-, is great. I'm usually not one to jump at random new rp guilds with my alts, but i think i'll have to try this one out.

Looks inspiring

Catari wrote:-This-, is great. I'm usually not one to jump at random new rp guilds with my alts, but i think i'll have to try this one out.

Looks inspiring

I've already joined them and am currently having a jolly good time. Let the Marauders' invasion commence!

Just payed for my faction change. My priest is on it's way.

Come one, come all!

We need a few more members for things to really take off, so this is a great opportunity for any ambitious people out there to get themselves involved and make an impact!

to make a alt/main
otherwise, looking good and good luck to you

As Brother Haluthious has posted before me, it will be - Most interesting. Light fanatics on the side of the Horde, Vangrel already hates Shadow fanatics but tolerates them.

Looking forward to it.

Are you going to be preaching in Silvermoon any time soon?

This reminds me of how the Sunfury Elite used to be, and crikey I loved their secretive double life kind of thing.

I was thinking of going to the Marauders seeing as the Blood Knight Guard have dissipated, but this has definetly got my attention. Consider yourselves the owners of a Blood Knight Master (Mistress).

Kristeas Sunbinder wrote:Are you going to be preaching in Silvermoon any time soon?

Perhaps not "preaching" all that openly before we can make sure those pesky authorities won't be breathing down our necks, but we will definitely spread around propaganda posters and such fairly soon. The plan is to do it ICly, and depending on how it goes, steadily grow "bolder". No time and date set just yet, but it will happen as soon as we are done with intros for our new members and people are settled in.

Raene wrote:This reminds me of how the Sunfury Elite used to be, and crikey I loved their secretive double life kind of thing.

not the only one loved that.

Tyrós/Cále wrote:

Kristeas Sunbinder wrote:Are you going to be preaching in Silvermoon any time soon?

Perhaps not "preaching" all that openly before we can make sure those pesky authorities won't be breathing down our necks, but we will definitely spread around propaganda posters and such fairly soon. The plan is to do it ICly, and depending on how it goes, steadily grow "bolder". No time and date set just yet, but it will happen as soon as we are done with intros for our new members and people are settled in.

I'm pretty sure doomsaying won't be frowned upon by anybody, mainly shunned by those who just want to block it out.

That being said, pervasive one on one interrogation and guilt tripping of individuals into forcing them to think the way of the Patriarch? I can see that being done, and having it done legally too.

This will be so much fun for Aelrath, who is/was part of the enforcing authority of Silvermoon to get into.

As long as you don't preach against the Thalassian Government, I don't see why there should be any problems.

*shifty eyes*

You don't plan to incite the masses against the Regent-Lord, are you?

Kristeas Sunbinder wrote:As long as you don't preach against the Thalassian Government, I don't see why there should be any problems.

*shifty eyes*

You don't plan to incite the masses against the Regent-Lord, are you?

An unforeseen ally has emerged for the Forsaken!

The Regent-Lord is safe for now, but just as with all the other worldly despots trying to usurp the Divine Authority of the Light, the Sacrarium will be ever watchful of... heretical tendencies.

...that said, I figured our preachings could be seen as disruptive either way. I wouldn't fault the Blood Knights if they came and tried to make our preachers disperse, and as such, I'd rather see we "test the water" ICly at first. Especially with the generally cautious nature of the cult.

Quite a decent load of people joining in a short amount of time.
Be among the first to join in this new era. No more looking at old members and asking about history that occured years ago, be the one telling others history yourself!

* Old Tokuh joins the party *