The Lords Temporal are a group of deities and other powerful entities who are recognised by the Ecumenical Communion as lieutenants of the Invisible God within their specific dominions. The following churches in Syran house shrines to these entities, and frequently worship them as part of their normal services:
This practice is attributed to the teachings of Arkat, and all of the officially-sanctioned worship of the Lords Temporal in Syran is conducted through his agency and under the aegis of the churches. Collectively, the diverse ceremonies and traditions of worship involving these entities constitutes a common religion, and specific common magic abilities are made available to dedicated members of the congregation, as described in the individual entries for the churches listed above.
In very rare cases, individuals can learn common magic from two different churches within the Communion, but this needs the approval of both churches and requires the worshipper to attend both sets of conventional services. This means the usual level of commitment for a communal members (10% of time and HPs) for both churches.
Note that these magic abilities always relate to the entity or entities associated with the individual church, but they are in all cases common magic. Though the magic involved may ultimately derive from the Otherworld entities, it comes to the worshippers of the Lords Temporal through the agency of Arkat and is thus bound up with the Mortal World. This has both advantages and disadvantages (see below).
Must be an existing member of the congregation in good standing.
Mythology of Lords Temporal, Worship Lords Temporal
See individual churches
See individual churches
See individual churches.
Note that, as Arkati magic, these abiluties can benefit from the effects of Arkat's Way concentration, as described in Religions.
As a common religion, this practice provides no access to the Otherworlds of the worshipped entities (but see also Disadvantages below).
This is effectively Misapplied Worship, but because the abilities gained are Common Magic, the normal disadvantages relating to concentration do not apply. Worshippers will still suffer from the Alien World Penalty if travelling to the Otherworld of the worshipped entity, however; see Heroquest p110 for further details.
Foreign churches, and even some of the more conservative members of the Ecumenical Communion, regard this practice as thinly-veiled paganism.