The Falician Clergy has been corrupted from its intended origins.
The Hierophant and nearly the whole of the Curia are filled with Priests and Priestesses whose faith in Falis is solely dependent upon how much wealth and power they can amass from their clerical connections. As most Falician Temples and Sanctuaries are not only the spiritual center of towns and villages but also places of healing and learning, the communities surrounding them are more then willing to support their clergy with donations. These donations are then sent to the High Temple of Isen for "accounting and redistribution" throughout their many institutions. This is simply a cover for the majority of the funds to go back to the Curia and line their coffers and build upon the already massive skyline of Isen's High Temple.
This corruption has been eroding the faith for hundreds of years to the point that the doctrines have been changed from his most central precepts to adapt those of other faiths. The true precepts are as follows:
Protect all life
Show compassion toward all living beings and reduce their suffering
Rid oneself of anger, greed, jealousy and unhealthy attachments
By following these precepts only then will you be one with His light.
The clergy has fallen to the point that it openly persecutes all of Falis' chosen, the
Vespers of Falis who are the bearers of the pieces of the deity's soul reincarnated onto Gaia.
For when you go astray from my light, I will be there to guide you as true as the evening star.
Born into the world just like normal Gaians (I say Gaians instead of human beings because everyone's got some sort of ability or power more often then not), Vespers live their lives exhibiting an extreme natural affinity towards light and light magics regardless of their realization of their mark as a Vesper. Towards adolescence they begin to hear and speak to Falis. Throughout the ages this has caused several mixed responses.
Many Vespers have been persecuted for spreading Falis' true message to his faithful. For a child to speak against the teachings of the established clergy they are often ignored, chastised or punished and more recently, possibly committed to mental health institutions for the voices in their head.
While they are able to hear and communicate with Falis from a young age, their powers are not supplemented by those of the deity itself until they
fully awaken. Historically this takes an act that forces a Vesper to go beyond the limits of their own power and call upon Falis, accessing his bottomless wellspring of power. While many members of the faithful are able to call upon Him and be answered a Vesper will receive an immense amount of divine power in return that, without the proper training, will be impossible to control. This has resulted in many inexplicable 'acts of God' catastrophes - the most recent in Barton being the appearances of two seemingly platinum dragons on the grounds of the Temple of Falis.
Awakened Vespers are those few who are capable of not only accessing the raw power which Falis had blessed them with but are also capable of controlling it. It is these people that the church persecutes the most as
the blood of an awakened vesper is a conduit of Falis' power - regardless of faith or incantation, one could wield a vesper's blood and call upon the full might of the deity.
Gruesomely, the marks of station for the High Priests and Priestesses of the Temples of Falis across Gaia are vials of the blood of Vespers, the containers gilded and also used as the Temple's stamp for official letters and proclamations. It is with those keys that the High Priest or Priestess of a Temple has access to their inner cloisters, the most sacred place in a Temple that was the foundation for the building itself and wrought during the time when the church was lead by Vespers.
Currently the only awakened Vesper in the whole of the Greater Barton area is
Seyumi Kaikou.
