Church of Yurtrus

The church of Yurtrus was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the orc god Yurtrus, The Lord of Maggots. They were known among orc tribes as Hands of Yurtrus, or simply called White Hands for the gloves they wore to symbolize their connection to the Rotting One.

Dogma
Followers of Yurtrus believed death was the inevitable fate of all life, and that the ravages of an epidemic were simply death taking victims who had not fallen in battle, allowing orcs to choose what way they would most likely die. Orcs could only forestall the touch of White Hands only by begging for mercy, and as such they were to fear him, but ultimately, it would be of no use. Disease and pestilent doom would come to all, for death always lurked in the shadows of Luthic's caves, and it would certainly strike again.

Activities
The clergy of Yurtrus were the intermediaries between their tribe and the Rotting Lord, pleading with him when the community was the victim of a disease or an epidemic. They determined if the food and water in tribal stores was too rotted or tainted for consumption, preventing sickness from taking root, and when plague did strike orc tribes it was the clergy that was responsible for quarantining the sick.

Those suffering from abhorrent diseases that could be saved but not healed were brought into the fold of the cult and tended to like prized cattle, because they had been chosen for a special divine purpose. At night, during a heavy fog, at the front of an army or in defense of the tribe, these orcs given Yurtrus's vile blessing were sent (often through a hail of arrows) to spread the message of death and disease to the enemy. Upon death (which they themselves could immediately induce) they exploded in a shower of toxic corruption, softening the enemy in a suicidal burst of sickness.

Membership
In many respects, Yurtrus was not so much worshiped as he was dreaded and appeased, given fealty by the orcs only because they were afraid of angering him and sought to propitiate him. Some tribes had begun to worship him as a god of food and health (given the priests' duty of looking over the food supply), but he was moreso being propitiated as the reverse.

Yurtrus followers were the outcasts of an orc tribe, those that, due to frailty, deformity, injury, age, or some other infirmity, were too weak to be part of the main body. Rather than face a life of daily ridicule or be exiled or killed, such orcs joined the cult of Yurtrus (or were deemed unsuitable and given over to the cult of Shargaas). Rarely were his priests leaders of their clans, but they were found in all tribes and had a kind of protected status.

Yurtrus's horrifying nature granted his followers a great amount of independence, so they were allowed to stay on the fringes of the tribe, although they were nonetheless held in unease and aversion. Shamans of White Hands walked the line between the living and the dead, gaining unnatural powers of death (and disease) from their nonverbal communion with Yurtrus, and their practice of necromancy (considered taboo even by orcs) created a strange combination of fear and reverence in the rest of the tribe.

Ironically, despite their roles as intermediaries, most of Yurtrus's clergy removed their tongues to emulate their god, and so couldn't speak.

Classes
Those that chose to worship Yurtrus were often orcish or half-orc assassins, and others that either profited from or worshiped death. Other followers of the Rotted One trained as divine disciples.

Orders
Yurtrus's church was generally disorganized, its clergy dispersed among uncounted tribes and clans, although there were a few orders of monks dedicated to him. One such monastic order was the the Brotherhood of the Scarlet Scourge, who unlike other monks, could learn clerical abilities without destroying their potential as monks. They bleached their hands and grew their nails long, dipping their claws in blood infected with red ache powder before going into battle so as to infect their enemies.

According to legend, once each year on the winter solstice, the Rotted One reached out with his pristine white hands and touched an orc infant in the womb. Said orc would be born with whitish skin, pink eyes, and a weak, slender frame, but none would dare slay the newborn despite its "deformity" for its traits marked it as a chosen emissary of Yurtrus, a plague speaker. A hallowed outcast, plague speakers struck respect and terror in other orcs, who feared him for his divine origin and vile deity. Standing alone, a plague speaker's only company was usually his mother, who idolized him and was sometimes a potent spellcaster herself.
 * Plague Speakers:

Plague speakers were given a secure sleeping area, albeit well away from the tribe, ample food and drink, and a share of the spoils of war. Their duties were to tend to a small shrine of Yurtrus, care for the sick and dead, and to represent the desires of both Yurtrus and the orc pantheon as a whole, ensuring the chief didn't rouse their ire. Normally he would be aware of threats to the tribe before he was in personal danger, and though other orcs would gladly exploit the confusion he created when coming to their defense, they would not fight by his side. If the tribe was destroyed, they would go in search of a new home, and any orc tribe he came across had no choice but to accept him, however grudgingly, to avoid the wrath of his patron deity.

Rituals
The divine followers of Yurtrus prayed for their spells at dusk, when the day began to die, and the church recognized two major holy days. The first was the Ceremony of Contagion, celebrated on Midsummer's Eve, when Yurtrus's contagion was said to take root, drain the world of life, and draw it inevitably toward winter and the year's end. After a series of bloody sacrifices to protect the orcs disease, the priests went forth to spread disease and death worldwide, especially to other races. The second holy day, known as the Putrescent Death, was celebrated on the eve of Midwinter. That night, the clergy of Yurtrus recognized the death of the world, symbolized by sacrificing members of other intelligent races.

Despite his silence, Yurtrus was sometimes receptive to properly respectful prayers and sacrifices to save an individual or tribe from the ravages of disease. Living sacrifices to Yurtrus were offered on an otherwise monthly basis under the full moon, though a great number of prisoners and slaves were given in times of plague. Sacrifices to the Rotting Lord were generally given through their inoculation to a particularly horrible disease.

Every orc knew that the Hands of Yurtrus were the gateway to the ancestors of the tribe, masters of the borders of life and death. It was through their shamanic rites that the spirits of the dead were contacted and the living passed into the land of the dead. The priests of Yurtrus dealt with matters of death related to the tribe, sending off the dead (whether they perished due to injuries, disease, or natural causes) in funerary rites. They sought out the bodies of fallen heroes, and sometimes even enemies of appreciated strength and ferocity, to honor them by severing their heads, boiling or smoking them to remove most of the flesh, and then ritualistically punching the bridge of the nose to leave a single "eyehole" behind.

Orcs that served the tribe well were meant to be sent via the rituals to meet Gruumsh in the afterlife. Orcs that died in a failed battle were left behind, for they were weak and did not deserve to join Gruumsh, while those that perished from old age (a rare occurrence in orc society) were likely followers of Yurtrus already, and would have their bones repurposed and their souls taken when Yurtrus came for his chosen in absolute silence.

Shrines & Temples
Yurtrus's followers dwelt on the threshold of an orc tribe's cave, where the actual cavern system began. As keepers of the dead, their place of worship were underground crypts, the entrance to their domains decorated with piles of bones and skulls. An altar to Yurtrus made of stone with the symbol of a hand painted with ash and tallow was placed in a cramped chamber separate from the main living area, lined with ossuary material. The bones of fallen warriors added to the shrines, and the bones of Yurtrus's Hands were used to build furnishings and structures in areas dedicated to his worship.

Dress
Hands of Yurtrus wore pale white gloves made from the bleached skins of non-orc humanoids (preferably elves) to symbolize their connection to White Hands, though covering their hands in ash was also acceptable. They also wore thin "armor" woven from the same material that was about as effective as cloth, though they kept their heads bare.

Weapons
In combat they wielded maces with the head in the shape of a white fist.

Magic
Yurtrus's clergy had access to sickening spells like stinking cloud and contagion.

Relationships
Yurtrus's followers communed with other orcs through the auspices of Luthic.

History
In 927 DR, the Year of the Red Rain, Yurtrus's wrath fell upon the Sword Mountains, causing the Blood Plagues. During this time, the orc shaman Wund united several orc tribes under the leadership of chief Uruth, forming the kingdom of Uruth Ukrypt. The cult of White Hands formed the backbone of that kingdom, and around this time the Brotherhood of the Scarlet Scourge was founded.