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.

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

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.

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.


 * Plague Speakers;

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 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.

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.

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.