Church of Lathander

The Church of Lathander was an organization that comprised the collective practitioners of the faith surrounding Lathander the Morninglord. It was among the most popular and wealthiest churches in all of Faerûn, albeit one that experienced much tumult during the early Era of Upheaval.

Organization
The Lathanderite faith held no singular authority over the faith or hierarchy that bound individual churches to one another. Each priest held sole jurisdiction over their own temple, shrine, or congregation, regardless of their rank or title within the church.

Heads of Lathanderite temples occasionally met at conferences whenever issues affecting the church at large had to be addressed.

Classes
The church's clergy were specialty priests were known as morninglords, which comprised just over one third of its clergy. They were held in high regard by many people across Faerûn. Morninglords often lived as adventurers that helped spread the faith and carry out Lathander's will across the Realms.

Sunmasters were those Lathanderite clerics that prescribed to certain ideology that was seen as heretical by others.

Titles
Titles within the church included (in descending order): Sunrise Lord, High Mornmaster, Mornmaster, High Morninglord, Morninglord, Dawnmaster, High Dawnlord, Dawnlord, Dawngreeter, Dawnbringer, and Awakened for novitiates.

Factions
Within the greater church was a faction that believed Lathander was in fact the reincarnation of the Netherese god Amaunator. This divine theory led to the rise of the Risen Sun heresy, the belief that Lathander would transform into a resurrected Amaunator within a matter of years.

Yet others subscribed to the Three-Faced Sun heresy, that the sun itself was trisected overdeity—that comprised the three aspects of dawn, highsun, and dusk—only two of which could be witnessed by mortals at any given time. To these individuals, Lathander supplanted Amaunator as the aspect of dawn and became dominant over highsun and dusk. Opinions differed on whether Lathander or another deity would ascend as the aspect of highsun, and what would become of the aspect of dawn.

Activities
"[Spreading hope and enthusiasm is] your holy task, your life's work, and your daily salvation."

- Istron Malvantur, Dawnmaster of Elturel.

Followers of Lathander were directed to provide aid unto others and foster innovation to better the lives of folks in the Realms. They cultivated lands that were otherwise barren, culled monstrous creatures to make way for new settlements, fought off the forces of evil, and imparted civilized ideals to discordant locales. Lathanderians offered much assistance to adventurers, pilgrims, or others that traveled across the Realms. They made efforts to recover long-lost relics, magic items, or creative works such as literature or art in order to further their own innovative endeavors.

Lathanderite temples often sponsored non-combative athletic events, such as wrestling, archery, riding, running, swimming, and the like. They also honored creative competition in the arts, including the arts such as literature. More often, local clergy hosted grand revels for forward-thinking scholars and intellectuals, in order to stimulate their creativity and inspire new ideas that would further advance culture and civilization across Faerûn.

Individual Lathanderite priests often concerned themselves with new business ventures, offering loans to business people seeking more startup capital than their neighborhood moneylender could offer. Some of them took this entrepreneurial spirit even further, becoming investors, merchants, and financial brokers for their own personal enrichment. They were often viewed as overly enthusiastic hucksters. Yet other Lathanderite priests chose to propagate more humanistic unions, serving as matchmakers to prospective lovers that had yet to find their partners.

Rituals
Befitting Lathander's title of Morninglord, rituals, ceremonies, and daily prayers led by his clergy were held at dawn each day. Formal unions such as official contracts or marriages held during that time were considered especially blessed. An additional prayer to Lathander was held by some temples at highsun each day, and were considered a solemn but joyous rite of the faith. A ceremony known as the Going Down was performed at funerals, which were always held at dusk.

Celebrations
The Song of Dawn was sung in Lathanderite temples on certain days throughout the year, notably on the mornings of Midsummer and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. The elegant song honored Lathander with an intricate combination of choral harmonies.

Places of Worship
Lathanderite temples were among the most opulent places of worship, especially among those found throughout the North. They were always built with the temple's main chamber facing east, in the direction of the rising sun.

In exchange for their services, the temples' clergy accepted tithings of food, gold, magic items, or even newly-formed ideas or inventions from Lathander's faithful. The presumed value of these offerings were greatly increased for services offered to those that did not walk in Lathander's light. In the city of Waterdeep circa 1372 DR, this amounted to the lesser of either 50 gp, or 10% of profits from any church-sponsored endeavor.

Notable Shrines & Temples

 * Spires of the Morning, one of if not the largest of Lathander's temples, found in Waterdeep.
 * Tower of the Morning, an elegantly designed but similarly grand temple located in Telpir.

Dress
The priests of Lathander's more extravagant temples wore vibrant garments known as "sun robes", fashioned with the yellow, pink, and red hues associated with sunrise, and adorned with ribbons of gold. These ceremonial raiments were complemented by an elaborate headpiece that resembled a sunburst or the tailfeathers of a sunpeacock. Less-affluent priests of rural shrines often wore plain vestments in increasingly vivid colors depending on rank. In ascending order these were: brown, russet, scarlet, rose-red, and white for temple leaders.

Lathanderite clerics that took up the adventuring life wore practical garments in muted colors, highlighted with red or yellow, often bearing Lathander's holy symbol.

Spells
Spells unique to the Lathanderite faith included rosemantle, rosetouch, sunrise, boon of Lathander, shield of Lathander, dawnshroud, false dawn, and greater shield of Lathander.

Dogma
Followers of Lathander believed it to be their duty to uphold the ideals of innovation, artistry, creative ideology, personal improvement, youthful exuberance and athletic prowess. They viewed undeath as abhorrent and were tasked with its destruction in every possible instance.

Obedience to strict doctrines and laws were secondary to inspiring hope in others and providing aid by means of the church's vast resources.

Beliefs
Lathanderians considered cycles of growth and renewal, especially with regards to the natural world. They greatly valued beauty, culture, and art

Attitudes
Clergy of Lathander strived to remain imaginative and productive in mind, body, and spirit. They were directed to always act with consideration and forethought, in order to most easily bring positive change to the world.

While they did not require others to praise Lathander to benefit from their altruism, Lathanderians highly encouraged his worship among the more goodly folks of the Realms. They would not refuse service or withhold aid to those that did not revere the Morninglord.

Clerical Orders

 * Brotherhood of the Glorious Sun,

Military Orders

 * Order of the Aster, an order of Waterdhavian knights that exemplified the most conservative tenets of the Lathanderite faith and safeguarded its temples across the Realms. They served as the de facto army of Lathander's church.

Monastic Orders

 * Order of the Sun Soul, an order of wandering, Amaunatori monks that originated from ancient Netheril. A centuries-old schism within the order saw different sects each venerate their own deity, namely Sune, Selûne, and Lathander.

History
After Waukeen's disappearance from the Realms, and the subsequent pronouncement of her death in the, some of her faithful converted to the worship of Lathander.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Twilight War (Shadowbred, Shadowstorm, Shadowrealm)
 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate series (Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear)