Church of Finder Wyvernspur

The Church of Finder Wyvernspur was the clergy that served the Nameless Bard, deity Finder Wyvernspur, the patron of change and transformation of arts.

Clergy
Due to the Church's relative youth, Finder's clergy was few. Most were young artists, aficionados, and bards. The deity was especially appealing to arrogant prodigies of the arts. Saurials of the Lost Vale venerated Finder, and some joined the Church as priests in the Tarkhaldale's own temple to the fledgling god.

Members of the Church aided young talents in finding venues to perform or hone their skills. Bards or dancers were helped with finding inns and festhalls willing to give the talent an opportunity or sculptors were helped with finding a shop to expose their work to the masses. However, Finder's aid did not help any further, allowing the worshipers to succeed or fail on their own merit. This helped for Church to spread its influence among struggling artists and led to an adversarial relationship between the Church of Finder and Churches of Oghma, Milil, and Lathander, who saw the new faith as a threat. Those individuals and organizations that despised the Harpers also considered the Church of Finder to be their enemy. The Church was also not welcomed in lands and societies that restricted personal freedoms, free speech, and freedom of expression.

Ranks
The Church of Finder Wyvernspur consisted of clerics, bards, specialty priests – finders, and spellsingers. Finders were usually recruited from among saurials and halflings.

Dogma
The Church's dogma reflected the lessons that mortal Finder learned the hard way. Finderites believed that art was created to change and drive and that with art's stagnation came spiritual rot. Artists had to be ready and willing to let their art change and transform, and through art, artists were renewed themselves. The Church also taught that art was a strong tool that could affect mortals and politics of the wider world, and as such, art should only be used to promote freedoms and independence. All art was pleasing to Finder Wyvernspur, and so it was appreciated by his followers. Art was to be promoted in children of all ages as well as in adults, professionally and recreationally alike. The Church valued artists who reached heights of mastery and individuals who possessed natural talents.

Vestments
Some of the priests imitated the barn worn by Finder Wyvernspur himself. These outfits were simple yet elegant as they believed that the art was to shine, not the garb of the performer. However, that was likely to change as the Church grew. Despite the Church not having an official holy symbol before 1370 DR, the image of a harp, which often was associated with the Church, was either part of the clothing design or etched onto a musical instrument or a piece of jewelry worn by the clergy.

When on the road, members of the Church preferred practical traveling clothes. They never wore armor heavier than chainmail as heart armor restrained their grace and dexterity. Saurial priests did not wear any armor, preferring natural protection provided by their scaled hides. The Church imposed no limitations on weapons wielded by its members.

Abilities
Finder's clergy was taught about the religions of Faerûn. The specialty priests of the Church – Finders, were trained in wearing light and medium sets of armor and the use of weapons usually wielded by clerics as well as priests.

Magic
Finders gained the ability to cast the charm person spell once a day at an early point in their training. They had the power to cast ghost pipes or dispel silence twice per day. With experience, they learned to use the slow rot and find the path spells once per day each. The most powerful among finders could cast Melisander's harp as well as starharp once per day each.

Holy Days and Rituals
Priests of Finder in the Lost Vale spent their days: teaching music to acolytes, including the young saurial soul singers, composing and welcoming Finderite pilgrims and curious visitors to the Vale and the Temple to Finder erected where their deity spent his final living hours on the Prime Material plane. Other members of the clergy, including Joel, the Rebel Bard, traveled the world, teaching Finder's music and dogma to those willing to learn. The clergy also encouraged young folk to hone their arts. The Church's priests and bards often arranged arts, music, and other forms of entertainment for local churches that venerated goodly gods, political events, and ceremonies. Members of the Church were required to create art that honored Finder Wyvernspur and his teachings. The Church did not refuse donations of gold from the worshipers but valued performance art as the most valuable tithe to the organization. The Church of Finder Wyvernspur lacked wealth compared to other Churches, but the clergy possessed constantly and rapidly growing works of art that, with time, gained value.

The main festival of the faith took place in Leafall, Marpenoth 20 every year. The event celebrated Finder's apotheosis and slaying of Moander's avatar in the Abyss. The day was widely celebrated among Toril's saurials as the date also was their release from slavery under the tendrils of the rotting god. The festival was a day-long event filled with dancing, music, art unveiling, and plays. Performance of songs penned by Finder was a mainstay during the celebrations.

History
As of the, the Church of Finder was limited to the saurial priestess Copperbloom who had a personal relationship with the fledgling god, her acolytes, and the so-called Rebel Bard, Joel of Berdusk who personally befriended his deity while Finder was in a guise of an aging priest named Jedidiah. The worship of the Nameless Bard expanded with relative rapidity in the several decades following his apotheosis.

Notable Affiliations

 * Shrine Keepers was the name given to Finderites who resided near the deity's many shrines built by Joel, the Rebel Bard, and cared for them, ensuring the shrines were ready for performances, clean, and protected from ill-intended individuals.
 * Soul singers of the Lost Vale were considered to be an order of Finderites by some as the new generation was trained under a priestess of Finder Wyvernspur beginning in the 14 century DR.

Notable Members of the Church of Finder

 * Copperbloom, the first cleric of Finder on Toril. She and her eight acolytes manned Finder's temple in Tarkhaldale.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Finder's Bane