Church of Ubtao

The Church of Ubtao was organization formed around worship of Ubtao, the Creator of Chult and the Father of the Dinosaurs. His church consisted mainly of jungle druids, mazewalkers, and shamans.

Clergy
Most members of Ubtaoan clergy were men and women of the Tabaxi tribe. Unlike most other churches of Faerûn, the Church of Ubtao did not have any clerics. The worshipers and clergy of the Creator of Chult received little guidance from their deity and in return, Ubtao demanded no formal worship. Not all clans or settlements had representatives of all three sects among them and occasionally, the sects could not coexist peacefully. However such conflicts were rare. The difference in opinions between the three in bigger communities meant that the clan was ready to split into smaller units dedicated to one aspect of Ubtao or another.

Mazewalkers directly worshiped Ubtao and most of them resided in the city of Mezro and were the closest thing to traditional clerics. Mazewalkers – the specialty priests of Ubtao, provided spiritual guidance and welfare of the flocks and tried to prepare the faithful for the challenges of the maze of life and reaching the final reward. They acted as teaches in the Ubtaoan communities, sharing wisdoms and knowledge of Chult to people of all ages. Mazewalkers also offered advice and aid in figuring out the flock's life decisions, marriages, and other important daily matters. They represented and enforced the law and served as judges and mediators. Mazewalkers were passionate in their duties and beliefs, focusing on the end of their journey and the final reward. Despite being teachers, they tended to focus on hope rather than act.

Jungle druids focused their worship and activities around veneration of the Jungle itself, its essence – part of Ubtao. They taught the Chultans to fit in as best as possible into the web of life in the jungle. Most of the jungle druids took on the roles of clan healers. Outside this they also collected and taught knowledge of plants, animals, dinosaurs, and their behavior. Jungle druids were skilled animal trainers and handled wild and domesticated animals.

Spiritlords – the shamans, worshiped numerous jungle spirits, spirits of the dead, and animal spirits, all too, part of Ubtao. They believed that these numerous spirits controlled all aspect of life and focused on their appeasement. Most spiritlords lived outside the city of Mezro and sought to ensure a safe passage for their clan through the spirit-infested world. Their goal was ensuring the community did not offend ancestor or elemental spirits through sacrifices and religious rites. They also could negotiate with spirits offering service in exchange for boons and aid. Spiritlords were usually similar to adepts found in other areas of Faerûn.

Mazewalkers and jungle druids rarely came to a conflict, while spiritlord and mazewalkers often disagreed with eachother about the worship, sometimes violently so. Despite that, most Tabaxi combined belief and practices of all three sects in their everyday life.

The Spearbearers of Ubtao was the order members of which made it their duty to protect the world from Dendar the Night Serpent. Their goal was to give Ubtao the necessary strength to defeat the Night Serpent when she finally came to eat the sun. Towards that end, they conducted a large number of rituals, many of which involved sentient sacrifices.

Dogma
The Church taught its followers that Ubtao was the creator of Chult and the the jungles were a test for the faithful, a physical representation of the maze of life through which the Ubtaoans traveled until reaching the after life at Ubtao's side. The maze was the focus of the faith and it represents the life's journey his worshipers took upon. Each Tabaxi child was taught the rudiments of their personal maze as as the child aged, the maze was expanded with the aid of elders and teachers. Throughout there lives, Ubtaoans drew and redrew their personal mazes, memorizing their unique patters. Many learned the image well and absentmindedly tranced their shapes in sand or other surfaces in conversations or while idling. After they died, Ubtaoans appeared in front of there deity and were tasked with drawing a maze, unique for each individual. Those who succeeded were taken to Ubtao's realm into the afterlife, while those who failed were returned to Chult as wandering ghosts or ravenous ghouls.

Vestments
Mazewalkers were adorned in tobes, light robes necessary in Chult's humid climate. They favored ritual body painting in preparation and during religious ceremonies. These intricate maze designs were applied to their faces, around the eyes, and to the wood-carved tabards. Spiritlords exposed more skin wearing nothing but loincloths, with rare exemptions wearing decorative overskirts made of animal tails. They wore jewelry made of animal and dinosaur parts and covered their faces with ironwood-carved masks. Jungle druids preferred mundane clothing of their tribes, decorated with imagery of jungle beats. They could be recognized by small ivory, gem-carved, golden, or silver amulets in the shape of a circular maze – the holy symbols of Ubtao.

Holy Days and Rituals
The worshipers of Ubtao had a huge number of rituals, holy days, and customs that venerated the many spirits of the jungle and individual ancestors, or celebrated a hunt, or life events. These rituals took place around makeshift shrines that were simple rocks and were treated as such outside the ritualistic use.

History
Worship of Ubtao dated back to the creation of the jungles of Chult. When he molded the land, Ubtao realized that he invested too much of his divinity into the essence of the jungles. To remedy the distance created by stretching his being too thin, Ubtao created aspects to be worshiped by the humans – Tabaxi Chultans, numerous land and nature spirits, as well as the jungle itself.

Ubtao took on the avatar shape of a tyrannosaurus during the Time of Troubles in the. After he returned to the planes, Ubtao became more involved in the dealings within his church and his mortal worshipers. This led to the dramatic expansion of his clergy and worshipers.

Notable Affiliations
A group of seven unaging champions of Ubtao formed the protector of the faith and the city of Mezro. These men and women were chosen by their deity and were granted lives unaffected by and and sickess as well as a special gift each. When one of these barae perished in battle, a new champion was selected from the worshipers of Ubtao and tasked with venturing to the hart of the Temple of Ubtao in Mezro. Those who passed the deity's test were ordered secrecy of the process while those who failed were taken to the afterlife.

Notable Members of the Church of Ubtao

 * Mudgraw, a tortle druid of fort Ahoyhoy who guided expeditions to Omu, Shilku, and the Heart of Ubtao in the late 15 century DR.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * The Tortle Package
 * Novels
 * The Ring of Winter &bull; Viper's Kiss &bull; Vanity's Brood
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
 * Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
 * Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition