Honor the dead, lest their sacrifice be in vain.
Avoid frivolous crime, it is beneath you.
Let the shadows surround you, and you will always be at home.
Honor your family above all else
The Speaker is the voice of Thazarix, a vessel of the Chill.
The Dark Masses are a church of necromancers that worship Thazarix, an ancient god of cold and death. An outcasted god of the Verdulan pantheon, he followed his people when they were sold into slavery by King Ferondan to the Kraken Lord. Thazarix is believed to be able to inhabit the world of Seaheim, but only as the strange aurora over Dustlight known as “the Chill.” The leader of the church, known as The Speaker is Siri Bleakhall, a female half-elf of Valask ancestry. Although the Valask allow anyone to live is Dustlight and worship Thazarix, only those of Valask descent are allowed to become true priests. Non-Valask, referred to a “ninchka”, or “foreigner.” They may achieve the rank of Toller, or someone who is allowed to ring the sacred bells during one of the five times they are rung during the day. Five is a sacred number to the Masses, as it took five betrayals of their people for them to thrive.
The church is very strict in how it handles things. Every member of the church, whether unarmed or military has to handle recording of their day to day activities. This keeps order in church for the most part, as the church members are usually skilled in magic and thus can often get the truth themselves if they need to. The other reason for this is for when a church member dies, their logs are used to allow the Soulscribes as to which undead caste they will belong to.
Patron: The very top of the caste system, these are honored dead who have done great deeds for their house or order and for the Valask in general. The exorcists of the Dark Masses remove the soul of the dead person, and transform it into a ghost that is allowed to inherit a Death Mask, the case of a house patron, or an Heirloom Weapon for a military order patron. These objects allow for the patron to give advice to champions of their house or order. Patrons are at the top mostly because they operate outside of the caste system, putting their cause above all else.
Soulscribe: The next caste are the Soulscribes, given only to the most powerful of magic users that die among the Masses. These are the undead who govern the caste system for the most part, and do the bureaucratic work for the church. They decide who goes to what caste when they die. The process of becoming a Soulscribe is similar to becoming a lich, but done in a way that doesn’t require the souls of the living. This process also turns their log book into a powerful phylactery.
Arbiter: The upper middle caste are the Arbiters. The ranks of the Arbiters include many former adventurers, and these undead are the backbone of Dustlight’s militia and army. They resemble what they looked like in life, as the corpse is kept in decent condition, but can told apart from the living by the lack of pupils in their eyes. Arbiters gain supernatural endurance in the process of becoming undead. Adventurers who become arbiters often keep abilities they had in life, which helps to keep the peace.
Runner: Runners are small, agile undead used a couriers and emmisarys. This role is given to those in the Masses who die young. Blessed with supernatural intelligence (relative to their age) Runners have to go through an intense period of training before being allowed to handle documents. The most elite runners are employed by the Senate. These undead handle seriously classified information, and are rewarded handsomely for work, or for bribes from rival senators.
Huncher: Called so because the large hunch they often get in their back from all of the manual labor they are used for, hunchers are the dumb muscle of the undead. This is reserved for heinous criminals and others who die disgraced by the Masses. They are the famous cart pulling, boat rowing zombies the Valask employ.
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