The Druishian Priesthood

The Druishian Priesthood Board began as a small cult of fanatics integrated into the FAC by Rabbi-Pape Hadrian VII because of the aid they played in capturing and holding Jeru-Mecca in 2066 A.D., so that he could convene the First Amalgamated Gathering and establish a capital for his desire of a global theocratic empire. Once absorbed in the complex structure of the FAC, Hadrian VII raised a number of the most rabid and devout to the service of his personal protectors and advisors. For the rest of his reign, the scarlet cloaked Druishian priests were a common sight when the Rabbi-Pape was present, their faces streaked with deep gashes made in devotion to their beloved master.

Following the death of Hadrian in 2101 A.D., Rabbi-Father Changstein el-Gammal announced the successor of the Rabbi-Pape as John Paul George I, whose first act was to move the FAC to Londonium and abolish the Druishian guard. He returned them to Jeru-Mecca, where he turned over care of Hadrian’s Grand Synamosque to them. John Paul George I was rumored to have used their services once before their return to Jeru-Mecca - the assassination of Rabbi-Father el-Gammal. In the years that followed, the Druishian Priesthood was left alone as JPGI began his systematic formation of the FAC’s hierarchy and organization until 2167 A.D., when the Galactic Catholic Church returned from the Outer Colonies of the Horse-Head Nebula and retook Italy, establishing the first Papal territory on Terocea (Earth) in over 100 years.

With the threat of Catholic orthodoxy suddenly present, JPGI recalled the Druishian Priesthood from Jeru-Mecca to Londonium, where the Rabbi-Pape had established his Symple. To root out and evangelize to those who were being lead astray by the Catholics, the Rabbi-Pape restructured the Druishian order into a more organized and structured administration, dividing it into the Druishian Priesthood Board which governed and oversaw the other organizations, orders, and committees associated with the FAC while rooting out any threat of orthodox or creed; and the Druishian Inquisitive Committee, which was responsible for evangelism and spread of Amalgamation, while rooting out those spreading and sympathetic to orthodoxy in FAC and the Britannia Imperium’s territories.

During this time a more notable change was made among the Druishian clergy; that is, they began to appear more groomed and professional and JPGI often employed their services for his own liturgies and processions. As the Druishians Priesthood advanced in power, they found that their only rival was the independent Rabbinical Suffrage, created long ago by Rabbi-Father el-Gammal to act as the legal branch of the FAC. While the Druishians were granted more and more power within the bounds of the hierarchy, their territorial expansion beyond Jeru-Mecca was hindered by the bureaucracy and red tape of the Suffrage. The Rabbi-Fathers had no doubts in their minds that the Druishian Priesthood - along with the current Rabbi-Pape - was responsible for their founder's assassination, and prevented any and all means of expansion. Thus Jeru-Mecca and Londonium were the only two City-States that supported Druishian Monaseminaries, Ward-Stakes, and Dioparchies.

Hindered and frustrated, the Druishians petitioned the Rabbi-Pape, whose favouritism of the Druishians prompted him to relocate the Rabbi-Fathers to the Neo-Babylonian Oligarchy of the West. There the constant upheaval and chaos severely dampened the Suffrage's influence while the Priesthood's flourished. As the Mental Crusades continued under the High Druistolic Administator, JPGI's reign was coming to a close. Millions of faithful who had been subjugated to the mental recognitions of the Crusade and left mindless drones, leaving behind embittered family members who sought revenge against the Priesthood and the Rabbi-Pape. Fortunately for the Rabbi-Pape, he was safe in the Symple fortress in Londonium. Unfortunately for the Rabbi-Pape, his concubine was one of the embittered family members, and subsequently smothered him in his sleep.

A hero to the people, the Red Elders prevented a collapse of the FAC by electing the concubine to the Rabbi-Papery, become the Church's first female Archierarch and Rabbi-Papess. Taking the name Helena Amashion Reddium I, the Rabbi-Papess abolished the Mental Crusade, seceded Italy to the GCC, recalled the Rabbinical Suffrage from the West and sent the Druishian Board into the Oligarchian regime under the pretext of evangelism and the spread of Amalgamation, but in truth her intent was the utter decimation of the priesthood.

While at first it seemed the order had been destroyed, four thousand years later the Druishian Priesthood Board reestablished contact with the FAC and reported it had taken the Eastern coastline, bringing a portion of the Neo-Babylonian Oligarchy's territory under the aegis of Amalgamation. The reigning Rabbi-Pape and other Archierarchs realized it would be foolish to turn away such a powerful group - one that had brought a chaotic and destructive place such as the Oligarchy under its control - and called them back to Jeru-Mecca and gave them an permanent place in the FAC's organization. Things continued to improve for the order when they wrote the Laws of Inclusiveness and Tolerance for the Second Amalgamated Gathering, and where instructed to enforce it throughout the territories.

Not to say the sudden death of the Rabbi-Pape in the middle of the Gathering and the election of one of their own to the Rabbi-Papery had anything to do with it.