Church of Celestian, Rock of Bral

The Celestial College is a temple dedicated to the god Celestian. The College is located in the Temple District of the City of Bral. It is a training ground for young priests, a meeting ground for experienced priests, and one of the best places to hire helmsmen.

The College itself is a large, four-story building in the Temple district with three levels of basements beneath it. The College has dormitories, a lecture hall, classrooms, offices, a central meeting hall, and even a roof-top ballroom. The population is largely transient except for a small staff of caretakers.

Goals

The Celestians have few ambitions beyond exploring wildspace. As an organization, they have achieved their goal of creating a hub for travel at Bral. The College serves as a hospice and gathering place for Celestian's priests. Captains in need of a good helmsman start at the College.

Individually, the priests are constantly jockeying with one another over status and claims to fame. The number of spheres visited, discovering new spheres, and being the first priest into any particular sphere are means to determine status between the priests. Lesser means of achieving status include composing poetry, debating philosophy, and unlocking new priestly magic. When a new sphere is discovered, priests scramble to be the first priest into the sphere and thus claim bragging rights. Some priests spy on each other in hopes of discovering what their fellow priests are up to, and possibly beat them to some new sphere.

History and Motivations

The Celestial College was founded on Bral about forty years ago by the famous Celestian High Priest Lapu of the Hundred Spheres. Fabulously wealthy from his many travels, Lapu set about establishing a series of temples and monasteries to train young priests. The College was the final temple that Lapu paid to have built. After its completion, Lapu set off aboard his vipership to the most distant spheres known, and disappeared into legend.

The College proved wildly popular with young nobility. The College offered training as helmsmen and navigation, but without the "old guard" bureaucracy of the Church of Ptah. The looser political structure and promise of adventure appealed to the young nobles. In the span of a single generation the College had expanded its influence far beyond its limited number of priests.

Organization

The College has a very loose structure. Leadership is held by the highest level priest that happens to be at Bral at the time. The College does have a permanent staff of caretakers and accountants to keep the College operating. The caretakers are not priests of Celestian so they do not need to depart the sphere in a year's time.

Chain of Command

The highest ranking priests at Bral are in charge of teaching new students in the ways of Celestian and making sure the College is being properly cared for. They assign apprentices to mid-ranking priests and tending to College facilities. All are well-traveled members of Celestian's clergy that have visited at least twenty spheres and are of 9th level or higher.

Adelard (NG male human P14 of Celestian; Wis 19); The highest-level priest of Celestian currently at Bral, Adelard is well-versed in city politics. Adelard is an elderly priest that many young priests call "Grandfather Priest", a term of endearment.
Alnereid Solfire (NG male human P9 of Celestian; Wis 17, Cha 15); Alnereid has spent the last ten years circling the so-called "Arcane Inner Flow". He departed Bral a decade ago with much fanfare aboard the Sevenstrike, a shrikeship. The Sevenstrike returned to Bral two months ago. Of the original crew, only Alnereid and the captain survived, the others perishing or settling down in some distant sphere. Alnereid is taking a break from his travels, enjoying some down time before setting off on his next big adventure. Alnereid is a charming, middle-age man with a gray beard.
Hester Voidust (CG female half-elf P10 of Celestian; Con 17, Wis 16); Hester is a native of Bral and a loyal priestess for four decades. She was the College's first student and now heads the faculty. Hester is over seventy years old with gray-blue hair. Despite her age, she is in remarkable health and quite vigorous. She hasn't visited a new sphere in five years due to her advancing age and because she has visited every commonly known sphere within four months travel of Bral.

Rank and File

Visiting priests and the caretakers are considered the middle-ranking members of the College. Priests act as faculty members, mentors, and helmsmen-for-hire. The caretakers are responsible for managing the College's finances and keeping the building in good condition for the priests.

Windell (CG human male P6 of Celestian, Cha 17); Windell is somewhat a braggart among the College, as he managed to be the first priest to have successfully escaped the Astronumdi Cluster. His cliche of students are responsible for much hell-raising on Bral. Windell is handsome man of about twenty two years of age.
Keir (LG human male P5 of Celestian, Wis 15); A swarthy-skinned man from Krynn, Keir joined the priesthood after his rescue from a neogi mindspider. Lost and alone in an unfamiliar environment, Keir was dropped off at the College. After learning the ropes of spelljamming, he spent two years exploring nearby spheres. He has since learned the location of his homeworld, but he has been so enthralled with wildspace that he has not desire to see Krynn again.
Violetta (LG halfling female P4 of Celestian); Violetta is a flirtatious tallfellow halfling from the Tears of Selune. She arranged to marry the son of the mayor of her home shire, but she ran away to avoid a loveless marriage. She is fond of teasing student priests and loves dancing.
Silas Ellodan (CG elf male F7/P6 of Celestian); A cousin to Kiade Ellodan, a member of the Noble Council, Silas always loved to travel. Even when he was a child, he went on family trips to other spheres to pick up ale and wine for the family taverns. Silas used his family connections to ensure himself a student position at the College followed by an apprenticeship. Now he uses a family dragonfly for runs to new spheres in search of brand new wines and other spirits.
Tev (N human male F6); Caretaker in charge of keeping the College grounds clean and handle finances. When a priest returns, he badgers them about any discoveries they may have made and soliciting donations. What no one realizes is that he has been embezzling College funds into his own private accounts. Fortunately, he does not have access to the Vault, so he has not yet had a chance to drain the College of its most valuable assets.

Raw Recruits

The lowest echelons of the College are students and pupils that have joined to become priests of Celestian. The first three years of their studies revolve around learning math, astronomy, and poetry. After this period of learning the basics is completed, the young priest is assigned to an older priest to be an apprentice. The older priest imparts his knowledge and experiences to the pupil as they travel across wildspace together. After a period of about five years, the apprenticeship is over, and the young priest is ready to make his own way through wildspace.

Dinah (NG human female P1 of Celestian, Dex 16); Dianah was an orphan who's father was the Underbaron framed by Prince Andru for the murder of his brother. Just a child of nine months, Dinah was left at the College's steps by her mother, the Underbaron's mistress fleeing assassin blades. Dinah was raised by the priests but has no idea about her identity. Hester discovered the truth after some investigation, but quickly buried the information for Dinah's own safety. Dinah is a quiet young woman of just over 16 years who is unsure of her place in the universe.
Gawain (LG half-elf male F1/P1 of Celestian, Str 17); Gawain is just about ready for his graduation. This priest eagerly awaits his graduation and to get off the Rock. He is determined to see new spheres, and the whole reason he joined the College was to get off the Rock and into the bigger world. He is confident in his abilities as both a priest and a swordsman. Gawain favors the short sword and the spear.
Zeph (CG human male P1 of Celestian); Zeph is one of Windell's most steadfast followers. He is an arrogant young priest who eagerly awaits his apprenticeship. He is positive that he will be paired with Windell, though Adelard is against it because he fears the two would cause too much chaos together.
Cyril Cartan (NG human male P1 of Celestian); the youngest son of Diadan, Cyril had little choice in his joining the College. Diadan had promised his wife that her youngest child would be a priest. Of course, Diadan had expected Cyril to choose to serve Ares or perhaps Bane. He was infuriated when he learned that Cyril had joined the College, and all but disowned his son. Unfortunately, he did not specify which church Cyril was supposed to join, and to publicly disown his son would raise too many eyebrows. For his part, Cyril just wants to become a respected adventurer and traveler and found Celestian to be his calling. Cyril is a short man with a narrow beard and a smile that never leaves his face.

Methods and Activities

The College accepts students seeking to become priests and begins their education. About half of these prospective students fail entrance exams or wash out in their first year. The rest spend the next three years in classes and lectures. If the student makes it through this period of classes and learning, he is assigned to an experienced priest (at least 7th level or higher) for a five-year apprenticeship.

As many members are nobles, the College likes to throw celebrations. The uppermost floor of the College is an opulent ball-room with a marbled ceiling and a glass dome. Causes for celebration include the return of a ranking priest, graduation for students, and the discovery of a new sphere. The invitation list depends on how much importance the College puts on the event in question.

Most of the time, priests use the grounds as a meeting place to swap stories, brag about finding some new sphere, meet members of the opposite sex, and find a bed when the inns are full or to expensive. Just inside the main hall is a bulletin board where captains in search of helmsmen or otherwise in need of the priestly services pin up job opportunities. Opposite of it is another bulletin board for College use only, where priests can post poetry, messages, and their thoughts. Prankish students sometimes pin up pictures of attractive women in little or no clothing.

Abilities

On Bral and wildspace, priests of Celestian cast spells related to travel and movement as if they were one level higher. When using a spelljamming helm, they count as a priest one level higher. All priests have access to training in navigation, astrology, and planetolgy.

Resources

The College's greatest asset is its membership of priests. At any given time, about two dozen priests, mostly 0-to-1st level students, are found at the College. The College itself is an opulent building of learning, with brick walls, eloquent fresco works, and statues of Celestian from a half-dozen spheres. Rumors say that the College hides great treasures from a hundred spheres in its basements. In truth, the College does have some unusual treasures from far spheres, but truly valuable treasures are kept hidden in caches on remote asteroids. The College vault is protected by a trio of gorilla-shaped stone golems taken from Grommspace. The vault holds several magical bizarre magical items, coins from across the spheres, and many art objects.

Areas of Operation

Because of the far-traveling nature of the members, it could be said the all of the Known Spheres is the Areas of Operation for the College. In terms of actual influence, the College has little power beyond the City of Bral. It owns a handful of asteroids that were surveyed by its priests or were gifts from captains seeking favor. The College leases out these asteroids as a means of generating revenue to pay for maintenance costs. Some of the asteroids are of little value to the College, and left fallow.

Allies and Enemies

The College is quite popular in Bral. It offers a place to train and recruit helmsmen, and yet remains somewhat neutral in Bralian politics. It is on good standing with many of the Noble and Merchant Houses. If it has any enemies, the Church of Ptah might qualify. The two religions have a friendly rivalry, though with vastly superior resources and numbers the Church of Ptah gets the better of any serious altercations. The Ptahans used their influence with the Nobles Council to limit the size of the College's membership and the job opportunities they have with Bral's Navy. The College responded with pranks aimed at causing a stir in the streets, such as an infamous raid by student priests on a Ptahan monastery for women in the God's Marbles. The students were reprimanded but quietly congratulated for their ingenuity.

Status Quo

The College will continue training new priests for the foreseeable future. The College seeks to continue its stanch stance of neutrality in politics.