Breaker of Chains
- Intent: To flesh out the priesthood of Wonosa for future endeavors.
- Image Credit: Top image found Here, symbol cobbled together by me.
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Order of Wonosa, Kissai, Kotsûshatul Itsu
- Organization Name: Priesthood of Wonosa, Kissai of Wonosa, Wonosan Priesthood, Wonosan Kissai
- Classification: Religious Leadership
- Affiliation: Sith Order
- Organization Symbol:
- Description: The backbone of the Order of Wonosa, the Kissai serve as spiritual leaders and at times even powerful practitioners of Sith Sorcery. They are wise and studied in the long history of the Sith, even going so far as to revere certain Sith as icons of the Dark Side and divinely inspired by it. Being the main teachers of the Kotsûshatul Itsu most of them hold a rather fanatical and zealous disposition, even if they aren't prone to being out in the field of conflicts.
- Headquarters: Faldos
- Domain: Faldos serves as the main world under the influence of the Kissai, although several enclaves and outposts across the Outer Rim also adhere to their leadership and will often have lower ranking priests stationed there to act as guides and teachers. To the average citizen under their care they are wise and caring men and women of faith that are always willing to provide an ear to troubles and advice to the troubled, with them being very active and engaging with the populace that they are assigned to watch over.
- Notable Assets: Bailiff Station
- Hierarchy:
- Council of Bogan
- High Kissai
- Exarch/Hierarch
- Hierophant/Deacon
- Prelate/Sect Leader
- Priest
- Tyro
- Membership: There are roughly three to four hundred members of the priesthood in total, although new initiates into the faith are always being scouted for potential priesthood potential so this number should steadily climb as it has been so far. To be offered the chance of membership into the Kissai there are a few qualifications and traits that must be present within an individual, while these vary somewhat in general a Priest is expected to be clever and wise beyond their years as well as communal and active within their local area. Force Sensitivity is not a requirement but it does certainly help narrow down candidates if one is blessed and another isn't. Typically a Sect Leader will be the one to recognize such qualities and offer the chance of initiation. Tyro is the first rank granted once initiation is a complete, a process involving some minor ritual tattooing but mostly study and tutoring by their Sect Leader and fellow priests. OOCly: Just ask me pretty much lol.
- Climate: The climate of the Kissai is one of mutual respect and hierarchical adherence yet with somewhat constant scrutiny as well. Personal ambition and pride are seen as less than favorable for a priest to possess and as such those that do wish to rise in the ranks whether for the good of all or just the good of themselves must measure and temper themselves against their peers. In general it is cordial and professional but more than once has a Sect Leader or even a Bishop been ousted by their lessers when their advice and faith grew weak and feeble. True to the Sith way only the strongest will prosper, the strongest in faith and capability.
- Reputation: To those that regularly engage with the Kissai and especially those that live beneath their purview, they are known as wise and caring spiritual guides. To Sith they are either religious fools or strange and misguided occultists, depending on how positive of an opinion one has of them. To those aligned against them and their cult however, they are terrifyingly pitiless beings that are just as likely to order you impaled for all to see as they are to drag you into some dungeon and sacrifice you to their dark god.
- Curios: The Kissai sport numerous curious and items that denote their status as they rise through the ranks and grow in their own personal spiritual journey, but the most common are tattoos and amulets that are most often in the shape of their symbol. Prayer books, tomes of ancient Sith lore, various Sith trinkets and jewelry, are also fairly commonly dispersed. Most notable for higher ranking Priests however, from Deacon onwards, are masks. At first these masks are simple sheets of darkened and alchemized Durasteel, featureless and blank, but over time and especially with promotions these masks will be reforged and have additions that represent personal steps or revelations in their journeys. The highest of the Priests, the Bogan Council, all possess the most unique and ornate masks that are very far removed from the original blank one but with a careful eye one can glimpse at the simple Durasteel hiding beneath the adornments.
- Rules: The Kotsûshatul Itsu serves as the primary set of rules and beliefs of the Kissai but in addition to these principles and the Sith Code they also possess certain organizational and professional ones. For example, serving their community is their highest priority and as such they can never turn down a confession nor can they refuse to perform a ritual or hold prayer on someone's behalf. Even for those not of the faith.
- Goals: The goals of the Kissai have shifted somewhat, initially being just meant to keep watch over the followers of Darth Strosius and instruct them of the Sith and the Dark Side. Over time however, as the cult grew and the goals of its founder shifted, so too did the Priests become recruiters and moral guides as well as simple teachers. They were given the task of inducting new members into the cult, not unlike what they had done before, but this time on a massive scale as the Order of Wonosa began cementing itself in the Outer Rim. At present they are the single most influential organization within the Order, commanding the respect of even the highest military and Sith in their ranks simply due to their effect on the cult around them. With this influence, and the death of their founder, they seek to uphold his vision of a galaxy of Sith united beneath the sign of the broken chains. Beneath Wonosa.
Darth Strosius -Prophet of Bogan, Founder
Salneva Limont -Bogan Councilor of Formos
Maximilian Thalassis -Bogan Councilor of Kesh
Revna Marr -Disciple of Faith, Honorary High Kissai
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Priesthood of Wonosa began with a Moonlit Sermon by then Acolyte Darth Strosius, formed from a handful of those most interested in the Sith ways and philosophies that the young man spoke to them of. Their numbers steadily grew alongside the wider Order of Wonosa, always forming the integral backbone that kept the faithful safe and enlightened even when their High Priest was away from them. This would be the role they served up to and even after the Exodus from Dromund Kaas and the Tenth Sith Empire's fall, albeit now some more clerical duties fell within their assignments as well as spiritual ones.
When the Formos Dresuoti was established however, their tasks grew and evolved as well. Taming Formos was the first step, giving their people and faith a homeland now that Dromund Kaas and the rest of the Old Sith Worlds were lost to them, but additionally they would be the ones to aid in the rescue and liberation of slaves that the Order began to arrange. It would be they that greeted the huddled enslaved masses and told them of their freedom, they who would offer them food and clothes and baths so that they could step into their new lives free from the lifetime of suffering and chains that they had endured beforehand. They who would convince these vulnerable masses that their saviors, the Order of Wonosa, would be their best home and that they should do all that they could to help maintain and grow it so that one day none would ever suffer enslavement ever again.
They dutifully served their High Priest and as the cult and their own ranks grew they became more complex, evolving from simple priests to having a hierarchy all of their own to keep themselves accountable and distribute their works as was needed. All overseen and directed by their founder of course, his authority was ultimate and unquestionable and all Kissai knew firsthand that the tender and wise words of Darth Strosius could just as easily be shifted into vicious daggers should they drift from their duties or falter in their faith. He expected them to be the best examples possible for the cultists they guided and anything less than total devotion to the faith was seen as the most grievous of sins.
When Darth Strosius died however, everything changed.
The Bogan Council, the highest ranking and most powerful of the Kissai, instantly assumed a role of leadership but even with their sway and influence they couldn't claim all of Wonoa for themselves. The military branch of Wonosa and the Inquisition would reluctantly follow their lead for the most part, so long as their own highest authorities were considered equal to the Council for important decisions and matters. Many sects in the Outer Rim and even some at home denied their interim rule however, asserting that Darth Strosius was the only Sith and authority that truly mattered.
While these were technically schisms of a sort, it wasn't on principle or ideology that these disagreements came from but rather the nature of their mission going forward. The Council of Bogan and the vast majority of the Priesthood wanted to pull all Wonosan assets and forces back to Faldos to plan their future but the scattered sects argued that their master's orders and instructions were clear even in death. They knew exactly what he wanted of them, to spread the faith and end tyranny as well as cast down the scum and villainy of the galaxy. So while technically these sects ignored the orders of their peers and superiors, they were very much still considered to be Kissai by both themselves and the main church on Faldos.
How these divisions and disagreements would effect the future of their Order is something that only time can tell however.
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