Editing Sigil:Temple Wars (section)

== When Faith Became Property ==

The most dangerous phase began when growing Triadic influence collided with institutions that already possessed land, money, legal privilege, and inherited authority. A new Ardisian hospice might be welcomed until it received the tax exemption once granted to an older temple. A Vannimari school might become controversial when local records began to be kept by Triadic scribes rather than hereditary temple clerks. An Inglorian court might be praised for fair judgments until it claimed authority over disputes previously decided by an older priesthood.

At that point, questions of belief became inseparable from questions of jurisdiction.

Who owned the mill?

Who appointed the judge?

Who collected burial fees?

Whose oath was legally binding?

Which sanctuary controlled the market square?

Who kept the archives?

Who taught the children of the local nobility?

Such questions could produce violence even when everyone involved agreed that the Powers were real.

This is one reason the Temple Wars so rarely resemble later religious wars in which one side denies the truth of another side's gods. The disputes were usually not about whether a Power existed. They were about who possessed authority in that Power's name, whether an institution deserved its privileges, and what should happen when an old religious office no longer matched a changing political world.