Rikto Jaan, herself a cleric of the Order, certainly felt betrayed by her faith. She had spent long and dreary years ministering to a miserable little thorp near Nevuchar Springs, struggling to keep the people's faith in spite of her order's ill reputation ... and it had been all for nothing!
Disillusioned and unable to muster even an orison, Rikto abandoned her shrine and set out into the world in search of a spiritual truth she could rely on. She traveled to all four Sees of the faith of Ezra; she visited the temple of the Overseer; she accepted instruction in the faith of the Lawgiver in both Hazlan and Nova Vaasa; she spent time in the temples of the Morninglord in Barovia and Gundarak; she collected whispered catechism of the Wolf God in Verbrek and crept through Tepest to learn the word of Belenus. She spoke with any and all Outlanders she could find about their faiths.
And none of these beliefs spoke to her in the least.
Finally, a decade after she first set out, Rikto Jaan returned to Darkon. She meditated while seated upon the roots of the Nevuchar Shrine, resolved to make this last attempt to find spiritual peace ... or else hurl herself into the ocean and find peace in death.
With the mighty life and magic of the Shrine pulsing around her and her deathly weariness inside, Rikto meditated on her life, the journey she had undertaken, and what she believed had been the wasted years of her youth. And in her meditation she came to an epiphany; her first faith had not been meaningless, it had simply been misdirected.
Life and Death had not changed. They were still there, as they had always been.
Death would come, inevitably, so why fear it? If death so desired life, then life was a prize to be treasured and cultivated until one's final breath. The truths of her youth were still there, Rikto had merely needed to see them with fresh eyes. And had her journey not taught her a marvelous new perspective?
To the affront of the Elves attending the Shrine, Rikto Jaan arose laughing and departed the site of the tree nearly dancing. She returned to the thorp where her journey for fulfillment began and reopened its temple, to the initial chagrin of the villagers. They were amazed by the difference in their once-gloomy priestess once services began anew, however; for every paean to the dead, Rikto Jaan sang a paean to life. Instead of shedding blood upon the altar, she poured wine for her congregation. While exhorting the faithful to honour the dead, she also encouraged them to enjoy life while it was theirs, and preached for them to make peace with their ancestors instead of fearing them, for were they not family? Would they not be gathered to their bosom in the fullness of time?
If the Eternal Order still had a centralized leadership, Rikto would probably have been persecuted for heresy. As matters stand, she has little to fear from those who supposedly share her faith. If anything, she has more to worry about from the proximity of Theodorus Raines and his Zealots.
A transformed person, Rikto has made it her mission to invigorate the people of Darkon by reconciling them with their mortality and comforting the bereaved, as well as guiding them to live full and radiant lives so they can tell their ancestors and other loved ones about them when they enter the Grey Realm. Her village shrine may still be dark and lugubrious on the outside, but it is now a house of healing - and even teaching, as Rikto's new style of preaching has brought her acolytes, some of whom have set off to make journeys of their own, following in their mentor's footsteps and seeking to spread the new creed.
Dread Possibility: The New Order
Rikto does not realize that rather than finding a fresh perspective on her faith, she has instead developed a completely new one.
The New Order's alignment is True Neutral, and has the domains Community, Healing, Knowledge and Repose. Its favoured weapon is the scythe. Its dogma is as Rikto has concluded: Death is inevitable, but Life is a priceless treasure. Honour the dead, but preserve the living.
Rikto herself has the Knowledge and Repose domains, just as she did when she still followed the official teachings of the Eternal Order, but it is only a matter of time before one of her acolytes taps Community or Healing.
It is anyone's guess what the reaction of Darkon's other faiths will be once it becomes common knowledge that the New Order is a new faith, which is actively proselytizing -- and which is much better received than the Eternal Order ever was.
Worse yet, who can say how Azalin will react once the New Order finally catches his attention...?
