The Kisharite cult known today as The Anointed previously coalesced in Ren Shaar during a tumultuous famine, which marked the year 1191 PD as one of the darkest.
Like most Kisharite parishes, the priesthood was small but typically retained a large following of farmers and gardeners: the kind of people who suffer directly from famines. Afraid that this base of supporters could be roused to revolt by their religious leaders, the Katagian invaders abducted the original priesthood and strategically “cut the head of the snake.”
After the Bloody Revel drove the Katagians out of Ren Shaar, an affluent olive and wine company called "The Anointed" (a favorite of the hard-drinking King Hadar) was appointed to the city's Kisharite priesthood and thus filled a convenient power vacuum left in the wake of the invasion. While this appointment was supported by the local vignerons, it also caused many peasant farmers to dissociate with this new cult claiming to represent their beloved goddess of grain.
The Anointed cult is arguably a constituent of Ren Shaar's powerful merchant class. The bulk of their green-cloaked manpower, agency, and funds are granted by their friends in high places; this ostensibly explains how the cult managed to reign over the slum-dwelling inhabitants of the Shadow district. The city's working poor make up the largest caste usually at odds with the mercantile elite; perhaps the Anointed are providing the food, faith, and hard labor that has kept them in line for so long.
The puzzling mystery to this day is, after such a terrible famine, how are The Anointed even getting enough food to feed the Shadow? Many believe it is Kishar's blessing or some other miracle, but the truth must be more complicated...