Xen’drik is a hard land, and in the early days of Stormreach—before the Stormreach Compact and the arrival of House Jorasco—divine magic often meant the difference between life and death. Luckily for the sailors who followed the faith, priests of the Sovereign Host were on hand to help them . . . for a share of their ill-gotten gains. When the city was founded, a temple to the Sovereigns was established in the district of Forgelight, a location chosen for its security and its proximity to the fighting folk of Stormreach.
This temple is easily identified by the Octogram symbol above its gate. The icons within the temple depict the gods in draconic form, using the shapes described on pages 68–69 of the EBERRON Campaign Setting. Mosaics depict images of these dragons in battle with fiends. Even though the priests of the temple worship the Sovereigns, their faith is slightly different from the common tradition of the Five Nations; they follow a path known as the Church of the Wyrm Ascendant. According to this doctrine, the dragons are the children of Eberron and Siberys. Once they defeated the children of Khyber in the Age of Demons, the greatest among them were blessed by Eberron and Siberys and drawn up to the heavens to watch over all mortal creatures. The priests of the Wyrm Ascendant are fascinated by dragons and seek to acquire artifacts and relics—magical and otherwise—related to dragons. One of the ways in which church doctrine differs from the faith of the Five Nations concerns the afterlife. The priests of the Wyrm believe that those who serve the Sovereigns and build a hoard can literally buy their way into the heavens, joining the Sovereigns on a transcendent plane as heavenly dragons.
In practice, there is little difference between the rituals of the Wyrm Ascendant and the common faith of the Sovereigns. The priests invoke the Sovereigns by their traditional names, and while they speak of ascension and depict their gods as dragons, little about the faith is truly alarming; a warrior who has scant knowledge of religion could sit through a service and not realize that anything was amiss. Clerics use the traditional domains and favored weapons. One obvious difference, however, is the greed of the priests. Graft and avarice are accepted values of the Wyrm Ascendant, since every dragon must have his hoard. Provided that they share their gains with the church coffers, it’s taken for granted that priests capable of casting divine magic perform their miracles in exchange for gold or treasures. There is no set rate for this; the costs from the Player’s Handbook can be used as a guideline, but a priest can always choose to charge more if the customer can afford it. This isn’t a business—it is a holy tradition of the Wyrm Ascendant. People in need of healing are better served by the Jorasco enclave, but other clerical services can be bought at the temple if the price is right.
Powerful priests are rare in Stormreach, but the church of the Wyrm Ascendant has always produced strong spellcasters. The high priest of the temple is Maru Sakhesh (NE male human cleric 10), and his chief acolytes are Cael Duryn (NG male elf adept 8) and Tania Drake (NE female human cleric 6). Sakhesh is a cruel but charismatic man, and he has brought a considerable fortune to the temple coffers during his tenure. He was killed by a band of adventurers in 997 YK, but the Jorasco healers were able to raise him from the dead; since that incident, he tends to be somewhat suspicious of wanderers. Cael Duryn is the kindest of the priests, though he still believes in the doctrine that miracles have their price. Tania Drake is young for a cleric but has displayed remarkable talent; she is ambitious and hopes to replace Sakhesh as high priest once her powers have grown. To this end, she is very interested in recovering draconic artifacts from the wilds of Xen’drik. She has conducted extensive research into the giant–dragon war, and she could be a valuable—if unscrupulous— ally for adventurers.
The primary temple of the Sovereign Host is dedicated to the Wyrm Ascendant, but shrines to both the Sovereigns and the Dark Six are scattered throughout Temple Row and across the city, in forms both traditional and untraditional. Maru Sakhesh is the highestlevel divine spellcaster willing to sell his services, but there might be a few adepts hidden among the experts and commoners who populate Temple Row.