I've been crunching throught he Orthoe PDF resolving some of the lingering discontinuities and questions, rearranging the chapters to something sensible based on the new information in them, and generally cleaning up the large swatches of commentary that were copied and pasted in for review later.
And then I saw it: The gaping hole in our writeup.
Which is to say I have no listings of the leaders of the temples of the Lords of Order. No mention of the temples, how they're organized or the current heads of them. There's information on a meta-level of temple organization, which is how gods outside the original pantheon are adopted for legitimate worship on Ortho - but nothing about who the decision makers in those cases are. I'm looking for information that will focus closely on just the legitimate church organization in this case - much like how we had the listing of ministries and departments.
The Cadence Magisterium
Religious unity has always been one of the Harmonium's chief goals and managing that unity has always been something of a severe issue amongst them. Even normally normal and law abiding Harmonium citizens can become radicalized by actions taken against the faith. Worse, persecution of divergent thinking men of faith often results in martyrs that can swiftly spread into full-scale uprisings as opposed to the relatively isolated nature of criminal behavior. Nevertheless, the idea of religious freedom never really entered into the minds of the Harmonium's founders and the Cadence Magisterium was created with the cooperation of the largest faiths devoted to the Lords of Order.
The Magisterium is one of the most powerful organizations on Ortho but it is also surprisingly unpopular with the average member of the citizenry. Rather unfairly, the Magisterium has been blamed by hardliners for being too lenient with new faiths while liberals view it as unnecessarilly harsh on religions that still carry the views of Harmony. Most of Ortho's populous are fairly religious and have no problems with the gods themselves but tend to look on with disdain to the hierarchy that seems to bend over backwards in the service of the OCA. This popular perception is untrue but still wildly held. This doesn't prevent it from exerting a powerful role in determining what is taught and practiced in the various state sponsored temples of the realm.
As a general note, the Cadence Magisterium is ostensibly independent from the OCA. While the Harmonium considers the idea of separation of Church and State a silly idea in theory, they've found no way to actually make it work in practice. Both sides simply believe the other should be submissive to the other and the populous starts to object whenever such moves are voiced. Instead, an uneasy balance exists between them. The Cadence Magisterium exerts considerable moral and social pressure on the OCA while the government attempts to influence decisions from the Church with secular methods. Currently, the OCA tends to have a far stronger hold on the Church than the reverse but this may not last forever and has been the reverse in the past.
The Anthem Magistars
The Anthem Magistars are a Council of Eight that heads the worship of the major religions on Ortho. On occasion, they elect an Magistar Emperor who has theoretical leadership of the entire Magisterium. This has only been done on seven occasions in the Magisterium's history due to the fact that none of the religious leaders particularly like submitting their authority under the auspices of another church's faithful. Despite six hundred years of being united, the eight Lords of Order remain entirely separate in their religious orders. Only small communities have churches devoted to the entire pantheon instead of separate ones for each individual god and this is something that the OCA would like to see rectified.
The current collection of Magistars is viewed as a mostly conservative bunch that is eager to stamp out the spread of new religions on Ortho and preserve doctrinal orthodoxy. They have released numerous missives to the populous condemning the rise of Saint Cuthbert's worship and reiterating the long debated policy that all true gods are simply aspects of The Lords of Order. Several university professors and planar travelers have been excommunicated, a vertible death sentence for all fields, for attempting to forward ideas contrary to this notion.
Membership
Mikail Delacross (LE Human Male Cleric 12 of Didairdin)
Mikail Delacross is the unofficial chairman of the Magisters and a former member of the Lower House. He has been viewed as something of a reformer for his secular dress and easy going manner. In truth, this is quite the opposite as he is a hard driven fanatic that desires to reverse what he views as doctrinal compromises in church doctrine. It is his ultimate goal to restore Didairdin's place as a God of War rather than just Protection. He has no tolerance for foreign faiths and also wishes to create a genuine church controlled army separate from the Harmonium. He also wishes this army to have the authority to persecute religious deviants. It is unlikely he'll achieve this in his lifetime but is quite content to set the ground work for future zealots to achieve it.
Ezra Stonemason (LN Orc Female Cleric of Iathipos 15)
Ezra Stonemason is the oldest member of the Anthem Magistars, drawing extra long life from an amulet that was a gift from her god. Over three hundred years old, Ezra is a living encyclopedia for church law and precedents of Iathiphos and other divinities on Ortho. Honestly, despite her tremendous knowledge, she's a woman with almost no motivation of her own. Ezra primarily exists to provide the other Anthem members with legal precedents in order to carry out their decisions. How her knowledge is used is ultimately less important to her than simply the satisfaction of putting it to use.
Hope (LG Human Female Cleric of Rialondru 13)
Hope is the sister of Faith, the current Factol of the Planar Harmonium. She is the recent replacement for Magistar Credo, whom was assassinated in an act of anarchist violence. Hope is fairly liberal for a tremendously high ranking member of the Church and very young for her age. She has a deep and bitter dislike for Mikail Delacros despite agreeing with him that the Magisterium's authority should be expanded. Hope's biggest problem is that she increasingly believes that it is wrong to persecute faiths that are able to live up to the Harmonium's ideals and knows that will never be accepted amongst the current Anthem leadership.
Valenthonos (CE Beholder Cleric of Alzrius 4)
Valenthonos is widely viewed as the 'go to man' on the Council to take care of problems that the OCA is too slow to deal with. Only a few of the Council members knows that his methods involve assassination, blackmail, brainwashing, bribery, enchantment, kidnapping, sabotage, and torture. Valenthonos holds influences over numerous Ministries dealing with the occult and supernatural that the church believes should be rightfully under their sway. Also, he's widely held to be one of the most respected Beholders currently alive.
The fact he is not, actually, a worshiper of Alae the Lord of Peace and Harmony but a cultist of the Lord of Brands has so far escaped the previous Anthem councilors he's worked with. Valenthonos considers it his duty to keep the Magisterium focused on stamping out other faiths and avoiding investigating 'ridiculous' rumors of Alzrius worship in high places.
Virgo St. Dumya (LG Tiefling Male Paladin 17)
Virgo is something of a disgrace to the Anthem hierarchy and a person that the other seven would dearly like to see replaced but the simple fact is that they're afraid the religion would send someone even worse. Virgo is an immensely popular folk hero and someone primarily promoted to the top of the Magisterium due to the fact he slew literally hundreds of demons during his time as a Planar Harmonium member.
The current leader of Tyerusus' faith hates attending meetings and mostly argues that the Harmonium should be more militant against evil religions abroad rather than doctrinal dissenters. Virgo has several children by various wives and is considered something of a ladies man, a fact that would be scandalous if not for his outstanding military record. Occasionally, Virgo will send his proxy to meetings so that he can go adventure against evils abroad.
Zor Zalanthos (LE Dwarf Male Priest of Ina Cleric 9)
Zor Zalanthos is a Motmurk prole who escaped the backbreaking labor and depressing nature of his home province by entering the Church. Zor is surprisingly banal in his career record with no outstanding achievements or failures to distinguish an otherwise unremarkable career. Zor primarily achieved his current rank by outliving most of the previous holders and being an unobjectionable compromise candidate in a heavily contested election amongst Ina's high priests. Zor's ascension has not gone quite so smoothly though as Mikail's passionate rhetoric has inspired him out of his complacency. Zor has developed a burning desire to forge his mark on the world by destroying the Church of Saint Cuthbert's influence on Ortho and has even gone so far as arrange attacks on members through intermediaries.
Miyu Chantia (LE Human Female Blackguard of Saeduenical 12/Fighter 2)
Miyu is, amongst Ortho's colony worlds, known as "The Red Butcher." The list of crimes that were conducted by Miyu in the name of converting others to the Lords of Order are so vast and horrendous that it is difficult to imagine that the Nine Hells have not prepared a special spot for her in Nessus. The Shoryku woman's promotion to the Anthem Magistars has struck many as an outrage. However, Miyu maintains the general support of her church and provides an interesting ally to Mikail. Miyu suggests numerous radical proposes on a daily basis, knowing they will fail, but allows the Chairman to get away with otherwise controversial ones by sliding them in under the opposition to Magistar Chantia's proposals. The two are actually lovers and the firmest of allies in promoting doctrinal unity.
Aria St. Dumya (NG Human Female Bard 14)
Aria is one of Virgo St. Dumya's many children and her relationship to that figure actually helped her move up through the church hierarchy. Actually born in the Ortho colony of Fortitude rather than on Ortho proper, she was educated in the bardic traditions of other worlds rather than strict Baelae methodology. Aria finds herself a poor match for the Magistars and mostly has been following the lead of the other members in voting. Aria is an example of an over promoted member of the Magisterium and would dearly just love to return to singing.