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The Church of Ahlrigh
While the Athyrians and the Celestian Heliae are crusading orders, knights riding out to do personal battle against the forces of evil, the third member of the so-called "Three Holy Temples," the Ahlrighans, prefer to operate within the web of politics and justice, intertwined with state institutions. The Church of Ahlrigh has a stern code of laws that they insist that all dominions enact. Those that do receive tangible benefits--the Ahlrighans place their prayers at the disposal of the lord, and their priests function as a judicial system, which can save enormous expenses for a mid-sized domain. Those that refuse to endorse the Ahlrighan Code, perhaps more importantly, are targeted by the Ahrlighan church.
The Church of Ahlrigh reserves for itself the power to declare a war "just." A lord whose war is so blessed receives not only the direct help of Ahlrighan priests on the battlefield, but also the invaluable political assistance of having their war sanctioned by a moral authority. Many a noble has defied the Ahlrighan church, only to find that all his neighbors take advantage of Ahlrigh's blessing to join the war and carve up his territory amongst them.
In practice, of course, the reality is not so simple. While all Ahlrighans are nominally loyal to the Supreme Arbiter in the ancient city of Otessa, each country's priests exercise a large degree of autonomy. Many wars are in fact sanctioned on both sides by different branches of the Ahlrighan church. This disunity is a perpetual target of successive Supreme Arbiters, with mixed success.
Another key function of the Ahlrighan church is to sanction kings. Most nobles will seek Ahlrighan annointment for their position, but this is just a political move. For those annointed as kings, however, the annointment means so much more. Because Ahlrigh is the King of the Gods, he gives temporal leaders on earth his direct blessing. One annointed "king" by the Ahlrighans receives divine gifts--immunity to mind-manipulation spells and effects, resistance to many poisons and diseases, and some limited healing powers. Nothing that lifts the kings above ordinary mortals, but far more than most non-magical humans could hope to attain. This explains partly why decayed, powerless shells of kingdoms are fought over so furiously--there are direct benefits to the noble who can persuade the Ahrlighans that he is the rightful king of an established kingdom.
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