[District] The Temple District

Shriner's Street

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Hatchet Highbinder: I sooo think there should be guys wearing Fez on little carts pulled by tiny little ponies riding up and down Shrine Street

The gods who do not have a temple within the City of Remia instead have space reserved for them on the Street of Shrines, Remia's central gathering place for faiths who do not keep a Temple in the city. The street teems with worshippers and clerics of no less than fifteen religions, including at least a few that have been invented within the last week, preached by mad "Holy Men" or cunning swindlers (a difference too often difficult to ascertain). People come here to pray to the rest of the pantheon, as well as the few crackpot religions that pop up every so often. For example, the Gods of the Non-Human races, such as Urukuan, as well as more esoteric religions.

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The Following Gods and their religions have a shrine on Shrine Street.

Artemis
Demeter
Hecate
Vulcan
Hercules
Hermes
Hestia
Nike
Tyche
Uruakan

Remia began as a primarily human city, and through out its history humans who subscribe to the pantheon have dominated the city's destiny. Other religions have been brushed aside, relegated to secondary or even tertiary status in the city's sociopolitical environment. Several of the major Gods have temples devoted to them in the Temple District, but most other religious representation is lucky to occupy a rickety stall.
The face of the street has changed thousands of times over the years. Religions come and go - some lasting centuries, some lasting days - and only a few have actually occupied the same facilities continuously since their inception, such as Hades.
Every time a space opens up on the Street, another religion pops up, sometimes on the same day to fill it. Since there is no formal process for establishing a new church, anyone with any theology to expound upon can pick out an empty patch of street and begin haranguing passersby. Those with any popularity survive to do it again the next day; the not-so-popular ones tend to get pelted with rotten vegetables and handfuls of dirt.

The Temple of Zeus

When most people think of a Remian temple, the temple they most often picture is the Temple of Zeus. In Remia, the Temple dedicated to the Father of the Gods is the very model of architecture that gives Remia it's unique style. The whole structure is built around the massive Statue of Zeus.

Both the statue and Temple walls are built atop a huge slab of perfectly flat marble that serves as the foundation. Great columns that stand 18 meters high and 3 meters wide are staggered along the base of the Temples Roof, held up by two great Triglyphs at each end of the length of the temple. The Metopes of the great temple have elaborate sculptures depicting various stories of Zeus and Remia, including the battle with the Titans.

Inside, the temple is cavernous, though there are no walls. The staggered formation of columns is how the wind and other elements are kept to a minimum within the Temple itself.

The statue itself, a fifteen foot tall image of a seated Zeus, occupies the center of the temple built to house it. Called one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it is carved from a single piece of marble and decorated with ivory and gold, and decorated with shoots of olive and seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony, and precious stones. The gilded throne itself is a wonder, as it is built under the seated Zeus and manages to hold up the heavy marvel statue. In Zeus' right hand is a smaller statue of Nike made of chryselephantine, and in his left hand, a sceptre inlaid with metals, on which an eagle is perched, along with the letters 'SPQR'. It is said that the chair upon which the statue sits was once used by Zeus as he councilled the early rulers of Remia.

Before the great statue of Zeus is a Great Altar at which the priests of Zeus perform their rights. The Thunderbolt symbol of Zeus is decaorated over this altar, as well as other depictions of the Father of the Gods, included the geese.

At the top of the church heirarchy is the High Priest. The High Priest in Remia is also recognized as the high priest of the entire church, and as such, the clergy of Zeus in other cities and towns take their cues from what occurs in Remia.

The High priest is supported by a number of assistants who are almost uniformly drawn from the ranks of the temple's clerics, joined by the occasional layman (themselves sometimes adepts). The duties of the assistants range from secretarial roles to bath and wardrobe assistants, depending on each assistant's particular skills.

Directly beneath the High Priests in the hierarchy are a number of clerics, sometimes referred to as bishops. These individuals oversee the day-to-day operations of the temple, acting as the high priest's advisors on matters involving the congregation and the physical maintenance of the temple buildings and grounds.

The bulk of the rest of the church of Zeus consists of numerous laymen. These people are responsible for assisting the priests, maintaining the tmple and it's grounds, and carrying out tasks from copying religious texts to tending to the cooking, cleaning, and laundering. Most are needed to provide physical labor as well, when the temple requires it. The most common of such duties are the rearrangement of the tables and seats in the chapel to facilitate various activities.

The rest of the staff are craftsmen who provide a variety of services for the temple in exchange for some dispensation: carpenters, jewelers, candle makers, and so on. Depending on the value of the services provided, dispensation can range from occasional gratis spellcasting to more or less permanent lodgings in the city or nearby.

Most of the temple staff live in a dormitory nearby. Others dwell in crofts outside the city walls, where they are responsible for activities that cannot easily be performed inside the city, such as maintaining relationships with the local farms and vineyards.