Temple of the Four Great Gods

Temple of the Four Great Gods, usually just the Temple (神殿), is the religious institution found across the cities and nations of the New World and above all in its northern countries. Its four gods are those of Fire, Water, Wind and Earth, with a body of minor deities beneath them. Its priests do more than praise: the temples serve as the New World's hospitals and its undertakers, hold a near monopoly on healing, and stand sworn against the undead, specializing in holy magic for healing and exorcism. Doctrine holds that a soul lingers in the body it leaves and is summoned away by the gods once the flesh begins to rot, so raising a corpse as undead counts as desecration. Burial is quick and closely supervised, preceded by the funerary Rite of Vigil. High Priests each administer their own demesne, and the Temple answers to no government, taking its income from the people it serves so that it need not.