Temples of New Gork

The religious institutions of New Gork are tightly interwoven. With the primary temples established based on domain rather than god or pantheon, the followers of one god often appear in several temples. While at times this has created minor animosity due to disagreements about religious interpretation, for the most part it has created a stronger network for the temples to communicate, collaborate, and assist each other with major problems.

Due to the variety of religion within each temple, it's rare for a temple to have a single high priest (or similarly ranking figure). Instead, most temples will have several such people, who are responsible for communicating with each other to establish times of worship, service, and celebration.

Arcana
A simple, domed building located toward the west of the temple district, the Arcana Temple is best known by the general populace as being home to New Gork's observatory. Most days of the week, this observatory is open to the public; donations are recommended, but not required. There are always clerics staffing the area to help visitors.

Door
The Door Temple is a renovated house with a short, one-room tower on top of it. The room is just large enough to support four standard door frames, one in each cardinal direction, and a trap door on each of the floor and ceiling. The temple is well known for holding one of New Gork's biggest annual New Year's celebrations, during which attendees share their resolutions for the coming year, as well as what they'd like to leave behind in the going year.

Forge
Home to New Gork's largest public makerspace, the Forge Temple looks more like a forge than a temple. The makerspace is free for public use, though users must bring their own materials, with a few simple exceptions like thread and cloth scraps. Throughout the year, but especially during the summer, the temple partners with the city's prominent artificers to offer crafting camps to children and teenagers. Adults can also sign up for longer-term crafting classes, from beginner to expert.

Grave
Below the temple proper lies New Gork's primary morgue. It often falls to the clerics of this temple to attend the bodies, prepare them for funeral rites, and alert families that their loved ones have passed if there is no one else to do so. The temple itself is one of the most pristine places in New Gork, kept clean and dry to better preserve the dead. It's surrounded by gardens in which all manner of useful herbs are grown. Though this isn't widely known to the public, many followers of the temple's gods choose to be buried in this still-expanding garden, their bodies fertilizing the herbs for future generations.

Knowledge
As might be expected, the Knowledge Temple is home to New Gork's secondary library. Nearly any religious text ever written can be found there, alongside a wealth of books on history, magic, and the world as a whole. In addition, in the aftermath of the Seeker's attack in 2345, the temple established a printing press. The primary goal of this was to be able to quickly replicate books, so that there was no longer a risk of losing one-of-a-kind texts. The temple offers free classes on how to use the printing press, as well as an accompanying bookbinding workshop.

Life
The main room of the Life Temple is spacious and filled with lightweight furniture. This furniture is often moved to make room for the temple to host dances. Many of the temple's clerics offer counseling services in the back rooms. Outside the temple is an orchard, and though it's technically not part of the temple, it's become a rite of passage for new clerics to bring and plant a new edible crop there.

Light
Made of stone that looks older than it is, the Light Temple is full of stained glass windows—some of the symbols of gods, some of important scenes from myth and legend, and some simply of stunning designs. No matter the time of day or night, light shines through these windows at just the right angle to echo the designs on the floor of the temple. In the back, the temple's accomplished glassblowers create smaller stained glass pieces which the clerics use their frequent light shows, plays, and storytellings.

Nature
Located in the center of the temple district, the Nature Temple is a mostly-outdoor sprawling arboretum and botanical garden. The central area has a glass enclosure often used for services, though, weather permitting, most of the panes can be opened to let in fresh air. The area is always open to the public.

Order
From the outside, the Order Temple looks fairly standard. Like the Knowledge Temple, however, it's home to a sizable library, filled with legal texts, codes, and history from all across the known world. The clerics of this temple often step in as lawyers when needed.

Tempest
The Tempest Temple is half outdoor, half indoor. It's home to a lush courtyard with a central pond, as well as a stunning indoor waterfall. The top floor of the temple is a hectic, cluttered space full of strange odds and ends, some of which seem likely to have some arcane purpose, some of which seem unlikely to have any purpose at all. This floor is the main hub of the temple's magic storm prediction initiative. The temple has been working to set up outposts further into the jungle to gather better data and has managed to make a few dozen miles' headway.

Trickery
It's been said that getting inside the Trickery Temple involves six riddles, three pranks, the worst dad joke anyone's ever told, and a wild glomorphious snake from the eastern tundra of the continent, among other things. The list changes wildly and often. (The "glomorphious snake," for example, does not, in fact, exist, having been one of the many tall tales assumed to be the work of the temple's clerics.)

The temple itself is a lively place, with games, pranks, and music all in abundance. It's all in good fun, and the clerics are careful that times of serious worship aren't interrupted. The temple is spacious, and will often provide food and lodging for the weary traveler...if they can find it.

War
Besides the Nature Temple, the War Temple is perhaps the largest temple in New Gork. The worship space itself is of relatively standard size, and feels almost like a hunting lodge, with antlers mounted on the walls and a taxidermy workshop in the back. However, it's also home to several indoor and outdoor arenas, from huge running tracks to slightly smaller chess rooms. The largest of these chess rooms has the board tiled into the floor, and clerics and visitors often play friendly—though not always harmless—games of humanoid chess.