Hierarch is the highest ranking person in a priestly hierarchy. Chosen by electoral colleges, they are tasked with, among others, overseeing the peaceful relation between priesthoods of the Nordling Pantheon's myriad deities, serving as mediators between the clergy and the monarchs, and helping with the organization and funding of new temples in areas of their care.
While officially each hierarch is equal in importance, in practice most esteem was tied to the five hierarchs close to seats of power in Cintra and each of the Four Kingdoms,[1][N 1] with His Holiness Hierarch of Novigrad traditionally chosen as a mediator during the various disputes between conflicted Nordling kings.[1][2][3]
The initially ecumenical model of hierarchship was gradually falling out of favor throughout the 13th century as supposedly impartial hierarchs had started to pick favorites from the pantheon. Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart, elected as Hierarch of Novigrad in early 1250s, chose Eternal Fire as a force to lead the hearts of his flock and promoted its worship with the help of Chappelle, Novigrad's Chancellor of Security. In Kaedwen, Ard Carraigh's hierarch Krevenic Hengist Pikker started promoting Kreve, the heavenly god of expansion, in order to justify King Henselts conquests.[1] The authorities of hierarchs and clerical councils were being challenged from the bottom as well, as many followers of Prophet Lebioda didn't consider them as legitimate or perceived the worship of gods as unnecessary to attain enlightenment.[4]
The Church of the Great Sun's equivalent to hierarchs are Incandescents.[1]
Known hierarchs[]
Hierarchs of Novigrad[]
- Hieronymus Brunckhorst[5]
- Walter Beda[N 2]
- Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart
Others[]
- Krevenic Hengist Pikker (of Ard Carraigh)[1]
- Olcan Grandemot (of Vengerberg)[1]
Trivia[]
- A "hierarch" is the ordinary in Eastern Christianity.
Notes[]
- The script of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings contains informations implying that Olcan is the hierarch of Vengerberg, though these particular lines of dialogue never appear in the final game. He has been later confirmed as a hierarch in A Tome of Chaos.
Footnotes[]
- ↑ The office associated with Temeria has apparently been abolished during King Griffin's persecution of clergy. During Northern War II, the only influential priests at Temeria's court are Archpriest Willemer of Vizima and Archpriestess Nenneke of Ellander. It is also likely that the Cintran office was affected after the kingdom's conquest by Nilfgaardian Empire during Northern War I and subsequent persecution of the population.
- ↑ Mentioned unnamed in The Tower of the Swallow, named in Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 A Tome of Chaos
- ↑ The Tower of the Swallow
- ↑ The Lady of the Lake
- ↑ The Witcher Thursdays: Religion in Hengfors
- ↑ Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni