Central to their belief is the concept of self-love and self-expression. You should always seek to become who you want to be—to become your true self. This is why the Joybringers teach the arts of personal presentation and self-styling, helping individuals to discover and express their inner beauty. This focus on appearance and presentation can sometimes be misinterpreted as vanity, and they often struggle to understand those who do not place similar value on outward expression. This is also partly due to their belief that understanding and showcasing one's true self is crucial to personal fulfillment. They may, however, end up showing displeasure towards those they perceive as neglecting self-care or harboring negative views on art.
All Joybringers are artists in their own right, viewing art as a powerful medium for overcoming life's challenges. No matter how lost you may feel or how much hardship you're experiencing, you can find your true path forward through the wonders of artistry. They believe that engaging with art—whether creating it or experiencing it—can free the soul and provide profound insights into life’s complexities. Art, in any form, is seen as a sanctuary for those burdened by life’s hardships, a path for experiencing the greatness and wonders of life, and as a medium from which to find your true self.
However, the exalted pursuit of these tenets can sometimes veer into the realm of luxury, with followers indulging in extravagance under the guise of fulfilling Lady Firehair's commandments. This misinterpretation can blur the lines between genuine spiritual fulfillment and mere material indulgence, challenging the Joybringers to continually clarify and exemplify the true essence of their faith.
+//How they believe Callera communes with them.
Callera's Tenants:
The Joybringers also perform a range of ceremonial services, most notably weddings, coming of age ceremonies, and naming ceremonies. Although they often collaborate with the Meranzeum and the Greenwardens—the clergies for Marcandria's other goddesses—the Joybringers typically orchestrate the festivities that accompany these ceremonies, ensuring each event is a memorable celebration of life's significant milestones.
//Describe their rites and rituals.
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Sunites also offer personal prayers to Sune by standing in a pool or bath and looking into a mirror lit only by natural light or candles. Sune sends guidance to them by visions visible in the mirror, often by altering the reflection of the worshiper in some way.
Joybringer temples tend to be extensive and ornate, their size alone making them stand out in the cityscape. They are typically positioned in the more affluent areas of a settlement, typically where there's a lot of activity so that they can more easily engage with the inhabitants. The size is justified in the numerous functions the temple has to cover, from dwellings, administrative areas, areas for the different artistic practices, areas for the different services the temple provide, a potentially large bathhouse complex, not to mention all the areas used for the religious rites and ceremonies that they perform. Which and how many of these services the temple offers, as well as to what extent each is covered, varies between each individual temple.
-Joybringer temples tend to be exquisite, with not a single speck on the entire temple not having been made to be beautiful and awe-inspiring. Every wall is intricately ornate and lavish, often painted as to work in unison with the numerous pieces of art they have hanging on the walls. Furniture is often lavish and luxurious, meant to facilitate as comfortable a stay as possible. Rooms and hallways are often themed, with their interior and art intended to instill a certain flavor of awe and joy for those in them.
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Joybringers who have travelled to smaller settlements, and who are only a few individuals in number, may have more quaint looking temples. These nonetheless tend to have a similarly ornate and luxurious interior.
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The Meranzeum operates out of massive temple-compounds that are exclusively located in the larger and busier cities and settlements in Marcandria, where commerce and trade flows in its fullest flower and where people of numerous backgrounds mingle. Here, knowledge and techniques can easily be shared, and the Meranzeum can thus better help enrich and progress. While one may find a small temple in some out-of-the-way settlement, these are merely the result of one or a few individuals' endeavors, and not part of the Meranzeum's overall strategy. The Meranzeum's locations are temple-compounds rather than simply temples due to their locations having facilities meant to accommodate for all the different endeavors and operations the organization partakes in at said location. This means workshops for their artisans; offices for their merchants and traders; storage areas for their goods; studies for their researchers; vault to keep their money, valuable, and artifacts; room for their massive archives; and so on.
-The Meranzeum's temples and compounds are massive, often soaring above everything that surrounds it. They are always made with the finest materials available, with no expenses spared. Their floors, walls, and ceiling if possible, are always filled with ornate decorations. These decorative elements are often baroque, intricate, brightly colored, and lavish. The décor also feature as much precious metal and as many gemstones as can be fitted into the design. Despite all this lavish adornment, both inside and outside, these golden-leaf covered structures are designed to be impregnable fortresses meant to safeguard their archives, collections, and assets from those who would seek to steal from them.
-Exactly what facilities each temple-compound includes depends on what activities are offered there. Common for all is that they include an actual temple, where worship, rituals, ceremonies, and offerings to Meranzi are made. A publicly available archive and areas for their artisans and merchants to operate out of are also always included.
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in addition to these comes all the rooms and areas related to religious rites and ceremonies that they perform
-positioned in the most affluent areas of a settlement.
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Pools of reflection. Prayer rooms. Ceremonial chambers.
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Joybringer temples tend to be exquisite, with not a single speck on the entire temple not having been made to be beautiful and awe-inspiring. Every wall is intricately ornate and lavish, often painted as to work in unison with the numerous pieces of art they have hanging on the walls. Furniture is often lavish and luxurious, meant to facilitate as comfortable a stay as possible. Rooms and hallways are often themed, with their interior and art intended to instill a certain flavor of awe and joy for those in them. Joybringer temples make frequent use of mirrors and other reflective surfaces in their design, which are included due to their belief that Lady Firehair communes through altering one's reflections.
+All temples will include ritual and ceremonial areas. These will include numerous large mirrors, and shallow indoor pools, lit only by natural light coming from roof windows, or through the use of candles. Joybringers will dance barefoot in these pools while singing prayers, carefully observing their reflections in the mirror and pools. Lady Firehair will provide guidance through altering their reflections, letting them dance seemingly independent of the those they're supposed to reflect, creating visions that the Joybringers then try to interpret. The Joybringers will also make use of the larger baths at their bathhouse for these rites when there's a particularly large gathering.