Builders
The Builders are a powerful faction with a strong grip on The City. They are a fanatical reilgion, that believes in one all-powerful god. The senior members of the Church vie for power with the noble classes and can affect laws especially where those laws are concerned with "moral" behaviour. Like most religions they draw most of their power from the great mass of believers who are ready to do the High Inquisitor's bidding in the name of their god. Although the Builders' Grand Cathedral is located in The City, they are a nationwide organised religion with a lot of power and influence with people far more important than the inhabitants of this city.
The Builders believe that their job is to 'civilize' the lands, and turn nature into great works that honour their god. To them, nature is chaotic. Human civilization, with roads, walls, and aqueducts, are all elements of order. They value order, hard work, and devotion. Destruction of property, sloth, and chaos are all great evils. Builder mythology says that the world began in chaos. God gave cleansing fire tools to Mankind so that they might have dominion over the wilds. It is their purpose to build, to create order, and to spread civilization. Anyone that opposes the spread of civilization (as pagans often do) is working against that ordained purpose.
The Church is always continuing its mission to tame and civilize the land. Just as the city continues to expand, new monastaries are formed in the wilderness, to protect and cultivate the nearby resources (Builder monastaries are more like small fortresses). They are the only places outside towns and cities where a civilized man can feel safe, and they are therefore heavily used by merchants, mercenaries, and any others who cannot travel by ship. By collecting tithes from these travellers, the Builders gain a great deal of wealth to finance future building projects. New towns often spring up around these monastaries.
Although the Builders and the Inventor's Guild share a common desire to create, the Builders consider the Guild's 'living machines' to be a kind of witch-craft, very close to necromancy, but bringing to life that which never lived rather than that which was once alive. Any kind of magic is despised by the Builders, since it involves (in their minds) trafficking with spirits. Only certain kinds of magic are legal to perform, including healing and protective spells. Divining the future, destructive spells or those that bend the will are all considered heretical. Of course, magic-like abilities, like priests throwing holy fire, come from their god and are not considered magic. The Church see pagans as -- at best -- misguided souls who have been corrupted by their close contact with spirits and nature, or at worst, active agents of chaos bent on destroying civilization. They rarely go out of their way to actually hunt pagan tribes down, however, unless they interfere with the building of a new fortress or mine.
The Builders believe that their afterlife is a city built by their god, and is perfect in every way, running itself like clockwork. The harder they work in this life, the better their lodgings and the greater their freedom in this perfect city. Those who did not sufficiently honour their god with their works on earth wind up in a kind of purgatory -- a dreary wasteland bereft of natural resources where they must work their way into heaven through hard labour. Those who die unrepentent or with too great a sin are barred from The Blessed City and are dragged off by demons (who are often depicted as looking like Pagan nature-gods) to the Underworld -- a chaotic realm where they are tormented randomly for all eternity.
The Builders have "ordeals" people must go through to rid themselves of sin. These ordeals can range from helping to build a cathedral to having to carry hot iron across coals. The rich can, of course, offer donations to the Church in lieu of the ordeal. Sometimes Builders will force these ordeals on people, especially heretics, for the good of their souls. Other people mistakenly see this as 'torture'. They also believe that the punishment for a sin should in some way be related to that sin; for instance, a person who damages a wall must rebuild it. Taken to the extreme, as it often is, thieves lose their hands, liars lose their tongues, and spies have their eyes plucked out.
Hard work/slave labour is seen by the Builders as literally good for the soul. Sinful people can work their way towards their heavenly reward by working hard. The Builders often put prisoners and pagans to work in what are essentially slave labour camps, attempting to save their souls.
