The Sorcerers of Rhyallia

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The Priests and Priestesses of the Stone don't worship the stones (arguably, they don't worship anything at all), but pull power from the stones. Since there is currently only one known/possessed stone in Rhyallia, all of their powers are earth-based. Of course, it is acknowledged that they would love to find all five (or seven, depending on who you believe) stones. There is both a High Priest and a High Priestess, each being in charge of slightly different things.

High Priest:
The High Priest is a personal adviser to the Emperor. He also runs the actual monasteries. Most of the Priesthood reports to him.

High Priestess:
Is actually more magically powerful than the High Priest, so while he runs more of the political and mundane aspects of the Priesthood, the High Priestess is in charge of seeking out the other stones and in strengthening the Priesthood's current magical skills.

The Council:
Under the two is a small council, usually made up of five to seven members. The two leaders of their order (Leader of Magic and Leader of the Order), are chosen by them. They are not always one of each gender, either.

Any shifter of any element and any place in society can be accepted into the order, but in practice it mostly the aristocracy who are accepted in. The nobility is largely made up of earth elementals, which means that most in the Priesthood are earth elementals.


The Priesthood of the Stone guards their secrets well, and one of those secrets is their magical abilities. The wards (or protections) that they place around their monasteries are unusually strong--mainly to keep outsiders out. Recent skills and discoveries include:

The ability to change things with magic (versus simply casting an illusion, which only appears to make things change): This only effects small things; if the sorcerer changes something too large or complex, he can exhaust himself to the point of death.

The ability to cause the earth to move or shift: Again, too much use of power causes death

The ability to make things grow: This allows the speeding up of growth (though that shortens the life-span of the creature/plant) or the ability to make something grow in an environment where it shouldn't (such as creating a terraced garden on the side of a rock); this skill also usually needs continuous maintenance and so can cause the spell wielder to be perpetually worn out and distracted

The ability to create invisible "walls" (essentially wards that become physical): These can only be maintained for very limited periods of time

The ability to self-heal and heal others rapidly (though not painlessly; using this skill fully can heal someone on the verge of death, but can also cause both the sorcerer and the wounded intense amounts of pain)

The ability to change into more than one earth animal: But only for very limited periods of time and only for "earth" animals. Sorcerers who use this skill too much find their ability to shift into their personal animal becomes more difficult.

The ability to speak with regular animals (non-shape-shifters): More amusing than actually useful, though some in the Priesthood have started using animals as messengers. Like growth it takes continuous magical input, which often wears rapidly on the spell user.

More skills are being explored and developed all the time. Remember, though, that each magical spell takes something from the caster; powerful spells can knock the person out for days. Only the innate magic of the spell-caster causes no (or very mild) side-effects. Thus, all spells need to be weighed for value versus pain/exhaustion/other side effects before being used. That, at least, is what the Priesthood teaches its members...though the more skilled sorcerers often ignore such warnings in their desire to explore. More than one have killed themselves.