Temple of the Four Great Gods

Temple of the Four Great Gods is a religious institution established throughout the various cities and nations of the New World.

Background
A variant international faith that worships an alternative form of the Six Great Gods of the Slane Theocracy in the form of the Four Great Gods. This faith is found mostly in the northern nations of the New World. Not only do the priesthood and the temples serve to praise and glorify the gods, but also manages the temples that serve as the New World's contemporaries of hospitals. In addition, they are the New Worlds spiritual undertakers ensuring the well-being of society. They have a sworn duty to fight against the undead and specialize in using holy magic for healing and exorcising.

Four Great Gods

 * God of Fire
 * God of Water
 * God of Wind
 * God of Earth
 * God of Theft

Doctrine
In the religious faith of the Four Great Gods, these deities stand above humanity and preside over a compilation of minor deities that watch over humanity.

As for death, it is believed that the souls residing within the corpses of the deceased have yet to move on to the afterlife. When the dead body of a human corpse begins to rot, the soul would also be summoned away by the will of the gods. According to religious teachings, the sins of a person are absolved the moment they are executed and turning them into undead is desecration. As this is a normal procedure, the dead have to be buried immediately underground though it was slightly different for those with special status such as the nobles.

The corpse would then be dug up and verified if it had decomposed. It would be set aside at a communal crypt for a period of time before reburying it again within the crypt at the cemetery. After placing the bodies there for some time, a priest would judge if the body was rotting and whether the soul had been summoned by the gods prior to the burial.

For nobles, instead of the communal crypt, they would use a family crypt passed down from their ancestors. It was within the room, where those with authority were summoned by god. In other words, it is their final resting place, which is then passed on down to the next family in line of succession and owned by them, which will also act as a symbol of power.

Rules & Practices
The worship of the Four Great Gods exist throughout the human kingdoms. They are led by the High Priests that administers each of their own religious demesne.

Due to the temples being a public institution that caretakers the health and spiritual well-being of society, healing and management of the dead fall under their purview.

The organization's affiliated temples do not answer to the government, as they are an independent entity. The temples rarely involve themselves in politics though they do have enough political pressure to force the Adventurer's Guild to regulate the use of healing magic of its members.

The reason for this regulation, stems to the continued existence of the temples. In order for the temples to provide benefits to the people without becoming controlled by politics, the only source of income they could receive would be from the people.

Those that fail to comply to these rules may end up assassinated by one of the temples' punishment squads.

The Two Leaders Arc
Enri Emmot journeyed to E-Rantel to solicit invitations for new villagers to move to Carne Village. She planned to use the temple there to attract potential residents, sadly very few wished to migrate to a frontier village.

The Magic Caster of Destroy Arc
During the imperial delegation's journey to the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Fluder Paradyne lamented on his lack of knowledge in divine magic. Jircniv Rune Farlord El Nix too wished that there were more divine magic casters within the ranks of his knights and considered encouraging competition between the Temple of the Four Great Gods and minor gods so that new healing spells would be developed. It was his intention to provide the Empire's support to the faith that would eventually produce the best results. His aide Loune Vermillion cautioned him about interfering in the affairs of the temples as his plan could be detrimental to the health of the Empire and put a strain on his relationship with the priests.

The Ruler of Conspiracy Arc
After the Sorcerer Kingdom's annexation of E-Rantel, many priests from the temples held a degree of wariness towards the new king. Though it was their duty to fight against the undead, the temples of E-Rantel refrained from taking action, as they had no actual power to oppose the new regime and also they were afraid to tarnish the reputation of Momon, who would be responsible for executing any insurrectionists.

In the Empire, the High Priests had labelled Jircniv a traitor to mankind for allying with an undead monster such as Ainz Ooal Gown. When the emperor tried to clear things up with the temples during a secret meeting with the High Priests and Theocracy agents, Ainz Ooal Gown made his unexpected appearance, causing the High Priests to lose faith in him and the Theocracy agents to leave.

The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom Arc
Before meeting the Sorcerer King, Remedios ordered a few paladins to search for temples and try to ask for help to introduce them to the Dark Hero Momon. Gustav became wary as he said they might ran into trouble later as the ruler of E-Rantel is currently an undead and having ties with a temple seemed to be a problem. However, the captain reasoned out they should not know any better place to ask for other than a temple because they are paladins.

Trivia

 * Emperor Jircniv wants to nationalize the various temples of the Empire.
 * The Temples' punishment squads are charged in hunting down apostate priests and referred to as boogeymen.
 * In Volume 9 of the Light Novel, there was a priest praying to their Wind God called "Yorlan Dixgort."