Holy See

The Holy See is a far-reaching religious institution governed by a pontifical body, its authority stretching across many realms of the world. Its emblem shows a falcon in flight framed by two orbs coiling around it in a helix. Founded centuries in the past, it grew into a world power on a rigid moral code, while beneath that surface it colluded with the nobility to monopolize wealth and stamp out rivals, chief among them reverence for astral beings and the practice of magic. Many of its churches rose on ground that once held shrines to older spirit faiths, and as its doctrine spread the ancient gods faded into the Astral World.

Church teaching centers on faith, prayer, charity, and tolerance, worshipping a stern miracle-working god who prizes silence and acts as both a merciful protector and a harsh judge. Its scripture foretells a Falcon of Darkness who will arrive 'when the Sun dies five times' and bring an age of night, and it sanctions torture against heresy. The organization runs departments such as the Miracle Recognition Department, the Court Supreme, and a Financial Administration handled by the Vandimion Bank, and it holds inquisitorial power to try and burn the accused, sometimes without any trial at all. When Midlanders begin dreaming of a shining falcon after the fifth eclipse, priests hail it as divine revelation, and the pontiff, guided by Griffith's envoys Mule and Sonia, ultimately proclaims Griffith the Falcon of Light and savior of the faithful.

At its head sits the Pontiff, with the cardinal Poliziano positioned as a likely successor and grand governor-general of the realm. The inquisitor Mozgus and his disciples serve as its torturers, while Federico III of the Vandimion line steers its finances through the family bank. The Holy Iron Chain Knights form its army, once led by Farnese with Serpico as herald and Azan as vice-commander, and ordinary parish priests such as the one at Enoch Village round out its ranks. The order's structure deliberately mirrors the real-world Catholic Holy See.