Worship: Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest and Agriculture.
Sacred animal: The Cow
Attire: Adorned leather and simple, undyed linen robes. They carry a butcher knife for sacrificing animals to Demeter, as well as a hoe for analyzing and blessing the soil.
Bodyguards: Demetrian High-borns
Main Temple: The Great Temple of Demeter, in Demeter's Plains.
Scope: All the arable lands of fertile soil are gifts of Demeter, so her Priestesses watch over all farmlands and pastures of Arandolia.
Powers: The Priestesses of Demeter are well-studied in geology, biology and botany. They act as agronomists, vets and pest controllers to maximize the abundance of crops and livestock.
Priestesses of Demeter
As the Goddess of the Harvest and the bringer of abundance, Demeter is vastly worshiped wherever there are crops being cultivated and livestock being bred. Every farming village has at least a shrine to her name, while the agricultural powerhouses of Arandolia devote great temples in her honour as a humble sign of appreciation to the bountiful harvests they get for cultivating the land.
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As such, the Priestesses of Demeter care very little for who owes or works a plot of land, as long as the land itself is respected and worked in an appropriate manner. They are called to farmholds of all kinds and sizes to deal with any problems farmers might be having with their crops, or with any complications shepherds might be having with their herds.
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By preparing recipes for special soil fertilizers and designing carecully thought irrigation channels, or even by introducing new predators like snakes and foxes to cull the number of herbivore wildlife near the crop fields, these priestesses can drastically enhance the bounty of any farm. The same thing applies to using their extensive knowledge of biology for enhancing the diet and the hygiene conditions of the livestock herds, making cows, sheeps and pigs grow healthier and more productive than ever.
Those who are fully devoted to Demeter and to the toils of the land hardly ever meddle in politics in a direct manner. However, their work can indirectly cause strong impacts in the economy, specially in densely populated inland regions which depend a lot on farms for their subsistence and income.
After all, a bountiful harvest can flood the market with enough fresh food produce to even quench an imminent rebellion though great festivals in the good old "Bread and Circuses" policy, while a meagre harvest might very well cause anything from minor economic recessions to great turmoil, pestilence or even war in the otherwise most peaceful and prosperous lands.