The church of Garl is highly regarded throughout gnome society for its role in bringing the community together, and the Joker’s priests often serve as both the spiritual and temporal leaders of their communities. In the conscious emulation of the overlapping interests of the god and the other members of the pantheon, the church of Garl works closely with most other gnome churches, engendering a great deal of good will. A significant minority of the church clergy seeks to emulate the adventures of Garl, and it is this subgroup that is primarily visible to members of other races. As such, the other human and demihuman races commonly regard the Joker’s faithful as a loosely organized, ebullient, and friendly bunch, forever getting involved in shenanigans of one sort or the other and inveterate practical jokers. The mischievous exploits of both god and clergy are told and retold around the hearths of gnomes throughout the Realms.

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Hierarchy

Novice priests are known as the Uncut, while full priests are called Jewels. The ranks in Garl's hierarchy are, in ascending order, the Amethyst, Topaz, Opal, Jacinth, Diamond, Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire priests. High priestesses are called Star Rubies while male high priests are called Star Sapphires. Specialty priests are called glitterbrights. Priests of the Sparkling Wit serve as crafters, teachers, goldsmiths, miners, entertainers, mediators, councilors, and protectors.

Vestments

The ceremonial garb of Garl’s priests includes a gold-plated war helm, a golden belt, and if possible, a suit of gold-plated chain mail or plate mail.

Garl’s clergy employ a wide variety of weapons, including battle axes, crossbows, darts, flails, hand axes, maces, short bows, short swords, slings, spears, picks, and war hammers. Although those who wish to exercise their rogue or illusionist skills often prefer lighter armor or none whatsoever, most priests of the Joker favor the heaviest defensive mail available.

Rites and Duties

Most of Garl Glittergold’s rituals involve the whole community, so his clerics have plenty of opportunities to recruit those who show a particular combination of duty to community and mischievous humor. An older cleric typically teaches three or four students by example, explaining Garl Glittergold’s ways as he attends to the needs of the gnomes in his care.

Ceremonies in honor of Garl are flashy, full of illusion and mystery. They extol Gnomish virtues such as cleverness and craftsmanship. Worship services are held on the 13th of each month in a holiday known as the Communion of Laughter. Lasting the whole day, the Communion of Laughter includes quiet contemplation, prayer, communal eating, dancing, storytelling, and joke-telling contests. During the Communion of Laughter, the faithful are expected to sacrifice a bit of gold or gold dust to the church, who use it for the good of the community. Prayers to Garl are typically composed in call-and-response style, with the priest asking a riddle and the flock calling out the answer.

Many of Garl Glittergold’s prayers are performed call-and-response style, with the leader posing a riddle and everyone answering it in unison. “Glittergold asks: What is our joy?/To delve for treasures and guard our hearth.”

Followers of Garl Glittergold find themselves guarding the welfare of gnome communities, delving deep for gems, and fighting the goblinoid enemies of the race. Typical quests include battling a tribe of kobold raiders, pulling a good-natured prank on an arrogant human king, and seeking the long-lost Ebondark Gem Mine on the Elemental Plane of Earth.

Clerics of Garl pray for their spells early in the morning, shortly after the sun rises. The Communion of Laughter is celebrated on the 13th of each month through a variety of activities that last the entire day. Although the ordering varies from temple to temple and there are many variations thereof, the Joker's rituals include a period of prayer and quiet contemplation, dancing atop the central dais, the sharing of communal meals, storytelling to the accompaniment of visual displays of magic, and joke-telling contests that last late into the night.

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Garl’s clerics serve as guardians and teachers in gnome communities. They maintain careful vigilance against hostile races (particularly Orcs, Goblinoids, and Kobolds), and they instruct the young using a mixture of earthy practicality spiced with humor. This approach, they say, keeps the young entertained and makes their learning all the better. Garl’s clerics also keep extensive archives of illusion spells (usually in the form of spellbooks and scrolls), practical jokes, trap designs, and stories. The longer and more outlandish the tale, the better, say the clerics, though not everyone agrees. Like their patron, Garl’s clerics favor gold jewelry.

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Affiliated Orders

Chimeric champions epitomize gnome ingenuity and trickery. They specialize in illusion and the art of item creation. Such gnomes are usually fun-loving tricksters with active imaginations. Believing that the world is only what you make of it, they spread their arts among the gnome community and to others they consider deserving.

The Companions of Arumdina are a military order of Garlian fighters, clerics, fighter/clerics, and specialty priests with strong links to the church of Gaerdal Ironhand. Dedicated to the defense of gnome communities across the face of Faerun, members of this order are unusually stern by the standards of the church. Justifiers, as members of this order are sometimes known, are skilled in defensive military tactics, particularly in the rolling hills and deep forests where most gnome communities may be found. Individual members often double as marshals, although their duties in this regard are usually light given the general law-abiding character of gnome society.

The Glittering Jesters are a loosely affiliated band of individuals who seek to relate and/or imitate their god’s most outrageous exploits. Many travel from community to community, acting as performers and pranksters to the delight of common folk at the expense of the pretentious and highbrow. An elite minority of Jesters become adventurers in the hopes that their exploits will make their way into the oral tradition of the Forgotten Folk, to be told and retold for generations thereafter. Participation in events worthy of relating as a tale is considered to be an offering to the god. In the gnome oral tradition, the better the tale, the more likely it is to be attributed to a great, legendary hero of the gnomes or even to one of the gnome gods themselves.

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