The Sisterhood
As the Sisterhood of Anwyn grew, two broad traditions emerged within it: Martial and Spiritual. They are not separate orders. All are Sisters of Anwyn first, and the distinction describes a woman's principal calling rather than imposing an absolute boundary upon what she may do. A Martial Sister remains a worshipper of Ehlonna and participates in the religious life of the Sisterhood; a Spiritual Sister may ride, travel with a patrol or learn to defend herself. Dîmeril herself has enormous spiritual significance within the Sisterhood without being a priestess, while many of Lusara's priestesses are perfectly capable of looking after themselves beyond the safety of Merilrond. The distinction is nevertheless a meaningful one. The Martial Sisters protect the living world around them; the Spiritual Sisters tend its sacred and magical character.
The Martial Sisters
The Martial Sisters are the oldest tradition within the Sisterhood, descended directly from the female rangers, friends and companions who first gathered around Dîmeril. They patrol the Golden Woods, scout its more dangerous regions, protect travellers and settlements, investigate threats and hunt creatures that prey upon those under Merilrond's protection. They maintain much of the Sisterhood's knowledge of woodland paths, neighbouring territories and the less predictable inhabitants of the forest. Their purpose is not to make the Golden Woods safe by making them tame. The Sisters have no desire to turn an ancient forest into farmland and roads. Their concern is with those things that actively threaten its inhabitants or disturb the sometimes delicate balance between them. This distinction is particularly important in dealings with the Fey. A creature may be dangerous, capricious or thoroughly unpleasant without necessarily being an enemy. Martial Sisters are taught that knowing when not to draw a weapon can be every bit as important as knowing how to use one.
Dîmeril remains the foremost of the Martial Sisters as well as Heryn of the Sisterhood as a whole. Among the other senior Martial Sisters are Sabine Thornmere, Maeriel Thornbow and Yvaine Silverwind, women whose experience and judgement have earned Dîmeril's trust over many years. A younger generation now serves beneath and alongside them. Megilindir, Lethiel Aranel, Grashka Bloodfang and Vespera Windrunner are among the better-known younger Martial Sisters, although they represent only part of the women who patrol the Golden Woods. There is no need for every patrol to contain a famous ranger. Much of the Sisterhood's work is performed by capable women whose names will never be widely known beyond the woods they protect.
The Spiritual Sisters
The Spiritual Sisters represent the religious and magical tradition of the Sisterhood. Ehlonna stands at the centre of their worship. They maintain her sacred places, conduct seasonal observances and provide healing, counsel and religious instruction. They attend births, marriages and deaths, tend the sick and injured and carry the worship of Ehlonna into communities beyond Merilrond itself. Their responsibilities extend beyond formal worship. Clerics, druids and other magically gifted women find a natural place among the Spiritual Sisters, particularly where their abilities concern healing, animals, plants, the natural world or the strange magic of the Golden Woods.
Lusara, as High Priestess of Ehlonna's Anwyn Sect, is the senior figure among them. Where Dîmeril is the centre around which the Sisterhood first grew, Lusara is responsible for much of the religious structure that allowed it to become something more permanent. She is joined by priestesses whose paths to Merilrond have been very different.
Rallientha Quiphiner is among the oldest. An Elven cleric of Ehlonna, Rallientha wandered into the Golden Woods some twenty years ago, found a community devoted to a goddess she had served for many years, and never found a particularly compelling reason to leave. Before long she was preaching. Rallientha's place within the Sisterhood developed much as the Sisterhood itself had developed: gradually, informally and with surprisingly little discussion. She conducted rites, taught those willing to listen, offered counsel and carried the worship of Ehlonna into the surrounding communities. At some point everyone simply began regarding her as one of the Spiritual Sisters, including Rallientha herself. Her long life and experience give her considerable standing, although she has never challenged Lusara's position as High Priestess. Rallientha's authority is of a different sort. She represents an older and broader tradition of Elven worship of Ehlonna, one which existed long before the Anwyn Sect.
Telemna, a three-quarter-Elven cleric originally from Erdian, provides another connection to the wider worship of Ehlonna. Her devotion to the goddess did not begin at Merilrond, and she arrived with beliefs and traditions formed elsewhere before finding her own place among the Sisters of Anwyn.
At the opposite end of experience stands Elowen Fairmead, a young Human priestess from Aelfshaw. Elowen possesses remarkably little confidence in herself and a considerably greater divine gift than she realises. She remains one of the most junior Spiritual Sisters and is still being taught by the older priestesses, although Lusara, Rallientha and Telemna have each recognised considerable potential in her.
Together these women illustrate something important about Lusara's leadership. The Anwyn Sect possesses a distinct identity, but Lusara has never attempted to make devotion to Ehlonna uniform. Older Elven traditions, beliefs brought from Erdian and the simple rural faith of a farmer's daughter from Aelfshaw can all find a place within it. The Spiritual Sisters are not cloistered priestesses. Their faith is rooted in living things, and their work consequently takes them into homes, fields, forests and neighbouring settlements as readily as it keeps them within Merilrond. Nor does membership require chastity. Love, sexuality, fertility, family and motherhood all have honoured places within Lusara's understanding of Ehlonna. The vows of the White Wards are a separate tradition and should not be confused with membership of the Sisterhood.
The Wider Household of Merilrond
The Sisterhood should not be confused with the wider household and community of Merilrond. Retainers, servants, craftspeople, labourers and other residents perform the countless tasks required to sustain the settlement and those who live within it. Their work is respected and often indispensable, but it does not form a third branch of the Sisterhood. To become a Sister of Anwyn is to answer a particular calling, whether martial, spiritual or magical. To serve Merilrond faithfully in some other capacity is no less honourable, but it is something different.