Have done a little searching and was simply wondering.... has anyone come up with any titles for the various clergy of the various Deities of Golarion? I mean, we have titles of all sorts, depending on the religion; Father, Abbot, Rabbi, Bishop, Emir, Pujari, etc. Has anything like this been defined for any of the Golarion deities?
There were a couple of Fathers in Rise of the Runelords. But I am not sure if there are official titles per deity. I'm not sure worship is consistent enough across Golarion to bother. You'd probably just get regional versions. For example, Saranrae is called Sister Cinder in the Realms of the Mammoth Lord. It seems very unlikely we'd see the same titles for the cloth if people don't even use the same titles for the god.
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I feel some dieties might be so loose even the concept of rank might be seen as weird; for example, I can't really imagine Desna's faith having titles; or at least having them in any way that matters much, since her faith is largely centered on personal journeys.
Alternatively, I could see Asmodeus being so strict that all regions of his faith use the same title (all of which are in Infernal) no matter where the church is because in Hell, everyone has a place, and the order must be obeyed no matter what
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Alternatively, I could see Asmodeus being so strict that all regions of his faith use the same title (all of which are in Infernal) no matter where the church is because in Hell, everyone has a place, and the order must be obeyed no matter what
My thoughts: The church of Asmodeus only has two titles - 'Boss' and 'Servant'. And the only being in the church who deserves the title of 'Boss' is Asmodeus himself.
But I could also see the various church members ranking themselves into a strict hierarchy anyway.
Abadar's are bankers and archbankers respectively.
In Outlaws of Alkenstar its mentioned that priests of Brigh are known as Cogs, and are in a hierarchy with Tertiary Cogs at the bottom and Grand Cogs at the top.
While the titles of 'clergy' might vary, I have to wonder if there is some standard for 'clerics'.
I mean, it feels important to have some clear way to indicate to people "I can fix your wound if you get stabbed by a goblin". Much like how a person might introduce themselves as "Dr. Jones".
Not everyone in the clergy has magic, and despite that they might have a high rank within a religious organization. However, in certain emergency situations, the distinction between deacon and bishop is less important than the ability to turn undead.
At the very least, I feel like wizards would completely ignore the terms used by most religious organizations and just use a standard term for pragmatic of use. I could see them just using some term from the Nethys church as a standardized code for "guy that can solve the undead problem in the basement of my wizard tower".
In a game system where non-magical healing is plentiful, and magical healing is not the exclusive domain of Clerics, I am not sure how to distinguish the difference between a Cleric that is part of an official in-game organized clergy, a Cleric that is an adventurer and is a Cleric only because it was the class best suited to the character concept, and a character that can fix goblin stab wounds and easily handle the undead problem in the basement without actually being a Cleric by either definition.
If I have an undead problem in my basement, I may rather call a Thaumaturge than a Cleric.
I think it just varies a lot: by deity, place, and even context.
There's a Father who is a desnan priest in Rise of the Runelords, for example, but I can totally see the leader of a group of Desnan clerics who go around helping people with complex nightmares being called High Dreamer, for example. Maybe another group of desnans that help people oppressed in Nidal be evacuated may be called Guiding Star, etc. For desnans in particular, I imagine that most spiritual leaders have no titles at all, really.
I feel like even the most organized religions don't seem to have a rigid structure. Abberton's Abadarian priest seemingly has no title, for example, despite being referred to as a "priest-banker." Yanmass's Abadarian priest and member of the local council (I think?) is called a Chief Enumerator, which is a title that I haven't really seen anywhere else in the setting.
The safest bet is to consider where the game is set, what the deity is about, and whatever the priest's role in the place is, at least in my opinion.
I myself have used High Redeemed and Sun-Father for Sarenrae's, Oenophile (this one was more of a nickname) for Cayden Cailean's, Elder for Erastil, Huntmaster for Cernunnos's, Illustrious for Green Mother's, Death-Priest and Blessed Midwife for Pharasma's, Soul Warden for Magrim, Debtmaster for Dranngvit's, High Instigator for Gorum, High Drowner of a homebrew regional interpretation of Gozreh's... There's probably more, but those are the ones that I remember.
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Clergy titles isn't something we've really nailed down. My preference would be for every faith to have it's own different titles, but that's a LOT of work to do. I made lists for all my deities in my homebrew, but it's not something that's every really caught on at Paizo for whatever reason.
So for the most part we've just been pretty easygoing about those titles and just using ones that make sense at the time for the NPC, the location, the story, and the developer and/or writer's preference.