Vestal Virgins

Vestal Virgins are female magicians tasked with the care of totems within a certain area. A vestal virgin swears an oath of celibacy and service for 30 years starting from a young age, but they wield large amounts of power amongst their communities.

Characteristics
A vestal virgin is a female magician. She often has powerful magical abilities, and her training focuses strongly on the care of totems.

A branch only hosts 6 vestals at any given time, though many lay brothers and sisters help with the maintenance of the temple. The temple is led by a chief vestal, often the oldest of the vestals amongst the branch's ranks, and the organization is led by the Vestalium Maxima at the national level.

Terms of Service
The vestal virgin is often young, between 6-10 years of age, when she is committed to the priestesshood.

A vestal is sworn to celibacy for 30 years. As a result, she spends most of her childbearing years in service of the community. She is seen as the daughter of the community, and her conduct is considered to reflect the state of the community at large.

After 30 years of service, the vestal retires from service and is replaced by a new inductee. She is given a pension as a reward for her service, and, freed from her oath of celibacy, she is free to marry according to her choice. Marriage to a former vestal is considered highly honored and is thought to bring good luck to the family. As a vestal is often a powerful magician in her own right, many powerful magical families seek marriages to former vestals.

Selection
The process of selecting a vestal virgin begins the moment a sworn vestal at a branch retires from service. A list of girls as well as their magical aptitudes are compiled. The remaining vestals review the list and create a much shorter list of potential candidates for selection. These candidates are invited to the temple for further review.

To be considered for selection to be a vestal, a girl must be free of physical, mental, and magical defects. Her physical, mental, and magical condition is considered reflective of the condition of the city at large. She must be capable of performing her duties.

A potential vestal must come from a magical family stretching back at least 3 generations. This requires the girl's great-grandparents to have been magicians, and this confirms that the girl's magic should be strong enough for the care of totems.

Following her selection, the girl is considered a child of the public and under divine protection. Both the Guild and Independent magicians in the area are sworn to protect a vestal in dangerous situations, and they take precautions to prevent danger to the vestals.

Duties
The vestals are tasked with caring for a city's sacred fire. The fire is considered the essence of the city's guardian totem and is reflective of the condition of the city.

The temples of the vestal virgins are repositories of magical objects that require special care. Some magicians can find themselves in possession of potentially dangerous magical items, and they may turn these magical items over to the vestals for security.

In addition to magical items, the vestals are also the people safekeeping wills and testaments of magicians. As the vestals are apolitical, important documents of both Guild and Independent magicians are often turned over to the vestals for safekeeping.

Punishments
The vestals wield incredible power amongst the magical community and are held to higher standards than other magicians.

The lesser of the offences that a vestal may commit is the allowing of the city's fire to go out. It is considered a serious dereliction of duty by the vestal.

The more serious offences is the breaking of the vow of chastity. As a public figure and daughter of the community, it is considered incest for a vestal to have sex. The punishment for the crime has changed from ancient to modern times. In ancient times, the vestal would be subjected to the punishment of immurement, or to be buried alive in an underground chamber supplied with a few days of food and water. It was forbidden to kill a vestal without spilling her blood, and her punishment was treated as her residing in a "habitable room".

The punishment for this crime has been altered in the modern age, due to distain for capital punishment amongst magicians. Modern vestals who break the vow of chastity are subjected to a process known as castrazione magica. Pioneered by Italian magicians in the 1870s, the process involved the intentional damaging of mana circuits in such a way as to not kill the person but strips them of the ability to use magic. These vestals are immediately ejected from the order and disgraced amongst the magical community.

The crime of breaking the vow of chastity is rare. Only 3 cases of unchastity have occurred in the past 400 years. The most recent vestal convicted of the crime was Lucretia Constanza (1890-1953) in 1912 in Chicago. She was the only vestal to suffer castrazione magica and lived the rest of her life in disgrace and withdrawn from society.

Residence
Each branch of the order is housed in a small complex centered around the sacred fire. A larger city or metropolitan area may utilize more buildings in its complex, but even the smaller towns will use at least 2 buildings.

The largest and most prominent of the buildings would be the temple itself. The temple houses the sacred fire and altar for the totem of the city itself. Often these two places are located in the same room, with the sacred flame positioned in front of the altar.

The next largest building would be the housing used for the vestals and other assistants who live in the complex. A smaller branch may require only a single small building, and branches located in the largest metropolitan areas often have several buildings rising several stories above the ground.

Larger complexes often have additional buildings geared towards storing and protecting magical items and important documents. Depending on the care requirements of the various items, the buildings can be highly technological and magically protected. Staff for the buildings are housed in the residential buildings on the complex, and the buildings are not accessible to the public.

The activities of the vestals are funded almost entirely by donations from both Guild and Independent magicians. The rest of the budget comes from the local government, and in return, the vestals help maintain peace amongst various magical factions.

Attire
The attire of the vestals is very similar to nuns, owing to the role the vestals played following the group's dissolution in the late Roman Empire. Modesty is highly prized in a vestal, and her clothes display her devote nature to her duties.

The vestals wear headscarves as part of their daily attire. The headscarf completely covers the hair, leaving nothing exposed, and often there are multiple scarves used in layers. The scarves tend to lack any pattern or motifs and are dyed a plain color. Vibrantly colored or patterned clothes are frowned upon, and various methods of wrapping the scarves are used, based on rank within the order.

Furthermore, many vestals prefer wearing veils in public for additional privacy. Most vestals use a simple mesh over the top half of their faces, while others, particularly older and more conservative vestals, use a veil that completely covers the face with a small patch of mesh cloth to allow the woman to see in front of her.

The gown of the vestals is governed by different rules than the headscarves. The gown is made of plain white fabric with red embroidered accents. The red accents symbolize her vow to protect the sacred fire and maintain the condition of the city's totem. Although the accents are always made of red thread, each vestal uses their own designs.

Black gowns are also seen in specific situations. Vestals are often present during the funerals of important magicians, and they are frequently invited to various government events, especially those geared towards the magical community. The black gowns are seen as more formal than their white counterparts.

Regardless of the color of the gown, they are always secured with a woven belt. The belts are often woven with metal threads, allowing them to act as focuses for the vestal, and many belts are crafted with spells built into the fabric that help protect the vestal from outside interference.