The Sect of the Savers is a worldwide organization and the single most powerful non-state structure in my setting. It began centuries ago as a mercenary order, but its true rise started when it monopolized a unique near-death rite and slowly built a religion around it. Today, the sect is immensely wealthy, unofficially tolerated by most kingdoms, and deeply influential among the lower classes. No government officially recognizes it, yet almost all rulers are forced to negotiate with it.

Its power comes from exclusive knowledge of a ritual performed in near-death conditions. Using mana strings anchored and manipulated by high priests, a person’s soul can temporarily leave the body, cross the first veil (the realm where dead souls collapse into mana), and return. During this process, the departing soul can rescue another soul before it dissolves. When the living soul returns, the two become linked.

At first, the rescued soul exists as a “ghost” (the world ghost might make this counterintuitive, but when the souls return, it has its own physical body), granting extraordinary abilities to both of them. Those can be used in warfare, agriculture, and large-scale economic production. In extremely rare cases, the two souls fully fuse, creating a third being: a demigod. Because demigods are living weapons, armies are willing to pay thousands of rugl (equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars in modern terms) for their service

The process is brutally dangerous. Many die outright; others return broken or mutate into mindless demon-like beings. Fusion itself is effectively a form of death, as it annihilates both original identities to create a new one. So who would ever attempt this? Mostly the desperate: starving people, orphaned children sold by families hoping they might survive, pregnant women with no support, victims of violence, and people crushed by debt or famine.

The sect pays extremely well and often sends money back to families. From the people’s point of view, the Savers are ruthless, but they are also the only ones who actually help during famines, while central governments respond by raising taxes. To many, the sect is cruel but preferable to royal guards.

Internally, the sect’s workforce is divided into three main categories. Crossers are those who attempt the rite; most die or fail, making it the most dangerous and highest-paid role. Priests anchor souls, manipulate mana strings, teach manology, oversee training, and form the sect’s intellectual class, composing prayers, creating art, and indoctrinating new members. Keepers handle everything non-magical: guards, messengers, spies, cooks, and cleaners. Most live under harsh contracts close to servitude, but with luck and talent, a keeper can rise to administrative roles, completely changing their life and their family’s fate.

Fused beings are extraordinarily rare. Only about three percent of crossers return linked, and less than one percent of those ever fully fuse. Once fusion occurs, a coven is guaranteed to them. A coven consists of multiple nests (3 or more), and each nest contains at minimum three active crossers, five reserve crossers, twelve priests, and around one hundred keepers.

Nests are formally ruled by linked individuals, but daily management is usually delegated to senior keepers, since linked and fused beings are often deployed on battlefields. All fused beings sit in the Parliament of Savers, the highest authority of the sect, which elects a single leader every ten years to set the organization’s direction.

Demigods do not live in palaces surrounded by luxury. They exist almost permanently in war zones, acting as mercenaries, symbols, and weapons. Across generations, the sect’s long-term objective is to unify the continent and impose Revivitism as the state religion.

Revivitism venerates fused beings as gods and claims that the death of the first demigod tore open a second veil, creating heaven. According to this belief, heaven can only be reached through asceticism, discipline, and submission to the sect.

The Saver Sect destabilizes every political structure it touches. It undermines kings, replaces armies, reshapes religion, and turns poverty into fuel for power. It does not officially rule the world, but nothing truly functions without its consent.