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A god’s blessing is them endorsing a project. By blessing it, the divine gives the object or person power to use within a narrow context. If a divine’s blessings are abused, they may not notice right away. They are too busy to take individual notice of every mortal’s actions at all times. When they do however, the punishments can be quite severe.

Could I use these rules for blessings by entities other than the divine? Yes. You could have Qlippoth bless your artifacts. You could have a demon lord that blesses your infernal altar. Some of the mechanics would have to change; in the latter example, obviously a demon would not forbid other demons from entering the church.

The Costs of Blessings:

For artifacts…
- Beautifying an item costs 5 Goodwill.
- Making a beautified artifact sacred costs 10.
- Blessing a sacred artifact to become holy costs another 10.
- And for a holy artifact to become angelic costs 20.
Note that you can have an unblessed object start at a higher tier than beautified, it just requires the total Goodwill cost upfront. So to make an item go from unblessed to angelic costs a total of 45 Goodwill upfront.

For churches and the like…
… you would use rules for communities, treating the holy places as institutions within the community. You should read the section below anyway; there are some examples of what they can do, and 

For character blessings…
- Becoming an initiate costs 5 Goodwill.
- Becoming an acolyte costs 10 Goodwill.
- Becoming a champion, oracle, or divine-specific role costs 20.

Agenda
A deity's agenda is conveyed to their followers intuitively. These are actions the deity wants their followers to perform, and they will be rewarded for doing so. A reward is typically a "step up" over what they already are or have. I.e., an initiate who completes part of this agenda may be granted the rank of acolyte. Someone with no artifact might be granted a beautified artifact. Someone with a holy artifact might have it raised to the status of angelic. In this way, it is possible to advance through the divine system without spending Goodwill.

Artifact Blessings
Can I get an artifact even if I’m not blessed? Artifacts can be acquired either through blessing, or through finding such an artifact out in the world. The Goodwill cost is the same either way. In the latter case, you could acquire a divine artifact even as a character who is in no way particularly religious, or even outright opposed to the god that blessed it.

Can I make duplicate artifacts? You can make duplicates of beautified artifacts at a cost of 4 Goodwill each. You can later upgrade these duplicates the usual way if you want.

All artifacts have a small sliver of divine power within them. Even a beautified amulet can be used as a component for rituals or the like, though extracting the divine power from an arifact as the source of energy for a ritual does destroy it.

All artifacts have some combination of a passive, a trigger, and an active ability.

Can I have multiples of one kind of effect instead of having one of each? Yes. You could, for example, have a holy artifact that’s just three passive abilities.

Can I have an artifact that just does one thing exceptionally well? Yes. For example, if you want to have the most powerful fireball in the world you can just keep using "effect slots" to add onto or magnify the fireball your artifact produces.

A passive is something that is always “on.” The sword that is three meters long and would be too heavy for anyone else to lift is always reasonably nimble in the hands of the wielder. 

A trigger is an effect that only goes off in certain contexts. The amulet that vibrates when in the presence of arcane magic only vibrates when the trigger has been met. The more situational a trigger, the more powerful its effect is allowed to be, even at low levels.

An active ability is just that: an ability that can be activated, more or less at will. You can throw some caveats in here if you want - like if your staff can shoot fireballs, but only three times a day.

- Beautified artifacts can have only one of these things.
- Sacred artifacts can have two.
- Holy artifacts can have three.
- Angelic artifacts have one of their three effects elevated to being truly exceptional.

All artifacts will have one or more stipulations that, if broken, break the artifact.

The artifact is blind to its wielder, but the entity who blessed the artifact will only want it used for certain causes. These conditions must be totally unambiguous, apply only to specific situations, and leave no room for interpretation.

The sword of a god of justice will not say “may never draw the blood of the innocent,” that requires the wielder to interpret what innocent means. “May only be used in battle against a foe that has a weapon already drawn” is much less ambiguous.

Holy Places
Chapels, churches, and temples are a building within a community. It has to be a discrete place devoted to the god; if it serves any utilitarian function at all, it must be thematic to the divine. A holy space devoted to Sallana may also be a wine orchard, but that same place could not be devoted to Skraag. Ignis might appreciate a courthouse that is also a temple, but Visage would not allow it. Etc, etc.

Divine grounds function a little differently. While the original chapel from which they grew remains the heart of the divine grounds, an angel lives there now, and the angel has an aura which extends over the whole settlement. A community cannot have divine grounds if there are chapels, churches, or temples devoted to other gods within the community - even if those gods are aligned.

If my holy place is destroyed, what happens? It isn’t holy anymore. The stewards who were meant to protect the place failed in their duty, clearly. Depending on the context, it may be rebuilt and function as normal afterwards, or the Goodwill spent on it may be refunded in whole or in part. If it is divine grounds, the angel that lives there may take umbridge with what’s happening as well.

Holy places must abide by an ethos, code, or oath. Defying it desecrates the holy place.

Suppose there is a fortress that is also a temple to a god of war. The god might stipulate that its banner must always fly above the bastion, higher than any other. If a rogue element manages to infiltrate the bastion and lower it, then the divine effects that protect the fortress are now null and void. In other words, the temple has been desecrated. Like with artifacts, these conditions must be totally unambiguous.

All holy places have the following effects:
- The presence of the divine can be felt. 
- The power of the holy place may be used to manifest divine power, such as empowering rituals and spells or the like.
- True demons cannot enter. Those possessed by demons feel debilitating pain and misery when inside, compelled to leave by any means. Pactbound have their abilities nullified. Demonic magic is weakened.

Like with any other institution, you work with a DM to decide what else is true about the holy place and how it grows. Unless you want an endpoint that is less extreme, holy places cannot be more powerful than divine grounds.

The Blessed
Characters who have been blessed by a god. Like artifacts and settlements, characters have their blessings contingent on binding terms. In the case of their personal blessings, they are in the form of oaths that typically take one of two forms.
- I will always X.
- I will never Y.

These must be totally unambiguous, and require no interpretation to understand when they have been broken. An oath to “always heal the innocent” is bad; an oath to “always heal the sick or dying” is good.

When the character becomes an acolyte, they must take another binding oath. To achieve the third rung of blessedness (becoming a champion, oracle, or divine-specific role) they must take a third.

Does this mean my character could be forced into a situation where they are forced to violate one of their oaths or the tenets of their god? Yes. This is good drama.

When a character violates their oath, they lose all of their powers. To have their powers restored, they must undergo penance - a spiritual trial meant to cleanse them of their sins. Each divine has their own unique form of penance, and until it is complete the blessed remains powerless and mechanically they are not considered blessed by their god.

The first two ranks - initiate and acolyte - are unique to each god. Champions and oracles have generic mechanics. They are as follows:

Champions gain magical abilities. They are able to move faster, be stronger, conjure magical attacks, and overall are more physically powerful than a normal individual. A champion is functionally as powerful as an adept-level mage, before accounting for any artifacts they may have. When using the fullest extent of their powers, they should be able to beat equally skilled opponents in a contest of arms (such as a duel) easily, and more skilled opponents with some difficulty and forethought.

Oracles are able to ask questions of their god, and receive answers. To do so, you must make a request in the Goodwill section on the forums, at a cost of one Goodwill for every question posed. These have to be made in advance, it gives DMs time to answer. Flavor how your characters communes with their god as you like: divining from entrails, tea leaves, whatever. You can ask up to three questions at a time, but no matter how many you ask, you will receive three answers. Two of them will be correct, and one of them will be wrong. You will not be told which are the two correct answers.