The Dealers are a female-only religious order which formed soon after the Catastrophe. Dealers have several unusual characteristics in Bridges culture:
The Dealers run the poorhouses, which are located in the slum areas adjacent to and just outside of the Pot.
Before the fall of the Cathedral, children were traditionally brought to the Dealers there for their blessing, the typical time for a blessing being on their seventh birthday. This involved the Dealer displaying a set of cards in a similar manner to a Tarot reading.
The blessing was both warning and encouragement to the child and was thought to foretell the areas which the child must strengthen and should spend his or her energies in.
Occasionally, girl children were invited to the Dealers at their blessing, and were inducted after a year of preparation.
See also: A Short History of Bridges
See also: Religion in Bridges
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