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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 7:59:33 GMT -5
This topic is a child of the Cult of Meat article directory.FEEL THE MEATThough there are many unique and independent sects of the Cult of Meat, all follow a branch of their central faith; the Oath of Singular Glory. To the Cult, the meatscapes are god, church, and provider. They are sacred ground that only the devout are allowed to witness. They are the inspiration of many preachers and pastors of their faith. They provide food, shelter, and rejuvenation to countless thousands of cultists. They are the home of the most holy of the Cult; the meat monsters. As duty to their crimson caretaker, the Cult is charged with the expansion, reverence, and protection of the meatscapes.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 7:59:52 GMT -5
BRANCHES OF FAITH
There are three primary branches of the Oath of Singular Glory. The first and foremost is the Covenant of the Growing Gospel, the element of the Cult's faith dedicated to spreading and safeguarding the meatscapes. It emphasizes conversion of outsiders, growth of the meatscapes, and protecting the Cult's faith. The Cult's second branch is the Embrace of the Crimson Cloud, the dedication of one's self to the meat. It revolves around selflessness, providing for others, and the eternal union between the faithful and the meat. Last of the major branches is the Pact of Sazuk'Aliah, the faith in the Cult itself. The Pact is focused on understanding the meat, chronicling it, and expanding the possibilities of the flesh.
The Covenant of the Growing Gospel is the Cult's most militant branch of worship. Most see it as upon themselves to spread their faith by any means necessary. If it should require the slaying, torture, or meatsification of outsiders, they are willing to commit to it. The Embrace of the Crimson Cloud is the best respected of the Oath's branches. They alone are responsible for the success and prosperity of an unending amount of towns, pious or profligate. The Pact of Sazuk'Aliah, named for the first Living Truth to rise, is among the Cult's elite; of its most devout and esteemed, the majority follow Aliah's example.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 8:59:50 GMT -5
MAJOR FIGURESAs a religious movement, the Cult is rife with deities and demons. Countless sects maintain their own icons of worship. Many focus on common idols and recurring themes, which appear with frequency in accepted canon. The following is a list of major religious figures that have remained coherent throughout the Cult's history, in their most commonly-accepted portrayals. - Many in the Cult believe in the presence of the Great Crimson Cloud, an entity approaching deification. The Great Crimson Cloud is said to be a roaming mist of blood that actively seeks out the most worthy of the Cult, swallowing them up to return them to the meat. Those returned to the meat in such a way are said to be in a state of endless bliss and enlightenment - true ascension beyond that of even the Living Truths. Massed pilgrimages in search of the Great Crimson Cloud are commonplace, and many roam endlessly across the meatscapes in decades-long journeys.
- Within the meatscapes are enormous structures known as the Spines of the Dying Ascendant. The Spines are structures of iron-plated bone and nerve coils reaching upwards of several kilometers in height. Each Spine is covered in a unique array of "Sanguiscript" glyphs, printed directly into their iron surfaces. The tallest known is the Forked Coil of the Laboring Giant, a pair of joined Spines in the Southern Veinlands that extend upwards through the legs of the Laboring Giant. The Spines of the Dying Ascendant are entirely natural structures forged through processes unknown in the meatscapes. Their purpose and the meaning of their glyphs are both unknown. Many cultists dedicate their lives to recording, chronicling, and theorizing on the glyphs, and their interpretations are the foundation for many of the Cult's religious works.
- The Faultless Giants are the Cult's pantheon of champions, heralded as angelic figures of martial prowess. They are paid homage in countless Cult works, with many of their Whispered Names serving as blessing themselves. They are seen in innumerable fashions; as tremendous titans larger than any of the Living Truths, or as humbly-statured men and women in the midst of impossible feats. They are thought to be the emissaries of the Great Crimson Cloud, living representatives of its will. Most sects assign them with specific qualities, and call upon them for aid in their divine jurisdictions.
- The Ivory Ascendant were a sect of the Cult in its prehistory, one that took on its faith openly to draw attention away from others. It stood as the Cult's defenders, routinely sacrificing itself at key junctures to further the Cult's aims. They were present to help uncover the eldest Spine of the Dying Ascendant, which are believed to have been named in their honor. They were seen as instrumental in bringing about the rise of Dawn's Army after the Silent of Spirit were destroyed. Not long after, they were wiped out by the Blind Pariah, and are mourned as the noblest martyrs of the Cult.
- Dawn's Army, in Cult scripture, was a legion of transformed cultists and meat monsters. Portrayals are conflicting. Some paint them as repentant heretics, using their knowledge of their own kind to safeguard a wounded Cult. Others depict them as menacing castaways of the Lightless, who scoured all with cold, merciless efficiency. They were broken by the Blind Pariah early in their history, left as husks of their former selves. Some claim they still seek vengeance against her, despite her death - a pitied quest doomed to eternal hatred.
- The Lightless are a recurring pantheon of demons in the Cult's lore, sometimes known as the Black Devils. They are loathed as an anathema to the meat itself, as an antithesis to all that the Cult is. They are depicted variously as men of stone, hawks of steel, or vast, insectoid monsters. Various scriptures detail them as so loathesome that even the noblest of spirits were reduced to weeping wretches with only a glimpse. In the same stroke, many tellings of their stories cast them as fallen and corrupted, that they once served the meat as kindred. Some sects claim the Lightless were defeated in the Cult's prehistory. Others say they exist to this day as baleful spectres of their past.
- The Silent of Spirit, known sometimes as the Shadowed Servants, were pawns of the Lightless, who became shepherds to the Cult in its earliest years. They sacrificed themselves to reveal the first Spines of the Dying Ascendant, and their deaths heralded the coming of Dawn's Army. They are portrayed as blind husks, hands chained to their necks, wearing nothing but dark jewels and sculpted stones hung from their bodies. As Cult lore claims, they persist to this day in spirit, their names whispered by the meat at the cusp of morning. They are a pitied memory, but never one reviled - lost, mourned kin of a Cult far in the past.
- The Blind Pariah, variously known as the Wretch-Traitor or Lorn Betrayer, is one of the most hated figures in the Cult's canon. Their lore claims that she dealt them a number of vicious blows in their youth, while their faith was still taking hold. She was responsible for the death of the Ivory Ascendant and the defeat of Dawn's Army. She later died some time around the Second Awakening of the Fervent Few. She is depicted alternately as a human or redworlder, depending on name; as the Blind Pariah, she is most often a redworlder, while the Wretch-Traitor is typically a human. She is seen as a shrivelled, eyeless wretch, with her jaw missing or cleaved, clad scarcely in pale rags.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 9:05:59 GMT -5
TECHNOLOGY & THE MEAT
Technophobia is rife in the Cult. Its presence is felt exponentially more in its higher ranks, where some of its most senior members utterly reject even the most basic of tools. Only ceremonial clothes and artifacts are welcome in the Cult's seats of power - and even those may manifest from the bodies of cultists themselves. For many, the meat and its offerings take the place of tools and weapons. Even homes are foregone by those who live in the meatscapes. Many simply shelter in enormous maws and other orifices littering the environment.
For devout cultists, the only nourishment is the meat. Their only tools are sinew and ivory, their only clothes leather and fur. The Cult's transformed live and die by their bodies alone, fashioning weapons and tools from their own flesh and bone. They stand as exemplars to their flocks, empowered only by the meat, their flesh, and their faith. They are the champions that all others seek to emulate. The dogma of many sects stands behind them, compelling the faithful to shed their material possessions to others less fortunate. It is thus that technophobia is, to many, a sign of piety.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 19, 2018 9:06:11 GMT -5
GRADINGS OF FAITH
At the lowest position in the Cult and comprising the bulk of its membership are its average disciples. They come from all walks of life; wanderers, townsfolk, Looney deserters, and any others willing to take on the faith. Humans, redworlders, and pseudocrustaceans alike live together without boundaries. Some are part of eternal pilgrimages across the meatscapes, others live ordinary, unassuming lives in peaceful towns. Some openly wear their faith as a badge of pride, others live in passive modesty. The bottom-most are known by no particular title, but are offered a quiet esteem by their superiors.
Above the base-level cultists and casual believers are the meat monsters. The meat monsters are those creatures borne by the meat, twisted, mindless abominations without purpose. Some were corrupted by unwary encounters with the meat or its children, others were birthed whole from the meat itself. They roam aimlessly from their place of manifestation, preying on any and all they find - cultists, other meat monsters, whatever might sate their unending hunger. They are moulded into a coherent force only at the behest of the most engorged of cultists, and it is together that they are feared as a nigh-unstoppable force of blood and terror. When united in purpose, they are known as the Touched.
The meatscapes are the beating hearts of power for the Cult - in quite literal fashion. The most senior of those indoctrinated into their faith are twisted, sinewy masses of impossible flesh. They are corrupted in body and soul, fused with the virulent plagues and viscous tissue that flow from the meatscapes. Many wield great and terrible powers of blood and bone; haruturgy, osteomancy, and the sacred rites of spleen binding. Those esteemed members granted the powers of the meat are known as the Cloud's Children, the Keepers of the Spines, and the Incarnadine Confessors.
Those at the highest level of the Cult are immortal, able to reincarnate at will from the life juices of the meatscapes, and are no longer recognizable as any single species. They are the lords of the meatscapes, the apostles of sanguinity, and living effigies of the will of the meat. They range in size and perversion, from intestinal arachnids the size of a man, up to fearsome titans of ivory and ichor hundreds of feet tall. They lead the Cult's many sects and spread the meatscapes with pieces of their own being. They are the Living Truths and the Gutminds, the true champions of the meat.
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