Clan Archives

How it began, the First Redeemer
This current aeon, the most recent incarnation of the Garden of Earthly Delights, has stood for almost four millennia. The Garden of Paradise, where the first redeemer, Protennoia, entered this world and her offspring, who became the first people living, is where Axis Mundi now stands. The children of Paradise pleased the Lord and have forever been allowed to inhabit this jewel of Creation while multiplying and eventually peopling the Earth.
Protennoia was not only the mother and father of all who live today, but she was also the first redeemer of this aeon, washing away the sins of everyone who walked the earth. Redeemers have appeared on Earth eight times since Protennoia, and every time they have reaffirmed God’s rule over Earth´s children. Each of them has revealed a host of new knowledge as gifts from the Almighty, enabling man to express God’s wondrous creation in new and ever more glorious ways.

~ Excerpt from the Gyronomicon

After all these things had passed, Protennoia´s children grew in numbers. The Divine provided, his eye transfixed in the sky, watching every breath and movement, and peace reigned in Paradise. The light ever shone, the trees were ever fruitful and butter dripped from every straw. No shadow was cast unless shade was wished for, and no wind blew unless a refreshing breeze was needed. Thus passed the time, seemingly as if it stood still and would do so for eternity. No regrets were had for yesterday, no care for tomorrow; every moment, action, and thought was splendid, present, and now. And so, memory faded and dreams lost their purpose. The children of Paradise slipped into an existence without recognition or meaning, without need or want, but filled with unconditional love and plenty. And the Divine saw this and was delighted. But this also caused stirrings in the deep reaches, among those whose measure of time is an eternal, purposeful torment. Eyes glinted in the cold, oily dark, sounds of skittering feet and whispers started echoing in long forgotten halls, and the thick, dank, and grimy air of the underworlds suddenly shuddered with excitement. And thus, after simmering in their misery from one aeon to the next, the Sovereigns of the Dark were reminded of their purpose and started to awaken from their slumber.

~ Totam, beginning of the fifth chapter: Of the Moon and Meirothea.

Armozel’s Folly
Armozel was revealed as the fifth redeemer during the great incursion of the Dark Lord in the twelfth century after creation. The seventh son of a Gothian carpenter, he taught mankind to imbue earth’s metals with divine spirit, shaping them into tools, weapons, and armor. Armozel was the first redeemer born under the sun, rather than having descended from heaven.
Four decades after Phaionios’ ascension, Armozel was growing restless. His craft and skill had given him everything he could wish for, so the Deceiver laid out a trap for him and showed him he had yet more to gain. In the guise of the angel Chamuel, he visited Armozel in a dream and led him under the great mountain Medula, beyond the holy seals laid down by the fourth redeemer, and showed him endless halls and chambers where cold metal lined the walls while glistering stones shone the way.

Without seeking guidance from the Allfather, once again, Armozel raised the Sons of the Light, the great host of paladins who had fought with him and Phaionios during the great purge of Evil. His desire for the riches kept by the dungeons beneath the mountain and the pride welling up inside him at the sight of thousands of his holy knights standing before him caused him to disregard God’s peace. And the seals were shattered.

 

For one day and one night, the Sons of the Light rode through the gates of Medula, descending into the mountain, singing praises to the Lord and shouting taunts at the dark forces that surely awaited them within. Armozel, who was riding mid-column, entered the mountain at sunset.
Neither he, nor a single one of his shining paladins, was ever seen again.

~ Echoes of Cimeron 1:22

The tower beckons and at midnight I join with eternity. My watch will be relieved for the last time and my Master will reignite the insatiable gnawing desire that kindles my mortal body.
A promise is fulfilled.
Ere I was called. My visitation gifted me the call of hunger, the delightful emptiness which never fills, a thirst that is never quenched, an appetite that saw an end to my neighbors and my family. My children. Ended the story of Forest Green and its people, everyone I ever knew; Those who knew me as their brother. And gluttony never rests. Before I found my place here, I found many farms and villages where today no one remains to remember.
It is bliss.
As these last hours of my earthly unfulfillment pass, I close my eyes and look around the Mire. Soothing and delicious sounds of devouring, of gnawing, of gnashing and grunts from men and women engorging themselves to their withering soul’s desire. My nostrils are filled with a noxious scent of rotting meat, putrid greens, mould and damp.
It is Elysian.
The tower. It flickers. The wriggling bugs and beetles slithering all over my skin, glow with new excitement. The deep, soft, wet and snappy sounds of drudges’ bodies being slowly pulled apart can be discerned through the cacophony of sweet and soothing screams. The tower is alight. Duke Lamalon walks this earth once more.
It is time.

~ Gatekeeper Montel ~ The night before the Night Eternal

Gaeune, Grand Inquisitor, the burning edge of God’s wrath, servant of Papess Gloria II, Ad futuram rei memoriam.

In pursuing the will of Papess Gloria II with great ardor as pastoral solicitude requires, the Congregation for Extinguishing Heresy has examined the nature and recent rise of the Sethian heretical depravity within the kingdom of Anatolia and their role in the diabolical events leading to the disgraceful and cowardly murder of our ninth redeemer, Loios.

 

Through this pious desire, we have strived by our toil to root out any and all errors we have come across among these lost souls and employing the hoe of a wise laborer, zeal, and devotion our faith gives us to wrestle back the scorched hearts that have been lost to this abomination

 

Through these examinations and not without great pain to ourselves, the egregious facts about the existence of this order have come to our ears. All across Anatolia, its provinces, cities, territories, regions, and dioceses, many persons of all sexes, heedless of their own salvation and forsaking the Pax Dei, give themselves over to incantations, charms, and conjuring, and other abominable superstitions and sortilèges, offenses, crimes, and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, cattle, and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; that they afflict and torture with dire pains and anguish.

 

I do therefore desire, as is my duty, to remove all impediments by which in any way my inquisitors are hindered in the exercise of their office, enabling them by any means necessary to prevent the taint of heretical pravity and of other like evils from spreading their infection to the ruin of others who are innocent, the zeal of religion especially impelling us, in order that the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and places aforesaid in the said parts of Anatolia may not be deprived of the office of inquisition which is their due.

 

To that end, I seek a decree from the hand of the Holy See and by virtue of her apostolic authority, that it shall be permitted to the said inquisitors in these regions, that they exercise their office of inquisition without prejudice and may proceed to the correction, imprisonment, and punishment of the aforesaid persons for their said offenses and crimes.

~ Gaeune´s report to the Holy See in the spring of 3899 AC, one year after Loios the ninth redeemer perished at the hands of the princes of Anatolia and at the beginning of the great downfall.

Chloë, magister doloris, keen servant of the holy Inquisition and humble spiritual disciple of Armozel , Ad futuram rei memoriam.

As instructed and with the eagerness fitting our purpose, I wish to report our findings after having harvested the depraved minds of the Sethian heretics whose fate was laid in our hands and lives of whom we carefully and aptly ended with the most proper pastoral care. The original filthy dogma of the Sethian heresy and the idea that educates all they postulate and do, is the belief that God is purely spiritual and that His kingdom belongs strictly to the spiritual realm, while the temporal world and everything within it was supposedly created by the Devil, whom they call Rex Mundi, in order to lure souls from heaven.

 

Therefore they view everything that has to do with this world as impure, having no worth whatsoever, including their earthly lives and bodies. Sethians believe they are repeatedly reincarnated on Earth until they attain what in their perverted mind equals spiritual perfection, allowing them to die for the last time and escape this Creation, which they view as a cacophony of Evil.

 

Furthermore, they believe that in the Kingdom of Heaven, all souls are the same, no males, no females, indeed no bodies or visual form at all. The division of humans into sexes is a creation of the Devil and carnal love is the ultimate trap laid to corrupt the spirit and keep it perpetually in his grip. In their eyes, removing any signs of the sexual division and indeed disrespecting their own body in the most deprived and loathsome way is viewed among Sethians as an effort to get closer to God.

 

Henceforth, in summarizing their corrupt and perverted beliefs, the following can be stated:
i. Everything of this world is unclean and a creation of the Devil.
ii. Nothing is worth enjoying.
iii. Nothing is worth saving.
iv. This earthly existence means nothing and has no value.
v. The less one conforms to life on earth, the closer one is to God.
vi. Sacrificing one’s life brings a Sethian soul one step closer to being allowed back into Heaven.
vii. Self-mutilation and the enduring of pain is an expression of the hatred for Rex Mundi and his creation and thereby a form of divine worship.

 

This disregard for God’s creation, resulting in rampaging bands of aforesaid heretics crisscrossing the lands, laying murderous waste to everything in their path, must be stopped by any means possible.

 

It is therefore of utmost importance that the Order in conducting God´s work, not be molested by worldly powers or hindered in any manner whatsoever by any authority whatsoever in the manner of the aforesaid and through our Papal decree, that we may threaten all opposers, whomever they may be, with ex-communication, suspension, interdict and still other more terrible sentences, censures, and penalties.

~ Inquisitor Chloë´s letter to Grand Inquisitor Gaeune, the day before the Mass of Great Summons 3901 AC, urging him to light the fires under the Sethian heretics for real.

“If thou beest he; But O how fall’n! how chang’d
From him, who in the happy Realms of Light
Cloth’d with transcendent brightness didst out-shine
Myriads though bright…”

 

Thus was described at the end of the first creation, as the original Paradise was Lost, this Prince of Hell, Manifest Gluttony, and Devourer of Lands, the Lord of the Flies himself, Ruler of the Nightmire and its various manifestations on this our side of the Veil.

He is known by many names, none of which are decent to utter or safe to voice. Even those of our lost siblings who have fallen and seek eternity in the shade of his buzzing hordes: the wretched crew known as the Cult of Zeb, dare not articulate his true name.

Lost to their Masters’ deadly sin, they desire everything but prefer nothing over anything else. They do not care whose it is that they reap and plunder, what it is, or if it is for anyone else to claim. Excess in all things is the purpose and means to an end that can never arrive.

Of the Cultists
As with all demonic cults, their members are solely in it for themselves. While there are those within this Creation who have fallen to the wicked ways of heresy; they still worship the true Lord, albeit not in the correct manner, and along with their misguided brethren, do seek the true path in communion, the Cultists do not. And in that fact lies, perhaps, their greatest weakness.

The Cultists have no sense or love for each other, the only thing that drives them on is the urge to satisfy their Masters’ desire through the Dukes of Zeb, the sevenfold seven demon lords who serve as his stewards across the lands and in the twisted depths.

Whether the misfortunate originally are drawn to the Cult by demonic possession or they are otherwise corrupted by the spirits of the doomed, they quickly become lost beyond redemption, and no one, once given over to the Dukes of Zeb, has ever returned to tell the tale.

Of the Twisted Depths
Organized and commanded by their demonic overlords, the Cultists do not only roam the lands in their efforts to fulfill their Masters’ desires, they are also known to infest places within the earth itself, locations that are said to be carved into the very border of this world and the one below, places where the Veil is thin and grows more porous the deeper one delves.

Here the Cultists prepare for the comings and goings of their masters and above all else, strive to prove their worth, sacrificing all they have and manage to gain, in hopes of one day being viewed as worthy to be relieved of their mortal coil and becoming dark revenants in service of the Lord of the Flies for all eternity.

 

Little is known about the daily happenings in these places in the deep. What we do know is that they are all dedicated to spreading the corruption of the Mire, and most of them are places where the Cultists toil away day and night to fulfill their masters’ needs.

Some, such as the one known as The Molting Chambers seem to function as insect hatcheries, where persons apprehended by the cult, as well as the cultists who are proven too weak, are closed up in tiny stone coffins and while still alive, are fed to maggots and larvae that slowly infest their bodies and mature, creating a writhing mass of insects used to spread further the Masters’ corruption.

 

Other places such as The Contageum, are dedicated to the corruption of pigs, the only animal of creation the Cultists look favorably upon. And yet others, such as the one known as The Absterium seem to serve the creation of demonic relics and other implements of the dark arts adapted to human use through inscriptions, symbols, masks, and other trinkets made from the skin of corrupted animals and humans.
Some of these places are, however, more directly frequented by the demons themselves, even the dukes, whenever they have gathered enough strength to cross the veil and manifest among their servants. There are some stories out of those depths telling of feast halls where mountainous maggot-ridden food buffets and rivers of wine await the whim of the Dukes. Other places seem to be more serene and serve as meditation halls where fantasies about the true Glut for More can be entertained uninterrupted.

 

And finally, there are the places known as Zebeums. The dark temples of this Prince of Hell, where his dukes and other demons, along with the Cultists, strive to one day receive him into this world once more.

~ From the sages’ annals

“Origins – For almost a century now, since the slaying of the last redeemer, no sanctified emissaries of the Divine have shown themselves on earth.

No prophets, no redeemers, and no new saints have been revealed and only the occasional rumors of far away manifestations of the divine have been reported. The seat of the Holy See remains empty, all the great kingdoms of the heartlands have crumbled and lie in waste and ruin. The fabled monasteries founded by Oroael the sixth redeemer have been robbed and deserted and the great paladin strongholds of Armozel the fifth redeemer have been lost, only legends remain, rumouring of their whereabouts.

Has The Divine forgotten her children? No one knows for sure, but what is obvious to all is that Pax Dei, the protection of the Divine, has shrunk more and more, leaving ever larger swaths of land open to the ever growing darkness creeping in from the Rimlands and the agents of the Dark Lord grow bolder every year. In fact, the only civilized place that still stands is reportedly Axis Mundi itself, or so we hope. No one has been let in there since the murder of Loios, and besides that, a handful of nearby settlements.

Creation is crying out for salvation, crying out for able bodies and minds to stand against the encroaching darkness, to pick up the banner of light and once more drive the forces of evil whence they came. In order to accomplish that, old fields must be broken anew, trees cleared, roads rebuilt, villages erected, and industries created. The lost wisdom of centuries past must be rediscovered, relics and holy sites unearthed, churches built, and the will of the Divine once again transformed into proud bastions of faith both at home and in the furthest reaches of the world.”

~ Sages Annals, the final chapter.