> 5. Is the clan spiritual and highly loyal to their deity? Are they indifferent?
Oh man. I have to wheel out my actual diagrams to explain this, because my clan isn't so much a 'clan' as it is an 'empire'.
First, in the lore of my clan, the Deities of Sornieth do exist. They are seen as slightly different, however, than in regular flight rising lore. I deliberately keep things vague as to why this is, or how true their interpretations are, so that I can have my folks interact with other clans with minimal issue. The eleven deities exist as primal Truths. The Flamecaller is seen as an embodiment of flame, yes, but beyond that, the Flamecaller is believed to be passion, to be wildness, to be many things that may inhabit a person. The Plaguebringer, then, is an extension of, yes, plague and disease and death and survival, but is also seen as a prideful reaper-esque figure; her laws are ineffable, and all things die.
Remember this: all things must die.
So the Eleven are seen as very, very real, even if they may not take physical form overmuch, or at all.
But, as I have alluded to in past posts, while my clan does believe in the Eleven, the Rustsun Empire does not overtly worship any of them. They are not led by a God that reeks of plague, or a queen of shimmering light.
Instead, they worship (even if it is only lip-service), the God-Empress, who was born beneath the sign of the Lightbringer and came to the Plaguelands as a baby. In the divine ladder, Sloane Bessompierre is a Goddess, in the more physical sense. She stands below the Eleven, yes, as not even she is a primal truth in and of herself; she is not death, or light, or water, but she is Sloane, and in this, she is given a very real weakness. Would it be possible for her to overthrow one of the Eleven? Quite possibly. But, in truth, Sloane overthrowing a member of the Eleven would make her cease to exist as Sloane Bessompierre. She would become a disembodied truth. She would become a facet of the universe. She would lose her self.
Sloane, having achieved Godhood, is what the Rustsun Empire worships (or pretends to worship), on the whole. Of course, there are those who pray to Gladekeeper, or Plaguebringer, or the Arcanist, or Stormcatcher -- as is their way. But Sloane? She is a tangible Goddess, who has existed as far as anyone can remember.
(To pull back the curtain and wink at the audience: she has not always been here. )
But all things must die, right? Right-?
But she has not. There are no concerned whispers, for those who understand this truth have not the guts to whisper. They know better. There are those who have whispered, and fought against the God-Empress, and for those troubles--
-- they are no longer what they were.
So, I suppose, the shortest answer of this question is simply: they'd better at least pretend to be faithful. The only factions that do not are the Crimson Crawl Remnants and the Solaris Hideouts; both of them are thusly subject to extermination, should Sloane choose to turn her gaze upon them.
21. Does your clan have a healer?
There are three individuals who are healers!
Shizuna Sano, the first, is a sly sort, all grins and teeth and promises. She came from the water-aligned clans years back and found a place quickly at Sloane's side. She is one of the soul-menders of the Reddened Court, and also sees to the mending of gladiators -- or at least the ones who have won. There are whispers that her methodology does more harm than good, but none would dare say this to her face, especially not after they witness her deliver a cure that revives the tissue of the dead. Perhaps this is a fearful respect for the woman who can see the future. Perhaps the denizens fear having their futures foretold.
In truth, Ruthe is not much of a healer, but she can mend flesh with a simple touch. Her magic is anomalous; she is not meant to have it. She works for the Strauss Syndicate and puts spears through the skulls of those who threaten her benefactors -- she is a hitwoman, but her hands are blessed to heal and hurt. Ruthe does not use her healing magic much at all. It makes her feel some kind of way. Makes her guts feel unsafe. Makes her feel like the world is playing a trick on her. If she were meant to be more than a bloodslick killer, she would have grown up differently. Wouldn't have had the training she did. It feels like a joke, you know? But still, she has been known to restore health to the Syndicate's wounded, and then she slinks away to drink, and pretend she feels nothing at all. In recent months, Ruthe has found herself playing back-alley doctor. She objects -- a killer cannot be good at this, she says -- but does it anyways. And she does it for free.
Once, as her parents fled from the life of cultists, Sawyl Shatterlaugh died. One moment she was alive, helping pull her mother Dire out of the blast zone of a lightning weapon -- and in the next, her side was blasted away, and she knew only darkness. In the dark, there were strands of lightning, copper-smelling and skin-searing. There were chanting words, desperate screams of her parents. She does not remember much. She remembers waking, though, galvanized into action, muscles jerking to life. She remembers being able to do the same to others. Her gift is the only doctor available in the Underhell, and she does her best to make it work right. Sometimes, things go wrong, but there isn't much anger at all for the obviously unpracticed practitioner.
37. What is the origin of your clan's name?
Ok so!
I'll go over two of these -- the Crimson Crawl and The Rustsun Empire.
The Crimson Crawl cult? That was my original lore. Like. Years back, when I first joined six years ago or so, and was super edgy and stuff. I had a nasty sacrificial cult named the Crimson Crawl and they were named for the fact that they could corrupt the land they walked on, rendering it unlivable to even other plague dragons who did not join them. Now, it's become a sort of... calling card in a different way. Crimson Crawl = crawling blood after sacrificial rituals. Now they've split into two groups, of course, the runaways (including my progens who were the original cult leaders) and the hangers-on, who are led by Ichor and are not nice.
The Rustsun Empire itself was named because I think it fits them. If you want to think of it in a different kind of way, it's almost like a parasite in the sun, at least that's how i see it. The light, the sun, corrupted and glutted with blood. An eclipse, but worse. That's Sloane. She has a benevolent face, but she has committed an atrocity by wiping memories of anyone who could remember who she was, once. She's a woman who the empire loves, for the most part, but she should not be loved. She is the squirming, glutted worm in the creature's heart.
Thank you so much for asking!
