It’s the not the swiftness of time passing in Umberwell that hangs you up by your feet, letting the blood rush dizzily to your head. Time grins as it goes; it is so eager to part with you, and you can’t help but read that eagerness as unthinking malice—a joke told at your expense, in the end.
– Marjin Plaaz, priest of Vokara
Part 1 is here, notes on the People's Covenant are here, and descriptions of the gods are here.
The adherents of the Ashram of Willing Vassalage are a forever-dwindling sect of Ravsana’s worshipers who offer up their prayers in the form of crippling addiction. They view being bound to vice—whether chemical, sexual, or behavioral—as a sacred covenant that evidences the depth of their willingness to sacrifice for their creed. To be an addict is to lay one’s free will upon the altar; what offering could be sweeter to Ravsana than that particular property of the soul which separates them from the lower creatures of the world? Common theories of salvation are lies, they surmise, and spiritual ascent is only possible from the bottom of a deep well of addiction from which escape appears impossible. Such are the dictates of a devotion that requires abjection to open the door to enlightenment.
The Holy Skyclad Cathedral
To the worshipers at the Skyclad Cathedral, the six goddesses represent the sacred principle of openness. As such, they attempt to evidence receptiveness and veracity in every aspect of their lives. Only those willing to divest themselves of every stitch of clothing are allowed within the Holy Skyclad Cathedral. This sect are nudists because they believe that clothing obscures the truth of their physicality; they are truth-tellers who view deceit as anathema and exuberant souls who refuse to control their emotions—they express every feeling they experience with an unrestrained frankness that is truly frightening to behold.
The Shrine of Calamity
Those who gather at the Shrine of Calamity come to worship Vokara and Komoa only after they have suffered great personal tragedy. Having what they love torn from them has sent them spiraling into alignment with Vokara’s embodiment of hateful degradation and Komoa’s violent streak. They do not embrace the goddesses because they adore the forces of destruction they represent; rather, they entreat Vokara and Komoa, and make sacrificial offerings unto them, because they pray that those who have brought them ruination will suffer an equal or greater plunge into the abyss of bleak hopelessness.
* * *
If you like the content above (or any of the content here), consider checking out Umberwell: Blackened Be Thy Name, system agnostic New Weird city setting, now available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG.
