Salyite Order (Salyite Sisterhood)
Sisterhood of Salya – This is an order of religious assassins which never has more than a few hundred members. They operate out of the holdings of various lords that provide them with protection in exchange for the services of the assassins. They worship the vampire goddess Salya, who is according to legend the half-sister of Alya and Zalara. The order is controlled by the Midnight Council, which consists of seven Assassin-Priestesses. The leader of the Council is known as the Shadow Queen. The council is headquartered at a location known as the Shadow Temple which is the residence of the Queen.
The Sisterhood is broken into groupings called Circles, which consist of 5-9 members led by an assassin-priestess. About half of the members of each circle will be priestesses or magic users in addition to their training as assassins. The circles recruit and train new members, carry out assassinations and perform other missions like spying or stealing valuable objects.
Many of the high ranking members of the cult are reputed to be living vampires. The cult’s high-ranking priestesses use a transformative ritual spell to turn valued members into vampires. This allows them to use the consumption of blood to prevent aging. In this form they are not undead, but do have increased abilities including the seeing in the dark, regeneration, and increased physical abilities (strength and speed).
The Cult has several hundred additional members who are not assassins or members of the Circles. These women are known as Veiled Sisters. They have several roles, first they act as facilitators to connect the order’s assassins with potential clients, they gather intelligence and they provide logistical support for the Circles.
The Cult is generally open to taking contracts for murder and kidnapping from all comers. However, its members will not take contracts against groups they have special relationships with like the Zalarites and Syrican Brotherhood. They are also unlikely to engage groups that can massively retaliate like the Alyites or the Order of the Diamond.
Structure
The order is controlled by the Midnight Council, which consists of seven Assassin-Priestesses. The leader of the Council is known as the Shadow Queen. The council is headquartered at a location known as the Shadow Temple which is the residence of the Queen.
The Sisterhood is broken into groupings called Circles, which consist of 5-9 members led by an assassin-priestess. About half of the members of each circle will be priestesses or magic users in addition to their training as assassins. The circles recruit and train new members, carry out assassinations and perform other missions like spying or stealing valuable objects.
Assets
The sect does not publicly own anything, but is very wealthy. It owns numerous properties ranging from castles, to inns to Villas. It is rumored the the Order even owns ships. Many of its properties are used as safehouses for members on missions.
Divine Origins
The worship of Salya began sometime after the end of the Wars of the Arrival. Having achieved immortality through turning herself into a living vampire, Salya's followers began to worship her. Salya began to gain go like powers. Initially the worship of Salya was a sect with several thousand members. However over several centuries as conditions became more stable governments began to crackdown on the sect forcing it underground. Eventually the sect responded by turning itself into isolated underground cells. Every the centuries, many of these cells were revealed and destroyed until only one cell consisting of four women remained. This group organized a new hierarchy and began to develop new interconnected cells across the continent. This was done patiently and carefully with great attention to security. At this time the new leaders decided the resurrected sect would be a woman only organization.
Tenets of Faith
1. Be faithful to Goddess
2. Be faithful to the hierarchy
3. Be faithful to your sisters
4. Destroy the enemies of the Goddess
5. Dedicate the blood you spill to the Goddess
Worship
Before carrying out a killing the assassins will make a ritual prayer to the goddess dedicating the blood of their victim to Salya. The Cult's most important holiday begins at the fall of darkness on the last day of the year and ends at midnight known as the Night of Blood. During this ritual a high priestess will sacrifice an enemy of the sect and will perform rituals of transformation on any sect members being turned into living vampires.
Granted Divine Powers
The most important ability the high priestesses of the faith have is the ability to carry out the ritual of transformation which turns the most devoted adherents of the Cult into immortal living vampires.
Political Influence & Intrigue
The Cult is heavily involved in assassinations for hire. The Cult seeks out areas of political instability to sell its services. They also can carry out missions of intimidation leaving some obvious calling card to demonstrate they can strike at any target.
Sects
Originally the Cult was broken into numerous locally lead sects some of which operated above ground and others of which were underground. During the suppression all but a single, small group Cult members survived. Their new vision created a single unified sect with a clear chain of command. Anyone who attempted to breakaway quickly became a target for elimination.
Strike for the Goddess
Type
Religious, Other
Demonym
Salyites
Leader Title
Subsidiary Organizations
Divines
Related Ranks & Titles
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
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