Inom's Cradles
Of the four major CoHO players, Inom's Cradles represent a body part that tends to have a hard time being big without looking weird: the vagina. Their solution? Have many vaginas and frequently be pregnant. And so they cultivate the vagina-influencing members at the Wildcard's Diet. To stay afloat, they sell the brewed and distilled products of their harvest-- especially triplebuzz wine/brandy while growing much of their own normal food as well.
Like the other CoHOs, one must join the cult to make use of their mutagen gardens. Mother Tosi's reasoning, since otherwise she's happy to give visitors anything they ask (in reason), is that addiction to mutagens is rough in this world and if a girl is that dedicated to bolstering her vaginal number/size, she'd fit right in with the Cradles.
Structure
At the top sits Mother Tosi, the current incarnation of Tosi among mortals. She is the ultimate authority of the cult, but she's nice, at least. She dictates what the cult does, where its money goes, and what its orally-conveyed scripture says. Tosi's immediate descendants are her Sacred Daughters, who, between able adults and teenagers, make up just under half of the cult's current population. Mother Tosi bears a new sacred daughter every month.
The most prestigious position anyone unrelated to Tosi (though still with high competition) could hope to attain is to be one of Tosi's caretakers, cooking her feasts, helping her to her walker, cleaning her bedroom, and sweeping debris from the floor wherever Tosi goes. They even nurse Tosi's newborns if Tosi's too swamped to do so herself.
The rest are the Dutiful Daughters, who keep the Temple clean, work the gardens, cook for the cult, maintain the Muffs District's public works, and keep the peace. There's usually an older Dutiful Daughter who directs her underlings. Teens can't be anything but a Dutiful Daughter in the cult.
Public Agenda
At their core, Mother Tosi needs to give birth to as many babies as she can so she can spread her worship throughout every species on Inom. Sometimes she gives public or cult-only speeches to this end and the members are always happy to talk about their beliefs.
Secondarily, they're always recruiting and are especially interested in mutagen addicts, more than those interested in becoming a mother. They see themselves as the best way to treat such an addiction by providing a safe environment in which to sample the Wildcard's Diet and support enough to cut them off when it's time. Their other secondary objective is to keep the Muffs District nice as well. They keep the peace with as little violence as possible and they get food to those in need, as well as building and tending to the public infrastructure.
And, since they need to make money to fund their development and that of the city, they sell quality alcoholic beverages using their supply of vaginal mutagens to those who can afford to nurse an addiction thereto. Tosi also plans to rewrite the lore to accommodate additional chapters if the population of the cult should get to being too much for the temple compound.
Assets
Inom's Cradles operate out of Tosi's Temple of Fertility, a complex containing the temple itself & Tosi's quarters, farmlands, mutagen gardens, a brewery, and dormitories for those who do not or cannot sleep overnight all packed into Tosi's lower five wombs. The Cradles also de facto own the Muffs District (they inspired its name) and work to maintain it both in infrastructure and in peace-keeping. The citizenry ranges from tolerant to loyal.
The coffers of the cult are usually enough to give the Cradles some decent spending power compared to the gangs in other slums, and if necessary, they can even offload their warehouses full of vaginal mutagens for quite a bit of dosh.
The uniform of Inom's Cradles is quite intricate and seems to change subtly every year. It's made of liverlinen and kelshahim silk, bleached and then treated with rich pink and red dyes (and sometimes accents of gold). All members wear the temperature-appropriate stockings and sleeves when out and representing; in summer, the stockings are sockless, sleeves are gloveless, and both quite thin, while in winter, the opposite holds true. On both the upper thighs and the upper arms, the double-clitted vagina of Mother Tosi is stenciled onto the fabric. This is the absolute basic uniform. Every member wears these leg warmers and sleeves no matter what else applies and many of the Dutiful Daughters doing the dirty work on the farms, in the gardens, or on the maintenance of the district wear only these two things and a pair of shoes or sandals fitted to the task at hand, even in the cold and the wet.
The uniform receives a variety of additions based on who's wearing it. While almost all adults wear a variation of the uniform that leaves nethers and/or breasts exposed, that obviously won't work for the younger members. Those under the age of fifteen (translates to 18.75 Earthly years, mind!), whether growing naturally or, thanks to once-illegal gene mods, to maturity within the month, must wear something over their bits when not sleeping or bathing. Unless wearing something her mother made or she herself made, the standard coverings are, in the summer, shorts or a shortish skirt and a tank top or light blouse (with bra depending on need) and, in the winter, a long skirt or pair of pants and a thick vest, sometimes padded and moisture-resistant.
Certain articles also signify other states among adults. Any form of bra, for instance, indicates an inability to produce milk in quantities enough to, say, nurse a baby passed her way. A corset of any sort indicates a voluntary refusal to get pregnant (typically due to inability to personally care for a(nother) child or commitment to adoption) and so any sexual encounter with a corset-wearing Cradle demands some form of birth control. An extremely short skirt indicates an ability to conceive that mutagens cannot resolve, while panties indicate that this particular Cradle is not always down to fuck, even if she's not busy, and one has to ask her permission to stick one's dick inside her.
Only one part of the outfit qualifies as a signifier of rank: the mother's cloak. Both kinds of mothers wear hooded cloaks to signify motherhood (white for adoption, red for having given birth, pink for a mix of both). A mother wears an asymmetrical half cloak that goes down to the lower back on her right and barely covers the shoulder on her left; a grandmother wears a symmetrical and unadorned cloak that tapers down to her lower calves like a teardrop; great-grandmothers gain a golden stripe just an inch away from the edges of the cloth; and every additional generation gets a thin chevron pointing up placed between the stripes and only an inch above the lowest point on the center of the cape. Due to the Cradles enforcing a strict only-those-fifteen-or-older-are-adults policy, if a mother whose children physically grow to maturity in under fifteen years and one of her physically-mature progeny becomes a mother in her own right before fifteen, the granddaughter/daughter does not count for the purposes of advancing the cloak.
History
Inom's Cradles are the oldest of the big for CoHOs. Whereas other CoHOs can lose prominence thanks to someone growing a bigger hyper-bit and declaring that their cult is more valid, few are willing to step to the Cradles' pregnancy thing. It's just a logistical nightmare and it requires not only mutagens but time to get ahead of Mother Tosi-- she's borne hundreds of kids into this world and she's got no signs of stopping; how can one compare?
Mother Tosi founded the Cradles as little more than an excuse to play with mutagens, be pregnant all the time, and be treated like a goddess. She picked some then-sparsely-inhabited land and convinced some of the locals to work for her in exchange for access to mutagens and a community they could call her own. They grew quite slowly at first because many saw through the cult appearance to Tosi's real desires.
Then, Mother Tosi performed a miracle: with a wandering Redspawn mercenary as the sire, she birthed a hybrid of blockhead and merfolk, a feat known to be impossible. This brought much-needed attention and validity to the operation, and though the journalists cleared out after there wasn't much more to say, the steady stream of applicant members and new Sacred Daughters did not. Some came because they believed Tosi to genuinely be a goddess on Inom. Others needed a fix for their mutagen addiction and the Cradles offered some to all of their members.
Because of their swelling numbers and need for more resources (donations weren't and still aren't enough to keep the lights on, though they help indeed), they then took to selling their brewed mutagens on the market, trusting that anyone who could afford mutagenic alcohol could afford to nurse a mutagen addiction. Then they directed much of these funds to the now-quickly-developing district around them, getting some valuable public works built in before it would end up crammed in or neglected as an afterthought. Thanks to Inom's Cradles, the Muffs District has clean water and even electricity in some buildings.
More recently, they've gotten sick of adding new floors to their orphanages, and so Mother Tosi has issued an order for the time being that any prospective mother strongly consider adoption.
Mythology & Lore
Mother Tosi is the current incarnation of the fertility goddess who just so happens to share the whale shark's last name, capable of birthing a hybrid of any species with her own merfolk genes.
Divine Origins
According to Mother Tosi, she is a goddess who has reincarnated numerous times throughout human space and time, gathering followers in each life until it comes time for her vessel to expire. Inom's Cradles are not only the current iteration of her devotees, however-- This is Tosi's final reincarnation and she will live with her current cult forever.
This is not, of course, true. See the section on the cult's history for the truth.
Cosmological Views
Mother Tosi, educated woman that she is, takes the opportunity to claim that Inom, thanks to its peculiar and impossible nature, is a paradise that Tosi had long intended to provide for the final iteration of her cult. She primarily cites the mutagenic xenofauna.
Tenets of Faith
Do as Tosi says. Harm no child, nor let a child come to harm.
Worship
There's no one right way to worship Tosi besides being a member of the cult and living at her compound in the first place.
Priesthood
The mothers of more children command more authority. They can be distinguished by the intricacy of their capes.
Granted Divine Powers
No magic powers come with being a cultist, but cultists do get access to mutagens that would be rather expensive otherwise.
To Birth New Life is the Right of All
Type
Religious, Cult
Alternative Names
The Muff Cult (informal)
Demonym
Cradle, Tosite (implies strong belief in the lore), Muff Cultist (informal)
Leader
Parent Organization
Deities
Divines
Location
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
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