Opulence's Thorns
When paradise is so isolated that none outside its boundaries know about it enough to threaten it, its downfall will come from within. Or its violent change. Or its noble revolution. In any case, paradises like Inom do not stay in the same state forever. In 32 APB, the internal threat of change comes from Opulence's Thorns, a cult working with an eldritch deity buried near-mantle deep in Inom.
The Navy Mother leads this cult, having established it out of her tribe, the Midnighters. They are loyal to the Brier's will down to the last woman, and in return for their loyalty, the Brier grants them boons and points Navy towards that which will benefit both the tribe and the Brier's ends. The Midnighters are not the cult. This is not the most crucial distinction to make, but it is still worthy. The Midnighters are simply the tribe that populates the cult more than any other. Opulence's Thorns do not have very many non-Midnighter members, but they will in theory accept any race or species.
Nobody but the cult themselves really knows anything about the Thorns. Red-Beet's got no information of value. All text in this document is technically a secret.
Structure
Note that all titles were drafted (on paper of course) by Navy herself to be as stylish as possible in whichever language they are read/heard in. Navy is unfamiliar with the concept of "edge".
The Prophetess of Barbs is Navy's formal title in the Opulence's Thorns. She is a "prophetess" only in that the Brier holds audience with none but her. She's not technically the leader of the organization, as the Brier's still the one giving orders, but everyone sees her as leader just as much as the Brier. Beneath the Prophetess are several Bishops of the Bramble, operating their own administrative & religious districts within the Taproot so that Navy doesn't have to. They're honestly more governor than preacher, especially since the holy book's still being written.
Expedition parties to the surface, individually and collectively referred to as Prongs, are small, well-armed, and not led by any specific member of the group. Prongs are trained to spill no secret if captured and to avoid capture by mutual death. Prongs tend to bring both a conventional dagger and a poison-tipped wooded stake into combat; the former's great for killing, while the latter is designed to incapacitate without major damage to internal organs. They wear black robes with metal plate beneath.
Public Agenda
To serve the Brier. The item that's been on the agenda longest is the systematic capture and sacrifice of neiji to the Brier and the Siren.
Assets
Filled vaults they don't intend to trade off, numerous veins of military-grade ores, vast expanses of distant ruin-tunnels, thousands of trained Prong units. They are very well-off.
History
The Opulence's Thorns came into existence shortly after the Midnighters went from employees under a head of staff to a tribe under a chieftess. Navy realized she might be able to convert other tribes, or even other species, to the Brier's cause. Now the organization and the tribe were different things; all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.
Demography and Population
Though it claims the entirety of Inom its rightful land to rule, the Thorns currently only control the Taproot of the World. The population of the Thorn citizens are almost exclusively Midnighters. Slaves, however, are taken from a large variety of species and races.
Military
The Prongs are put towards all combat operations. The Thorns do not do open, large-numbers combat, both because that is not what the Prongs are trained for and because that would bring undesired attention.
Technological Level
The Thorns are developing firearms but with a focus on silencers, non-lethal rounds, subsonic rounds, and specialty bullets. They do not currently deem these arms ready for use in Prong operations, so these arms are stockpiled in case of invasion. Otherwise, they are fine metalsmiths and they even have electricity running to certain facilities.
Religion
All hail the Brier. All prostrate before the Brier.
Foreign Relations
Everyone is an enemy until proven otherwise.
Mythology & Lore
The devotees to the Brier live not far from her. Navy herself talks with the Brier on the regular. There is no mythology to the cult. Only truth on a cosmic scale.
Divine Origins
Navy found the Brier in one of her delves, and in her, a patron for her cause of equalizing the blockhead sexes. So, Navy brought her chapel-hands down to the depths of the world and started her tribe in the darkness.
Cosmological Views
Inom was once a normal world with a blossoming species--the neiji, who built these ruins. Then the Brier found them. The last species to attempt to build a Siren, the tans, had failed, as had all others before, but the Brier was not one to lose hope. She crashed into the ocean and immediately created an impossible granite outcrop--her impact created, essentially, a crater-like granite batholith. The surface should have been andesite, but it was granite. This is but one of the many ways the Brier's presence has mangled the laws of physics on Inom.
The neiji managed to actually build the Siren. They also turned it on. Then they failed to sacrifice their whole kind to it so as to fully activate it and bring the multiverse together. There were wars and betrayals. Most of the neiji have been subsumed into the brier, but a few remain, inside the intricate web of tunnels and temples below the jungle.
Tenets of Faith
Do as the Brier says, or at least what the Navy Mother says the Brier says, and also do as the Navy Mother says. Treat each other fairly regardless of physical form.
Priesthood
The Navy Mother herself is pretty much the only religious leader.
Granted Divine Powers
The midnighter sires among the faith have grown clitoris-like organs upon their glanses so as to be able to communicate in their species' pheromones. That's about it. The Brier is not currently powerful enough to overwhelmingly turn the state of things in their utter favor.
Skewer the Carnakt's Eye and Shred the Rotten Silk
Type
Secret, Occult
Capital
Alternative Names
Midnighters (synechdoche)
Formation Type
Training Level
Elite
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Leader
Head of State
Government System
Theocracy
Power Structure
Federation
Economic System
Command/Planned economy
Currency
Carnakts/Bits
Deities
Divines
Location
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments