(Parlinia) Hospice and the Prophet of Sucur

Cold grey walls, long unadorned corridors, and the sounds of children weeping. Slow moving bundles of rags, servants dressed in shifts of heavy wool and arms wrapped in silvery chain... this is the Hospice, the home of the Prophet of Sucur.

The Hospice, born out of a treaty formed after a battle between Imperial forces and outsiders long hidden behind the Veil, is the home to those beings known as the Children of Sucur. Born of the tomb and living lives of renunciation, the Children and their leader provide a vital service to the Empire and the Prime: they are observers, recorders, and keepers of secrets found deep within the halls of the dead.

Ashy gray skin the color of gravestones marks these children, who are raised from the age of five in the cold corridors of Hospice. Their leader, the child Prophet, rules this place and takes in those who have been changed by the forces of death. Those who have fought the curse of undeath are given a choice; serve at the Hospice, or be driven before stake and sword.

Skinwalkers, men who have tasted blood but not taken on the Cloak of Midnight, and the occasional walking dead serve the Prophet and his Children, helping to preserve the protective wards which sit in a cave deep beneath the Hospice.

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The Prophet of Sucur has survived war, peace, and a dozen attempts on his life. The living embodiment of the divine will, the Prophet has served in his position since he was a young 'demon-tainted' horseborn in a Mescari encampment thousands of miles from the heart of the Empire. The Mescarin religion is based around a structure of meritocratic ancestral worship; indeed, many attempted to kill the boy known as The-winds-Speak for the betterment of their tribe.

The-Winds-Speak could call forces, speak to shades in the abandoned temples of the Kulna Plains, knew the names of spirits and called them to his aid.

From The Tenets of Sucur

He was an outcast amongst his people, and thus took to his ministry. A wandering priest, seeing his talent, brought him to a young warrior-poet in the far West, a brutal man who had never spoken of the Preserver.

With the light of Sucur he called forth the man's true spirit, and in it dwelt the strength of the lion twined with the will of the bull.

The Prophet and his Warden walked the paths of the world before coming to the Imperial Host. They had gathered a following ten thousand strong when they came into the city... and their people were granted asylum there, and dwelt within the heart of the Emperor's grace.

The Prophet has held that grace through many Emperors and their reigns. Small concessions to his will keep the Imperial Host in the grace and provenance of the Prophet, and though many would grant Sucuran worship exclusive purview of worship in the Empire, the Prophet has never made such a request.

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The Prophet of Sucur, and the Children of the Hospice, are living constructs of faith and essence. A step between humans and Outsiders, they are Neutral parties to the goings on of the world. Their true power, however, comes from the admixture of their talents. Each has a pervasive calming aura, and their talents manifest themselves in a raw show of eldritch force or a deep contact with the mind.

Those who bind themselves to the hand of the Prophet are treated as Warlocks, and serve as the Hands of the Prophet. Those who guard the secrets of Hospice are Psions and Wilder, using their unique talents to bind the strengthen the Paths which lie within the Hospice's shallow planar depths.

For a further discussion of Hospice... next post :-p.