The Bloodied Hand
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a cult which Miasmær uses to control her servants
- Image Credit: Baldur's Gate 3
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Religion Name: The cult has no official name due to its decentralized and ad hoc nature. Those outside the group have given it the name 'Cult of the Bloody Hand' due to recurring symbols in the cult and the group's leader having taken the title 'The Bloody Hand'.
- Religion Type: Philosophical Cult
- Influence: Minor
- Influence Area: The cult is exclusively found in Miasmær's band of followers and servants, which regularly migrates at her command
- Symbol: The cult is best identified by a bloody hand print, a revered symbol due to its association with initiation into the group. In more artistic expressions the symbol is decorated further to have the lower half of the and print to appear skull-like.
- Description: The Cult of the Bloody Hand is a bizarre mix of primitive superstitions and beliefs found in the gladitorial slave pits of Loovria, Miasmær's philosophical understanding of the universe, and theology borrowed from the Scripture of the Hidden Maw; the original tradition Miasmær was trained in as a Sith. The cult holds that the universe is defined by conflict and sapient species enforcing their will on one another and on the natural world. To deny conflict is to deny the very nature of the galaxy, to spill blood is a sacred act, and to conquer is to drive civilization forwards in an eternal march of progress. The weak are to serve the strong to uphold the natural order while it is the strong's duty to improve and educate the weak. Through this process all peoples will be improved through the culling of the weak, the empowering of the strong, and the training of those with potential.
The force is not viewed as sacred but rather an unpredictable natural force that must be mastered. Shaping iron by melting it and beating it into shape, splitting the atom to catastrophic results, and bending the force to your will are all seen as violent steps against nature civilization has taken to improve all sapient species and the galaxy as a whole. This violent progress is believed to be the ultimate truth behind the galaxy and the first step in the Code of the Sith: 'peace is a lie', a fact the cult believes was originally understood by the Sith species before being bastardized by the dark jedi who supplanted them. In this way the cult views itself as the original beliefs of the Sith, regardless of if this is in fact true.
In a strange almost paradoxical twist the cult abhores slavery or other means of 'ensarement' such as mental manipulation or enforced contracts, viewing them as tools of the weak to ensare others. Rather the strong are expected to cultivate willful obediance in their lessers and simply kill or abandon those who continue to refuse. Through this means is how the cult rationalizes their commitment to Miasmær, not as a master but a protector and benevolent tutor.
Outside of these core beliefs the exact practices and beliefs of the cult are fluid and unset either due to its young age or due to being so enraptured in Miasmær's whims.
- Founder: The cult has no one singular founder, rather having arisen organically by Miasmær's followers taking her beliefs, fusing them with their own, and growing in fervor.
- Membership: To be formally accepted into the cult is to be formally accepted by Miasmær in a ritual simply called 'the blooding' wherein Miasmær dips her hand in blood and leaves a bloody handprint somewhere on the initiate's body; usually the face.
- Sacred:
- The Spilling of Blood: To spill another's blood is to show dominance over them, and thus to spill your own blood for another is to acknowledge their superiority.
- Violence: Violence is often equated to progress within the cult; either violence against the natural world by extracting resources and reshaping them or violence between societies/individuals as a kind of 'debate' to determine the stronger and weaker of the two. Thus the cult fully embodies a 'might makes right' mentality as the strongest must automatically be correct so long as it does not break cult dogma.
- The Sith Worlds: The cult, believing itself to be the true continuation of the Sith, hold their 'homeworlds' in extremely high regard. While no cultist would directly call the world 'holy' as the faith really lacks any concept of the divine, their importance is not to be underestimated.
- The Sith Language: While very few in the cult can actually speak any amount of Sith, it is held in high regard as a liturgical language of sorts. Rituals, chants, matras, and prayers are often carried out in the tongue; either by speakers or simply parroted to the best of the individual's ability.
- Sith Artifacts: The cult seeks to reclaim any artifact, regardless of how useful, that the ancient Sith have left behind as they view such artifacts as their birthright. Chief among these artifacts are Sith holocrons which contain the knowledge of their 'ancestors'.
- Dogma:
- Rule by the Strong
- Violence Brings About Progress
- Slavery is a Tool of the Weak
- Reputation: The cult is fairly obscure, as practitioners rarely interact with anyone outside of the cult. Those few who do know of them view them as deranged lunatics with a fanciful self-aggrandizing history and view of themselves.
MEMBERS
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The folk superstitions of the Loovrian slave pits have long agrandized violence, as the slaves' lives are so saturated with it. Yet when hundreds were freed by Miasmær in her attack on Loovria then again when she slew the Sith governor of the planet, and ultimately taken into her care they were further saturated with the ideals and concepts of the Sith. These beliefs and their undying loyalty to Miasmær, who they view as their savior, led to a kind of syncretization of beliefs which formed the backbone of the cult. Miasmær capitalized off of the faith's genesis by further shaping it with her own philosophical understandings of the galaxy, cementing herself as the cult's leader and thought-leader to assure her control over her followers.