Well-Known Member
- Intent: To create a dark side sacrifice cult devoted to the Brain Demon. A sub-cult of the Cult of the Brain Demon composed of “mortals” and NFUs who do not engage in the practice of mind absorption.
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- Organization Name: Angels of the Faceless
- Classification: Dark Side Cult
- Affiliation:The Angels of the Faceless have a direct affiliation with the Cult of the Brain Demon and House Io. However, their first loyalty is to the Cult, with the House being second.
- Organization Symbol: See: Symbol Above
- Description: The Angels of the Faceless are a dark side sacrifice cult that is subordinate to the Cult of the Brain Demon. In this, the Angels are the armed, “mortal” wing of the Cult, serving their parent organization in the capacity of foot soldiers, social media influencers, dancers, priestesses, assassins, operatives, and gladiators. Like the Cult, the Angels practice sentient sacrifice, with a particular emphasis on flaying their victims alive, blood ritual, and torture. Such practices are believed to strengthen the Angels’ connection to the dark side and empower the Brain Demon.
- Headquarters: The largest and most influential convent of the Angels of the Faceless (The Dancers of the Demon) is based on the Avatar of Suffering—a Tython Class Leviathan. As such, this vessel is considered to be the Angels' primary headquarters.
- Domain:Most convents of the Angels are nomadic or semi-nomadic, traveling the galaxy via their temple ships to ply their services as mercenaries, gladiators, and dancers. Through the ritualized arts of bloodshed, flaying, dance, and sacrifice, the Angels believe that they worship the Brain Demon and proliferate the purifying energies of the dark side through the galaxy.
- Notable Assets:
- Avatar of Suffering - Temple Ship of the Dancers of the Demon Convent
- Unholy Matrimony - Temple Ship of the Skin Brides Convent
- Hierarchy:
- Low Angels - “Excoriatarii”, “Flayer Divas”, and “Cheerflayers”
- Initiate(s)
- Excoriatrix Maiden(s)
- Excoriatrix Sister(s)
- Excoriatrix Concubine(s)
- Excoriatrix Bride(s)
- Excoriatrix Queen(s)
- High Angels - “Excoriatarii Prima” and “Flayer Priestesses”
- Avatar(s) of the Faceless
- High Angel(s) of the Faceless OR High Oracle(s) of the Faceless
- First Angel of the Choir
- Low Angels - “Excoriatarii”, “Flayer Divas”, and “Cheerflayers”
- Membership: The Cult typically prefers to fill the ranks of the Angels with normal people. While Nuetralizers, strand-casts, and other synthetic beings (who make up a large percentage of House Io's population) can be accepted into the ranks, there is a particular emphasis on bringing perfectly normal, ordinary people in and training them how to perform the rituals and atrocities of unholy worship. This ties into the Cult’s beliefs of teaching otherwise normal people with no real connection to the Force how think and behave with the dark side in mind. As such, prospective members can literally walk in to a given temple and ask to be trained. Alternatively, the Brain Demon or a particular Brain Demon cultist could visit some troubled soul in their dreams, offering them belonging and a chance for retribution on a seemingly cruel galaxy. In general, the initiation process heavily favors women over men, but there is no explicit policy that bars men from joining. Prior to becoming a full member of the Angels, Initiates are conditioned, trained, and brainwashed, with this period generally lasting a year. In order to become an Excoriatrix, an Initiate must be able to cleanly flay the skin from a sacrifice’s face, recite the prayers, songs, and catechisms of the Brain Demon Cult from memory, capture and cleanly flay their own sacrifice victim, swear an oath of loyalty to the Brain Demon Cult, and last a minute in single combat against a Model 1 Nuetralizer (or defeat the Nuetralizer outright). Consequences for failures past a certain threshold may range the gamut from non-fatal flaying (with the failed Initiate kept alive via technology or the Force and later healed) to mind wiping (making the Initiate forget that they ever attempted to join the Angels) to evisceration and outright sacrifice.
- Climate: Bloodthirsty cheerleaders. The Angels of the Faceless are notoriously vain, backstabbing, fickle, and dramatic. While alliances (often in the form of cliques), friendships, and romantic relationships do exist, most of the Angels' temples are characterized by everpresent intrigue, which can turn lethal in some cases as cliques and rivals vie for favor. Considerations such as perceived beauty, martial skill and strength, skill at the art of flaying, skill at the art of agonizing (torture), skill at dancing, the quality of sacrifice victims, and a host of other factors play a role in determining a given individual’s status. In this, the climate somewhat mirrors that of the Cult of the Brain Demon. However, outright murder of rivals is generally frowned upon. In the majority of cases, rivals are simply disgraced or disenfranchised.
- Reputation: The Angels of the Faceless have a mixed reputation within House Io. They are known for hosting drug-fueled dance and rave parties that are open to all citizens of the House, which often last entire days. In this, dance—even of the non-lethal variety—is considered to be an act of worship by the Angels, in mimicry of the dancing avatars of the Brain Demon. The longer said dance parties last and the more feverish and passionate the dancing, the better. The Angels are also known for their ritualized displays of combat, which are essentially public war dances and gladiatorial events dedicated to the Brain Demon. Like their parent cult, the Angels host public sentient sacrifice and flaying rituals of prisoners of war and civilians not affiliated with House Io. These events are almost always accompanied by controversy, protest, curiosity, and frenzied episodes of vivacious dancing which are often performed while wearing the skin of their sacrifice victims.
Unlike the Cult of the Brain Demon, the Angels of the Faceless are largely unknown outside of House Io, due to the organization’s youth. However, the Angels' status as an arm of the Cult naturally assigns them a similar reputation to their parent organization.
As the Angels frequently ply their services as mercenaries, they have developed a minor reputation as reliable, yet gruesome allies, should they be hired. In this, their rates are considered to be quite cheap, as the Angels rarely negotiate for outright profit and instead seek the right to ritually sacrifice enemy combatants and the coverage of their operating expenses. For many cash-strapped warlords and crime lords, it is quite easy to tolerate the disturbing sacrifice rituals of their retainers when their services are offered at such a bargain compared to other mercenaries. - Curios: Every Excoriatrix has the symbol of the Brain Demon tattooed on their body, the location of which is chosen by the individual. In addition, each member also possesses up to two ritual knives, which are most often used for the flaying and mutilation of their victims. These are always carried on their person. Finally, many members have a personal, individualized weapon of some kind, though the Angels generally spurn long gun-style weapons in favor of energy bows, monomolecular-edged blades, vibroblades, energy blades, and more rarely, lightsabers, should they be able to get their hands on them.
One of the Angels' calling cards, any non-flayed bodies or survivors left in the wake of a raid may have the symbol of the Brain Demon carved into their flesh.
The Angels believe that skins are sacred. As such, during sacrifice rituals, they will flay their victims alive, offering the victim’s life, skin, and suffering in oblation to the Brain Demon. In particular, the Angels believe that the most sacred part of the skin is the skin of the face. In this, the Angels will flay the skin of the victim’s face while they are still alive, believing that the agony and humiliation of being physically defaced are among the most potent sacrifices that one can offer to the Brain Demon. - Rules: The Angels of the Faceless are bound by their oaths and therefore, follow the rules of the Cult. Nevertheless, they maintain a very high level of autonomy as an organization, far more than that which might be enjoyed by Sith troopers under the control of a Sith Lord. Nevertheless, within the organization itself, the Angels maintain a strict hierarchy where those on the lower rungs follow the orders of their designated superiors. Insubordination that can not be justified by right of superior strength or cunning will generally be punished with extreme prejudice.
- Goals: The Angels of the Faceless support and pursue the goals of the Cult, especially as they relate to the proliferation of the dark side. In this, they play a vital role as the equivalent of the Cult’s foot soldiers. As pertaining to their rituals, the Angels commit ritualized blood and sentient sacrifice in order to fulfill a rite that they believe will give life energy to the Brain Demon.
- Alevia Io - First Angel of the Choir. A Chaplain Nuetralizer, Alevia Io was one of the Cult’s earliest advocates to House Io’s population. Since her ordeal after the Battle of Tython (where it was rumored that she struck a particularly demanding bargain with the Brain Demon), Alevia has taken this to greater extremes, to the point where she began to engage in the Cult’s sentient and blood sacrifice rituals, while devising many rituals of her own (of which include long dance parties and ritualized displays of combat). However, due to the increasing dissatisfaction within House Io regarding the presence of the Cult, the Cult’s leadership realized that they needed an army of dedicated loyalists that were loyal to them first and House Io second. Given Alevia’s history of advocacy and support for the Cult, she was the natural option for overseeing the effort. In this, Alevia was tasked with establishing the first convent of the Angels (The Dancers of the Demon), an assignment that she quickly succeeded in. As of the present, she is the undisputed leader of the Angels.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
[ Include a description of the organization's history. Who started it, how and why it was formed, modus operandi, any events tied into its creation and existence, etc. ]
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