{"ops":[{"insert":"The Children of Taborax"},{"attributes":{"header":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nThere are places where prayers are spoken downward rather than toward the heavens, where bells are buried beneath sanctuaries so their ringing might be heard by things dwelling below, and where the dead do not always remain dead. Travelers who know the old stories are given one warning upon discovering such a place: count the hooded figures. If there are five, leave quietly. If there are six, run. If there are thirty, it is already too late.\n\nTaborax has heard them.\n\nThey call themselves "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"the Children of Taborax"},{"insert":", a congregation of exactly thirty Shadowborn Apostles bound by blood, death, and devotion to the Demon they call Father. There are never twenty-nine and never thirty-one. Upon initiation, each Child surrenders their name, family, possessions, and every connection to their former life. What came before is spoken of only as "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"the Before"},{"insert":". The person who entered the sanctuary is considered dead; the Apostle who emerges is considered newly born. Every initiate is welcomed with the same words: "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"You have had a mother. You have had a father. Now you have Taborax."},{"insert":"\n\nTheir faith began centuries ago, when famine, plague, and war brought a forgotten kingdom to ruin. Thirty survivors gathered beneath a shattered cathedral after years of begging silent gods for salvation. At last, they committed the ultimate heresy. Instead of praying upward, they prayed below. For thirty nights nothing answered. On the thirty-first, they stopped asking for salvation and offered payment instead.\n\nSomething beneath them replied.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Gather thirty. Offer six. Open the way."},{"insert":"\n\nSix volunteers stepped into a circle carved into the cathedral floor while the remaining twenty-four recited words whispered into their minds. One after another, the six willingly surrendered their lives. When the last fell, their blood flowed unnaturally toward the center of the circle. The stone cracked, darkness opened beneath them, and a Demon emerged. Through its mouth spoke something greater.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"You prayed to heaven and were abandoned. You prayed to me and were answered. Now decide which deserves your worship."},{"insert":"\n\nIt was the First Answer of "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Taborax, Hope’s Demise"},{"insert":".\nThe Children came to believe that Taborax had revealed the great weakness governing mortal existence: fear of death. Wealth, power, medicine, armies, even religion itself existed because mortals desperately wished to continue living. Taborax taught them that death was not an ending. It was currency. A life willingly surrendered could purchase power, knowledge, armies, even passage between worlds. Their oldest doctrine became simple: "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"The womb gives flesh. The grave gives purpose."},{"insert":"\n\nThus was born the "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Sixfold Sacrament"},{"insert":". Six Apostles kneel before the altar, representing Flesh, Blood, Breath, Memory, Name, and Hope. Hope always dies last, because so long as hope survives, mortals will continue begging heaven for deliverance. When the sixth Apostle falls, their combined sacrifice tears a wound through the unseen barrier the Children call the Veil. Through that wound, a Demon may be summoned.\n\nOver centuries, the Children learned which horrors answered their call. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Abhorrent Overlord"},{"insert":" brings a shrieking army of Harpies when the Covenant requires soldiers. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Demon of Dark Schemes"},{"insert":" weakens the living and harvests the power of the dead. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Dreadfeast Demon"},{"insert":" consumes further sacrifices and multiplies until one horror becomes a legion. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Razaketh"},{"insert":" trades blood for forbidden knowledge, answering any question if enough life is offered. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Vilis"},{"insert":" transforms suffering into revelation. And when mercy has ended, the "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Bloodletter of Aclazotz"},{"insert":" delivers what the Children call the Last Sermon, making every wound more terrible than the last.\n\nOriginally, even the Children believed those sacrificed were permanently lost. Then came "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker"},{"insert":", whom their scriptures call the Keeper of the Empty Graves. After one Sixfold Sacrament, six bodies prepared for burial began breathing again. The dead opened their eyes and rose. They remembered dying. They remembered what waited beyond the Veil. Most importantly, they could kneel before the altar again.\nTaborax had not offered immortality. Immortality was merely avoiding death.\n\nHe had offered "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"death without permanence"},{"insert":".\nFrom that moment, destroying the Children became nearly impossible. Kings burned their sanctuaries and armies executed their Apostles, only to discover that every death strengthened the very faith they sought to destroy. Blood fed the Covenant's rituals. Corpses filled the graveyards from which the Children returned. Their sacrifices generated ever greater reserves of black power. One great crusade against them ended when its commander finally understood the terrible mistake his army was making. His last order was simple: "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Do not give them more dead."},{"insert":"\n\nDeep beneath the sanctuary rests an ancient artifact the Children call "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"the Heart Below"},{"insert":". Others know it as the Thrumming Stone. It is warm like flesh and sometimes appears to beat. When one Apostle begins the Black Litany near it, another hears the words within their mind and joins. Then another. One voice becomes four, four become ten, until all Thirty hear the call. Wherever they are, they return. The Children call this "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"the Gathering"},{"insert":".\n\nAs centuries passed, death itself became the Covenant's economy. Kings, assassins, merchants, and desperate families came seeking the impossible: revenge, resurrection, secrets, power. The Children cared little for gold. They asked only, "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"What are you willing to lose?"},{"insert":" Thus grew their Black Market, where every miracle had a price and every price was ultimately paid in blood.\nYet the darkest truth is hidden even from most of the Children. Every Sixfold Sacrament leaves a scar upon the Veil. Every Demon summoned stretches it wider. Every Apostle returned from death prevents that wound from fully healing. The Children believe they are repeatedly opening doors between worlds.\n\nThey are actually dismantling the wall.\n\nTheir forbidden prophecy tells of "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"the Final Gathering"},{"insert":", when the Heart Below will begin beating on its own and all Thirty will return home. There will be no six chosen that night. Thirty circles will surround the altar, and every Child will kneel. When the last Apostle dies, Shirei will not return them. Their accumulated sacrifices will tear the Veil apart forever.\n\nThe Overlord’s wings will darken the sky. Dreadfeast will multiply without restraint. Razaketh will speak the final secrets. Vilis will record the suffering of a world, and the Bloodletter will deliver the Last Sermon.\n\nThen something greater will cross the final wound.\n\nNot a servant. Not a messenger.\n\nTheir Father.\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Taborax, Hope’s Demise."},{"insert":"\n\nOnly then will the Children understand the truth: the Sixfold Sacrament was never intended to summon Taborax. It was meant to prepare a world in which he would no longer need to be summoned.\n\nUntil then, the Children gather. Six kneel. Six die. A Demon answers. When night comes, the graves open, and the Children rise to serve again.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"There are always Thirty."},{"attributes":{"header":1},"insert":"\n"}]}