Patkin/TheCardinalRespeldent
Also known as the Archbishop of the Heretical See or the Bloated Pontiff, the Cardinal Resplendent in August Ermine and Silks is a corpulant, filth-coated man. His hair is slick with grease, his eyes are sunken and beady, his nose short and piggish, and his mouth is full of rotted teeth and diseased meat. In contrast, he wears the most extravagant robes, with the finest silks and furs draped across his bulky frame. Orichalcum, moonsilver, jade and soulsteel jewelery adorn his fingers, wrists and neck, and he is the very symbol of clerical abuse made manifest.
He lords over a clergy of the dead from the Drowned Cathedral, his citadel, on the large southeastern isle off the Blessed Isle, the only Deathlord who was cunning enough to find a foothold on the Realm's soil. A procession of undead ghouls and ghostly priests dressed in the finest robes, follow him with an ark made of soulsteel, within which is the Grail of the Martyr's Agony, a gift from the Cardinal's Malfean master. If forced into battle, the Cardinal is just as likely to simply beat a man to death with his fists as he is to use any of the holy relics given to him by his master, yet he is more suited to simply talking his attackers into slitting their own throats with their own blades.
The Grail of the Martyr's Agony
Still Under Work
Wailer's Marsh and the Drowned Cathedral
Traveling hundreds of miles southwest of Eagle's Launch, one discovers a great fetid swamp which remains stagnant except for a giant hole in the near center, into which the stank water falls down a black hole like a burst pustule. A putrid scent assaults the senses even when off the coast of the swamp, and the reek of decay and death is everywhere. This is one of the last shadowlands in the Blessed Isle, a shadowland so powerful that even the Scarlet Empress could not destroy it. There are but few denizens in Wailer's Marsh, typically the disenfranchised and criminal element, the only sorts suitably deranged to voluntaraly live within. Little else lives in the marsh, aside from black fish and imported animals from the Southwest who were released onto the island when the Dynasty decided to ward the area off than constantly batter it down. The closest towns to Wailer's Marsh are constantly reinforced by the Immaculate Order, and a standing militia for the coast has formed to combat the waves of hungry ghosts who assault the towns.
Within the back hole, a mile beneath to be exact, a great work is building at constant expansion. The Drowned Cathedral sits a foot deep with dark curdled plasm, while the walls are painted with the smeared-apart souls of disloyal spirits, creating murals and decorations proclaiming the inherent worthlessness of the flesh and the irredeemable corruption of all holy orders. Visions of monsters and the sins of 10,000 faiths weave about the tableaus stating the inherent failure of all efforts at virtue. The mid-levels of the cathedral follow a motif of the folly of Creation and the need for salvation through the total and complete decimation and destruction of every living being within. The upper reaches suggest the blank inhumanity of the Malfeans and Oblivion, the realm of the purified spirit viewed through a black lens, entities freed from everything the matter-obsessed holy masters of Creation would ever know. Chittering shades continue the grand work, turning the Drowned Cathedral into a blasphamy of the living world's faith and a worshipful paen to the might of Oblivion. Only a mortal of extraordinary conviction (4 or higher) may look upon the dark artistry of the walls without penalty. Otherwise, their players must make a Conviction + Essence roll difficult 4 or suffer -2 dice on all rolls while in the Cathedral. Considering their fresh meat and soul, that time may not be very long.
Spectral soulsmiths continue building the buttresses and abbeys of the Cathedral down and outward through the tunnels attached to the central shaft, creating a cathedral that constantly extends from Wailer's Marsh into the hallways of the Labyrinth, of which the marsh is only an infected skylight. This deep and total connection to the Labyrinth is precisely why the Scarlet Empress was incapable of destroying Wailer's Marsh, and why any exorcist was unable to cleanse the swamp. The shadowland is just a symptom of the deeper and more horrific force below ground.
Due to the contant building and expansion, a guest of the Cardinal can sometimes find themselves trapped behind doors that are no longer there, standing in halls that no longer exist or standing over an open pit thanks to overzealous demolition, or lost in hallways in the midst of rapid creation leading to deathtraps, walled-off cells, hostile enemies or even returning the person to where they began. As the Cardinal has been known to simply destroy any impediment to his own path, guests are often forewarned about wandering through the Cathedral itself.
The Deeper Halls
The Cardinal in August Ermine and Silks does not fear the priests of Oblivion. Indeed, he has perhaps one of the better relationships with such creatures than any other Deathlord. The amphiskopoloi surrounding the Drowned Cathedral continue their battles against each other, but a procession of the Drowned Cathedral walking through battlelines can force each side to cease, and then begin again once the procession has moved out of sight. As such, the Cardinal Resplendent knows more about the Labyrinth and its servents than perhaps any of the other Deathlords. His heart is resigned to Oblivion, and he is perhaps the closest the Deathlords will ever see to one of their fellows becoming a nephwrack themselves.
The Cardinal Resplendent in August Ermine and Silks' Schemes
The Cardinal Resplendent in August Ermine and Silks has a four-point plan to the destruction of Creation.
- Convert the Underworld to Oblivion.\\
- Convert the Realm to Oblivion.\\
- Convert Heaven to Oblivion.\\
- Bring each convert down upon the next.
He sees little purpose in further complicating his plan, leaving it to his servents to flesh out the details of how.
The Cardinal Respledent in August Ermine and Silks' Servants
Still Under Work
