'Payapop Pritrum' Series - All Liturgies

“The angels, though sturdy and true to their original purposes and long alloyed to the corrupting influence of infinity through reincarnation, experienced a profound sundering with the Universal War. The Shattering, as it came to be known, broke the long compact the angels had with the races of the omniverse to uphold the Law, and the Law itself was splintered and broken. The oldest and most holy among the warrior monks of the Concordant knights were shattered during the war, not to reincarnate for millenia more, leaving many young angels, still in their vapor or liquid states. Seeing the broken, burning remnants of the Universe, and the subsequent rule of the Seven destroyed what confidence many of them had in protecting reality, and still more came to the conclusion that reality itself was better purged, better purified through bloodshed than left to rot.

Now, the Concordance is a shattered, corrupted remnant of its former self, and rogue angels wander the worlds and the king’s road, selling their extreme skill in the ways of annihilation.

And through the void and the kings road atop steeds of glass and fire ride those terrible steel figures with their spined carapaces – the Holy Thorn Knights.”

– Preem Payapop Pritrum, introduction of 5th Treatise on Aeons – what to expect of the Pact

“From the cracked shell of the angelic concordance sprang a hot and putrid rose, and a thousand thousand wild burning seeds poured into the smoke of the corpse of the universe, and there spread with a terrible incandescence. But along with these wild embers came a greater power – the sleek and awful perfection of the Thorns.”

– Preem Payapop Pritrum, 5th Treatise on Aeons – what to expect of the Pact

“I have long suspected the Belligerent Knight’s single minded devotion to Jagganoth as a natural outgrowth of the core tenets of their order. When a core part of your knightly creed includes the phrase ‘If it has a pulse – remove its skull!’, what can you do about a thirty foot immortal monstrosity impervious to physical harm and with complete mastery over space-time?

Worship it, of course.”

Preem Payapop Pritrum – On the New Gods

“The necessity of communication across vast swathes of multidimensional space has gouged a deep and persistent need for the consumption of devil flesh. As useful as it is, the whole hideous process is prohibitively messy. Why, myself once spent a week passing a small blue devil and afterwards was only able to speak Goblin for my time spent straining and sweating in my bunk. It is far wiser to do away with the whole process and hire a Tellan or guilder, and save yourself the potential disfigurement.”

-Preem Payapop Pritram, foreword to Seat of the Gods

“The land was gone. I couldn’t believe it. Whole stretches of the earth were all rent up, as though torn by some monstrous beast. Ash covered the land where the orchards had been, and even the air was choked with an oily rain. I grabbed a passing indigent, picking through the filth like a stray dog.

‘What in Hells’ name happened here?’ I asked, aghast.

‘The queen came to take what was owed her,” said the man, looking dazed. His flesh was spare and cracked, like leather. I was suddenly aware of the bones poking up under his skin.

‘Debts? The orchards? The crop? Blast it, man, what did she come for? Why wreak such destruction across the whole land?’

‘No,’ gaped the man, ‘That’s what she came for.’

‘What?’ I said, with sudden realization.

‘Everything,’ said the man. I released him and he stumbled back to picking through the dirt. I covered my face with my scarf. The black rain fell. I didn’t stay long.”

– Payapop Pritrum, Memoirs

“A curious fact – the Institute of Fractal Archivists insisted to me today they had found a peculiar period of history prior to the Second Conquest that according to their ontoscopes does not exist. Nearly two centuries to which a huge host of historical inaccuracies and inconsistencies have been attributed – I am familiar with the period myself. They theorize that this is because the period only existed for some people; that is to say the flow of time itself, the turning of the great wheel, was tampered with.

It is, of course, a preposterous explanation, though so very convenient I am inclined to believe it.”

-Payapop Pritram, personal notes S.C. 2420

“If you ever hear the Night Curse spoken, run. It only passes the lips of devils, and only when they are up to misdeeds. This is known in nearly all of the ten thousand kingdoms.”

-Payapop Pritram

“The inner sanctum of Yre is said to be a fragrant temple, encircling the vault, where Mammon has kept the elders of his slaughtered clan entombed and preserved for hundreds of years. The purpose of such sentimentality is unknown to any but the low numbered priests of the Count, who do not venture from Yre and do not see the sun their entire lives. It is the bane of any historian, to be certain.”

-Payapop Pritram

“In the vault of Yre, the servants of the god of the Deep number only ten thousand. They venerate the holy ranking of matyrs, by which each is known by his own number. Once a martyr dies, all below him are risen in rank and automatically promoted, thus are the priests an eternal body.

To make it to the top of that holy order to the very first rank, a servant must be practically bathed in blood.”

– Payapop Pritram

“The Star Emperor is a man of great stature, with an oiled beard and stern countenance. He does not concern himself, as his kin do, with plotting and scheming against each other, but chiefly with the exercise of ruling. His primary concern is justice. His subjects live fairly, peaceably, and one might say even well , if not for the heavy blade of the law constantly grazing the tender skin of their necks.”

-Payapop Pritram, Chronicles of the Seven

“The names of the host are marked in the Book of Un. The copy is held at the ruins of Koss’ Workshop, where the angels hold concordance, and there are five of their number marked hierophants who serve as scribes and record keepers. Each name is a fragment-glyph of a verse of the Old Law. It’s meaning is highly complex, and when translated into U.M. the nearest approximation is a sentence (usually declarative) or poetic, such as “Warding Flame Guides the Judicious” or “Sound of a Bell, Once, Warning the Iniquitous of Punishment”.

According to apocrypha and the angels themselves, their names were hammered into them with the sacred chisel YSMIR when the forge god Koss made them out of the smokeless fire of UN.  As immortal beings, they often put their reincarnation number before their name, thus the angel “Searing Blade” who has reincarnated twice (and thus on their third incarnation) would introduce themselves as ‘3 Searing Blade’. Angels hold their names in high regard and seem to know their true meanings, letting them serve as moral guides.”

– Payapop Pritram “Treatise on the Host, Chapter II”

“During the Universal war, it was theorized that placing an intact devil mask upon a living human, still containing some of that devil’s essence, could create a fused being – a devilskin warrior. The human would benefit from the devil as a sort of armor, the devil from the direct access to the human soul flame. Such a warrior could be pushed far beyond the limits of both devil and man, employing the strengths of both, and could eventually rival the demiurges in sheer power.

In practice, many attempts were made at creating such warriors, but in almost all cases, the human ended up mentally rejecting the devil, or the devil ended up quickly subsuming its host and burning out. Two powerful beings sharing the same flesh – one can only imagine the clash of egos that would take place, or the sheer mental control to fight with such a powerful body. The few that did survive became terrors on the battlefield but did not survive the war.

The practice still persists among devilkind in a more degenerate form, with the creation of ‘hollows’. Well-connected devils will go to great lengths to kidnap human chattel, which are ritualistically ‘hollowed’ out, personality and face alike, their life force preserve through arcane means until the devil may possess them at its leisure, without any inconvenience.

Both rituals are abhorrent in any case. Though I do wonder if any extant records of the practice exist…”

– Payapop Pritram

“The Celestial sovereign has a great need of many satrapies, vassals, and governors, far more than his (admittedly extensive) bloodline could ever handle on its own. So far out of the province of familial bonds he has turned to the only other bond he seems to find reliable: that of violent bloodshed.”

-Payapop Pritram

“In some cultures of the Wheel a coin is placed on the eyes of the dead as a fee to the guide of the afterlife. To me the implications of such a custom are wretched beyond belief – that even in death, the inevitable resting place, one must bear the unbearable weight of debt.”

-Payapop Pritram

“The temple of the Eye Revealed, in its vastness, is an extremely dogmatic. Through countless interpretations of the etchings and mutterings of their corpse-goddess, they rule, as they say, from divine decree. I, for one, wouldn’t take my orders from a glorified slate, no matter how holy.”

-Payapop Pritram

“Lord Mana, a man that treats people as he hammers iron, and treats tools as his most tender lovers. No greater craftsman will ever exist, I am sure. Shame.”

-Payapop Pritram

“The temple of YS-HET, the god of thresholds, is open to visitors at all hours of the day, and though any are allowed to linger, they may not stay for a period longer than a night and a day over a period of a quarter turn of the Wheel, as mandated by the Old Law. This is to make sure the temple is clear and functioning well for the constant flow of pilgrims and the needy, and does not become overwhelmed in its services.

The temple sits close to the West Dragon Gate at the lowest ring of throne (in Ashton), and is a point of entry for many coming to Throne for the first time. In old times it was guarded by seven angelic Root Knights of an esoteric order although now five of their number lay dormant and reincarnating. The priests of the temple chiefly concern themselves with keeping the temple clean and orderly, and offering succor to travelers. Central among these duties is the giving of temple alms to pilgrims, including the famous Six Color temple stew, a perpetual stew based on the six flavor elements of traditional Goblin cooking that is kept fed from a mother pot in the central sanctum and is said to have many health benefits.

Having tried the Six Color stew myself it was, disappointingly, only one color, although its fortifying effects on my constitution were hard to dispute as it kept me awake for hours.”

-Payapop Pritram