Legendary Complications:

But as man changed, so did the landscape. Men became more complex, and so did their Gods. They grew proper names and distinct personalities. Pantheons were constructed and mythologies were scribbled down. Empires conquered one another and absorbed the strangers' gods into their own.

And so the Old Gods were either swept aside and forgotten, or else changed over time to fit the new faces their worshipers imagined them wearing. Some are still with us to this day, though they would scarcely recognize them, and many are no longer of consequence.

But Desire remained Desire. Though other Gods and Goddesses might have been chosen over Hir, or instead of Hir, the power S:he gained from Hir nature more than made up for this abandonment. Indeed, how could S:he be abandoned? Who did not ever feel Desire?

And besides, S:he still retained Hir temples, direct worship and followers ­ in these dark lands of the Dead.

For, unlike the other Old Gods, whose need for propitiation often ended when a man took his last breath, Desire followed well past then and into the next world. And even when mortal men no longer remembered that S:he was more than just a powerful emotion, those who had crossed the barrier between worlds ­ which was much less of a barrier in those days ­ continued to sing Hir praises, attracting new followers as they did.

We were the Initiators, and we were the guardians of the Dread Secret.

What is the Dread Secret?

Even though every Solicitor who makes it past the Induction Ritual knows - and, worse, understands - it word for word, there is a great deal of debate amongst the Cabal as to what it really is.

Some say it's a spell. Others say that it is a form of 'higher science,' like a mathematical formula whose concepts cannot be easily grasped. And still others say it's Desire Hirself made manifest in words: a little piece of Hir, fashioned in such a way that S:he can reside inside someone's mind for all time to come. This is, most likely, the piece that was given away to mortal man, thus sparking the war of the Old Gods.

They say that only the Center of the Wheel fully understands its nature, but all attempts to ask have been deemed counterproductive by those who could do the asking. And that is most often the end of that line of thinking.

(On a more OOC note: if a player actually wants to know what the Dread Secret itself - as in, its wording - write the words "Sure! It's (Unintelligible Concept)" on a piece of paper, fold it up, hand it over to her, and grin like a motherfucker.)

As for the rather logical question of why the Solicitors should need to guard the Dread Secret, if Desire wanted to give it to mankind in the first place, file that under "moves in mysterious ways" and don't ask the Gardeners.


Ancient Mythology


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