Queen Ascendant

Mortal Life

Born the daughter of the last king of the Fanged Kingdom in approximately 315 BC, her name has been erased from history. As part of her father's bid at apotheosis, she was (involuntarily) placed upon the Stone Throne in Ar Salem Dolem and a ritual focus was constructed. All the worship and the souls of the sacrifices (at first only animals, but later humans) flowed through here and into the focus (and thus to the White Skull). She acted as both an object of worship and a filter, purifying and focusing the stream of anima. Her lifespan, fed by the anima stream, was tremendously prolonged, but she had to endure the detritus left behind as the souls flowed through her own.

Unable to leave the Great Pyramid and under the control of the High Priest (who was given a control totem), she was a ceremonial figurehead until the Cataclysm. There is little record of her having any influence. In the years after the Cataclysm and before the people returned from Kel'al'ar, she and a much-reduced priestly bureaucracy coexisted uneasily. After the return and the founding of the Stone Throne nation, she began to exert influence through her handmaidens--body doubles chosen and altered to look like her and act as her agents throughout the nation.

It was through a retired handmaiden that she made contact with the Catalysts who were exploring the Stone Throne from the Council Lands, seeking the Dark Lady. They, in their inimitable fashion, came to Ar Salem Dolem and stormed the High Priestess's estate, killing her and destroying the both the control focus and then the ritual focus, breaking the spells that held her bound.

Ascension and Worship

Without the ritual that bound her, the mortal frame of the Queen began to fray. The First Law, long in abeyance by demonic power, now started to bind. But buoyed up by the faith and worship of a nation, the Queen saw a chance to transcend death and continue watching over her people from the realms immortal. Her apotheosis occurred on the Feast of Serpents Waiting in the year 205 AC. Surrounded by her handmaidens and most loyal worshipers, she cheated death's embrace and flew on the wings of worship through Shadow into the Astral plane without tasting death. There she surrendered her flesh, forming a new body of astral energies and staking a claim on a demesne in Mara.

Worship

Worship of the Queen Ascendant revolves around three major facets--

The Priest-Bureaucracy

The Queen Ascendant's faith is a very structured, ordered thing. Priests, chosen from all the castes (and walks of life in those nations who have rejected the caste system), minister to the spiritual needs of the people and are a vital part of the secular government. Joining the priesthood means leaving your former caste and rank and taking on a new one. Priest-bureaucrats have four major categories in a strict hierarchy:

1. The High Temple and attendants. These live and work in the Sacred City of Ar Salem Dolem and especially in the High Temple there, where the Queen lived for centuries. They make the decisions for all three nations, although most directly for Asai'ka. Competition here is fierce but hidden. Generally only those of noble birth attain these posts, despite the technical lack of birth-based rank among the priesthood.
2. The Auditors. These special agents are few in number, but feared. They keep the other priests in line, enforcing the High Temple's edicts. Rarely do they show their faces or proclaim their identities. They are drawn from all walks of life--only skill and devotion matter. Dwarves are especially common among this group, taking to the work with a zealotry that frightens many.
3. The Settled. These have places of fixed abodes in the cities and larger towns. Drawn from lesser noble and lai ranks, they are the local authorities and often rule with as much force as a noble.
4. The Wanderers. These travel circuits among the villages and smaller towns. Generally of the common folk, they command little veneration.

Priests can be known by their clothing, especially while engaged in ritual work. As much of the worship practice involves bloodshed (of animals mostly these days), they wear naught but an apron made of a single sheet of cloth with leather reinforcements and a hole cut for the head. This is placed over the officiant and tied with thongs on each side, leaving the sides bare. See also Fang-kin Culture.

The priests also act as musicians during the sacred dances, mainly playing atonal music on flutes and keeping rhythm on drums.

The Temple Dancers and the Sacred Dances

Much of the most sacred service is done by the Temple Dancers. These are men and women, chosen for their flexibility, grace, and beauty very young and trained rigorously. During the high festivals and sacred rites (such as at the installation of a new landed noble), they dance the sacred dances to the accompaniment of priestly drummers and musicians. These dances are fluid, and range from frantic acrobatics to languid contortions, often switching back and forth multiple times in a single dance. Generally only a single dancer will dance at a time, although a few of the most holy ones call for two women. Generally, female dancers are of higher rank and are more sought after, as the most holy dances can only be performed by women.

Temple dancers wear shifts of diaphanous silk that leaves very little, if anything, to the imagination. Those that would treat them as prostitutes, however, find that they are also trained to defend themselves without weapons. As well as incurring the wrath of the entire bureaucracy.

Technically, dancers are outside the hierarchy and answer only to the high priestess and the handmaidens. It is whispered that some of the most decadent, debased nobles have started training their own corps of dancers who do more than just dance.

In outlying settlements or among the ophidian tribes, the people themselves enact the sacred dances. This is frowned on by the bureaucracy, but tolerated. Authentic temple dancers rarely make it out there anyway, and there's no need to squelch their fervor.

Willing Sacrifice

After the homily and readings from the sacred works (produced by the bureaucracy and expounded as commandments from the Queen) but before any dances that take may place come the sacrifices. Since the Ascension, these are of two forms (full blood sacrifice of an intelligent being being absolutely forbidden and carefully monitored)--

• Animal sacrifice is the most common. A chicken, a pig, or on rare occasions something larger. The animals are drugged and exanguinated while alive, the blood being caught and given to the flames on the altar. Once dead, the organs (especially the heart) are removed and ritually burned. The meat is then prepared and shared among the participants.
• Token blood sacrifice. This is done only on occasions of ceremonies such as marriages, religiously-binding vows, funerals, or pledges of loyalty to a new sovereign. Those that are giving sacrifice come forth and are pricked with a sacred knife. The most common sites are the earlobes and the ball of the thumb, although some have been known to give sacrifice from their private parts in extreme cases of fanaticism. A single drop of blood is shed onto a piece of cloth; once each participant has comingled their blood with the others, the cloth is ritually blessed and consigned to the holy flames, carrying their devotion to the Queen.