Church of the Broken God
The Church of the Broken God is an ancient cult of the late 5th Era, founded by Mei Yang in response to the growing control of the United Earth Government. It was initially reported of as a terrorist organisation, and was quickly decapitated in the months prior to the War for the Last Light by a special forces strike team.
Surprisingly, members of the cult survived, likely due to their disposition towards avoiding government orders and programmes, which kept members away from sites targetted in the initial and concluding nuclear exchanges of the war. However, having witnessed the first Steel-Walk of Hyperium against Rhothaxis and believing the machine to be a divine agent sent by Phaeton, or perhaps the Broken God himself, the core belief system of the cult was irrevicably changed to the worship of Hyperium as a messiah figure.
In the early years of the 6th Era following the war, the cult was able to reorganise. Despite only a few years ago being branded as terrorists, the cult was able to grow to a few hundred members in a cave network beneath what would eventually become Riverstead. After the technological collapse of the early 6th Era, the Church of the Broken God became one of the last bastions of what would be known as "machine-knowledge" in the world.
The Church eventually settled into a comfortable status quo, with high-ranking members benefitting from the little life-extention technology remaining, and with low-ranking members being used to both spread the cults influence, and eventually as a source of soul-energy as they aged.
Mythology & Lore
The Church is mythologically very similar to the Cult of the Radiant Engine, as both worship Phaeton as their chief deity. They believe Phaeton to be the god above all, taken from it's true position by the pretender Gaia. A consisitent element in all Church mythology is the holy combat between Phaeton and Gaia, the result of which was the destruction of Phaeton, and the creation of Luna - which is one and the same as the moon.
Tenets of Faith
The Church follows six commandments, known as the Teeth of the Holy Cogwheel.
- Thou shalt worship the Broken God, the almighty creator of all things, and the embodiment of truth and transformation.
- Thou shalt recognize that the universe is flawed and in need of repair. Thou must strive to bring about progress and change in the world as a faithful believer.
- Thou shalt sacrifice thyself for the greater good, using thy body and life as tools to serve the Broken God.
- Thou shalt recognize that machines and technology are holy artifacts that contain the essence of the Broken God.
- Thou must be vigilant against those who seek to oppose or undermine the will of the Broken God. Those who oppose the Broken God are agents of chaos and destruction.
- Thy ultimate goal is to achieve unity with the Broken God. Thou must sacrifice thyself and use technology to improve the world, so that thou may merge with the essence of the Broken God and become one with Him.
