The Bone Vase and the Flower
Significance
The Dragon Flower rebel faction disguise themselves as devotees of the God Worrozhi of The Order of Heaven. They call themselves "mourners" and in secret meetings call each other "Citizen". What they mourn is the Imperial hierarchy and order, lives spent and lost in supposed inequality and suffering. They fancy to replace it with something akin to the inhuman Taurien States where each is equal and has say on selecting leaders and officers. Much worse than the Olia practice of Grand Elector every two years, when the "thing" is called and the Deliberative Council of Noble Houses haggle, buy and sell to choose their next leader. They set tests of trust and character for initiates who show interest in rebellion.
- Brief note by Monitor spies on the rebel Dragon Flower Faction
The plain Bone vase is an uncommon but not unusual item. The flower, especially the Rose bud is also common. Combined they suggest the DragonFlower and make a signal of possible rebel support. Wraps of vine indicate houses from the vase and the direction the flower faces signals direction and is set with small pebbles in the vase so as to not shift. The bone may be marked with paint - indigo or blue for night (most typically), yellow for day at top, either side or bottom which is the quarter of the night or day. Sometimes it points to another vase or several. The meet maybe at a cemetery, rented rooms or even at a public house, donning masks of cloth upon entering. These meetings are tests used to screen possible rebels and to flush out Imperial spies. The real meetings are by word of mouth and whispered codes.
Worrozhi is not just God of Tombs, Memorials and Memory. He is a God who finds each individual meaningful and significant, no matter how ignorant and low born, virtuous or vile. Nor does kind matter - Worrozhi loves the Fae, the human, the Lizardkings and every creature, monster and being and would preserve each and every one, well bred noble to criminal or horrible evil Blood Mage or Fellspawn. Following these misguided ideals he creates undead, diverting them from their judgement and progression in reincarnation or punishment, trying to "save" them in his Pride of thinking he knows better than the Kings and Queen of Heaven and his own Mistress. And their perverted nature in defiance of the Natural Order produces the perverted and evil nature of the Undead. This is the God's left hand path. Pride and diversion for reasons that seem good, but produce and preserve evil. Deeds and intents do not matter to Worrozhi because he values all for simply being and mourns the moment of dying. Childlike, he sees each as a budding flower bloom which will shine and pass to nothing. Forgotten. He forgets that good deeds and Noble birth are rewarded and remembered. Worrozhi is a great Dragon of vines and his image is The Dragon skull in the Rosebud, or the flower bud and the vine.
- The Treatise on the Gods, The Holy Church of the Order of Heaven
You probably think it strange that we venerate Worrozhi, the God of the tomb, the Dragon Flower. It is not the worship of death or even undeath, but the other face of the left hand God. Worrozhi loves all equally and would have none perish. He rebels against the Natural Order decreed by the other Gods and tries to overthrow his Mistress Kazollia's order with his own for the love of each individual. Likewise we would overthrow the order of the Emperor with one where every individual is free and equal, in the manner of the Centaur cities.- Copper Mask of Tears, leader of the Bone and Flower rebel faction.
Raw materials & Components
The budding but unopen flower. The small vase of simple and cheap bone or more elaborate carved bone, closed in metal or clay or even just wax.
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