The Catharate
The Catharate is an all-Human coalition of disciples of the Grand Martyr, who are the sole wielders of the secret art of Vornumena, invested to them by a ritual wherein a holy plate is stitched into their left arm, awakening in them the dark power that destroys gods, angels, fiends, and those who serve them.
The Catharate's official stance is that they are not above the law, but they enforce a law above the order of states and empires: their interest is the survival and advancement of humanity as a species, and their actions follow suit. In practice, the law is what the Catharate says it is, when they say what it is.
The Catharate does have a decent reputation for enforcing the same standard of order on their disciples as they would other humans, unfortunately, that selfsame order is as draconian as it is frighteningly inconsistent. Fey and Din find themselves outside the Catharate's law, and are subject as much to their whim as they are their mercy.
History
Crucial to the victory of Mortalkind against the Demiorgos, the Catharate almost immediately ascended to a position of total command over the united forces of Mortalkind, and their numbers ballooned, touching any corner of Dis where Humanity sought to dwell. After the Severing came its' messy, bloody end, it did not take long for the temporary martial law of the Catharate to turn permanent and tyrannical.
After enforcing uniform acceptance of the Grand Martyr's nihilistic ideology among their numbers, the Catharate then turned their focus towards tightening their mailed grip on all of Human society.
They succeeded.
Ethics
The Catharate is the Church of the Self and of Humankind. While the Catharate is headed by the Grand Martyr whose behavior has become increasingly reclusive in the past decade, it functions more like a papacy than an empire. The Catharate owns no territory but for their towers and garrisons that dot the landscape wherever humankind predominates, and does not attempt to materially micromanage the lives of its' subjects, making do from tithes and sales of surplus gear. Ideologically, however, there is no question who is in charge. While beauraucrats and magistrates may wring their hands over what the exact legal powers of the Catharate are, in most cases a Cathar may act largely uninhibited and the Catharate's approval or condemnation can both make kings and condemn heretics to the guillotine.
The Catharate preaches human supremacy, and individualism as natural law. Might makes right, and Humankind must be both hardy, mighty, and clever to survive in what they see as an incredibly hostile, violent, and chaotic world.
The Catharate, of course, must be the hardiest, mightiest, and cleverest among them The Catharate does not tolerate Fiends or Cambions, believing their very existence to be dangerous, and a hazard to the continuation of the human species. Cambions are marked as outlaws to the Catharate, and states seldom grant them asylum against Catharate violence.
A Cambion who peacefully turns themselves into the Catharate may given the opportunity to obtain a 'stay of execution', dubbed Staid or Confessed Cambions, they are given the option to indenture themselves into the service of the Catharate for the remainder of their lives, or to make a quiet, unhurried walk to the Guillotine after setting their affairs in order (under constant guard, of course).
Cambions who are taken alive after a violent struggle undergo a procedure to strip them of their ego, blinding them and in most cases preventing speech. These Cambions become the Silent, shock troops in the Catharate's eternal war of extermination against the Demiorgos.
"For the Sake of Humanity, We Go Forth."
Founding Date
-8 AR
Type
Religious, Holy Order
Demonym
Cathar
Leader
Divines
Location
Related Ranks & Titles
Controlled Territories
Related Species
