The Fettered Synod

He screamed as the harpoon's tip pierced his heart, running through him and into the wooden hull. He screamed as the mallet drove it deeper and deeper, each strike pinning him more thoroughly. He screamed as the axes fell on his limbs, and as chains were fused to the stumps, wrapping around him and the ship, binding them as one. He screamed as he was lowered into the yawning pit, where a hundred other men screamed back.

— A recounting of a Fettered Prophet's binding

In Gamburg, the Whaler's Grave, the City of Stove Boats, there is a pit. A great wound in the center of the city, stretching deep into the body of the great whale upon which the city rests. They call it the blowhole, but it blows nothing out, and only consumes maddened Creed-wracked, set on destroying Wrong John from the inside out. This dark hole calls out to all Creed-wracked, tempting them to brave its depths, assuring them that they will be the one to truly kill the beast, that they will succeed where all others have failed. Entering the blowhole, never to be seen again, is the fate for the vast majority of Creed-wracked that arrive at Gamburg. Some, however, resist the pull, and seek another option. These are the Fettered Prophets.

A Maddening Metamorphosis

To resist the pull is no easy task. The more the Whaleman's Creed progresses, the greater the pull will be, to the point where the Creed-wracked will do everything in their power to hurl themself down the blowhole. Due to the unusual strength granted by the Whaleman's Creed, simple bindings will not do. A solution exists in the form of a rite performed by the Creed-wracked themself. They must take their own harpoon, and skewer themself through the heart against the hull of their own ship. The only thing capable of holding back a Creed-wracked is a Creed-wracked, and since the breaking of their name, a Creed-wracked and their ship are one. Thus, the ship possesses the same strength as the Creed-wracked, and by physically binding captain to ship, escape is made much more difficult. This is often aided by the removal of the Creed-wracked's limbs, to prevent them from freeing themself. The Creed-wracked is then bound as tightly as possible, and what remains of their ship after many years of wear and tear in Gamburg is lowered into the blowhole.
Over time, the Creed-wracked begins to transform. Proximity to the ship that is its namesake causes a phenomenon commonly found in Waifs, in that the two begin to physically fuse. It becomes unclear where calloused, cracked, barklike skin ends, and the wooden planks of the ship begin. It all just becomes the same fleshy, wooden mess. The Creed-wracked's binds, too, are absorbed into this melding of man and vessel, fully cementing their place as a Fettered Prophet. The ship too begins to fuse with the flesh of the blowhole, which grows around it and keeps the ship suspended in the blowhole, among the hundreds of other Prophets. As the former Creed-wracked gazes into the darkness of the blowhole, and as the Whaleman's Creed progresses, they slowly begin to lose their mind to the affliction. Their consciousness slides away from reality and descends into unreality, subjecting them to constant comprehension of the incomprehensible, imparting upon them an acute knowledge of everything that isn't. They are well and truly another member of the Fettered Synod.

Aberrant Augury

The individual Prophets of the Fettered Synod babble incomprehensibly, trying desperately to give words to their impossible knowledge, but together these words all weave together, twist and combine into something that might, to a mind with a tenuous grip on reality, make the tiniest smidgen of sense. And it is such an individual who serves as Interpreter to the Synod, taking in their gibberish and translating it into something comprehensible. Thus, while Gamburg lacks any formal form of rule, the Fettered Synod influences the city through the word of the Interpreter, translating the divine knowledge of Wrong John delivered to these poor gibbering souls.
The bizarre governance of Gamburg is not the only purpose served by the Fettered Synod. As they age, and the Whaleman's Creed progresses, the blood of a Fettered Prophet becomes sticky and saplike, dripping viscously from the end of the harpoon each is impaled upon. It is the responsibility of those whose charge is the care of the Fettered Synod to collect and bottle this red-gold liquid, for it is perhaps the most valuable material produced by Gamburg: Prophet-Sap. This substance allows the imbiber to briefly dip their mind into unreality, to experience, for the briefest moment, that which the Fettered Synod is subjected to at all times. Thus, they gain a comprehension of the Pariah's Tides, and are capable of accurately navigating its stygian waters, without having to rely on dumb luck like the sailors of old.

Type

Exotic, Gestalt Consciousness

Alternative Names

The Creed-Council, Voice of the Whale

Demonym

Fettered Prophet