The Children of Ob'Silexia
For most, the dawning of the Third Age represents an era of hope and renewal, where societies have truly put the panicked chaos and territorial warfare of the post-Deluge world behind them. The mighty Sunken Expanse is receding; nautical passages shallow and narrow, discouraging sea monsters and widening nautical exploration, even connecting continents previously separated by the oceans' myriad dangers.
But there are some who resent these new developments. The Children of Ob'Silexia are worshippers of the Ascendant demigod of the nightmarish, oceanic kaiju, of hunger and predation, and many fear they are entering their twilight years. And out of this fear have arisen renewed efforts to consolidate their power over Waking society. They are sometimes called the Children of Jenny Haniver, Kaijinn, Titanseekers or Sea Bishops.
As Waking Materia is a waterworld and the kaiju rule its myriad depths, sea monsters have taken up considerable real estate in the collective Waking psyche, and as such worship of Ob'Silexia is one of the more common evil-aligned religions on the plane.Rituals
Regardless of individual faith, most Titanseekers will not allow themselves to fade into irrelevance. One particularly gruesome tactic that is beginning to arise in the Broken Empire are what the Children call "feedings": clerics of the monstrous goddess will moonlight as ships' cedas -- weather mages that assist ships in making safe passage -- and instead direct the ship into kaiju territory in a horrific murder-suicide. The added benefit of this ritual, in the mind of the cultist, is becoming one with a kaiju and carrying their essence into their next life. Other faiths make use of breeding and alchemy in an effort to make their beloved sea monsters more tolerant of shallow waters.
As these foul activities increase, so too has the pushback: churches of the The Stormlords -- wedded demigods of weather, good fortune and nautical travel -- have grown in turn to counter Ob'Silexia's monstrous machinations.Exceptions
Some churches treat Ob'Silexia as a messiah figure, forced to take control of the kaiju lest they wreak even more havoc on Material civilization. These gtroups instead claim the reduction in sea monster activity is, in fact, thanks to "Jenny Haniver"'s interdiction, rather than in spite of. To be sure, even they are hardly good aligned and are known to make human sacrifices to placate the Thousand-Finned Goddess's hunger.
Type
Material religion (evil)
Deity
Ob'Silexia
Favoured Classes
Sorcerer, Wizard, Corsair
Alignment
Generally NE or CE
Purviews
Kaiju
Monstrosity
Predation
Comments