The Tale of Daerenica: Part 2 – The Dark Rituals of the Cult of Ug’dromon

The Cult of Ug’dromon had many rituals, all of which involved the sacrifice of captured women. The cult believed that the sacrificed women would become the slaves of their demon god, Ug’dromon. The cultists were hated by the people of Jorshah for their dark rituals but after King Otto aligned himself with its High Priestess Daerenica, he shielded them from too much scrutiny. And the King denied that any women from Jorshah were ever abducted for the cult’s dark rituals. This was a lie, and the cult did in fact abduct women from the kingdom for sacrifice. Frequently, they were women who lived in the frontier, a sparsely-populated land where no one would notice if a family occasionally went messing. The cult would raid farms, killing the men and taking their wives and daughters.

However, when possible, the cult used women from other kingdoms and territories that were captured by King Otto’s army. 

This allowed them to sacrifice women in large numbers without anyone from Jorshah to report missing relatives or friends. Regardless of whether they were domestic or foreign, the fate of the captured women was the same. They would be dragged deep into the Talmot Forest to the hidden temple of the cult.

The captive women were first bathed by the cult priestesses. Perfume was applied to their bodies and they were adorned in beautiful silks or jewelry. Anything to make them as beautiful as possible for their slavery in the afterlife to Ug’dromon.

The “luckiest” women would be killed in a blood sacrifice, their blood spilled onto the alter by blades. 

For these women, their torment would be over in a few minutes. For the unluckier women, they would first be “purified” by pain, undergoing days of harsh beatings with canes or whips or other torture from the priestesses.

After days of torment, their fate would be the same as those who had undergone the quicker blood sacrifice. Their painful ordeal was ended with a knife.

For generations, the Cult of Ug’dromon sacrificed their captives by one of those two methods. But when Daerenica became High Priestess, she read many of the cult’s most ancient scrolls and about another way of conducting sacrifices. A dark ritual in which the victim would be immolated in fire. A method of sacrifice that would purify the victim even more than a blade or pain could. A method that could unleash greater power to be wielded by the Cult of Ug’dromon. Under Daerenica’s tutelage, the cult began this barbaric practice with select captives.

But it was just practice. For the scrolls stated that only if a woman or girl of royal blood was immolated in fire, and the proper incantations were chanted, that a portal would be opened to the world of Elevosia. And so Daerenica practiced the incantations and immolating women, but they were not women of royal blood. She would need a queen or princess. Thankfully, she was in luck. For the Kingdom of Jorshah was at war with the neighboring kingdom of Shinesh. The war was going well. And King Otto had promised Daerenica the princess of Shinesh once they had taken the capitol. Daerenica eagerly waited for her prize so that she could open the portal and bring them one step closer to acquiring the magic of the elves.

(End of Part 2, to be continued...)

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