Chosen Of The Blooded Earth



There is Gaia, the mother of nature, the true face of the Crone. It is in Gaia's nature to change constantly, to be eternally destroying and recreating herself until the end of days. For a forest to keep growing, the old trees need to be burnt to dust, letting the saplings come through. Gaia's will is manifested in the Kindred, human beings who have been killed and returned to life in new, changed bodies. Such is the interpretation of the Crone's Liturgy by the Chosen Of The Blooded Earth, the native Crone sect of New Manchester. But no-one particularly cares these days. Certainly, the Circle usaed to have significant holdings in New Manchester, with their bloody, orgiastic celebrations in the mountains. But now, they're the butt of every joke, left behind by the rest of Kindred society.

The Circle lost their influence in the Evisceration, when the Hierophant at that time saw her Acolytes dying en masse at the hands of the Lupines. In desperation, she resorted to diablerie, intending to become powerful enough to fend the werewolves off. It was not long until she was a draugr, and a powerful one at that. She was called the Shrike for her favoured method of murder; impaling Kindred and Lupine alike on javelins that she may feed on them. She was eventually staked, with only the Hierophant Demeter knowing where she's kept.

Thus began the slow degeneration. Everyone was aware that the Circle was harbouring a diablerist in torpor, and many blamed the Circle for the deaths of the elders. Between the two, it was an easy choice to sign over the mountains and countryside as Lupine territory. Without a domain of their own, Demeter moved the Circle into the tunnels and sewers under the city, as if that was somehow a decent alternative. As far as Demeter was concerned (or so it seemed), the rest of Kindred society was not important enough to warrant protest.

And for decades, that was pretty much it for the Circle. The only major thing that has happened for them has been the creation of the Underground, giving them more domain that no-one else wants. Quite a few Acolytes are aware of how terrible their situation is, and there's growing support for Erica Frost to challenge Demeter for status as Hierophant.

The Chosen, like any other sect, have many traditions; the most prominent are blood sacrifice and scarification. Using Cruac, the Chosen have been able to fill the Underground with everything from flowers to oak trees in a short space of time. This requires the blood of kine, and while not strictly requiring the death of the donor, it's seen as important that something is destroyed so something new can be created.

Rank in the Chosen is represented by symbols burnt into the skin with red-hot scalpels. Due to the high chance of Rotschreck, other Acolytes volunteer to hold down the receiver of the scars; it's treated very much as a community activity, an opportunity for Acolytes to bond. All Acolytes are given three bands on the left wrist when they ascend from the Chorus. Ghouls are marked similarly, but with only two bands. As an Acolyte receives new duties and titles, he receives more scars, spreading out from the left wrist. Demeter has many scars, most importantly the tree-of-life on her back that marks a Hierophant.