Page 111 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains
P. 111

CHAPTER FOUR: THE UNDYING ONES


























               “Today, we honor those who have fallen in the hunt for Divinity,          The Enemy
            and in their name, we feast! Try the arm, there’s still meat on it.”
               The Faithful claim that as long as there have been men   The Faithful don’t actually know they are hunting mum-
            and gods for men to worship, they have been practicing their   mies and  other  longevity-filled monsters, like Prometheans,
            ecstatic adulation. The first time gods took a human (or hu-  werewolves,  or vampires. These traditions  are  handed  down
            man-like) form and walked on the surface of the earth among   through family  lines, between  lovers worshipping  in secret,
            man, woman, and child, the Faithful Feasted.             or when a stranger stumbles into a private ritual and,
               Because their  rites are carefully  guarded                   instead  of  running away in terror, lingers
            secrets passed down verbally from one                                 and watches. Those who stumble into
            generation  to  the  next, there  are                                    a Feast  will  often find themselves
            few if any written records. The                                             welcomed. The Faithful believe
            god, Shulpae, they draw                                                       that they’re called to the Feast
            their  name from is only  a                                                    by fate just as much as they
            briefly mentioned  curios-                                                      are drawn to the gods who
            ity, rather than a piece of                                                     stroll past them,  unaware
            historical or mythological                                                      their bodies are to be har-
            fact. If they weren’t forced                                                    vested.
            to,  the Faithful of  Shul-                                                        While  these hunt-
            pae would leave no trace                                                        ers  may not  realize what
            of  themselves  or their                                                        a mummy is  or have any
            whereabouts behind.                                                             practical  knowledge of
               And  yet?  They exist.                                                       them, most Faithful are
            The Faithful bides  their                                                       adept at recognizing that
            time  by hunting and  col-                                                      the undying  exist at the
            lecting embodied gods for                                                       center of a storm of activ-
            the Feast.                                                                      ity. Between the tomb, the
               The Faithful do not                                                         cultists, and  their obses-
            consider what they do to                                                       sion with relics, the Faith-
            be abominable or profane.                                                      ful  know when a  mummy
            Cannibalism is an act one                                                      is exercising its power over
            human does to another.                                                         the world around them.
            These  mortals  nourish                                                            It’s likely that any
            themselves with the  sacred                                                    mummy who has encoun-
            flesh of gods in order to unite                                               tered the Faithful in the past
            themselves under the banner of their faith. This is apotheosis.   simply does not remember these hunters from one lifetime to the
               When the Faithful eat the flesh of gods, they perform a   next. If they did, the mummy or its cultists would have hunted
            holy act no different than Christians who partake of the Eu-  the Faithful of Shulpae down to the very last practitioner.
            charist. Their rituals allow them to worship the deities they’ve   Many Faithful have an intimate knowledge  as to what
            brought into their temples and gain their power. By this act,   mummies can do, since they can steal these powers from their
            these rites allow members to commune with  the  deity.  The   flesh when they Feast. The capture of a mummy requires hunt-
            Faithful become one with a part of that god, and that same   ers to understand what it can do in order to use its own powers
            god-part one with them.                            against it. Hitting a mummy with trucks or other large, blunt


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