作者 主题: 【Starfinder CRB】威胁:吞天教众(CULT OF THE DEVOURER)  (阅读 5283 次)

副标题: “杀!残!烧!”

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吞天教众
湮灭之子嗣


深邃的太空为许多罪犯和流放者提供了庇护,从唯利是图的海盗,到恶魔宿主,到被没有遮蔽的反应堆弄得心智失常的变种人等等不一而足。然而其中最糟糕的很可能就是吞天教众那一心一意所带来的恐怖。

文明世界总是疑惑为什么吞天教众会不惜大费周章去崇拜一名不会提供任何回报的毁灭之神。然而这些家伙没能领会到虚无正是这些教众应得的奖赏。吞天所应许的毁灭不单单是带来终焉,而更是要将世上的所有一切摧毁得彻底不复存在。吞天所要毁灭的不单单是将来,还包括过去。其对象也不仅限于主物质位面,而是所有存在。借由推进这个毁灭大业,为悲伤所苦的人得以在字面意义上抹去过去的悲剧,并将导致其心碎的缘由彻底根除。而消灭了来世,则意味着罪孽深重的灵魂可以逃脱审判。虽然吞天不同宗派的牧师争论到底当今寰宇会不会被一个更符合噬星者口味的宇宙所取代,但他们都在某个前提上达成了一致:当今的现实已经腐朽不堪,需要被彻底抹消。

大众认为吞天教众都是一群虐待狂,食人族,穿着嵌有尖牙利爪盔甲的野蛮人,只为了屠杀的喜悦而袭击船只。然而这只是整个信仰的其中一面。而这类袭击部队被称为“破壁者”(wall breakers),被神圣毒品所驱使的狂战士所进行的屠杀和亵渎并非出于自己的喜悦,而是为了粉碎文明社会的灵魂。与此相反的还有“潜伏者”(hidden ones),这些道貌岸然的反社会虔诚信徒不起眼地躲在各个社会里收集信息,招募新血,四处播下熵的种子。教众里的神职人员和领袖都可能来自这两种群体(作为已知的两种传统)。不同的教派对这两种策略的强调会各有差异。然而在此之上,还存在某些极为稀少的个体——“残暴者”(atrocites),他们卸下了灵魂轮回(Cycle of Souls)的枷锁,以求操纵一场规模惊人得足以引起吞天注意的毁灭之潮。即使是一些独立四散,急躁易怒的教众——他们经常为了把自己作为其扭曲的神圣教义中的祭品而彼此征伐——也会马上向残暴者屈膝效忠。因为他们在残暴者那空空如也的眼窝里以及身边雷云般的光环上看到了终将到来的胜利。
剧透 -  原文:
CULT OF THE DEVOURER
Scions of the Unmaking

Deep space provides cover for many criminals and outcasts, from mercenary pirates to demon binders and mutants driven insane by unshielded reactors. Yet the worst of these is likely the single-minded horror of the cult of the Devourer.

Civilized worlds often wonder why Devourer cultists bother worshiping a god of destruction when it offers them nothing in return. Yet what they fail to grasp is that nothing is exactly what such cultists desire. The Devourer’s destruction promises not just an end but a complete unmaking of all that is. It could consume not just the future but the past; not just the Material Plane but all existence. By advancing its cause, the grief stricken can literally undo past tragedies, making it so their losses never happened. By removing the afterlife, the guilty can avoid judgment. While priests of different sects debate whether this existence would be replaced by a new one more to the Devourer’s liking, their underlying premise is that the current existence has rotted, and it must be erased completely.

While the public thinks of  Devourer  cultists as  sadistic  cannibals, berserkers in gore-studded armor that raid ships for the joy of slaughter, this is only one facet of the faith. Such shock troops are called “wall breakers”—barbarians driven by sacred drugs to slaughter and defile, not for their own pleasure, but to break the spirits of civilizations. Complementing these are the “hidden ones,” pious sociopaths who move undetected among other societies, gathering information, recruiting, and planting the seeds of entropy. Priests and leaders can be from either choir (as the two traditions are known), and different congregations place different emphasis on these two tactics. Above all of these, however, are the rare “atrocites”— individuals who’ve broken free from the Cycle of Souls in order to mastermind destruction on a scale grand enough to attract the attention of the Devourer. While individual cults may be fractious, battling each other as well as victims in their scarred and twisted warships, all immediately bow to the will of an atrocite, in whose empty eye sockets and storm- cloud halo they might find their final victory.