[Organisations] The Voice of Carcosa

[LightDark]

Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen

 In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
 And strange moons circle through the skies,
 But stranger still is

 Great Carcosa.

1. General

The Voice of Carcosa is a cult dedicated to manifesting the daemon-city they worship into reality. They plan to do this by using the city of Esterrantes on Quechit as a host-body for the daemon they worship, turning its streets and buildings into one gigantic summoning circle, which they plan to charge by a ritual they will perform in their underground lair. Their plan, if it were achieved, would be disastrous to Quechit and the Anargo Sector.

2. Esterrantes

Esterrantes is a dark city, the buildings looming threateningly over the pedestrians that walk its streets. Few go out at night, as those that do are sometimes found dead, completely insane, or sometimes never found at all. At night, the clouds cover the sky, blocking out the light of the stars, and sometimes terrible storms occur. Then, there is the undercity, a massive maze of tunnels running under the city and sometimes reaching miles below the ground.

The undercity is home to many, many horrific creatures, mutant tribes and forgotten outposts of civilisation in its lightless depths. However, the reactors that bring power to Esterrantes are located here, and teams of brave men must go down to maintain them. Sometimes the teams vanish, this is a normal enough occurrence, and no-one cares at all. Sometimes, this is due to loss of contact or attacks by mutant tribes, sometimes for more sinister reasons.

The Guild of Artificiers maintain power over the city, working constantly to keep it in order. Sometimes, they say, this requires otherwise nonsensical changes to the city, for reasons only they know. Roads moved, houses built where no-one will live in, and many other nonsensical things, but no-one truly knows why they happen. The real reason is much more sinister, a reason no-one guesses - the Guild of Artificiers is a mere front for a much, much darker organisation.

And the real reason, is hidden in the deepest part of the city.

3. Carcosa

Carcosa is a mad city, a place that Esterrantes' inhabitants sometimes see in their dreams. A city of twisted angles and insane geometry, mist flowing in the streets between obsidian spires, under a storm-wracked sky which ceaselessly flashes with cobalt lightning. The truth is that Carcosa is no city, but a daemon masquerading as one, taking its form in order to make the transition between its world and ours easier.

The daemon is served by a cult which has as its front the Guild of Artificiers, which plans to bring the daemon into reality using Esterrantes as a host. To do this, they require a sacrifice of every living soul within, which they plan to perform using a dark, forbidden ritual in their headquarters under the city's centre.

The changes the Guild makes to Esterrantes are not innocuous -when they are complete, the city-wide geometric figures that the changes will make will turn the city into a giant ritual circle that, when activated, will bring the souls of everyone within to Carcosa, enabling it to exist however briefly within the Materium, inhabiting the city as its host.

If such a thing were performed, the Inquisition would have to quickly perform Exterminatus upon Quechit before the city-sized wound in reality that Esterrantes would become turns it into a daemon-world.

4. The Cult

The Voice of Carcosa are most definitely not a normal Chaos cult. They care little for religion or the Greater Chaos powers, preferring instead to bring their mad visions of Carcosa into reality. Their psychology is strange, twisted as it is by their dreams and visions, and they are known to have tiny, but abnormal tics that makes speaking with them very disconcerting and confusing.

Their mutations are also strange - some become insubstantial, unable to be harmed with normal weapons. Others reset at certain times and places, some are locked in temporal stasis, meaning that they cannot age, but all have black hair, blue eyes, and are deathly pale.

Their recruitment is quite simple - those that have heard the whispers of Carcosa in their dreams are subconsciously drawn to their headquarters deep under the Artificiers' guild. Those that have not yet mutated are the Artificiers - those that have are true members of the cult proper,

The cult's history begins with the frustration of a young artificier 500 years prior, who angered that his superiors were not listening to him, began to hear the voice of Carcosa in his dreams. Eventually, they turned the Guild of Artificiers into a pawn, hollowing it out so that they could turn the city into a ritual circle with nobody the wiser. They are approximately half-way through the completion of the circle, and this is the reasobn so many strange things happen in Esterrantes.

[Totenkopf]

I like the idea of a minor chaos god/greater daemon masquerading as a city, very 'Realms of Chaos' meets 'Daemon City', although some more fleshing out would be nice. At the moment it just sounds a bit oversimplified (evil cult does big mysterious ritual = end of world). Also, what is an 'abnormal' weapon? Can some of these insubstantial twins only be harmed by psykers? I would want to know a bit more about the history as well, other than 'disgruntled employee turns to chaos when ignored'.

[LightDark]

I like the idea of a minor chaos god/greater daemon masquerading as a city, very 'Realms of Chaos' meets 'Daemon City', although some more fleshing out would be nice. At the moment it just sounds a bit oversimplified (evil cult does big mysterious ritual = end of world). Also, what is an 'abnormal' weapon? Can some of these insubstantial twins only be harmed by psykers? I would want to know a bit more about the history as well, other than 'disgruntled employee turns to chaos when ignored'.

Abnormal weapons are basically force/power weapons, psycannons and stuff like that. And yes, some can only be harmed by psykers. As for its history and goals, thanks for reminding me to elaborate.

[Kage2020]

I like the idea of a minor chaos god/greater daemon masquerading as a city, very 'Realms of Chaos' meets 'Daemon City', although some more fleshing out would be nice.

I've actually been thinking of this quite recently based out of discussions on the re-vision of the project.  One thing that tends to be done in the background material, and which tends to be mirrored in fan 'fluff,' is that a world that is affected by the Age of Strife--the emergence of psykers, daemons, etc.--ultimately loses its technology and falls to barbarism.  What would such a world be like after 15,000 years?  What ancient ruins would remain, and could those ancient ruins be as described here...?

Seems that it would make a rather interesting "adventure world" for Wildspace...

Erm, but there we go.  Seems strange posting outside of the current project development/revival threads.

Kage

[Destecado]

I like the idea of a minor chaos god/greater daemon masquerading as a city, very 'Realms of Chaos' meets 'Daemon City', although some more fleshing out would be nice.

I've actually been thinking of this quite recently based out of discussions on the re-vision of the project.  One thing that tends to be done in the background material, and which tends to be mirrored in fan 'fluff,' is that a world that is affected by the Age of Strife--the emergence of psykers, daemons, etc.--ultimately loses its technology and falls to barbarism.  What would such a world be like after 15,000 years?  What ancient ruins would remain, and could those ancient ruins be as described here...?

Seems that it would make a rather interesting "adventure world" for Wildspace...

Erm, but there we go.  Seems strange posting outside of the current project development/revival threads.

Kage

Speaking about revisions, this definitely sounds like a concept that I put forward before, on one of the earlier versions of  Anargo.  The previous incarnation wasn't for this specific cult, but for an "eternal fortress" in wildspace, with a city that kept growing up around it.   Back during the Dark Age of Technology, a way was found to harness powerful psychic energy, which could be used as a power source.  The fortress in question is powered by the emanations of such a being...which in the current age would be considered a demon.   

The demon subverted its prison and turned it into its stronghold.   Those that resided within became its protectors and armies for spreading its influence...by increasing the size of the city.   Armies sent to vanquish this beast and its minions have been later seen to be building fortifications or in other ways extending the city.   The city is a multi-layered maze of  bisecting corridors and blind alleys.  A roadway, which may one day be a main thoroughfare, can be blocked the next time a person passes through by a wall and imposing citadel.   It is even rumored that in areas closest to the fortress, the demon can actually rearrange the buildings and roadways or he may just confuse those that wonder close to its seat of power.   

[Kage2020]

I'm sure that this gets into the territory of putting the cart in front of the horse, but when I guess that you're hit with a bit of inspiration you might as well go with it...

The previous incarnation wasn't for this specific cult, but for an "eternal fortress" in wildspace, with a city that kept growing up around it.

For some reason I'm getting an image of Greg Bear's City at the End of Time, just instead of being in decline/shrinking, it's in growth.

 Back during the Dark Age of Technology, a way was found to harness powerful psychic energy, which could be used as a power source.  The fortress in question is powered by the emanations of such a being...which in the current age would be considered a demon. 

I would be reticent to go quite down this route because:

• It's stepping on the toes of the Eldar once again, and they're meant to have much higher technology than the G/DAoT (despite some recently commentary in novels such as Dark Mechanicus).  The Eldar in Farseer are described as having vast "spirit engines" that seem to be the psychic equivalent of antimatter power plants to their "fusion power plants" that they've got now.
  
• From the novel Eye of Terror--or maybe it was one of the anthologies--we're given the idea that "daemons cannot create matter."  Of course, there's a difference here between creating and acquiring.
  
  

There were more reasons when I started typing this, but I got distracted and have subsequently forgotten them.

Still, who is to say that the intelligence that runs such a city is not a logis daemon!?

Kage