Topic: Shadow Talons

(Lost To Time)

Date: 2008-05-16 08:57 EST
Abandoned and filled with decay is the lair of the evil and corrupt talon gang. Not so much a gang as they are a following of the evil beast Nereg. They are a religious order founded by the great prophet J. There is no other name this man is called. He said he had been given the word of the great God Nereg. He was attacked by a mysterious figure in black deep in the west end and his mind was infected with horrible visions from beyond the realms of reality itself. According to him a great and powerful voice broke the vision and the forgotten God himself spoke to him. "Mortal, you are my avatar. Share the blood of the living children and to you I grant the truth of your enemy, and the power to conquer all things living and dead." Those words became mantra to the mortal and his name was forsaken from that point on.

J murdered his first child in the streets of West End, the blood flowed onto his bare hands and the energy of the life flowed into the new prophet. As promised he gained new and mysterious powers, the blood moved onto the ground and it strangely vanished. Nobody noticed the death of an orphan child in the streets of the West end, and the body has yet to be found.

Quickly J moved from the vile West End and from there he moved to the docks. The place was almost pointed out to him from unknown origins, but the place he picked seemed like it hadn't been used in years, dark and depressing, the perfect place to begin his following. Months past and J had no powers over the minds of the living, and people regarded him as another run of the mill cultist who would eventually go away if ignored. J, despite being Nereg's chosen one was discouraged. And on the day he was deciding to suffer the wrath of his God and give up, a woman came into his life who had been demonic as she was beautiful, again in Rhydin it was run of the mill stuff around here. Wandering the Docks and spouting off random things gained her no attention, even from the local bad ones that would appear here. It attracted J, however.

It turned she had no memory, no name, nothing. But she was naturally bad, this much she knew. J wasted no time in recruiting her and she seemed eager to the idealism of spilling the blood of children to some unseen God. She quickly became the second in command and her entire being became possessed with the idea of Nereg. The two of them went on a recruiting spree, and on the side they would kill children, and their parents. Due to the constant violence in this city, none of this was reported, or even found out about as if they were protected by some unseen force of malign intent.

Time past and simpleminded people with the promise of blood for power began to line up for the pair as they demonstrated their unusual powers over the shadows and the darkness with in them. Awe and fear sprung from the minds of the people who witnessed this. The promise of a new age of eternal peace for a few drops of blood seemed worth it. And each sacrifice became more intense as with each blood spilling the powers of their leaders grew and the presence of the beast began to corrupt the followers even further. In short order most of them could barely remember the promises of peace, and only looked forward to the next slaughtering.

Today the Shadow Talons are the best kept secret of the Docks that everybody knows about around here. Urban legends spread through out the minds and whispers of people. Legends that tell children to not venture out in the darkness for any reason, or they will get you. Legends that tell of people walking together one minute, then the next one of them is missing. Tales of people coming out of the darkness and from the water strange things coming and stealing workers away. Most of these stories have been spread by the cult themselves.

There is a darkness spreading throughout Rhydin now. Unstoppable and as destructive as the Lord that spawned it. Mistress Talon and The Prophet J spread their sickness freely, is there nothing that can stand in the way?

The Shadow Talon Symbol

This symbol is different for everybody who looks at it, it would seem. Some claim it is a face, glaring at all who pass where it has been painted or engraved onto the walls. Some say it is a representation of the two leaders and below them are lines that represent the followers. Others say it is the closest thing that can be done to the true face of their mysterious god.

It looks something like this.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k183/Monsterphotoguy/Shadowtalon.jpg



Mistress Talon is a beautiful woman, however she hides her appearance from the world and even the followers most of the time. Some of the followers claim to have seen her, most don't risk the fate the could await them if they say something bad about her. She is the one who leads the majority of the sacrifices and acts as the main speaker and to any outsider, she is the one in charge of the whole operation.

Mistress Talon on her Throne, behind her is her own personal symbol:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k183/Monsterphotoguy/mystery-1.jpg



J, the Prophet is the once ruined man now become an avatar of Nereg on Rhydin. He has concealed himself in cloaks and shadows at all time trying to become more darkness then alive. He is powerful and remains in the background almost all the time now. He delivers the word through the Mistress and pulls the strings. Nothing goes on in the cult that he does not know about. He has spies everywhere and it is rumored that he can shape shift. Nobody has seen him without his cloak, he could be anybody at anytime.

Here is the Prophet J and his Cloak:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k183/Monsterphotoguy/demons.gif

(Lost To Time)

Date: 2008-05-20 08:06 EST
The Shadowtalon Cult:

These are truly twisted people indeed, but how does one get this way' People are pretty sure most of their fellow Rhydin dwellers don't just wake up one day and decide they want to kill children for some faceless god for kicks. No, it is more complicated then that for these people. Most of them have the same back story in this city, life generally is bad. Crime keeps going up and the prices of things seems to be right on its heels. People are desperate for change and nobody is willing to listen to the average person, nobody really cares about their tormented existence in the least amount. As long as the people in charge are still making money, why should they care at all"

The cult is a direct byproduct of greed and oppression from the elite. The world they live in is perfect for this kind of rebellious organization to take hold easily. In a world where all you ever see day in and out is pain and suffering, the change starts with you standing up and doing something about your situation, and this is the result.

Blood must be poured onto the ground, this is a small price to pay for the bigger dream and there are very few people who would object to the promise of a better life for their people, the chance to make a difference. Often the members already have nowhere to go, and at the end of their line in life. It is a recruiter who feeds the mind and body with their words and free food they deliver. It does not take long to see the hope and the desire for revenge against the elite and cold members of society to flare up in their souls. Most of these people take very little persuasion to move into the black mass.

Some members have other reasons to join. Some of them are the very criminals that have oppressed the weak, others are indeed completely insane to begin with. All of them are insearch of the chance of power and the chance to be apart of something truly impressive.

These members are often ruled by their own fear and hate of the outside world and the Mistress and J prey upon this weakness quite often. It works , truth becomes embellished and terrifying. Events are coming that never actually show up and the things that do exist are infinitely worse than they actually are. The cult sees the world through a cracked window of reality provided to them by their leaders, and they remained a tightly controlled people.

Some members climb in power and become priests, and they become recruiters, and warriors to the cause. They often act as tentacles and they spread the fear throughout the docks.

Some members have immense power and are the very elite they claim to fight. These members are usually the reason the supply of the children never runs out. Publicly they will do all they can to fight the scourge of the cult, however they are members themselves controlled by the leaders, their main mission is to keep the prices rising and keep the despair at all time highs so people will continue panic and fall to their darker side all for the pleasure of the faceless god worshiped by the cult at large.

Still being an urban legend status, the cult is mostly still in the Dock area, the scourge the elite battle publicly is the decay of the economy and standard of life, not the cult. The legend has spread to other parts of the city and open minds thinking they will make the idea into the realm of reality are considering the issue and doing research. Little do they know that once they are committed to the cult, the parent body will become aware of them, the newcomers will be dragged into a dark and twisted world, like it or not.

The cult at large is responsible for many things that are unsolved, and largely they have been unseen, however recently the legend has been pushed into the limelight when two recruiters went down to the village of Carcosa to try and spread the word there, and met up with a mysterious power none can explain.

A rather large group of the fanatics left the dockside for the first time to go investigate the occurrence and planned to thrust themselves into the realm of the present reality the rest of the people live in with the planned execution of the entire village, in the name of Nereg, the faceless god.

What does the future hold"