Lore24 Feb 23: The Crimson Mantle

Anyone can tell you that the heretics of the Crimson Mantle are mad. Everyone will tell you that they are deluded, and that the gods will smite them as surely as the sun rises each day. Yet when in the night a temple is set ablaze, and the cry of “No gods or masters!” echoes down the streets, more and more voices will answer “No gods or masters!”

The Crimson Mantle is as much a political faction as it is a religious one. It was founded by people dissatisfied with the divine-blooded ruling class. Its goal is to elevate mortals by killing priests, deities, and their bastards, the sorcerers. They do this ostensibly without using magic, though some of the techniques they use do often seem like magic to outside observers. If you bring this up, they just shrug, and tell you that they have simply attained complete control over their body, and that these abilities are the result. They reject the rule of the powerful, and preach that one should first know themselves before trying to force their will upon others. What they mean by “knowing oneself” is rarely, if ever, elaborated upon.

The Crimson Mantle is most popular among nomads, in remote villages, and among slaves, criminals, and other pariahs of society. By contrast in almost every major city, or even small farming communities where the authority of the Sorcerer-Kings reaches easily, even knowing someone from the Mantle is enough reason to be tortured to death.

When going out to do their grim work, members of the Crimson Mantle don animal masks and red hooded cloaks. They will tell you, that the cloaks are red from the blood of dead gods, but there’s no way they killed enough gods to paint every single member’s cloak red. Still, some of the older members seem almost immune to magic, so there must be something to it.

The Crimson Mantle is necessarily a very secretive organization, but they have eyes and ears in more places than most people realize, and definitely more than the aristocracy would like. Seeking them out is an exercise in frustration, and most of the time those who seek to join them don’t even find a contact, they just find a mysterious piece of papyrus, or a street graffiti telling them where to go and when. Even in the more remote places, where they operate more openly, it can take weeks to get the local contact to trust you enough to reveal themselves.

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