Lucilla the Desecrated

Wrathful

• The Measure of Mortality

  "The cosmos sprawl over untold, incomprehensible lengths, and against the scope of all that is, our greatest works and most celebrated heroes are as dust in the wind. Calling our lives meaningless or insignificant is giving us as mortals even too much credit. Once you become witness to real power... once you see cosmic events unfolding and being shaped by the indomitable wills of beings outside the scope of what language can even begin to describe... it will drive you mad, as it has me.
  
  You see, almost none of us understand what a blessing it is to be as irrelevant we are in the grand scope of things. Once your eyes have been opened and you become awakened to the scale of the cosmos and what life looks like when it is not confined to and shaped by the mortal planescapes, as I have, you would never find peace again. The shattering realization that we exist completely by accident and the only thing saving us from fates incomprehensibly worse than total annihilation is that the attentions of greater forces are directed elsewhere. Should their eyes fall on us, there is nowhere to run. Nothing to do. We swim on the surface of a lake that stretches on forever, and underneath us in the murky blackness are great beasts that would rise up in a second and swallow us whole if they only knew we were there.
  
  Do not lift up the veil and look beyond it: once you have become awoken, you will never sleep again."
  
  - "The Manifesto of the Awoken"

• The Cult

  The Cult of the Awoken are demon worshipers who have willingly crossed over from what they call 'the Veil' via astral projection into the hellish realm of Segraebbliut. There, demon princes expose the cultists' souls to horrific energies, warping their very souls into vessels for the demons to enter the mortal realm in the worshipers' bodies. Those who subject themselves to these rites almost invariably become empty husks, allowing for any being that crosses back over to use the body as it sees fit. Once the demon has accomplished whatever it has set out to do, it leaves back to Segraebbliut, leaving the cultist as a mere gibbering wreck, unable to speak or move after the horrors he or she had been subjected to.
  
  There are rare occasions where the will of the cultist is not broken, and such is the case with Lucilla the Desecrated. She was coerced into Cult of the Awoken with promises of power and everlasting life, and willingly subjected herself to the ritual that sent her soul to Segraebbliut and having it warped by the demon princes. When the demons came to possess her body, her will was so remarkably strong that she actually retained control of herself despite the indefatigable whispers of the supernatural beings inside of her brain, although she was undeniably mentally drained and spiritually scarred by the sheer amount of effort needed to do so.
  
  She still carries the demons inside of her mind, although they tirelessly work to gain control of her body and her will is sorely and constantly tested to retain control. Once they have won over her, they will drag her spirit back to Segraebbliut and use her soul to power their dark machinations: an unimaginably horrific and painful fate, and an eternal one as well. To keep control means to keep possession of her own soul, and in doing so she will stave off her fate for as long as possible. There is no hope that she might break free of what lies ahead of her: all she can do is delay the inevitable for as long as possible, at any cost. So far, the only way she has discovered to ward off the demons' control is to placate them by murdering other living beings - the more advanced the better. Plants and insects will do in a pinch, but nothing compares to a good old fashioned sacrificial killing, and the purer the victim the better.
  
  Lucilla the Desecrated now stalks the dark corners of the land, looking for victims to sustain herself on with their blood. The demons within her mind have become almost placated by her wicked brutality, and even lend their own powers to her as she carries on with her bloody, sacrilegious work.
  
  Beware the Desecrated.