WIPs

“The Twinned”, “The Vermillion Dancers”


Religious order/assassins/spies


No species is prohibited


N/A


A small chapterhouse can be found in a nondescript laneway of St. Odo’s Precinct, and a further safehouse outside of the city limits. A vast brothel, known as The Knuckle, is likewise connected to the order, a shambling manse of ill-repute frequented by the sailors of the Quayside (from whence it rises, glittering with a hundred-hundred lights and shaded by the knotted eaves of two venerable baobab trees) and the more well-to-do; it is honeycombed with hidden passageways and secreted alcoves.


The Hafza is a guild of whores. It is a coven of spies. It is an order of sacred assassins, who strike with fingers of steel as well as flesh. The Hafza is dedicated to the worship of the Twin God Sesh-Hatta, the high prince of Sex and of Murder, who revels both in the pleasures of the flesh and in sacred violence. Thus, the Hafza plies both trades--prostituting both body and blade for the greater glory of their dread lady. In New Anathagos, where merchant houses and criminal orders vie for supremacy and the perversities of the flesh manifest in most peculiar forms, the services of the Hafza are in high demand. Whether it be gaining the ear of a business rival by mastering him in the bedchamber, poisoning an indignant underling with venomous massage oil, or other acts of subterfuge, the adherents of the order are masters of sexual manipulation, secret murder, and, above all, discretion. As of yet, their subtle arts have kept them hidden from most eyes save for interested parties, but suspicions gather.

New members of the order are taken at an early age, most commonly being foundlings left to moulder or whore’s whelps willing donated due to circumstance. They wear no guild motley nor bear a tattoo to mark themselves. Their pride, and, indeed, fanaticism, is inspired ultimately their gratitude---gratitude to their masters, and to the dread Doyenne for granting them life while taking it from so many others. Irregardless of gender, race, or ethnicity, the Twin God accepts indiscriminately those who would offer up their devotion without pretense.




The order was established, at least, according to myth, in far-flung Isseh-of-the-Lotus, when the catamite body-slave of the Suzerain Umunhomi was visited (as the legend recounts, in dreams) by the god Sesh-Hatta and induced to murder his master whilst abed. History, of course, tends to abstract itself into such romantic shapes---the existence of this catamite is dubious, but he nevertheless remains an icon of the order. What is known is that a cult of Sesh-Hatta, an ancestral desert deity who assumes a number of noms-de-plume in a variety of cultures, did exist in Isseh-of-the-Lotus, many centuries past, and that, although they did not perform the selfsame services the Hafza now provides, their temples offered sacred prostitutes to those desirous of currying favor with the Twin God; likewise, remnants of human sacrifices have been discovered in the blasted carapaces of their ancient chapels, petrified by the sands. From the outset, the Hafza have, understandably, gleaned few allies, especially beyond the desert’s ambit. Their history, including their arrival in New Anathagos, can be described as a series of exiles, precipitated by bedlam and massacre which leave few of their number alive. It is unknown when this cult, obscured by posterity’s dusted lens, assumed the name of Hafza (meaning, in Old Tchanu, “Vermillion Dancers”); neither is it certain when the order began to offer their signature dispensations. Much of the Hafza’s history has been lost, or is unknown due to its relative obscurity and the nature of that obscurity.


The leader of the Hafza is known as “The Grand Harlot”, a post held until death (or assassination), and whose purpose is both religious, serving as cleric of the Twin God, and administrative; currently, the office is occupied by Aibarsa, a native of the Free City of Tripantos. Her six year reign has already seen much blood shed in the Twin God’s name. There exists a very loose hierarchy of rank in the order, but specific titles there are not. Promotion, if it can be called such, is doled out meritocratically.




They possess no holdings or territory of note.


Neutral, though they are naturally averse to other religious institutions.