The Troupe

The Troupe is a faction that constantly shifts from antagonistic and helpful depending on whichever approach causes more chaos. From the outside, the Troupe appears to be a joyous group of travelling circus performer bugs of various species that travels to dying or dead kingdoms. However, a closer inspection reveals a darker truth. 
The members of the Troupe are all bugs that have quite literally sold their soul for whatever reason. Their chains of Ember lead back into the hand of the Nightmare Heart, a Higher Being who survives off of worship and a cycle of death and rebirth of Grimm. They are all bound to causing chaos because they can only feed off of ember that is created by chaos.
Their main tent was located in Hallownest until it was destroyed by Kynigos.
== Notable OCs ==
* Scarlet - A vessel who ascended through the ranks to become Mistress of the Troupe.
* Hiro'Tal - Treacherous and Dangerous, nonetheless a powerful ally to have.
* Scarlett - Biological child of Grimm, destined to become Mistress.
== Lore ==
=== Hierarchy ===
The Hierarchy of the Troupe is an odd one. At the top, there is the Nightmare Heart of course. Just below it, the current iteration of Grimm and his Grimmchildren. Below them, the Mistress. The Mistress is a leader of the Troupe, generally female, that functions more as a general or commander and the acting leader while Grimm and the Heart are shrouded in shadows. Then below the Mistress are the converted bugs - bugs who have converted to the troupe for life through a ritual. Their bond to the Heart is almost completely unbreakable. And below them at the bottom, Grimmkin. Creatures made of pure chaos and Nightmare Essence. They act as silly little slaves bound to the Nightmare heart. It should be noted that converted bugs can ascend to the rank of Mistress.
Here is a more visual description;
* The Nightmare Heart
* Grimm & his Grimmchildren
* The Mistress
* Converted Bugs
* Grimmkins
=== Ember and Chaos ===
All Troupe Members feed off of Ember. Ember is basically condensed Nightmare Essence that is created under "chaos". War, pain, destruction, as well as depression, sadness, and betrayal count as chaos and whenever somewhere has an overabundance of chaos, Nightmare Essence and in turn Ember is spawned.
=== How the Heart's Immortality Works ===
First, a member of the troupe is sent into the Wastelands from a tent to search for a fallen civilization. Then, the member in question places a beacon on the lands and waits for a worthy critter to come and activate it. When the beacon is activated, a tent appears out of the Nightmare Realm into the fallen civilization in question. There, an iteration of Grimm has the one who activated the beacon collect ember and prove their worth and gives them a Grimmchild charm. After that, the chosen person battles Grimm in the Nightmare Realm and kills him, the overabundance of Ember feeding the Grimm's Grimmchild. The Grimmchild eventually grows to be the next iteration of Grimm and the cycle repeats.
This cycle's sheer violence likely causes a fuckton of ember to appear and the ember is consumed by the Heart to essentially slow down its age.
Category:Factions