Moloch

**Moloch, Chemosh,** or **M'elohi** is the primary deity of most Jigoku religions and the progenitor of the cambinoid race, as well as the historical figure Nebonyses the Great. His worship is controversial particularly for its brutal methods of sacrifice, demanding the live immolation of unwilling tributes, especially children.

Moloch is contrasted with Melakesh, who rebuked the violence associated with proper worship of Moloch. Moloch worship, however, is much older.

Worship of Moloch was once common in places like *Lydia* and *Laurea*, but with the decline of the Perthic Caliphate, reverence for the bull-headed deity fell sharply. Outlawed by Gaius Olivius, the cult of Moloch became virtually extinct into the Mythic Ages and since then has not resurfaced in large numbers. Contingents exist within large communities and remote areas alike, but mostly remain a reclusive practice.

## Influence and worship in the Old World

### Preliturgy

Most of what is known regarding worship of Moloch is found in temples and records in Tyrrhos, Cascadia and southern Arborea. Such structures are visually descriptive as many predate writing. Worship was heavily connected to Nebonyses the Great himself; even with his wife Zadeh I succeeding him and establishing Perth, individual worship of the god declined and was replaced with reverence for Zadeh I and other city-specific gods, like Mephistopheles.

By the time the Dinamid Republic annexed Perepolis in 134 NCE, many cambinoids in Cascadia no longer practiced human sacrifice. This is contested by Gaius Olivius in his writings, but no evidence exists of such practices in Dinamid records or cambinoid testimony.

### Under Gaius Olivius

#### End of Moloch worship

Ultimately, the Olivian Wars would strike the cult's influence its death blow. Gaius Olivius, after conquering Cascadia, believed the cult to be too precarious to trust in; while the Cult of Orcus had presented its own problems, Olivius made the determination that Moloch worship had too much potential to subvert local rule and commit heinous acts in the name of a "foreign" god.

In CE 89, Olivius banned Moloch worship in the Old World, and even today, most rulers continue to uphold this ancient decree.

The practice has been best put into words by Olivius in his work *Cascadia II*. He frequently refers to cults in Cascadia, exlcuding Orcus, "to cause to pass through the fire." Although this term does not specify on its own whether the ritual related to Moloch involves human sacrifice, Olivius uses it later in reference to it:

> You gave yourself, in blood and spirit, to Moloch, with oil and multiplied your perfumes. You, who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree; who slay your children in the valleys, under the clefts of rocks, are worse than pig-gods and goat-gods. The bull-god Moloch has an appetite which is sated in secret, to which the loss of life is striking in such ways that remain disorienting and disheartening. Indeed, to be bound by Orcus is brutal and likened to how beasts ought to behave; Moloch, he who robs innocence, forces his clergy to strike the little ones who know not of their own suffering. They pass through fire into She'ol [the White Wells] before they can crawl upon its white sands.
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This reference to the underworld suggests that the fate of children
is to be sent to death at the hands of Moloch, who perhaps "feeds" on innocence or the lives of the innocent. Olivius elaborates later, in reference to a conversation with a priest of Orcus,

> Whoever sojourns in your lands east of the Pearl River, that gives any of his seed to Moloch, I say to you, he must be put to
> death. Have your people marked by Orcus cast upon him with stones. I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, to have him thrown into the valley without burial. His vengeful spirit will come for no man but me, as it is I who 'hath past a sentence' in giving this command. If any hide their eyes from this man, have the same be done to them, and it is indeed myself who shall be haunted by their deaths, as they too whore themselves to Moloch. To do the evils commanded by Moloch, commands us all to do right by ourselves, and to unite against this horror. I am with you in this sentence, should it be necessary, as my hand does not go to strike the people of Orcus, but those who betray our common dignity.
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While it has been proposed that this "uniting" against Moloch was a tool to endear the Olivian Army to a greater majority of Orcus-worshipping peoples in Cascadia, greater strides were made in Cascadia through unitarian practices and education under Goodfellow doctrine. As a result, it is likely that Gaius Olivius merely detested the practices of the Cult of Moloch instead of using it merely as a vehicle.

## Iselli testimony

The mysterious lands to the east, what once comprised the lands of the Muzdash Empire, are believed to still participate in cult activities to Moloch. Ashammi, an Iselli human who served in the courts of both Qi Lalita and the Republic of Pria, has provided some of the most extensive accounts of worship of Moloch in the modern day.

Ashammi writes, in a letter to an Iselli baron in Bellhaven, why their families left Jigoku:

> [...] I have not a mind for other immigrants from the East, who bring with them old gods besmeared with blood of the innocent and the tears of weeping mothers. You are too young to recall why our fathers and mothers sailed for many months into new lands. The horrors of a life in Chekoo-ko [Jigoku] were fresh in the minds of my own mother and father. It is not merely war nor famine that drives our families away, but brass bulls with extended hands, heated by his lower parts, his extended hands made hot. A sister I've known only in stories was put between his hands, and she was burnt. When she vehemently cried out, the priests beat a drum, such that my father and mother might not hear the voice of their daughter, their hearts unmoved. Yet, they knew, and indeed it was all they could do to not strike the priest that day, that they and many others left Chekoo-ko and famine-stricken lands for only a cardinal direction. You would do well to remember that those who could have left during this time, did leave. Any others who come must be turned opposite and sent on their way after three days with a full belly and quenced thirst.
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Other Iselli also write regarding Moloch worship being a primary reason for their immigration into Tyrrhos, especially in correspondence with lords and barons who accepted their immigration into *Aurellia*.