Handmaidens of the Mother

A typical handmaiden

The **Handmaidens of the Mother**  are the most favoured members of the Shadow Cult, each one personally selected to attend to the swollen person of Greatmother Lucaerna. Each handmaiden is radically mutated or in posession of many of the blessings and curses of the Gifts, and in their collection has been selected from the Cult Orders and placed in this special place of prominence. Oftentimes as they are unable to carry out any other duties.

## Order Makeup

The Handmaidens are one of the oldest orders of the cult, being made up of those select few who provide personal service to Luc or those that have fallen completely under the sway of the cult Gifts and breed the next generations of the cult. So rich in blessings are they that the Greatmother is able to directly influence their minds or overshadow them entirely. The handmaidens are non-selective in who can become one, and while the order is predominantly demons of various races, a select few mortals have risen to high station, whereas other mortals make up the number in kind.

The handmaidens are removed from the normal duties of the cult orders; whether that be battle, preaching, or other tasks. Instead, these personal attendants to the Greatmother busy themselves with three main duties; care of Lucaerna's newborns, carrying out tasks for Lucaerna, and worship of The Mother by perpetuating the endless cycle of birth through their own bodies. And as such the handmaidens broadly are divided up into a hierarchy based on their assigned duties within two broad categories; the Battlemaidens and the Broodmaidens.

### Battlemaidens

The battlemaidens are the face of the Shadow Cult and are the warrior leaders as needed. Whenever the Temple Guardians are assigned to a particularly important mission or a crucial assassination is required, Battlemaidens are attached to the operation. Battlemaidens represent the very peak of physical conditioning and are all capable sorceresses or combatants. In practice though, these handmaidens serve as overseers and leaders rather then fighters, meant to report back to Greatmother Lucaerna, as most importantly among the favoured, the Battlemaidens are mobile. The battlemaidens typically posses fewer of the Gifts which would leave them encumbered for extended periods of time or otherwise indisposed. Bodily strength, mental fortitude, and other traits which enhance aggression. While not unheard of, some battlemaidens posses the traits of Bru'dalan, but tend to suppress it, lest they be overcome and become confined to the temple. In addition, the battlemaidens generally serve as representatives or ambassadors for the Shadow Cult when needed.

### Broodmaidens

Where battlemaidens represent the personal servants of the Greatmother outside the cult, broodmaidens serve Lucaerna closest within. Formed off the cult devotees who have begun bearing children for the Faith, the Broodmaidens are the beating heart of the Shadow Cult, responsible for the growth of the order. Typically coming from those already having found favour in some capacity, once their firstborn has been produced, they will be brought before Lucaerna and blessed with the marks of Bru'dalan, and the other requisite marks, and be given free dispensation to select from available mates. Most often, more senior Broodmaidens will guide younger ones in their choices. Generally, Broodmaidens will be delivered high ranking demons capable of breeding, and may do so as they see fit.

Each Broodmaiden is different in their size, stature, disposition, and capacity as well as their hungers. Not all Broodmaidens are Broodmothers for some must yet remain to attend to the personage of the Greatmother Herself. Those too burdened by child to attend the Mother are considered blessed, and their own attendants see to their needs. Those able to attend the Greatmother in person are the apex of physical specimens; inhumanly beautiful to the point where it feels wrong to look at them. Rarely with child, their needs and wills are nearly subsumed into the mind of the Greatmother such that they act as extensions of her. But one cannot bear such proximity forever, these Broodmaidens are rotated out as needed so as to keep their minds intact and the line of faces fresh for their goddess. It is not uncommon for said maidens to go into a frenzied indulgence in passions and hungers as the influence of the Greatmother fades, and later return to serve their god full with child to serve in a greater capacity as one of her honored childbearers, or in more extreme cases, to spiral out of control and form into a Broodmother.

## Castes

The Handmaidens are broadly divided up into two main groups. Within the overarching ranks though, there are concentric circles of castes which the Handmaidens may move between freely. These are not permanent stations, though they may be if so chosen, but rather means of which the closest attendants to the Greatmother choose to interpret Her will without direct instructions and act semi-autonomously to further their care for their god.

### Hykanot

The Hykanot, translated as ‘The Messengers’ in Old Darnassian, are the bringers of news and messages too and from allies of the cult, and to Shal’dari members upon distant worlds who lie beyond the reach of the Greatmother.

### Hat’esh

The Hat’esh, translated as ‘Revered Companion’ in Old Darnassian, are the personal attendants to Lucaerna Herself. Selected from the most reverent and most fanatic members of the Cult, these blessed attendants are kept at the side of the Greatmother, learning from Her wisdom and filled with the intellectus of The Presence such that they know what the Greatmother knows. Each one of these chosen is destined to go on to fill mighty roles within the Shal’dari, or grow to become Broodmothers themselves in time.

### Thanan’gar

The Thanan’gar, translated as ‘Forbidden Lover’ are the most trusted agents of Lucaerna. Warriors permitted to bring weapons into the very most inner sanctum of Lucaerna. These revered warriors stand at the edges of the Greatmother’s chamber, constantly vigilant for threats to the Greatmother’s person. Each one bears weapons of dark provenance inscribed with necrotic runes of Necropotency and Decay. These agents of the Greatmother are trained in the dark arts of necromancy by bound Nathrezhim, and are rarely deployed to the field except to carry out very particular missions by the Greatmother.

### Brud’sah

The Brud’sah, translated as ‘The Revered Mother’ in Old Darnassian, are those chosen Handmaidens who have chosen to take on the supreme responsibility of raising and caring for the endless stream of young produced by the Shal’dari. After each birth to demonic and mortal young, they must be appropriately baptized and consecrated into the love of the Greatmother. In addition to seeing to the spiritual needs of each new child, Brud’sah Handmaidens see to the nutritional needs and feedings of the new offspring as they rapidly grow into young adulthood over the course of mere weeks under the influence of secret magics. Handmaidens often develop the Kel’dalan and Kel’dah’sulan mutations to provide for and feed the young if they have not already.

### Sayad’demur

The Sayad’demur, translated as “The Lifegivers” in Old Darnassian, are those Handmaidens who choose to take on the burden of childbirth. While any handmaiden may become fantastically pregnant in the course of their duties, the Sayad’demur are those consumed by it. Well on their way to becoming Broodmothers themselves, these Handmaidens teeter on the edge as they bear the Cults most valued members