The Turned Throne and the Burnt Tree

The story of the **Turned Throne** and the **Burnt Tree** refers to a significant event in the history of Cvstodia and has a direct impact on the game's story.

It begins with His Holiness Escribar, who claimed that the people's pleas had not been answered and the Miracle had forsaken the people and thus turned his throne on his congregation. This period of time is referred to as **Age of the Turned Throne**. Some stretch of time later, he began to grow branches from his arms and body; his skin turned to bark, his blood turned to sap. He was transformed into a massive, enormous tree that towered far above the cathedral.

This great tree that had been once **Escribar** spontaneously combusted (as he later states "I burn from inside out"), and proceeded to burn for ninety days despite the presence of heavy storms. The tree was so large that when it finally stopped burning it left behind a mountain of ash, with the **Turned Throne** sitting at the top, empty. When the wind blew, it covered the Mother of Mothers in a thick, gray cloud of ash. **The Miracle** drove priests and parishioners alike to attempt to climb the mountain and reach the throne, but all of them were swallowed by the ash.

When the dust settled, everyone who was trapped in the mountain of ash began to remerge as the **Hordes of the Miracle** or **The Punished**. They had been transformed into beasts of faith and rage, only concerned with carrying out the will of the **Miracle**. Among them was **Escribar**, reborn as the Last Son of the Miracle.

These events took place before the Penitent One appeared. Cutscenes throughout the game feature dialogue from **Escribar** referring to this event.

At the end of the game and after defeating the **Last Son of the Miracle**, the Penitent One will climb the mountain of ash in an attempt to reach the Cradle of Affliction.

## Relevant Item Descriptions

The Works and Graces of the Sorrowful Miracle. First Verse.
The great dry tree into which His Holiness was transformed by work and grace of the Miracle burned in a night of heavy storms. It burned for ninety days, and as it was consumed, it left an enormous pile of ashes that covered the cathedral’s main ambulatory tower, leaving His Holiness’ Turned Throne on the top. All those who were present, and those who arrived and tried to climb to the summit, were swallowed by the ashes. And the cathedral fell silent.

The Works and Graces of the Sorrowful Miracle. Second Verse.
The wind blew strongly through the fractures of the cathedral that the Great Tree had originated, lifting the ash creating dense gray clouds, hiding the whole Mother Church and drowning her in a deep darkness of lead. The ground began to tremble. Then a terrible cry was heard from the depths of the mountain of ash. And that cry was joined by more and more. Guttural screams, animal roars, monsters, and one which was heard above all: the scream of all old man, which resounded gravely, as out of the throat of a giant.

The Works and Graces of the Sorrowful Miracle. Third Verse.
All those who were once swallowed by the ashes emerged from it in great hordes: the Hordes of the Miracle, the Punished. With only faith in their minds and only rage in their guts. Willing to punish all those who had escaped from such a holy fate, from the will of the Miracle itself.

Watch them. Watch as they climb up the burning ash. Watch how they crawl like hungry beasts. The ash swallows them up one by one, insatiable. Such is the faith that the Miracle stirs in them. It makes them climb towards the Turned Throne by promising them a communion that will, indeed, happen, but not in the way they expect. Soon, when all of them have been swallowed up, they will be reborn, filled with faith that neither you nor I will ever get to comprehend.

 **Deogracias** | ...That first relic is here, at the top of the ashen mountain next to the Turned Throne where His Holiness was kissed by our Miraculous Pain...