Defiling of Sekoshi

> "*With the powers invested in me as a senior servant of His Majesty's Imperial Inquisition, I compel and beg every subject of the Emperor to cleanse the mutant with extreme prejudice, to have neither doubt nor remorse in the extermination of demonic corruption. To slay such wretched creatures is a mercy to them; to prolong their lives is treason. Those who do not aid in the destruction of the mutant are allies of the Dread and enemies of His Majesty, and shall be persecuted without pity.*"
> ― November Order of Grand Inquisitor Qahem Sahrad, issued after the Defiling of Sekoshi
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## Defiling of Sekoshi

### Attacker Strength

11,000 Infantry (7000 additional soldiers during final purge)1000 Cavalry
200 Inquisitors

### Defender Strength

4000 Infantry15-20 Ferigans
Up to 100,000 Militia

### Attacker Losses

3000 Infantry200 Cavalry
80 Inquisitors

### Defender Losses

Total annihilation

The Defiling of Sekoshi refers to a conflict in Sekoshi, a small city adjacent to Onshi (and which in modern times is assimilated into the greater metropolitan region of Onshi), which took place from February to October of 1846, during the Imperial Civil War. The conflict left virtually the entire city of approximately 100,000 inhabitants dead. It is notable not only for the large amount of people slain, but for being the first occurrence of a large city-wide demonic corruption in the Civil War.

The elected Republican governor of Sekoshi, Yureiso Tawamoka of the Radical party, had begun to act increasingly erratically throughout 1845, which was later found to be a result of her communication with the Dread Titan named Akayoro. Her comrades were worried about her increasingly worsening mental state and the strange changes happening to her body, as well as her common reclusion within her private quarters, but they joined her when she revealed Akayoro to them and the blessings that he could confer upon their cause. They began worshipping Akayoro as a god, and his cult grew as the corruption of Yureiso and her close friends advanced. The event of the Defiling of Sekoshi is considered to have begun in February of 1846 when the cult of Akayoro under Yureiso's leadership desecrated the main Kadintoan temple in Sekoshi, decapitating the statues of Matiro and Kashita, and sacrificed a Loyalist prisoner to Akayoro by tearing out his still-beating heart. Imperial Inquisitors had been on the case of Sekoshi for some time, but when this was discovered, they became extremely alarmed and called for aid. Grand Inquisitor Qahem Sahrad took command of the situation and began co-ordinating a response.

The cult of Akayoro was not without opposition within Sekoshi, and the uncorrupted citizens of the city took up arms to oppose the demon cult. They were rapidly put down, by the Republican soldiers and cultist militia as well as a warband of Ferigans which had arrived from the Dreadlands to reinforce the city. Those not killed in the fighting were sacrificed at the converted Kadintoan temple, and the more devoted of the cultists, including Yureiso, ate the flesh of the sacrificed. By this point, Yureiso and her inner circle barely resembled Humans; their skeletons were distorted, their teeth grew long, jagged and sharp, their skin drained of colour, and growths of flesh and bone sprouted in unnatural places across their bodies. In either June or July of 1846, Yureiso and her most zealous followers tore out their own eyeballs, replacing their sight with the magic of Akayoro. In place of eyes, writhing balls of shadow magic oozed from their eye sockets, giving them perfect vision in any light level and seemingly also allowing them to see through solid objects.

The Inquisitors did their best to interrupt the advancement of the cult, but failed to do so, with thirty Inquisitors dying in the process, and one even joined the cult. Grand Inquisitor Qahem Sahrad concluded that an all-out attack was the only way to put down the problem, and he requisitioned soldiers and gun crews from local Imperial Army garrisons. Local commanders initially refused to acknowledge the severity of the situation and provided Qahem with 5000 infantry and 10 guns. Qahem knew he could accomplish little with this, but he advanced anyway, meeting the Republicans in a skirmish in August outside the city limits of Sekoshi. This skirmish was inconclusive, with minor casualties on both sides, but its main purpose was to expose to the soldiers the horrific corruptions of the city's inhabitants; the physical corruption on the Republican soldiers and militia was plain to see, and there were two Ferigans present at the battle, one of which was slain by Inquisitor Dang Aiman with a well-placed rifle shot before Dang was himself killed by the other.

Local Imperial Army commanders, upon hearing the testimony of their own soldiers, agreed to provide more soldiers and handed Grand Inquisitor Qahem a force of 11,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry (mostly dragoons) and 60 field guns. Qahem had also by this point assembled 200 Inquisitors to join him, many of which were mages. Considering the information of an inside agent he had placed inside the cult, he decided to launch his attack on the 20th of September, when Yureiso had apparently planned a grand festival in which she would torture and then sacrifice the last remaining Loyalist prisoners, then serve their flesh in a feast.

The distraction of the festival proved effective; few soldiers were ready to meet the Loyalist advance and they swarmed into the city, discovering all manner of horrors as they did so. They found flayed prisoners nailed to walls, their bodies disfigured beyond comprehension by demonic corruption, covered in bulbous tumours. They followed the sounds of screams and interrupted orgies of abominable mutants, executing the traumatised women and men they were raping as an act of mercy. The cultists grew wise to the attack and fought back, most of them strengthened by their supernatural mutations. Whilst the soldiers fought the cultists and Republican infantry, the Inquisitors made a beeline for the heart of the depraved festival, to find Yureiso and her inner circle. Yureiso herself had turned into a truly horrific mutant; she had grown to over thrice her natural height, her spine was contorted, her fingers sharpened into bony claws, and she seemed completely unfazed by the broken bones jutting out of her milk-white transluscent skin from festering wounds. The power of the Dread Titan Akayoro worked through her, sending terrible magic upon the Inquisitors, tearing many of them to shreds. Yureiso was eventually killed, her body fried by plasma magic, causing her closest friends to go insane with grief and madness and tear into their own faces with clawed hands, shredding flesh and bone and eventually collapsing as they ripped apart their own brains. It is possible that in this moment, the spell over them was broken and they realised what they had done to themselves and immediately committed suicide.

Grand Inquisitor Qahem was shocked, disgusted and terrified by the scenes in Sekoshi. He became certain that it was absolutely imperative that this cult not spread any further, and so he ordered the entire city of Sekoshi to be purged. He assembled more mages from the Inquisition and had them combine their magic to create a devastating plasma storm and cleanse the city of all life. Qahem acquired 7000 additional soldiers to set up a perimeter around Sekoshi to shoot down all who fled, regardless of what they looked like. It took a month of purging for Qahem to be satisfied that there was not a single living person still within it, though Inquisitors would be assigned to monitor the city for an additional year. Sekoshi was left abandoned and in ruin, virtually totally untouched, until 1905 when the Onshians overcame their fear of the accursed place and systematically demolished the city to make way for the encroaching urban expansion of Onshi. Many of the mutated skeletons still remained when the demolition was carried out, sparking great terror amongst the workers. All were destroyed, except the skull, ribcage and left arm of Yureiso herself, which were recovered by the Kawakori Museum and remain on display there.

The Inquisition was able to destroy the cult of Akayoro, but could not trace Akayoro himself. If he was not killed by some other force, the Dread Titan remains at large within the Dreadlands.