Scarlet Cross and the Black Brood

Following the Great War, the Truest King began living once again in the manner he had in the earliest days of the Stone Kingdom when he was known as the Black Knight. Along with a greater level of activity in the battles of the Kingdom comes a greater involvement with mortals in general. Most experience this as a religious experience, having a kind and gentle god-king visit the local village and break bread or engage in merriment, even officiating the occasional wedding or funeral. Some few among the women of the Kingdom, experience the Truest in a far more personal manner.

## Companions of the Scarlet Cross

*"After all this time, I believe I've sampled women of every sort. I can tell you that what makes the woman is not her form although these things are pleasing. What makes her is the nature of her soul, the crux of who she is. Some think my Companions are simply a harem, and while some fill that role there is more to it. Each bearer of the Cross has a strength to her, and those strengths are varied as the women are. However, each of them share one strength, they are strong enough in who they are to look their very god in the eye and tell him no. Immortals and mortals; man, woman, and child alike need the strength to stand for themselves and they need those around them with the strength to refuse them. I am strong, the strongest in these lands. The women I surround myself with, stand up to me. Let that mark who they are before you suggest they are no more than privileged slaves again." - The Truest King in response to a derogatory comment in the Undying Council*

The Companions of the Scarlet Cross refer to a group of twelve women who serve the Truest King as handmaidens and concubines. The group never numbers more than twelve, and the number only dips down when a woman chooses to leave the Truest King's service. The women of the Scarlet Cross are charged with maintaining their own numbers and select all replacements from volunteers.

### Requirements

Companions of the Scarlet Cross must be unmarried women who have not born children. They must have volunteered of their own free will, they must be exceptionally physically appealing, and they must bring some manner of honed domestic or performance skill into the group. The King is known to particularly favor musicians, singers, and dancers. After the Companions select a new woman for their number, her lineage is then checked by the Truest King against records only himself and the High Clerist of the Order of Truths have access to in order to ensure the unthinkable does not occur.

### Benefits

Companions of the Scarlet Cross enjoy a life of luxury traveling with the Truest King and living in the Cathedral. While many parts of the fortress are off-limits to them, they are among a select few who have access to the King's living quarters. A Companion has a certain status inside the Kingdom itself while actively serving and are typically hosted by nobility if visiting a region without the Truest for some reason. On leaving service to the King, the Companions receive a parting gift of a stone medallion to signify the status they once had and a sizable sum of King's Cubes. A Companion is a free woman and as such can terminate her service at any time, with no notice required.

### Drawbacks

Once a Companion enters service, they agree to surrender any child they bear by the Truest King for adoption. As all adoptions are handled by the Order of Truths, the woman never knows who her child has gone to and the receiving family never know who the mother of the child is, nor even for certain that it was born to a Companion. If a mother chooses to keep her child, she forfeits her position as a companion and the normal parting gift of medallion and cubes. Further if a Companion chooses to stay in her role for too long, she can find herself having difficulties in procuring a husband, especially if she is no longer able to bear children.

## The Black Brood

The Black Brood refers to the children born by women via the Truest King. These babes are secreted away for adoption by the Cathedral Magistrates at birth, their placement recorded into private records for the Truest King and High Clerist alone to know. The mothers are never allowed to know where the child has been placed, and the receiving family can never be certain the child they received is the offspring of the Truest. Given that the Truest's physical appearance is so akin to that of the average man of the Kingdom, it is nearly impossible to identify his offspring on visage alone.

This practice helps to ensure that the Black Brood enjoy no special treatment in the Kingdom, and that they cannot use their lineage as a matter of prestige or power. Those who make public claim of such lineage are immediately arrested by the local Magistrate and transported to the Cathedral. Once there the proclaimer's lineage is compared to the secret records of the High Clerist. If the claim proves to be false, the proclaimer is branded upon both palms as a liar and released back into society. If the claim proves to be true, the proclaimer is given an option to chose exile from the Kingdom or to become member of the Trinity Order (forever giving up political advancement/power).

Due to the strict manner in which proclamations of being one of the Black Brood is handled; very few ever make the claim even if they do manage to piece together the true identity of their father.