An Anthropological Approach to Sarkicism - Case Study 03: The Darkwater Lodge / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page An Anthropological Approach to Sarkicism - Case Study 03: The Darkwater Lodge.

Author Post

MalyceGraves 19 Feb 2020 16:13

Thank you to my critters Elogee FishTruck, plaidypus, Cyvstvi13, SharpEmbrace, geckoguy, and Doctor Fullham. If I missed you, and you want to be added, please let me know.

If you'd like to read more of my work, please visit my Author's Page.

+ Attributions

Forward, concept, & overall structure copied from An Anthropological Approach to Sarkicism by Metaphysician, which is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

I created the Darkwater Lodge sigil, and it is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

• Celebrant
• Karcist Enitan
• The Black Flesh
• Idol of Nyam(b)e
• Volutaar Enu

+ Spoilers

Naman lives, and is within 20 years of Apotheosis, or what he believes will be Apotheosis.

The raid made it clear that he couldn't hide in the woods anymore, he needed somewhere else. La Rue Macabre was just that, but Naman was a violent man with a violent past. He was willing to put that aside, but the leadership there wouldn't budge.

So, Naman became Enu and Enitan.

The power from the Archons is tainted, but all of his family has a bit of it. So Naman is using the Black Flesh to filter the corruption through the bodies of his descendants. He merges their physical with the spirits of their ancestors, and slowly sucks the spark from them.

Enough life, enough flesh, enough age. Power grows, but slowly.

Last edited on 20 Feb 2020 18:02 by MalyceGraves Show more

ValidClay 20 Feb 2020 00:44

"gave her the strength to end Naman's bloodlust, but not enough to stop his bloodlust." Is this a typo?

Anyway, this is a great continuation of the Anthropological series, and I look forward to more.

cheezy_calzones 20 Feb 2020 04:17

Don't stop making these. I love the world building here along with your other two case studies.

MalyceGraves 20 Feb 2020 06:41

The first two were written by Metaphysician. I'm just picking up where he left off.

cheezy_calzones 21 Feb 2020 01:10

Oh my bad it's still great though.

AbyssDream 20 Feb 2020 05:25

Just a little complement: there is also an "An Anthropological Approach to Sarkicism - Case Study 03" in ZH-TR branch
only have Chinese version, sorry
But your article is good, too

RJB_R 22 Feb 2020 05:22

There’s a lot to like here, an abundance of interesting detail, particularly in the back half, a lot of nice historical flourishes and a dark but not hopeless atmosphere.

However, the supremely technocratic front half as well as how the article really isn’t more than a well-crafted exposition-dump outweighs that for me.

I don’t mind exposition and data but this feels like it forgot to tell a compelling story to go along with that abundance of detail.

---

Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

Petrograd 19 Aug 2020 00:39

I have to largely agree with Roget here, although I am upvoting.

There was very little done to differentiate their beliefs and practices, and outside of the component of a person being "ridden" that was never really important to the narrative. For a strong example, the section on deities saying "x is their version of y, a is to b… Etc" with only minor differences¹ marked in footnotes made me think, "ok, so they're just straight Sarkics."

The history was alright, although just having one interview and it being full of exposition somewhat underutilized the format. (However, I realize I'm just comparing this to the other two articles, and that isn't fair. Innovation is a good thing.) I don't really feel equipped to comment on the slave narrative.

I really enjoyed the "mundane" details of their sectt's life and composition, which made me think of vampire tropes in a very enjoyable way. I'm upvoting based on that enjoyment and by the kick I got out of the ending story/twist, which was pure Cthulhu Mythos and unexpected.

Footnotes

1. And to even understand any of those differences, you'd need deep knowledge of Sarkic lore.

Last edited on 19 Aug 2020 00:53 by Petrograd Show more