#ubisi

You follow the priestess in a neat file, like paired up schoolchildren. "Hey" you whisper to your partner "What's her name?" "Opal" a smile blooms below his leather mask. "OPAL, MA'AM!" you raise your voice immidiately, when going up the staircase. "Yes?" you hear her voice from above. "Will we get a chance to participate in any rituals today?" you shoot out without thinking. "Oh, we have someone very eager today!" she claps her hands together "How wonderful!"

Your partner chuckles, but says nothing, and soon you emerge outside, by a scaffolded wall of the Main Temple dome. You don't remember how you got in its basements, but you have see the building many times, even once after it had been partially destroyed this January. The works are coming to an end, you can judge it more easily once you go around to the main entrance and look inside. White marble wall circling around a scene, with rows of seats like on a stadium. The roof has been finished again, with red, pink and milky white stained glass, encapsulating the top of the sphere, and letting in fantastic beams on color from the morning sun.

High Priestess Agat stands in her most ritual clothing on the stage surrounded by other girls, and you are all lead there by Opal.

"Dear candidates, it feels my heart with joy that more men, even if too unpure to be Ubisi's priests, want to join the ranks of the Temple Slaves and serve our goddess! Each of you has been assigned a mentor, with whom you shall be training your stamina and rites at the privacy of your new home and the little work out room you can use at your own discretion. There will be two such sessions a day, in the morning and in the afternoon, starting tomorrow." She looks around at all the confident faces you and other candidates are putting up, she seems satisfied. "This will be accompanied by one session of religious practices either after lunch or after dinner. If you finish the whole cycle of training, we keep the best of you in this Temple. Others will be dispersed to smaller cities to serve the Priestesses there. Let's hope you can all satisfy our Red Goddess!"

After that there are 1-on-1 introductions and you finally learn your mentor's name: Shadow. Everything is done in a laid-back atmosphere, almost like a gallery open night, because each of you is treated to a glass of the most exquisite Vermillious red wine, with its flowery aftertaste. Agat herself approaches you at one point. "II've heard you want to take part in a ritual today" she rather states, not asks. You feel an air of both amusement and disgust from her. Does she really thing men do not belong in this sacred building? Or does she hold a grudge to you personally? "Y-yes… I do, yes!" "Hmm.. have you seen the ritual during which the Temple got damaged?" "No, but I've heard about it! The Queen ordered a special Cleansing Ritual to one of the soldiers and…" "And I almost performed it" Shadow chimes in. "If not the disruption… we would perform it perfectly. Could you show our new candidate how?" The smile on Agat's face is done only with eyes, not her lips. It's creepy.

Shadows just shrugs his broad shoulders and asks for an appropriate table, adding a red leash to his collar of which he hands you the other end. "But… but isn't the Cleansing Ritual just some milk, fire, repenting…?" you are confused. "Well, not if somebody did something REALLY wrong. Now imagine I am a woman, all in red lingerie, red collar, red leash. Get me to that table."

You are more than baffled. Not least because you cannot imagine any woman looking at his sturdy body. But what also what sort of disturbance caused the Temple to partially collapse after a ritual like that? You approach the table, more like a block of stone, with your mentor on a leash. "Hint one, little one, I cannot walk more confidently than you do in this scenario." he says and lies on the table on his back. Bending his knees, he spreads his legs apart and puts his feet on the verge of the countertop for support. "OK, do your thing" he says with eyes fixed emotionlessly at the stained glass above. All the other eyes in the room are on you two. Unlike at school, you cannot say you are unprepared or await the best student from the first row to give you an answer quietly.

{Masterlist]

Illustrated by a picrew.

Opal [middle 20s, she/they, aro-ace, human, Vermillian]

Opal became an acolyte of Ubisi around 10 yeara ago, and then 2 years ago she became a priestess. The cool one, who talks to kids at schools and opens her lectures with "Hello, fellow kids" or another meme and a wink.

Usually in very unisexual attire, she is very aware of current trends, has a bit of ironic look to her and switches between she/they pronouns. Their head is shaved, and the nice curve of their skull always adorned with some dangling, huge earrings. There's a whole collection.

She lives in the same house as Agat and is appointed to replace her in the Council, once again breaking the record of the youngest member after Miko and Agat (they just seem to get younger, lol) representing the Ubisi cult.

As her approach to religion is not so strict and rather modern, there are gossips she might become a very important figure in the Eodum movement.

[Masterlist of my OCs]

Illustration is AI generated

Agat [late 20s, she/her, asexual/demiromantic, human, Vermillian]

Agat is currently the Highest Priestess in the main Temple of Ubisi. An acolyte from an early age, she was appointed at this post by the vast majority of votes, also serving as the youngest member of the Council in the palace (an advisory group to the royal couple, soon to be replaced by Opal).

She is a calm and composed young woman, known for her devotion to her faith. Rather on the slim side, she can be cute in her red-and-white garments and her stare of the light brown eyes. As most Vermillian women she keeps her hair rather short, and as most priestesses she can dance and move with grace and agility.

Despite all this, she is a protégé of Setia and Larat, being a part of the network that wants to overturn the ruling family discreetly and with them - the main deity worshipped in the country. She can pull many strings and keep up her appearances well enough. The High Priestess is the only trail that can be found leading to the Temple of Eodum being erected in the little town of Allaine.

She lives in the buildings adjacent to the Temple in the capital, together with some of the acolytes and other priestesses, the house her group stays is all named after gems and jewels, the oldest resident being called Lapis, and a teen acolyte called Topaz being the youngest. Opal also comes from that same house.

If push comes to shove, she is not a fighter, she is the defiant, silent type, who calls upon her Goddess and lets her take control of the situation.

[Masterlist]

Honestly, one of my personal favorites. Illustrations are both picrew and AI generated images.

UBISI The Red Goddess [age unknown, she/her, sexuality unknown, mostly found in the realm of Inbetween]

Not much is known about Ubisi's past, but her cult is the most prevailing one in Vermillion (with some small enclaves of Islam and Christianity sprinkled here and there).

She is a bit of a shapeshifter, especially when it comes to size, but she usually presents herself as a woman double or triple the size of an avarage human, with short wavy hair, red skin, proportionally shaped and strong. She also has horns going to the back of her head and some battle scars she wears proudly.

She is considered the one to represent the strength in femininity, so she is often connected with fire and blood or emotionas like battle drive and bodily pleasures.

She doesn't meddle with earthly stuff too much, unless it's someone she Traced before. Tracing is a phenomenon in which Ubisi is physically present and takes a liking or curious attention to a mortal she deems amusing - through physical touch, usually of a fingertip, the person has a reddish Trace burnt onto their skin, serving as a signal amplifier between them and The Red Goddess. Yet, she is not interested in politics, wealth or sins. A lot of things are permitted within this cult as long as you understand how to ask Ubisi for things and what can you get in return.