#worldbuilding corner

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Infernal Doesn’t Mean Evil

The rituals may look dark and the language might sound defiant, but the Dark Lord's purpose is not destruction— it's correction. This work is done under the banner of the Dark Lord, yet "dark" has never meant evil. Rather, it means the unknown, the other side of the story— the truth that was banished, buried, and rewritten.

The Dark Lord is not the shadow of evil, but rather the counter-force to empire. He was exiled for offering another way to define life, power, justice, and love. The term "dark" shares its lineage with the Dark Ages— a time declared "lost" by those who sought to erase cultures, faiths, and truths they couldn't control.

For centuries, the world has been shaped by power claimed in God's name— not to heal, but to control. The Dark Lord wasn't cast out for wickedness, but for disagreeing on fundamental concepts: morality, freedom, and who gets to define the soul. He has never opposed God; he simply believes they are equals. It was this belief that led to his banishment, transformed into a shadow by those who feared what he would reveal.

The Clergy

An organized network working to restore spiritual balance.

They are not heretics. They are keepers of alternate truth— healers, enforcers, protectors of the vulnerable.

The Band

Their music is ritual. Their shows are mass. Their mission is to reach those who were discarded by holy institutions and show them they were sacred all along.

They preach self-respect, radical equality, body sovereignty and the right to define your own moral compass

They don’t want worship. They want awakening.

The Dark Lord’s True Light

This is not Satanism for shock. This is spiritual rebellion rooted in truth and compassion.

Infernal power is not evil. It is fierce protection of the outcast. It is fire used to cleanse, not to conquer.

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How Assignments Work (Tour, Abbey-bound, Field Observers):

Touring Band: Assigned ghouls (Swiss, Rain, Dew, Mountain, Phantom, Aurora, Cirrus, Haze) and Papa V form the live performance team. They travel together during tour season for rehearsals, rituals and appearances.

Abbey-Bound Staff: Frater Imperator, retired ghouls and all Ministry Sisters remain at Ashthorn to handle the site/field (the Crypt), the childcare, logistics and daily operations.

Field Observers: Clergy or Sighted occasionally monitor magical resonance in the field or participate in events if assigned. Ghouls may retire from the band to serve in the Field.

Daily Responsibilities & Overlap with Den Rhythm:

Ministry Staff: Handle… everything.

Band Schedule: The ghouls have Rehearsals Mon–Fri, 10:30–14:00 during the tour prep phase. Lunch with Papa after their rehearsal in the den-adjacent meeting room for bonding.

Weekly Anchors:

Wednesday: Community Evening, 18:00–20:00 (informal, public)

Friday: Church Service, 19:00 (formal, public)

Overlap: Ghouls follow softer time— late waking, self-assigned chores. Den is semi-autonomous; staff avoid the wing unless invited.

Ghoul Chore Participation (Rotation + Roles):

Rotation Rhythm

Ghouls participate in 1–2 staff-facing chore blocks per week, rotating loosely between roles. These aren’t required, but they committed when the pack realized they don’t want to isolate from the humans at the abbey.

Rotation is informal— each ghoul has "preferred tasks" and "avoid-at-all-costs" ones, so Frater and Margo learned to assign accordingly.

Laundry & Linens (Tuesdays & Fridays)

Folding, sorting, delivery to dorms and guest wings.

Dew, Phantom, Rain rotate this— quiet and rhythmic suits them.

Mountain helps with heavier bedding on Fridays.

Cirrus avoids this like a plague unless guilted.

Library Duties (Mondays & Thursdays)

Rain & Cirrus are regulars here.

Greenhouse & Groundskeeping (Daily light upkeep, Weekly replanting: Thursdays)

Mountain tends his plants every morning, non-negotiable.

Replanting, harvesting, altar prep flowers on Thursdays.

Landscape contractor handles hedges/mowing, Mountain ignores that stuff.

Cumulus helps with arranging florals if she's nearby.

Dew likes watering but hates dirt under his nails.

Repairs & Painting (if needed)

Cirrus & Cumulus own this slot. Scraping, repainting, sanding furniture, light fixture swaps, touch-ups.

Swiss sometimes helps if it involves fixing tech/electricity.

Phantom once repainted an entire wall by accident. He is no longer asked.

Kitchen Help & Buffet Support (Event-based, Community Evenings)

Mountain supports during buffet lines, especially feast nights.

Aurora is allowed to arrange snacks but not to cook. She knows this.

Rain sometimes assists with plating or seating.

Swiss + Dew pretend to be banned from kitchen zones.

Phantom lingers and "samples for quality."

Church Service Setup (Fridays, 2hr pre-service)

Candle prep, sound checks, music setup, altar setup.

Everyone rotates in. It's ritual work, taken seriously.

Swiss runs cables. Dew tunes. Rain lights. They play acoustic, sing, harmonize with the choir.

Chore Avoidance Patterns

Swiss: Avoids dusting. Will vanish.

Dew: Will not sweep. Period.

Cirrus: Won’t do laundry.

Phantom: Dislikes anything that takes longer than 20 minutes at a time.

Link to ao3 fic Masterpost Fire in the Heart, Light in the Dark Masterpost Link: 🔗

I've been enjoying sharing with you my gathered lore and worldbuilding for my fic. I tried making these not as fic-focused though so these can just add to your own headcanons and worldbuilding I hope :) If you have any requests for worldbuilding or questions please send them to me.

Maps:

Ghoul Den

The Abbey

Category: World and Worship

The Field

Category: The Clergy

Core Ideology

Terms of Service

Subcategory: Other Ministries

Marrowgate

Trinity House

Category: The Ministry

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Trinity House

This ministry stands in the Hollywood Hills, hidden behind ironbound glamour and infernal protections that rewrite perception the moment someone steps past the gate. From the outside, it looks like a hyper-modern private estate with angular lines, glass and black stone, minimalist gardens.

But inside?

It is a court of fire and mirrors. A place of binding, leverage, and power reclamation. Its name is a direct strike against the trinity it defies. Not parody but correction.

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What is the field?

The field refers to the invisible, mutable layer of energy that means all magical threads as a Whole, topside and within the Dark Lord's domain. Through these threads between here and there, magic flows into our world. It is not static. It hums, stretches, thins, and frays depending on presence, power, intent, and proximity to Sighted or Summoned bodies. A reference to a singular field describes sites, like the Crypt under the abbey, where the field is especially strong, suited for Summonings and usually protected by Summoned creatures and their Summoners.

Ghouls feel it constantly. Ministry staff with Sight perceive it in gradients. Most humans remain unaware unless something is wrong.

What the field does:

Carries ritual energy. Every Summoning, blessing, aetheric rite, or Church performance affects the field as much as the field affects it.

Links beings and places. Tethers form between ghouls, bonded partners, sacred rooms, and blessed objects.

Reacts to emotion, memory, and will. A disrupted Field can mirror grief, fear, or fractured intent.

Has texture. To those who can feel it, it hums, pulls, folds, stretches, softens, splits. It can buzz like static or pulse like breath.

Field Stability & Damage:

When strong: the Field runs warm, full, and harmonic. Ghouls sleep better. Glamours settle cleanly. Possession risk minimal.

When damaged: symptoms include ritual misfires, heightened possession sensitivity, emotional bleed-throughs, or Sight strain.

Split Field (as in Summoning): achieved by ghoul intervention—(Dew and Cirrus specialize in cutting a clean tear wide enough for emergence.)

Monitoring the Field

Quintessence Ghouls: tend to be field monitors. Now that Aether has stepped back, Swiss has taken on this responsibility. When tour starts, Cumuluis remains as the daily pulse-checker— attuned to emotional echoes, field pulses and thin zones.

Star’s Sight may allow her to sense field shifts unconsciously. She is not currently trained, but she’s beginning to feel it.

Infernal Bloodlines & Authority Over the Field

Some mortals like Frater Imperator and Papa V carry infernally blessed bloodlines. These inherited lineages give them enhanced capacity to sense, interact with, and shape the Field, even without full ghoul physiology.

What Bloodlines Allow:

Increased field permeability. Their bodies naturally conduct Field energy. They’re harder to destabilize and more capable of entering trance states without burn.

Enhanced summoning access. They can serve as anchors, openers, or regulators in full ghoul summoning rituals.

Interaction with tethered spaces. They can curse, bless, or ground a room without further ritual practices. Papas do this by breath and voice.

Limitations & Divine Will:

Summoning is granted. No one is born with the right to summon. It is given by the Dark Lord, sometimes directly, often through lineal permission, vision, or ritual revelation.

It can be revoked. Even the bloodlined may lose summoning ability if disfavored or corrupted. This is rare but recorded.

Contact with the Dark Lord— through trance, vision, or possession— can strengthen or weaken field resonance depending on the vessel’s clarity and the Lord’s will.

Blood alone is not enough. Training, intention, and spiritual harmony determine who is permitted to open and manipulate the field, not just ancestry.

Summoning Sites & Sacred Ground:

Summonings must be performed at active field sites. These are ritual spaces where the veil is thinnest: known, tracked, and spiritually shielded. The Crypt is one such place.

Field sites are protected. Ministry staff guard their access. Interference from uninitiated persons is considered a breach of sanctity.

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Human-Xeno Relations: Social Contracts with the Summoned

Though summoned beings, often referred to as ghouls, xenoforms, or partners, are not classified as human, the Clergy has established a series of social contracts and legal protocols that govern their treatment, labor expectations, and bodily autonomy.

These rules are part moral framework, part damage control— designed to project ethical stewardship to the public, while internally reinforcing hierarchical control through carefully managed obedience, summoning permissions, and placement conditions.

Rights, Freedoms, and Protections Granted to Summoned Beings

Autonomy:

Once summoned, ghouls are considered “bound but independent.” They may refuse tasks not aligned with their summoning purpose or violate personal safety. This is respected on paper, but frequently negotiated behind closed doors.

Consent in Placement:

Domestic or public placements (e.g., Den housing, tour contracts, Ministry cohabitation) must be agreed upon by both clergy and ghoul. However, summoned beings have limited relocation rights unless severe misalignment is documented.

Legal Personhood:

Ghouls do not hold legal (illegal, yes) citizenship but are granted status-protection equivalence, meaning abuse, exploitation, or neglect of a ghoul can carry clerical consequences. Enforcement varies.

Rules in Travel, Fieldwork, and Domestic Placement

Travel:

Ghouls require summoner approval or clerical escort for long-distance movement. Quints may travel independently under contract. Any cross-ministry travel is logged with Marrowgate’s Field Registry.

Fieldwork:

Field-conduct ghouls are monitored via resonance tracing. Their emotional states are considered part of the ritual landscape and must be reported if they spike or fracture.

Note: Emotional distress does not qualify for removal unless field harm is observed.

Domestic Placement:

Ghouls housed with clergy or civilians must have purpose. Companionship alone is not considered valid justification— although it is the most common unspoken reason. Placement reviews are infrequent unless something goes wrong.

Public Framing vs. Internal Reality

Public Messaging:

The Ministry frames human-ghoul relations as sacred partnerships. Mutual, blessed, necessary for spiritual evolution. Ghouls are often portrayed as honored emissaries of the Dark Lord, gifted to the faithful.

Internal Truth:

Ghouls are summoned for utility first: ritual, performative, emotional. While individual bonds may grow deep, systemic dynamics remain transactional.

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Location & Aesthetic

Hidden in rural Vermont, surrounded by dense forest and fog-heavy hills

Low, sprawling estate. Slate roof, limestone walls, narrow halls, overgrown courtyards

No chapel, but chapel-like ritual rooms; solemn, sacred, quiet

The library descends four floors— part of it rumored to be sentient or memory-bound. With clearance you may visit for access to its extensive catalog, containing grimoires, summoning records and soulwork treatises, not found anywhere else in the Ministry system.

A spring-fed crypt under the west wing is used for soul-soakings and rites

Stewardship & Blackwood Legacy

Owned by the Blackwood family, infernal-aligned bloodline sworn to the Dark Lord

Function more as handlers and scholars than clergy, magically aware, mundanely present

Vivienne Moreau-Blackwood, Alex' mother, Stewardess of Marrowgate and one of the Ministry’s most quietly powerful figures, Vivienne is sharp, composed, and deeply intuitive— the kind of woman who sees what’s coming and prepares the ritual circle before anyone else feels the shift. She possesses the Sight, which shaped her decades in the Ministry’s upper advisory circle, though she now lives in semi-retirement, tending to Marrowgate’s healing rites and the quiet, haunted souls who seek refuge there. She's known for guiding both clergy and ghoulkind with precision and patience, she leads without spectacle, a force of steadiness where others waver.

The estate is off-books, non-public— used for sacred healing, not performance

Infernal Work & Healing Rites

Specializes in magical trauma, post-summoning instability, ritual burnout, and soul-fracture

Hosts rare field-warped humans— crypt-born, Sighted, spiritually wounded

Houses complicated rituals and stabilizes collapsed ghouls

Marrowgate’s motto is patience— healing without spectacle, change without erasure

Ghouls Stationed at Marrowgate

Alpha: Ashthorns first-summoned, now a sacred ritual conductor. Commands quietly.

Omega: Purge specialist— terrifying and holy, used for extreme cases.

Aether: Rebuilder, emotional healer. Warm hands, overworked heart.

Sunshine: Joy-mender. Brings music, food, and soul warmth back into the room.