I Have No Hands But I Must Pray

Initiation has them cut off their hands in a sacrifice to themselves. They are then hung, stabbed by a spear through the stomach, and thrown into a pit of ashes. Seven days later they rise, their minds half-mad, their souls half-alive, and their words the scrambled language of prophecies.

The process begins.

Handless Priests are highly respected. Before the Blessed Lands became a city-cemetery, heroes and kings sought them out. They were oracles and soothsayers. Now they are tools. And liches. They were always liches.

Each handless priest has a dedicated scribe. Sometimes there are multiple, as words get jumbled and confusing in the divine rants of the handless. The scribes must then interpret what they just read. These interpretations always come true, and if multiple scribes have multiple different interpretations, each individual one manifests in the world.

This is because the scribes know the truth. They know that the Handless Priests are engines of fate and that by steering them carefully they influence the world. As the real moving force behind this faction, scribes attempt to shape the future they want. But not all scribes want the same future and not all interpreted prophecies are helpful for bring that about. All prophecies are kept in bamboo-plat codices or long scrolls inside of a vast domed library that sits at the foot of the god's palace. Here the interpretations are made, painstakingly slow, and at the threat of turning the scholar's eyes into blood or breaking their bodies as divine providence rushes through them to shape the world.

How I imagine it is to read a prophecy.

Some Handless Priest don't become mindless seer-engines. They retain their minds and rise up as a Divine Lich. They speak naught, for they know that scribes await their words, and they meditate in silence atop ziggurats while looking out at the ashen horizon of the Blessed Lands. When they speak, their scribes go deaf, and somewhere something amazing happens. It is always counter to the scribes own conspiracy. It is a form of holy rebellion.

Most scribes want one thing: to keep the status quo. They are fervent believers that they are in the afterlife and that they are the chosen ones and that all people who live in the City of the Dragon Wife are living in heaven. They sow discord in other factions, aid Dragons, aid Sisters, ruin the plans of Gatherers, and keep all of the Blessed Lands locked in a constant hunt.

The Divine Lich do not want such a thing. They know that no one is dead, but they have no hands even though they must write this truth. They cannot speak, for their words will be recorded and used against them. So they meditate and watch. They wait for people of power strong enough to emerge and to empower them with enough strength to bring down the City of the Dragon Wives. Then humanity may start from scratch, free of the lies that plague them.

Commandments of the Priesthood

All who dwell in the City of the Dragon Wife in the Blessed Lands must adhere to these 10 commandments. All other laws bow to these.

1. If you wound something, you must kill it.
2. If you kill something, you must make use of its corpse.
3. If something hunts you, you must in turn hunt it back.
4. Do not steal another's prey.
5. Hunt not the Gods, lest they hunt you.
6. Hunt not your neighbor, lest they hunt you.
7. All must work, for work keeps the City in the hunt.
8. You shall know no Gods other than those that hunt.
9. The words of Scribes are those of Priests are those of Future God's own.
10. None shall covet a Dragon Wife as their own.

Daily, people make sacrifices to the priesthood, the Gods, and the Blessed Lands. They let loose a hyena and they chase it through the streets. When they find it, they spear it, and then they cut their hand with the bloody spear and offer it to the great pile of hands made up of the priest's sacrifice. Prayers are said. Kobold meat is eaten. Sisters watch from a distance. People dance. Some fuck in the public, others at homes. Rituals end. The City sleeps.

Scribes watch and they write and ensure this status quo never ends.

Handless Priest

HD: 1

AC: as Unarmored
Attack: 1d4 reckless bite.

The words of a Handless Priest are prophecies for the future. If written down and interpreted, the interpreter not only makes the prophecy come true, but can subtly mold it to be beneficial for them. The interpreter suffers 1d10 damage that manifest as a holy stigmata appearing on their body, such as a bloody symbol on their forehead, weeping blood, throwing up locust, etc. These stigmata disappear after 1d4 hours of appearing.

The Handless Priest is a lich and their hands are their phylactery. If killed, they are reborn inside of the nearest ash pit, unless their phylacteries are destroyed, killing the Handless Priest permanently.

Because they are virtual prophecy engines, Handless Priest are immune to any mental effects or conditions, magical or otherwise. Creatures that attempt to charm, dominate, or communicate with them mentally suffer 1d10 damage that manifest as a holy stigmata appearing on their body that fades after 1d4 hours.


d30 Handless Priest Prophecies
Odd numbered prophecies are interpreted and inside the Scribe's Palace

1. My dreams are dreams of poison rain and flesh-eating flowers.
2. Tomorrow a god will open his eyes and a hundred lives will parish.
3. When the river runs red know that tomorrow will be as yesterday was.
4. Snow that is ash will fall and eating it will grant the king's strength.
5. A feast of blood will be held as the crowns of mountains are melted away.
6. When flesh drops from bone know that the scaled kings will come to eat.
7. A god by any other name will come from the east and sup with a god.
8. Lovers kissed by spring will fold together during midnight and birth a saint.
9. Fear opal.
10. Sickled moons will appear and in the hollows of their wombs will fall Rapture.
11. If you anoint her, she will kill.
12. One thousand one hundred and one eyes will look upon the ash-pits of a city and know that in those ruins there lies Mother.
13. I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't know that he would be watching but he knows we are here and when opium flows from nose to mouth he will eat us hearts and all.
14. Drifting like clouds you will see death.
15. The Twilight of the Gods has come and gone and now the sun has set and the moon will not rise unless you light the fire of the gut.
16. There is one who speaks Truth and has hands to write it and he will write your Lies down when you eat the fingers of sisters.
17. I count the grains of sand underneath the sea and in the black river bed. Soliders turn over in ash-pits. Hyenas are laughing: they are laughing at jokes that we have made in our search.
18. One third of all children will know trappings by the year's end.
19. She was born yesterday, Her of Old War.
20. I will not speak for my words have already been heard.
21. The strength of men and sisters cannot stop this foe. Instead, turn east.
22. Pray to Ash. It will prove a mighty ally indeed.
23. Below the stars, dragons.
24. Naked will the victor be.
25. If there is a real sun do not look at it lest you seek the attention of the End.
26. Care for these things fall on me!
27. My son weeps for me and he writes to me and he says to me that he speaks to me through song and that through song all thunders may be heard.
28. None shall know that tomorrow I will stand tall and the Dragon shall stand low and together we shall...
29. Hitherto now all gods have fought and going forward all gods shall Fight.
30. All is ended.