Core Guild

ORIGIN

“The Veil bleeds. We are its surgeons.”
— Guildmistress Liora Vex, Seat of Sacrifice

The @Core Guild was born from necessity. When the Last God’s body became the foundation of @Sanctum Prime, the first engineers discovered something living beneath the ruins — a pulse still echoing through the earth. They built around it, not as explorers, but as caretakers of the dying divine organ.

From that pulse, they learned how to refine blood and Aether into energy. From that energy, the Veil was fed. Thus, the @Core Guild became the heart of the city, both literal and theological.

PURPOSE AND FUNCTION

The @Core Guild oversees the Blood Reactors, the massive biotechnological furnaces that convert life essence into stabilized Veil energy.

Their primary responsibilities include:

  • Management of Veil Reactors and Aether conduits across the Rings.

  • Regulation of The Blood Tithe, the city’s ritualized donation of lifeforce for energy upkeep.

  • Creation of Hemothread Conduits — biofused pipes channeling radiant blood through Sanctum’s arteries.

  • Maintenance of The Heart Chamber, the central reactor beneath the Cathedral of the Last Dawn.

To them, energy is not power — it is atonement.

THEOLOGY OF BLOOD

The @Core Guild teaches that the Last God’s final act was not death, but donation. His blood became the Veil; His sacrifice the equation of existence.

They see blood as currency, each drop a contract between mortal and divine. To give blood is to honor the covenant; to refuse is spiritual theft.

Common Sayings:

  • “The veins remember.”

  • “Nothing flows without loss.”

  • “We do not spill blood — we recycle it.”

INDUSTRIAL DIVINITY

The Core Guild’s sanctums are cathedral-reactors, half temple, half biological machine.
Pipes pulse like arteries. The air vibrates with a deep, rhythmic hum — the heartbeat of the Veil itself.

Primary Divisions:

  • The Hemokinetics: Engineers specializing in Aether-blood fusion.

  • The Vesselmenders: Priests who maintain reactor conduits through blood rites.

  • The Exsanguinators: Operatives who collect blood tithes and regulate volunteer flows.

  • The Sanguine Choir: Monks who chant in harmonic rhythm to keep reactor frequency stable.

Their forges do not burn with fire — they throb with divine pulse.

RITUALS AND PRACTICES

  • The Crimson Offering: Weekly blood tithe performed at reactor shrines; citizens cut palms and pour droplets into Aether channels.

  • The Veinfast: Engineers abstain from food or speech until they “feel the city’s pulse” through the walls.

  • The Renewal Sacrament: Volunteers willingly transfuse their blood into reactor cores during Flicker surges — the highest form of devotion.

  • The Last Beat Vigil: When a reactor dies, Guild members gather around it to listen to its fading hum, believing each silence adds strength to the next.

TECHNOLOGY AND SYSTEMS

  • Veil Reactors: Gigantic bio-mechanical hearts beating beneath every major district; they burn purified lifeblood as fuel.

  • Aether-Blood Transmuters: Convert black Aether into stabilized plasma for sanctified energy distribution.

  • Soul Pumps: Devices that extract the final heartbeat from corpses, preserving resonance for Veil recharge.

  • Living Conduits: Arterial networks of semi-organic piping that circulate radiant blood through the city’s infrastructure.

Every machine is calibrated by frequency — the pulse of the Last God’s remains.

SYMBOLISM AND ARCHITECTURE

Their architecture is vascular — domes like ventricles, pillars shaped as arteries.
Temples are lit by slow pulsations of crimson light, reflecting across liquid glass floors that ripple with every beat.

Visual Symbolism:

  • The Circle: The cycle of giving and taking, birth and return.

  • The Drop: The singular sacrifice from which all others flow.

  • The Pulse: The unseen rhythm binding creation together.

The @Core Guild sanctum beneath the @Cathedral of the Last Dawn is said to contain the Heart of the Veil — a relic still beating, two thousand cycles after the Last God’s death.

RELATIONS AND POLITICS

  • Allies: The @Halo Guild (mutual dependence — light fueled by blood).

  • Rivals: The @Forge Guild (mistrust over ethical limits of energy production).

  • Contested: The @Council of Seven (fear of Core Guild autonomy — “they power everything”).

Politically, the @Core Guild is the most indispensable faction in @Sanctum Prime.
They can shut down districts with a single command — or keep the light burning a little longer when hope fails.