(sorry for the re-upload 🤕)

i was putting together a sort of macro post where it’s explained the various aspects of the monastery, additionally symptom’s cult of course. i ran into some issues regarding the cultists and the organization of the ceremony, cycle and such, but i’ve worked out a program i wanted to share with you that should theoretically align with the canon comic's infos that we already have.

❗️notes: this text is fan-created content, and credit goes to the original author of the canon story. the explanation deals with themes such as cults and trafficking: these are not things i support nor endorse - they are part of a fictional story.

in the early chapters it is explained that, 10 years prior to pre-time skip, cultists abducted hundreds of children, and rumors are now circulating that they have returned. logically i reasoned that the first phase of the program involved bringing hundreds of kids into the structure.

the child was drawn from one of three possible contexts:
⚫️kidnapped from streets, distant villages or traveling caravans, which leaves no possibilities to follow an investigation
⚫️they get sold, coming from impoverished families who can no longer afford to feed them, so they get traded to the monastery under the guise of an "apprenticeship" in exchange for financial/economic relief. steps will then be taken to have the child declared missing/presumed dead, and finally to have the case archived
⚫️in some cases they get sent away by noble or high-status families seeking to protect their prestige. it was possible that these children were born out of wedlock or threatened an inheritance line. after they leave, in the civil registry the child is recorded as deceased, in an accident involving unclear circumstances

🕯over 10 years of total isolation (since the structure is located on the other side of wasteland) the monastery walls become the children's entire universe. they have rigorous routines and constant theological filtering. by running a mass influx just once a decade the cult avoids constant outside scrutiny. 

🕊vessel ritual
the main collective of one hundred is divided into three subgroups, reflecting different age ranges. the vessel ritual takes place within the group representing older girls (16-18) and starts in the first month of the year:
⚫️#1 from january through the end of march, spiritual and physical evaluations will be conducted on the young person to determine her suitability to give birth to the vessel, given that the DNA will be identical. the final decision will be made on march 25th exactly. successively the vessel will be born in december and will immediately be given to symptom.
⚫️#2 the newborn is raised for seven years in absolute, cloistered reverence, almost treated like a holy relic. the cult daily monitors the child's physical growth to see if the mage body can permanently stabilize the parasite. during these seven years, the mother is kept in a state of sacred isolation too, acting as a biological “backup”.
⚫️#3 at the end of the testing phase, the vessel's body begins to fail or reject the psy-morph, since issues of various kinds always arise (for example, canonly, symptom halted the host's physical growth for 10 years). therefore, in december of the 8 year of the cycle, the god is pulled completely back into the original mother for safe holding for another 12 months. while she endures this, the cult prepares the next cycle with a new group.

🕰 the programis repeated with all of the groups until it is time to start over. some remain at the monastery to become cultists or caretakers for the incoming children, while others are sold for organ or blood trafficking.
on december 25th, 2081, the monastery will catch fire, forcing the cultists to return to the capital.

donut on the way
🍩 #wip

🌟 #maxgambino #pillfanart