The Fire Veil Trials
Purpose & Philosophy
The Trials are designed to force communion with the divine through exposure to Thresher Mist, known to the Church as The Breath of the Forgotten or God’s Memory. Participants believe that within the hallucinogenic, memory-reactive fog, God’s memory of humanity's fall can be glimpsed, and that survivors are spiritually transformed, purged of impurity and doubt.
The Church’s central doctrine teaches that Others and the Infected are corrupted echoes of the “Pure Form.” The Fire Veil Trials are seen by radicals as a way to directly confront this corruption—not through flesh, but through memory, trauma, and divine resonance.
History
The Fire Veil Trials first emerged in the shadowed years following the Church of Hope’s formal declaration of the Drowned Trenches as forbidden ground in 24 SE. Initially whispered among radical Faith Students and excommunicated clergy, the Trials were born from a belief that Thresher Mist was not merely toxic fog, but a remnant of divine memory—a sacred echo of the Fall itself. Early accounts describe lone pilgrims descending into the Trenches in search of visions, often returning with shattered minds, prophetic utterances, or not at all. As word spread, these journeys took on ritual form, evolving into structured rites of passage among extremist sects. Though condemned by Church leadership as heretical, the Trials persisted in secret, fueled by a theology of pain, the lure of forbidden knowledge, and the belief that only by enduring the raw, molecular memory of the Fall could a soul be truly purified. Over time, those who survived became cult figures within fringe circles—seen as both cursed and touched by divinity, walking relics of a truth too great for the untested to bear.
Execution
While variations exist, a typical Fire Veil Trial includes:
- Pilgrimage to a shallow Mist pool at the Trench’s edge.
- Fasting and isolation for 24–72 hours to prepare the mind and soul.
- Inhalation or immersion in Thresher Mist, often enhanced with Dreamtide (an illegal narcotic distilled from Mist by the Solstice Syndicate).
- Recitation of Hope’s Purpose passages, especially excerpts referring to purity through endurance and truth made visible in suffering.
- Visions are interpreted communally by peer Faith Students or rogue Reverends, who often see them as messages from God or testaments of purity.
To walk the Fire Veil is to bleed the memory of the world into your marrow—to see as God once saw, and tremble.—Attributed to Student-Ascendant Lucia Verin, died 89 SE
Trial Site
The Trials typically take place at the Drowned Trenches, a forbidden and deadly region beneath the ruins of Albany, New York. The Trenches are a collapsing canyon of flooded streets, sunken skyscrapers, and submerged reactors. Here, Thresher Mist emanates constantly from the chasms and pools, forming veils of nanochemical fog with hallucinogenic and memory-reactive properties.
Church doctrine forbids entry to the Trenches—declaring it sacred ground since 24 SE—but this only heightens its mystique among zealots.
When the Veil burns your lungs, breathe deeper. That is where The Maker lives.
Effects on Participants
Survivors of the Trials often emerge physically weakened but report:
- Vivid hallucinations of pre-Fall memories—often not their own.
- Encounters with divine or angelic forms, interpreted as manifestations of the Pure Form.
- Loss of speech, altered cognition, or obsession with abstract symbols and sound patterns.
- "Tuning", a term for the subtle, irreversible change that leaves their eyes unfocused and their breath "humming" with remembered pressure.
Many don’t survive. Some are lost within the Mist, wandering back into the Trenches. Others are driven mad or mutate under prolonged exposure. Occasionally, survivors gain strange insights or knowledge about past technology, Old World languages, or unexplainable visions of the Fall.
Church Reaction
The mainstream Church of Hope publicly denounces the Trials, calling them heretical and a corruption of Hope’s Purpose. However, some within the hierarchy—especially those aligned with zealotry or fringe theology—secretly condone or even fund such rites, seeing them as tools for divine revelation.
The Church teaches that the Cure must be found to restore humanity’s divine purity, but the Fire Veil radicals believe that the truth must first be remembered—even if remembering kills.
Misty breath on a clear day means the Thresher watches you. Be silent, or it will remember you.
—Common children’s warning in Camp Hope
Connections to Factions
- The Doctors have classified Thresher Mist as a neurohazard and condemn all use outside controlled diagnostics. Trials are seen as reckless self-experimentation.
- The Solstice Syndicate supplies illegal Dreamtide for these rites in exchange for relics or influence. They view the Trials as spiritual awakenings.
- The Scribes collect fragmented accounts of Trial survivors but are cautious. A few suspect Thresher Mist contains literal recordings of the Fall.
Those who return don’t blink the same.—Wake Chemist proverb
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