Mother of Tears Cathedral

A reverent, almost universal veneration of a mysterious figure known only as the Mother of Tears—a weeping saint, martyr, or sorrowful guardian

Known as the most honest place in Dementlieu, feared and revered in equal measure

The cathedral venerates an enigmatic divine or saint known as the Mother of Tears. Her theology is simple and terrifying: truth must be faced, and grief must be witnessed.

• No one claims to know her full story, but all know her symbol: a tear-shaped pendant made of glass, filled with silver saltwater.
• Statues of her show her with no eyes, only streaming tears, or sometimes a mask in one hand and a knife in the other.
• Her worshipers include the sorrowful, the burdened, the penitent—and those who no longer believe in pretense.

The cathedral rises in a gothic sprawl of worn limestone, its spires crooked and time-eaten. Rain gutters shaped like mourners drip eternally, even on cloudless days. The rose window above the main entry shows a stylized woman cloaked in black, tears streaming from a blank face.

• The main doors are massive blackwood, unadorned except for a single silver eye embedded in the center—watching.
• No masks are allowed inside. Worshippers remove them at the threshold, or the great doors remain shut.
• At night, flickering blue candles are seen in every window. Some say the flames respond to unspoken grief.

Inside the cathedral, the atmosphere is oppressively silent, broken only by soft footfalls and the distant echo of weeping that seems to rise from the very stones. Incense is burned not for fragrance but to calm spirits and suppress illusions. The air is always cool, heavy with memory and mourning.

• The Nave: Lined with statues of veiled figures in poses of sorrow or supplication. None have names.
• The Font of Salt: A black marble basin at the center that overflows not with water, but brackish tears. Pilgrims touch it and leave offerings—letters, broken masks, tokens of guilt or grief.
• The Altar of Sorrows: An unadorned slab before a massive tapestry depicting the Weeping Mother embracing a crowd of faceless mourners.
• Confessional of Truths: Not a booth, but an open dais where one must speak their truth aloud. Some are healed. Some are broken.

Mysteries and Rumors:

• Some say the Mother of Tears still walks the cathedral at night, barefoot and silent, listening for lies.
• The Font of Salt is rumored to reveal visions to those who drink from it—but only if their sorrow is real.
• A secret crypt beneath the cathedral supposedly holds the unmasked corpses of liars who tried to profane the space.

• The clergy are known as Witnesses, garbed in plain black robes and never masked.
• They do not sermonize. Instead, they listen, they weep with the grieving, and they record truths in vast silent archives called the Tomevault.
• Services are quiet processions of shared lamentation. Worshipers may speak, but only if it is their deepest truth.
• It is said that those who lie within the cathedral’s walls may find their tongue turns to salt.