The Glass-Eyed

During the centuries when The Church Wars raged across northern and western Elbid, dozens of new sects arose among the faithful, each proclaiming its own variant of belief in God in Heaven. Among them were several Cults, adopting doctrines drawn from entities from Beyond - sometimes knowingly, sometimes in ignorance. One such cult was founded by the radical prophet Steen Kaissøn, who preached the wickedness and corruption of the material world, and called for a mass exodus of all souls to Heaven.

While initially called Kaissonism after its founder, it is better remembered as the Glass-Eyed, for their connection to the enchanted mirrors that shaped their vision of the world. Like many sects that arose in this era, the Church denounced them as a cult and sent agents to suppress their activities. Yet unlike most so targeted, the Glass-Eyed were truly under the sway of an Outsider, and pursued a ritual to end all life - spilling the world's souls into Beyond, where the faithful would ascend to the Divine Choir, and all others would be consumed by their patron.

Origins

Steen Kaissøn was a magician of the old sort, practicing the idiosyncratic arts that flourished before the publication of the Principia Arcana in 1687. His work was conducted in secret - for in Osin of the early 1600s, Magic was still forbidden. Though a few of the rising sects permitted or even embraced its use, it was largely regarded with fear and suspicion. Whether Kaissøn knew of the dangers of mirror-magic can never be said with certainty. What is known is that he employed mirrors for divination, until one such working shattered the glass - and in that moment bound him to an entity he named Speculum, the Mirror. Kaissøn later claimed this being was a Herald of God in Heaven, sent to reveal the true nature of the world - and to guide him toward its destruction.

When Kaissøn emerged from his chambers after the revelation, all the world was amiss. Everything he beheld seemed rotting and repulsive, marked by corruption. Beauty was absent from all things - and he came to believe this was the true nature of reality. According to Kaissønism, the world had been cloaked in an illusion by the enemies of God in Heaven, ensnaring souls to accept their mortal prison rather than seek immediate salvation by casting it off. Through his contact with the entity Speculum, Kaissøn believed himself granted the power to pierce this veil and perceive the terrible truth: all was evil and horror, and no beauty or goodness remained.

In that first wild excursion, Kaissøn descended into madness. He attacked passersby in the streets, denouncing them as monsters enslaving innocent souls. Subdued and imprisoned, he spent nearly a year confined in an asylum - while Speculum increasingly infiltrated his mind, shaping within him a grand vision. Kaissøn would save the world.

The Rise of the Glass-Eyed

During his imprisonment, Kaissøn's power only grew. Mirrors in his presence shattered spontaneously, and those who gazed too long into the fragments became infected with his perverse vision of a rotted, corrupt world. At last, convinced the prison walls themselves had decayed into slime and dust, he simply walked through them. Five followed him - converts to his cause.

Once outside, they began to organize as a sect, preaching the word of God in Heaven and of Speculum. Their public sermons emphasized purification and the preparation of the soul for ascension, little different from many other sects of the time. In secret, however, they sought to recruit carefully, avoiding notice from what they called the agents of the Enemy - whether Church, crown, or secular authorities. Those who seemed most receptive were invited to private gatherings, where a shattered mirror was unveiled and the truth of Speculum revealed. Not all who received the vision embraced the destruction it demanded; those who faltered were confined until they submitted - or dispatched to meet their judgment in Heaven.

Discovery and Destruction

The Glass-Eyed movement was short-lived - their disgust for the world made it difficult to recruit converts or maintain cohesion among themselves. They quickly resorted to kidnapping potential followers, forcing them to gaze into the shattered mirror and infecting them with their twisted vision of reality. The only certainty they shared was that the world must be destroyed. Speculum filled their minds with arcane rites designed for that end, but the alien thoughts overwhelmed many, and several perished under the strain.

Those who survived attempted to enact the instructions, but they could not conceal their altered nature. They became walking vectors of decay, causing everything around them to rot - the stones, the soil, even the air seemed tainted by their presence. For a few terrifying days, they ravaged the community where they had taken root, until the Knights of the North discovered them. The Church's cult-hunters struck swiftly, exterminating the Glass-Eyed in a single night and burning everything they had contaminated.

It is believed that the entity known as Speculum has since moved on, yet even now it is wise to avoid the conjunction of magic and mirrors.