[Curseborne] The Hungry #3

In last week’s blog entry on the Hungry of Curseborne, we talked about the outcast emotion vampires of the Black Hearts. This week we’ll cover a third family, a consanguineous demonic cult that consumes souls and worships a demon for the benefit of others, or so they tell themselves. They are…

The Vorare

In the 19th century, an unnamed count was in a war with another powerful Accursed and struck a deal with a demon named Abaddon. Abaddon turned this count into a new form of Hungry, one who hungered for souls in exchange for power. This was the creation of the Vorare, an infernalist cult who devoted their power to protecting others. “Demonic cultist” and “protectors of the innocent” seem at odds, but our narrator, Andie Baker, goes into more detail:

The demon gives us powers we never would have otherwise. We have the potential to gain even more. All we have to do is keep eating souls, and keep worshiping Abaddon. She is one of the original fallen hosts. She demands destruction of old values, old traditions, and old alliances. And we gladly pay her in broken promises, broken families, and broken pasts.

We are not loved, but feared. And we like it that way. Others call us infernalists. And we are, proudly. They fear us because they know that we are one step removed from the curse. They fear that kind of power, and they do not understand it. That’s okay, we’ll lift them up when our time comes. We’ll protect them just like everyone else. 

Because we use our power to protect others. We are driven to change the world around us. It isn’t just change for the sake of change, though. We must disrupt, we must ignite, we must make it better. We will beat the curse, and when we do, we’ll take everyone with us. And in the meantime, we’ll protect the ones who can’t protect themselves, and we’ll fight anyone who stands in our way.

Our patron is absent, but we hold the course. No one has actually interacted with Abaddon in years as far as I know. We still have her power, which means we are doing something right. But there are those among us who seek out a new patron, someone less demanding and less disruptive. I can understand their desire, but you can’t make progress without change, and they should remember that.

Many of the other families of the Hungry look askance at the Vorare, and the feelings are mutual. In particular, the families that see themselves as rulers and protectors of the status quo find themselves at the wrong end of a Vorare’s flames. However, they generally get along well with the Outcasts, particularly because they share a common origin for their enhanced powers… although the Vorare understand they need to tread carefully around what they actually promise the Outsiders, and how it’s worded.

Like other families, the Vorare have a distinctive inheritance that stems from their demonic patron. When they have devoted themselves to the cause of protecting others, the purifying fire of their anger becomes literal, causing their fists and feet to burst into flame, and allowing them to take less damage while standing in flames.

Play a Vorare if you want to…

…  protect someone, whether they want you to or not.
… work underneath an utterly terrifying patron.
… burn those who endanger you and yours.

Andie Baker

Andie is both one of the youngest and one of the oldest of the Vorare. They have only been one of the Hungry for a few months now, still learning the nuances of being a vampire among the demon worshipers of their new-found family. But they have been looking for the secret of immortality for decades, and have taken scrupulous care of their body over that time. Forsaking drugs, alcohol, and sex, they treated their body with the utmost care to allow it to last for as long as possible. Now, although they were close to 60 when turned into one of the Vorare, they look and move like someone half their age.

The problem with Andie’s plan is that they never really thought past “gain immortality.”

Andie’s entire life was devoted to living as long as possible, but deep down they never really expected to achieve that goal. The whole purpose of their life was to live. Now that they can live forever — given certain definitions of what “living” means, of course — they aren’t really sure why they wanted immortality so bad. Their next steps aren’t clear, because they never considered there would be any.

So for now, they’ve thrown themselves into the Vorare cause, using their new-found powers to make the world a better place, one where those younger than Andie don’t have to live through the things they lived through. Of course, there’s the whole “owing allegiance to a demon” thing that Andie has to wrap their head around, but that’s a problem for another night. Tonight, all that matters is using all their power to make the world just a tiny bit better.