The Church of the Machine is a relatively new religion, but has remained the most popular one since Falderath was defeated about 50 years ago.

The Church is founded on the simple concept that humans and their creations are divine, and as such inventors can become priests or even saints.

Each country has one Great Saint, the greatest inventor in that land's history. They are the most widely known saints and are typically the most worshipped in their particular country. The Great Saint of Nachtisch is St. Grouper, the patron saint of whaling, fishing, and canning. His company, which was built from the ground up on all of those things, still stands as one of the most powerful companies in the world due to its unique patents on whale-canning technology and its religious significance. There are many lesser saints in Nachtisch, but most of them are simply improving on the late St. Grouper's work.

The home of St. Grouper and his company, Grouper Corp., is the coastal city of Balezot (bal-uh-zot). It is known for its Gothic architecture (which is not uncommon in Nachtisch) and for, of course, religious significance. The massive Portside Building is the pride of Balezot, a gargantuan church that doubles as a port for whaling and fishing vessels.

The primary form of worship to St. Grouper is consuming canned seafood.

Balezot is the capital of Nachtisch and is in fact the first city built in the entire country. In fact, it was founded by St. Grouper himself.

St. Grouper was a citizen of the country of Bortel and found that the constant wars of the neighboring countries led to invaders passing through the simple and comfortable lands, which was interrupting his work and the work of his colleagues. While one of his colleagues, who would later become St. Amygdala, turned to naval power, Mr. Grouper had a far less violent plan: he would build a city in the nearby coastal Fesh Swamps.

With the wealth he gained from his own endeavors in the food and weapons industries working under Mx. Amygdala, Mr. Grouper built the beginnings of the city of Balezot.

It began as a company town and still has shades of that today. It was constructed by forcing tree trunks into Darkened swamp grounds to create the foundations. The waterlogged soil lacked the oxygen for the tree trunks to rot, and much of the water was forced out, causing the ground to become solid. The first building built was a dock, followed immediately by a canning factory and residential buildings.

One thing that St. Grouper factored into the creation of the city was the location. Because it was on a swamp, it was naturally protected from invaders passing through Bortel. In addition, it was directly in the path of several potential trade routes, forcing anyone who wanted to trade easily with Bortel and its neighboring countries to pass through Balezot. Once St. Grouper’s whaling technology was factored in, this led to Balezot becoming one of the richest cities in the world fairly quickly.

St. Grouper was known for his savvy investing and his disdain for personal decadence, and as such he spent millions of today’s dollars acquiring new territories and building beautiful public architecture, leading to the present aesthetic and size of Nachtisch.

It only became known as Nachtisch when St. Grouper found that he couldn’t control the entirety of the Balezot Union on his own, at which point he put it to a vote whether to make it an official country or not, with the blessing of then-leader of Bortel St. Amygdala. This resulted in the democratic, capitalistic country of Nachtisch as it is known today.

Grouper and Amygdala remained friends until the War of The Great Saints, at which point they died within 20 feet of each other, Grouper of old age and Amygdala of a dead man’s switch explosive implanted in Grouper’s chest cavity years ago by fellow saint and ally Frankenstein of Delshire.

When people are corrupted beyond having any humanity left, they become some of the most dangerous monsters out there. These creatures are often referred to as Miracles collectively, but individual creatures usually have different categorizations.

Depending on the sin that created a Miracle, their abilities and form are incredibly different. Even within a given sin, the variation is extreme. 

When Miracles became common, not-so-ironically after The Miracle Engine was completed, people needed people to exterminate them so that they didn’t cause problems for those who still had human nature. Thus the Moondowner guilds were established.

Moondowners are specialized hunters that cleanse the Dark by relying on the Seven Heavenly Virtues. Because the Virtues being much harder to hold onto than sins, they often focus on only one and thus have different specialties when cleansing.

Miracles of Pride are typically gargantuan and brilliant at one or more particular skills. They aren’t particularly violent, instead using their skills and size to demoralize others. Moondowners of Humility often wear no armor and carry very powerful weapons such as grenade launchers and battlesaws, as any hit will likely kill them in a fight regardless of their armor and their specialty demands them to hit far above their weight class. The typical ritual before fighting a Miracle of Pride is to doff one’s armor and pray to Falderath for protection and strength.

Miracles of Greed typically have many long and powerful arms and lash valuable objects to their bodies, which act as a sort of unintentional armor. Moondowners of Charity often use gilded explosives and fight from a distance, wearing light and crude but explosion-resistant armor. The explosives are often designed to look like objects of value in the hope that the Dark-addled minds will pick them up and lash place them on their bodies as armor. The ritual before fighting a Miracle of Greed is to give wealth away to the poor.

Miracles of Lust are obscene creatures and some of the most dangerous. Their bodies are grotesquely warped into a strange, hyper-sexualized piece of modern art. Their only desire is sex, and they don’t care if the target consents. Moondowners of Chastity wear heavy armor that is tedious to remove and work in groups due to the nature of these Miracles to incapacitate single targets, usually carrying serrated weapons to increase blood loss as the odds of hitting vital organs with even long weapons is exceedingly low. The ritual before fighting a Miracle of Lust involves restraining yourself from any sexual acts for an extended period of time, usually about a week.

Miracles of Envy are the strangest of them all, as they usually simply copy or kill others that they deem “better” than themselves. As such, there are no special tactics for fighting these beasts other than using simple weapons and crude armor so as not to incite their envy. The ritual before fighting a Miracle of Envy is to thank Falderath for as many things as you can think of.

Miracles of Gluttony tend to be slow and oversized, desperate to indulge in all things before them. They rarely pose much of a threat to the careful and diligent, but their nigh-invulnerability and strong jaws make them very difficult to fight. Moondowners of Temperance tend to use long or hooked weapons in an attempt to stay away from their jaws and rip open the corrupted creatures to better access their vitals. The ritual before fighting a Miracle of Gluttony is one of the simplest: don’t over-indulge. You may eat, sleep, and be merry, but not to the point that it is unhealthy for you.

Miracles of Wrath are undoubtedly the most dangerous of all the Miracles. They are built for combat, with many built-in weapons and biological defenses. Moondowners of Patience are very similar to Moondowners of Humility in their loadouts, but their weapons rely more on precision than raw power. This is due to the significant difference in tactics, for while Humility requires brute force, such efforts would be wasted against a Miracle of Wrath, who must be punished and parried constantly to deal any damage. The ritual before combating a miracle of Wrath is typically to say goodbye to your loved ones.

Miracles of Sloth are the least dangerous of all Miracles, as they are rarely violent, but are typically an unstoppable force if roused, plowing through buildings without care for the inhabitants. Moondowners of Diligence often quickly discover that it is far better to relocate the beasts as opposed to fighting them, and thus are usually equipped with nothing but makeup and a heavy sidearm. The ritual before facing down a Miracle of Sloth is nonexistent. Just be careful while fighting them.

*This entry is going to retcon some things from earlier entries. You have been warned.*

Before there was anything, there was the Dark and there were monsters. When humanity came into the scene, they were offended by the horrific appearances of the monsters, and a crusade against the beasts was quickly launched. Humanity won with little effort due to the disorganized nature of the monsters, but there was a consequence. Humans threw the bodies into to ocean, where they sank to the bottom. Falderath, sad at the loss of monsters, gave them back a single life and the ability to make more. Thus, the Abyss and the present incarnation of the Dark were born at the bottom of the sea.

The Abyss longed for children, but it had no way to make them for itself, so it built a world we now know as the Nightmare. In this world, superstition and dark thoughts became reality.  The Abyss was finally able to have children of its own, and so it made seven, and we took the titles of the sins from their names. It even invited the souls of damned mortals into its newfound home as an act of forgiveness. But humanity showed no remorse, teaching the monsters their ways of violence and "morality." The seven children left the Abyss when their newfound morals didn't align with the Abyss' simple desires and nature.

The Abyss was furious. It declared that any creatures that indulged in the pleasures it brought would become monsters... its children. He used the Dark to bring those pleasures to the mortal world, and with it it brought everything he could offer; companionship, power, wealth, whatever! You asked, and by god, you would get it.

Human occultists, thousands of years later, discovered a strange phenomenon: if you perform a specific ritual, a metaphorical song and dance, so to speak, you could turn an amount of Miracle flesh into living creatures. This was the first ever demonic summoning. The Abyss' true children could finally come into the material world. They just needed some help from the other side...

*More retcons, yay!*

To a Moondowner, Miracle flesh is life. This precious material can be used to upgrade armor and weapons, or even gain magical power through necrografts. They trade with the leader of the Moondowners, known as the Magus, to gain access to wonderous new hunting tools.

While supernatural power is typically only gained by making deals with the Wizard, through grafting Miracle flesh onto oneself one can gain it without the consent of creatures of the Dark. Given that Moondowners see the Abyss as their arch-enemy,  not having to make deals with it is a major plus for them.

Any creature that wants to use magic must be at least a little Darkened, and many see necrografts as a safe and easy way to gain such corruption. Not all magic comes in the form of spells. Moondowners in particular are known for upgrading their bodies to supernaturally move faster and hit harder than any other combatant.

A common tool for most Moondowners and spellcasters is the Black Bottle, an aptly named jar or other container that can suck in and hold incredible amounts of Miracle flesh. While most Moondowners use it for storage and harvesting from a distance, spellcasters have a different use for it: fuelling stronger spells.

Miracle flesh has an incredible Darkness to it found nowhere else and can be used for demonic summoning, both partial (say, summoning a giant claw or tentacles) and full (summoning an entire demon). When you summon a demon, they must obey your commands for 1 hour, then they can leave and do whatever they want. They are unlikely to be hostile toward their summoner since they consented to be summoned in the first place.

Some spellcasters can use Miracle flesh to cast spells in place of using their own stamina. Doing so is a rather unnerving process and requires special tools to accomplish, but it certainly makes the caster more powerful for it. Stronger spells will often exhaust the caster when used more than once, but using the flesh of stronger Miracles will make these spells nearly infinitely usable.

Long ago, mere days after the Abyss lost its children, there was a plague. It was spread by moonlight, leading many to find homes and help underground where the moon could not reach their tender flesh.
For decades, all humanity lived in the dark underground. The Moondowner Guilds were created down there, invented to face the horrors created by the moonplague. When the plague ended, humanity rose up back to the surface, but they left many behind in the dark Complex.

The Complex is a massive, sprawling underground city that winds miles and miles into and around the earth. The upper layers resemble a hospital for the most part, with outdated medical equipment scattered across the floor. Beyond that, there is no telling what you’ll encounter. The place has long been overrun by monsters and fungi, rock formations forming over the centuries, causing the Complex to become as much an ecosystem as a structure.

Electric lights shine at most hours, turning off every 19, allowing horrors untold to crawl about without light to burn their wretched little eyes. However, the lights come back on after nine hours of pitch blackness, forcing the evils back into their hovels.

While there are many virtues that Moondowners use, their broader approach is primarily defined by which guild they are in.

The first guild were the Grave Guild, a group of physicians turned Moondowners. They were created down in the Complex to fight the moontouched that had lost their minds due to the plague. Their sponsor was the Complex Hospice Clinic. Gravekeeprs use sharp, sturdy, precise tools and minimal necrografting, as they believe use of the supernatural leads to infection. Their armor is usually worn on the outside of light regular clothing, the armor itself being bulky and fragile but flowy, causing many attacks from malevolent entities to miss, instead ripping the clothing letting the Gravekeeper dodge away freely.

The second guild was the Monstrology Guild, a group of scholars and documentarians that believed that monsters of all sorts must have some sort of purpose in the natural world. Their sponsor was the School of Grenersham. Monstrologists use powerful long-range weapons, preffering a swift execution over preventing collateral damage. They wear light, quiet, padded clothing, suited to sneaking about unseen by demons, miracles, abdead, and moontouched.

The third guild were the Nightmare Eaters Guild, a group of radicals devoted to the extermination of the unnatural. They are sponsored by the government of Bortel. Nightmare Eaters rely heavily heavy equipment, hoping that their sturdy armor will help them last long enough to land the killing blows with their magic or powerful weaponry. They are one of the less effective guilds, relying on fanaticism and tradition instead of taking the time to study the problem in detail.

The fourth guild was the Honor Guild, a group of those who lost their way and needed help, devoting their lives to the art of Moondowning. They are sponsored by the Magus himself. They are often feared by the general populace due to their heavy reliance on necrografts, often eschewing weapons and armor entirely. Their primary weakness is their overreliance on Dredge to last in a fight. This leads them to slaughter weaker targets en masse to collect, not only to spend said Dredge to upgrade their bodies but to fuel their spells and necrografts. Those who trust the Honor Guildmembers treat them as a sort of supernatural police force, as they are perfectly happy to do small jobs for extra Dredge.

The fifth guild was the Mob Guild, a massive group of normal people that just wanted to help out. They are not sponsored by any group, nor do they have a tendency toward any particular loadout. Their weapons and armor are typically cheap, as they rely more on numbers than equipment. They rarely use explosives or chemical warfare, and have some of the best healers out of all the guilds, second only to their allies, the Salvation Guild.

The sixth guild was the Salvation Guild, a group of church officials using advanced technology and magics to provide relief to those affected by monster attacks. They are sponsored by the Church of the Machine. They wear little armor, instead using supernaturally warded robes. They wield normal tools, such as musical instruments and healing implements, instead of actual weapons. Their robes make them nigh-invulnerable to Moondowner equipment and magic, allowing them to execute rogue Moondowners with impunity and protect those that would’ve been hurt by said rogues.

Made a bit of a mistake, but I fixed it.

By the way, an edit that I'm not gonna show here is that miracle flesh, once bottled, becomes a substance called Dredge.