The Cageewrights (“the cage-makers”) are a prophetic faction of the negative pole of the extended cosmos, taking shape in Caldero in the present cycle (1824 AE). Not confirmed as a visible faction, they exist as a consistent rumor and a prophecy of a ritual over thirteen marked chosen ones.
| Type | Concept (prophecy) |
| Place | Caldero |
| Opposed by | La Jabalina |
| Spanish entry | Los Cageewrights |
The prophecy
Mascor Blancarba’s Caldero Gazette reports a sinister group that perhaps (“though not yet”) plans sacrifices, and a ritual requiring “marks” and chosen ones. Noble planning began before the present cycle. The sacrifices are planned for the next cycle; the number Thirteen is possibly twelve zodiacal marks plus a central one.
The chosen
- Teo, the paladin who lost his arm on the Path of Drakthar — like a superior cleric who lost both — appears bound to the prophecy: the mutilated arm is a cosmological mark of sacrifice, the first recorded.
- The child adopted by Lord Valanthru, rescued from the Bazaar of Life by La Jabalina, may bear a child’s zodiacal mark; Valanthru holds him for the ritual.
- At least eleven more are unidentified: perhaps marked children held by nobles, other armless people, or major figures.
Operators
The archive’s hypotheses: Valanthru, in his Obsidian Tower, keeps the chosen; Tittiframe, in the Twin Towers, makes ritual elements, such as mechanical arms that reposition the mark. The ritual might take place in the Great Obsidian Plaza (reopening the rift the Giantess closed in 1812 AE), in the sanctuary beneath it, or in the Dark Chapel, sealed long ago by the rite of Sacred Reconnection. The Cageewrights may be a manifestation of the Borg Popes.
The name
In the old imperial tongue “wright” means maker and “cage” means jaula. The ritual does not destroy the chosen but cages them, using their souls as a sustained resource. It thus differs from the lichification attempted by Pope Borg of Caldero and from the luminous solidification Pope Alejandro Sixto achieved in Ardis Vala.
Anticipated consequences
If consummated, the ritual could cost avatars of the Arian Line, the Blue House of Vala or the Pablo Line; reactivate the Dark Chapel; push the negative pole into Vala Cristalis beyond what the stalled Platform could contain; and echo in other folds, such as Ardis Vala.
Opposition
La Jabalina (the Javelin) works to identify the Thirteen, recover the captured chosen, neutralize the noble operators and prevent the ritual. Its three documented missions were preventive; the supply of chosen through the Bazaar of Life is interrupted.