Luxuria Overview
This is long overdue. Hopefully this answers some general questions I get fairly often as well as compile many of the ideas I've dumped into the threads over the past few months. I'm not very good with things like years, timelines, and dates, so I refrained from nailing down any exact dates (ie "what year was Luxuria established?") until I can bounce numbers off of someone else. I can't keep track of sequences of events or mental timelines too well.
Origins
As discussed in the Kindred lore/creation myth, in the years following Vox Akuma's death at the hands of the invaders seeking to claim his land for themselves and take Vox and the original Kindred under national rule, the surviving Kindred relocated, secured a plot of land, and rebuilt the Akuma Castle as both a grand testament to their Lord's strength and prestige and as the central location of what would eventually become a Kingdom proper. Most importantly of all, it serves as his tomb where he rests, surely conserving energy and repairing his body for whenever he so chooses to rise again— and it is believed that he will do so when the time is right; there is no doubt in even a single Kindred's mind that he's waiting for the right year, the right day, and the right moment to rise again and greet his Kindred with open arms.
But what shall we do in the meantime to prepare for our Lord's grand return, the Kindred asked themselves. With a temple, the central place of worship, already created alongside a perfect recreation of Vox's original castle, a town center sprinkled with homes, shops, and more where the Kindred frequent, all created and well-maintained, what else are the Kindred to do as they wait for Vox to rise again?
By spreading his word and creating even more Kindred to yearn for his awakening and prepare for the grand celebration that is sure to follow this event.
Shortly after the Holy Kingdom became a proper kingdom, graduating from its status as a small settlement for the exiled Kindred, one young, single woman had a dream— she dreamt of lying with Vox, not as a Kindred, but as a lover. He whispered things she couldn't make out in her ears, caressed her with his broad hands and clawed fingers, kissed her from head to toe, and promised to make her a mother— and who would turn down the opportunity to cary their Lord's child? One of Vox's hands rested against her lower belly where her womb sits, and the only whisper she was able to make out stood out like a sore thumb.
I will make you a mother, and we shall rebuild my clan ourselves.
The Kindred had woken with a start, her body flushed with sweat and her mind buzzing. Somehow she didn't feel regret for dreaming about her exalted Lord in such a perverse fashion, as she had never heard of anyone else with any desire to be bred by Vox, nor did she feel guilty or embarrassed, rather she felt... called to action. Vox specifically delivered this dream to her for a reason, and to avoid or ignore the call of Vox would make her a terrible follower and a horrid woman. The very next day, she told her close friends about her dream, and though she knew the larger Holy Kingdom would never understand her newfound desire to carry their Lord's child, her friends understood well. They devised a plan to flee the Holy Kingdom and establish a small settlement of their own for women who wanted to worship Vox the right way... and as other women caught wind of the cult as the Holy Kingdom's clergy declared it an outrage and blasphemous, more women sought out the cult. Some feared that the clergy would send soldiers to stomp out the cult, but no such thing had ever happened... it's almost as if the Holy Kingdom and Luxuria are stuck in an eternal cold war where the two prefer to ignore one another's existence rather than risk inciting anything.
Following the original Kindred's departure, along with some of her friends, more women became interested in the small group. Some sought it out only to escape from the Holy Kingdom's oppression, some sought it out because they began to have similar dreams of Vox breeding them after hearing of Luxuria, and some sought it out out of curiosity. All ended up enjoying their stay more than they thought they would... and the rest, as they say, is history. One escapee Kindred in particular was said to be very close friends with the first/original Luxuria cultist, and the two were inseperable and spent more time loving on each other than any breeder bull ever loved on either of them; the two showed more interest in one another while being bred than in the men breeding them. Since Luxuria's establishment, many years have passed, and though none of the original handful of cultists— these two included— are still alive, their tale is still told throughout Luxuria as proof of the power of sisterhood, one of the cult's main values. They would be proud to see that their original group of twenty or so has exploded into a cult of two hundred, with more ever on the way.
Beliefs
Repopulate the Kindred and create more devotees who swear their everything to their lord Vox, simple as that. Interestingly, the Holy Kingdom's goals are not so different from Luxuria's— both wish to grow the Kindreds' numbers and invite more people to accept Vox as their lord, thereby creating a massive following for Vox again once he awakens from his slumber, and both wish to assert themselves as Vox's True Kindred Following. Vox had lost his Kindred—his family—with his death, and both the Holy Kingdom and Luxuria wish to rebuild it for him. It's the method through which they repopulate the Kindred following that causes differences— whereas the Holy Kingdom is largely concerned with bringing in outsiders, spreading their word not unlike traveling missionaries, and lovingly mindbreaking captured spies, intruders, and criminals into becoming Kindred, Luxuria takes a more... hands-on approach. They view the purest kind of Kindred as one birthed from another Kindred, and though you could argue that allowing outsiders to breed the cultists results in "half-bred" Kindred (so to speak), the cultists don't really view it that way. A child born from a Kindred mother is more pureblood than any outsider brought in by the Holy Kingdom's clergy could ever be— and Vox has no use for filthy blood and bastard children. Luxuria places the fault of Vox's death on the original Kindred that had failed to protect him, and believe that their status as outsiders (as they were all wandering, homeless, or exiled people Vox himself had welcomed) contributed to their lack of care and devotion to the very man Luxuria worships more than anything else in Vitubia. This cult views themselves as the true Kindred, for they view themselves as more devoted than the Holy Kingdom could ever dream of being and do everything in the name of Vox. The Holy Kingdom's clergy often falls victim to powertripping and their own egos, believes Luxuria— if the highest-ranking officials truly cared about Vox, they would surrender their titles at once and worship Vox not with their words, but with their actions. There is too much corruption in the clergy and too many people concerned more with rising the ranks than truly worshipping Vox, and this belief is precisely why the original cultists fled the Holy Kingdom in the first place and established a settlement where people who wanted to actually worship Vox could do so safely and with their entire hearts, bodies, and souls. I would say minds as well, but let's be real... nobody in Luxuria is of sound and stable mind. Empty your mind and allow yourself to be a vessel for Vox's children... that's all you need to do. Your body exists as property of Vox rather than your own; if you value independence and autonomy, Luxuria is not the place for you.
There is also the concern about quality of life in the original Holy Kingdom. The closer you get to city center/Akuma Castle, the more foreboding and suffocating the clergy's presence is. Some live in paranoia and fear of being wrongly accused of blasphemy by the corrupt clergy, who have power to essentially do whatever they'd like once you're arrested. Luxuria has no such system; everyone lives in unsettling harmony and sisterhood and what's yours is hers, and hers, and hers, and... everyone else's. This overwhelming, and intoxicating to the new recruit, sense of comradarie and sisterhood serves as a direct antithesis to the secret misery plaguing the Holy Kingdom's center residents. Publicly questioning Holy Kingdom leadership almost seems to be just as egregiously awful as questioning Vox himself... so some citizens force smiles and live in a quiet, cold fear.
Don't you want to be happy? Don't you want to worship Vox rather than some ridiculous clergy? Don't you want to live in a place where nobody goes hungry, sick, lonely, or unloved because everyone takes care of one another? Don't you want to be a part of something greater? There's a place for you.
Relationship to the External World
It is worth nothing that though The Holy Kingdom and Luxuria both worship Vox, they are not allies. In fact, there's nobody they hate more than one another; both view the other as blasphemous and fakes who do not care for Vox, the only care for themselves. The Holy Kingdom does nothing to protect Luxuria from schizo attacks despite having infinitely more manpower than the latter nor does Luxuria want the Holy Kingdom's protection. What good would it do? They couldn't protect Vox all those years ago, so how could they protect their allies?
Other than that, Luxuria is receptive to outsiders and is relatively "open" despite being a cult. Travelers and merchants are almost never turned away, though it is polietly explained to merchants that soliciting is not welcome and the cultists have no need for outside wares; everything they want or need is created, grown, or hunted by the cultists themselves. Though the cultists do not necessarily agree with the fact that all of Vox's original Kindred were ~filthy outsiders,~ they appreciate and adore Vox for his kindness in taking them in. Really, the outsiders were unworthy of such kindness, graciousness, and love from their Lord... a belief cemented by the former's complete and utter inability to protect Vox when he needed them most. Despite their hatred of the original Kindreds' ineptitude, the Luxuria cultists believe in carrying on Vox's kindness by granting refuge to travelers and providing them with food, medicinal herbs, shelter, and water. Sure, it's highly likely that you'll never be able to leave again once they've brought you in, but beggars can't be choosers when you're the one who sought out their help when you were starving, dehydrated, sick, or injured. Outsiders are treated as equals because they are quite literally Kindred in the making— if you have the honor of being accepted by Luxuria, you are no longer an outsider, you're an honorary Kindred and you were brought in simply because you were meant to be here. It is the cult's belief that all things happen for a reason, and travelers stumbling across Luxuria is Vox's way of telling the cult to take them in because they are part of his Kindred, they just may not know it yet. If you think that Luxuria's view on outsiders is confusing and rife with cognitive dissonance, then you're right. Esentially it's outsider bad... unless they're coming to us because that means Vox wanted them to be here, and who would we be to reject them?
It is worth noting that women and girls will always, always be taken in, but men are often only brought in for breeding rather than permanent refuge except for the few men horny, brave, and based enough to accept Luxuria as their new home... but more on that later.
Luxuria, like any nation in /nenmen/ is also unfortunately the target of many schizo attacks and does lose a few with each attack. Luckily, sometimes Luxuria is dismissed as "not worth it" by wandering bandits or rogues due to its small size, but being a cult comprised of like 90% women (with many of those women at any given time being pregnant) and children and 10% men, it isn't exactly well-equipped to defend itself against attacks. All of the men and groups of the non-pregnant women specifically designated as guards (rather than farmers or caretakers) use bows and katanas (as their Lord once had) to defend themselves against attackers. More on this another time because writing combat hard and I want to do more research on defensive construction measures first.
Climate, Geography, and Crops
(I am not geography proficient. Bear with me. Please feel free to correct me on any of this information since I have only corresponded with climateanons once, though I have picked through the archive pretty religiously for /nenmen/ climate and crop information.)
Luxuria is small, and does not occupy much room. It is about fifty miles south of the Holy Kingdom and just to the east of the small lake between /nijien/ and /nenmen/. Like all of /nenmen/, its climate is that of a subtropical monsoon, with mild, dry winters and hot, humid summers. The humidity does lead the cultists to fuss about their hair, but the sweat is a plus... free pheremones to help get the visiting breeder bulls in the mood. Because they don't have to worry about snow or ice in the winters, maintaining their crops is largely an easy task; the only concern is flooding in the summer, but building Luxuria on the crest of a hill helps prevent flooding and aids in water runoff. It also protects the cult against flooding from the nearby lake when it begins to overflow from heavy rainfall.
Luxuria takes advantage of the heavy rains and saturated grass to grow rice, their main crop and source of food within the cult. Rice thrives in flooded paddies, and so a lot of it is grown in Luxuria just past the crest of the hill where water runoff collects. Wheat, beans, yams, potatoes, squash, almonds, avocados, blueberries, cocoa, and their holy grail fruit, mangoes, are all grown within the walls of the cult and nearby, with crops varying throughout the year as the wet summer cools into a dry winter and the dry winter subsequently melts into a wet summer. Fish is caught from the nearby lake and serves as the Kindred's main protein source alongside beans, but pregnant women also receive protein from any red meat hunting parties can secure since fatty red meat is good for a fetus' brain development. Breeder bulls who are brought in are also tasked with going out to hunt meat and catch fish while the cult's women and children tend to the crops. Children are taught to tend to crops early on as their first task within the community alongside helping their mothers and the other women with easy household chores. Older children and teenagers are taken to the lake nearby for laundry and to retrieve pails of water.
Breeding
Yes, the section many of you have been waiting for. Sure, Luxuria is touted as a place of true worship for true Kindred, but it is also a cult devoted entirely to breeding and pregnancy in the name of Vox. I would like to save the bulk of this section for its own rentry as I truly could write an entire rentry just on breeding and pregnancy procedures and culture in Luxuria, so for now I will stick to a basic overview... that rentry will be much, much hornier than this doc. That will also include more about postpartum care and raising children.
No women under the age of 18 are considered for breeding. I don't wish to write about that sort of thing plus the longer a woman has to develop, the less likely her chances of dying in childbirth. Teenagers/girls not finished with puberty are overwhelmingly at a higher risk for death in childbirth due to incomplete hip development, so women are not to be bred until puberty has obviously concluded and they are 18 years of age. New women brought in from outside are given a three month "probationary period" so to speak where they are barred from the list of breeding candidates so their menstrual/ovulation cycles can be accurately tracked and recorded to determine when they are ovulating and ripest for breeding. It takes roughly three cycles, so three months, for one's menstrual cycle to be properly mapped, though of course this is not an exact science and most women experience slight variance between months— one cycle may be 30 days and the next 31 days, for instance— but this is accounted for as well. When a woman is within two days of her expected ovulation day, her breeding window begins and ends two days after her expected ovulation day... so breeding is a five-day long affair between her and her lover with breaks taken only for bathing, the restroom, and eating, though food is brought to them by other girls rather than them leaving to go eat at the large dining table with everyone else. With the exception of a woman's first breeding, which always takes place in a designated ceremonial tent reserved for this exact purpose, women are given the choice to be bred either in their own homes or in the tent reserved for breeding; it's their choice.
Because Luxuria is comprised almost solely of women and children with a few men who have happily accepted their place as permanent breeding bulls and cultists, outsider men are brought in for breeding when the available supply of men within the cult is, uh, slim because they're busy breeding other women. Some women are sent outside to travel and bring men back, and it is not rare to find a cultist happily skinny dipping or sunbathing in the nude to attract the attention of traveling men or merchants, and any man who happens to stumble across the cult by his own accord is brought in, treated with a meal, and offered the opportunity of a fucking lifetime. Diplomatic visits are also coordinated, as plenty outside of /nenmen/ (particularly Rosebuds, Dragoons, and Ryugards, if /nijien/ thread culture is anything to go off of) now know of Luxuria's existence and have expressed interest in getting a front-row seat to the breeding rituals, learning more about reproduction and lust, and simply seeking out the opportunity to enjoy sex with a nympho Luxuria slut. Breeding pairs are designed and crafted after careful consideration of chemistry and compatability by the cult's elders, but political officials are given more freedom to pick girls that catch their eye. This luxury is not extended to randoms and travelers, who are assigned a pair no matter what. The permanent breeder bulls that reside within the cult are also given freedom to choose girls to breed, though they are discouraged from choosing the same girl too many times in a row because his seed is best used when spread to countless different women, diversifying the gene pool and allowing the cult to prosper.
With the exception of a woman's first breeding, which is attended by an audience of 5-6 other women she is close to such as a mentor figure, a best friend, or a close sister, breeding is a private affair between her and her lover. This sacred ritual is well-respected and though girls do love watching their fellow cult sisters be bred, they can do that plenty at a woman's first breeding rather than subsequent ones. Political officials and those visiting on official business are happily invited to choose two or three women, including those who are already pregnant and dying to curb their hormones, to join him to have a threesome or foursome for the damn history books. As you may have expected, breeder bulls are also allowed to have pregnancy sex with the cult's women, but outsiders are not because they are not trusted to properly handle a woman in delicate condition. Pregnancy hormones turn the women into even bigger whores, and it's not uncommon to find a whole group of them loving on each other and "taking care of each other" through kissing, oral sex, fingering, and any other sexual activity to help calm their bodies. Really it's just a constant orgy whether you're pregnant or not, but pregnant women are more often found enjoying sex with one another due to their insatiable lusts.
That's all for my overview. More on cult behavior, sociology, dynamics, and sisterhood in another rentry, and breeding + pregnancy will be getting a rentry all of their own. I hope to expand upon the backstory as well since it was slightly rushed due to indecision on where to take it... I also want to write a fic about the OG cultist's horny dream because smut is my passion.