The Red Grail

ASPECTS
GENERAL INFORMATION
ARCANA	The Devil
ORIGIN	Blood
PRONOUNS	She/It
"The Grail was the first god-who-was-blood" Devouring Mysteries
Disputedly claimed to be the first god-from-Blood, along with the Moth.
OTHER TITLES
- The Great Mother - The Mother of Mountains - The Mountain-Mother - The Cinnabar Cup
WF Catalogue Entry

'We call upon the Red Grail,
who gives life;
who takes life;
who is not sated'

The Red Grail is the Hour which the aspect of birth and blood is named after, and she is a powerful force who has taken part in many events throughout the course of the Mansus and the Wake. She claims to be the first god-from-blood, who drank the Tide and overtook that Hour’s dominion over the forces of pleasure and appetite. She is also one of the gods worshipped by the Sisterhood of the Knot, and perhaps the mastermind behind the alliance. Her aspect is Grail and her hour is 3 p.m.

Events

• Lithomachy: The Grail was among the Hours who slew the gods-from-stone, draining the Tide.

• The Drowning of the Twins: A princess and a monster from the west loved one another, and fled their homeland when the Kings planned to sacrifice them to end a drought, While at sea they drowned themselves in despair, but ended up ascending into the House under the Red Grail. Eventually they became Hours themselves, and the Grail grew jealous of their power.

• The Flaying of the Thunderskin: The Thunderskin was a mortal musician which the Red Grail took as a Name. Later, she sacrificed him as part of a treaty with the Ring-Yew, who the Thunderskin loved, and the Horned Axe, who sought restitution for the death of her brothers and sisters in the Lithomachy. The Thunderskin became a Heart Hour, and in addition to sealing this pact, it allowed the Grail to have some dominion over the aspect of Heart and challenge the power of the Twins.

• War of the Roads (1450-1580): The Grail is noted in particular for her conflict with the Forge during this time.

• Intercalate (1582): The priestesses of the Red Grail prophesied that the Forge would unite with the Sun, which the Grail desired. Her Names in the Red Church can be heard lamenting over the Division of the Sun that occurred instead. Even so, it seems that Intercalate itself attracted her.

Servants

• Lagiah, the Queen Unsated: One of the Grail's crueler Names. Lagiah was the sister and Lover of Antaios. She was allowed to become a Name of the Grail after setting aside the rites of Red low Sun. Lagiah took on animal form to devour her children (or was cursed with it for her incest)

• Ivories, Thirstlies and Lovelies: A category of Names which serve the Red Grail and can be found in the Red Church, where they speak, feast, and birth new desires. Lovelies in particular are the youngest of the Grail's Names and can assume the properties of Names they devour

• Ezeem, the Second Thirstly: A Name-emanation of the Grail who has flirted with the Forge, and who can be summoned in Cultist Simulator.

• The Sage-Knight: A Name who once dwelt in a Lodge near the White Door before ascending further. He is a Name who apparently “knows the odd Ivory”, implying that he is in the service of the Red Grail himself, or at least associates with her servants.

• Raw Prophets/Undergoers: Bewildering creatures of the Red Grail. An Raw Prophet is an alluring, flexible, half-formed tangle of limbs and body parts which desires to consume or be impregnated by mortals and speaks confusing prophecies. Vasil the Fivegoer, a potential ally in the Exile Legacy, is the great-grandson of a Raw Prophet.

• Lady Tryphon: A Grail-Long venerated as a Saint by the Sisterhood of the Knot, and who before her ascension was male. She is loved by the Red Grail as well as the Flowermaker, and can be encountered as an enemy Long in the Apostle Obsonate legacy.

• Sisterhood of the Knot: An occult order originating in Phrygia which existed in all the Histories and venerated the Ring-Yew, the Horned Axe and the Red Grail, as well as the Thunderskin. They were a powerful force in several Histories, though they were severely weakened after the War of the Roads.

Relationships

• The Tide: A god-from-stone presiding over pleasure and the sea, who the Grail usurped and devoured.

• The Moth: The Red Grail and the Moth are both said to be the first god-from-blood. Which claim is true? Why only one? Why only two?

• The Ring-Yew: A fellow Hour worshipped by the Sisterhood of the Knot, and who the Thunderskin, once a Name of the Grail, came to love.

• The Thunderskin: A musician who ascended as a Name of the Red Grail before she flayed him, both to seal the pact between the Sisterhood Hours as well as to challenge the power of the Twins over the aspect of Heart. The story of the relationship between the Red Grail and the Thunderskin is retold in numerous forms. It is unclear how much the Grail still holds over him.

• The Witch-and-Sister/Sister-and-Witch: The Twins originally ascended under the Red Grail, but as they grew more powerful the Grail became jealous, leading to her creating the Thunderskin in opposition to them.

• The Horned Axe: The last god-from-stone, who is also worshipped by the Sisterhood of the Knot. The sacrifice of the Thunderskin by the Grail was presented as restitution for the death of her loved ones in the Lithomachy, though that seems to be only part of the story.

• The Flowermaker: The Flowermaker is a fellow Grail Hour which has been known to visit the Red Church on occasion. In Book of Hours it is stated he was brought forth by the Red Grail.

• The Forge of Days: The Grail and the Forge quarrelled during the War of the Roads, as the Sisterhood tried to repel the advances of the Leashed Flame. The Grail-priestess also prophesied a union between the Forge of Days and the Sun-in-Splendour, which she greatly desired.

• The Beachcomber: Another Hour brought forth by the Red Grail

Real-World References

• The Red Grail takes the place of the Devil in the Tarot of the Hours. The Devil can represent addiction, obsession, and sexuality. It’s presence can also imply seduction by the material world, or outside forces dominating and controlling a person.
• The Red Grail is heavily influenced by the Phrygian goddess Cybele, a mother goddess also known as the Great Mother and the Mother of the Mountain. She was said to have a throne flanked by lions (thus being referenced as "the Lion-Throned One" in the Orchid Transfigurations), and many of the themes and elements in stories of both the Red Grail and the Thunderskin reflect aspects of Cybele’s worship, including the associations with birth, blood, revelry, and drums.
• The Red Grail also can be compared to the Holy Grail, with the quest of the Pine-Knight to find the Cinnabar Cup invoking those found in the legends of King Arthur’s knights and the Fisher King.
• The Sisterhood of the Knot reflects elements of triple deity worship, which appears in a variety of religious practices in history. The three Hours that the Sisterhood venerate can specifically be read as representations for the standard female archetypes of the maiden, mother, and crone, with the Red Grail as the Mother Goddess.

Other Notes

• The Red Grail is the Hour which the player ascends under in the standard Grail ascension, a path continued in the Apostle Obsonate Legacy.
• The Congregation of St. Felix appears to hold a shrine to the Sisterhood of the Knot, with an enameled chalice-drum in honor of the Red Grail and the Thunderskin alongside symbols of the other Hours they worship.
• The Chalice Murmurous is sacred to the Red Grail, and used as part of the Vitulation, a ritual to ascend as a Name of the Grail.
• The Red Grail also seems to make an appearance as an ivory woman in the Priest Legacy, during the Vision of the Red Cup.

Theories and Questions

• The Enactments of the Red Grail are curious in that one method of performing them could be the Crime of the Sky, in which the child of two immortals is consumed by their parents. While most Hours and immortal beings seem to fear the Crime, the Grail is implied to encourage and even desire it… which should immediately make people very suspicious and fearful of the Grail’s ambitions and goals.
• While the sacrifice that birthed the Red Grail is unknown, one possibility is that it is tied to the first birth. It is stated that the first torment of the Grail is Birth, and her association with motherhood and blood could therefore originate from the pain of childbearing for humanity.