The Wayward Sons
The Wayward House stands in Yellstown Settlement, its extra floors added over the years by a man who needed room for a growing family built on borrowed devotion. Matthew Wayward founded this cult after the Poisoned Thorn Unborn rejected him as too unclean to sacrifice. Rather than accept the insult, he went home and built a religion around it.
The Wayward Sons are a Nuclear Family cult that prioritizes family unity above all else, including human life. Each year, one member is selected to venture into the Overgrowth during the Unborn's ritual season. The cult does not perform the killing directly; the jungle and its inhabitants handle that. Those who do not return are revered as family martyrs. For years, Matthew received multiple volunteers for the honor.
Then Matthew grew old. He ventured into the Overgrowth himself, and he did not come back. The cult has weakened without its founder. Numbers shrink each year as the annual sacrifice claims another member and recruitment fails to replace the loss. The house is quieter now, spoken of in whispers within Yellstown, its extra floors increasingly empty.
The most troubling development is a growing faction within the cult that advocates looking beyond the family for willing martyrs. If willing cannot be found, the whispers suggest, perhaps unwilling will serve. The Wayward Sons are dying, and a dying cult backed into a corner is more dangerous than a thriving one.
The Wayward Sons are a Nuclear Family cult that prioritizes family unity above all else, including human life. Each year, one member is selected to venture into the Overgrowth during the Unborn's ritual season. The cult does not perform the killing directly; the jungle and its inhabitants handle that. Those who do not return are revered as family martyrs. For years, Matthew received multiple volunteers for the honor.
Then Matthew grew old. He ventured into the Overgrowth himself, and he did not come back. The cult has weakened without its founder. Numbers shrink each year as the annual sacrifice claims another member and recruitment fails to replace the loss. The house is quieter now, spoken of in whispers within Yellstown, its extra floors increasingly empty.
The most troubling development is a growing faction within the cult that advocates looking beyond the family for willing martyrs. If willing cannot be found, the whispers suggest, perhaps unwilling will serve. The Wayward Sons are dying, and a dying cult backed into a corner is more dangerous than a thriving one.
History
Matthew Wayward founded the cult after a formative rejection. Following an altercation with his birth family, he ventured into the Overgrowth and discovered the Poisoned Thorn Unborn settlement. He became obsessed with their customs and pleaded to join their tribe. The Unborn rejected him as too unclean to even sacrifice. Matthew returned to Yellstown and established his own cult-family in the family home, modeling rituals after what he had witnessed. He added floors to the house as membership grew, building a towering monument to a faith born from spite. In old age, Matthew ventured into the Overgrowth one final time and never returned.
