Tortured Souls: Six Destinies
Book Six: The Second Coming
Encyclopædia 0.2

Characters

Agonistes

definition

Agonistes was a transformer of flesh who hid in sandstorms out in the desert. When the Sythe-Meister was killed by Venal Anatomica, Lucidique went searching for Agonistes hoping he could resurrect her lover but he never appeared.

The Blind One

See Venal Anatomica.

General Bogoto

One of the three rulers of Primordium, Lucidique killed General Bogoto when she returned to Primordium after over forty years in the desert.

Camille

A dwarf and Dr. Talisac's assistant. Talisac called for her help when threatened by the Mongroid but she had already left with General Montefalco.

God-fearing Citizens

Lucidique was named in the prayers of "tens of thousands of God-fearing citizens... who begged the Lord to keep them and their faces safe from her".

Holy Child

See Mongroid.

Homunculus

See Mongroid.

Infant of the Second Coming

See Mongroid.

Kreiger, Zarles

See The Scythe-Meister.

Lucidique

definition

Lucidique was a senator's daughter whose body had been "violently transfigured" by Agonistes. She and the Scythe-Meister made love in her dead father's house. When he didn't return from picking her flowers in her garden, Lucidique went in search of the Scythe-Meister. She found that he had been attacked by Venal Anatomica who then hunted her. Lucidique hid up a tree she had climbed as a child, when Venal Anatomica tried to use the dying Scythe-Meister as bait she jumped down and slit his eyes. She took the Scythe-Meister's body out into the desert to look for Agonistes, hoping he could resurrect her lover. She never found him and after a week she buried his body and never strayed far from it. After forty-one years Lucidique returned to her father's house in Primordium. She killed randomly, her victims including the three Generals, and she went to see the Mongroid and Venal Anatomica. She somethimes thought about returning to the Scythe-Meisters grave and letting the sand bury her but decided she had to stay in Primordium. Lucidique felt she gained "a kind of immortality" from those who prayed to be kept safe from her.

Mongroid

definition
Also: Infant of the Second Coming, Homunculus, Holy Child

Mongroid "walked, crab-like, on four hands" and had "a well-formed head" which had some resembelance to Talisac. It's stomach "split open, revealing a vast mouth, completely arrayed with glistening teeth". "It was a creature of instinct" that would be denied nothing. Mongroid was the child of Talisac, a virgin birth created from semen and science. It grew in a womb hanging down between its fathers legs which it tore its way out of. "It had more self-reliance than any creature five minutes old should reasonably have" and quickly learnt to distinguish between the living and the dead. It licked up the fluids that leaked from the womb that had held it despite Talisac's commands not to. Mongroid killed and devoured Talisac. It then went to live in the sewers of Primordium.

General Montefalco

One of the three rulers of Primordium, General Montefalco funded Talisac's experiments. When Venal Anatomica was blinded he took care of him "out of a bizarre sense of loyalty" and ordered that anyone found taunting him was to be shot. Lucidique killed him when she returned to Primordium over forty years later.

The Scythe-Meister

definition
Also: Zarles Kreiger

Once an assassin called Zarles Kreiger, he was transformed into the Scythe-Meister by Agonistes. After having sex with Lucidique in her bedroom he went into the garden to pick flowers where Venal Anatomica attacked him, taking him by surprise. His face ripped apart and his flesh had been "torn away from its seating, exposing the breastbone and the ribs and the long bone of his thigh". The Scythe-Meister tried to warn Lucidique when she came in search of him. Venal Anatomica used the Scythe-Meister as bait to lure Lucidique out of hiding, holding him up like a doll. He died from blood loss and Lucidique buried his body in the desert.

Dr Talisac

Talisac was a scientist who made himself pregnant through science, he had hoped to give birth to a "perfect, vicious child... a hymn to the glories of testosterone". He felt that he had always been alone, "even in the company of his fellow human beings", and all he had were his failures and his ambition. Talisac spent years experimenting on himself and others. Having made himself pregnant he came to believe that there was something holy about his child as "it was another Virgin Birth". Talisac hoped to produce something praiseworthy so that Montefalco would fund him for "further, more ambitious researches" but was disappointed when he gave birth to the Mongroid. He aimed to subdue and vivisect it to learn from his errors before trying again. However, the Mongroid killed and devoured Talisac shortly after its birth.

General Urbano

One of the three rulers of Primordium, Lucidique killed General Urbano when she returned to Primordium after over forty years in the desert.

Venal Anatomica

definition
Also: The Blind One

"A charnel-house child", Venal Anatomica was "made of parcels of rotten flesh and nerve and bone, all nailed together and given foetid breath". It had "a misshapen head, armoured shoulders, the chest of an ox... it walked with a pronounced limp, dragging its left leg" and "a hood of flesh slid slickly back from the upper half of its face, revealing its skeletal features". Venal Anatomica attacked the Scythe-Meister, tearing his flesh apart, before waiting for Lucidique in her garden. He attacked Lucidique who managed to blind him causing Venal to go into "a state of child-like terror". Montefalco took care of Venal Anatomica after this, having anyone tauntiing the blinded creature shot. Venal continued to live in Primordium's graveyards, eating the bodies of the recently dead.

Locations

Bedroom, Lucidique's

Lucidique and the Scythe-Meister made love here. It "stank of the pungent oil that their violently transfigured bodies gave off". The window looked out over the garden where the Scythe-Meister went to fetch flowers in order to cover up the smell. When Lucidique returned to Primordium decades later she returned to this room.

Bunker, Talisac's

Filled with "dirt and corpses", this is where Talisac gave birth to the Mongroid.

Cemetery

See Graveyards.

Charnel Houses

Venal Anatomica haunted the Charnel Houses when Lucidique returned to Primordium.

Desert

The desert surrounds Primordium. When the Scythe-Meister was killed Lucidique went out into the desert in search of Agonistes who hid amongst sandstorms but "the desert was preternaturally still". The Scythe-Meister was burried here and Lucidique lived near it for forty-one years. Lucidique later contemplated going to the desert to die.

Garden, Lucidique's Fathers

"The garden was large, and its layout complex" and it featured "narrow, labyrinthine paths" and "secret groves". As well as numerous thorn bushes and thick vegetation there was a large tree with a "verdant canopy" that Lucidique "had climbed a thousand times as a child". "The garden was full of sweet smelling flowers... and some of the strangest scents were those of blossoms that opened after dark". The Scythe-Meister was attacked and killed here whislt picking flowers for Lucidique. Lucidique hid from Venal Anatomica in the large tree before blinding him and leaving with the Scythe-Meister's body.

Graveyards

Also: Cemetery

Venal Anatomica haunted these places, often digging up and eating the dead.

Hospice of the Sacred Heart

Location of Talisac's bunker.

House, Lucidique's Fathers

Lucidique and the Scythe-Meister lived here until he was killed by Venal Anatomica. When Lucidique returned forty-one years later she was surprised to find it still standing, it had been "left by authorities too superstitious to knock it down". She once more occupied her fathers house.

Primordium

In one night Primordium lost two monsters (Lucidique and the Scythe-Meister) and gained two new ones (Venal Anatomica and the Mongroid). Forty-one years after she left Lucidique returned here, she decided to stay perhaps until Primordium burnt down. In the end there were three monsters in Primordium, "the Mongroid in the sewers, Venal Anatomica in the charnel houses, [Lucidique] in her father's mansion.

Sewers

The Mongroids "excremental kingdom". Lucidique went and viewed it here when she returned to Primordium.

Things

Blossoms

These "sweet smelling flowers" that only opened after dark had "some of the strangest scents" which were "giddyingly strong". Lucidique and the Scythe-Meister used them to cover up the "bitter and unpleasant smell" that their transformed bodies gave off. The blossoms included honeysuckle and jasmine. The Scythe-Meister had gone to collect some for Lucidique when Venal Anatmoica attacked him.

The Second Coming

definition

Talisac believed the Mongroid to be the infant of the Second Coming. "It was another Virgin Birth" which he hoped would be "a hymn to the glories of testosterone".

Virgin Birth

definition

Mongroid was to be another Virgin Birth having been conceived through science using only Talisac's semen rather than sexual intercourse.

Timeline

Day 1 (night)	Talisac gives birth to Mongroid who kills his father. Venal Anatomica kills the Scythe-Meister. Lucidique blinds Venal Anatomica and leaves Primordium with the Scythe-Meisters body.
Day 4	Lucidique buries the Scythe-Meister in the desert.
(forty-one years later)	Lucidique returns to Primordium. Lucidique kills Generals Urbano, Bogoto and Montefalco.

References

Tortured Souls: Six Destinies, Book Six: The Second Coming by Clive Barker