Sacrosancta Ecclesia

The Prologue

Purgatory

And if the devil was to ever see you, he'd kiss your eyes and repent.
— Farouq Jwaydeh

• PROCEED

Story & Setting.

Reverend Laurel of the Valrose Chapel is a cold-hearted man. The rumors say that he would even exchange his soul for his ambitions. Little do the smallfolk know that that is exactly what he did when he made a contract with the Devil. However, the Devil seems to have plans of his own counter to what his contractor wants.

Alternate 1800s England

Set in an 1800s England that never under went the Protestant Reformation and remains largely Catholic. The Church holds absolute power in this world, even overshadowing the reign of the Monarchy.

• Timeline

Reverend Laurel

Of the Valrose Chapel

He may be an ordained priest, but Laurel is by all means not a good person. He uses his natural intelligence for immoral schemes to gain influence and power. Although he is not cruel by nature, he is ruthless in the pursuit of his ambitions. It's not exactly clear what his end goals are, but what is certain is that he is willing to sacrifice his humanity to reach them.Laurel is cold and distant; not easily approachable, yet he is strangely close to his cocky and flippantly roguish servant named Lorence.

Lorence Pelagio

True Name — Lorenzo

A demonic entity with a frivolous, carefree attitude, Lorence parades as the irresponsible right-hand man of the Reverend Laurel of the Valrose Chapel. Although outwardly he appears to be self-serving and apathetic, he is surprisingly tender-hearted and compassionate for the downtrodden, especially considering his background as a demon. It’s even more so of an enigma as to why such a virtuous heart decided to make a contract with such a cold-blooded and wicked priest.The circumstances of his summoning and contract with Laurel remains shrouded in mystery.

The Priest
and the Devil

They are bound together by a contract. Lorence frequently teases the cold-hearted priest. While, Laurel is usually annoyed by Lorence's antics, he seems to have a soft spot for the demon. They both have dominant personalities and sometimes clash because of it.Ironically, it is the demon that does not always agree with the priest's crueler methods, but for some reason Lorence remains loyal to Laurel. Actually, it seems that Lorence has known Laurel even before the contract and there seems to be a past relationship that the priest is unaware of.

Narrative Timeline

Adelaide Larkspur

The Widowed Marchioness

A beautiful and brilliant young woman, Adelaide was married off to the Marquis of Larkspur at the tender age of thirteen. After her husband's untimely demise, the Marchioness adopted a perpetual state of mourning, forever donning the black dress and veil she wore to his funeral. Her beauty, once admired throughout the Isles, was forever shrouded behind the veil, and she was commended for being a devoted and chaste wife.However, beneath the veil lay a dark secret. The Marquis discovered Adelaide's illcit affair with the milk-maid and in a fit of rage, he killed the maid and plucked out Adelaide's right eye. In despair, Adelaide summoned the demon Baphomet who devoured the Marquis' heart. Now, her guise as a mourning widow serves as a facade to deter unwanted suitors. The beautiful, benevolent, devoted Marchioness Adelaise Larkspur – forever withdrawn and untouchable. No one knows her cunning wit nor the fact that she courts with the devil in her household.

Mettie the Maid

True Name— Baphomet

Matilda is the name of the quiet and meek maid that serves the Marchioness. Air-headed and prone to mistakes, she frequently breaks expensive household items much to the chagrin of the rest of the Larkspur estate staff. Despite this, Adelaide dotes on the maid, affectionately nicknaming her "Mettie."However, this meek maid is none other than the demon Baphomet who was summoned by Adelaide to kill her husband, the Marquis of Larkspur. A contract was formed between the two, binding the caprine demon to serve the Marchioness as her maid and illicit lover. In exchange, Adelaide satiates Baphomet's ravenous hunger for human hearts – first the marchioness' husband's, then other unfortunate male victims in the following decades.

Archbishop Marcel

Of The Westminster Archdiocese

The archbishop of the Westminster Archdiocese. Marcel is a man around his late 40's and although he appears to be pious and magnanimous, he's actually quite a terrible person. Cunning and intuitive, he easily manipulates those around him. His favorite pupil is Laurel because of the boy's similarly heartless nature.Laurel and Marcel have a teacher-pupil relationship that is also sexual in nature. Marcel is known to take advantage of the children of the Westminster orphanage and sometimes will grant patronage to his favorite "pupils", helping them advance in the ranks of the Church once they have outgrown the orphanage. Laurel is a cunning child who holds much ambition so he quickly worked to gain Marcel's favor and became the Bishop's favorite pupil. There is no love between the two as they both are using each other just as an ends to a means, but it is a mutual arrangement.

The Prologue

Of A Sinful Affair

Millenia before the Archfiend Lorenzo proffered the metaphoric golden apple to a human boy, the Forbidden Fruit was first bequeathed to him by the Elohim Lauriel — a temptation, a promise.This is a tale of a Lesser Demon who defiantly resists the false righteousness of the Heavens, a cruel Elohim that heartlessly eradicates sinners, and the unlikely romance that blossoms between these two contradictory souls. A sinful affair that comes to an abrupt end with the beheading of the Elohim.

The Elohim Lauriel and the Lesser Demon Lorenzo first met on the planes of Purgatory, when the Lesser Demon shielded a sinner from the executioner's divine whip. Intrigued by the altruistic act, the normally ruthless Lauriel did not smite the Lesser Demon and instead let both sinners flee unscathed. From then on, their paths would cross many times with the Elohim's interest in the curious demon growing with every interaction.The Champion of the Weak, was the moniker bestowed upon Lorenzo. Both a mocking epithet by the Circle of Archfiends and a mark of honor from those that he defended. Though only just a Lesser Demon, he defiantly resisted the unjust heavenly decree against the hapless sinners.And though, Lauriel was one of those cruel and sanctimonious divines that he detested, when Lorenzo found the Elohim succumbing to corruption, his tender-heart could not help but to save even him. This was the beginning of the end, as these two contradictory souls became entangled with each other in a sinful affair, which came to an abrupt end with the archangel's beheading.

Lauriel was not stripped of his divinity for his romantic relationship with a demon. It was a much deeper sin than that. It was his involvement in the Original Sin, though it was Lorenzo who gave the fruit to humanity. However, as the Lesser Demon was awaiting his divine punishment, an unexpected truth was revealed.Unbeknownst to the Heavens, the first Sinner — the Lightbringer — left one of his wretched sons amongst the divine, which was the Elohim himself. Because of this treasonous deception and the cardinal sin of being the Lightbringer's son, Lauriel was not stripped of his wings and cast into Hell like other disgraced angels. For his treachery, the false saint was beheaded and damned to repeatedly reincarnate as a wretched mortal.The Lesser Demon was consumed by guilt that his lover would take the fall for him. He descended deeper into the Seven Hells and thus became the Infernal Archdaemon he is fearfully known as today. For millenia, Lorenzo has sought the soul of his lover. Often arriving too late due to his limited ability to meddle in the mortal realm. They are reunited for the first time in the Summer of 1869.

The Epilogue

A hundred years after the main event...

A young boy with golden eyes is born into the world once again.Laurel Desrosier is a relatively normal boy. Well, except for the fact that he can see the color of people's souls. Not that it was a gift that did him any good, though he could quietly judge the self-righteous pastor preaching every Sunday morning about love and morality with a soul the color of dirt. He lives his life quietly through the routine, keeping his head low and unassuming. Well, that was until one day a trio of demons — Lorence, Mettie, and Adelaide —barge into his mundane life, flipping it upside-down. From then on, he is dragged into a whirlwind of exasperating excitement at the whims of these maniacal devils.