Cult of The Great Dismembered

Between the obscure alleys of The City rumors are that a strange guild of physicians started recently to operate.
Apparently, they are part to a dark cult connected to a previously unheard deity called "The Great Dismembered".

It is told that these "physicians" are able to perform bloody dismemberment rituals that allow a so called "patient" to obtain certain powers over a "donor" exchanging, by cutting and sewing, the flesh and the bones of the first with the second.
The strength, type and magnitude of the obtained powers depend on what parts of the body are replaced, and of course the kind of ritual performed.

Both the patient and the donor are magically kept alive during the ritual, but after it is completed it is not sure whether one of them or both will stay alive and for how long, or if sides effects will occur, as the procedure is very dangerous.

Someone even says that if the donor dies the patient will be able to retain these powers over his corpse, and sometimes even get total control of it.
The collateral effect is, however, the slow but inexorable mental deterioration of the patient caused by the connection to the corpse. This will not cause the patient's death.
On the contrary, if the one who dies is the patient , the donor will suffer from a terrible mental break, and his body will start to rot until death arrives after a long agony.

None of this of course has been ever documented and of course no proof whatsoever exists, and those who swear have seen these rituals or the people involved are usually madman or drunkards, or are bound to suffer a terrible death within days or even hours from their telling.
Their bodies are always missing parts.

The Cult...

1	...is more ancient than The City itself, from a time where the Eater-gods gnawed the limbs of the shamans during the full moon nights to grant them powers.
2	...is somehow recent- it has been created by a the King's previous physician, after he became mad by being intoxicated by the very drugs he used to cure his master, and fled from the asylum where he's been closed in.
3	...did spread in The City by nomads from the far and ancient Lands With No Sun, where men live a hundred years and giant spiders are bred as pets in crystal jars.
4	...and its black rituals has been discovered in an ancient tome locked with seven locks and bound with seven chains. It's been bought by a collector from a mysterious merchant. The collector has been recently found dead.
5	...has been created by a group of bored and sadistic nobles just for the thrill to assist and perform this obscene -and useless- rituals. The whole "magic powers story" that can be acquired has been all made up only to attract potential victims.
6	...actually does not exist: it started as a bad joke, but soon it spread out and now it's believed to be real. Rumors now are that this has drawn the unwanted attention of dark people towards The City.

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