The Petrified Child

Last updated Aug 15, 2024

• Cosmology
• Deities
• The petrified child
• The judges

The Petrified Child is a semi-corporeal deity which is worshipped by many minikin groups, including the Morellic minikin. The child’s duty is to destroy all evil according to its own moral code, protecting the cosmos¹ from any living being who wishes to desecrate it. The child inherits its existence from the second Judge, serving as its successor and continuation.

The Petrified Child has the appearance of a swaddled infant made from stone, and is very large, about 5 metres in length. Its body has a smooth, bean-like, inverse-teardrop shape, and its face is round, with minikin-like features, and eyes which are forever closed. Its body is also defined by swirling creases (A result of the effects of alucinara on physical matter) which resemble folds of cloth.

The Petrified Child hovers above the ground, levitating smoothly through space. It is semi-corporeal, meaning that it is not always in physical manifestation, but it is able to manifest in any realm and location.

As the child’s eyes are always closed, it sees through the use of watchstones, which are eye-shapes formed or carved into stone, appearing all across the realms. Some groups hide from Watchstones in order to commit acts the Child would usually consider evil, such as war, grand theft, murder, and betrayal.

The Petrified child is tasked with the one duty to destroy evil. Its moral code is marred by its childlike mind, but is chiefly concerned with the preservation of the natural and holy world from disorderly beings. Thus are the actions the child considers evil:

• Disrespect of nature, including large-scale zoocide and ecological destruction.
• Disrespect of celestial beings, including violence and utterance of curses or insults in their presence.
• Disrespect of other living beings, including murder and flagrant transgression of sacred taboos.

As the celestial beings are unable to destroy matter outright, the child rather opts to turn the purpetrators of evil into a substance known as Baby Sludge. Bones and teeth are unable to be turned into the sludge, as they are made of inorganic matter.

The sludge is a highly effective fertilizer, and serves to aid the proliferation of ecosystems over time. However, it is also highly deadly to animals, as it aids not only the growth of plant matter but also biophagous and necrophagous pathogens and fungi.

Main Article: Baby Meadows

Baby meadows are the result of baby sludge’s effects on the natural world. They are small, lush areas of increased proliferation and biodiversity, often about 10 metres in diameter. They are commonly marked by the bones of beings that were destroyed by the child or that came into contact with the sludge and perished soon after.

Baby meadows are feared and avoided shortly after formation, due to the adverse effects of baby sludge sludge on animals. However, baby meadows may be inhabited long after formation, once all of the sludge has dissipated, and are a choice location for inhabitation by many groups.