Lambs of Dalamud

[Chambers]

Hello, I was wondering if someone could clue me in on what this group is all about.

I get they used to worship the Dalamud sphere, but why are they still around? Why do they sacrifice adventurers and to who are they sacrificing to?

[DoctaruRavenbe]

They're sacrificing to Dalamud still. sometimes when a cult's big event doesn't occur, they become even more fervent in their beliefs and they begin to do crazy things to get their god's favor and such.

[NoloeTazier]

Hello, I was wondering if someone could clue me in on what this group is all about.

I get they used to worship the Dalamud sphere, but why are they still around? Why do they sacrifice adventurers and to who are they sacrificing to?

The Lambs of Dalamud were a cult that sprung up around patch 1.20? I believe when Dalamud was edging closer and closer and had obtained it's red hue. They believed they had to appease Dalamud by having ritual sacrifices to it. They would kidnap people and a NPC (I can't remember his name for the life of me) would spring up and yell and you could participate in a fight and save the kidnapped person. There were 2 zones that this happened: Mistbeard and Copperbell Mines, Mistbeard took place on docks inside this little cove and the Copperbell Mines one took place in the Sil'dih Aqueduct, both of these places were inaccessible in the dungeons (open world dungeons btw) and could only be accessed when being teleported by the NPC.

As for why they're still around, they still worship Dalamud. In the Tam-Tara Deepcroft they were attempting to reconstruct Dalamud (the huge orb that the Mindflayer appeared from). In Amdapor Keep they seemed to be trying to make this their new base/home, they had recently just dispelled the magic the Elementals had put in place to hide the lost buildings. It's highly likely they're being manipulated right now, they were able to dispel the Elemental's magic (prior knowledge of this would be necessary) after all and have a recurring theme of Mindlayers popping up.

[Anonymoose]

This sounds like a pretty good opportunity to do one of those "wiki articles by request" things I do.

Some Background:
In contemporary Eorzean religion, Menphina (The Lover) is known as the Keeper of the Twin Moons. Religious mythology would go on to poetically claim that the greater moon was a physical manifestation of the goddess herself, and that the lesser moon which orbited it was her either her daughter, her lantern, or, most commonly, her loyal hound. When Nael van Darnus activated Dalamud and initiated its descent, it took on an ominous red glow that resulted in laypeople coming up with all sorts of strange explanations for it. One particularly prevalent rumor was that the hound was bathed in the blood of those who would do his mistress harm, and that soon we too would bathe in that blood.

The Lambs of Dalamud are one of many religious sects that rose as the Calamity approached, empowered by the general public's unrest and the absence of most of-age men able to stop them (as they were serving on the front lines against the VIIth Legion). Each had their own warped interpretation of holy doctrine, and though not all were dangerous or even malicious, the Lambs of Dalamud were a fair deal of both. They claimed Dalamud was an entity in and of itself, and that by spilling sacrificial blood would the Hound be lured back to usher in the Seventh (and final) Umbral Era. For this reason, they kidnapped the vulnerable from cities and hamlets and used them to lure adventurers to their rescue, massacring both in the process. Using the blood of their victims as fuel for magick, they would create powerful thaumaturgy, channel spirits, and summon voidsent to ever increase the slaughter. Even if they themselves were slain in the process, they believed that the Hound was far more pleased with the blood of those slain in His service than the nonbelievers they offered Him, and that He would remember the scent of those that died to return Him to the corporeal realm - descending to the Gates of the Seventh Hell to return their spirits of Eorzea where they would serve him in the final era and inherit Eorzea as their own.

Essentially, they warped existing religious doctrine to turn their doom (big falling moon) into their savior. Since Dalamud ended up... you know, exploding... they've had to adjust their beliefs a little bit. Instead of accepting that their faith was misplaced, however, they've become even more zealous, claiming that heretics prevented His return and that He must be avenged. The thing is... they have way more power than you'd expect for a bunch of lunatics (Y-you get it? LUNAtics! CAUSE THE MOON! HAH! Good word choice, SE). Even weakened by the Calamity, the seal on Amdapor shouldn't have bent to a bunch of nutjobs with pet demons in tow. There's a good chance they brought something over that's been influencing them...

EDIT:
Aaand article written. Always looking for ideas for more.

[Nialle]

There's a theme of desperate / unbalanced people attracting voidsent like flies to honey... Edda, Amandine, these guys... I can only imagine, if voidsent attach themselves to emotionally broken / vulnerable people, what a soul-buffet the Lambs must be, since now that their 'god' was vanquished they must be in constant unrest.