# Character State: ch-08

## Queen Seraphine
- **Location:** The Heart of the Crimson Cathedral, ritual Altar.
- **Physical:** Deteriorating rapidly. The "Silvering" has moved from her extremities to her throat; her breathing is shallow, sounding like grinding stone. Hemomantic glow is flickering, turning a bruised purple.
- **Emotional:** Defiant desperation. She is terrified not of death, but of the structural failure of her dynasty. Her analytical mind is failing as the psychic pressure of the Eclipse mounts.
- **Active Obligations:** Owes the Valerius Bloodline a successor — **UNFULFILLED**. 
- **Open Loops:** Must complete the Rites of Dissolution or face total crystallization.
- **Arc:** 85% — She has reached the point of no return where her "Architect" persona is collapsing into raw survival instinct.

## King Aldric
- **Location:** The Heart of the Crimson Cathedral, flanking the Altar.
- **Physical:** Severe crystallization of the lower left leg; he is standing only through sheer force of will and the support of his ceremonial blade.
- **Emotional:** Cold Clarity. He has accepted his role as the "Sacrificial Key" but harbors a secret intent to subvert Malcorra’s ritual to save Seraphine rather than the Crown.
- **Active Obligations:** The blood-bind to the Lowen-Court — **FAILING** as his physical stamina wanes.
- **Open Loops:** The final word of the Valerius Seal remains unvoiced.
- **Arc:** 90% — He has moved from isolated martyr to a collaborator in heresy, choosing the woman over the kingdom.

## High Priestess Malcorra
- **Location:** The Altar Peak, wielding the Obsidian Thurible.
- **Physical:** Vibrant, fueled by the proximity of the solar alignment. She appears younger, her voice carrying a resonance that vibrates the Cathedral stones.
- **Emotional:** Fanatical Triumph. She believes herself the conductor of a divine orchestra, viewing Aldric and Seraphine as mere "vessels" to be drained for the New Vow.
- **Open Loops:** Orchestrating the "Inversion" of the Rites.
- **Arc:** 95% — She is at the apex of her power, blinded by the certainty of her own "Providence."

# World State: ch-08

## NPC Memory
- **The Inquisitorial Hounds:** Circling the Cathedral perimeter, sensing the shift in the blood-link; they are more predatory, barely restrained by Malcorra’s will.
- **The Lowen-Court Nobility:** Abandoning the lower districts as the "Necrotic Drift" thickens; they are terrified, waiting for a signal from the Cathedral that may never come.

## Faction Attitudes
- **The Crimson Cathedral:** At peak mobilization. The air is thick with the scent of metallic incense and ozone. The dogmatic "Blood Logic" is being pushed to its absolute breaking point.
- **The Thorne Bloodline:** Effectively reduced to Aldric; the ancestral weight is localized entirely within the ritual chamber.

## Active World Events
- **The Eternal Eclipse:** Entering its "Total Phase." The sky is an unnatural, bruised black, and the temperature has dropped to lethal levels outside the Cathedral's heat.
- **The Necrotic Drift:** Spores are now calcifying into obsidian structures in the streets.
- **The Final Rite:** **ACTIVE**. The ritual to dissolve the old world and bind the new has begun. The "Gilded Pulse" of the kingdom is erratic, mirroring Seraphine’s heartbeat.