Red Apple Church

Biodata

Background / History

Recruitment and Concealed Sacrifices

The church recruited large numbers of young, able-bodied men under the claim that they would build a statue of Lady Rose. Many never returned; the church attributed their deaths to quarry accidents and paid generous compensation. Its influence and payments prevented a significant public outcry 3.

Froy’s brother joined this recruitment effort to obtain enough money to stop their parents from selling her to Baron Barnett’s household. After he disappeared, their parents sold Froy to the church instead. Father Carter, who delivered the compensation for her brother’s death, selected her as a candidate to serve Lady Rose 3.

Chen Lun’s Remembered Timeline

At the time of Chen Lun’s arrival, the church is still lying low, roughly a year before it ravages the empire in version 1.0. Its strength has not yet reached its later peak 2.

In the game history Chen Lun remembers, the church erased Froy’s personality and made her into the Silent Nun, a high-sequence Moon Faction powerhouse and obedient killing weapon. She wielded the Sun-Averting Potted Plant rather than having it fused inside her body. Despite the church’s eventual rampage across the empire, it ultimately met its destruction 3 7 16 43.

Destruction of the Jadeite Town Branch

Chen Lun awakens as a sacrificial prisoner in the church’s Apple Orchard Prison. After recognizing Froy, he secures her help and pretends to be controlled by the communion apple. Monk Will keeps him alive to interpret Philip’s Diary, mistakenly treating the notebook as a dangerous anomalous artifact 1 4 6 7.

Chen Lun kills Will, frees the other sacrifices, and defeats Father Carter. During the escape, the Sun-Averting Potted Plant enters Froy’s body, leaving her blind and dependent on high-sequence Flesh School mystical substance to survive. Chen Lun flees with her before the church’s search party arrives 10 12 15 16.

Brother Stuarton searches incoming caravans but deliberately lets Chen Lun pass rather than risk confronting Carter’s killer. Bishop Newman subsequently instructs him to lie low: Carter’s death has left Jadeite Town without church Beyonders. The leadership wrongly attributes the theft to the History and Ritual Society and expects the fugitive to lead them to accomplices 18 22 23.

Chen Lun returns to attack the cathedral, kills Stuarton despite Newman’s possession of him, destroys the communication goblet, and eliminates the remaining guards and Rotting Hounds. The destruction of the branch makes him the church’s sworn enemy, to be hunted until one side is dead 24 25 26.

Organization and Personnel

Locations and Insignia

• Royal-city headquarters — Its proximity to the royal family makes unrestricted human experimentation risky; Chen Lun uses this to infer that his prison belongs to a remote branch 2.
• Red Apple Cathedral, Jadeite Town — A Gothic building at the western edge of town. Its spire depicts two angels carrying baskets of red apples beside a goddess with an indistinct face 9.
• Apple Orchard Prison — An extensive underground prison with more than a dozen cells and numbered ritual chambers. Secret chamber seven contains a square altar used for the notebook ritual 4 18.
• Public Apple Orchard — Known locally for distributing fruit to the poor, contrasting with the church’s concealed sacrificial operations 17.
• Cathedral escape passage — A concealed passage leads toward the outskirts; Chen Lun suspects that it connects to the prison 25.
• Identification marks — Guards wear red apple emblems on brimmed hats and armor, as well as red apple tattoos. Chen Lun’s guard disguise is exposed because he lacks the tattoo 1 4 11 12.
• Religious dress and prayer — Clergy wear dark red robes or habits. One preaching monk touches his left chest and forehead with his index finger, then opens his palm toward the sky 3 4 34.

Practices and Public Activities

Mysterious Object Research

The church’s “sacrifices” are experiments intended to uncover and master the powers of Mysterious Objects 2.

• Uses living creatures, including humans, as expendable test subjects 2.
• Acquires artifacts at substantial cost in manpower and resources 2.
• Continues dangerous trial-and-error testing before fully understanding an artifact’s properties 2.
• Maintains abundant Flesh Faction supernatural resources. Chen Lun concludes that it could supply Froy with high-sequence mystical substance, but would tamper with it to secure her obedience 16.

Communion and Prisoner Control

• Prisoners receive bread and apples before being taken to sacrifice. Those who eat the apples become vacant and compliant 3 4.
• A guard’s whistle directs the affected prisoners into a line 4.
• Froy warns Chen Lun to eat the bread but avoid the apple, allowing him to imitate the controlled prisoners without losing his awareness 4.

Fruit Honey

The church sells Fruit Honey, also described as fruit nectar, as a miraculous medicine while preaching Lady Rose’s compassion 34.

• Produced by finger-sized supernatural maggots after they consume apples 34.
• Heals recipients and strengthens their bodies, but shortens their lifespans and is mildly addictive 34.
• Distributed in small boxes in exchange for substantial “donations”; customers are unaware of its harmful effects 34.
• Connie distrusts the medicine, although her father needs regular doses to stay alive, placing continued pressure on the household’s finances 33 35.

Abilities & Supernatural Forces

Flesh Faction: Sequence 9 — Butcher

Most of the church’s Beyonders follow the Butcher sequence, known for vitality, regeneration, and close-combat strength 14.

• Father Carter transforms into a muscular figure approximately three meters tall 14.
• Severe injuries do not necessarily prove fatal; Chen Lun believes Carter could eventually regrow a severed arm 15.
• Flesh Faction Beyonders are comparatively weak in willpower. Carter requires his Golden Apple Pendant to break Chen Lun’s hypnosis 15.

Engineered Creatures

The church uses diluted Flesh School mystical substances to create supernatural combatants 12 23.

• Rotting Hounds — Decaying, malformed dogs stronger than ordinary church members but weaker than true Beyonders. Their attacks can cause rotting poisoning, and they detect traces of supernatural power 12 18.
• Heavy Armored Guards — Human experimental subjects with immense strength and tenacious vitality. They lack independent thought or personality and function as supernatural creatures rather than ordinary people 23.
• Deployment — Both accompany sword-wielding wardens in searches and guard church facilities 16 22 23.

Remote Possession

• Bishop Newman possesses Stuarton, replacing his voice and forcibly increasing his strength and agility 24.
• The possessed monk develops black claws and a monstrous appearance 24.
• Possession does not prevent Chen Lun from killing the host; Stuarton’s body subsequently explodes 24.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Sun-Averting Potted Plant — Grade A — An artifact formed from the remains of a saint who abandoned Sun Worship. It possesses powerful repulsive force and violently rejects Sun Faction power. Church leadership links it to the collapse of Tourmaline Royal City; Chen Lun removes it from church custody when it fuses with Froy 2 16 22.
• Golden Apple Pendant — Carter’s solar-powered protection against most supernatural mental effects. Its repeated activation provokes the Sun-Averting Potted Plant, which pierces Carter’s chest and swallows the pendant 15 16.
• Golden Goblet — Grade D — Church-crafted paired goblets enable long-distance voice communication for twenty-four hours when supplied with fresh virgin blood. Chen Lun destroys Stuarton’s goblet because he suspects it could be used to track him 24.
• Tongue of Gluttony — Grade C — Stuarton’s miniature hand crossbow fires ammunition-free Bait Arrows that attract a Gluttonous Evil Spirit. Hits cause extreme hunger and temporarily reduce maximum HP by 10%, stacking to 30%; firing consumes substantial stamina. Chen Lun claims it after Stuarton’s death 23 24 25.
• Philip’s Diary — A notebook subjected to the church’s sacrificial interpretation process. Will misidentifies it as an anomalous artifact; Chen Lun instead obtains Beast Tamer knowledge from it 4 6.
• Surging Badge — Grade D — Forms from Carter’s supernatural traits and mystical substance after his death. Grants +2 strength and +2 endurance, at the cost of increased hunger and appetite 16 17.

Relationships

• Chen Lun — Sworn enemy after he rescues the sacrifices and Froy, takes church artifacts, and destroys the Jadeite Town branch 10 16 26.
• Sun Church — Pressures the church over the Sun-Averting Potted Plant, contributing to its secret relocation 22.
• Moon Church — Hostile relations; Ralph states that Carter has slaughtered its followers 21 22.
• Containment Bureau — Imperial supernatural authority. Stuarton seeks its protection, but Ralph instead orders surveillance of the cathedral and initially lets the opposing sides fight 21 22.
• History and Ritual Society — Suspected of orchestrating the prison attack and artifact theft. Its recent excavation of a senior church member’s grave reinforces the church’s mistaken conclusion 22 23.
• Local authorities — Recognize the church’s authority under the Sun Codex to search caravans at Jadeite Town’s checkpoint 18.