Shepherds

"The creed of Shepherds."

- May God forget you...

About
Shmerz Kaiserin (シュメルツ・カイゼリン, shumerutsu kaizerin), more commonly referred to as Shepherds (導く者, michibiku mono), was a dark organization founded by Am Isuel, a former pope of The Continent's largest religion the AL Church. The group devoted itself to spreading despair throughout the world, with an ultimate goal of killing the Creator God Ludo-Rathowm.

Shepherds was founded sometime after GI0979, the year in which Am was recognized as pope. As part of the inauguration process, Am was visited by the Goddess ALICE, the patron deity of ALism, who informed her of the true purpose of the Continent and all life within it: to serve as a fleeting means of entertainment for the Creator God. While it is the intended function of the pope of the AL Church to act as an agent of this mission by ensuring that those of the Protagonist Race are made to constantly suffer, Am's stubborn character caused her to reject this duty and abandon her position as pope after only two months. Intent on subverting the cruel reality of her existence, she wandered the Continent in search of a means to destroy her creator.

At some point during her research, Am discovered that lifeforms whose Souls had become completely polluted by feelings of negativity and self-loathing could not properly enter the Reincarnation Cycle and return to Ludo-Rathowm's body. As Ludo-Rathowm's body is composed entirely of souls, she concluded that she would eventually be able to weaken him enough to kill him if she produced enough of these polluted beings, and wasted no time in enduring unfathomable amounts of grief and suffering to transform herself into one. With this new goal in mind, she secretly returned to the Holy City of Kaiz, the headquarters of the AL Church, and met with five members of the Temple Knights, the Church's private military, who she had been particularly close to. Am shared her knowledge with these men, who agreed to abandon their faith and aid her in spreading despair for the sake of freeing their world. Over time, whispers of their actions attracted others to seek Am out and pledge loyalty to her until she had gained enough followers to found a movement. Throughout much of its existence, Shepherds deliberately hid itself from the public, acting with discretion to avoid drawing the attention of the AL Church. Its activities primarily consisted of approaching people in great emotional distress and compelling them to embrace their despair rather than take their own lives, preaching that there was solace in understanding the harshness of the world as opposed to living in blissful ignorance. While small in numbers, totaling at just over 200 members, it had near-limitless resources, with the fortune Am acquired as pope being further supplemented by financial backing from various nobles, politicians, and business owners who had been placed under her thrall. Furthermore, the group had influence over several other organizations with no formal affiliation to it, providing it with a deceptively high amount of manpower that allowed it to mastermind schemes that could not be traced back to it. It also had numerous hideouts scattered around the Continent, including one located in a secret passage within the Holy City of Kaiz, enabling it to operate in any number of locations when needed.

Shepherds was known for having a distinct Gothic aesthetic, with all of its associated clothing and architecture being jet black in color and adorned with skulls, chains, roses, and inverted crosses. Members of the organization were rechristened with new and extravagant names by Am, generally derived from characters spoken of in the AList bible, and given grandiloquent titles that loosely correlated with their skills and role within the group. The five executive members that served directly beneath Am were known as Schachmatt (スカック・マット, sukakku matto). Clad in face-obscuring heavy armor, these men differed from each other in both temperament and fighting style but were united by a shared devotion to Am, who they each had a personal connection with prior to her becoming pope. Low-ranking members were referred to as Vanguards (志望する者, shibō suru mono) and uniformly wore black suits and face masks and wielded long rapiers in battle. Compared to the five executives, every Vanguard had their own distinct reasons for joining Shepherds, ranging from personal grudges against ALism, to juvenile senses of rebellion and nihilism, to simply finding the idea of killing God interesting, but were similarly devoted to their cause. Unlike Am, both the Vanguards and Schachmatt had surprisingly low levels of soul pollution, believing fully in the rightfulness of their actions.

In the year LP0006, construction finished on a perfected version of the Soul Shackle, enchanted bracelets commissioned by Shepherds that made a person feel comfort experiencing negative emotions when worn, allowing for individuals to more easily achieve maximum levels of soul pollution. Mass-producing these devices, the group began to distribute them en masse to troubled people, advertising them as a means of feeling at ease amid the chaos of the world. The implementation of soul shackles led to a sharp increase in incidents of criminal activity across the Continent, with wearers losing all inhibitions relating to bringing suffering to others. Manipulating Dark Rance, a young Devil with a Human father capable of reaping souls without the use of a soul contract, the group collected the souls from Humans who had achieved full soul pollution from wearing soul shackles and gathered them together into a single mass. This conglomerate of souls was then placed on the highest floor of the Tower of Babel, an enormous building constructed in the fledgling Free City of CITY, and amplified in potency with the powerful Curse Magic of the Kalar queen Pastel Kalar, who Shepherds had abducted and brainwashed. Emanating from atop the large tower, the mass of polluted souls began to spread all across the Continent and infect the minds of all that it came in contact with, increasing global levels of soul pollution at an alarming rate. Before the plan could come to fruition and transform the entire populace into fully-polluted beings, the Tower of Babel was stormed by the warrior Rance and his allies, who defeated the leading members of Shepherds and destroyed the miasma, putting an end to the plot. As Am could no longer be killed due to being a fully-polluted human, her body was instead separated into several pieces and sealed deep beneath Kaiz, temporarily bringing an end to her campaign against God.

Despite officially having disbanded after losing all of its members in the incident, the ideology that served as the foundation of Shepherds remains alive and well with Am. Having always anticipated her objective to take millennia to accomplish, Am continues to pursue new means of spreading despair long after her organization's destruction, founding many groups that carry on its legacy to assist her.

Trivia

 * Shepherds was unexpectedly popular among Haniwa, who found the group's wardrobe fashionable and cool. If the player succeeds in defeating all 200 Vanguards enlisted in the organization in Rance Quest, they will be replaced in all following battles with hannies attempting to emulate their style.
 * The term "shepherd" is often used in religious texts to symbolically represent an enlightened person who leads others with their knowledge.
 * The majority of secondary names given to various people, places, and things within Shepherds use German words. "Shmerz Kaiserin" literally translates to "Grieving Empress" in English while "Schachmatt" translates to "Checkmate".
 * Shepherds' status as a group attempting to subvert the actions of the AL Church due to knowing the true purpose of the Planner Scenario is highly reminiscent of the description of the Tenshi Sect given in RANCE THE COMPLETE, suggesting that it was created from this unused concept for the other organization.