Larrism

#L530

Overview

Larrism, known colloquially as the Larry Cult and to its adherents simply as the HUGE religion, was a religious and political movement that took hold in the late middle period of Landfall-530 - Noble Blood around a single figure called only "Huge Larry." Treated by some as a dangerous lunatic and by others as a living god, Larry attracted a small but influential network of true believers, including the sitting leadership of New Ides and the ExoVinian Empire. The movement reshaped policy in two nations, triggered the secession of Whitefall from the Idesian Empire, and ended in a coordinated mass assassination of its leadership in the Night of the Veil.

Larrism is the most consequential religious movement of the late epoch outside the established faiths. Unlike the Conclave of the Silent Forge or the Umbral Communion, it emerged from no recognized theological tradition, produced no scripture, and centered entirely on the person and pronouncements of its living godhead.

Origins

Huge Larry first appeared on the public record as a figure of nuisance rather than faith. His earliest documented actions, in the months before the Princess Salem Incident, were a series of provocations against the Imperial seat at New Terranova:

These acts were initially treated by the Imperial authorities as the symbolic vandalism of an unwell individual. A criminal case (Case No. 572-LIR-NT) was filed under the Lilaris Criminal Code for trespass (§ 4.2.2.2), criminal mischief (§ 4.2.3.2), and treason (§ 4.4.1.2), but stalled in early proceedings.

What the Empire failed to anticipate was that Larry's antics were being interpreted in two very different ways outside New Terranova. To most observers, he was unstable. To King Isaac Acentino, who by this point had declared independence from Saludo and re-styled the former duchy of New Ides as the sovereign Idesian Empire, and to the leadership of the ExoVinian Empire to the south, Larry was something closer to a god. Churches were quietly established. Domestic policy in the Idesian Empire began to be drafted around Larry's pronouncements. The Bureau of Religious Oversight noted the pattern and began to monitor the growing movement.

Doctrine and Practice

Larrism never produced a formal scripture, and what is known of its doctrine is drawn from court records, the testimony of survivors, and the personal diary of Amlooi Alvaldi, who was an initiate of the faith at the time of his death.

The faith centers on the divinity of Huge Larry himself. He is understood by adherents to be a present, embodied god, identified by his chrome helmet and a personal style that survivors describe in language otherwise reserved for revelation. Outsiders are generally regarded with suspicion. Followers of the Conclave of the Silent Forge are treated with particular hostility; Amlooi records that "our Huge God actually hated those who honored the people of the Forge," and survived in the movement only by concealing his prior service to a descendant of the Forge.

Documented rites and practices include:

The cult's iconography centered on the letters HUGE (almost always written in capitals), the chrome helmet of the godhead, and the numbered sacred bread.

Key Figures

Major Events

The Princess Salem Incident

During a baptismal ritual held by the Larry Cult on unclaimed land outside any sovereign jurisdiction, Lilaris Princess Salem Alvaldi was pressured to accept baptism into the faith and marriage under coercive ideological terms. When she refused and mocked the ceremony, Huge Larry, Exoticus Exo, and Isaac Acentino assaulted her with swords. Isaac then verbally declared her exiled from the Idesian Empire, a declaration with no legal standing under Idesian or Imperial law given Salem's citizenship and the location of the incident.

The incident transformed Larrism from a domestic eccentricity into an international crisis. The deliberate targeting of a foreign princess during a religious rite was treated by the Empire as both a personal attack on a royal citizen and a structural assault on Imperial sovereignty.

The Annexation of Whitefall

In the same period, the township of Merlot peacefully seceded from the Idesian Empire under Mayor Ashling Goldwound, who cited "the ideological collapse and radicalization of the Idesian regime under Larrist extremism." The township was renamed Whitefall and integrated into The Second Lilaris Empire. The annexation is the clearest political evidence available that Larrism had moved beyond eccentricity into something its host population considered an existential threat to civic governance.

The People v. Huge Larry

In the immediate aftermath of the Princess Salem Incident, Empress Kara A. Ehrveil filed Case No. 593-LIR-NT in the New Terranova Imperial Court under the Lilaris Department of Justice Act. The filing consolidated the earlier vandalism charges with new charges arising from the Princess Salem Incident under the Criminal Code Act: assault (§ 4.1.2.1), battery (§ 4.1.2.2), unlawful assembly (§ 4.3.1.2), treason for the symbolic exile of royalty (§ 4.4.1.2), and aiding the escape of a known felon (derived under § 4.4.1.2 and § 4.2.2.1). Jurisdiction was claimed under § 5.3 on the grounds that the victim was a royal citizen, that the incident occurred on unclaimed land, and that New Ides under Isaac Acentino lacked a codified legal system capable of impartial prosecution. The filing also formally requested the suspension of all Larry Cult activities pending review of its threat to national stability.

The trial proper became infamous less for its substance than for its conduct. Isaac Acentino, a co-defendant, served as defense counsel and was openly drunk in the courtroom. After a recess to assess his sobriety, the trial was suspended.

For the legal substance of the case, see The People v. Huge Larry and the Night of the Veil.

The Night of the Veil and Aftermath

Before the trial could resume, all six defendants (Huge Larry, Exoticus Exo, Isaac Acentino, Kevinus Exo, Louis Lime, and Zack Arn) were assassinated in a single coordinated strike, alongside Amlooi Alvaldi and one other figure. The killings bore the signature of Seraphine du Roscarte and her terror faction Sovarre, with each body marked by a crudely carved "S."

In the days that followed, explosions tore through former Larrist settlements. Homes, chapels, and communities built by the movement were destroyed. Witnesses reported psychotic episodes among survivors and whispered references to Seraphine du Roscarte. With its godhead dead, its leadership in the New Ides cabinet wiped out, and its physical infrastructure burned, organized Larrism effectively ended within a week.

Riven Skorne assumed leadership of New Ides and moved promptly to distance the duchy from Larrist ideology. By the time New Ides was reaffirmed within the Empire through the Idesian Accord, the faith retained no formal political standing anywhere.

Suppression and Survival

During its active period, Larrism was subject to monitoring by the Bureau of Religious Oversight, which treated it as a destabilizing extremist movement rather than a protected faith. The Imperial filing against Huge Larry formally requested the suspension of all Larry Cult activities pending review, which would have been the first state-level prohibition of a religious movement under Imperial law had the trial reached judgment.

Whether any Larrist communities survived the explosions that followed the Night of the Veil is unclear. The Bureau's standing position on the matter has not been published since the The Blaze forced it into hiding.

Role in Epochs

Sources