Category:Desecration

Desecration and defilement are near synonyms. They describe the act of causing the holy or the sacred to lose those qualities. However, desecration goes a step forward and involves putrefying the sacred or holy to the point they become dirty, offensive, or repugnant in the eyes of the deities they serve or represent. Both performing perverse rituals of human sacrifice on the altar of a Good deity as well as casting the Desecrate spell would count as desecration.^[1]

The destruction can be accidental, through a want of care, but is more often deliberate, through unclean or vile deeds. Altars and churches are desecrated periodically by those who oppose the message of their religion. The sacred groves of druids are desecrated by hags. Questioning, and consequently raising doubts about, the authority of institutions that are deeply embedded in the lives of a people may provoke an official response from the authorities or an unofficial response from the masses that puts an end to the would-be desecrators. It may be suspected that Uri Grislev lost his teeth and his life desecrating the spiritual leadership and person of Bluebeard. The charge of desecration is a serious one save among atheists, intellectuals, scientists, the jaded, and peoples abandoned by their gods.