Zechariah 14:12-13

 

VOLUME IX: The Hollow Tithe

 

 

“You will give. You will give again. And then you will be asked what you never agreed to surrender.”

Overview

Category: Transactional Occultism, Sacrificial Magic, Divine Leverage, Memory-for-Power Exchange

Tone: Sacred, cruel, calculating. The Hollow Tithe is not a grimoire for the impulsive. Each spell is a pact, each power a contract signed in something you didn’t realize you needed until it was gone.

Material: The tome appears as a black ledger, thick as a tombstone and bound in faded ecclesiastical cloth soaked in dried blood. The pages are waxy, smooth—some say made of promises that were never kept. Its ink shifts, sometimes appearing as contracts, other times as prayers, and at its most dangerous: receipts.

Origin:

Penned by The Martyr-Auditor Azel Vaenn, a heretic tax-sorcerer of the Veiled Church, who tithed memories, family, and names to empower his cursed order. Azel built a cathedral of debt so vast that even death owed him interest. He was excommunicated by being buried alive, his grave marked not with his name—but his debt total.

Structure & Chapter Breakdown

🕯 Chapter I: The Ledger of Offerings

Subject: How to tithe, what can be given, and the law of loss.

 Themes:

Sacrifice by ledger

Binding what you value

The slow, subtle price of power

💀 Spells:

Oathbound Mark

Inscribe your palm with the name of what you offer (e.g. “courage”). Until the spell ends, you are fearless—and hollow inside. Once the effect ends, that courage is permanently lost.

Memory-for-Fire

Sacrifice your earliest memory. A flame appears in your hand, capable of burning anything that reminds you of who you were. The burned object becomes ash… and part of you.

Voice Owed to Wind

Give your voice to the air. You cannot speak until the debt is repaid by stealing another’s whisper. When repaid, the wind speaks secrets only the dead know.

💀 Ritual:

Tithe of the Three-Selves

Offer a lock of hair (your past), a tooth (your present), and a heartbeat (your future) in a brass bowl. If accepted, the Patron of Hollows gives you power for a week… but your reflection vanishes. Each time you attempt to remember what you looked like, your nose bleeds.

🕯 Chapter II: The Patrons of the Hollow Veil

Subject: The god-things who collect tithes—ancient, unknowable, beautifully cruel

 Known Patrons:

Theravol, the Ledger-Hermit — Keeps records on bone tablets. Accepts secrets and regrets.

Isha’tel of the Crimson Promise — Takes offerings of bloodlines. She appears when three generations have made the same mistake.

Malcurran, Maw of Guilt — Devours shame in exchange for power. You’ll feel innocent—but someone else suffers.

💀 Spells:

Favor of Theravol

Offer a friend’s darkest truth. In return, the Patron tells you a secret that can end a war. But your friend forgets who you are forever.

Crimson Contract (Isha’tel)

Sacrifice your ability to lie. She grants you power to speak commands into reality. But every command pushes your descendants toward ruin.

Maw’s Lullaby

Sing to Malcurran under moonless skies. He eats your guilt… and also your empathy.

💀 Ritual:

The Binding of Bleeding Ink

Write your desires in blood on vellum made from the skin of a loved one (consensual or not). Seal it in wax and whisper a Patron’s name three times. If they hear you, they respond. If they notice you? Hide.

🕯 Chapter III: Forbidden Exchanges

Subject: The things mortals were never meant to trade—but do.

🗝️ Themes:

Sacrificing concepts

Trading others’ time

Paying debts with other people’s futures

💀 Spells:

Borrowed Life

Steal one year from a stranger’s future. Add it to your own lifespan. You will feel their final breath as a scream behind your eyelids.

Name for a Name

Trade your name for someone else’s. You become them for three days. But if you forget your old name during that time, it’s theirs forever.

Eye-for-Door

Remove one of your eyes to open a door that was never meant to open. Beyond it lies either treasure, torment—or someone who has been waiting for you.

💀 Ritual:

The Vein-Lever Exchange

Tattoo a debt-pact along your forearm with ink made from your own blood and tears. Each sigil pulses when the Patron pulls—when it stops, something inside you has been collected.

🕯 Chapter IV: Debtor’s Power & The Cost of Delay

Subject: What happens when debts are not paid

🗝️ Themes:

Cursed interest

Debt-horrors

Eternal servitude

💀 Spells:

The Bell of Compounding

Ring once per missed debt. For every toll, a tooth falls from your mouth. The final bell calls your soul to collection.

Ghost of the Unpaid

Summon a specter of someone who failed to tithe. It serves you briefly but will whisper your name to the Patrons in envy.

Write of Eternal Interest

Bind your children, and their children, to your pact. You gain incredible power—but your bloodline becomes cursed and hunted by

Collectors.

💀 Ritual:

Feast of the Overdue

Fast for nine days. On the tenth, consume a page of the Hollow Tithe under a waxing moon. If you vomit ink, your debt grows. If you digest it, a Patron erases one owed tithe—but you’ll owe something worse.

🕯 Chapter V: Becoming a Collector

Subject: Ascending to work under the Patrons as their agent of debt retrieval

🗝️ Themes:

Predator of promises

Administrator of pain

Death as a ledger

💀 Spells:

Marked by Due Flesh

Touch someone and mark them. Their debts are now visible to you—as glowing tattoos only you can see. You can sever them, steal them, or sell them.

Summon the Unpaid Legions

Call forth hundreds of hollow-eyed shades—all those who died in debt. They hunger for payment and obey you for one hour.

Seal of the Final Reclaimer

Imprint your palm with a debtor’s name. If they resist payment, their heart turns to obsidian and cracks.

💀 Ritual:

The Initiate’s Audit

On the darkest night of the year, balance the books of your life—literally. Weigh your sins, weigh your gifts. Burn the lighter. Keep the heavier. The Patrons will know your worth.

Final Page (engraved in black steel):

“In the end, all things must be paid.

Whether in coin, time, soul… or silence.”