Why did Carthage and Mesoamerica descend into human sacrifice?

In every society whose politics were dominated by Selenim influence, the state religion inevitably became focused on public human sacrifice. Why is this? Selenim Assuage emotions, so what do they gain from this?

What follows is my answer for my campaigns: Several things.

One, torture is an effective way to elicit intense pain. The amount of Solar-Ka siphoned by Assuaging is dependent on the intensity of the emotion, so agony is very satisfying. 

Two, bloodletting releases the Solar-Ka contained within. Just as the Orichalka Men discovered how to awaken Orichalc by exposing it to human blood, so too did the Selenim discover that they could do the same.

Three, the sacrifice rituals were an occult refinement that allowed the Selenim to Assuage all of a mortal’s Solar-Ka at once. Normally only a subset may be siphoned per session and must then be allowed to recover. 

This isn’t to say the Selenim were cartoon villains who acted purely maliciously. They acted out of self-interest and curiosity. 

The Xibalbans, having created their own Obsidian Stasis objects, practiced a disturbing form of incarnation: it was common to incarnate within the ixiptla, experience death, rejoin Stasis, then reincarnate again. So when an ixiptla was worshiped Tezcatlipoca for a year before being sacrificed, he literally became Tezcatlipoca. (Source: the French supplement Exils.)

Likewise, archaeological evidence suggests that the practice of child sacrifice in Carthage was overemphasized long afterward to justify Rome’s genocide of them. (Rome practiced human sacrifice too.) The Carthaginian Selenim probably didn’t demand any excessive sacrifices, but relied on largely ceremonial offerings drawn from the naturally high infant mortality rate of the time and sacrificial animals. In exchange they would grant various blessings to their worshipers in order to maintain their influence.

In light of the revelation (from Nephilim: Revelation) that Selenim aren’t limited to membership in the Unnamed Arcanum, it is likely that the Carthaginian and Xibalban Selenim were actually followers of the Hierophant! 

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