The Grim Retreat is the name given to a pronounced period of depression and madness that members of the Bleak Cabal may succumb to during at least one point of their lives, if not more.
Swept up and confronted by the harrowing realization that they, the world, and their lives have no meaning, some members of the Bleak Cabal simply cannot take that mental burden and slip into an apathetic psychosis. During this period of time, members of the Cabal are taken by their fellows and sealed in a closed, lightless cell in one of the wards of the Gatehouse. Once bottled away they are left there till they either call out for release by a reaffirmation of their beliefs and a stamina to face the world again, or they die of thirst or hunger.
Several previous factols of the Bleak Cabal have wholly succumbed to the madness of the Grim Retreat and so have been locked away for their own, and others' safety, as well as for the protection of the public face of their faction. Former Factols Tollysalmon, Esmus, and Lhar are currently locked away in the Criminally and Irretrievably Insane Ward of the Gatehouse, and show no signs of any recovery.
Furthermore, rumors say that during their prolonged lapses of lucidity and firm descent into madness, former Factols Tollysalmon and Esmus have developed bizarre and frightening mental abilities, so much so that their keepers in the Gatehouse have grown increasingly terrified of them. Other rumors claim that their keepers have even attempted on several occasions to kill the former factols and for reasons not explained found themselves simply incapable of the act, and not for a lack of repeated attempts.
Source:
The Factol's Manifesto
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