A 20 page 'origins' short story showing some background to the Death's Children assassins cult. Death's Children assassins feature in First Person Revocation, Vol 1.
In 2220ad scientists identified bio-directional functionality in the thalamocortical loop as the mechanism by which consciousness inhabited the brain and that the underpinning cellular level energy exchanges, the cerebral metabolic profile (CM profile) was as individually unique as a fingerprint. Short-term switching of CM profiles allowed test subjects to temporarily switch consciousness. This was the basis of the inter-corporeal shift (ICS) programmes. Like all great discoveries it posed significant moral and religious questions for society.
Most theologies saw the CM profile as confirmation of the sanctity of material life but there were alternative views. The Death’s Children cult was at the extreme of the alternative and held that spirit was trapped in a corrupted physical world. They saw the CM profile as the mechanism for that entrapment and that it was God’s work to help free the spirit.
In the middle ages they’d have been burnt as heretics. in this age, in this corrupted world, as individuals who saw killing as an act of love, they found a natural home.