Tell me about the cults in your setting

Is this thread an excuse to talk about the german/fit/bro again?

>Tell me about the cults in your setting
They believe in God and/or gods, and refuse to acknowledge the glorious material divinity of Man.

What german Veeky Forumsbro?

It's Paranoia, so even the cults have cults. But let's look at everyone's favourite: First Church of Christ Computer Programmer. It's really a catch-all phrase for the numerous subsects, like the United First Church of CC-P and the True First Church of CC-P. Then there's the Lasers of the Fearful, who find non-believers to execute, and Church of the Impending Reboot, who are either waiting for the end of the complex or actively trying to bring it about.
There's also Programologists who preach clone's Memomax templates are corrupted and only with costly healing sessions can it be cleansed, the Shining Upload Path Church who believe cyborgisation is stepping closer to divinity, and even the Satanic Church of the Anti-Computer. This just scratches the surface, of the hundreds of discovered FCCC-P cults (new ones spring up weekly).
That's just one of the broad categories, although FCCC-P is admittedly the largest (and generally least treasonous).

Then you have the cults of personality. Fan clubs spring up around every personality, no matter how small. There's the cults that spring up around everything else too. Short-lived promotional flavours of chips? There's a club for that (PLC tends to sell small batches to these clubs on the sly for heavily inflated prices). They perform prearranged spontaneous demonstrations to bring back their favourite flavour, and can even become violent if prodded in the correct manner.

I think my favourite creation though is a Romantics cult around terrible kung-fu movies. All of them talk in a terrible accent and attempt to fight with the moves they've seen. 50 pudgy, INFRARED amateur kung-fu artists versus 6 troubleshooters with laser pistols was a sight to behold Everyone died due to infighting and a case of shaken B3

Scientology is not a cult, it is a legitimate religion.

low-quality bait

The one that's grooming a little girl to be his fuckslut

They are just like the ones in real life: they hate free thinking, and free will. In other words: terrifying. Wouldn't recommend.

Pics?

Storytime?

It's called the Order of the Crescent Moon and they all worship this moon-god whose prophet diddled kids.

fgsfds

Well, first off, there's the Cult of the Spear.
It's exactly as mundane as it sounds.
All of its members revere all spears and spear derivatives, to the point that even in close-quarters combat, when their spear has been compromised, they just use a shorter spear.

Its tenets are this:
I. Practice the usage of the spear
II. Let no spear break in your sight, or you must kill the blasphemer who let it happen
III. Use no other weapon than the spear
IV. Always band together with thine brothers of the cult to defend the spear
V. Have thine spear blessed by a patriarch every new moon

They tend to make lovely mercenaries, if a bit fanatical.
Wonderful pikemen, spearmen, and cavalry.
Though, best way to kill a detachment of them is to somehow break all their spears, thus causing a mass homocide and or suicide within their own ranks.
PCs once rolled a rock on top of them from a high place, causing a lotta the spears to snap.
Hilarity ensued until they realized "holy shit lets get em" and slaughtered the whole detachment of Spear Cult mercenaries.

Then there's the Cult of Tokearus, Tokearus being a minor king of a quite small kingdom, with literally every citizen believing he is the God of Man, seeing as how he's lived longer than everyone else ever.
Tokearus died of natural causes one campaign and everything went to shit in that kingdom, hilarity ensued and a neighboring kingdom swallowed them up.

Thats all I can think of right now.

I remember that one.

Some dude playing off an 11-year-old's puppy love to get her to fuck him when she turns 14 (the legal age in Germany).

What? How is that supposed to work out?

Mix and match Stockholm Syndrome and the Electra Complex as necessary.

Tell me more, please. This is interesting.

>the glorious material divinity of Man

Could that be a cult/ideology in itself, though?

I don't get it, what are the details and what is the guy's plan exactly?

He is going to do nice things for her, feed her crush, and hope that she will request dick in three years.

Had a little experience with this kind of situation back.

It's not that she'll request in three years; she's probably already requesting it. The trick it keeping The D as forbidden fruit and keeping yourself as the best romantic choice for those three years.

Once the time is here, she'll be all over The D and willing to do anything you want her to.

>The Cult of Silence
>Obscured in black robes
>Cultist are all mute (Obviously)
>Identity concealed under black robes
>Tap into some unknown power source
>Can create invisible objects, and force fields
>Plan to summon unspeakable eldritch horror
>
>Planning to summon unspeakable horror.
>Cultists turn out to be over zealous mimes

The Blade Church interprets a metaphor about life's daily struggles literally and instructs its members to train with swords every day. They are otherwise friendly enough, just considered weirdos.

>Created a bartender cult is 3.5 D&D
>all of the bartenders we ever had in any campaign looked and acted the same, cleaning thw same magic mug endlessly.
>new campaign, group starts in bar (how original)
>several cloaked figures walk in, cant make out face, uneasy aura.
> Last one walks in a few mins later and locks door, party slight panic
>party readys for fight, cloaked figures move table and head into celler.
>all of their wats
>party attempts to leave, door locked. Panic mode engaged
>all items in game are magical, magic heavy world (everyone starts with magic dagger, PCs and NPCs, that have random effect up to me) (roll d100 and depending on what it is shit happens, for instance rolled 100 and PC who was stabbed and gets KO'd gets full heal or npc who fumbles and stabs self in foot took 3 D8 poison damage as a centipede crawled from foul smelling wound)
>party fights and kills bartender and bar wench
>door immune to magic, lockpick, everything. I am god i make the rules.
> sound of two people talking and heading to celer door.
>Halfling fighter readys geartmace attack at celler door
>Door opens, figure appears, Crunch. Nat 20, dead guy
>Look at other guy at bottem, its the bartender. Look at dead guy, also bartender. Look behind bar again, bartender.
> Halfling gets to go again because im god and bartender 3 is shocked stupid with nat 20.
>They enter celler and kill about 20 to 30 more bartenders.
>On each bartender is his signiture magic mug and standard random magic dagger.
>Party test mugs, pour liquid in, random ahit comes out. Sand, rocks, 1/2 as much liquid, brandy, beer, you name it there is a mug for it.
>Last room, about 7 cloaked figures around large cauldren of green bubbling goo.
>Halfling fighter immediatly sholder checks one guy into cauldren, he disloves into liquid.
>After he disloves small fetuses start to appear and bob in the cauldren.
>Fight and kill cloaked figures (all bartenders go figure)
>they kill the fetuses in the cauldren.

>try and get rid of goo
>anything that touches goo turns into fetuses
>I wanted them to use the mugs, the get hint.
>Half orc barbarian literally says "we cant riak the mugs!"
>they tip the cauldren, causing the goo to touch everything, reflex saves all passed, floor disloves into infants,everything infants now
>find key, leave celler, leave bar, pretend they never witnessed what abominations that just did
>Party never trusts bartenders again.

The Cult of Death is the chief religion of the Silver People in my setting (so called because of their fair skin and use of "silver" weapons, polished steel). However the death cult is not like an ordinary death cult, as there are zero themes of human sacrifice/murder, but rather more steeped in an early catholic style of salvation beyond the grave from all of life's strife. Death after all accepts everyone, and all are made equal in it. The only real requirements for the cult is that one not commit suicide- suicide is seen as a cowardly action and forsaking your duty to fight evil and fix the broken living world, so that the realm of the dead need not be the only safe haven, but that life might enjoy the world it was originally born into.

While Death gifted souls to life so that they might be saved from suffering of the living world indefinitely, it demands that its adopted children fight back against the horrors of the living world and the god of the living. The ultimate goal of the cult and the god of death is that the free races might wrestle control of the world from life itself, and become masters of it themselves.

>Songs of the Broken Ones
>Religious group that worships machines
>build autonomous clockwork abominations blended with living organisms in hopes of one day transferring their consciousnesses into purely artificial bodies
>wizard is also a chemist, realizes that a few hudrofluoric acid bombs should clear out the whole compound
>party clears out cult with a civilian helicopter and no injuries

...

Oh, yyyeeessssss... yes, some blood cult for a blood god, and don't forget the dark cult that wants to bring about darkness and some evil deity!

... I'm surprised there's not a cult dedicated to spreading cults! There should be more of those, in fact, because we need more cults!

Yes... more cults.

I stole most of it from Lovecraft. My largest cult is basically just Innsmouth.

>Had a little experience with this kind of situation back.
Explain you're self

>party made aware of a cult worshipping a very old and wise beholder
>wizard ditches us and joins them

I just realized how much Handsome Squidward looks like Puri Puri Prisoner.

Funny, in my setting cults worship entropy and refuse to accept divinity of the Creator.
just like in the real world

The Order of the Cosmic Truth.
They're a far reaching, powerful organisation that believes that the gods made our mortal world by accident and have little to no interest in mortals other than using them as play things. In fact, it's entirely possible that the gods are trying to destroy our world to cover up their blunder.

Worst part is they're absolutely right.

>in my setting cults worship entropy
How does that work? Assuming physics in your setting looks anything like real physics, entropy is just a thing that happens regardless of what anyone wants. Do they just run around burning things and knocking down buildings?

"Cult of the Static Between Worlds" is the only one I have for my SWN game.

Wherever there is civilization of TL4 or higher, no matter what, they seem to just pop up out of nowhere in small circles. They grow for a few years in secret, then strike at random data centers and servers in suicide attacks. The few that are captured alive talk a lot about "Loss" and "hiding in the static", and are nearly always former respected and normal people, who are now utterly crazed and seem to crave some sort of connection to the net (be it through a comm device, or even being watched by a Camera connected to the net somehow )

My cult is actually friendly and are the worlds best environmentalists, flower arangers and gardener's as well as the undertakers

I'm amazed that even here on the stick casting board of a North Sentinelese bark etching forum they watch.

The Cult of the New Heaven, based around the efforts of the Boxer rebellion, who's intent is on kicking out Manderins and Forigners out of Hong Kong through a Demon Summoned army.

They just hold some completely nonsensical beliefs like the world and humans were created by accident and that all will return to nothingness. They attack humble missionaries of the Creator and try to imply he doesn't exist.

My cult is filled to the brim from other worldy/dimensional four-legged fully scaled armored creatures whims gender changes by age and are also crustaceans, they are a weir bunch

You come to me and ask of cults, those wayward souls who wholeheartedly believe in something impossible. Cults, dissidents, heresies, denominations- the splinters from this thing we grasp at called "truth". Tell me then, what is the truth these fools have strayed from? Don't answer that; let me ask you the same question: does water boil because the molecules that make up the water collide, or is it because Granny wanted to make some tea?
>Stop equivocating.
When speaking to the nature of God, there is only equivocation. God is Transcendent. How could I even reach out to grasp at God when it is so infinitely beyond my understanding? Grasp at the water and it writhes from your grip. Take an empty cup, a thing that you have made a water-shaped space for, and it becomes filled. We are but blind men trying to tell each other what we reach at.
"It's a large thing"
"No, it's small and long"
"No, it's thick and flexible"
"No, it's flat and wide"
But we're all talking about the same damn elephant, aren't we? All of this "No it is not" is tantamount to blasphemy- how dare you limit God? How dare you assign a particle nature to a being that is both particle and wave, transcendent and imminent, that is the father, son, and spirit as one and as separate beings entirely?
So when you come to me to talk of cults and ask me why the fools choose the route of idiocy and ignorance, I will stand defiant and rebuke your "No-You-Are-Not". I will protect these fools that dare to dream that reality could be something different than what we think it is.
For it is their ilk that foster the figments of mercy, justice, and truth and make them real.

My warlock is part of a cult that worships a giant, one-eyed space owl that eats pain.

Is that a good cult?

That was pretty great, user.

My settings cults are pretty bog-standard in the cult business: robes, secrets, rituals, sacrifices, and the like. What makes the cults in my setting different is that they're everywhere. Every person, including each PC, is part of a cult.

The culture is built around small close-knit groups (like the typical adventuring party) as the definitive social structure, so there is no large-scale religious organisation to define what worship is meant to look like. However, the gods are real, and each person has a patron deity whether they want one or not. As a result, there are countless small religious groups each practising their own way. Due to a culture of secrecy, many people aren't aware of the existence of other cults, despite their ubiquity.

My cults tend to have Team Aqua/Team Magma levels of reasoning and ambition, leading to inter-cult conflicts on small-mid sized army scales with each other. Through the right channels, mercenaries can be hired for slaughter jobs or running interference/routing/sabotage etc around those conflicts, though trying to reason, deal, or even converse directly with a cultist generally doesn't go well given their brainwashed state.

About how many major cults seems right for a setting or large location in a setting? I think by numbers, cultists currently make up over 2% of the population around where my players are.

There's the Titanomachy, a cult that wishes to resurrect the Titan gods and their underlings, normally seeking to uncover lost technologies or reform the world.

Another group is the Cult of Blood who practically worship the practically extinct vampires. They pretty much use blood and magic to try to hopelessly try to ascend to vampirism, find and protect vampire ruins and mausoleums, and other cultish things

A cult whose prime directive is infiltrating prominent religions and slowly twisting them over centuries to all eventually espouse the cult's god.

How did I get here? Leader of a simple tribe, wanting only peace and prosperity for her people. We were ants in a dance of giants, and would have been crushed and enslaved -- or eaten -- by any other nation. But this Cult, this abomination, this sanctuary, gives us a chance to defy and oppose those great empires that sit astride the world like lions over their fallen prey.
The force of their purpose is like a growing wave. You join it and ride; either to create a glorious future, or crash in a thousand shards on some alien shore. If you don't join the wave it rides over you, and you are drowned and decimated.

I have chosen to ride it. The purpose draws to a close. The End for which they have been striving is near. We believe in the visions of the Cult as though our gods meant for my tribe to join them.

Perhaps, in fact, they are our gods.

All Auriga will bow before the Queen. And, like me, they shall be thankful for the honor.

-Journal of a Disobedient

Wow, you're so annoying and illiterate.

To explain, I'm running a game based on Endless Legend, and these dudes are the Cultists of the Eternal End.

Untold millions of years ago, one people ruled the stars: the Endless. These all-powerful beings spread unrestricted throughout the galaxy, mastering the universe so wholly that no other race could even think of coming close. Eventually, the Endless discovered a way to transcend their physical forms. A great deal of their society took this opportunity, becoming what is known as the Virtual Endless; however, an equal amount shirked this path, fearing a devolution of their culture and society. They were known as the Concrete Endless.

Unfortunately, tensions rose and what was once a one, unified people soured and twisted into two spiteful groups. Out of disgust and revulsion, they waged war against themselves, and the skies were set aflame.

A small group of the Concrete and Virtual were able to set aside their differences. Men of science, they worked alongside each other before the war on a remote world, unknown to many: Auriga. Here, they toiled on many lesser creatures, divining the mysteries of creation. Once word reached them of war, they each entered a solemn pact. There, they forged a creation that would transcend even their own godhood. A merging of Concrete and Virtual, the Queen was conceived as the first of a people that could survive the coming fires.

The first and the last. The war of the heavens spread until it was nearly on the doorstep of Auriga itself. Knowing their work would never be finished, they sealed the Queen in an impenetrable obelisk so that she would survive the coming fires. To ensure her safety, they forged a companion to guard her throughout the millennia, pouring their own consciousnesses into it. This gestalt consciousness would be known to all others as the Unspoken.

The Civil War came, and Auriga was rendered to a barren, ashen plane.

The Civil War came, and the Endless destroyed themselves.

Sadly, neither the Queen nor her subject endured unscathed. The Queen's prison was bombarded, forced deep underground where it would lie tomb-like for eons. Her majesty was trapped, isolated, forced to watch her imperfect, loathsome creators destroy themselves in some abominable war of purity. In her captivity she became despondent, crazed and hateful. She swore that she would see all trace of the Endless wiped from reality, so that their baleful legacy may forever be forgotten. Her doting guardian, long since forgotten its own identity, listened and obeyed her will.

Time progressed. The ruins of the Endless grew old, their tools - whether it be creature or machine - scattered across many worlds. Auriga grew fertile once more, the lesser spawn of the Endless' research emerging from the deep holes they hid in.

Eventually, tribes formed and people explored the surface of the world. In a ruin, one such tribe found the Unspoken, in all of its godly horror. It spoke to these men of gods, baleful creators that seeded Auriga with life and left them, suffering and unfinished, to live mortal lives in this harsh lands. It spoke to their hearts, riling their emotions until they were fanatics who wanted nothing more than to find those gods and all that may be called their legacy, and render them to ash. And then, it told them of the creature that it served.

All Auriga shall serve the Queen. The Eternal End shall come, and all will be thankful for their opportunity to hasten it.

Two big ones:

Those who worship Frem' ArKet and try to distill the "true value" of all things.

And those who worship Ak' Demia who are beholden to knowledge and have a lot of bible-fights.

Weird things happen when the two get together. They summon forth the Ecnomicon.

That's actually pretty interesting.

Oh yess.

A few sessions ago one of the PC's was captured by a bunch of cultists and tortured for a day. Eventually the party came to his rescue, but he's still getting over it.

Sounds like you're trying to shoehorn your beliefs into the game.
Sounds pretty annoying.

Sounds like you can't accept the reality.

The Cult is mostly centered around the equivalent of charlemagne that has lost a leg fighting a 3 meters tall white Tiger. He personally met the equivalent of jesus in that setting and introduced the feudal system (by creating alliances) and introduced the division between church and empire (by donating a church and not the whole equivalent of Rome. )