How would you go about creating a Religion/Cult that worships Darkness but is not evil

How would you go about creating a Religion/Cult that worships Darkness but is not evil.

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youtube.com/watch?v=26xxQcGDjxY
youtube.com/watch?v=LMDmKKCTgsc
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veles_(god)
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praise kek

Center it around one question: "who are you in the dark?"

you talking literal darkness - lack of light - or some sort of setting-specific capital D 'Darkness' that is a specific entity in itself?

And if you're talking light, are they happy with any kind of darkness or are they just worshippers of the night sky or the insides of caves or whatever

They're an organization of your typical Robin Hoodsy heroic rogues and rebels, who give thanks to the God/Goddess of Night for enshrouding and protecting them as they do their best work.

Darkness is something that's enveloping, like a blanket. It's comforting when you have no other comfort. It's always there with you.

The cult was founded in a scorching desert and darkness is the only relief from the blaring intensity of the sun.

Have them all be lethargic and sleepy, holding their meetings in the realm of dreams.

As an Australia I can confirm that this is a valid religious belief down here.

They are people who have cast off vanity and beauty of form, etc. Creepy folks, but not evil.

make it a snake parth like religion
>the material live was made by the evil/misguided god in this case the sun god
>the god of darknes tryes to show his cultists the way into salvation by overcome the material world

*life

The darkness doesn't judge, the darkness doesn't hate, in the darkness we are all the same, we are all equal, the darkness washes away everything, all sin, all virtue, all morals and laws and only in the darkness can we walk as our true self

Simple: Yin Yang.

Without darkness, light would not exist. And without light, darkness would not exist. Each one needs the other as a comparison (or whatever the heck the proper terminology is) to contrast against. A candle could not burn if there was no darkness to banish with it's light. And light can not shine if there is no shadow to form it's absence.

Just because they are polar opposites, does not mean one is evil. Fire is light and warmth, but fire also destroys. Caves are darkness, which can shelter you, but within caves there is no light so life can not grow.

Also, you said it yourself, darkness is not necessarily evil. Evil would be the absence of light OR darkness. Evil is the void, limbo, nothing at all. Evil is basically the spiritual/metaphysical equivalent of complete and utter sensory deprivation. Being burned alive would be better than nothing at all. And being trapped within darkness, blind for the rest of your life, is better than nothing at all. Darkness creates light. Light creates darkness, thus the only true evil is ceasing to exist by having your soul sucked into the void.

>What are mushrooms

Wow, I didn't know continents could post on the internet. How's your population of giant murderous spiders doing?

You could even have 'em be a death cult and still not be evil, just look at ancient Egypt.

>cult sees darkness as primordial abyss
>night time and shadows are the abyss manifesting in the light world
>generations of avoiding light have led to photosensitivity and nocturnal mode
>solar eclipses are seen as hella divine
>death is viewed as returning to the infinite abyss
>highest honor is to die during solar eclipse

>the god of darknes created the souls and spirits of things
everything was good
>the god of the sun got jealous and created the material world and the sun
no one cared
>so he got even more jealous and tricked the ghosts and spirits and binded them to physical boddies
the souls rebelled against him
>he created the sun to blind the souls with his glareing light.

*>the god of the sun got jealous and created the material world

I can see it working for hunter-gatherers. Darkness enables people to hunt and observe their surroundings. Also sunlight is really fucking bad for humans, at least until things like hats and scarfs get invented.

there are worshippers of the sun god deny this teachings
they demonise the cult of darkness and there seeking for salvation

Make it the religion of a nocturnal race. They see darkness as the thing that protects them from the dull eyes of predators that lurk in the day. They view the sun as they eye of a vengeful demon bearing down upon them.

Take influence from Arabia

Throughout arab folklore the night is seen as a safe & peaceful time where wonders happen

The stars and moon are all you need on a cool night

Darkness lets us hide from bad things, darkness is where we can dream

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

— Psalm 91

"He made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies."

— Psalm 18:11

And all that business

Then you have the night journey of Mohammed in Islam too

Darkness is where lovers can meet unseen

I personally think about the Elves from LOTR, children of the stars

Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson

A-RA-BIAN NIIIIIIGHTS

Post pictures of Holy Darkness!

A religion where "can't see shit" prevents the sin of vanity.
A religion where god always watches you no matter what but demons need to be able to find you so darkness is protective

Taoism?

The Gods reside in the land of dreams, night is seen as the time for communing with them.

>Our waking lives during the day, the Light as it were, represent all that which is or was. It is Reality.

>Our dreams at night, the Darkness, represents all that which could be or could have been. It is Possibility.

made me think of pic related

Fucken oath.
Summer is coming

Nights are the time when all the work on fields is finished. It's the only time when peasants can finally rest.
Goddes of night is a sister of the god of winter. She is worshiped by peasants and outlaws.

>"We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood."

Read Malazan: Book of the Fallen.

Numerous and belligerent.
Thank you for asking.

As a side note, it's the tiny fuckers that you should be concerned about.
Not being able to rely on their size to overwhelm and devour thier prey, they employ a variety of venoms, neurotoxins and enzymes.
Which are injected using fangs drenched in the liquified remains of decaying fly carcasses.

A combination of enzymes liquifying my flesh, to make it drinkable, and antibiotic resistant flesh eating bacteria injected by the dirty fangs, is the reason I have a hole in my leg the size of a fist.

"The dark is the great equaliser of the universe, Rabbits can overcome tigers in the dark, the meek can hide from the strong in the dark, the world is better when the strong cannot supress the weak"

Darkness is great. In the dark, you're safe. Nothing can find you, you mostly sleep and dream, and you don't have to worry about anything.

It's light that creates problems. When you wake up in the morning the light pries your eyes open, and you become hungry. You have to go and work and sweat to find food. You have to struggle to survive because the night ended. Your suffering is measureless--but only during the day.

At night, you sleep, bundled warm in your blankets with your wife, and everything is beautiful. The dark is your friend, your oldest companion. Light is your oppressor, who whips you to work, but when he is away, the dark returns to comfort your sore limbs and heal your wounds.

Go full Paladin with it.

They know that the night is dangerous. They know that darkness is dangerous. They know that many evil and dangerous things lurk in the shadows, in the many dens and lairs across the world. Monsters come out and feed at night, in the dark. People lose their way, never return home. People fear the darkness for a reason.

Only now, there's someone to protect them. Someone willing to take the night back from those who'd misuse its darkness. Someone to use the same shadows and cover that evil does, for good. Someone to force the monsters back into their holes until the day comes, someone to guide the lost home. Someone to face the evil that darkness breeds and say 'no. The night belongs to us, not to you.'

Someone to guard the night, so that no one need ever fear the setting of the sun.

youtube.com/watch?v=26xxQcGDjxY

Terry pratchett dwarves
They sort of revere darkness and see light as corrupting - think ultrajews

youtube.com/watch?v=LMDmKKCTgsc

>Is it not ironic
>How your favorite dread
>Is the matrix in which you were formed
>The unfathomable dark
>Of a realm arcane and burrowed far below

>The grain sprouts from deep 'neath the soil
>Where sunlight will never ever reach

>Behold
>From darkness we come
>That shelter where all life is formed
>Ascend
>To darkness we sail
>Eternal refuge of the soul

A number of prey animals are nocturnal as to avoid being easily spotted by predators. Others hide in lightless burrows or caverns, where predators cannot reach and weather cannot harm. Darkness is safety for those who can use her, protection from the revealing light of the sun and those who hunt and kill by it.

Unless you ARE one of those light-loving monsters. Then Mother Dark provides you with only blindness and fear.

Gentle guiding moon- and starlight, peaceful and calm.

>wheredoyouthinkyouare.jpg
This site is pretty much an object lesson in the right way to worship darkness.

Darkness is the great leveller. Darkness = anonymity, and anonymity = equality.

alternatively, what said

I was going to say, there's literally a movie called 'The Dark Knight'. Low hanging fruit and all that.

Look at all these little things! So busy now! Notice how each one is useful. A lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and color. Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people, who will be able to feed their children tonight, so those children can grow up big and strong and have little teeny children of their own, and so on and so forth. Thus, adding to the great chain of life. You see, father, by causing a little destruction, I am in fact encouraging life. In reality, you and I are in the same business.

The sun gives people cancer. The dark doesn't.
Shadows 1, Light 0

from light comes darkness, and from darkness light

...

Pic of leg?

still evil

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veles_(god)

Before light, there was always darkness. Darkness is peace. Darkness is tranquility. Darkness is an enveloping cloak to shield you from those who would do you harm.

It is the night sky. It is beauty. It is mystery. It is the very essence of life.

At least, that's how it is in my setting.

Well we need darkness to sleep. How about a cult that makes sure people are always rested? Maybe there's a god that wants everyone to be awake at all times, to zap their energy.

Drunken Master Sect.

Worships Darkness as the Great Reliever Of Hang-Overs.

Pretty much.
It's also entirely non-prejudicial.
Light exposes your flaws for all to see, but Darkness accepts unconditionally.

...

>but is not evil

Oi! Get yer own thing, spiderbutt!

>not evil

Darkness is the natural state of the universe. Light came after, to flare up and die away, with light was disparity and division. In darkness there is silence, solitude, calm, tranquility, equality, rest, freedom, there are dreams and boundless focus, hunters are at their strongest in the dark and shadow makes a level playing field.

To get a bit more conceptual, in darkness, wondrous things can happen. In darkness is blind uncertainty, formlessness, blankness, chaos, it allows for the malleability of the world because in the darkness anything can exist. Magicians seek the deepest lake beds and cavern depths to cast their spells. Warriors would train in the depths of dark places for the same reasons, they rely on all their senses and more.

Light makes this static, it makes things stark and unchanging, the light defines, if only momentarily, before it is plunged into uncertain darkness once more. Light is a tool and can become ultimately addicting for the false sense of control it seems to give the user.

Use the Bible as an example, people in the desert often liked darkness because it represented shade, and a shelter against the blistering heat.

Shit, that's actually good. Like a cult that conducts all their meetings in darkness, and nobody has seen another member's face. Joining the cult has all to do with your inner self and nothing with what is seen on the outside.

Basically it's trying to return to the original position, standing behind the veil of ignorance. If this is done, equality will be attained, no? All decisions made in the dark, all of society in the dark, everything must be dark.

So that's what they strive toward: creating absolute darkness.

Love/romance cult full of poets and thinkers, for in the darkness, the borders between each other become invisible, allowing our souls to mingle.
...or something, I'm no poet.


>Masochist tank
user, please. Not now.

Make it a cult of relaxation and sleep.
It's about relief from a hard days work and sweet dreams.