How do you like your cultists Veeky Forums?

Do you like them calm and rational, or howling and fanatical? Do you like them a tiny and obscure cult, or a widespread and powerful mainstream religion? Do you like them objectively correct, or obsessed over nothing? Tell me Veeky Forums, how do you like your cults?

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youtube.com/watch?v=LCObZ6Kodi0
docs.google.com/document/d/1Uhp6_lUrwXh9GUbV6mggbCj5sZOKlQG66ycUhGkEiQo/edit?pli=1
youtube.com/watch?v=cr5WGTBo2cw
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I like my cultists forcibly dragging people into maintenance tunnels and sacrificing them for the glory of Nar'Sie

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>how do you like your cults?
Hilariously incompetent.

Nathaniel Hawthorne style, usually meeting at night under the cover of darkness, big fires, robes and animal skulls. Head guy probably has a stick of big bad mojo.

>Do you like them calm and rational, or howling and fanatical? Do you like them a tiny and obscure cult, or a widespread and powerful mainstream religion? Do you like them objectively correct, or obsessed over nothing?
Yes. A fantasy or horror setting will probably have multiple cults, so variety is important.

What's wrong with giving people to nar-nar?

I like a mixture. I sometimes have them nice and calm, other times crazy.
One of my favorites was a particularly charismatic one who the party caught trying to capture another PC.
They stopped him and he was replying to questions with witty quips and gave them some information in exchange for his freedom and he left. Might bring him back in another situation where he can meet the party again.

Well-entrenched, driven by unquestioned self-belief, and ridiculous.

What about outcasts with superstitious beliefs that are more dorky than they're dangerous?

I like my cultists to dress in over the top black hooded cloaks adorned with skulls and other occult bling, but to act like really cheerful peace and love commune cultists.

Yes, they worship undying nethergods who will one day return and destroy our reality. Why don't you come in, have a cookie, and we can talk about Vrlorshazah the Neverwas. When you think about it, we aren't actually that different from those guys in the woods who worship nature. Nature killed a whole bunch of people TODAY, dunno why everyone gets so up in arms about worshiping a god that probably wont kill anyone for thousands of years.

You sure I can't get you anything? I just like to help. In the face of such unstoppable and inhuman catastrophe beyond the pall of man's comprehension, what do we have if not each other?

Oh, the black robes? They are cheap to order in bulk, and black is so fashionable!

My last batch of cultists were basically Team Rocket. They were always trying to steal something cool to sacrifice, and always failing long before they could gain any power.

>Yandere Simulator

> Nature killed a whole bunch of people TODAY, dunno why everyone gets so up in arms about worshiping a god that probably wont kill anyone for thousands of years.

Huh. I honestly don't have a counterargument for that.

You not like it or something.

No girlfriend who likes to bring me along sifting through libraries to find occult tomes to read in the woods. Though secretly wants to find ways to kill ghost and Deamons and is super into humanity fuck yeah stuff.

I just want to die.

If your cultists aren't a numberless throng of wide-eyed, tattoo-covered, gore-encrusted, unshakeable fanatics screaming their voices raw, dancing around themselves in ritualistic circles, and flagellating themselves to the sound of their demonic high priest's sacred dirge as he sacrifices a virginal lamb, you're doing it wrong.

This is how they get you isn't it?

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The dark side of magic. Sort of like the Russians who kept a disembodied dog head alive. Vile, despicably evil magicians who do the things nobody is willing to do for the greater purpose of science, funded by outright robbery, a massive religious front, and direct arms deals with the world's great powers. The very headmost members of the cult aren't motivated by a perverted love for understanding magic but by an obsession with the vast, cosmic possibilities. These men are the ones who would be happy to be absorbed by the Old Ones.

I like a cult of gentry. An Illuminati-esque group that secretly controls the governments and kingdoms around. This control allows for their cult practices, and the numerous missing people, to go unnoticed by the general masses.

I honestly think that if you haven't made Sithrak a god in one of your campaigns you're not a true fa/tg/uy.

When you think about it, the whole Yandere Sim thing is kinda like a modern cult.
>Some asshole with delusions of grandeur comes to the starved masses like a visionary
>He promises an extremely tantalizing concept that he cannot actually deliver on, even if he really believes in it
>A thousand gullible folks take the bait, and he manipulates them into staying and waiting and waiting and waiting, so he can bleed them dry of money and live a comfortable lifestyle
>Because stringing people along and pretending to know what he's doing is easy and profitable; actually working to give them what they're desperate for would kill the money cow, if you could even do it in the first place

Although you could say yanderedev originally lucked into that position rather than carefully establishing it like cult leaders do.

He's pretty humble about the whole thing though, and I wouldn't say he keeps everyone "waiting and waiting". He updates pretty consistently and keep his audience up to date through his blog and youtube videos. That's far more than I can say of many other indie developers, who just slam a concept on Patreon, collect their cheque and then disappear.

To play the devil's advocate, if he really wanted to string along gullible fools why would he bother updating so frequently? Fucking Spoony cruises by on 700 bucks a month by roleplaying as his dog on twitter.

agreed. a la Hot Fuzz

So what would be the equivalent of cyanide flavored koolaid powered trip to the alien spaceship in this cult?

Sithrak is, unironically, best god.

>limiting yourself into just one type of cult in your campaigns

I prefer to have multiple cults of different types in my campaigns.
>backwood hick cults a la ant hill kids
>cults masquerade as fraternities for rich and powerful
>paranoid apocalyptic cults that launch attacks against public in an attempt to hasten the coming of apocalypse
>paranoid apocalyptic cults that want to be left alone and lash against anyone who bothers them
>scam cults that are just there to get as much money out of their followers as possible
>weird but ultimately relatively harmless cults
>the cult that has got it all figured out but yet is ignored even though they try so hard to be relevant
>mass suicide cults

If I were to limit myself to one aspect, I'd say I much prefer cultists with completely nonsensical, bizarre, and irrational beliefs that would amuse and/or disturb noninitiates to hear, which they take absolutely literally and absolutely seriously without the slightest flicker of doubt, as if it were as obvious as saying the sky is blue or that fish can't fly, and can't seem to fathom the slightest reason why someone would even think to doubt their beliefs.

Patrician taste.

>If you worship the generic good aligned Judeo-Christian creator god, you're vying for his attention along with billions of others. No matter when you pray, there's a million other people praying. He gives no fucks about you.

>If you worship some obscure evil central-asian goddess of the moon and snakes, you probably have all of her attention at any particular moment you might want to talk to her. And evil or not, she's going to care. If she loses you, she's lost like 20% of her total followers.

>That's a decent point. Scouring ancient dark gods to test worship now.

>This sound like a sitcom waiting to happen.

>There's a children's book that features such a situation as a plot point. A crazy barbarian is kept alive no matter what stupid shit he pulls because he is the only worshiper left so the gods want to keep him alive.

>This literally happened back in old-/pol/, before they all converted to Esoteric Kekism.

>An user somehow ended up becoming the sole believer in a pre-Aryan moon goddess from the Caucasus. She only spoke a dead language, and he would periodically show up in the pagan threads trying to figure out what to do. I haven't seen him post since the end of that sequence of lunar eclipses back in 2015, so it's safe to assume that he suffered a bad/best end.

What is the story of Sithrak?

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Secretive and far away.

A bit too enthusiastic about their religion, but otherwise on the surface normal and pleasant.

Both mindsets, obscure, and correct(ish)
The leadership is calm and rational, the grunts are howling dumbasses whose parents didn't love them enough. Smart people either get promoted, kicked out, or have unfortunate accidents. dum dums continue existing as a source of hands and as patsies.
Tiny and Obscure, because it makes them more flexible. Really, I roll with small local branches of similar cores, but whatever.
The two cults I like using the most are personality cults and ones to a real and existent being, even if that being may or may not be what they think it is.

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That's actually pretty cool

I like my cultists' words to make sense but their actions to be crazy and unpredictable. I had one group that were domestic terrorist esque. The first session ended in a suicide bombing and the group had to deduce this by looking at the footprints left after the fact. Shit was tight.

In one of my campaigns I had a wizard who left the group to go back home to make sure it was safe. Turns out a cult had formed and was sacrificing people.

The wizard does some digging around and finds out the cult is worshipping the god of honor and justice. They're worshipping him as an evil god because of a mistranslation from an ancient text.

Wizard breaks into the cults hideout. The cult leader does his speech about how he's gonna bring about the apocalypse by summoning his god. Wizard tells him to go ahead. They actually summons the god who then smites all the cultists. He then thanks the wizard and promises to keep the town safe.

Basically Slaaneshi, without the hedonism. That is to say, they're so obsessed with self-improvement and achieving perfection at any and all costs they've been outlawed and are forced to secretly assemble under the cover of night to perform their sacrificial rituals and heretical sorcery in peace.

You know, this happens in Wraith. Qin Shihuang actually ends up in the Shadowlands with a terracota army that becomes his Imperial Guard. The problem is that he doesn't realize that the greatest threat comes from within. He's devoured by his own Shadow - sort of - and he becomes a Malfean..

The classic type. After I read Alan Moore's Providence, it's pretty clear how fucked up cultists can be. Seriously, that comic is just disturbing as hell.

>Robes
>Machine guns
>Unique language, possibly a mix of Latin and Sanskrit
>Fanatic belief in some dark god
>Cannot be reasoned with or even understood
>Ruthless and must be stopped

Pretty much the cultists from Blood

Cautious and calculating, and turning on you the moment you are in their way.

Depends on what purpose they sever

I tend to have them rational, but a crazy standard that anyone not informed of such standards would call them crazy. Yet some outsider who knows a little more would be like, still nuts but kind of makes sense given their gaols.

>Eye doctor: Next! My god what happened to your eyes. Cultist: I stared at my god for as long as he let me and he blessed me with enhanced hearing. Notices sun cult bracelet. Doctor: Oh, another one of these self inflicted blindness cases. .... Well his insurance covers the visit, so let see how blind you are now.

I also like them to have enough of a following and power base that politically they have to be acknowledgedly on some level.

>Super Villain meeting: I got these plans to block out the sun. Group gasps! That will anger the sun cult. .... I know how about we release radioactive poison dust to cover the planet and kill everything. Yes, yes much better, just as long as it don't block out the sun. We don't want to have to deal with that annoying sun cult.

They could be objectively correct as no one can prove them definitely wrong, but far and wide they are seen as obsessed over nothing.

>Cultist: Our god is a all powerful chicken inside the sun. Scientist: That ridiculous, anyway our solar prob will tell us more about the sun. Cultist: And what does it tell you? Scientist: We don't know we lost contact when it burned up too early. Cultist: Of course such an offense would be burned to ash as punishment for disturbing god. Scientist: Or the heat shield was cracked by that meteor strike earlier.

I like them to be comedic background plot fuel. But also respect the ones that stop and make you think and the ones you want to kill. Although I see so many of the ones you want to kill I am kind of sick of them, also many of them are not fleshed out enough to give you the satisfaction of murder. They just treat them like mooks now, which is sad given how deep a cult can go story wise.

> pic related

Pentecostal Christians, if they weren't Christian, and were demon-worshippers instead.

The best cultist are those who serve simply because they have found the Great Old Ones to be real. Such a cultist finds nothing behind the faith and ritual of organized religion, but when he calls out to the Great Old Ones, something answers. He cares nothing for his own empowerment - he simply feels that it is his proper place as a mortal to live or die at the whim of the gods, no matter how horrible they may be.

I like my cultists like I like my women. Dead.

Most chaos cultists in wh40k are born into it, and this is how they see it.

>It would be easy to say that the Norsemen worship the Dark Gods, even easier to say that they are a soulless horde with no regard for life or the suffering they cause. It is true Norsemen see mutations as blessings from their Gods, and they festoon their bodies with tattoos and symbols of the Dark Gods to attract their attention, but to say the Norsemen are unthinking slaves to the Ruinous Powers is simply false.

>The Norsemen see themselves as honest men, strong, mighty, and courageous. And for these virtues, they thank the Gods. They worship the Gods they do because they see their power in all things, and arevividly reminded of their potency. Southern Gods, like Sigmar, are weak in comparison to the primal forces of life and death represented by their deities. To the Norsemen, the blessings of their Gods (e.g. mutations) are the clearest sign of their power, proving to them that the Gods of the Empire are weak and impotent.

>The Tribes venerate the Ruinous Powers. They see these Gods as aspects of the natural world. A stroke of lightning might be the will of Tchar, the Changer of Ways, whilst an outbreak of sickness is the blessing of Nieglen, Father of Plagues. Every stone, every plant, and the very clouds that float through the skies hold the secrets of the Gods. No one Ruinous Power holds more sway than the rest. An individual tribe may uphold a single God or even a pair of them. Some tribes venerate all four and throw in a few other Gods as well. Generally speaking, the Kurgan know the Ruinous Powers by the names of Khorne, Loesh (Slaanesh), Nieglin (Nurgle), and Tchar (Tzeentch).

post-ironic

Cannot be seasoned with, you say?

Plain clothes citizens with a day job. That dress up in their cult clothes and drive on the weekend to the local gathering where they break some guy's body as bread and drink his blood as wine.

>Implying the whole Kek thing isn't a Psyop to prevent people for accidentally discovering real goddesses to worship.
>Who profits from convincing a bunch of angry virgins on the internet to worship a dumb frog with a scat fetish?

Just sayin. 99% of /pol/ are idiots.

THE GREATER GOOD!

That's still a lot of fucking idiots

Mignola is a god

The best cultists are those who don't view themselves or even their eternal souls as relevant, the type whose devotion to their god is so total they'd condemn themselves to eternal damnation without a second thought or the slightest complaint simply because their god commanded them, and view the opportunity to hear their voice, let alone obey it, as an unimaginable privilege. To me, that kind of quiet fanaticism is far, far scarier than any kind of self-flagellating zealotry or blind dogmatic adherence.

>Though the gates that stand between the mortal world and the immortal Realm of Chaos are now closed to me, still I would rather die having glimpsed eternity than never to have stirred from the cold furrow of mortal life. I embrace death without regret as I have embraced life without fear.

I like my cultists to be totally normal looking people in a quiet suburb or rural farm town. They dress how you'd expect for the area, act really polite, and work normal jobs. They have families and nice houses, maybe pets even. Then they do something that just feels off-kilter; a sermon at church that doesn't seem to fit anywhere in the Bible, or a specific family on the outskirts of town that they shun but won't say why. If you stay in town and really earn their trust, they invite you to their annual harvest festival or other event that they constantly talk excitedly about but always get interrupted before actually explaining. You go there and it seems normal, food and games and whatnot. But then the sun sets and they all do something crazy. A ritual orgy in the woods or a bloody human sacrifice in the Town square. The worst part is they stay completely nonchalant about the scene. And they continue to smile and invite you to join like it's just a fun thing to do.

Unknowable. Not in the Lovecraftian "incomprehensible to mortal man" sense, but in the sense that you literally don't know what they're doing or why. There's obviously SOMETHING motivating them, there's obviously SOME guiding reasoning behind what they're doing but who or what that is is known to the cult and the cult alone.

Bonus points if the cultists are also generally silent when they go about their business, so you don't even have some eerily vague mustache-twirling rant to try and piece things together from.

That image belongs to the best anime of all times though. So show some respect.

I was literally describing the Witch Cult's general aesthetic.

Or is there some joke I'm not getting here.

Sithrak is best god.
Hail Sithrak! Or don't, it's not like he cares!

>secret society
>robes embellished with all, the symbols
>mad as a box of fogs

with a good charismatic lead
this
youtube.com/watch?v=LCObZ6Kodi0

that Hollywood abomination never happened, NEVER! HAPPENED!

You bitches! Killing me won't bring back your GOD DAMN HONEY!

Absolutely repulsive in every possible way and then some. Think Nurgle.

Transhumanist breeding cultists are my magical realm. So I try to avoid cultists in my games.

I did once invent a religious group for Shadowrun who were trying to become their own megacorp and all the followers took long ass zen koans and quotes as their names, like An Eye That Sees, But Cannot See Itself.

>No girlfriend who likes to bring me along sifting through libraries to find occult tomes to read in the woods


Boys actually LIKE that??

>>Though secretly wants to find ways to kill ghost and Deamons and is super into humanity fuck yeah stuff.

>>Kill ghosts and demons instead of fusing our natures with demonic entities that are also lovers so we can live forever and fuck in a million different bodies throughout time and space and also probably kill and torture people and wear black leather...

Nevermind.

>No girlfriend who likes to bring me along sifting through libraries to find occult tomes to read in the woods

>Boys actually LIKE that??

Librarians do. There is a reason why we like working around spooky books.

docs.google.com/document/d/1Uhp6_lUrwXh9GUbV6mggbCj5sZOKlQG66ycUhGkEiQo/edit?pli=1

AVE NEX ALEA

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"The Dark Monks?" Damn, that's a crimgy name for a cannibal cult, sounds like something out of a Dwarf Fortress random-gen.

PRETTY BRIGHT LIGHT BLEEHHH

Well I was going to start a cult called The Fence Blockades but now I'm discouraged.

Don't be discouraged, Fence Blockades is a kickass name for a cult, and your digits smile upon you. Praise be to [INSERT_DEITY]!

In the campaign i'm running, the cultists are literally just normal people who are scared to death of a world without meaning.

Regular townsfolk who mostly worship quietly but sacrifice the occasional traveling merchant or lost wanderer and blame it on local monsters.

Holy shit where's this from

Apparently Blood

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I like them cute

Isn't this from Darkest Dungeons?

>tfw

LOINCLOTH RIDIN' UP

Though some of the fluff on the website plays the whole 'insane cultist' thing pretty straight. Especially the one for Warriors of Discord.

Well done

I have no problem with a fictional Yahweh having a finite attention span, but the actual idea of Yahweh IRL is a being with no such restrictions. The idea of Yahweh always having time for you is so Old Testament, it's in Psalms.

My favorite cultists are those that have taken to the worship of an unholy supernatural affliction and seek to be infected with it, vampirism, lycanthropy, lichdom, anything works, an ambush of insane cultists out of nowhere in the statye garden really ties together any vampire masion hunt.

Bloodborne sounds like the game for you

God damn that game was good.

Fuck I read a YA novel with a similar premise. MC becomes the only devotee to an abandoned god out of desperation in her last delapidated church promising to never leave her if she saves him from the men chasing him (rightly, he stole from them iirc). She does, and immediately shows up and intends to collect.

Lex Trent or something, was alright. Had a few neat concepts

I've always wanted to try running a game set in Ardania, but I'm not sure which system would work best...

The Blood game - 1997.

Damn fine game, using the build engine (Duke 3d, Shadow Warrior, Nam).

Nice dark atmosphere and some of the most disturbing enemies of the day.

The voice acting is superb. The actually created their own language out of latin and Sanskrit and a few others
youtube.com/watch?v=cr5WGTBo2cw

gosh it hurts so much season 2 is never coming

If Kek was a legit deity he'd probably be like Xom from Dungeon Crawl. He's only concerned about things that are entertaining to him, morality be damned.

I like variety.

Some cults should be dark and mysterious, while others are praising their foul gods and throwing themselves fanatically into battle. Some of it depends on the deity they worship.

And then there are the cults that are fun for a bit of humor where they're actually fairly placid and probably couldn't harm a fly. Like a cult to Tzeentch where everyone whose joined is used to mindless factory work, so the cult leader is still trying to teach them freedom of choice and acts more like a stressed manager than a leader of foul rituals.

I'm a fan of idealistic cults made up of gullible fools led by twisted and mad but misunderstood prophets good-intentions, that have led them to build an isolated compound in an inhospitable and remote region, far from civilization.