ITT: Cultists

Cultists! The unsung heroes of tabletop! As cannon fodder to beckoners of unspeakable evil, these jackasses fill a niche all their own in Fantasy and Fiction. This is a thread dedicated to appreciating them in all their villanous glory. What do you like about them Veeky Forums?

Thread Question: How could one make a campaign or a setting where a cult or a cultist are the heroic protagonist(s)?
No, clerics and paladins don't count.

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vimeo.com/179564507
alexiskennedy.itch.io/cultist-simulator
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If they're actually heroic protagonists, you could have them be a cult of a good god in Lawful Evil land.

Borrow from history. Persecution of Christians and Jews. They've got to try to help and recruit people while staying a step ahead of the inquisition. Captured characters are fed to lions/used in gladiatorial combat/whatever.

What would we do without you, guys? You are the best!

Actually it's pretty easy, because it gives reasons for your players to know each other and be inclined to work together, while keeping a pretty lose frame of reference and giving you a good excuse to send them on missions
>master said get this
>master said kill that
>master said hold hands
It can set a nice routine for the players, but that will get old quick, so you need to get them in situations that shake them up a bit. Very long stints away from the master, conflicting interests among the cult, etc ... stuff that crhips away at their loyalty and turns them into adventurers.
Or they can just grow more powerful by doing some Dark Bidding © for whatever master and bring about the end of all things.
Just remember that cultists usually don't know much about the truth of their cult. Discovering the mysteries of the sect should be an important part of character growth, as should be climbing in rank in the sect. Ritual trials are a must.

And then, it depends on the setting.

Once had a campaign where a death cult formed around our party because we killed so many things. They'd stalk us and scavenge whatever dungeon or battlefield we left behind for relics. This went on, according to the DM, for three in game weeks before we noticed.

At their core, they are a group of people who have unbelievable strong convictions to follow something that goes against the rest of society, or the religious norms.
I don't think that necessarily means they have to believe in some kind of evil deity. But simply they believe in a god or something that doesn't follow what's commonly believed in.

I actually had something like this, inspired by Darkest Dungeon where the commonly held faith is that the world was created by a benevolent entity and despite the horrors living in it, is meant to be good. The Cult believes (And may very well be right) that the world is the byproduct of ancient celestial conflicts and the product of hate and fear. Their idol is a Demon of Wisdom and they act out their faith through the hunting of monsters, ritual sacrifice of powerful beasts and villains, and the rejection of the churches teachings.

Needless to say, they attract a lot of edgy teenagers.

Did you allow them to live as your greatest fan club or did you merc all of them too?

>How could one make a campaign or a setting where a cult or a cultist are the heroic protagonist(s)?
Play it for laughs.

We told them to fuck off. We weren't especially dedicated to killing, it just kept happening. They didn't fuck off, but they also didn't bother us too much.

When most people think of cults irl they think bible fundamentalist suicide crazies, or satanists in robes sacrificing cats in the woods. It's really made a mark on fantasy, to where now "cult" means baby murdering monsters trying to summon "x dark god" to end the world or something equally silly.

I prefer to use the ancient roman/greek meaning for cult as basically practitioners dedicated to one diety/spirit. As in "the cult of Janus runs the temple of Janus in this town. Travelers can pray or make a donation at the temple for his blessing." Even the elusive sounding "mystery cults" were just non-state sponsored temples. Maybe there are some dedicated to more evil deities but that can't be all of them.

Huh! Never knew that.
I heard similar language in Warhammer what with "The Cult of Sigmar" and "The Ancestor Cults" but never knew that it had a basis in history.
Learn something new everyday.

Gotta love the Robes.

Roman mystery cults are pretty interesting (especially because of their influence on Christianity.) Also because Roman Catholic rationalism bears more resemblance to Aristotlean metaphysics than Christian mystery cult roots and so the theology is all fucked up and makes no sense.

As a veteran of Black Crusade, I have to say the most thrilling adventures are ones of a medium size band of cultists trying to overthrow an infected and in-conflict imperial world
I think it's where the game really shines because you can have intrigue and infiltration of Imperial forces, minor clashes and skirmishes as your plans get found out or you make small precise strikes on a world's main assets, and major big battles towards the end of that world's life
Plus being some of the only chaos cultists on world, YOU the player get to determine all the weird and strange ritualism and traditions of your particular cult and when others arise to follow in your power (or maybe you in theirs) there's chances for inter-faith conflict about whatever aspect of whichever dark god you particularly follow

Plus nothing beats the human side of 40k, even in the morally worst faction of the setting, having human motivations and experience make it so much better to the whole weight of the terrifying and horrible place that is the 41st milleninum

>How could one make a campaign or a setting where a cult or a cultist are the heroic protagonist(s)?
They are gnostics fighting for the liberation of the Spirit one dead Demiurge worshipper at a time.

>heroic cultists

Hmm..

One idea I've been using is a death cult that worships a god(dess) of death (duh). They use ancient rituals to craft weapons that steals the soul of whoever it kills and forces that soul to go to their god's domain. The kicker is that the domain of their god is a paradise. The god just wants more souls and is happy to give them a pleasant eternal afterlife if it means getting more. The cult focuses on hunting down those that suffer most in society. Either they go the long route of convincing folks to commit suicide using one of their weapons or they simply kill them themselves. The cultist also train powerful warriors that fight demons and angels in order to secure souls that the two would otherwise try to take for themselves. The angel part is questionable, but stealing souls from demons/fiends/devils/whatever saves them from an eternal of suffering. The only bad thing about the cult is that they don't care much about living (they sincerely believe that every minute alive is a minute of damnation that only death/paradise can end). So even if you are okay with not living in paradise they will force the issue and take your soul anyway. They also don't care about sin as they have no concept of it. The Lawful Goods go in with the Chaotic Evils in paradise.

My players actually argued about fighting them since in many ways the cult is objectively improving the existence of many of their victims even if most of those victims didn't buy into the eternal paradise idea until only after they were already dead.

always loved this idea but was irked that every religion called themselves a cult. would be nice to have a little variety, "we, the sisterhood of the" or "the Grand Convention" something different

I use cultists as enemies so much that my players have started to make fun of me for it.

Cultists are a really interesting setting for players actually. You got a lot of legroom in designing it, and it sets a clear tone.
One possibility that I've found interesting are cults that worship a god with some kind of unorthodox ruleset. Think Sheogorath-tier.
The tasks seem chaotic, but you notice a silver lining and end goal with everything as time goes on. The god is also just over a large enough timeframe (Mostly for the sake of the players. You dont wan't a sessions-long near death objective to just reward them with a plate of cheese and 3 gold pieces). If you are a good GM, you can experiment with odd enchantments or potions.

One potion from the cult my players seemed to like was "Tingling Dingling Jester Juice". What it did was forcing you to juggle any weapon you had instead of hitting it normally, making you roll performance instead of other skills when fighting under its duration.
If you can keep the grim and serious setting as the baseline, and know how to properly ration out joke items / comedy throughout, it can be a lot of fun.

Cults also allow a social hierarchy easily, making your players into some kind of enforcers of the cult. Since most cults are also small, you can have a very dynamic world with actual direct development.

...that's a really cool idea!
How do you work in Chaos Space Marines into the mix, if at all? Cult Leaders? Special boons from the gods? Just another dedicated believer?

You must make THEM the cultists.

And that is without mentioning "Gifts" from the Cults Idol, and hiding their cultyness from outsiders.
...sometimes the two get a bit conflicting.

Occult Bump!

Yeah look to christianity in particular. Both early and late. Jesus was a jew, he simply had visions and messages that went against not only the traditional jewish faith but also the roman moral system. And later, the catholic church, had to deal with a cult that was literally "Read the fucking bible you fucks, be a good christian." who were peace loving, simple living folk who never ate crawfish or shaved their sideburns.

The catholic church slaughtered them all because they made the archbishop who came to convert them feel bad about his jewel encrusted robe (very standard for catholic priests of the time)

What are you even talking about?

Early and late christian cults being good examples of a good natured cult?

I'm asking what cult in particular you're talking about.

The good christians?
Existed around the 1500's, died out pretty quickly.

Easy: No matter the reality of the situation, frame it so that in the cultists' eyes, they're doing the right thing, and aren't engaging in anything particularly psychotic, such as child sacrifice.

Don't dodge the question, I'm literally asking what sect of Christians you're talking about. You clearly have a specific sect in mind given that you know two of their beliefs and the event that led to their death.

I can't take that picture seriously. It just makes me think of the Klansmen scene from Django Unchained.

You know all the conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hatters?

If they're right, they're the good cultists and were the ignorant masses they're trying to educate.

The original sect, the one who started it all: Hesus himself and the second is literally just that, the good christians. They had a pretty pretentious name but thats what they wanted to convey, they were truer to the word of christ than anyone else.

No really where are you getting at?

Are you talking about the fucking Cathars?

Huh.
Well, it literally means The pure ones so don't you fucking start.

I think it's that you don't give anything to identify this sect.

You claim they're a non-catholic sect, with an uninterrupted lineage from the apostolic church through to the 16th century. But that's not really a huge amount of detail.

Well I give you what I got. I wasn't exactly posting wikipedia links so obviously I was implying you should look it up yourself with the few keywords I gave if you were interested. I wasn't which is why I didn't remember the name.

Reformed Cult of Urgathoa: not all that into undead, but massively into excess. They have banquets at the town tavern's 2nd floor, and rumor is, the mayor participates in their orgies afterward. Most of the cultists are noted by their excess - some prefer riches, wearing expensive furs and large golden chains wrapped across their necks and limbs. Some are corpulent beasts, always eating one rare delight after another. Some are druggies and addicts, chasing one high after another.

Checking out, and given what the other guys says, it does look like you mean the Cathars. Since they were ascetics who referred to themselves as Good Christians.

I just wasn't looking for nontrinitiarians. I should have figured some level of nonnicean theology though.

Well, let's be honest.
The hoods WERE a good idea.

Its not like there's many options for faceless goons with little resources and hoods of any kind always go conal.

Fucking race obsessed ghosts, ruining a perfectly good costume.

Heroism is in the eye of the beholder- to that end Black Crusade does a decent job at allowing the baddies to be protagonists

I figure that you get warbands travelling around and seeing the occasional cult, dispatch one of their legionnaires to act as an advisor to the cult. Teach them new ways to appease the true gods, shit like that.

>Thread Question: How could one make a campaign or a setting where a cult or a cultist are the heroic protagonist(s)?

That's easy, based them on some real-world cults from the ancient world. Neo-Platonist cults tended to be pretty big on virtue.

My dood, you really need to re-read whatever book you read that gave you any of these ideas then. The Cathars aren't the original sect of Christianity, they're an oriental offshoot that migrated from modern day Turkey, and across Europe. They had no apostolic succession to give that claim any actual gravity.

And they weren't wiped out because they made fun of of an Archbishop's robes. They got killed because the Count of Toulouse decided to assassinate the papal legate sent to suppress them because they held Gnostic beliefs (i.e creation is Evil), and everything spiraled out of control from there.

I like to imagine the fantasy cult life to be comfy as hell.

I know I'm probably wrong, but I'm a sucker for that stuff.

>human motivations and experience

This guy gets it. These factors are key. The dry factoids of a cult's RAW form and purpose are all background noise while the GM and PCs put a sheen of humanity on all the alien skullduggery going on about them. This sets the baseline atmosphere you'll need for when the Big Reveal occurs in the third reel. For example,

Q: Who are these guys -

>cherish their sense of community
>believe strongly in family values
>show genuine interest in 'outreach'
>clearly strive to better themselves
>blue-collar workers of the productive class
>humble, unambitious seekers of self-ascension
>represent the oppressed native laborer working-class
>surviving the brutal oppression of imperial invaders

A: A mining union with spiritual overtones on a reconquista planet still chafing under the Imperial yoke. Oh, and an underground genestealer cult ...

This might be a bit far fetched but anyone got any pics of sexy cultists?

I only have regular cultists!

Is this hot enough?

Maybe

No fatties

What Dark Idols are you worshipping Veeky Forums?

There are no individuals, no tribes, no regions; only the Cult, and the purpose, and the Eternal End.

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

>The Cultists
>worshipping dark idols
Only destructive analysis can bring peace, user.

I love cultists that actually have normal lives outside of trying to fuck satan. having to be polite face to face with the local butcher by day even though you think he may be serving flesh and sizing you up is a uncomfortable feeling. witnessing a sacrifice but when you tell the guards they ignore you, do they think your crazy or are they in on it. I like being gaslighted by a whole town is a unique and horrifying feeling.

I'd like to introduce cultists of an evil deity of monsters that ravages civilized humanoids (i.e: typical player races).

Problem is, I have no idea how to justify/give reason for human, elf, dwarf, or other 'player race' character following such deity among its monstrous followers.

Any ideas you guys?

I would happily join an evil cult, honestly. I don't know why there aren't any these days.

I'm sure you could find a death cult or two.

Most recent one I caught on to was Systemspace, but even they didn't TELL you to commit suicide, just promised you an okay afterlife if you did. Even now, you gotta wait a few years before doing it.

Do you know any death cults banging around?

Cults you say??

vimeo.com/179564507

You might have to get used to desert climate and praying 4 times a day... Not for too long though, they are really into the "death" part.

most irl cults are pretty boring. weren't people worshipping ebola for a while? in the form of an anime humanization but they were building small shrines, giving blood and praying for the virus to wipe out civilization which is pretty evil.
>pic unrelated but for some reason i found it in my "undead" folder

Ebola-chan wasn't as much of a cult as it was a bunch of sorcerers who want to make the world a better place. Was fun working with them, and great to see that sorcery in general is catching on, but not a cult.

Ok I wasn't gonna bring attention to it but god damnit why are you posting Guro/Gore/Abuse pics with every post?
This isn't the thread for it, and it's creepy as fuck.

what ever you say cultist

what the fuck is going on in this thread? why are irl wizards posting pictures of girls being mutilated?

The pics look so bad they all look as if they have been smeared in strawberry marmalade.
But its still annoying.

I find imagery of violence and death to be soothing. Forgot I wasn't on /x/ for a minute.

for heroic protagonist I'm inclined to pursue a non violence/non interference theme, similar to the Quakers or Amish or pic related. they can have some sort of magical/spiritual advantage due to their extreme devotion, but part of their hero's journey is staying in the lines of their beliefs while still addressing whatever the crisis might be

Just ignore him, hide his posts, (And report if it's actually in violation of any rules, too sleepy to remember.) And bring the discussion back around.

For example, what is the day to day life of a cultist like?
It obviously depends on the cult, but what do you think the general idea is?

Woops, pic related

real fuckin' edgy mate, even /x/ would find this shit annoying. I find seals to be soothing but you don't see me posting them every time I make a comment.

fuck that a broad range but like I said earlier I love the idea of cultists blending into society by day just to creep out to the forest to do freaky shit by night.

Seemed to me like he was talking about hussites. Zizka stronk.

Lemme shill that thing
alexiskennedy.itch.io/cultist-simulator
It's made by Alexis Kennedy, who was a writer for Fallen London. The demo is extremely bare-bones, but it's promising. Also, the concept of eldricht horrors not being just very angry space squids is refreshing

>Persecution of Christians and Jews.
>and Jews
These two things are not alike

Maybe citizens who are disenfranchised by their race/government?
Doomsday lunatics and monster fetishizers?