Cults (DnD Other)

“	I've worshipped Elemental Lords, Demon Princes, Dukes of Hell, Lich Kings, Ancient Dragons, Things from the Far Realm, even a talking book once. But I've never seen something like that before... Count me in.	”
—Caitlin the Cult Jumper

What is a Cult?

Cults are small religious groups that do not have a large number of followers or work from the shadows. Some do not worship a deity but instead a powerful being or prophecy. While members of a religion can usually channel the divine power of their god, becoming cleric or paladins, most cultists can not, instead relying on their fervor or boons from their master.

List of Cults

The Court of Mirrors

Symbol: A Golden Mirror
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Worship: Themselves

How to join: To join the cult you must go to their "ritual mirror" located at the middle of their gatherings and pray into it effectively praying to yourself. After that you are a member and no member will speak out that you've joined as they scarcely care.

Interactions With Players: The Court of Mirrors is extremely self-centered making them annoying to talk to. They don't care about any news that isn't about them and will actively avoid those that make them jealous.

The Followers of Kai-Len

Symbol: A book with a sword through it
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Worship: The Prophesy of Kai-Len

"Magic shall be man's downfall. The calamity will come, and if the world is still reliant on magic... we may not survive it." these were the last words of the Sage King, Kai-Len as he lay dying in his bed surrounded by his disciples. Now the Followers of Kai-Len heed their departed master's words and strive to live without the use of magic. This includes magic items, rituals, and even divine blessings as they view these as a crutch that will weaken them for the coming calamity, something they cannot afford. There is still debate among the followers if magic will cause the calamity, or the reliance on it that will make them unable to react to it. As such the Followers are split into two ideologies. One group, which keeps to themselves in a magic free life, and the other group which actively hunt down and destroy, powerful spell tomes, artifacts and even (depending on how extreme the follower is) mages.

While they are not thought of very fondly, as they tend to display a "holier than thou" attitude when around magic users, most moderate followers are accepted in society and practice their beliefs openly.

How to join: To join, one must give up ties to all magic and head to the nearest Followers' monetary. Most sects eagerly accept new brothers and sisters into the fold, but more extreme sects may make you prove your devotion by sending you on a quest to destroy a powerful magic.

Interactions With Players: The Follower's of Kai-Len are generally peaceful. However, if the players become adept enough in magic or come into possession of an artifact, they may be visited by a Follower assassin.

The Green

Symbol: A face carved into a tree
Alignment: True Neutral
Worship: The Green
The Green is a figurative God at most. The worshipers have developed a shift between followers, some worship the color green whilst others worship plant life and flora, still there are many who are divided on what they should worship and even more who make up their own green things to worship. What is known is that the green is mostly comprised of rangers, druids, fey warlocks and even the odd forest spirit of two.

How to join: All members wear a pendant coated with patina making it green and showing their symbol on it. To join you must plant a sprig. For as long as the sprig is alive and growing you are a member but if it dies you stop being a member.

Interactions With Players:

The Revelers of the Song

Symbol: A smiling satyr
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Worship: The Piper
Some say song frees the spirit but The Revelers of the Song believe song frees reality. The cult is mostly musicians and bards sworn to the songs you hear through your spirit. They believe song is all and when they die they have an orchestra play as they lie in the grave. Whenever a terrible event strikes they will be there to play their music (giving inspiration to everyone within earshot) and some may even help with rescue. The Revelers have parades constantly twice every week and as such have a strict path through the city and wilds.

How to join: To join you must have a "reveler instrument" which is an instrument of great memory, it could have been a gift from a dear friend or a family heirloom, However it was procured doesn't matter. To join you must join the parade until the reach the monastery and there you can proclaim your membership. Their parades are odd as they travel to a near monastery and usually split each group going to a different monastery.

Interactions With Players:

The Skulls of Orcus

Symbol: A skull atop a staff
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Worship: Orcus the Prince of Undeath

The Skulls of Orcus are a group of cannibals, undead and necromancers (or all three at the same time). The Skulls believe in gaining power through undeath and black rituals and worship the Prince of Undeath for his favor.

The ultimate goal of the Skulls of Orcus is to spread suffering and torment to fuel Orcus' unholy powers, a task they attend to with glee and zeal.

The existence of the cult is no secret, and paladins and clerics of Kelemvor seek to exterminate the cult wherever it skulks.

How to join: To join the Skulls of Orcus, you must approach a gathering of the cult on a night of the new moon with a sacrifice. You are required to kill the sacrifice in front of the Sect Leader and devour parts of it to show your devotion to Orcus and undeath everlasting.

Interactions With Players: The Skulls of Orcus will always be hostile to the players, viewing them as either a threat to their schemes, or potential materials for undead. Players may expect to run into them in dark crypts engaging in some blasphemous ritual or in graveyards digging for "fresh supplies".

The Red Fingers

Symbol: Severed red fingers surrounding a black eye
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Worship: Vecna the Lich Lord

The Red Fingers is a cult dedicated to the Lich Lord Vecna. As his "fingers" and "eyes" in the world, they sniff out information and for their dark master and attempt, through rituals and other means, to increase his power. In return the Undead King grants them information, boons and sometimes the "gift" of undeath.

Members of his cult are either poor souls who were so desperate for information they bound themselves to an eternity of servitude to the Lich Lord, or crazed power hungry zealots. While the cult is by no means small, two Fingers rarely ever meet as each gains his or her orders straight from their Sigil of Vecna as the Lich Lord insists on secrecy.

The cult works from the shadows and is not known by many but its members are spread throughout kingdoms and cities, manipulating events to fall into Vecna's favor.

All members have a missing finger which can help in identifying them, however most just use fake fingers to cover this.

How to join: To join The Red Fingers you must first have a Sigil of Vecna, a small magical sigil usually written on parchment. The sigil can be found on some members of the Fingers or could mysteriously show up in your possession when you desperatly need information. The sigil does nothing on it's own, however, when the you cut off one of your fingers and drop it onto it, the ink springs to life, convulsing around the finger, seemingly pulling it into the page. After this the ink sinks into the paper revealing Vecna's first task for the you. If the you pass the task his reward is given through the sigil, either as scribbled secrets, a powerful spell or something... else. Vecna will periodically send tasks to his Fingers as well as require them to write down secrets into the parchment. If they do not write on the parchment for a week, the stub of the finger they sacrificed begins to rot, spreading upwards through their arm in about a month and to their heart by the second month.

Interactions With Players: The Red Fingers will likely be at odds with the players unless one of the players is part of the Finger's themselves. However, Vecna may sometimes reach out to the party through one of his fingers asking for a seemingly harmless favor in return for some information the players seek.

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