I think the best cults in media are the ones where you don't realize at first and then you're like "Wait... is this... a cult? It's starting to sound like a cult"
In a world with magic, gods, and demons, people would join a cult to worship a being that has demonstrated power--power to protect them from their enemies, destroy their enemies, make them prosperous, make their crops grow, etc. ...and also power to punish them if they abandon it.
@@Tysto also their is the option of the main relegion decieved them or got corrupted by Power and money. So they lost believes and change it to An other that appeal to answer to their pray
I created the Nameless as a cult of altruistic people who believed giving up one’s name, their identity and the need for worldly possessions to help the poor and destitute all because I didn’t want to come up with character names. An improvised moment that turned out to be pretty cool.
I like that. Makes me think of the handful of worshippers and servants of the Death God of my homebrew setting. While the God of Death is entirely benign and loving of all beings, its embrace is...well, death. And as such it is also known as the Unnamed God, as to give it a name or to utter one of its names is to draw its attention. As such, the few clergy that do follow this entity also often fully eschew their identities and wear masks and veils in something like solidarity with their deity.
@chrisragner3882 what powers do they have from their patron(or innately) that allows them to help? Can they vibrate wishes into existence with pure thought? Maybe they just create things? Allowing them to not need to interact with an economy? 😊 curious
I have a cult of druid/necromancers. The religious doctrine is about the duality between life and death. You receive the blessings in life and will in turn repay your debt in death. As a mindless skeleton plowing fields to feed your descendants until time and friction grinds your bones down to dust. So the necromancers living in this cult have been practicing in the open for generations mastering separating the soul and sending it off to the afterlife safely while the bones remain to be LEGOed into whatever bone golem shape is needed. To everyone outside looking in it looks like everyone(even kids) are evil necromancers commanding hapless undead around. Protected by legions of undead soldiers. To the cult members having several skeletons around the house is seen as a status symbol because they could afford to give several of their elders that premium "burial".
That's a really cool idea. Question, what do they do once the bones are worn out? You mentioned friction grinding them to dust and golems. Is it both or do they eventually turn the dust into fertilizer?
@@kingofhearts3185 Golems in the setting just means any construct that's made of parts from multiple bodies. For instance a skeleton made over a decade ago might not have working legs anymore. And instead of discarding an old skeleton they disassemble them and use the bones for various specialized machinery. As for the dust I imagine it just fertilizes the countryside wherever each particle flakes off. Seems in line with the druidic faith that the last remnants of grandpa eventually becomes part of the ecosystem. The actual part of the skeleton that's powering the whole deal is the skull which will only obey commands issued by a blood descendant. All the other bones are interchangable Lego pieces.
@@irtehdar2446 Thanks for the clarification. I like the blood descendant part, I can imagine a humorous interaction between a skeleton and his great granddaughter's husband about that technicality.
I mean, this makes total sense, to be honest. I never really saw a problem with necromancers, if it’s consensual. You can totally want to help your family after death. So what’s the evil “cult” part in this?
From what I’ve gathered, cults often recruit people when they are at their lowest point because they know those people don’t have the usual mental energy to read any red flags. Even some incredibly brilliant people can fall victim to a cult’s clutches if times are that dire for them. And I think all cultists (barring any who actually benefit from the cult’s actions-such as the leader) are victims of the cult more often than they are villains; the leader grasps the members in a dependent, authoritarian, and abusive relationship and makes them do degrading and awful things to themselves or each other (and in many cases, those outside the cult as well) under the guise of belonging in a community while isolating them from the outside world and discouraging independence from the cult. I also found an acronym for authoritarian control called BITE (Behavior, Information, Thoughts, & Emotions) listing everything the cult regulates to keep the followers in line. Edit: minor correction
Something I'd add is, even in a cult, the people that make it up don't have to be a monolith. The example I look to for inspiration comes from Magic the Gathering. In the Ixalan setting, you have the church that the vampire conquistadors belong to. Some prioritize the doctrine itself, some prioritize leadership within the church, some prioritize the royal family of the government of the country that the church is a part of, and some have their own beliefs but as part of the minority just try to keep their heads low while following their conscience when possible. Among those that follow the crown are those seeking money and/or glory, those just being patriotic, and those just indulging their lust for blood with the excuse of patriotism. Then, within those that follow specific leaders of the church there are those that follow the words of the "saint" who started the church and then there are those that follow a guy that represents the beliefs the church fell into during the saint's absence. Among that latter group there are the most extreme members who are searching for ancient forbidden magics and items of a temple that belonged to their ancestors who predate the church. That's TEN different competing groups with their own motivations in just ONE of the four main factions you can work with! Rather than just mowing down nondescript enemies in hoods, I'd recommend DMs try splashing in some competing groups among the enemies like this. Sure, they still have a shared goal as a group, but people make up that group and join for their own reasons.
1) belief system that makes sense (no need to make it obviously evil/bad, what would attract new mortals there?) 2) define hierarchy and leadership (best leaders are the ones who seem approachable, compassionate, inspiring) 3) make their actions logical (at least to them, their actions should align with their goals) 4) recruitment process (how do they do it? what promises do they make?) 5) not villainy, but extremism (extreme motives that make sense) 6) should feel natural and in place (reaction to someting negative, for example)
I remember a while back someone telling me that in the Forgotten Realms setting cults to Bane (the god of tyranny) usually start off as organizations that emphasize fitness rather than something overtly evil.
Warhammer does a really good job with cults. Whether it be the cults of the chaos gods, or the Cult Imperialis, Cult Mechanicus, Genestealer Cults, and even the T'au Empire, the authors do a fantastic job with the designing of cults that I absolutely take inspiration from.
I had an idea about having a cult being the villains of a fantasy story I wanted to write. This video gave me good insight and advice on how to implement that. Thx
For my book "The Last Day: Utopia", the main antagonist is a charismatic succubus named Naomi, who calls her cult The Beloved. The entire call is centered around toxic positivity.
what do you mean by toxic positivity? like how the cult work and what is life in it like? what do the believers think they are getting into and what are they actually really getting into? you seem to have cool idea, and i want to hear more on it
I would posit that in the context of party-based fantasy role-playing games it is a good thing to make your villains obviously evil. Because your goal is not to make a realistic, cohesive world, your goal is to provide an adventure for your players. Ultimately, you want for the party to want to fight them. If you make them too reasonable, too justified, you run the risk that your party's heart isn't in it and they go after the cult merely out of a sense of obligation to the story - or, worse, that they fight amongst themselves about what to do and the session grinds to a halt as you have to spend two hours navigating inter-party conflict. Sure, you could also prepare for a situation where the party joins (or at least temporarily helps) the cult and works towards whatever goal they have - but that means you need to prepare twice as many enemy lairs, twice as many encounters, twice as many "win states" for the adventure - and that's if you foresee the possibility ahead of time. If not, you just need to either wing it or cut the session short to figure this stuff out.
Very well argued and great points! I think it depends on the table ultimately. Some players want that more nuanced game, and others want to save the world from the unrelenting evil.
I've got a Cult called "Warlock Hunters" Their roll in the story is simple. Anything that relates to other being from other planes is something that they want to gain a grasp over (including warlocks) The tricky part is that the party works for one of the leadership of this Cult without knowing that they do, they'd be in conflict with some of the cultists, while actually doing exactly what the cultists came to accomplish So far, the party caught 2 warlocks and 2 ancient relics that are made to commune with these fiends and fey creatures... and I'm dropping small hints to them session by session until they realise the betrayal The best part is, I managed to slowly convince the wizard to make a pact with a fiend. Now he is a multiclass wizard-warlock... I'm excited to see how would he react 😂😂😂
Ive created my own spin on the cult of the dragon. Instead of specifically worshiping tiamat, they used her as a means to an end. They believed humanity needed to reset. This was the main story of the last campaign I ran this summer. At the end of that campaign, the players failed to stop them from summoning Tiamat and the campaign ended. The current one is based in the same setting 50 years in the future, the party is send from an external country to explore, figure out what happened, and setup trade hubs with any potential settlements that are still alive. The twist in holding out on is that the cult of the dragon is still there just not active because they have accomplished their goals, they mostly hang out in this one area because 50 years before(players haven’t discovered this yet) the cult gave a magic item that could trap Tiamat, so Tiamat is currently held captive under the main “city” of the campaign. The cult has mostly joined the cities guard and focus on not letting her escape. The initial members know they have sinned but believe in that them sacrificing themselves, humanity will turn out better
Honestly, just watching this video talking about the process has already helped me lock-down on the idea for the cult in tabletop campaign I'm running. I already had the bones of their goals and the actions they would be taking, but this is why talking or listening to others is good for the creative process. Loosely, the cult is intent on bring the beings that ruled the cosmos before death as a concept was introduced to the world. Essentially titans or old gods that warped reality and life to their whims, twisting and...tinkering with their creations and children without empathy or consideration. These titans were wiped out with the creation of the last of their kind, the one embodying the concept of death. In addition to bringing mortality to the vast majority of life to the realm, and thus a mercy from the manipulations of these old gods, this last titan of death also eventually brought about the demise of these unapproachable titans. And as a titan of death itself, this last titan also brought about its own death, though it is distinct in that despite being dead its power persists. This established the stage for mortal civilization to rise, for the worship of mortals to create the more conventional gods from the coalescing of planar energies. I already knew that the cult involved in the story as of this point in the world would be trying to steal magical technology that could tap into the realm of this dead titan of death, something once deemed both impossible and ludicrously foolish. I knew that they were going to be individuals influenced by a...brush with the echoes of the dead titans consumed by the titan of death. Exposed to the lost names of these dead titans and nearly destroyed by that slight touch with these reality warping beings. Just hearing the process has clarified the idea, their pitch. The idea of a cult trying to reawaken the lost titans of old and pull them back from the dead by tapping into their echoes and names lost within the plane of the dead. As a great reset, a way to return to the "paradise" upon the planes these lost titans created. To go back to the "idyllic" time where no one needed to fear death or loss. That's the pitch, a return to the supposed Garden of Eden within this cosmos. Without understanding that these lost titans were horrifically cruel and capricious beings, to the degree that the titan of death is often referred to as the "Mortal Mercy" for allowing death to serve as a reprieve from the actions of these other titans.
@@TheFantasyForge I really appreciate that. And yeah, I really wanted to establish a previous age that was practically unrecognizable to one that is known in the present. Knowing how the cosmos were shaped tells me how magic works, how the planes worked, where the gods come from, how life and death work. These past titans of this setting gave me the foundations to build off of.
How do you not have more subscribers?! Your content is always exceptional and succinct. Haven't used a cult in any of my games yet, but I feel a powerful urge to do so, thanks to this video!
I'm writing a fantasy series with a cult/secret order as a major antagonist group aiming to obtain magic powers for the "common man" by... dubious means. I'm liking the idea of the leader being cunning and charismatic.
I recently created a cult whos sole purpose is to go to places where great tragedy has taken place and blend into the locals, offering assistance and resources, while simultaneously conducting covert economic and physical attacks to test the resolve of the survivors of the tragaty to see if they are worthy of rebuilding scociety. The belief structure is that it is necessary to weed out the weak to ensure the survival of the strong.
@lanxreedalenlum3706 The theory behind it is simple. If only the strong are left, there will be no more calamity or tragedy. Each member of the cult was a survivor of a different tragedy, and a new member is recruited each new location they go to.
I love the initial idea but it kinda doesn't mesh well with the "weeding out the weak" thing; at least for me. I thought it was meant to be - at least initially - a benevolent thing. By blending into the locals, the cult might try to determine if the people are directly responsible for the tragedy. Or if it was only a small group, have those people been adequately punished or are they still wielding power? If they determine the society is morally good, it would deserve help in rebuilding. So that a similar tragedy doesn't repeat. Maybe all in the hope that a morally good and prospering, intact society if less likely to become antagonistic and warfaring towards the cult's own society.
I'm currently running the Cult of the Dragon in Faerun. It started off with them burning down the party's village (I finally came up with a reason why they did this, which I'll reveal to them later). Now that we're entering into the 2nd act properly, I've been hard at work on designing quests for the party to tackle. One such quest leans into why they seem to be recruiting a lot of lizard-like creatures and targetting kobolds specifically. In my version of Faerun, kobolds are entering into society for the past few years, and goblins have been doing so for at least the past 50 years. Kobolds, however, aren't given much respect despite their natural engineering prowess and instinct on working together. So kobolds have been more or less a joke and most races have been exploting them instead of accepting them. The Cult is using this to their advantage and explaining that they will have a belonging with the Cult instead of being cast aside like they have been in society. Though some members of the Cult don't exactly have the same charisma as the main antagonist and take their own antics too far. Kobolds already tend to look at their dragon cousins as inspiration, so all they need is a little push in thr right direction.
@@ArkadiBolschek Yeah, trying to make ecoterrorists the bad guys in your RPG will never go as planned, and if it did I'd be concerned about those players
@@ArkadiBolschek i think in that case it only counts as a cult if members of that organisation are punished and shunned for questioning if they're going about it the right way. That's why I don't consider the brotherhood in assassin's creed to be a cult (during the Altair and ezio era) but consider the templars to be a cult. Question the brotherhood is a part of the assassin's brotherhood doctrine, do not simply follow the lead of the higher assassin's or other members, your goal is to help people by taking down those who make the world suffer, and as an assassin you all have to criticise your own doctrine and question it in order to know that you and your team are truly making the correct decision
I´m creating a whole campain around a Yuan-ti cult (I´m trying some different lore than dnd). My original idea was, that they worship this old and long forgotten snake-god Neb-em Akhut (took some inspiration from the egyptian mythology) and their goal is to transform the strong into Yuan-ti and to kill the weak (very simply put) by infiltrating city governments (the whole campaing is set in a desert with something like city states) or straight up murdering those in their way. But thanks to you and this video I got a completely diffrerent aproach on how this cult fits into and deals with my world. Thanks a lot🙏 As always your videos are full of inspiration.
Some creative writing ive been doing the world's religion(s) revolve around the same pantheon but the main differences are rather or not to venerate the evil gods in the setting. (most) People don't worship the evil gods in a traditional sense, they venerate them in order for those gods to leave them alone. The main religion believes you shouldn't give them worship as it spreads their influence, so it bans it. So i like the idea these cults out there that aren't evil as such, they're trying to do objective good by worshiping evil gods to discourage them from doing evil to them
That is the origin of all religion, not worshipping gods because they are good and praise worthy (the old gods rarely were) but because they are powerful and terrible and can/will smite your whole tribe if you don't keep them happy.
My two favorite cults I designed are the church of the Collector who prey on orphans and those who are weak with the goal of ascending their deity to the higher pantheon. My second favorite is the a cult that worships the sun deity and thinks that the world is destined to becoming a second sun so they essentially go super nova to “bring more people closer to the light.”
I have a continent-spanning cult of the Giggling Cultists. They operate in the shadows and bear subtle signa of their affiliations. Each cultist belongs to a colored division: Red rose magicians, orange cauldron chefs, black scroll collars, etc. Depending where you are you can be anywhere between a merchant, thief, demon summoner, assassin, performer, priest- They are basically a rainbow collective of shadow operators that pull the strings in society and never make themselves known to outsiders. The goal of this cult is 1.) Safety in numbers and secrecy, 2.) Financial and pleasurable indulgence, and 3.) Unrivaled and unquestionable power to use against outsiders.
nice work man, just writing up a huge campaign right now that has a cult at its core, basing it off greyhawk/toee and i think it needs fleshing out, subtleties - the stuff offered by wotc is ok for 10 year olds but my players need some more of what youre recommending
Lorekeeper what have you done? The main villain of our campaign is a militant cult leader. You're teaching our DM how to make that bastard so much worse.
well, the cult in my book is literally the government and it’s not about an actual god but someone that want to become a god that will reward greatly anyone helping him… which makes them veeeeery selfish but kind of logical because they’re all meant to win a lot
basically, they don’t pray or anything…. they help their « future god » completing a series of tasks he has to accomplish in order to became a god (he fails miserably, but he sure brings A LOT of chaos through the whole world… and he’s a charismatic antagonist 😅)
Have my current campaign in its early days, but my villain is trying to be rid of the gods and has amassed an army. Funnily there’s a cleric in the party so we’ll see how this goes!
In my campaign I have two different cults that both embrace undeath and necromancy but have opposed views on how to implement it and what to do with a person's soul. One originated an isolated village with few natural resources that turned to necromancy out of necessity to have enough workers as well as guards to defend them from bandits. Having your body reanimated to serve your community is considered sacred but doing anything to the soul is seen as sacrilege. Over time necromancy became a core part of their society. The other came from criminals who were banished into a dense, monster-infested forest as punishment. Many of them died but the few who survived banded together under a minor death deity for protection in exchange for servitude and promised immortality through undeath. They wouldn't do much with the bodies of the deceased but would use the souls of sentient beings to create wraiths and specters that where forced to do their bidding. The cult would grow as the authorities continued banishing criminals into the forest completely oblivious of the monster they were creating as the cult keeps a low profile, at least for now. I'm not a great writer or experienced world builder but i thought these would be some neat ideas.
I think the ideal cult story is not to use them as villains but as allies. Try to recruit one or more of your players. If they catch on, offer the cult's help on some important missions. The party can slowly realize they're a cult over time, starting as recruits or allies, and then having to confront them eventually, and that's a way better arc than 'group of guys we need to punch, most of whom were indoctrinated without knowing what they were getting into and are therefore kind of innocent'
One way that I would personally possibly make a good cult is by drawing from the Yellow Turban Rebellion from the Three Kingdoms Era of Ancient China; though *somewhat* more the way that Dynasty Warriors portrayed the Yellow Turbans in my case; don't really know whether or not the group was really a "cult" in real life.* Unfortunately, though, up until Origins, Dynasty Warriors only portrayed Zhang Jiao as a religious nut who *talks* big about helping the people when the Han's corruption is royally effing everyone, but I love how Origins will actually *show* him helping people in need. That is very realistic as before the rebellion, Zhang Jiao was a doctor. It makes total sense for him to just want to help the people. * This is not counting Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which the Dynasty Warriors series was partially based on, as that was written with a *huge* bias toward the kingdom of Shu, and even threw in a bunch of characters who, as far as historians can tell, never actually existed in real life.
The Church of the Eternal Fire in The Witcher series works so well because you can see real world parallels (xenophobia, bigotry, scapegoat), it's very effective and quite terrifying because it's something that could happen
Dudes believe that they would bring peace to the world by destroy the two main empires they deserted from by using the forbidden knowledge of the undead. Oh boy, how cooked they are.
My favorite fantasy cult I've made is an extremist sect of the church of the god of healing. They do a bunch of philanthropy and are publicly well-regarded but in the higher levels you realize the distinction: their god is not a god of health, but of healing. And to heal, people must be wounded. They use their influence to start constant wars so that there will always be people to heal
90% of all cults in fiction go with the most generic option possible because they realized most people watch TV and play games for the way it makes them feel. On the other hand, those of us who grew up reading love to think and feel. Which makes us a rarity in media since we make up a small niche in comparison to the masses. In a way, the above is the reason I started my own TTRPG business and learned to love writing. Because it is a chance to tell my stories, ones that fill that niche that is so rare to find. Personally, I never write stories with predefined villains in them. I write stories about people who are fighting for what they believe in, in a world where what is right or wrong is not obvious. So it is up to you as the player to decide what is worth risking your life for, or to follow your own beliefs just like the initial protagonists and antagonists are to save who you care about since you can't save everyone. Readings of classics like the Odyssey really changed how I viewed storytelling. As everyone loves a happy ending, but no one forgets a Tragedy.
Im creating a cult for a western style campaign that takes place in a desert. I wanted to play with the idea of dark being good & light being bad. So the god behind the cult is a god of the undead with light imagery. The cult says the members that are strong in their faith and loyal in their servitude will have a loved one "filled with the light of life again" (ie. Brought back to life) or even be saved from death. They will do anything to spread their god's beliefs and light, to save people from the darkness of death. And they're going to do that by bringing their god into the mortal plane, even though in my setting, gods in the mortal plane is really bad. My players have already started making their characters & backstories, & ive already tied it in to a couple PCs' backstories. That may change if my players change things up, but i think they're going to stick with it.
Been working on a world and I've written down some of the stuff you've said and so far I have a lot of what you mentioned, the only real thing I think I don't have is how their recruited, as I'm not sure how someone would be introduced into it. To give the general jist, their a cult focused on 1. being as much like their god as possible, and 2. pursuing their own individual desires as a form of worship, as well as assist others in indulging in their wishes as well. Now, as good as some may consider that, Most of the people within the cult are primarily selfish people who, for some reason or another, have been prevented from pursuing their desires for some reason (Note: although some are unjustified, with most members, it actually turns out to be for a very good reason one way or another), wondering if people have any ideas.
Top of my head, I think you could have "generals" or right-hand people looking for recruits and offering a chance to be their "truest self." Or prisons would be a great place to recruit people who want to be selfish
@TheFantasyForge you know what, knowing them, and the being who leads them in human form, I'd honestly think prisons would be exactly where they'd recruit people (let's just say, the Eldritch god who leads them is extremely petty towards one kingdom in particular).
@@camdenthompson4307 haha even better. It would make for a really unique type of jail break situation. "The world's most dangerous killers have all escaped...etc"
I don’t know the official lore reason but maybe they view dragons as the superior beings that must be followed and who else to worship then the dragon god; or at least the one they know of
Tiamat has promised them they'll be spared when she rises, and that they'll sit at her right hand and rule with her. (actually they'll sit in the snack bowl at her right hand, but she's not going to say that out loud)
In my homebrew d&d campaign there was a cult that the party ended up feeling bad for killing because they ended up learning more about them after killing them. They worshipped a transaction God, who would basically barter for miracles. A mother in the cult had a sick baby and she offered her hair in exchange for the child's health, or in exchange for the corpses of outlaws the deity bestowed upon them lavish feasts. By the end they were all just good honest folks who really got into the dressing up as their hideous God because he genuinely helped them for a modest fee.
Tiamats cult in hoard of the dragon queen and rise of tiamat Are really good as a template I had it be a scorch the earth and join the winning side kinda premise They started out helping people in poverty into pillaging bandits and evolved them into wanting to destroy the corrupt society that ruined their lives (Especially with Asborrowed Joss as the leader) Further they in my game they indoctrinated monsterous races/tribes like gnolls, lizardfolk, orcs, and yuan ti through right of conquest swelling their numbers and i gave my party the chamce to convert the faction by defeating the cult implanted leaders
To add some dynamics to the frozen world of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden I added a small religious group of Kossuthians to one of the towns. The guys were looking for a way to heat all comers and overcome the eternal winter. Kossuth is the god of flame, so the characters immediately felt common goals with this cult, much to help them get on their feet, but they didn't take one thing into account. The Church of Kossuth has a very strict hierarchy and discipline, besides being the most popular in... Thay. Yes, in the dictatorship of the Lichs and Red Mages, where their leader was from. I don't think I need to explain that the fires of religious fanaticism got out of control
A zealous group of witch hunters which are necessary to combat creatures of the night, but also believe all demi-human creatures are a form of corruption of the land and that burning them would cleanse their soul and eventually lead to the salvation of their former kingdom.
I had a great time playing a Trevor where my character was a cult leader, giving her the side motivation to build something for a God that actually exists. The cult is themed after the late Spanish conquistador. It's ranks are on real ranks found then. And it's strengths lie in the feeling the people in the world has that there is little purpose to life, due to a rapture of all the gods except for a few. The cult only has three members so far, but it's bound to gain more soon
In a D&D campaign I am running, I just destroyed the sun. This is a big event that recently happened. People are freaking out, crops are failing, creatures that feared/hated sunlight can roam freely and its a pretty bad day all around. Then the 'Spore Mother' arrives. Many believe this is a new deity who is there to help. Some of the weird practices include implanting spores and fungus into the dead and dying as an offering to the Spore Mother and in return she will protect and help feed her followers. Mushrooms don't need or really want sunlight so it works. There are some other rituals but I don't want this to turn into a multi-paragraph lore dump. What makes this cult weird is who the Spore Mother really is, Zuggtmoy the Demon Lord of Fungus. She does have her own motivation for starting this cult. Largely, she is sick and tired of the Blood War between some of the planes and sees an attempt of deific ascension as a way she can get out of it. Again very shortened version of what's going on.
The cult I'm working on is loosely based on some gnostic concepts. To make a long story short, the main gods of my setting are the celestial bodies (Astras), specifically the sun, the moon and the stars. The first human empire rose when the worshippers of the Sun began to actually slay the big dragons that kept destroying cities. They kept winning until they went against dragon worshippers (they were bad guys, like real bad), when the empire bled itself dry trying to exterminate them, leading to internal strife that led the priesthood to lose favor of the Sun, the latter almost completely removing the access to power to the priests. The cult comes in and teaches that the celestial bodies are actually liars, manipulating humanity in order to subjugate it. They tell that when the spirit of humanity was in its infancy, the Sun broke it in half, one material half that are the humans, and a spiritual half that is misrepresented as demons, and that are truly the rebellious spirit of humanity. The dragons are secret servants of the Astras that were originally meant to exterminate humanity, until the Astras realised it would be better to con the humans into servitude rather than exterminate them. So the goal of the cult is to allow humanity to reach its true potential and supplant the Astras as the rulers of the divine realm. So why are they evil? Because they are completely, absolutely and hilariously wrong about everything. The demons are literally spiritual parasites that try to tempt you into betraying yourself so you're weaker and easier to devour. The Astras are too esoretic to understand for most people, but are genuinely benevolent and lend power when humans devote their faith to them, even if it's not clear to the humans when, why and how they intervene. The priests of the first empire did not fall because they discovered "the truth", they fell because greed or tyranny become rampant. The whole attraction of the cult is a promise of a hidden truth that will set you free, but in reality it is a complete delusion that brings misery when they actually try to bring it into reality, making up conspiracy theories to explain their inability to succeed in order to keep their delusion intact.
I've been playing through Sunken Isles and the BBEG has a cult that follows him. However, in all my reading, i can't figure out why. So i started to change how they act. The bbeg promotes utilizing undead as a workforce. Further, devotion to the cause can result in members being elevated to immortal sentient undead, like him. It's not much, but hey it's something to explain why they do what they do.
My cult breaks a lot of these rules, but I’ll still go into it. Basically, Romulus, the name sake of Rome, discovers that he can drain the mana of another human being. He can extend his life at the cost of killing another human being. This causes an addiction, causing them to crave mana forcing them to hunt new victims. Later on, they are dubbed “vampires”. His brother, disgusted by this, cast him away. He eventually finds willing followers, people seeking immortality and power. He lives for thousands of years, having his minions attack small, unsuspecting settlements. Eventually he runs into true opposition. The Kentashra and the Tiophianiaran. The first is a group of witches who seek to aid their fellow man. The other is a nation of magic users from a parallel Earth, looking to protect their own people living amongst humanity. They form an alliance against the cult, who is known as Dira Dominorum and wage a silent war. They are the first antagonist in a rough draft I’m working on, so definitely room for improvement.
For my DnD campaign I used the Black Fingers, a cult that executes the will of the goddess of misfortune. Their rank consists if sadists, machievellian schemers and warped broken people lulled in with promises of an end to their unlucky streaks in life (think those victims of random tragedies, gambling addicts and people born in destitution). Their vision is rather simple - a world without connections. A place where group organisation is stiffled and men survive and thrive based only on their own ruthlessness and cunning, with fate bending itself to reward those who demonstrate those qualities. This attracts members like corrupt politicians, greedy merchants and serial killers into the cult. Those who have no regard for society and only seek to benefit themselves. As well as those who wish to strike back against society as a concept for what has been done to them by it. Their goddess grants them boons like lairs that can be hidden in plain sight, manipulation of odds and the ability to inflict random calamities on their enemies.
I plan on introducing a cult to Tiamat to my players, as well as running a different campaign that has a religious organization running the government, so this is all very useful! for my idea of a Tiamat cult, would a fitting goal/belief be that wealth is being hoarded by the few aristocrats/rulers, leaving the vast population without the necessary funds to live their lives in peace and comfort, and so a group spearheads a movement to redistribute wealth to the people, albeit violently? but the true leaders of the group are a dragon family hoping to acquire a hoard of wealth worthy enough to summon Tiamat, as well as damn many mortal souls, so they can both be used as in a ritual to return Tiamat to the mortal plane? edit: people won't realize that the "deity of charity and equality" they are worshiping and following to achieve their goal of monetary equality is in fact Tiamat, who will instead be referred to in different ways ("the great mother" for example) edit 2: posted this before seeing your "utopia without money" concept, so I will definitely build on that! one of my ideas that contributes to the growth of this cult is a recently-made noble family that has introduced firearms to the world, but have a very tight monopoly over the sale and crafting of guns/gun powder. the dragons see this, and have begun sending mortal raiders to incentivize people to use their money on self-protection, as well as raise the costs of goods by increasing the cost of transportation and lowering supplies. as such, people are enamored by a new group that both promises to defend them from these raids (blamed on by neighboring kingdom) and remove the concept of money so people won't need to worry about going hungry or losing their homes and stuff. as part of this joining/being a member, people are encouraged to "throw away" their "worthless/worldly" possessions and money into these "black holes" that would destroy them, which instead are teleporting them all to a different location where the ritual to summon Tiamat will take place.
In the setting I am writing for myself and my players humanity has fallen from grace and their past deeds haunt them and the other races shun them for what they did in the past, so the biggest cult just starts with offering them a place of belonging, a group of other humans who believe they are being treated unfairly and that those mistakes do not matter anymore because of how much time has passed, but the deeper you go into the cult the bigger the idea of human supremacy starts to take place. I at least think it is a pretty neat motivation for a cult targeting a specific demographic but still being able to betray the followers beliefs depending on whatever the leader of the organization wants to do in the end
It has yet to be implemented, but I have a blossoming cult outside of the original pantheon (which have been seen, but not in the last ~1000+ years). It's growing in popularity because there are those who claim to have seen it and were "blinded by its beauty". They claim it had a thousand eyes, glowed with the brilliance of a thousand suns before burning their eyes. It's a beholder. A beholder that wishes to become a god and is using the power of amassing a large religious following. It just wants to be believed in ❤😂 it's hiding under the city, charms and then blinds it's "prophets" to spread it's truth.
Even if it was/is about dark gods... what is that god going to do? Is there an enemy to punish? Are the cultists victims? Even 'bad' cults can be given great depths if more thought is placed on them.
I think the best cults would actually sound normal to common people. normally people think of the Manson family or stargate when they think of cults stuff normal people really wouldn't join they'd have to be emotionally vulnerable or mentally unstable. I accidentally joined a cult when I was 22. Its the reason I support ad blockers because it was through a youtube ad. dude was explaining hell teach you the secrets to become rich and how to sell stuff to a higher clientele of people. what it was explained as was an 8 week course and he seemed very open about everything he was doing. he'd have events that made you feel like you were rich, or classes that were extra that only few were privy to, an inner circle for top students, had several books, and held a black suit and tie event up in Canada, and even did a ted talk. and he charged every step of the way. on paper the dude sounded very legit. when i wasn't getting a good sales job I was told try harder. everything they were teaching that was going wrong was my fault. and it wasn't until one dude on youtube did a few interviews with former members who was in my class that i realized he had a lot of things he was up charging for and it was all a scam. the dude spent well over a 100 grand just from this place alone and the only benefit he got out of it was he was 100 k in debt now.
In a "History of Christianity" class I took in undergrad, the professor said half-jokingly that there are 3 requirements to being a cult: 1) A tight, inward focused group that's suspicious of outsiders but is trustingly centered around a charismatic individual 2) That individual has direct, unmediated access to God 3) At some point, God tells that individual that all the women need to sleep with him not a technical definition but it does track haha
i made a world where it kinda fucks around with flat earth and what fuckery would be possible if gravity was just a constant force pointing forever in one direction instead of around a point of mass. essentially, there was a huge fight between two god-like entities, Noctara and Lithiris, resulting in the complete annihilation of the "floor" which would leave both of their followers to fall for eternity, or until they die of dehydration. right before this happened, Noctara created an endlessly deep "roof" with enormous hanging stalactites, material rich stone when mining upwards, and a whole new set of wildlife to go with it, and transported their followers there. Lithiris created a few small reserves EXTREMELY far down, all of varying climates, and around the size of Texas, for their followers to reside. The party starts off as all in the roof society, where people have carved buildings into the stalactites, making airships, bridges, and ways for them to get around while avoiding falling into the seemingly endless drop into nothingness. the narrative in that society was that Noctara was all good and Lithiris was all evil, not bothering to help their followers since seemingly only Noctara's followers were brought to safety. the cult i made follows Lithiris, and believes that there is a utopia free of all problems that resides in the void, and are trying to reach it at all costs for salvation. it's their heaven, a place made personally by Lithiris in a time of their followers' need. of course, most of the society is the follower of Noctara and views the cult as crazy, but they would actually be right if they didn't get so carried away in their attempts to reach the other side. this cult wasn't really a "throw this at the level 1 party and they'll wipe it out first try," no, it was the catalyst of the whole campaign's main conflict. i haven't run it yet, but i probably will soon. what do yall think?
Funny thing is, that cult means nothing how Hollywood uses the word. It comes from Latin language, from same word as "culture". When some one talks about movie and call it as "cult classic", that is actually really close to actual meaning of cult. Cult is more connected to art, than religion, but since historically there is very little art without context of religion, these are quite tied. No matter do you go to Rome's art, Indian arts, or what ever culture, art is usually connected to their religion. So cult is group of people who gathering for talking about art, like sculpts, books, paintings, what ever is their interest and focus. But those art works very high likely been historically connected religion, so is their conversations therefore too. Thing about cults is, that they are independently gathered people, and no outsiders control the group. For example, group of people gather play tabletop rpg. That group is technically a cult. They gather to talk about art peace, and let their imagination to fly. They have their time, their conversations (what they may call "games"), and no one outsider controls them, and it is possible that very few if any other person even know that the cult exists. And once they stop having their gatherings, cult is over. And maybe new cult borns somewhere else. That is very typical how most of cults born, existed and ended in history. If you go to read English Wikipedia what is definition of cult, you get lot of non-sense. If you go to see the conversation of the article, you may see there is people who point out, that definition actually is messed up, and there is few different definitions, but the Wikipedia text messes all of them to be one, and in the end it is just non-sense. But also, that those people who point out that, tell that they do not want change themselves the text, because it is "too hot topic". If you go to Finnish Wikipedia (I speak Finnish), you see that there is much less text, but there is actually clear separation of different definitions, and short history told for them. Including mention, that in USA anti-cult movement been dominating from 20th century, and that effects strongly in English speaking world. That since cults are independent, unofficial groups, that creates space where people may start talking together topics they see important, that creates potential danger for status quo, and therefore those who want upkeep status quo, may start demonising cults, so that people keep away from them. And that is what anti-cult movement in USA been doing, including creating their own definitions for cults, which are not scientifically true. Like claiming that cults have charismatic leaders. In reality, majority of cults never had charismatic leaders, very few has. Hollywood cults, same as the cults by definition of anti-cult movements, are created to be "villains" and therefore they do not usually make much sense. Cults can vary very much from each others. Some can be horrible, others good, many of them very harmless. -- So, how about cult, which secretly reads books... in cyberpunk settings. I mean, paper books, not digital ones. And talk about these books. But group of people who do not know what they are doing, tell that those cultists are bad people, they want brainwashing you, make you to obey their leader. And then you go with them, they seems to suspiciously nice people. And in a meeting, one of them suggesting to play ttrpg - showing he has printed rulebook there. And they you learn who is their charismatic leader: the "GM". And you know, that they try to brainwash you to think, that they are in the end quite ordinary people, who like to do things together. But you know truth, they are evil people. They want summon some dark god to this world! You know the truth! You were warned about them! They are all brainwashed people! Something like that...
I once wrote a little fanfiction story about a young man who joined a cult in a fantasy world to get his brother out if it. The beliefs of the cult were simple, subteranian primordial demons lived under the nearby hills that communicated psychically with people and offered their blessings in the form of magical powers, prolonged life, fertility of both the earth and wombs in exchange for worship and sacrifices of portions of harvest, livestock, humans and occasionally specific humans and animals. What do these old demons want? They want their servants to stay loyal to them, to keep the offerings and worship flowing and to be left alone. The last thing they wanted was inquisitors slaughtering their followers and calling upon angels to burn them out of their homes. The most extreme followers cut out their eyes and tongues and crawled into the deep chasms of the mountain to be closer to their gods, to act as their puppets, their names stripped from all memory and they would emerge only to bring the sacrifices to their gods and to kill who they are commanded to kill. Not really a threat to the world or even to neighbouring villages despite how odd and paranoid they are towards outsiders, a secretive little society living in seemingly eternally bountiful lands. I liked this cult, I later expanded it so they'd have secret followers all over the continent operating as small groups, usually single or a handful of families, mostly to procure exotic goods and creatures for sacrifice and to carry out the killings commanded of their gods when the target is too far for the unseen (the eyeless/tongueless zealouts) to reach.
Made a cult as a minor BBEG for my party as the main antagonist of the story arc they were in. As a cult they were already well established as the ruling church in the region, a large swath of ice and snow in the northern section of the continent. This region had been in a civil war for several decades at this point and was roughly split in 3 regions. The ones where the cult reigned supreme, where cult and Jarls held roughly equal power and where the cult was activly opposed and fought by Jarls and people. Needless to say, the middle portion is the civil war front and has been steadily moving back and forth between Cult supporters and opposers. The cult technically were a minor sect of the popular religion there, worshipping the Frostmaiden aka. the Snow deity that had blessed the land to "persevere" with snow and ice at the creation of the world. This sect twisted that to mean "never change, always standing still, perfectly preserved in the here and now, blanketed in ice and snow for all eternity" and proved this by using the landscape to build their quarters and churches in large natural glaciers and huge underground chambers (which isolate really well against cold) and house the unfortunate outcasts of society, freeze their wounds and make the pain stop that way. Over time they grew large enough to have important positions in the original church of the Snow-Goddess and aquire power and artifacts to support their claim further. By the time my party made it to this region the cult had been there for well over a few centuries trying to keep the region stuck in time basically, opposing new rulings and ideas with preachings and prayers of traditions and pointing out how invention literally blew up an entire island and killed millions of people (that was an actual event in the game). They got introduced to this cult with a nice cleric who was bottom rank and new nothing of the fucked up stuff in the higher ranks demanded of their loyal subjects, like branding their children with icy marks as a sign of devotion to their frost deity and try to erase any sign of civilization and overworld living as to not disturb their Goddesses land.
Thinking about all of those people standing in traffic, defacing monuments, and gluing themselves to the walls of art galleries shouting, "The world is more important than art!"
"What? We're not a cult, we're just a demi-spirtual movement on a self sustaining commune who occasionally perform rites in order to bring our members closer to nature! ...Oh. Oh my god we're a cult. I started a cult."
I think the best cults in media are the ones where you don't realize at first and then you're like "Wait... is this... a cult? It's starting to sound like a cult"
cough cough Christianity
Thus is best if the cult ain’t religious
You can turn the heat up farther before the audience breaks
just like in real life…
@@chascona9393 the Jedi order be like
@@chascona9393 the Jedi order be like
Guys.... I don't think this is a video about TTRPG...
oneofus oneofus oneofus
Twoofus twoofus
Threeofus threeofus threeofus
fourofus fourofus fourofus
@@nicho.7400 it's spreading...
In a world with magic, gods, and demons, people would join a cult to worship a being that has demonstrated power--power to protect them from their enemies, destroy their enemies, make them prosperous, make their crops grow, etc. ...and also power to punish them if they abandon it.
People worship rocks
but! Genuine theocracy’s
and the entity actually interacting is pretty cool
@@Tysto also their is the option of the main relegion decieved them or got corrupted by Power and money. So they lost believes and change it to An other that appeal to answer to their pray
I created the Nameless as a cult of altruistic people who believed giving up one’s name, their identity and the need for worldly possessions to help the poor and destitute all because I didn’t want to come up with character names. An improvised moment that turned out to be pretty cool.
I like that.
Makes me think of the handful of worshippers and servants of the Death God of my homebrew setting. While the God of Death is entirely benign and loving of all beings, its embrace is...well, death. And as such it is also known as the Unnamed God, as to give it a name or to utter one of its names is to draw its attention.
As such, the few clergy that do follow this entity also often fully eschew their identities and wear masks and veils in something like solidarity with their deity.
Is this based on Nameless from Honkai star rail? sounds like them.
@chrisragner3882 what powers do they have from their patron(or innately) that allows them to help? Can they vibrate wishes into existence with pure thought? Maybe they just create things? Allowing them to not need to interact with an economy? 😊 curious
so buddism+1?
@@Sine_Vox seems chill phrased that way
I have a cult of druid/necromancers.
The religious doctrine is about the duality between life and death.
You receive the blessings in life and will in turn repay your debt in death. As a mindless skeleton plowing fields to feed your descendants until time and friction grinds your bones down to dust.
So the necromancers living in this cult have been practicing in the open for generations mastering separating the soul and sending it off to the afterlife safely while the bones remain to be LEGOed into whatever bone golem shape is needed.
To everyone outside looking in it looks like everyone(even kids) are evil necromancers commanding hapless undead around. Protected by legions of undead soldiers.
To the cult members having several skeletons around the house is seen as a status symbol because they could afford to give several of their elders that premium "burial".
In a sort of twisted way, Druid cult is making their own golem with body and soul of their deceased followers
That's a really cool idea. Question, what do they do once the bones are worn out? You mentioned friction grinding them to dust and golems. Is it both or do they eventually turn the dust into fertilizer?
@@kingofhearts3185 Golems in the setting just means any construct that's made of parts from multiple bodies.
For instance a skeleton made over a decade ago might not have working legs anymore. And instead of discarding an old skeleton they disassemble them and use the bones for various specialized machinery.
As for the dust I imagine it just fertilizes the countryside wherever each particle flakes off. Seems in line with the druidic faith that the last remnants of grandpa eventually becomes part of the ecosystem.
The actual part of the skeleton that's powering the whole deal is the skull which will only obey commands issued by a blood descendant. All the other bones are interchangable Lego pieces.
@@irtehdar2446 Thanks for the clarification. I like the blood descendant part, I can imagine a humorous interaction between a skeleton and his great granddaughter's husband about that technicality.
I mean, this makes total sense, to be honest. I never really saw a problem with necromancers, if it’s consensual. You can totally want to help your family after death. So what’s the evil “cult” part in this?
From what I’ve gathered, cults often recruit people when they are at their lowest point because they know those people don’t have the usual mental energy to read any red flags. Even some incredibly brilliant people can fall victim to a cult’s clutches if times are that dire for them. And I think all cultists (barring any who actually benefit from the cult’s actions-such as the leader) are victims of the cult more often than they are villains; the leader grasps the members in a dependent, authoritarian, and abusive relationship and makes them do degrading and awful things to themselves or each other (and in many cases, those outside the cult as well) under the guise of belonging in a community while isolating them from the outside world and discouraging independence from the cult.
I also found an acronym for authoritarian control called BITE (Behavior, Information, Thoughts, & Emotions) listing everything the cult regulates to keep the followers in line.
Edit: minor correction
@@kyhumphrey5247 did you mean acronym?
@ I did, actually! Thanks for catching that!
Something I'd add is, even in a cult, the people that make it up don't have to be a monolith.
The example I look to for inspiration comes from Magic the Gathering. In the Ixalan setting, you have the church that the vampire conquistadors belong to. Some prioritize the doctrine itself, some prioritize leadership within the church, some prioritize the royal family of the government of the country that the church is a part of, and some have their own beliefs but as part of the minority just try to keep their heads low while following their conscience when possible. Among those that follow the crown are those seeking money and/or glory, those just being patriotic, and those just indulging their lust for blood with the excuse of patriotism. Then, within those that follow specific leaders of the church there are those that follow the words of the "saint" who started the church and then there are those that follow a guy that represents the beliefs the church fell into during the saint's absence. Among that latter group there are the most extreme members who are searching for ancient forbidden magics and items of a temple that belonged to their ancestors who predate the church.
That's TEN different competing groups with their own motivations in just ONE of the four main factions you can work with!
Rather than just mowing down nondescript enemies in hoods, I'd recommend DMs try splashing in some competing groups among the enemies like this. Sure, they still have a shared goal as a group, but people make up that group and join for their own reasons.
That's such great advice! Appreciate you taking the time to write that out, definitely agree
1) belief system that makes sense (no need to make it obviously evil/bad, what would attract new mortals there?)
2) define hierarchy and leadership (best leaders are the ones who seem approachable, compassionate, inspiring)
3) make their actions logical (at least to them, their actions should align with their goals)
4) recruitment process (how do they do it? what promises do they make?)
5) not villainy, but extremism (extreme motives that make sense)
6) should feel natural and in place (reaction to someting negative, for example)
I remember a while back someone telling me that in the Forgotten Realms setting cults to Bane (the god of tyranny) usually start off as organizations that emphasize fitness rather than something overtly evil.
Warhammer does a really good job with cults. Whether it be the cults of the chaos gods, or the Cult Imperialis, Cult Mechanicus, Genestealer Cults, and even the T'au Empire, the authors do a fantastic job with the designing of cults that I absolutely take inspiration from.
I had an idea about having a cult being the villains of a fantasy story I wanted to write. This video gave me good insight and advice on how to implement that. Thx
appreciate you taking some time to leave love :) Hope it helped
For my book "The Last Day: Utopia", the main antagonist is a charismatic succubus named Naomi, who calls her cult The Beloved. The entire call is centered around toxic positivity.
what do you mean by toxic positivity? like how the cult work and what is life in it like? what do the believers think they are getting into and what are they actually really getting into? you seem to have cool idea, and i want to hear more on it
I would posit that in the context of party-based fantasy role-playing games it is a good thing to make your villains obviously evil. Because your goal is not to make a realistic, cohesive world, your goal is to provide an adventure for your players. Ultimately, you want for the party to want to fight them. If you make them too reasonable, too justified, you run the risk that your party's heart isn't in it and they go after the cult merely out of a sense of obligation to the story - or, worse, that they fight amongst themselves about what to do and the session grinds to a halt as you have to spend two hours navigating inter-party conflict.
Sure, you could also prepare for a situation where the party joins (or at least temporarily helps) the cult and works towards whatever goal they have - but that means you need to prepare twice as many enemy lairs, twice as many encounters, twice as many "win states" for the adventure - and that's if you foresee the possibility ahead of time. If not, you just need to either wing it or cut the session short to figure this stuff out.
Very well argued and great points! I think it depends on the table ultimately. Some players want that more nuanced game, and others want to save the world from the unrelenting evil.
I've got a Cult called "Warlock Hunters"
Their roll in the story is simple. Anything that relates to other being from other planes is something that they want to gain a grasp over (including warlocks)
The tricky part is that the party works for one of the leadership of this Cult without knowing that they do, they'd be in conflict with some of the cultists, while actually doing exactly what the cultists came to accomplish
So far, the party caught 2 warlocks and 2 ancient relics that are made to commune with these fiends and fey creatures... and I'm dropping small hints to them session by session until they realise the betrayal
The best part is, I managed to slowly convince the wizard to make a pact with a fiend. Now he is a multiclass wizard-warlock... I'm excited to see how would he react 😂😂😂
That's one hell of a way to include cult into the game, luring gamers into cult is metal 😂😂😂
Ive created my own spin on the cult of the dragon. Instead of specifically worshiping tiamat, they used her as a means to an end. They believed humanity needed to reset. This was the main story of the last campaign I ran this summer. At the end of that campaign, the players failed to stop them from summoning Tiamat and the campaign ended. The current one is based in the same setting 50 years in the future, the party is send from an external country to explore, figure out what happened, and setup trade hubs with any potential settlements that are still alive. The twist in holding out on is that the cult of the dragon is still there just not active because they have accomplished their goals, they mostly hang out in this one area because 50 years before(players haven’t discovered this yet) the cult gave a magic item that could trap Tiamat, so Tiamat is currently held captive under the main “city” of the campaign. The cult has mostly joined the cities guard and focus on not letting her escape. The initial members know they have sinned but believe in that them sacrificing themselves, humanity will turn out better
Honestly, just watching this video talking about the process has already helped me lock-down on the idea for the cult in tabletop campaign I'm running. I already had the bones of their goals and the actions they would be taking, but this is why talking or listening to others is good for the creative process.
Loosely, the cult is intent on bring the beings that ruled the cosmos before death as a concept was introduced to the world. Essentially titans or old gods that warped reality and life to their whims, twisting and...tinkering with their creations and children without empathy or consideration. These titans were wiped out with the creation of the last of their kind, the one embodying the concept of death. In addition to bringing mortality to the vast majority of life to the realm, and thus a mercy from the manipulations of these old gods, this last titan of death also eventually brought about the demise of these unapproachable titans. And as a titan of death itself, this last titan also brought about its own death, though it is distinct in that despite being dead its power persists.
This established the stage for mortal civilization to rise, for the worship of mortals to create the more conventional gods from the coalescing of planar energies.
I already knew that the cult involved in the story as of this point in the world would be trying to steal magical technology that could tap into the realm of this dead titan of death, something once deemed both impossible and ludicrously foolish.
I knew that they were going to be individuals influenced by a...brush with the echoes of the dead titans consumed by the titan of death. Exposed to the lost names of these dead titans and nearly destroyed by that slight touch with these reality warping beings.
Just hearing the process has clarified the idea, their pitch.
The idea of a cult trying to reawaken the lost titans of old and pull them back from the dead by tapping into their echoes and names lost within the plane of the dead. As a great reset, a way to return to the "paradise" upon the planes these lost titans created. To go back to the "idyllic" time where no one needed to fear death or loss.
That's the pitch, a return to the supposed Garden of Eden within this cosmos. Without understanding that these lost titans were horrifically cruel and capricious beings, to the degree that the titan of death is often referred to as the "Mortal Mercy" for allowing death to serve as a reprieve from the actions of these other titans.
I LOVE anything to do with titans or anything similar. This sounds awesome!
@@TheFantasyForge I really appreciate that.
And yeah, I really wanted to establish a previous age that was practically unrecognizable to one that is known in the present.
Knowing how the cosmos were shaped tells me how magic works, how the planes worked, where the gods come from, how life and death work.
These past titans of this setting gave me the foundations to build off of.
Where has this channel been my whole life? I like the voice and how clearly the info is presented. Keep it up.
aw shucks don't make me blush
How do you not have more subscribers?! Your content is always exceptional and succinct. Haven't used a cult in any of my games yet, but I feel a powerful urge to do so, thanks to this video!
This video was genuinely good: Straight to the point and full of good stuff.
I'm writing a fantasy series with a cult/secret order as a major antagonist group aiming to obtain magic powers for the "common man" by... dubious means. I'm liking the idea of the leader being cunning and charismatic.
finally another video that gets me on a list of some kind
You deserve way so many more subs
I need that background music for my next Shadowrun game.
Should I be worried that you know so much about this…
...no
Those who know are safe. Those who don't, are recruited. You should be afraid that you don't. Good luck.
@HopeisAnger Well sh-
Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.
I recently created a cult whos sole purpose is to go to places where great tragedy has taken place and blend into the locals, offering assistance and resources, while simultaneously conducting covert economic and physical attacks to test the resolve of the survivors of the tragaty to see if they are worthy of rebuilding scociety. The belief structure is that it is necessary to weed out the weak to ensure the survival of the strong.
dmn thats ace, woud love that
@lanxreedalenlum3706 The theory behind it is simple. If only the strong are left, there will be no more calamity or tragedy. Each member of the cult was a survivor of a different tragedy, and a new member is recruited each new location they go to.
I love the initial idea but it kinda doesn't mesh well with the "weeding out the weak" thing; at least for me. I thought it was meant to be - at least initially - a benevolent thing. By blending into the locals, the cult might try to determine if the people are directly responsible for the tragedy. Or if it was only a small group, have those people been adequately punished or are they still wielding power? If they determine the society is morally good, it would deserve help in rebuilding. So that a similar tragedy doesn't repeat. Maybe all in the hope that a morally good and prospering, intact society if less likely to become antagonistic and warfaring towards the cult's own society.
@@needycatproductions6830
This guy gets it
I'm currently running the Cult of the Dragon in Faerun. It started off with them burning down the party's village (I finally came up with a reason why they did this, which I'll reveal to them later).
Now that we're entering into the 2nd act properly, I've been hard at work on designing quests for the party to tackle. One such quest leans into why they seem to be recruiting a lot of lizard-like creatures and targetting kobolds specifically. In my version of Faerun, kobolds are entering into society for the past few years, and goblins have been doing so for at least the past 50 years. Kobolds, however, aren't given much respect despite their natural engineering prowess and instinct on working together. So kobolds have been more or less a joke and most races have been exploting them instead of accepting them.
The Cult is using this to their advantage and explaining that they will have a belonging with the Cult instead of being cast aside like they have been in society. Though some members of the Cult don't exactly have the same charisma as the main antagonist and take their own antics too far.
Kobolds already tend to look at their dragon cousins as inspiration, so all they need is a little push in thr right direction.
02:45 Dude, all those _are_ legit righteous actions.
One of us. One of us.
@@ArkadiBolschek Yeah, trying to make ecoterrorists the bad guys in your RPG will never go as planned, and if it did I'd be concerned about those players
Based
@@ArkadiBolschek i think in that case it only counts as a cult if members of that organisation are punished and shunned for questioning if they're going about it the right way.
That's why I don't consider the brotherhood in assassin's creed to be a cult (during the Altair and ezio era) but consider the templars to be a cult.
Question the brotherhood is a part of the assassin's brotherhood doctrine, do not simply follow the lead of the higher assassin's or other members, your goal is to help people by taking down those who make the world suffer, and as an assassin you all have to criticise your own doctrine and question it in order to know that you and your team are truly making the correct decision
I´m creating a whole campain around a Yuan-ti cult (I´m trying some different lore than dnd). My original idea was, that they worship this old and long forgotten snake-god Neb-em Akhut (took some inspiration from the egyptian mythology) and their goal is to transform the strong into Yuan-ti and to kill the weak (very simply put) by infiltrating city governments (the whole campaing is set in a desert with something like city states) or straight up murdering those in their way.
But thanks to you and this video I got a completely diffrerent aproach on how this cult fits into and deals with my world. Thanks a lot🙏
As always your videos are full of inspiration.
Some creative writing ive been doing the world's religion(s) revolve around the same pantheon but the main differences are rather or not to venerate the evil gods in the setting. (most) People don't worship the evil gods in a traditional sense, they venerate them in order for those gods to leave them alone. The main religion believes you shouldn't give them worship as it spreads their influence, so it bans it. So i like the idea these cults out there that aren't evil as such, they're trying to do objective good by worshiping evil gods to discourage them from doing evil to them
That is the origin of all religion, not worshipping gods because they are good and praise worthy (the old gods rarely were) but because they are powerful and terrible and can/will smite your whole tribe if you don't keep them happy.
@ sure especially with older faiths but there was also an element of wanting a boon too
My two favorite cults I designed are the church of the Collector who prey on orphans and those who are weak with the goal of ascending their deity to the higher pantheon. My second favorite is the a cult that worships the sun deity and thinks that the world is destined to becoming a second sun so they essentially go super nova to “bring more people closer to the light.”
I have a continent-spanning cult of the Giggling Cultists. They operate in the shadows and bear subtle signa of their affiliations. Each cultist belongs to a colored division: Red rose magicians, orange cauldron chefs, black scroll collars, etc. Depending where you are you can be anywhere between a merchant, thief, demon summoner, assassin, performer, priest- They are basically a rainbow collective of shadow operators that pull the strings in society and never make themselves known to outsiders.
The goal of this cult is 1.) Safety in numbers and secrecy, 2.) Financial and pleasurable indulgence, and 3.) Unrivaled and unquestionable power to use against outsiders.
I love how this guy, who looks like a Godskin version of the Lord of Frenzy, is lecturing us about cults
nice work man, just writing up a huge campaign right now that has a cult at its core, basing it off greyhawk/toee and i think it needs fleshing out, subtleties - the stuff offered by wotc is ok for 10 year olds but my players need some more of what youre recommending
Lorekeeper what have you done? The main villain of our campaign is a militant cult leader. You're teaching our DM how to make that bastard so much worse.
It's worth noting that not everyone needs a good reason to do violence or cause chaos, not even by their standards.
Great content!
aw shucks thanks for the love
well, the cult in my book is literally the government and it’s not about an actual god but someone that want to become a god that will reward greatly anyone helping him… which makes them veeeeery selfish but kind of logical because they’re all meant to win a lot
basically, they don’t pray or anything…. they help their « future god » completing a series of tasks he has to accomplish in order to became a god (he fails miserably, but he sure brings A LOT of chaos through the whole world… and he’s a charismatic antagonist 😅)
Instructions are unclear, I have become a cultist myself... but my cult is actually good
what movie is the scene in 4:41 from? it seems cool and i want to look it up
ooooh, you meant in a fictional work. That's pretty cool too.
What is the clip at 3:18 from? It's a perfect illustration of something my current BBEG can do
Probably fantastic beasts
Garou from Werewolf the Apocalypse could be the "eco cult" you are using as an example :D
Thank you for the tips!
Pointy Hat also made a cult video this week!
I didn't know that! Now I have to go check lol, I always wondered when ideas with other TH-camrs would eventually cross over
Have my current campaign in its early days, but my villain is trying to be rid of the gods and has amassed an army. Funnily there’s a cleric in the party so we’ll see how this goes!
In my campaign I have two different cults that both embrace undeath and necromancy but have opposed views on how to implement it and what to do with a person's soul.
One originated an isolated village with few natural resources that turned to necromancy out of necessity to have enough workers as well as guards to defend them from bandits. Having your body reanimated to serve your community is considered sacred but doing anything to the soul is seen as sacrilege. Over time necromancy became a core part of their society.
The other came from criminals who were banished into a dense, monster-infested forest as punishment. Many of them died but the few who survived banded together under a minor death deity for protection in exchange for servitude and promised immortality through undeath. They wouldn't do much with the bodies of the deceased but would use the souls of sentient beings to create wraiths and specters that where forced to do their bidding. The cult would grow as the authorities continued banishing criminals into the forest completely oblivious of the monster they were creating as the cult keeps a low profile, at least for now.
I'm not a great writer or experienced world builder but i thought these would be some neat ideas.
I didn't realise this video was about TTRPGs when I added it to the "Watch Later" playlist.
I think the ideal cult story is not to use them as villains but as allies. Try to recruit one or more of your players. If they catch on, offer the cult's help on some important missions. The party can slowly realize they're a cult over time, starting as recruits or allies, and then having to confront them eventually, and that's a way better arc than 'group of guys we need to punch, most of whom were indoctrinated without knowing what they were getting into and are therefore kind of innocent'
The talking dead cells person is teaching me to summon an Eldritch god
I shall listen
I need that music playlist
I found myself dancing more than listening
One way that I would personally possibly make a good cult is by drawing from the Yellow Turban Rebellion from the Three Kingdoms Era of Ancient China; though *somewhat* more the way that Dynasty Warriors portrayed the Yellow Turbans in my case; don't really know whether or not the group was really a "cult" in real life.* Unfortunately, though, up until Origins, Dynasty Warriors only portrayed Zhang Jiao as a religious nut who *talks* big about helping the people when the Han's corruption is royally effing everyone, but I love how Origins will actually *show* him helping people in need. That is very realistic as before the rebellion, Zhang Jiao was a doctor. It makes total sense for him to just want to help the people.
* This is not counting Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which the Dynasty Warriors series was partially based on, as that was written with a *huge* bias toward the kingdom of Shu, and even threw in a bunch of characters who, as far as historians can tell, never actually existed in real life.
The Church of the Eternal Fire in The Witcher series works so well because you can see real world parallels (xenophobia, bigotry, scapegoat), it's very effective and quite terrifying because it's something that could happen
Thanks bro, I can finally make the Doomseer cult :D
Dudes believe that they would bring peace to the world by destroy the two main empires they deserted from by using the forbidden knowledge of the undead.
Oh boy, how cooked they are.
Can be justify for the undead part: They knew the size of the armies and know they probably can't fight both at once
@TheFantasyForge is that the 303 i hear at 0:41? what's the song?
Evil always sees itself as a force for good
My favorite fantasy cult I've made is an extremist sect of the church of the god of healing. They do a bunch of philanthropy and are publicly well-regarded but in the higher levels you realize the distinction: their god is not a god of health, but of healing. And to heal, people must be wounded. They use their influence to start constant wars so that there will always be people to heal
90% of all cults in fiction go with the most generic option possible because they realized most people watch TV and play games for the way it makes them feel.
On the other hand, those of us who grew up reading love to think and feel. Which makes us a rarity in media since we make up a small niche in comparison to the masses.
In a way, the above is the reason I started my own TTRPG business and learned to love writing. Because it is a chance to tell my stories, ones that fill that niche that is so rare to find.
Personally, I never write stories with predefined villains in them. I write stories about people who are fighting for what they believe in, in a world where what is right or wrong is not obvious. So it is up to you as the player to decide what is worth risking your life for, or to follow your own beliefs just like the initial protagonists and antagonists are to save who you care about since you can't save everyone.
Readings of classics like the Odyssey really changed how I viewed storytelling. As everyone loves a happy ending, but no one forgets a Tragedy.
I'd love a fantasy version of Die Welle
Arcane and Hot Fuzz? Subscribing
Im creating a cult for a western style campaign that takes place in a desert. I wanted to play with the idea of dark being good & light being bad. So the god behind the cult is a god of the undead with light imagery. The cult says the members that are strong in their faith and loyal in their servitude will have a loved one "filled with the light of life again" (ie. Brought back to life) or even be saved from death. They will do anything to spread their god's beliefs and light, to save people from the darkness of death. And they're going to do that by bringing their god into the mortal plane, even though in my setting, gods in the mortal plane is really bad.
My players have already started making their characters & backstories, & ive already tied it in to a couple PCs' backstories. That may change if my players change things up, but i think they're going to stick with it.
Been working on a world and I've written down some of the stuff you've said and so far I have a lot of what you mentioned, the only real thing I think I don't have is how their recruited, as I'm not sure how someone would be introduced into it. To give the general jist, their a cult focused on 1. being as much like their god as possible, and 2. pursuing their own individual desires as a form of worship, as well as assist others in indulging in their wishes as well. Now, as good as some may consider that, Most of the people within the cult are primarily selfish people who, for some reason or another, have been prevented from pursuing their desires for some reason (Note: although some are unjustified, with most members, it actually turns out to be for a very good reason one way or another), wondering if people have any ideas.
Top of my head, I think you could have "generals" or right-hand people looking for recruits and offering a chance to be their "truest self."
Or prisons would be a great place to recruit people who want to be selfish
@TheFantasyForge you know what, knowing them, and the being who leads them in human form, I'd honestly think prisons would be exactly where they'd recruit people (let's just say, the Eldritch god who leads them is extremely petty towards one kingdom in particular).
@@camdenthompson4307 haha even better. It would make for a really unique type of jail break situation. "The world's most dangerous killers have all escaped...etc"
Interesting
So a cult of Tiamat. How do they act and why do they follow Tiamat?
I don’t know the official lore reason but maybe they view dragons as the superior beings that must be followed and who else to worship then the dragon god; or at least the one they know of
Tiamat has promised them they'll be spared when she rises, and that they'll sit at her right hand and rule with her. (actually they'll sit in the snack bowl at her right hand, but she's not going to say that out loud)
@@MarkoSeldo that’s sounds like the info hazard basilisk in dragon god form, genius
In my homebrew d&d campaign there was a cult that the party ended up feeling bad for killing because they ended up learning more about them after killing them. They worshipped a transaction God, who would basically barter for miracles. A mother in the cult had a sick baby and she offered her hair in exchange for the child's health, or in exchange for the corpses of outlaws the deity bestowed upon them lavish feasts. By the end they were all just good honest folks who really got into the dressing up as their hideous God because he genuinely helped them for a modest fee.
Tiamats cult in hoard of the dragon queen and rise of tiamat
Are really good as a template
I had it be a scorch the earth and join the winning side kinda premise
They started out helping people in poverty into pillaging bandits and evolved them into wanting to destroy the corrupt society that ruined their lives (Especially with Asborrowed Joss as the leader)
Further they in my game they indoctrinated monsterous races/tribes like gnolls, lizardfolk, orcs, and yuan ti through right of conquest swelling their numbers and i gave my party the chamce to convert the faction by defeating the cult implanted leaders
To add some dynamics to the frozen world of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden I added a small religious group of Kossuthians to one of the towns. The guys were looking for a way to heat all comers and overcome the eternal winter. Kossuth is the god of flame, so the characters immediately felt common goals with this cult, much to help them get on their feet, but they didn't take one thing into account. The Church of Kossuth has a very strict hierarchy and discipline, besides being the most popular in... Thay. Yes, in the dictatorship of the Lichs and Red Mages, where their leader was from. I don't think I need to explain that the fires of religious fanaticism got out of control
A zealous group of witch hunters which are necessary to combat creatures of the night, but also believe all demi-human creatures are a form of corruption of the land and that burning them would cleanse their soul and eventually lead to the salvation of their former kingdom.
I really like your contents
Thank you! Thanks for taking the time to say that :)
Nice analysis. Only, a bit of Arcane spoilers 😅
noooo I tried my best to keep it vague lol
I had a great time playing a Trevor where my character was a cult leader, giving her the side motivation to build something for a God that actually exists. The cult is themed after the late Spanish conquistador. It's ranks are on real ranks found then. And it's strengths lie in the feeling the people in the world has that there is little purpose to life, due to a rapture of all the gods except for a few. The cult only has three members so far, but it's bound to gain more soon
In a D&D campaign I am running, I just destroyed the sun. This is a big event that recently happened. People are freaking out, crops are failing, creatures that feared/hated sunlight can roam freely and its a pretty bad day all around. Then the 'Spore Mother' arrives. Many believe this is a new deity who is there to help. Some of the weird practices include implanting spores and fungus into the dead and dying as an offering to the Spore Mother and in return she will protect and help feed her followers. Mushrooms don't need or really want sunlight so it works. There are some other rituals but I don't want this to turn into a multi-paragraph lore dump. What makes this cult weird is who the Spore Mother really is, Zuggtmoy the Demon Lord of Fungus. She does have her own motivation for starting this cult. Largely, she is sick and tired of the Blood War between some of the planes and sees an attempt of deific ascension as a way she can get out of it.
Again very shortened version of what's going on.
Cool vid and fyre song
thank you so much for the love!
The cult I'm working on is loosely based on some gnostic concepts. To make a long story short, the main gods of my setting are the celestial bodies (Astras), specifically the sun, the moon and the stars. The first human empire rose when the worshippers of the Sun began to actually slay the big dragons that kept destroying cities. They kept winning until they went against dragon worshippers (they were bad guys, like real bad), when the empire bled itself dry trying to exterminate them, leading to internal strife that led the priesthood to lose favor of the Sun, the latter almost completely removing the access to power to the priests.
The cult comes in and teaches that the celestial bodies are actually liars, manipulating humanity in order to subjugate it. They tell that when the spirit of humanity was in its infancy, the Sun broke it in half, one material half that are the humans, and a spiritual half that is misrepresented as demons, and that are truly the rebellious spirit of humanity. The dragons are secret servants of the Astras that were originally meant to exterminate humanity, until the Astras realised it would be better to con the humans into servitude rather than exterminate them. So the goal of the cult is to allow humanity to reach its true potential and supplant the Astras as the rulers of the divine realm.
So why are they evil? Because they are completely, absolutely and hilariously wrong about everything. The demons are literally spiritual parasites that try to tempt you into betraying yourself so you're weaker and easier to devour. The Astras are too esoretic to understand for most people, but are genuinely benevolent and lend power when humans devote their faith to them, even if it's not clear to the humans when, why and how they intervene. The priests of the first empire did not fall because they discovered "the truth", they fell because greed or tyranny become rampant.
The whole attraction of the cult is a promise of a hidden truth that will set you free, but in reality it is a complete delusion that brings misery when they actually try to bring it into reality, making up conspiracy theories to explain their inability to succeed in order to keep their delusion intact.
to make an interesting cult, start with them being the good guys, then find way to take it too far or twist it as you dig deeper
I've been playing through Sunken Isles and the BBEG has a cult that follows him. However, in all my reading, i can't figure out why.
So i started to change how they act. The bbeg promotes utilizing undead as a workforce. Further, devotion to the cause can result in members being elevated to immortal sentient undead, like him. It's not much, but hey it's something to explain why they do what they do.
My cult breaks a lot of these rules, but I’ll still go into it.
Basically, Romulus, the name sake of Rome, discovers that he can drain the mana of another human being. He can extend his life at the cost of killing another human being. This causes an addiction, causing them to crave mana forcing them to hunt new victims. Later on, they are dubbed “vampires”.
His brother, disgusted by this, cast him away. He eventually finds willing followers, people seeking immortality and power. He lives for thousands of years, having his minions attack small, unsuspecting settlements. Eventually he runs into true opposition.
The Kentashra and the Tiophianiaran. The first is a group of witches who seek to aid their fellow man. The other is a nation of magic users from a parallel Earth, looking to protect their own people living amongst humanity. They form an alliance against the cult, who is known as Dira Dominorum and wage a silent war.
They are the first antagonist in a rough draft I’m working on, so definitely room for improvement.
That time the government watches my search history intently lol.
LOL "it was ONE video! I swear!"
For my DnD campaign I used the Black Fingers, a cult that executes the will of the goddess of misfortune. Their rank consists if sadists, machievellian schemers and warped broken people lulled in with promises of an end to their unlucky streaks in life (think those victims of random tragedies, gambling addicts and people born in destitution).
Their vision is rather simple - a world without connections. A place where group organisation is stiffled and men survive and thrive based only on their own ruthlessness and cunning, with fate bending itself to reward those who demonstrate those qualities. This attracts members like corrupt politicians, greedy merchants and serial killers into the cult. Those who have no regard for society and only seek to benefit themselves. As well as those who wish to strike back against society as a concept for what has been done to them by it.
Their goddess grants them boons like lairs that can be hidden in plain sight, manipulation of odds and the ability to inflict random calamities on their enemies.
I plan on introducing a cult to Tiamat to my players, as well as running a different campaign that has a religious organization running the government, so this is all very useful!
for my idea of a Tiamat cult, would a fitting goal/belief be that wealth is being hoarded by the few aristocrats/rulers, leaving the vast population without the necessary funds to live their lives in peace and comfort, and so a group spearheads a movement to redistribute wealth to the people, albeit violently? but the true leaders of the group are a dragon family hoping to acquire a hoard of wealth worthy enough to summon Tiamat, as well as damn many mortal souls, so they can both be used as in a ritual to return Tiamat to the mortal plane?
edit: people won't realize that the "deity of charity and equality" they are worshiping and following to achieve their goal of monetary equality is in fact Tiamat, who will instead be referred to in different ways ("the great mother" for example)
edit 2: posted this before seeing your "utopia without money" concept, so I will definitely build on that! one of my ideas that contributes to the growth of this cult is a recently-made noble family that has introduced firearms to the world, but have a very tight monopoly over the sale and crafting of guns/gun powder.
the dragons see this, and have begun sending mortal raiders to incentivize people to use their money on self-protection, as well as raise the costs of goods by increasing the cost of transportation and lowering supplies.
as such, people are enamored by a new group that both promises to defend them from these raids (blamed on by neighboring kingdom) and remove the concept of money so people won't need to worry about going hungry or losing their homes and stuff. as part of this joining/being a member, people are encouraged to "throw away" their "worthless/worldly" possessions and money into these "black holes" that would destroy them, which instead are teleporting them all to a different location where the ritual to summon Tiamat will take place.
Would've been very disappointed if the "The greater Good" joke hadn't appeared at least once here.
Funny thing is I just have countries in my political intrigue campaign and each cult is just a group of nationalistic folks
In the setting I am writing for myself and my players humanity has fallen from grace and their past deeds haunt them and the other races shun them for what they did in the past, so the biggest cult just starts with offering them a place of belonging, a group of other humans who believe they are being treated unfairly and that those mistakes do not matter anymore because of how much time has passed, but the deeper you go into the cult the bigger the idea of human supremacy starts to take place. I at least think it is a pretty neat motivation for a cult targeting a specific demographic but still being able to betray the followers beliefs depending on whatever the leader of the organization wants to do in the end
It has yet to be implemented, but I have a blossoming cult outside of the original pantheon (which have been seen, but not in the last ~1000+ years). It's growing in popularity because there are those who claim to have seen it and were "blinded by its beauty". They claim it had a thousand eyes, glowed with the brilliance of a thousand suns before burning their eyes.
It's a beholder. A beholder that wishes to become a god and is using the power of amassing a large religious following. It just wants to be believed in ❤😂 it's hiding under the city, charms and then blinds it's "prophets" to spread it's truth.
Did you use 48 laws of power for some of this? Cause you made several of the same points
Dont forget the desire for protection and order
i think a short squaky guy named sid could really use this video
This was great
I once ran a minecraft cult where we worshipped crafting tables
Even if it was/is about dark gods... what is that god going to do? Is there an enemy to punish? Are the cultists victims? Even 'bad' cults can be given great depths if more thought is placed on them.
I think the best cults would actually sound normal to common people. normally people think of the Manson family or stargate when they think of cults stuff normal people really wouldn't join they'd have to be emotionally vulnerable or mentally unstable. I accidentally joined a cult when I was 22. Its the reason I support ad blockers because it was through a youtube ad. dude was explaining hell teach you the secrets to become rich and how to sell stuff to a higher clientele of people. what it was explained as was an 8 week course and he seemed very open about everything he was doing. he'd have events that made you feel like you were rich, or classes that were extra that only few were privy to, an inner circle for top students, had several books, and held a black suit and tie event up in Canada, and even did a ted talk. and he charged every step of the way. on paper the dude sounded very legit. when i wasn't getting a good sales job I was told try harder. everything they were teaching that was going wrong was my fault. and it wasn't until one dude on youtube did a few interviews with former members who was in my class that i realized he had a lot of things he was up charging for and it was all a scam. the dude spent well over a 100 grand just from this place alone and the only benefit he got out of it was he was 100 k in debt now.
In a "History of Christianity" class I took in undergrad, the professor said half-jokingly that there are 3 requirements to being a cult:
1) A tight, inward focused group that's suspicious of outsiders but is trustingly centered around a charismatic individual
2) That individual has direct, unmediated access to God
3) At some point, God tells that individual that all the women need to sleep with him
not a technical definition but it does track haha
i made a world where it kinda fucks around with flat earth and what fuckery would be possible if gravity was just a constant force pointing forever in one direction instead of around a point of mass. essentially, there was a huge fight between two god-like entities, Noctara and Lithiris, resulting in the complete annihilation of the "floor" which would leave both of their followers to fall for eternity, or until they die of dehydration. right before this happened, Noctara created an endlessly deep "roof" with enormous hanging stalactites, material rich stone when mining upwards, and a whole new set of wildlife to go with it, and transported their followers there. Lithiris created a few small reserves EXTREMELY far down, all of varying climates, and around the size of Texas, for their followers to reside. The party starts off as all in the roof society, where people have carved buildings into the stalactites, making airships, bridges, and ways for them to get around while avoiding falling into the seemingly endless drop into nothingness. the narrative in that society was that Noctara was all good and Lithiris was all evil, not bothering to help their followers since seemingly only Noctara's followers were brought to safety. the cult i made follows Lithiris, and believes that there is a utopia free of all problems that resides in the void, and are trying to reach it at all costs for salvation. it's their heaven, a place made personally by Lithiris in a time of their followers' need. of course, most of the society is the follower of Noctara and views the cult as crazy, but they would actually be right if they didn't get so carried away in their attempts to reach the other side. this cult wasn't really a "throw this at the level 1 party and they'll wipe it out first try," no, it was the catalyst of the whole campaign's main conflict. i haven't run it yet, but i probably will soon. what do yall think?
The Vanderlinde Gang I think counts
Like in real life, the leader of a cult isn't the scary one... it's the second in command
Funny thing is, that cult means nothing how Hollywood uses the word. It comes from Latin language, from same word as "culture". When some one talks about movie and call it as "cult classic", that is actually really close to actual meaning of cult. Cult is more connected to art, than religion, but since historically there is very little art without context of religion, these are quite tied. No matter do you go to Rome's art, Indian arts, or what ever culture, art is usually connected to their religion. So cult is group of people who gathering for talking about art, like sculpts, books, paintings, what ever is their interest and focus. But those art works very high likely been historically connected religion, so is their conversations therefore too.
Thing about cults is, that they are independently gathered people, and no outsiders control the group. For example, group of people gather play tabletop rpg. That group is technically a cult. They gather to talk about art peace, and let their imagination to fly. They have their time, their conversations (what they may call "games"), and no one outsider controls them, and it is possible that very few if any other person even know that the cult exists. And once they stop having their gatherings, cult is over. And maybe new cult borns somewhere else. That is very typical how most of cults born, existed and ended in history.
If you go to read English Wikipedia what is definition of cult, you get lot of non-sense. If you go to see the conversation of the article, you may see there is people who point out, that definition actually is messed up, and there is few different definitions, but the Wikipedia text messes all of them to be one, and in the end it is just non-sense. But also, that those people who point out that, tell that they do not want change themselves the text, because it is "too hot topic". If you go to Finnish Wikipedia (I speak Finnish), you see that there is much less text, but there is actually clear separation of different definitions, and short history told for them. Including mention, that in USA anti-cult movement been dominating from 20th century, and that effects strongly in English speaking world. That since cults are independent, unofficial groups, that creates space where people may start talking together topics they see important, that creates potential danger for status quo, and therefore those who want upkeep status quo, may start demonising cults, so that people keep away from them. And that is what anti-cult movement in USA been doing, including creating their own definitions for cults, which are not scientifically true. Like claiming that cults have charismatic leaders. In reality, majority of cults never had charismatic leaders, very few has.
Hollywood cults, same as the cults by definition of anti-cult movements, are created to be "villains" and therefore they do not usually make much sense. Cults can vary very much from each others. Some can be horrible, others good, many of them very harmless.
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So, how about cult, which secretly reads books... in cyberpunk settings. I mean, paper books, not digital ones. And talk about these books. But group of people who do not know what they are doing, tell that those cultists are bad people, they want brainwashing you, make you to obey their leader. And then you go with them, they seems to suspiciously nice people. And in a meeting, one of them suggesting to play ttrpg - showing he has printed rulebook there. And they you learn who is their charismatic leader: the "GM". And you know, that they try to brainwash you to think, that they are in the end quite ordinary people, who like to do things together. But you know truth, they are evil people. They want summon some dark god to this world! You know the truth! You were warned about them! They are all brainwashed people!
Something like that...
I once wrote a little fanfiction story about a young man who joined a cult in a fantasy world to get his brother out if it. The beliefs of the cult were simple, subteranian primordial demons lived under the nearby hills that communicated psychically with people and offered their blessings in the form of magical powers, prolonged life, fertility of both the earth and wombs in exchange for worship and sacrifices of portions of harvest, livestock, humans and occasionally specific humans and animals. What do these old demons want? They want their servants to stay loyal to them, to keep the offerings and worship flowing and to be left alone. The last thing they wanted was inquisitors slaughtering their followers and calling upon angels to burn them out of their homes.
The most extreme followers cut out their eyes and tongues and crawled into the deep chasms of the mountain to be closer to their gods, to act as their puppets, their names stripped from all memory and they would emerge only to bring the sacrifices to their gods and to kill who they are commanded to kill.
Not really a threat to the world or even to neighbouring villages despite how odd and paranoid they are towards outsiders, a secretive little society living in seemingly eternally bountiful lands. I liked this cult, I later expanded it so they'd have secret followers all over the continent operating as small groups, usually single or a handful of families, mostly to procure exotic goods and creatures for sacrifice and to carry out the killings commanded of their gods when the target is too far for the unseen (the eyeless/tongueless zealouts) to reach.
That sounds terrifying and awful and amazing. I love a good demon cult
Made a cult as a minor BBEG for my party as the main antagonist of the story arc they were in.
As a cult they were already well established as the ruling church in the region, a large swath of ice and snow in the northern section of the continent. This region had been in a civil war for several decades at this point and was roughly split in 3 regions. The ones where the cult reigned supreme, where cult and Jarls held roughly equal power and where the cult was activly opposed and fought by Jarls and people. Needless to say, the middle portion is the civil war front and has been steadily moving back and forth between Cult supporters and opposers.
The cult technically were a minor sect of the popular religion there, worshipping the Frostmaiden aka. the Snow deity that had blessed the land to "persevere" with snow and ice at the creation of the world. This sect twisted that to mean "never change, always standing still, perfectly preserved in the here and now, blanketed in ice and snow for all eternity" and proved this by using the landscape to build their quarters and churches in large natural glaciers and huge underground chambers (which isolate really well against cold) and house the unfortunate outcasts of society, freeze their wounds and make the pain stop that way. Over time they grew large enough to have important positions in the original church of the Snow-Goddess and aquire power and artifacts to support their claim further. By the time my party made it to this region the cult had been there for well over a few centuries trying to keep the region stuck in time basically, opposing new rulings and ideas with preachings and prayers of traditions and pointing out how invention literally blew up an entire island and killed millions of people (that was an actual event in the game).
They got introduced to this cult with a nice cleric who was bottom rank and new nothing of the fucked up stuff in the higher ranks demanded of their loyal subjects, like branding their children with icy marks as a sign of devotion to their frost deity and try to erase any sign of civilization and overworld living as to not disturb their Goddesses land.
Free Luigi!!
Tfw when you've been following all these rules without realizing it
Thinking about all of those people standing in traffic, defacing monuments, and gluing themselves to the walls of art galleries shouting, "The world is more important than art!"
oh... this is a guide for a TTRPG... not for real cults... okay, that's why i'm here... definitely😅
"What? We're not a cult, we're just a demi-spirtual movement on a self sustaining commune who occasionally perform rites in order to bring our members closer to nature!
...Oh. Oh my god we're a cult. I started a cult."