Celestial Cult

Not much is known about this mysterious cult as it exists today. In the folklore of the Islands, the Celestial Eaters are a group of powerful spirits who decided that rather than harmoniously living with the nature surrounding them that they would instead fight to increase their power at the expense of others around them. As a result, the great spirit Bathala punished these Celestial Eaters by exiling them to in the mortal plane and removing their ability to plane shift to the Underworld.

The members of this cult and their sympathizers value selfishness and fetishize power. Many desired magical abilities but were not born with this innate ability, pushing them to seek a pact with a Celestial Eater to attain this power. Others engaged in thievery, extending to graverobbing and desecration of the holy realms of spirits. The path that each took to enter this cult differs. In the eyes of general society though, the consequence of membership should be exile or even death--as such the members do not publicly advertise their association. Their membership can be identified by a particular tattoo-stretching around the arm, leg, or shoulder: a serpent eating the full moon, next to an image of a particular Celestial Eater if they have a pact with them.

Current Status

Due to the secrecy which pervades the cult structure, not much is known about their current activities. Members typically belong to a decentralized cell, and typically information is passed between cells through brazen public acts of violence or terrorism. Interest is often generated by cult proselytizers which twist these events and advertise the cult's guerilla capabilities as omnipresence. Shadowy senior figures local to each island induct new recruits through the tattooing ritual and involve them within a cell--from this point on the cell will not be able to contact their senior, only the other way around. It is theorized that the structure goes deeper beyond this connecting the cult to the Celestial Eaters themselves.

The obvious goal of the Celestial Eaters is to make another attempt to steal the power of the Great Spirits by devouring the moon and ascending to a new level of godly ability, and the cult is always working to accomplish this.

Relationships

Generally speaking, the Celestial Cult is hostile to all other factions and all other factions regard the Celestial Cult as hostile. Upon discovering that an individual is a member of the Celestial Cult, most other factions will immediately attempt to arrest or kill the individual, depending on their degree of Lawfulness.