The Dragon Cult

When Elissa fled Sirru and her brother Pumayyaton, she was faced with a sadly murex issue of the time. When her brother had her husband murdered, she was torn between wanting the gods on her side of the battle and lacking any sort of priest whatsoever, her husband having been the high priest of Melqart, god of Sirru. All of murex thalassocracy was lost in the ba’alist heresy as the gods were wooed and won and abandoned with such frequency they ended up leaving the Purple Ports to the Hells. Elissa needed a symbol of power to unite her people and bind them to her, and she settled on the greatest power outside the gods-the dragon. Elissa bound her people to the worship of dragons, her long term goal being the binding of dragons to her regime, giving her units no other army could match, but such was not to be. She was tied in conflict before truly founding her city, much less getting her fledgling faith off the ground. Fortunately, she had a second chance that began when she rose from the dead. Under new directives, the cult wrapped itself around Qart-Hardasht, and all it meant to be Punic. They were seeking dragons for their schemes when Qart-Hardasht encountered the Empire, and three wars later were still seeking them. The Cult seeks them yet today, and still for the same purpose-elite units to strengthen Qart-Hardasht beyond any of its rivals or enemies, even the Empire itself. Dragons or just their eggs are sought, thus far fruitlessly but still they seek. The priests of the Cult are the nobles of Qart-Hardasht. They have no power beyond temporal and the power of unfettered wealth, yet they strive for more. The nobles can perform any priestly ceremonies-marriage, namings, property ownership, etc-but they have no miracles to produce nor magics to influence or direct. Their power is that Punics reserve for the nobles and other cultures reserve for the priesthoods, but it is not enough. The Cult of the Dragon worships the creatures and attempts to nurture and raise them as loyal followers of the Cult, but it seems too little, too late. Adherents of the Cult may be found everywhere, always seeking the same things, always determined to establish themselves as a power where they faded centuries past. The gods themselves will cower should the Cult elevate the Dragon to the Heavens…