Elder Cults
Elder cults are groups of mortals under the sway of one of the Chaos Gods, Old Gods or some other lesser-known power.
Many elder cults are content to remain in isolation, worshiping forgotten aspects of reality from before time, but some are are actively dangerous to civilization if left to fester.
Though Elder cults need not necessarily be malicious, they are still persecuted by more well-respected religions and thus need to stay hidden.
Cults of all sorts are relatively rare. By no means does every city or even barony have one.
Elder cults usually ignore or outright oppose one-another. Cooperation is rare, as the forces they worship usually do not align in purpose.
Goals: Maintenance of cosmic balance
Identifying marks: Unshakable serenity, symbols of a gearwheel, heavy usage of gold and brass, mechanical constructs.
Location: Cities, Global
Description: The Servants of the Great Plan are order-cultists. They worship the Divine Machine and the concept of perfect order. They make heavy usage of arcane magic and are able to even conjure the Mechanoids with their rituals. They are also uniquely able to traverse the divine machine for rapid travel. They commonly attempt to influence fate by subtly altering small things about the world. They get knowledge on what to do to serve their process through their rituals, which they describe as 'listening to the Great Plan'.
They actively hunt most of the other elder cults, as they judge them as either disruptive to the great plan or outright dangerous to the existence of the Brass Realms themselves.
Goals: Eternal, continuous violence, improvement and evolution
Identifying marks: Metal skin, hammered on
Location: Wilderness, Pucraele, though some hire themselves out as mercenaries
Description: The ironhides are worshipers of the primal aspect of Vulcan that dedicate themselves entirely to war and battle. They hammer sheets of metal to their skin and gain from it resilience, brute strength, regeneration, battle-lust and to some extent, reduced intelligence. Every injury they take grows back stronger, and so they build fighting pits in hidden places and fight eachother in a constant struggle to become what they idolize most: Silver Dancers. Each individual ironhide is usually monstrously durable and strong. If the leader of the cult is not able to guide their battle-lust, such cults are likely to throw themselves against nearby military forces until they are eradicated.
Goals: Eternal silence worldwide
Identifying marks: white masks
Location: Klario, though small groups travel the globe for reconnaissance, trade and diplomacy
Description: Weepers are radical worshipers of Erra. They worship the end of all things and perfect stasis. They believe the inevitable conclusion of the universe is a perfect, unchanging world called by them "the great artwork", and that all of reality exists to facilitate that end-point. While most are content to await the end of everything, some actively try to make it arrive faster. Most Weepers are ordinary Humans, but their priests and rulers have their hearts frozen solid, they spread an aura of cold by their very existence and some of those perpetually weep tears of a tar-like substance. They make heavy use of necromancy and ice magic.
Goals: destruction of the divine machine
Identifying marks: 'natural' mutations such as asymmetrical horns, scales, wrongly proportioned limbs etc.
Location: Wilderness, Global
Description: The children of the great mother are radical worshipers of Gaia. They usually live in isolated ancient forests, but when they come into contact with civilisation they try their best to spread as much chaos as they can. They assassinate public officials, disrupt trade-routes, poison city wells and more. They desire to destabilize society so that order breaks down, their ideal state is a state of constant civil war. They make use of chaos magic and nature magic.
They have a mostly positive relationship with the Witches and Wildlings but actively hunt agents of the divine machine if they hear of them.
Goals: Freeing Their Lord, bringing pain and torment to mortals to please him
Identifying marks: Gratuitous usage of the colour red, insanity.
Location: Cities, Global
Description: While many cults cause suffering, this is most often just a side-effect of trying to achieve their true aims. Demonic cults for example cause suffering by partaking in their vile indulgences and corrupting mortals but the suffering of their victims is fundamentally unimportant. This is not so with the cultists of The Nightmare King. The suffering of their victims is their entire purpose. The Cultists of the Nightmare King are compassionless, deluded madmen. They are one and all mentally damaged in some way, most of them driven to insanity by their lord's children. They wish to free him and usher in a kingdom of blood and bone, a world of primitive cruelty, pain and fear. They care not for how short-lived such a kingdom would be.
Goals: Invading Hades, freeing the Lost Star
Identifying marks: Completely white eyes, incoherent speech
Location: Cities, Global
Description: The Starseekers wish to free the Lost Star from the demon lord that has imprisoned it, but they seem unable to comprehend just the magnitude of the problem before them. They exhibit a strange mixture of benevolence, lack of long-term planning, apathy and naivety. They are broadly helpful, working as healers in communities, though they seem unable to distinguish criminals from common folk and thus heal both with no regards for future consequences.
Goals: Calling their master and preparing the world for consumption, as well as destroying the worshipers of the Winged Serpent.
Identifying marks: Snakelike characteristics such as scales, slit eyes and poisonous fangs.
Location: Scyjia
Description: The cult of the serpents wish to attain sufficient power to call their master to the world of Haven and allow it to devour the world. To this end they always try to build their numbers, subvert governments, accrue magical power and so on. They have a strong presence in Scyjia, but are opposed by the worshipers of the winged serpent, the dominant religion in the area.
Goals: Doing the bidding of their master
Identifying marks: Aquatic mutations
Location: Global, coasts
Description: The cultists of the Kraken dedicate themselves to serve this powerful and enigmatic being that dwells in the deep oceans of Haven. It asks things of them, strange and grotesque tasks, and in return it gifts them mutations, longevity, strength and plentiful fish. It is popular with isolated fishing communities that pray to it for protection and to avoid its wrath or court its favor to prevent famine.
Goals: Bringing an end to existence
Identifying marks: Nihilistic and apathetic attitude.
Location: Global
Description: The Children of the Void have, through various means, arrived at the conclusion that life is pain, it is a mistake, and the universe should cease to be. They wish an end to the brass realms, actively and enthusiastically, seeing oblivion and the end of existence as the ultimate goal. They see it as compassionate even, as existence is suffering and ending it is beneficial, better to not feel at all than feel pain. Crucially they dont worship death, as existance in the brass realms continues beyond death. Their cultists and aspirants are ever seeking for power to conduct rituals to tear the universe apart, and to bring the true death. They do not care about collateral and possess signifficant personal power in the form of gravity magic. They are very secrective for they know they are hunted by all that would discover them, and they frequently disguise themselves as other cults or inflitrate other cults to manipulate their rituals to feed the maw of oblivion instead. They spread the knowledge on how to call upon nindros to ensure that their pursuers are continually distracted and some of their members are very old and very experienced.
Goals: Doing what they think their master would want
Identifying marks: Lycanthropy
Location: Wilderness, Particularly Pucraele
Description: The cultists of the Horned Wolf worship it mostly without its knowledge or consent. It does not care for worship, but many werewolves see lycanthropy as a divine gift and its creator as a divine being. As many werewolves live in isolation mostly far from civilisation, many are easily swayed by charismatic cult leaders that hunger for power or influence. The resultant cults usually exist only to fulfill the desires and ambitions of the cult-leader to the detriment of the cult-members.
Goals: Surviving, expanding
Identifying marks: Large numbers, mirrors and fractals as holy symbols, Insects and Ferns in great numbers.
Location: Usually wilderness but can be found anywhere
Description: The Cultists of Zeraxi are a squabbling, disunited lot. They mostly keep to themselves and just want to be left alone, but only until they are numerous enough to overcome all opposition. Due to the blessing of their lord Zeraxi, they never stop multiplying and expanding, they can't help themselves. As such they inevitably come into conflict with others, be it civilized people or monsters, where they either are wiped out or overcome the opposition with their numbers and magic.
Many elder cults are content to remain in isolation, worshiping forgotten aspects of reality from before time, but some are are actively dangerous to civilization if left to fester.
Though Elder cults need not necessarily be malicious, they are still persecuted by more well-respected religions and thus need to stay hidden.
Cults of all sorts are relatively rare. By no means does every city or even barony have one.
Elder cults usually ignore or outright oppose one-another. Cooperation is rare, as the forces they worship usually do not align in purpose.
Servants of the Great Plan
Dedicated to: The Divine MachineGoals: Maintenance of cosmic balance
Identifying marks: Unshakable serenity, symbols of a gearwheel, heavy usage of gold and brass, mechanical constructs.
Location: Cities, Global
Description: The Servants of the Great Plan are order-cultists. They worship the Divine Machine and the concept of perfect order. They make heavy usage of arcane magic and are able to even conjure the Mechanoids with their rituals. They are also uniquely able to traverse the divine machine for rapid travel. They commonly attempt to influence fate by subtly altering small things about the world. They get knowledge on what to do to serve their process through their rituals, which they describe as 'listening to the Great Plan'.
They actively hunt most of the other elder cults, as they judge them as either disruptive to the great plan or outright dangerous to the existence of the Brass Realms themselves.
Ironhides
Dedicated to: The Unceasing StrivingGoals: Eternal, continuous violence, improvement and evolution
Identifying marks: Metal skin, hammered on
Location: Wilderness, Pucraele, though some hire themselves out as mercenaries
Description: The ironhides are worshipers of the primal aspect of Vulcan that dedicate themselves entirely to war and battle. They hammer sheets of metal to their skin and gain from it resilience, brute strength, regeneration, battle-lust and to some extent, reduced intelligence. Every injury they take grows back stronger, and so they build fighting pits in hidden places and fight eachother in a constant struggle to become what they idolize most: Silver Dancers. Each individual ironhide is usually monstrously durable and strong. If the leader of the cult is not able to guide their battle-lust, such cults are likely to throw themselves against nearby military forces until they are eradicated.
Weepers
Dedicated to: The Ice of AgesGoals: Eternal silence worldwide
Identifying marks: white masks
Location: Klario, though small groups travel the globe for reconnaissance, trade and diplomacy
Description: Weepers are radical worshipers of Erra. They worship the end of all things and perfect stasis. They believe the inevitable conclusion of the universe is a perfect, unchanging world called by them "the great artwork", and that all of reality exists to facilitate that end-point. While most are content to await the end of everything, some actively try to make it arrive faster. Most Weepers are ordinary Humans, but their priests and rulers have their hearts frozen solid, they spread an aura of cold by their very existence and some of those perpetually weep tears of a tar-like substance. They make heavy use of necromancy and ice magic.
Children of the Great Mother
Dedicated to: The Devouring MotherGoals: destruction of the divine machine
Identifying marks: 'natural' mutations such as asymmetrical horns, scales, wrongly proportioned limbs etc.
Location: Wilderness, Global
Description: The children of the great mother are radical worshipers of Gaia. They usually live in isolated ancient forests, but when they come into contact with civilisation they try their best to spread as much chaos as they can. They assassinate public officials, disrupt trade-routes, poison city wells and more. They desire to destabilize society so that order breaks down, their ideal state is a state of constant civil war. They make use of chaos magic and nature magic.
They have a mostly positive relationship with the Witches and Wildlings but actively hunt agents of the divine machine if they hear of them.
Harbingers of His return
Dedicated to: The Nightmare KingGoals: Freeing Their Lord, bringing pain and torment to mortals to please him
Identifying marks: Gratuitous usage of the colour red, insanity.
Location: Cities, Global
Description: While many cults cause suffering, this is most often just a side-effect of trying to achieve their true aims. Demonic cults for example cause suffering by partaking in their vile indulgences and corrupting mortals but the suffering of their victims is fundamentally unimportant. This is not so with the cultists of The Nightmare King. The suffering of their victims is their entire purpose. The Cultists of the Nightmare King are compassionless, deluded madmen. They are one and all mentally damaged in some way, most of them driven to insanity by their lord's children. They wish to free him and usher in a kingdom of blood and bone, a world of primitive cruelty, pain and fear. They care not for how short-lived such a kingdom would be.
Starseekers
Dedicated to: The Lost StarGoals: Invading Hades, freeing the Lost Star
Identifying marks: Completely white eyes, incoherent speech
Location: Cities, Global
Description: The Starseekers wish to free the Lost Star from the demon lord that has imprisoned it, but they seem unable to comprehend just the magnitude of the problem before them. They exhibit a strange mixture of benevolence, lack of long-term planning, apathy and naivety. They are broadly helpful, working as healers in communities, though they seem unable to distinguish criminals from common folk and thus heal both with no regards for future consequences.
Cult of the serpents
Dedicated to: The World SerpentGoals: Calling their master and preparing the world for consumption, as well as destroying the worshipers of the Winged Serpent.
Identifying marks: Snakelike characteristics such as scales, slit eyes and poisonous fangs.
Location: Scyjia
Description: The cult of the serpents wish to attain sufficient power to call their master to the world of Haven and allow it to devour the world. To this end they always try to build their numbers, subvert governments, accrue magical power and so on. They have a strong presence in Scyjia, but are opposed by the worshipers of the winged serpent, the dominant religion in the area.
Cult of the Kraken
Dedicated to: The KrakenGoals: Doing the bidding of their master
Identifying marks: Aquatic mutations
Location: Global, coasts
Description: The cultists of the Kraken dedicate themselves to serve this powerful and enigmatic being that dwells in the deep oceans of Haven. It asks things of them, strange and grotesque tasks, and in return it gifts them mutations, longevity, strength and plentiful fish. It is popular with isolated fishing communities that pray to it for protection and to avoid its wrath or court its favor to prevent famine.
The Children of the Void
Dedicated to: OblivionGoals: Bringing an end to existence
Identifying marks: Nihilistic and apathetic attitude.
Location: Global
Description: The Children of the Void have, through various means, arrived at the conclusion that life is pain, it is a mistake, and the universe should cease to be. They wish an end to the brass realms, actively and enthusiastically, seeing oblivion and the end of existence as the ultimate goal. They see it as compassionate even, as existence is suffering and ending it is beneficial, better to not feel at all than feel pain. Crucially they dont worship death, as existance in the brass realms continues beyond death. Their cultists and aspirants are ever seeking for power to conduct rituals to tear the universe apart, and to bring the true death. They do not care about collateral and possess signifficant personal power in the form of gravity magic. They are very secrective for they know they are hunted by all that would discover them, and they frequently disguise themselves as other cults or inflitrate other cults to manipulate their rituals to feed the maw of oblivion instead. They spread the knowledge on how to call upon nindros to ensure that their pursuers are continually distracted and some of their members are very old and very experienced.
The Wolf-Chosen
Dedicated to: The Horned WolfGoals: Doing what they think their master would want
Identifying marks: Lycanthropy
Location: Wilderness, Particularly Pucraele
Description: The cultists of the Horned Wolf worship it mostly without its knowledge or consent. It does not care for worship, but many werewolves see lycanthropy as a divine gift and its creator as a divine being. As many werewolves live in isolation mostly far from civilisation, many are easily swayed by charismatic cult leaders that hunger for power or influence. The resultant cults usually exist only to fulfill the desires and ambitions of the cult-leader to the detriment of the cult-members.
The Many
Dedicated to: ZeraxiGoals: Surviving, expanding
Identifying marks: Large numbers, mirrors and fractals as holy symbols, Insects and Ferns in great numbers.
Location: Usually wilderness but can be found anywhere
Description: The Cultists of Zeraxi are a squabbling, disunited lot. They mostly keep to themselves and just want to be left alone, but only until they are numerous enough to overcome all opposition. Due to the blessing of their lord Zeraxi, they never stop multiplying and expanding, they can't help themselves. As such they inevitably come into conflict with others, be it civilized people or monsters, where they either are wiped out or overcome the opposition with their numbers and magic.
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