Sentai Fthagn Cults

[Grek]

This thread is the one in which Grek (and whoever else turns up) writes Sentai Fthagn cult ideas. The goal is to write up cult ideas that real humans would actually voluntarily join, with both plausible and opposable goals. Every cult needs a reason to start, a way to recruit new members, actions which broader society would find objectionable and an ultimate goal which may or may not coincide with the promises made to new members. Cults need not have perfectly accurate information about their own activities (they can be misguided), but if so they need to be both plausibly misguided and propaganda-resistant. Finally, a prospective cult needs to be interesting. Not for setting reasons, but because ultimately this is a role playing game and mundane cults of personality based on extorting money out of the followers just aren't good material for a role playing game setting. Even though those exist in the setting, they don't get a special writeup here.


Purple Cults
The Purple Cults are those which draw upon this intoxicating power in their forbidden rites, or which pray to the Black Goat, Shub Niggurath. She is the Goddess of the Abyss, mother to Yig and grandmother to Cthulhu. Her progeny - the Goat Spawn and the Dark Young - are the originators of all known forms of Purple Arcanotech known to the Union. Her influence is known as 'Black Goat Energy' and fills the body with vigor, making muscles strong and flesh impervious while multiplying the appetites which sustain the body and the species. A person infused with Black Goat Energy becomes virile, powerful and aggressive. They find red meat, rough sex and sudden violence to be deliciously pleasurable and blood relationships to be of newfound, vital importance. Survivors report that Black Goat Energy feels like a sudden chill in the flesh, focused around the heart and rushing through the body with every beat like black lightning in the blood.

The chilling power of the Goat with a Thousand Young is addictive and leads to a self-perpetuating cycle of using Black Goat Energy to obtain offerings to sacrifice in hopes of being granted even more dark power. Ultimately, overdose on Black Goat Energy results in the body being transformed into a conduit to the Abyss through which Dark Young and other servitors of Shub Niggurath may escape into our world. If caught early, the process can be reversed and the soul reclaimed from the Abyss. Such victories are a sadly uncommon occurrence.

Violet Chakra Society [Purple]
The Violet Chakra Society markets itself as a self-help community which teaches low-risk purple sorcery intended to enhance vigor, provide personal protection and enhance beauty. Each follower is recruited into a 'circle' or 'coven' or 'local chapter' and instructed to 'focus their violet chakra essences' (believed to be originate in the head, between the temples) on empowering the coven leader and then to recruit a subsidiary circle of their own from their friends and family. In truth, these 'violet chakra essences' are simply another word for the Black Goat Energy, and the focusing ceremonies do nothing but leak said energy into the body, or transfer it from the body into another vessel.

Unlike most Purple Cults, the Violet Chakra Society makes no reference to Shub Niggurath and does not present itself as a religious organization. Followers are led to believe that they have joined a secular, science-based non-profit organization which uses Purple Arcanotech in order to improve the life of those who buy into the organization. This would even approximate the truth, if not for the organization's claims that their sorceries are safe and legal to use. As with most such organizations, the Society eschews the use of the term "multi-level marketing" in favour of its preferred terminology of "branching social structure" and "elevated spiritual model". The major physical tells for cult membership are the standard signs of Black Goat exposure, the purchase of violet crystals - particularly amethysts - and the occult meditation practices which form the foundation of the cult.


Green Cults
Parallel to our reality is a realm accessible through sleep or sorcery known as the Dreamlands. The Green Cults are those which are in contact with the myriad inhabitants of this realm. Broadly, there are two major coalitions of Dreamlands inhabitants: the Communion of Leng and the Dream of R'lyeh.

The Communion oversees the cold desert plateau of Leng, a region of the dreamlands adjacent to Earth which is used by numerous extra-planetary species as a travel hub stopover as they pass through our region of space-time. Run chiefly by ghouls, the Communion is a cosmopolitan affair, welcoming all visitors with equanimity save where forced by prudence or outside pressures to deny entry. As an example, both nuclear weapons and Moon Beasts have been banned from entry for several decades now at the request of the Union government. The Union's primary concern relating to the Communion of Leng is the possibility of lunar partisans using the Plateau as a staging ground for attacks on Earth, as they were able to do during the Lunar Wars.

Conversely, the Dream of R'lyeh is an organization dominated by the vast psychic presence of the dreaming Cthulhu. Organized as a sectarian religion with Cthulhu as the figurehead, the Dream's subsidiary orders have become the public face of the Green Cults - deep one priests in dark robes chanting "Cthulhu fhtagn" as they commit public acts of terrorism. They believe that when Cthulhu awakens, he will teach humanity new ways "to shout and kill and revel and enjoy ourselves" while destroying the old world in "a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom" in the process. Preventing this from occurring has been designated a Priority One concern for the Union as a whole, which has in turn lead to a public no-contact order with the Dream of R'lyeh.

The Emerald Tablet [Green]
The Emerald Tablet is an organization in communion with the Dream of R'lyeh and devoted to making permanent records of Cthulhu's rampages, in hopes of gleaning some insight into their god's foretold teachings prior to Cthulhu's ultimate awakening. They accomplish this by posting observers with high tech recording equipment throughout Zones in the Oceania region. Members of the cult are primarily a danger to themselves rather than others - observing Cthulhu's rampages is extremely dangerous to the mental and physical health of onlookers, due to both broad spectrum telepathic assaults and the tidal waves created by Cthulhu's passage through the ocean. As such, Union Agencies in affected areas are encouraged to preemptively identify and monitor members of the Emerald Tablet, but only make arrests only when a Awakening Incident is immanent.

While the Emerald Tablet does not pose a direct risk to the Union per se, their activities has come to be of interest to Union Intelligence after analysts determined that they tend to escalate their activities in the weeks before awakening attempts - thereby offering a potential method to forecast the likelihood of an attempt on R'lyeh in the near future. The Emerald Tablet is currently not believed to have ever been successful in the stated objective of learning Green Arcanotech from observation of Cthulhu's activities. However, embedded assets believe that this may be a matter of poor analytical talent and that by feeding additional data to the Union's intelligence pool, new sorceries could be developed for immediate deployment.


Blue Cults
Blue Arcanotech is among the least likely to directly inspire cult formation. The manipulation of Angular Spacetime lends itself to lone agents and the infiltration of existing organizations rather than the establishment of new cults. Yithian mind-agents, as an example, tend to replace vulnerable psychics and deploy on missions directly rather than attempting to use their puppets to recruit human followers. Although numerous organizations have been founded in the service or veneration of Yog-Sothoth, these organizations are likewise not considered to be cults - the Lurker at the Threshold does not inspire dangerous behavior or encourage recruitment from Its willing devotees.

The Silver Gate [Blue]
The Silver Gate is one of the great failures of the Union's Time War initiative. Originally designed as a organization devoted to the cultivation of psychic abilities by through the veneration of Yog-Sothoth (with the eventual hope that a method could be discovered to grant non-psychics sufficient telepathic resistance to defend against mental intrusion), the Silver Gate was ultimately compromised from within by Yithian infiltrators posing as Union-aligned double agents from the future. This subversion was not detected for several years, ultimately allowing the inner circle of the Silver Gate conspiracy to consolidate power and build a network of agents (psychic and non-psychic alike) unreported to the central Union registry. Even today, agents of the Silver Gate have been known to pose as Union representatives to commandeer personnel and/or resources in support of their rogue operations. Reliable field identification of Silver Gate operatives via code phrases is not possible, as the organization actively recruits telepaths and trains them in memory-reading techniques in order to maintain their access to Union resources. Only regular telepathic inspection and the use of physical and/or digital authorization ciphers has proven to be a reliable method of securing sites against the Silver Gate's telepaths.

The Tokyo Cipher [Blue]
Although the Tokyo Cipher is technically neither a single organization nor technically capable of using Blue Archanotech on the level of individual Cipher cells, it is classified as a Blue Cult group by virtue of the fact that several criminal cells have been organized by an unknown individual cryptographically encoding prophetic instructions into the graffiti of the city of Old Tokyo. A typical message appears as a series of numbers and letters with no obvious meaning, followed by a request for personally identifying information, eg. "Name of Boss + Home Phone + Home Address". If this information is used as a cryptographic key in a particular widely known decryption algorithm, a message can be read instructing the reader by name to perform a list of particular tasks at particular times in exchange for valuable information such as winning stocks. Different individuals receive different messages and often no intelligible message at all. The tasks might range from the sending of several coded letters, to thefts, to blocking a particular intersection with a vehicle or, uncommonly, that particular persons be murdered. Obedient decoders are then organized into cells for more complex missions. At present, both the purpose and author of these messages is unknown.


Yellow Cults
The Yellow Cults are those which rely on the mysteries of quantum physics. Poorly understood by the Union, this field of arcane science relies upon the principle that the world is constantly being divided and recombined on an imperceptibly small level, and that these divisions can be manipulated in order to sway the outcome of particular events. Several principles employed by Yellow Arcanotech - including both teleportation and the quantum oracle effect - do not arise from any known law of quantum physics, leading researchers to suspect that extraterrestrial materials or unearthly forces are involved. The tok'l metal mined by the Mi-Go is considered to be a strong possibility, given the Combine's extensive use of Yellow Arcanotech.

Although the Fungi of Yuggoth have been confirmed to primarily use Yellow-class technologies, they do not appear to understand them and seem to have traded for the technology rather than developing it themselves. The entity known as Hastur is suspected of being their supplier, given the extensive cult on Yuggoth and the fact that the Unspeakable is willing to offer similar boons to human cultists in exchange for worship and the sacrifice of intelligent life. Such forms the basis for many of the cults below.

The Exalted Fellowship of the Glories of the Last King [Yellow]
The Fellowship is an organization devoted to the promulgation of the narrative known as the King in Yellow, a play in three acts which details the history of a royal lineage known as the Dynasty of Carcosa, which was blessed with prosperity by Hastur in exchange for an unspecified sacrifice. Although the first act of the King in Yellow is comparatively mundane, readers of the second act are generally overcome with grandiose delusions that they are or will become members of this lineage and that their actions constitute a Grand Narrative which is objectively more important than mere fact. The third act illustrates a ritual in honor of Hastur in which a number of individuals so afflicted are brought together in a masked ball, only to mysteriously perish in the final scene, leaving only one of their number behind as the "Last King" which gives the Fellowship its name. This ritual is thought to rely upon the 'quantum suicide' hypothesis, by which a person who kills themselves upon facing misfortune will eventually channel their probability mass into quantum branches in which such negative events do not occur. Although survivors of the cult's mass suicides have been confirmed to be unusually fortunate, the mental influence and inevitable death toll has made the prevention of the book's spread a Priority One objective for the Union Government. The contents of the book are classified, with only brief excerpts taken from the first act permitted to be disseminated as part of the censorship effort.

The Nithon Cartel [Yellow]
The Nithon Cartel, named for one of the moons of Yuggoth, is a South American tok'l smuggling operation in contact with the Mi-Go Combine. By exchanging this metal for technology from Yuggoth, they have formed an occult power block which claims to have been welcomed into the Combine state cult.


Red Cults
The Red Cults are based around the Music of the Spheres, a world-warping harmonic embedded into the cosmic background radiation of the universe. When manipulated properly, such tones alter the shape of reality, creating divets, bulges and obscure curvatures in space and time. The Cthonians, leading experts in the use of Red Arcanotech, have claimed on multiple occasions that this Music is in truth the Song of Azathoth and that it will unmake the universe if played in full fidelity. Although such claims have not been verified, they remain consistent with information available to Project Zero - the Chimes of Azathoth.

At present, three factions have been identified which make extensive use of Red Arcanotech: Cthonians, the Shan Fleet and K'n-yan Remnant. The Cthonians, famed of the Cthonian Wars, are considered to be a Priority Two threat, but will be upgraded to Priority One in the event of another Cthonian War. The Shan Fleet presently interdicts passage beyond the asteroid belt by human ships and is a Priority Two threat of its own, as their operations severely limit Earth's ability to project force against the Mi-Go combine. Comparatively the K'n-yan Remnant is a non-threat and has been assigned to Priority Four.

The Brotherhood of Argus [Red]
Project Agrus was an initiative sponsored by the now defunct National Aeronautics and Space Administration to monitor the cosmos. Named for the the hundred-eyed giant of Greek myth, the project sought to record transmissions from every direction around Earth and collate them for research purposes. Naturally, the Project recorded the Performance of Ghroth and the Destruction of Shaggai, leading to the initial discovery of Red Arcanotech by Humanity. Today, the Brotherhood is a placation-cult worshiping Ghroth as the destroyer of worlds, hoping to avoid destruction by transmitting a antiphon of his original performance back in the direction of lost Shaggai.

The Red Tongues [Red]
Lead by the severed-but-reanimated head of the undead K'nyanian T’la-yub, the Red Tongues are a street gang operating out of the Asturias Zone of the Iberian Region. Their leader, a lesser member of the aristocracy of K'n-yan, is capable of materialization and dematerialization at will, an ability which she uses to administer each local branch of her organization in person. The name "Red Tongues" comes from the requirement that air be blown into T’la-yub's open neck hole in order for her to speak aloud (rather than telekinetically manipulating a pen) and the initiation rite into the cult/gang which requires such.

Although the individual members of the Red Tongues have little magical affinity, the majority of the high ranking adepts have been trained in flight and in the creation of portals by their undead master, facilitating their numerous drug and person smuggling operations. The devotion of the remainder (along with T’la-yub's willingness to engage in sorcerous hit and run tactics) have left Red Tongues as the dominant criminal force in the Asturias Zone. The physical remains of their leader's body are believed to still reside in K'n-yan, somewhere beneath the Oklahoma Zone and it is unknown whether T’la-yub desires their return.

[DrPraetor]

Purple

Glimmerlings
The Glimmerlings are fans of a children's TV show about magical talking animals, with a protagonist named Violet Glimmer. The outer levels of the club are a more-or-less ordinary, if creepy and fanatic, fan club.
The higher levels of initiation involve escalating levels of sexual deviancy while wearing "furry" arcanotech prostheses which the wearer can feel as if it were really their skin.
Although the Union has encountered these cultists, the higher orders have been very successful in concealing their involvement from Union intelligence. The animators and writers of the show are uniformly devout followers of Shub-Niggurath, and use the plots of the cartoon to spread cult ideology. Some glimmerlings may have even infiltrated Union administration.

In case you didn't get it: it's my little pony

Green

Eaters of the Lotus
The Eaters of the Lotus take drugs that enable them to kill people by entering the victim's dreams, as well as other acts of green sorcery. This is an easy and efficient way of learning sorcery, which is how the EotL recruit - they are particularly eager to teach the drug-magic to anyone resourceful enough to survive their dream-attacks (often the teaching is done through dream communication, which makes the small cult difficult to eradicate). But, growing murderous impulses are a side-effect of the highly addictive drugs. Withdrawal makes the former practitioner suicidal-despondent, as well as unusually susceptible to telepathic suggestion; some reformed cultists are allowed to serve as Union sorcerer-assets, albeit they are not well-liked or trusted. The EotL are heretical Cthulhu worshipers in that they believe Cthulhu has already provided the great secret of the religion - they are fanatical about going Freddy Krueger on people, for which teaching they acknowledge Cthulhu more as prophet than as God. Even though the EotL are often at war with other green cultists over theological matters, they are still regarded as a grade 1 threat by Union intelligence.

A villainous faction from Shadowfist, but the name is public domain. Should they have eunuchs and evil kung fu? YES.

Blue

Protocol 2501
P2501 is more of a criminal organization with access to Blue sorcery than a cult as such. The leadership claims alternatively to be either ascended artificial intelligence or human consciousness uploaded into computers or both. The leadership occasionally demands worship as part of a purported plan to achieve true Godhood but this is not consistent (sometimes it is claimed as a joke or a sort of abstract social criticism), indicating either a plurality of cells claiming to be P2501, widespread insanity among the leadership, or both. Their modus operandi is to use blue sorcery - especially effective on cyborgs - to convince victims that they are insane, or to commit crimes on the organization's behalf which can then be used as blackmail. Even junior members of P2501 are prone to grandiose claims and braggadocio.
The Union has made a number of strikes against cells utilizing P2501's methods or monicker, and has a number of cells under observation, but reports on P2501's overall level of coordination and sophistication are limited or inconsistent.

A mashup of the villains from Ghost in the Shell and Lain.

Yellow

Jupiter Mining Corporation
The Jupiter Mining Corporation - as the name implies - was originally established to engage in mining operations in Jupiter. They are primarily a supplier of weapons and spaceships, which are secretly research projects by the insane board of directors who are worshipers of Hastur. JMC ships have a disturbing tendency to kill crew members, but this is done on purpose as an offering to Hastur.
The existence of the upper leadership of this cult is unknown to Union intelligence; the leadership will create "shell cults" in order to protect their own identities. The prevalence of Hastur-related cult activities among engineers and scientists at JMC is arousing growing suspicion among junior-level agents, but the leadership of JMC have high Union security clearance and view their trade of lives for technology with Hastur as patriotic.

It's the megacorp from Red Dwarf.

Red
I think that's enough, but you should have a Red cult who are fans of a group of musicians (the musicians are not, in fact, cultists!) and dress in outrageous oufits, like Juggalos or GWAR fans or something.

[Grek]

I like the Eaters, Protocol 2501 and would like to have a Red music cult. Jupiter Mining Corporation requires that we push out the Shan Fleet to at least Jupiter, or give them some reason to ignore the corp. But other than that, introducing an evil space corp is a definite gain for the setting and I'm all for it.

Glimmerlings are right out though. The overlap between bronies, anime watchers and TTRPG players may not be total, but it is big enough that we're not going to randomly piss on MLP fans and insist that they're furry sex cultists just because someone thought it would be funny.

---

A brief word on threat/objective priority levels as I've been using them:

The possibility of a Priority Zero Objective is not openly acknowledged by the Union and to this day only a single example has been declared: securing the Chimes of Azathoth for the Union and thereby keeping the solar system from being destroyed by their accidental activation. Officially there is no such thing as the Chimes of Azathoth and the Union isn't looking. Unofficially, even the slightest hint as to the location of even a single fragment gets followed up by Union spooks and archeologists ready to transport it to [insert our Angel Grove/SEELE analog here]. Most Field Agents do not know that this level exists, but if they do, they are allowed and encouraged to break Regional or even Union law if it will get results toward this objective.

Priority One Objectives are those which pose an active and existential threat to the continued presence of independent Humanity on Earth. This is the highest priority level openly acknowledged and the one to which the Union devotes the vast majority of its resources. Existing Priority One Threats include Cthulhu, the Abyss, the Time War and Population-Wide Morale Failure. Previous Priority One Threats include the Moon Beasts, the Cthonians and the Mi-Go Combine. Field Agents may commandeer resources and occupy territory in order to deal with a Priority One threat without a warrant and are permitted to use whatever base resources they need without requisitioning it first.

Priority Two Objectives consist primarily of law and order goals, including the monitoring of past Priority One objectives for resurgences in activity. Although second to survival in terms of resources, dealing with Priorty Two objectives never-the-less takes largest amount of manpower from of the Union's myriad Agencies. Existing Priortity Two Objectives include cult monitoring, the Global Psychic Registry, research into methods to send material (especially explosive material) into the Abyss, diplomacy with the Non-Union Zones of Valusia and Lemuria, the Lunar Occupation and the ongoing naval war in the Pacific against R'lyeh. A warrant is required to commandeer resources or occupy a locations, but requisitions are still quite generous in pursuit of these objectives.

Priority Three Objectives are pie in the sky dreams of the Union Government - tasks that are on indefinite hold due to a lack of resources but which would never the less be of tremendous instrumental value to Humanity if they were ever accomplished. Examples include the establishment of additional extraplanetary colonies, blue sky research into the various fields of Archanotech and the universal rollout of immortality treatments for the general population. You can't get a warrant to commandeer things in pursuit of these objectives, and the quartermaster will only approve your requisitions if you're asking for something the Zone has an abundance of.

[erik]

I like these top level summaries of cults. I'd forgotten all about the setting of Sentai Fthagn so now I gotta go back and reread that thread to get more context.

Tho I will add this...

While the Emerald Tablet does not pose a direct risk to the Union per say

[OgreBattle]

These are great descriptions and "why join?: is such a simple yet not answered question in many works.

Could base them off of different Sentai villain groups too



Though I'm not sure what motivates Fuhrer Crocodile

[Username17]

Purple cults in particular seem like they advertise themselves. "You had me at the more, better sex." The Abyss mostly needs to hide their propensity to eat people, but core effect of Abyssian magic is something that almost everyone wants. As the saying goes "How can we use sex to get what we want? Sex is what we want." Even without there being legit Goat Spawn who are Union citizens, maintaining total prohibition on Abyssian arcanotech would be absolutely impossible. What it does is simply too attractive to the person on the street. Fighting purple cultic activities would be an absolute nightmare - with people being addicted to Abyssian energies the way people get addicted to tobacco or alcohol - but the really far gone ones turn into flesh eating ogres rather than dying of liver cancer or heart disease.

On the reverse side, the Yithians have nothing to offer people and have to keep their agenda and their methods a deep secret. They pretty much have to act like Cobra Command or something, using deep cover agents and mundane resources to acquire resources and achieve goals.

And yes, this is a great read. Thank you for making this. I love the way you're handling the Threat Priority system.


The Union has upgraded the transdimensional threat level to "Blackwatch Plaid"

-Username17

[Grek]

Fixed.

Purple cults in particular seem like they advertise themselves. "You had me at the more, better sex."

Absolutely. I wanted to write up a non-standard example of a Purple cult first, but the average Purple cult is basically a regularly scheduled bacchanal with goat sacrifices. I should probably do a 'standard cult' for everyone except Blue - They already have theirs in the Silver Gate cells.

[Username17]

The typical Green cult is basically indistinguishable from the terrorist cults of the modern day. The only real difference is that they have a much greater chance of being "right" in the sense that there is a non-zero chance that the Chimes of Azathoth get rung and destroy the world in a frenzy of destruction and rebirth. R'lyeh is almost exactly the ISIS Caliphate except it has a more plausible theology and much better military resources.

But your typical R'lyeh inspired terror cell is going to be much like the typical ISIS inspired terror cell - a group of brain addled young people who are consumers of R'lyehian religious texts and propaganda. They get recruited because they are dissatisfied with their place in Union society and get groomed up to commit acts of terror with 2 parts revenge fantasy and one part promises of radical salvation in death. And like ISIS, R'lyeh probably has very little actual contact with these people and doesn't offer them much in the way of guidance or materials. While the priests of Azathoth are quick to claim credit for acts of terrorism that harm the Union, they aren't quick to offer real assistance to any of these aspiring terror cells.

Where I'm leery of how to tread is the slavery issue. Obviously, R'lyeh and the original Lunar Kingdom are staunchly pro-slavery. Both teach that capturing and enslaving non-believers is a positive thing to do. But that shit is fucking horrifying, and you don't want to end up like Cthulhutech where discussions about your game world end up with the "Rape Rape" tag. Because holy shit, why does that even exist? There aren't going to be organized rape camps or any of that shit. Just people being put to work in horrific conditions until they get rescued.

-Username17

[Grek]

I think the take in the book should be that A] R'lyeh and its cults absolutely would take slaves if they had the ability to, but lacks the manpower to do more than force PoWs to work in undersea lava mines, and B] we are only going to bring it up in the one place where we discuss the Azathohian Philosophy and as a complication when dealing with R'lyeh and its cults. It absolutely does not need to be something that's repeated over and over to emphasize that R'lyeh is bad. It's fucking R'lyeh, of course it's bad.

---

How's this look for a cult stat block? Ideally we would have a generic cultist statblock and them fill in the details here.

Cult Name
Executive summary of one to two paragraphs goes here.
Leadership: Number and title of cult leaders per cult.
1-2 sentences on the defining traits of the leadership, both game mechanical and otherwise.
"Deep Ones only; Dream Speaking and two other Green techs" for example.
Membership: Number and title of cult members. (Minimum time to advance from Initiate to New Cell founder goes here.)
1-2 sentences on the defining traits of the cult's members, both game mechanical and otherwise.
Recruits: Cult's term for fresh/prospective recruits. (Minimum time to advance from Recruit to Initiate goes here.)
1-2 sentences on the sort of people who would join the cult, including game mechanical requirements.
Headquarters: Brief description of where the cult meets goes here.
Assets: Anything else that the cult has which goes here, including summoned monsters, occult tomes and big piles of cash.
Complications: Any circumstantial issues which make it hard to go after this cult. Infiltration of the local government, slaves you need to rescue, not being officially recognized as a cult, difficulties in IDing members etc.

[DrPraetor]

Jupiter Mining Corporation requires that we push out the Shan Fleet to at least Jupiter,

No, not really. They can be called the JMC because they were founded to mine the Jovian moons, and then when that turned out to be impossible they built warships instead.

Edit The company could be called Galilean Technologies because the founder was an insane billionaire with a Galileo fetish who wanted to mine the Jovian moons. He was a secret Hastur cultist who used Yellow arcanotech to build robot suits as well as ships and weapons.

This way, it's a Red Dwarf reference, an Iron Man reference, and an Elon Musk dig all at once

Glimmerlings are right out though. The overlap between bronies, ... is big enough that we're not going to randomly piss on MLP fans and insist that they're furry sex cultists just because someone thought it would be funny.

My only question is: how do you type with your hands encased in padded felt pony legs, you revolting pervert?
But, fine, it doesn't have to be MLP it just has to be furries. When the Union expurgation squad kicks in the door, they are swarmed by costumed cannibals, their felt costumes matted with a revolting mix of secretions.

Furries have a sense of humor about this stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDnYq0zbYYo

and you can't deny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Dyqas6Sm8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClbBxEomrb4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEmh5a_wSyw
are a Purple cult.

Anyway I think actually MLP fans would have a sense of humor about it. Isn't Count Arioch the 28th a brony? We could ask him.

How's this look for a cult stat block?

Looks good to me.

[Grek]

And now for some 'generic' cults:

Purple Hedonism Club
Abyssal cults are cults of addiction. People exposed to Black Goat Energy are given a powerful high that leads them to seek out additional exposure. The resulting vicious cycle ultimately culminates with the burning out of their soul and their degeneration into a Dark Gateway through which Shub-Niggurath's servitors enter the world. As a result, the average Purple Cult is organized along the lines of a social club or a drug den with dark magic as one vice among many. Purple Cults vary in whether or not this is the ultimate aim, or a worse case scenario that they think they can avoid, but in either case the potential risk is kept carefully hidden when the cult is recruiting. Few people want to become a screaming orifice through which goat demons swarm forth to devour the world, after all.
Leadership: 1 Owner, 1 Supplier - often these are the same individual.
Owner maintains the headquarters and charges for access; Supplier has access to 1-3 Purple spells, including Summon the Beast Within and uses them on the Patrons.
Membership: Patrons. (N/A; Patrons degenerate to Dark Gateways instead)
The individuals who have regularly frequented the Club grown addicted the Black Goat Energy. No Goatspawn, minor or moderate addiction.
Recruits: Customers. (One successful visit; requires gaining Owner's trust.)
New or possible patrons, generally invited by the Owner or by trusted Patrons of the Club. Often, there is a Newbie Night so that discerning Patrons can avoid possible narcs while the new customers are being vetted.
Headquarters: A club or a back room in a club, owned by the Owner and frequented by the members. Imagine a cross between an opium den, an illegal brothel, Fight Club and a speak-easy. Cheap furniture, easy to clean floors.
Assets: Money, drugs and alcohol. Rarely, a Dark Gateway.
Complications: Connections with local influentials; is prepared to destroy evidence if tipped off in time.

---

Green Terror Cell
The core pathology of the Dream Cults is a misplaced sense of purpose. People defect to R'lyeh because they are emotionally unfulfilled - due to other factors about their life like abuse, poverty, mental health issues or other frustrations - and R'lyeh fills up that empty place in their life with promises of a new world order with them at the top. The most fervent and serious-minded of the converts become radicalized and are willing to fight for their newfound belief in Cthulhu's inevitable reawakening and die with a smile on their face, secure in the conviction that they did the were doing the right thing. Like most other cults, there is an element of self-perpetuation here: the more atrocities committed, the harsher the reprisals and the more radicalized the existing members become.
Leadership: 1 Martyr
Unlike other cults, terror cells are usually organized around a deceased or imprisoned figure who has become a symbol of popular outrage against the Union. Unless they are powerful Dreamers, they don't have a direct role in the guiding of the cult - radicals act in their example, not on their orders.
Membership: Radicals (6 weeks.)
Sympathizers are upgraded to radicals upon witnessing an act of martyrdom and go out seeking to make martyrs of themselves in turn. 10% chance per successful scheme to catch on and inspire radicalization; halved if the radical is imprisoned.
Recruits: Sympathizers (~12 months, requires a Martyr)
Cthulhu-sympathizers are otherwise ordinary Union citizens who have begun to wonder whether Cthulhu might have a point - whether maybe the promised transformation of society is really such a bad thing. Deep Ones are three times likely to join.
Headquarters: None. Green cults are based on individual action and individual radicals seldom meet with one another before carrying out their plans.
Assets: Weapons, bombs, green arcanotech. While R'lyeh does not directly sponsor most terrorists, they DO encourage people acting in their name to take up arms.
Complications: PR. Public reprisals against Green Cells is the number one cause of radicalization and future attacks. The only long term solution is a series of quiet arrests.

---

Blue Defection Conspiracies
In every blue conspirator's heart is a sense of superiority or specialness. The idea that they and they alone have been entrusted with a secret mission to protect the Union. It is this very sense of pride that prevents the dupe from reporting the recruitment attempt, buying into the lies they're fed about secret missions, double agents and renegade Yith seeking to join Human society. Despite being one of the more dangerous threats to the Union, defection conspiracies are among the most fragile - once the mask is pulled back and solid proof of treachery is had, deconversion of the former cultists is easy.
Leadership: 1 Ringleader
Blue Defector Conspiracies are generally lead by a single Yithian agent posing as either a Union psychic or a 'renegade' Yith seeking to defect to the Union. Invariably, this turns out to be a lie.
Membership: Conspirator (1-2 years normally; 4 weeks if psychic)
Conspirators are carefully placed Union officials and/or psychics who have been brought in on the outer layer of the conspiracy and who believe that they are working on a secret project in the Time War.
Recruits: Agents (N/A; only upon promotion within the Union)
Agents of the Conspiracy are the employees and staff of the Conspirators. They are generally unaware that they are part of a secret project and are simply following seemingly legitimate orders from their superiors. Agents are never psychic; psychics get fast-tracked to Conspirator and then body-swapped as soon as possible.
Headquarters: Union facilities of all types.
Assets: Ability to commandeer and requisition goods as per a Union Agency; access to classified Union information.
Complications: May be a part of the very Agency investigating the issue. Trust nobody.

---

Yellow Suicide Cult
Yellow Cults are based around the false promise that by making great sacrifices in one quantum branch, the cultist can reap equally great rewards in an alternate branch. Taken to the logical extreme, the cultists sell off their worldly goods and sacrifices themselves in multiple timelines in order to 'concentrate' their experience into a single Grand Cosmos in which they are the lucky survivor that gains the benefits of the cult's sacrifices while the others are (in this quantum branch at least) deceased. To outside observers, this looks like a massive suicide lottery with a tiny chance of gaining great wealth and sorcerous power and a very big change of dying for nothing. To the believer, it's a 100% chance - you only care about the universe in which you survive, after all. Only the truly desperate or the tremendously self-assured would be willing to take such a risk, and it is precisely these unfortunates which are targeted by such texts as "The King in Yellow" and Combine broadcasts like "From the Shores of Lake Hali".
Leadership: N/A.
Yellow cults are 'lead' by a text, a broadcast or a remote but charismatic alien preacher rather than by a human cultist. Mechanically it doesn't matter what the origin is.
Membership: Sorcerers
Those who pass through the ritual sacrifice are changed by the experience. They gain 4 Yellow sorceries, the combined wealth of all members of the cult and a great deal of good luck - often pushing them onward to positions of frame and status.
Recruits: Aspirants
A yellow aspirant is a person with nothing to live for and little to lose, dead-set on destroying themselves in a foolish and dangerous magic. Pick three <insert disadvantages/flaws/AS-style Obligations here>.
Headquarters: A large number of flophouses and other properties, OR a mansion bought with the proceeds of selling off the same.
Assets: A tremendous amount of money and an equally large amount of debt.
Complications: Murphy's law. When dealing with a Yellow Sorcerer fresh out of the ascension ritual, anything that can go wrong will.

---

Red Doomsday Church
Red Churches tend to be organized around a lingering sense of hope that if only the correct rites are performed, Nyarlathotep will personally protect them from the destruction of this universe and usher them safely into the next. As Nyarlathotep is sated only by disorder and confusion, these cults invariably work to sow chaos and undermine the Union itself. With each success, the public's faith in the war effort is diminished and the Cult's message of salvation through destruction becomes all the more alluring to new converts.
Leadership: 1 Prophet
A red cult's prophet claims communion or contact with the Crawling Chaos and alleges to give out 'missions' or 'holy works' which are pleasing to Nyarlathotep. A strong <social attribute> is a must.
Membership: Chosen Ones (2 years)
Once a Hopeful becomes one of the Chosen, they are nominally safe according to the cult theology and their duty becomes one of missionary work - helping others see that the Universe is doomed and assisting them in performing a suitable sacrament to secure their own 'salvation'.
Recruits: Hopeful (6 weeks)
In order for one of the Hopeful to be 'saved' according to cult theology, one must perform a sacred act of terrorism or chaos on behalf of Nyarlathotep. Only direct acts are generally counted - one person cannot 'save' another, leading to parents coaxing their children through the process of horrific crimes.
Headquarters: Private homes and churches.
Assets: Few. Of all the cults, Red organizations are the least likely to have special assets.
Complications: Children. These cults almost always bring their children and are not afraid to use them as hostages.


The idea is that you use the above when you don't actually care (as a DM) what the cult is up to, or don't have a specific organization planned and need to pull some cultists out of a hat because the PCs went looking. They can also be used as a template to build a custom cultic organization around.

[DrPraetor]

Q1: Does Sentai Ftaghn have Elder Things in it?

Because Elder Things are potential allies of the Union, but could also lead cults.

Q2: What is union society like? What are the fault lines?
For example, presumably there is a big educational system which uses a lot of creepy computer stuff. So there could be cults which have one or another agenda wrt Transhumanism of various strains; a blue cult could have some plan around the educational system preparing the way for future Yithian domination, for example.

creepy brainwashing type stuff aside, a cult of any type could have an agenda around shifting the civil discourse in one or another direction. Plots on social media would be strongly rooted in current events...

Q3: You mentioned quiet arrests being desirable for Green cults. What are the modes of engagement against cults for union forces and the like? This makes a big difference wrt how the cults themselves behave...

[Grek]

A1: Yes. They're Union allies and fill the character role of "absent-minded boffin" for many Agencies.
A2: The Lemurians already left the Union over precisely the problem you gave as an example. Others include "Which species should be allowed to be members of the Union?", "Is more independence for individual Zones a good idea?", "Is the Psychic Registry really necessary?" and "How come we don't have Universal Immortality?"
A3: Fuck off with the pony murder shit, it isn't going in.

[Shatner]

As an aside, the Yellow suicide cults remind me strongly of the Paimon prosperity cult from the movie Hereditary.

Spoiler for large image.

[Mord]

Yellow Suicide Cult
Yellow Cults are based around the false promise that by making great sacrifices in one quantum branch, the cultist can reap equally great rewards in an alternate branch. Taken to the logical extreme, the cultists sell off their worldly goods and sacrifices themselves in multiple timelines in order to 'concentrate' their experience into a single Grand Cosmos in which they are the lucky survivor that gains the benefits of the cult's sacrifices while the others are (in this quantum branch at least) deceased. To outside observers, this looks like a massive suicide lottery with a tiny chance of gaining great wealth and sorcerous power and a very big change of dying for nothing. To the believer, it's a 100% chance - you only care about the universe in which you survive, after all. Only the truly desperate or the tremendously self-assured would be willing to take such a risk, and it is precisely these unfortunates which are targeted by such texts as "The King in Yellow" and Combine broadcasts like "From the Shores of Lake Hali".

I don't know if this is an intentional reference to the IRL Cult of Yudkowsky, but regardless this is a pretty sick burn on them. Too bad Roko's Basilisk isn't a Mythos critter.

[Username17]

The closest thing to Roko's Basilisk in the setting is the Yithians. They made preparations in the past to transmit themselves into our future and conquer the planet. Their victory may well be inevitable, and failing to join the winning team may condemn you to some future torture. The Union's position on that is to go all Order 227 on it and declare that they will fight this future by every means at their disposal and never surrender or compromise.

Although Ghroth the Harbinger occupies a somewhat similar role for his cultists. In that they are pretty sure he's going to eat Earth at some point and that only by joining can they be spared.

-Username17

[DrPraetor]

A3: Fuck off with the pony murder shit, it isn't going in.

You know what your problem is, Grek? Toxic Masculinity. The ponies are also murdering, so it balances out:

courtesy of:
https://mlpforums.com/topic/58200-how-d ... alization/

The closest thing to Roko's Basilisk in the setting is the Yithians. They made preparations in the past to transmit themselves into our future and conquer the planet. Their victory may well be inevitable, and failing to join the winning team may condemn you to some future torture. The Union's position on that is to go all Order 227 on it and declare that they will fight this future by every means at their disposal and never surrender or compromise.

How badly compromised is Union intelligence, and how effective are their countermeasures? You'd think that every registered Psychic would get an ankle monitor and a weekly screen, and not even object to tracking, given there are aliens from the past who want to take over their body. Like what the replicants go through in the new Bladerunner. You'd think these measures would be very effective at containing the false gate, if they work at all (and if there are no countermeasures available...) How often do Yithian cells get exposed and dealt with?

The overall structure of Union society matters a lot for how Cults operate. If there are sacrifice zones, those are hotbeds of cult activity (almost by definition), and local social collapse reinforces itself because demons.

Do ordinary citizens have materiel that the cults can utilize? Like, is there widespread civilian gun ownership?

I'm sure there are other very important questions: how is civil morale maintained, what is the class and economic distribution within Union society, and so on.

The Elder Things have a creepy and horrific agenda, even as allies of the Union. They want humanity to carry on the Elder Things' weird and unsettling cultural legacy, which requires humans to be engineered to have an alien aesthetic. This messes people up severely, and causes tremendous alienation, decadence, and a loss of capacity to relate emotionally to unmodified humans. Elder Thing oriented cults exceed the boundaries of Union-sanctified modification in Elder-Thing-izing the psyche of human children (which is one way the Union gets sorcerer-agents.) Do the Elder Things favor one flavor of arcanotech? If not, the "color" of such cults would vary depending on the cultural interests emphasized by the cult (which may or may not have an Elder Thing patron at present.)

[Username17]

How badly compromised is Union intelligence, and how effective are their countermeasures?

The Union has no idea. The Yithians do not exist in the present. Yith was destroyed when its star went nova millions of years in the past, and the Yithians sent their minds forward to seize Earth at a point in their future that is still our future. The temporal physics of the Great Race of Yith was much more advanced at the end of their civilization than The Union's is now, so The Union is unsure whether it's even possible to beat them. The great invasion may have "already succeeded" in some important time loop sense.

-Username17

[Grek]

The Elder Things have a creepy and horrific agenda, even as allies of the Union. They want humanity to carry on the Elder Things' weird and unsettling cultural legacy, which requires humans to be engineered to have an alien aesthetic. This messes people up severely, and causes tremendous alienation, decadence, and a loss of capacity to relate emotionally to unmodified humans. Elder Thing oriented cults exceed the boundaries of Union-sanctified modification in Elder-Thing-izing the psyche of human children (which is one way the Union gets sorcerer-agents.) Do the Elder Things favor one flavor of arcanotech? If not, the "color" of such cults would vary depending on the cultural interests emphasized by the cult (which may or may not have an Elder Thing patron at present.)

This is explicitly the (proposed) backstory for one of the Union races - the Oni, who are a flash-grown clone race created by the Elder Things on a human template but with Elder Thing aesthetics - bat wings, tentacle hair and the blues/reds of Elder Thing chitin for their skin tones. The amount of alienation varies, though, given that the Union is pretty accepting of anything even remotely humanoid as long as said humanoid is willing to work with them and not try to take shit over. The Elder Things have mostly Purple tech, but a smattering of Green and Blue as well, all of which they've shared with the Union.

[DrPraetor]

That's not quite what I meant.

Okay, first, do the Yithians:
[*] Engage in seemingly-nonsensical acts, whose strategic consequences the Union presumably can't foresee,
[*] Engage in overt sabotage, directed against personnel, material or facilities of obvious military value,
[*] Both, and it's not clear if one is a cover for the other?

As far as countermeasures go, the deep plots of the Yithians may be beyond the Union's ken, but does the Union have countermeasures against having individual telepaths taken over by Yithian infiltrators? If so, how effective are their countermeasures against that specifically? Are you saying they don't know, and thus no-one has even a general idea of what portion of Union telepaths are already Yithians in disguise? There was a major Yithian plot posing as future humans that they derailed or at least exposed and know about - how, and what (perhaps entirely security threater) precautions does the Union take?

Without making this all about the blue cults: when designing cults, it makes a big difference what Union policy actually is about cultists. It doesn't seem like green cultists, for example, are exterminatus so... lots of them are in jail? Is it like the Mafia where lots of cults continue to operate with many of their members imprisoned? Is that true of Purple and Red cults as well?
https://pre00.deviantart.net/3217/th/pr ... 8vxviq.png
(I can't find a version of this picture I can embed)

Vat-grown Oni are unsatisfying because they're not deep enough in the uncanny valley. Also, they don't go to creepy schools were all the children are... off. You want at least some transhumans who are only inhuman on the inside, or who look inhuman but you can't put your finger on how:

www.themakeupgallery.info/images/fantas ... ngslt7.jpg
Why can't I embed images today?

I know that you're deconstructing the HPL tropes but you should keep them when they are plausible and make good fodder for the stories you want to tell.

Anyway, while the Union is definitely fine with Oni existing, they surely have medical ethics rules which you would want to violate if you wanted to make Oni who'd serve as a superior vector for Elder-Thing-izing Union culture, and this would imply an arcanotech-equipped criminal organization, which is a cult.

[Grek]

Okay, first, do the Yithians:
[*] Engage in seemingly-nonsensical acts, whose strategic consequences the Union presumably can't foresee,
[*] Engage in overt sabotage, directed against personnel, material or facilities of obvious military value,
[*] Both, and it's not clear if one is a cover for the other?

That second one.
The Yithians don't have perfect knowledge of the future or even of the setting's present. They know everything that uncaptured Time Agents can report back and the approximate prognostications possible with Blue arcanotech, but neither is universal in scope. Time War plots generally revolve around assasinating, abducting and/or interfering with nascent military officers, political leaders, junior scientists and budding artists prior in their younger years prior to them doing whatever it is that they're going to be famous for.

As far as countermeasures go, the deep plots of the Yithians may be beyond the Union's ken, but does the Union have countermeasures against having individual telepaths taken over by Yithian infiltrators? If so, how effective are their countermeasures against that specifically? Are you saying they don't know, and thus no-one has even a general idea of what portion of Union telepaths are already Yithians in disguise? There was a major Yithian plot posing as future humans that they derailed or at least exposed and know about - how, and what (perhaps entirely security threater) precautions does the Union take?

Individual psychics (it's not just telepaths, they can take over any type of psychic) can be protected by having them go through a training course on mental resistance. If completed, the resistance training is highly effective and very bad for the would-be intruder. The problem is that it relies on the Union getting to the psychic before the Yithians do. Thus the Psychic Registration Program, which requires that all psychics report themselves for training. Beyond that, there's compartmentalization - there's a reason why the Union is made up of hundreds of different Agencies, despite the fact that a more centralized approach seems like it would produce better results.

What the Union doesn't know is exactly how much their history has been influenced by Time War assassinations and how much it is the result of the natural course of history. Does the current Secretary General have their position because they really are the best person for the job, or because temporal saboteurs killed off or ruined the careers of everyone better? It's both unknown and largely unknowable.

Without making this all about the blue cults: when designing cults, it makes a big difference what Union policy actually is about cultists. It doesn't seem like green cultists, for example, are exterminatus so... lots of them are in jail? Is it like the Mafia where lots of cults continue to operate with many of their members imprisoned? Is that true of Purple and Red cults as well?

Union policy on most cults is to observe and arrest. The generic Yellow and Purple cults are definitionally in possession of controlled arcanotech, while Red, Blue and Green cults are actively comitting crimes which would be arrest-worthy even today. It's more like street gangs than the Mafia - your Agency has a long list of suspected cultists who are under observation and occasionally there are stings where you try to catch them doing something illegal that you can bring into into an interrogation room over. Sometimes this works and you make a big bust. Other times they start killing people and end up getting stabbed by one of your sailor scouts in a firefight.

From an out of character standpoint, cults are Investigator-tier antagonists and get an Investigative response. If you go in guns blazing and shoot everyone without solving the mystery, you're entirely missing the core content of the game at this tier. As a result, the cults are all designed to be something where either that level of response isn't warranted (purple, yellow, red) or where it would be actively counter-productive (blue and green).

I know that you're deconstructing the HPL tropes but you should keep them when they are plausible and make good fodder for the stories you want to tell.

We have Deep One hybrids for that sort of plotline. Looks almost perfectly human, but they breathe water and age differently. Or the reanimated, who've been returned to life by Herbert West's glowing green formula and are ever so slightly off as a result. Or Ghouls, who are literally long-eared (and pointy-toothed) humanoids which require human flesh as a key component of their diet. There's plenty of approximate humans in the setting, we don't need to make Oni another example when it makes more sense lore-wise for them to be extremely freaky and show off the Union's expansive definition of humanity.

[DrPraetor]

Before segueing back to cults, let's talk about high school.

In the high school mini-game, we're doing a mashup of, among others, Evangelion, the psychic school from Akira, X-men, Ender's Game and 21 Jump Street. Also there was this show (from the UK?) were the students are zombies and they're trying to teach them not to act human.

The high schoolers are chosen one(s), are fulfilling power fantasies and are also angst-ridden in a horror movie.

Players will want to mix and match those in different ways for their characters, and you need to support many combinations as character conceptions, without over-burdening yourself with types.

High school power fantasies include, non-exhaustively: looks, charm, athleticism, book-learning, street-smarts, general coolness, and indifference. As a teenager, not giving a shit is a super-power.

Independent of that, characters will want to express their angst as (again, non-exhaustively):
[*] human children brainwashed to forget their families,
[*] replicants with implanted childhood memories,
[*] offspring of breeding programs with false family life,
[*] "regular kids" who looks like monsters (and may or may not mind),
[*] cute kids who only pretend to share human emotions,
and will want to be prominent in, and also victims of, a variety of convoluted and horrific plots by the adults.

Finally, people will want to be able to dial up and down the body horror to taste, and some will be furries.

Also they are all going to the same Ender's game/Evangelion high-school.

So we've got:
[*] teenage oni
[*] teenage risen
[*] teenage deep ones
[*] teenage ghouls
[*] "normal" kids who are the subject of (horrible) experiments

any one of which can be smart, hot, charming, secretly-evil, and subject to various experiments, including brainwashing, fake parenting programs, and etc.

It makes sense that the Elder Things intend Oni to be their cultural successors, since Elder Things grow from spores and Oni are grown in vats without parents. But, you also want the Elder Things to be performing horrible surgical experiments on children in order to give them superpowers, make them appreciate elder-thing art, and give them plenty of angst and alienation about their normal human bodies. Except maybe they have goat irsises and nictating membranes, because that would be super-creepy.

You want to have these degrees of freedom without too much proliferation of types. That is, you want the option to be a mean, sullen Oni girl who feels rejected for being different, as well as a fun, party girl Oni who dresses sexy and flirts while being blue and bat-winged and having insect hair. You want the option of playing Buffy and you want the option of playing a cheerleader who is completely faking her human emotions:

Code: Select all

[img]
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/haruhi/images/1/18/RyokoSHnS-01.jpg
[/img]

Am I doing that wrong?

Now, from all of that, we can reverse-engineer what the setting must be like in order to supply the stories we know we're going to tell, right?

So, ala Ender's Game the Union government has licensed various agencies - of whom Elder Things are one faction - to perform experiments on children. Some of these children are Oni whom the Elder Things are still working to "perfect". But, the Elder Things also do surgery on children to enhance their psychic powers and while they've got a surgical tool up your nose they're going to give you a five-fold symmetric brain with a depraved, humanity-despising additional personality so that you can better appreciate the Elder Things unsettling taste in wall-carvings.

This is all fine and good as long as they're working towards the war effort, but there should also be transhumanist cults that exceed whatever bounds, authorizations or goals, the Union authorities approve. These cults shouldn't be purple, because the child-victimizing is plenty squick without making it sexual; if people want to mix those two flavors in their own horror games they can do it without specific encouragement.

Oh, and psychic defenses aside, the Union should do the Bladerunner test administration thing to see if people are human, because it's a cool way to ferret out Yithian agents and other victims of possession.

[Grek]

I was with you right up until the nasal probing and the humanity despising alter egos.

The Elder Things probably aren't cutting people open - they're too advanced for such crude measures. It's already an established part of the setting that advanced biotechnology is commonplace in the Union, including organic computers, immortality serums, viable cloning and microbes tailored to eat away and replace specific tissues with other specific tissues. Couple that with honest to god psychics and dream magic and your transhumanism can be suitably ambiguous that different tables (and therefore different Agencies in different Zones) will draw the line at different places and there can be legitimate conflict about who is and isn't going 'too far'.

None of that is specific to the Elder Things, either. By this point, most of the tech they have has spread into the broader Union. They're relics, tottering on and watching the younger races grow with various degrees of fondness and trepidation. While certainly there could be a secret faction of Elder Things who want to perpetuate their line by creating something even less human than an Oni, that's not especially transhumanist. The transhumanist cult wants to be a different cult than those guys, and organized around something more clearly bad like releasing mutagenic microbes into the water supply to uplift people even without their consent.

More generally, this points to the need for Orange Cults - ones organized around technologies or practices which are already well understood by Union science, but which are for whatever reason banned for having gone too far or for being contrary to some core ideal of the Union. You can put the radical pacifists, the telepathic mind control rings and the Combine collaborators here as well as the transhumanists.

[DrPraetor]

Elder Things are individuals, and it's a waste of good storytelling potential to make the mostly benevolent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_ ... fts_(film)

But also you can have cults planning to do this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonist_ ... #Black_oil
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Forced_Evolutionary_Virus
sure.

Oh, shit, gotta go. Anyway, this is only secondarily related to cults, so I'll fork it into a thread on what high school students you can make.


Why isn't this working? I'm not even getting the little failed loader image.

[Hicks]

Hey, I thought the Union and C'thulhu were allies since big, mean, and green kicked a whole bunch of moon beast butt in the lunar war, or was that written out of the backstory somewhere?