Love your examples. I tend to base my cults on the "mystery cults' of the Roman Empire with a pinch of the Masons thrown in for flavor. They tend to be elitist organizations, very particular about who they invite because membership gives you access to real power. I sometimes build cults around warlocks and their patron.
Mystery cults are what most fantasy cults are based on but I wouldn't say they're exactly the same, as besides a few, they were just religious practitioners with a lot of secrecy in their rituals.
Cultists are one of the most interesting types of villains in fantasy settings. There is SO many things you can do with them. It's a shame they're often depicted in such bland ways.
I'm currently working on a nautical/mysterious island themed campaign for my group. The inciting incident is that their ship gets attacked by a Dragon Turtle. And now, I think I'll have to think of a good way to implement a cult of Kobold pirates who worship it.
In Hoard of the Dragon Queen my players were following a group of cultists away from the starting town to find the cult base (chapter 2). On the way they came across a group of them resting and killed most of them but left one unconscious to ask him questions. They woke the guy up and convinced him through good roleplay and some persuasion roles that they were Cult of the Dragon Queen inquisitors and that the guys he was resting with were heretics and they had saved him from a terrible fate. They said that they would come with him to the base and on the way they asked him about himself. His name I randomly decided was Ashly and that the Cult of the Dragon normally scoops up young orphans and indoctrinates them when they are children. This probably looks altruistic in the cities where they are found and helps them recruit adults. He had friends who worked in the food tents and they were all "adopted" at the same time. The party actually were super into his backstory. The party actually debated when he discovered they were not inquisitors and they decided they needed to kill him so he wouldn't tell anyone.
Other people’s cults: “DESTROY EVERYTHING FOR NO REASON!” My cults: “I saw some dude say something insane on the internet and made that the focus of a faction.”
In tabletop RPGs, I would actually advise the following; I am a huge fan of having players backstories harbor hidden conflicts... individual goals that the players will typically keep secret from each other. For instance, one person might be tasked with finding and killing those responsible for a particularly brutal murder while another is just a cult member who wants to recruit the other players into their cult. At some point, either the players (in part or in full) decide to go along with it. (Whether they do o from conviction or just to shut thier friend up is irrelevant but can add flavor). After the initiation, the player who recruited them (or if there is no recruiting they just get it anyway) gets a promotion and is given a task for advancement. You guessed it, the act they are rltasked with bears a striking resemblance to that brutal killing that took place and now the one player can choose to speak up or keep things quiet... assuming they haven't already exposed their plot that is.
I was considering having an upstart "Cult of Greed" in my TTRPG setting, where they mask their activities as some kind of business council and this video helped me click what kind of "sacrifice" they'd do. They would set out to ruin someone who runs their business charitably, and rob them blind, within the bounds of the law as much as possible. Which inherently comes with a plot hook, especially if the victim is a friend of the party's. :P
For my setting, I'll have a cult to the angels of death. Their inner membership is few and exclusive, but they have a lot of rich patrons who give generous donations in exchange for rituals to strike down their patrons' enemies. But behind the veil of mysticism, the cult is actually performing the killings themselves. (Acting as a glorified assassin's guild.) But they do have the magic needed to target all but the most guarded targets and kill them in unnatural ways.
@@worldbuildingsage Awesome! I seem to follow quite a few great German content creatores. It's so awesome how the internet allows people to interact with others from across the globe.
Personally I think Machiavelli has something when he says people want power. The cult leader benefits from being modeled on Machiavelli's "foxes" or his "lions". Scientology is something I like to abstract into a cult, as is the "cult of the emperor" from the standpoint of the layman's understanding of the Roman Empire. I live in a part of the world where the neighboring nation sports a culture which spawns cults like "Saint/Samta Death" and they will abduct, torture and kill people in hopes of winning the lottery. So there is the option of modeling cults on incredibly stupid people who are quite violent and see themselves as practicing a normal, accepted religion. Fun stuff, thanks for the video.
hey, i love tracking cults. my favorite are the sabbateans, they were the disciples of the coolest evilest rabbi ever. Sabbatti Tzevi. make your cults like their's. mu'ch more interesting.
