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Message: <blockquote data-quote="timbannock" data-source="post: 4757988" data-attributes="member: 17913">In RPGs, I always see cults to Elder Evil Entities, cults to [Insert some female paragon that hates God for some reason], cults to nature, cults to Totem Spirits.Things I haven't seen much of:- Cults based on familial spirits and ancestral heroes.  Essentially, this would be a bloodline or lineage that speaks to (or believes they speak to) a ghostly relative or "ascended" immortal hero.- Cults paying homage to a religious idea rather than a specific deity.  Not sure how to state it well, but if you can look up the Factions from Planescape, that's where I'm going.  They are partly about a specific belief of existence as a whole, partly religious, and partly secret society.  Like one believes everything is already dead and entropy has already set in, while another believes that there are no gods, only beings that are very powerful (and if there was a god, that god has since died/left/stopped caring/etc.)- Cults that are really just a clever ruse for someone who understands people really well.  Basically, a guy who doesn't believe in much of anything, but knows how to manipulate other people.  Think L. Ron Hubbard, or the Mentalist for the head of such a cult.- Cults based on one very specific practice.  A cult based around Dionysian revelry: they don't really care about anything but drinking, drugs and sex.  Maybe the cultish aspect of it is really just a very weak way for them to pretend they serve a higher power, but really it's just an excuse for their actions (sounds like most cults, actually...)A really good idea if you like moral grey areas is a cult dedicated to something that is ultimately good and benevolent, but the members are the people who can never attain that goodness because they do the dirty work of that good thing.  For example, knights of the church that will assassinate people, torture captives, and even make deals with demons in order to do "what must be done" for the church.  They believe the ends justify the means, so they do all sorts of nasty, brutish things.  And do the ends really justify the means...?  These folks may never know for sure...</blockquote>

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