What is your favorite evil cult?

[Scrivener of Doom]

The Heretics of the Harlot's Coin in the Forgotten Realms is my favourite cult.

They date back to the Time of Troubles when Waukeen, deity of wealth and trade, was imprisoned by Graz'zt. FR canon has Waukeen subsequently freed but this cult of Graz'zt persisting amongst heretical followers of Waukeen.

IMC, they're the true power in the church of Waukeen and she remains imprisoned in the Abyss.

 

[Dungeoneer]

Another vote for Elemental Eye/Tharazdun. I love the bait-and-switch of, "Oh, you think this is just a wacky cult, no wait, they're worshiping an insane god who wants to destroy the universe!"

Good times, good times.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I had the party run into a "cult" of Pelor once. They were some old, backwards sect that believed they needed to make sacrifices so that Pelor would "live". If they didn't make the sacrifice then the sun wouldn't come up. Drove the party's cleric nuts.

Gotta say, I thought that was clever.

 

[Oryan77]

Probably over half of the replies are voting for Tharazdun. I had not even heard of him until I started this thread. I looked him up and read up on the cult. There was very little information about either. What did exist didn't really inspire me. So I chose to go with Vecna instead because I've always found him interesting.

But I'm wondering, what is it about Tharazdun that is getting him so much praise? Is there an adventure related to him that is popular and that's what got people so interested in him? Is it simply because he seems like a play on Cthulhu and Cthulhu fans are the ones praising Tharazdun? I just don't get how a deity/cult with so little information is getting recommended so much.

The only feedback I'm getting is, "The gist is that they are crazy evil murderers bent on destroying everything." But I don't see how that makes them all that different or unique from most other cults being used in a D&D game. They don't need to worship Tharazdun to come across like that, so what's the big deal? What am I missing here?

 

[Remus Lupin]

Ah well, Vecna is good too. But there is a pretty good array of stuff on Tharizdun floating around if you care to look. I remember digging deep when I was considering running a "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" campaign at one point. I was sort of fascinated by the various double games that Tharizdun was playing, pitting his various cultists against one another so nobody really knew his agenda.

 

[Ithilien]

I am going to go with the Cult of the Dragon in Forgotten Realms. Crazy cultists bent on conquering the Toril for undead dragons, what's not to love?

In Pathfinder I am torn between the Whispering Way and the Cult of the Outer Gods (read Cthulhu)

 

[darjr]

Tharizdun and his worshipers are such a special crazy that even the really bad guys wouldn't worship him and would do anything to kill his cultists. So he has to have cults within cults and often not even the high ranking cultists know what the abyss is going on. A coalition of deities, good and evil, put him down and imprisoned him. In one of my campaigns they also then forgot about him. The main city was nestled within a link in one of the chains, made of mithril and had magical properties. That nation city was rich because of it, till they mined a bit too much of it and weakened the link in the chains that bound the end of everything.

 

[steeldragons]

Probably over half of the replies are voting for Tharazdun. I had not even heard of him until I started this thread.

annnnd this would be where we respectfully ask that you turn in your D&D treehouse membership preferred player card [tm].

But I'm wondering, what is it about Tharazdun that is getting him so much praise? Is there an adventure related to him that is popular and that's what got people so interested in him?

The only feedback I'm getting is, "The gist is that they are crazy evil murderers bent on destroying everything." But I don't see how that makes them all that different or unique from most other cults being used in a D&D game. They don't need to worship Tharazdun to come across like that, so what's the big deal? What am I missing here?

Tharizdun and his worshipers are such a special crazy that even the really bad guys wouldn't worship him and would do anything to kill his cultists. So he has to have cults within cults and often not even the high ranking cultists know what the abyss is going on. A coalition of deities, good and evil, put him down and imprisoned him. In one of my campaigns they also then forgot about him. The main city was nestled within a link in one of the chains, made of mithril and had magical properties. That nation city was rich because of it, till they mined a bit too much of it and weakened the link in the chains that bound the end of everything.

Someone's already mentioned his (its?) involvement in the RttToEE...and then there's this...


I'm pretty sure in the D&D lexicon he is also the first (originally only?) deity that is referred to as both "mad" and dead/lost/imprisoned or whatever. The idea that there was something in the game multiverse that the gods couldn't handle...and best they could do was, basically, pack him away somewhere was...a big concept with a big "Oh c---" factor.

Not [legally] having access to Cthulu and not yet codifying the concept of a "Far Realms" [the very idea of codifying such begins to give me a headache], Greyhawk had Tharizdun. So, yes, there is definitely a Cthuluesque flavor and draw. The other idea, that I think caught people off guard (and sparked the imagination) was the idea of a god of...insanity?! Not a demon. Not a devil. A GAWD!? A deity that was insane itself?!...but still knew what it was doing...? Not interested in conquering the world. Not interested in Evil eliminating Good. Interested in destroying EVERYthing, EVERYbody, ALL of the other gods, demons and devils...Tharizdun wants NOthing to exist! That was a big [and friggin' scary] idea.

Tharizdun is just a part of D&D's long, treasured [and begun decades before 3e was a glimmer in its daddy's eye] canonical history, as much as Hommlet, Bree Yark, Markessa, Eclavdra and Acererak.

So now, that card please. ;P

 

[Viking Bastard]

I'll add my vote to Tharizdun, with Vecna as a runner up, when I want a juicy cult.

If I need to pull a cult out of my arse I generally go for Orcus or some snake worshippers.

 

[Kinak]

I've never been a big Tharizdun fan, probably because I already had homebrew equivalents by the time I ran into him. The "god even the evil gods hate" schtick can be great for justifying weird parties of adventurers, though. Rovagug is good for that role if you're using Pathfinder stuff or, really, any of the Great Old Ones.

I feel like Vecna has a lot more play, though. It's actually pretty easy to justify good people working with Vecna or Norgorber or any other god of secrets. Even if the cult as a whole is evil, locking away Secrets Man is not Meant to Know is an important job. They do some morally questionable things and have their collection of insanities, but so does the average Call of Cthulhu investigator.

They work pretty well as a pair too. The party might need to fight through the clergy of God of Secrets to get the information they need to stop the Elder Evil. Even if they're both adversaries, having them side by side lets you have a little nuance while making it clear just how alien the Elder Evil's morality really is.

Cheers!
Kinak