Why do NPCs join cults?

[Voadam]

I have done a mythos cult in D&D where it can act like a magical infection. “Have you seen the Yellow Sign?”

Forbidden knowledge can be dangerous.

Once exposed enough to the mystical symbol it gets you, warps you, and converts you.

You then work for the cult with no promise in return.

The evil cultists doing evil are victims.

 

[cranberry]

I've been contemplating that question for the past 10 years.

But seriously -
A sense of belonging
Strength in numbers
Grooming/brainwashing
The need for direction and meaning in life
To right a perceived wrong
Phycological vulnerability
A charismatic leader
All your friends and family are joining
Self improvement
The cool orange makeup

 

[billd91]

Some of the same reasons as people do in real life. And they stay in them for the same reasons too including being so gaslit and manipulated by the cult leaders that they can't cope with the idea of leaving it.

 

[Staffan]

"They avoided one another’s faces, for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I’ll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I’m not stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard… No one said anything. The cowards, thought each man."

"Down there – he said – are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any inequity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no."

"It was amazing, this mystic business. You tell them a lie, and then when you don’t need it any more you tell them another lie and tell them they’re progressing along the road to wisdom. Then instead of laughing they follow you even more, hoping that at the heart of all the lies they’ll find the truth. And bit by bit they accept the unacceptable. Amazing."

—Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

 

[Halifax Brent]

Dental.

Dentists sponsoring an evil cult is totally plausible.

 

[CommodoreKong]

In a typical fantasy world full of horrible monsters everywhere it may sometimes be that a cult can provide them some measure of power and safety.

 

[Voadam]

Dentists sponsoring an evil cult is totally plausible.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Like a lot of DMs, I find that evil cultists are a pretty good intelligent villain to use in RPGs: "This guy is trying to summon Orcus to destroy your hometown! You are completely justified in stabbing him!"

For most cultists, it's a pretty miserable life, wearing hooded robes and hanging around in sewers and caves, neither of which are great robe-wearing places. Sure, you get access to those neat wavy-bladed daggers, but what's the appeal otherwise?

Without this getting too real world (and therefore very depressing), what's in it for the cultists?

Two recent tv series I watched gave a pretty compelling (and similar) reason for this: Nero (2025) and The Decameron (2025). Essentially, both represent a time and place where people are desperate and adrift. In the middle of a famine (Nero) or an epidemic (Decameron), people feels abandoned by the gods and see the wealthy making out better than they are. Angry and hurt, they are lashing out in a nihilistic fashion. To me, that is the perfect cultist.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

When I think about cults, I think of the quote - which I can't remember where I heard it - that all a cult is is a religion that lacks the numbers.

I think a lot of good points are made in this thread about why people join or stay in cults. Some have no other group they can associate with, some were born or converted to it, to some it's a financial or material support system.

I think of cults like factions - even a lawful good god may have a cult. I played a paladin in a Rolemaster game, where, going in, I knew their god was the God of the Mid-day Sun - meaning he was all law, all punishing. My character, however, I guess could be seen as a heretic or cultist, because he worshipped that god, but chose the path of Good and healing.

By the end of the campaign, we had found that god was actually the Sun God, and over time, his other aspects had been lost by the main church. So my character, as a voice in the wilderness, actually sparked a revival and civil war inside the church fold.

 

[Reynard]

Insofar as we are talking about the kinds of cults the PCs won't have guilt about slaying and bashing their way through, I tend to consider cruelty and hunger for power as the primary motivators. There are lots of reasons someone might join A cult, but the reason people join THIS cult is purely cruel and selfish. They are small, wicked people who wish to gain wealth, influence or power without putting in the work, and are happy to see innocent people pay the price for them. Cults of this sort worship beings of greed and pain and domination.

One thing I try to avoid is the real world evil of many cults directed at women and children. Nobody needs that in their elf game.