Ever notice that in D&D there are no fluffy bunny cults? No, it's always one dedicated to two headed snakes or the Seven Headed Phlegm God or something.
And that’s gonna be my next campaign. A gathering of humanoids dedicated to the fluffyness of the world. They seek to kill any “rough-skinned” things, such as reptiles and other spiky animals/plants. Wait, that got dark. Maybe cults just aren’t that great of people
I'm planning to make a cult that worship the Deck of Many Things. Basically The Dealer promised them that if they are faithful, they get a chance to magically change their fate by drawing a card from the Deck. But the ulterior motive of The Dealer is to use up the deck so that he can get the Moon card to wish for the evil gods to be released. (If one of the people drew it, he would use his magic to force them to mind control the person to wish what he wants)
Lol I once created a goblin character who hailed from a tribe of goblins that worshipped a "floating" and "talking" Rug. Their tribe was living underground in a cave system that had long since collapsed. The goblins were able to survive thanks to the Talking Rug who would rip open a hole in the top of the cave and rain down supplies for them. And all the Rug God asked for in return was for the goblins to make a certain number of rugs for him as payment. Mixed in with the supplies was tools and materials to make rugs. So the clan spent many of moons making rugs until rugs became their whole culture. The character later discovers that the whole cave was actually beneatha Rug store who were tricking the goblins into making the finest rugs in the world. This later spured the character to go on an adventure. It was a very silly concept but a Cult none the less
So my players have actually created their own 2 cults. By attempting to turn their sentient red dragon boat into a god. He developed a following. Then the party argued with them and accidentally created a schism in the religion. So now there's 2. One that worships the red dragon boat, and the other that worships the 7 hydra heads they grafted onto it. Surely this won't go bad down the line.
Hail the algorithm! But besides that I can't really say enough how much of a life saver your videos have been as I'm building my new world. Our previous campaign centered around a cult trying to bring the Moored Witch, the banished (evil) Goddess of magic, back into the world. Since it was such a big thing in our last campaign, I've been struggling with how to incorporate cults (because they are great) into the story without it becoming a Thing again. But this has sparked some ideas!
My immediate thought is some sort of of cult based around the idea of the ripley's believe it or not museums. I have the idea of a rich and eccentric entertainment agent who likes the odd adventure coming across the Kuo-Toa. After witnessing their power to manifest their own gods to existence, his mind twirls and wishes to make his own eccentricity and the business it's founded upon worshipped and thus this cult is born as he gathers others with a mind like his to aid his efforts. He is now long gone but what's left are many other rich eccentrics using their power and influence as well as the decades worth of research and notes the founder left behind to further the goal of their founder. It's a rough idea i came up with in a few seconds and certainly not fleshed out but I like the idea
The Pirate King is secretly a blue dragon whose hoard is followers, so he has been recruiting the seafaring Halflings from throughout the ocean! (this is actually the current story arc of my game)
This was a great video! Cults IRL are one of my special interests, to the point of "too much knowledge" problem, and I've been scouring youtube for D&D cult advise to help me focus things down to tropes my players can handle. This video has been the most helpful of any of the dozen I've found, by far, so thank you so much.
We're playing in Eberron, and my Tiefling Zealot Barbarian player decided to create a god that they worship named, Vinera. Didn't really have much to go off of, but with the power of reading into a couple of the player's choices, and what little they wrote. I created a god that is very much like Eilistraee. However, as we got closer to the Eldeen Reaches, the player absentmindedly said that it would be pretty cool if it turns out they were in a cult the whole time. Well... This spiraled into me soon learning about the Fey of Eberron, about how each Arch-Fey is based on some story of sorts. So Vinera has become an Arch-Fey, based on the stories of nature being a wonderful and playful thing, with a small "cult" following. I say cult loosely because some within who worship her believe she is a god. Like the player's character. Others know she is an Arch-Fey and still revere her, while an NPC they will encounter next session used to worship her until it all came crumbling down. This Half-Elven, Way of the Drunken Master, Monk, once worshipped Vinera, very much like the player's character did, believing she was an actual god. However, they soon found out she was just an Arch-Fey, and that she even seemed to favor the player's character for some reason. (Story reasons). Becoming blind by betrayal, heartbreak, and rage, he was soon visited by the BBEG of the campaign. So cut to where we are now. The party will have to deal with corruption in the Eldeen Reaches, as they've already encountered a Corrupted Pixie. (Thanks Tome of Beasts 2!). Plants and Fey alike will fight them, but the other side they have to deal with as well is that the stories that Vinera is based upon are being replaced by stories of gloom. So in an elaborate arc that ties into the over-arching narrative, the NPC is the secret Bad guy of the arc, as all he wants to do is get back at Vinera, by bringing her down. And now that he's going to meet Amber, the player's character, he will want to crush her too. It will be very entertaining to see everyone's reaction, but also the players, as this character is a monk, and will help them on their beginning to become a Monk. (They have 5 level of Barbarian, but recently took 1 level in Monk because of story).
What a great way to use a cult! I LOVE the thought and attention you put in to this. And you used my favorite time of DMing, nothing is concrete, everything can change. Perfect my friend! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hell yeah, I love the Cthulhu mythos and star spawn in particular. There is another RPG game system out there called Silent Legions, even if you don't play the game, its still BRIMMING with ideas and inspiration. There is is even a random name generator for Cults. Oh Hannah, its not pronounced "Mordenkainen" its pronounced "Mordenkainen" hahaha
great video. I have been building my world for 2 years and needed to start filling it with interesting characters and groups. This has given me a ton to work with when I was losing steam.
@@HalflingHobbies Had a 6 hour session last night. I introduced the party to a brainwashed town and their cult leader who I fashioned after Joel Osteen. It was a huge hit.
Thank you for another great video. I did use the Kraken Society in a campaign. Ended up actually being a very helpful one and unraveled some interesting secrets to the party. I am running the Oracle of War campaign right now and there's a lot of good stuff including the Lord of Blades and the Emerald Claw. I haven't made any original cult, but you gave me some really good ideas.
I've come up with my own idea about the Lord of Blades, that he was originally created to prove that Warforged aren't just tools of war, but living creatures as well. Since he was created with the idea of being the first among many, to have emotions and free-thinking. However, during the Last War, something changed within him. He became warped by the violence of the Nations. So he's actually an incredibly empathetic and caring Warforge, who just wanted peace. But, seeing as such a thing just can't happen, especially for his poor brethren. He started up a creation forge within the Mournland, and Warforged from all over come to gather under his banner. The plan he has in mind is to strike when Khorvaire is weak, and take down every nation with an army of Warforge, having the Titan and Colossus Warforged, once broken, now repaired and waiting, take action as well. Once a seeker of peace. Now a bringer of a new era.
I made a cult for a Silent Hill setting in DnD which my friends seemed to like. I called them the brothers of silence. The lore I gave them was that Pyramid Head killed the Angels he served because they became corrupted and he began tormenting people who had sinned and now roves through towns to weigh punishment. He attempts to give sinners a pyramid of their own and those who can’t handle it are executed whereas those who can take on a vow of silence and live out their life paying for their sin with the punishment of the pyramid on the head while also following Pyramid Head. It’s a pretty simple concept but my friends enjoyed it
This was a great primer for me as I'm starting a new campaign and it centers around a cult seeking to re-open a rift. I had no idea how to design a cult, this has helped a lot.
Bit late to the party, but one of my players took out a preacher (shouting something about the Worm That Walks, whatever that is) with a single sling bullet. The player was surprised to learn that yes, commoner's do really only have 4HP. But one of the other players used healing word on the preacher. Now imagine you're someone in the small crowd listening to the preacher, when he is struck on the head with a missile and is lying bleeding on the ground only for the wound to close of its own accord and the preacher to stand back up and thank the Worm That Walks for blessing him. So you see, the players only have themselves to blame for Kyuss being resurrected and becoming the BBEG.
"Has your god been failing you? Is the end of the world not coming around nearly fast enough? Start a cult today!" Hahahaha PRAISE BE TO ALGO RITH'M!!!
Nice that I'm seeing this now. The main bad guy in my campaign a prince from the Nightmare realm. He didn't have any followers on the material plane so he started invading their dreams while they slept. Slowly he would take over their minds and trap their souls in the dream realm, while he did with their bodies what he wished. He does not have any followers that do his bidding because they want to, all the cultists are just regular people he can mind control at will.
I have a ton of cults, some for homebrew demon lords, dark gods, a fallen angel, a star spawn pseudo demigod thing, and a few fae, but my most share-worthy one is the Kua Toa cult that warships this giant angler fish with a hundred human legs named Barlipsclabibi, who may or may not actually exist, but chanting its name in the best fish voice I can manage will always be a fond memory.
A party of two (a cleric and a warlock) adventurers until either one dies. As tribute the other member goes around spreading worship and story’s of their adventures until a cult forms for the purpose of retuning their lord/lady saviour
here is my offer to the Almight Algorythm! Excellent video. I've been doing some worldbuilding for a campaign, and it has been super hard to create organisations/factions/cults without falling on uninspiring clichés
I’m anout to run a game in a couple months (when Icewind Dale is finished for my group) that has Loose Inspiration from Tyrrany of Dragons. Namely in that a cult worhsipping Tiamat wishes to release her. But in this case, she has lied to people, those who feel faulted by the justice given out by Bahamut (either not seeing it as equal to the crime done to them, or that it was too harsh for the crime they committed), claiming that Bahamut tricked the gods and mortals into sealing her, that he is a tyrant who wanted her out of the way so that he could control the other gods of this world.
"What cult would I make?" The Cult of Thessalar, where only the toughest and most worthy of it's memebers partake in the transformation of his body warping gift that he has granted to the Thessalhydra.
Cults can anchor some of the best plot hooks. Introduced a mimic of gargantuan size altered by Halaster to guard a secret entrance to Undermountain and the cult that spreads rumors of treasure and kidnapped damsels into my game.
Thank you so much! this was super helpful! My players have cleared out a small town of a cult. But now that they are headed to the big city, I want the cult to feel more fleshed out and established. This helped so much! Im saving this video in case I have to consult it again!
"The One who Grants" a Cult dedicadet to a old and long forgotten God. The Cultist mostly Drow, worship a Beeing who promise to grand a wish once everything is set up for it to be resurected, it is on top followed by the Wishholders a group who are there to keep track of the Wishes, The great Priest of what could be, the one who talks to "The one who Grants" and coordinate the troops. Plottwist: The One who Grants is a Aboleth Mother, her chields where looked up by some Gods now she fucks with the memorys of the Cult peaple to get her Childs back in order to destroy everything
Church of the Yellow sign. A cult centred around summonong the King in yellow using a version of the necronomicon embedded with the yellow sign. Or you can just up the fear factor with Nyolarthotep instead.
My setting is a modern setting and has modern cults to reflect the theming. One of the gods of my setting is a goddess of wealth, exchange, egotism and greed named Thoroune and is extremely active and involved in the world (much like all of the gods in my setting). The only caveat is that she’s way more active than the other gods who have actual jobs in maintaining the world, while her goals are literally to be the most wealthy and magnificent thing in the universe. Thoroune has a lot of holding in the material world, and so she formed a church that follows her teachings of shedding morality to acquire profit and material desires. Her followers tend to be very varied. She has lower class people who pray to her for money or opportunities and will pay into her Church’s tithes and coursework to get closer to her. Her upper class followers desire to enrich themselves even more than they already are. And those that will never be satisfied with their day to day look to her to her in hopes that she will anoint them with a holy task to find some treasure to give to her. Everyone who follows her does so in hopes of receiving a tiny fraction of her infinite wealth generated by the Yugoloths, the Church of Thorounity, and her forcing her individual followers to give anything they can to her. The current CRO (Chief Religious Officer) of the Church of Thorounity is Marceline Dour, who was in the inner circle of the Church’s executive branch before she had the Church’s former leader, Emmergrind Tharog, assassinated. She assumed the role of CRO and the exorbitant pay grade of that role soon after. Under Dour is the Executive Clergy, a group of 5 Chief Executive Priests and 20 Executive Priests. Below them are the many Branch Priests that comprise of a Church and the Clients who follow the Church. All the Church wants from its followers is money. The Church blackmails its followers if they don’t donate regularly and buy courses that use manipulation to extort all manner of bad thoughts they have. These courses are also recorded and done in a nude pool, so there’s also a physical blackmailing involved. The Church makes billions a year from this model, and although Thoroune is never satisfied, she enjoys the money given to her and will grant tiny amounts of good fortune to the faithful, and great fortune to those who advance in the Church and reach a state of “Ultimate Prosperity”. The symbol for the Church is 5 lines that generally make the shape of a hand with 2 circles on each of the “fingers” that represent rings. The Church is not outlawed, it has enough say in the material plane to buy political figures. It’s members do have coded language to tell whose a member. Their common greeting is “Hail Prosperity” instead of just hello. The Church of Thorounity does do some good. It emboldens people to shed past inefficient moralities and archaic ideas of racial hatred in the pursuit of money, but it’s all too happy to extort its faithful for every dime over what they need to survive, and the corporate structure of the Church definitely doesn’t help with that. Yes, it’s Scientology in dnd
13:46 Quick reminder that since an angel can be cast out of heaven for being evil, additionally a Devil (not a daemon, there's a difference) can also be cast out of the 9 hells for being good.
A warlock cult for an elder being, that is constantly attempting to summon their “god”. The twist is that the elder being is extra dimensional and doesn’t even know that the cult exists. The warlocks are taking power from the being like a mosquito take blood from a human. And when the summoning is attempted, the elder being destroys the offending cultists to the point those people never existed. so the surviving cult members forget that they actually summoned the being, and are continually attempting a summoning. So there are several perfectly spherical voids all over the world where previous summonings occurred.
Current cult in my own d&d campaign is a simple cult worshipping a beholder.. Beholder is a death tyrant and really doesn't care/like/tolerate the cult. Makes for some interesting encounters/RP.
I love the idea of mystery cults, exclusive temples to gods who don't need worshippers or who are very, very picky about their worshippers. These cults offer access to special magic or divine resources, and might also offer special avenues to political power if the cult has "infiltrated" the local government.
It's pronounced Mordenkainen's. Happy to help. In more serious comments, cool to see that my Mammon Cult already follows most of your suggestions, and now I can add more details to flesh them out. Thanks for the inspiration!
Also hail the algorithm, your content and examples for this is so good and provided me with such good ideas. I’m definitely using that portal idea for a side adventure in my campaign centered on fantasy global warming via a cosmological collapse of the elemental planes
I freaking love starting cults in DnD, both as a player and a DM. My roommate and I are co-DMing in a homebrew we’ve created. We have a cult that’s become a huge global issue called The Fleshcrafter. The cult believed that all ‘hybridized’ beasts (Minotaur, mermaid, harpy, saytr, etc) were created by one being and they channel their magic to create their own creatures. Drawback is that if you fail your craft too many times your magic will warp you pretty badly. Up side is that you can potentially combine any living creatures if you get good enough. They’ve been fun so far!
Damn. I am literally about to start a campaign, and the main arc is about a cult summoning the star spawn emissary and the characters having to track it down and eventually defeat it before it merges their reality with Atropus, the World Born Dead. Gonna make undead aberrations a thing.
Pretty basic, but my solo player that I’m DMing for is trying to eradicate a village of kobolds and wants to capture one for information. It’ll probably be a knight-cultist of the villages’s holy dragon patron who’s been cursed and is plagued by unending nightmares.
Watching this video for inspiration cuz I'm doing a horror campaign sort of like Call of Cthulhu app for 5e my group is a ragtag bunch of Adventures but one of my players decided to be a part of the cult so I'm watching this for inspiration. good video
If I was to make a cult (in DnD) I would do one inspired from the real world order known as "The Golden Circle". Have it lead by a Conquest Paladin and it writes itself from there.
Hi Hannah great video as usual That’s a bit cliché, but I would probably include a cult inside an existing religious organization, like a monastery keeping a secret or worshiping an holy item / a false god in total heresy of the cannon dogma Thanks for all your hard work
I have a idea for a cult the object would be a ring this ring holds the soul of the god of magic, creator of the divine spell book and creator of the planet venorai. When he first taught his magic to mortals they were excited to learn and were very kind to him but sadly some got power hungry and used all the magic he taught them to trap his soul in a ring and steal his spell book they put his ring in a temple and left. Thousands of years later a young man named znnar the founder of a small town nearby started hearing the voice of the god of magic he went to the temple and took the ring to his village. The ring instructed him to put him on the strongest in the town. He took the strongest as a body and started to teach magic (and at this time magic has been outlawed in all of the world by kings and powerful leaders only they use magic to feel stronger) and soon they start worshipping him believing him to be the savior of the planet and soon the god wanted his spell book back that’s all I have so far what do you think?
Best one I've made was raben people in weird masks who kidnap weird people around the land and make them work on their underground magic items factory. Some workers were blind, others legless, some just ugly etc, and players thought that raven people tortured them, but all the workers were telling that they should work and they cannot leave. Later, players encountered the leader cultist, a business hag in a huge archive, who told that raven people are employing these guys because no one else would, and they give them work by possibilities and pay their families a cut from factory's income.
Before the pandemic, I played in Adventurers League, but I like unusual characters. I made a warlock with a great old one patron. He was a kindly scholar that went insane after reading a book explaining the mysteries of the universe. He went around preaching the “good word of Cthulhu”. In a couple different games, I got really high persuasion rolls to convert NPC’s to Cthulhu, and started cults dedicated to Cthulhu in 2 different towns. With the later rules for AL, my warlock set up his cult as a new faction
I've already made a few cults... in D&D. My current one is a cult who's goal is to essentially drown the world in The Dark Water. They worship The Drowned One, Sameka. However, Sameka isn't real. He's technically, actually a Sphinx, which in my world are angels of the god of time, space and knowledge. However, this Sphinx, the mightiest of all the Sphinx and the first to be created by that god (first "born"), out of a laps in judgement and fear for his father ended up sneaking in to witnesses The Book of Knowledge. However, despite his level of power and capability, witnessing the book was still too much for him. Only the god of time and space was allowed to witness it for this reason, among many. As such, the book caused him a sliver of psychosis that would fester and grow. Eventually causing him to collude against his father, the god of time and space, but not until after a few more sightings of the book. Each time he snuck in and viewed it, a total of 4 times, he became more and more deranged. Which lead to his being cast from the heavens and stripped of his divine connection. It would be 10,000 years or so before he'd have the chance to regain strength and rise again. When he did though, he began his elaborate scheme to destroy the god of time and space, of which would require a world that is in chaos. So, he started planting seeds and spinning elaborate webs that would piece by piece keep the world distracted and disoriented. An extraordinary series of seemingly unrelated events and disasters happening all around the world with perfectly spaced timing so as to truly make it seem like they weren't related. One such event started 40 years ago when he began implanting ideas into the heads of certain individuals in a certain region. These implanted thoughts and visions would lead these individuals together over the span of 20 years or so and would lead to a belief in an entity known as The Drowned One. This cult would develop and grow to include more than one generation. The next most generation would include a child who happenstantially was endowed with the influence of a Phoenix that died nearby while he was conceived. Thus granting him an affinity and connection to fire. However, this was antithesis to The Drowned One, a water-based "entity", so his parents, upper echelon of the cult, and the rest of the cult, horrifically used the boy for endless trials and rituals meant to "purify" him. This boy was a PC of mine in a campaign in a different world/game. The boy ends up getting rescued from the cult, which caused amnesia, adventuring with a party, experiencing another severe trauma that caused him to lapse into who he was before, leave the party and return to the cult having "healed" from his affliction of the flames. Thus making him the messiah of the cult. The Sphinx planned most of this, or at least put most of it in the direction it was going to go. Now, the cult is being lead via implanted visions to a "holy sight" which is just a very important mining village and stone quarry for the country. They're going to occupy/capture the village, sacrifice some folks, try to convert some people, and ultimately flood the mine/quarry with The Black Waters, which is said to facilitate the emergence of Sameka. Completely unaware that Sameka isn't real and that nothing they have done or are doing are going to lead to their salvation like they think they've been promised.
For the gatekeepers cult, are those runes, the written language from bionicle? It looks so familiar. But honestly, I love this video and needed this to make my universal cult. I'll update this comment when it's done. Thank you so much!
I began a campaign a few years back which was a sandbox I had seeded with numerous adventures intended to level up my players so I could toss a Red Hand of Doom inspired grand adventure at them. The dragon cult in my game were Martyrs of the Forked Tongue. In the second ever session my players encountered the Martyrs and one of the generals of the cult, Lady Viessa. After a lengthy battle of attrition the session ended with the players becoming a hit squad for the dragon cult. I had to rework the entire sandbox to fit them turning semi-evil. The pandemic passes and one of my players, an elven rogue who had an epiphany and multiclassed into a druid told me her intentions for my world. Way back in her session zero she encountered a Yellow Musk Creeper with its musk zombies, and now that she could speak with plants she wanted to build a zombie garden in a swamp she controlled. After the Martyrs of the Forked Tongue officially began their war campaign to raise an aspect of Tiamat, my players turned on the cult. They escorted refugees from a local destroyed town, who mixed with some cultists and formed a new death/rebirth-through-undeath cult worshipping the plants and their zombies, and that's the way that campaign ended. That was a fun group to run for. In my current campaign that PC's character is an NPC cult leader. Cults man...they can really change an entire campaign.
This was such an excellent video and I was sketching down different symbols the followers will use to "protect" their homes from the "reclamation" You're video style and bubbly personality make it so much easier to follow for my ADHD ass, with some clearly set out things to consider that are easy to understand and a lot more factual (a common flaw I have experienced in videos is being very non-committal with their advice)
Vilia, the corpse of a dead god, has drifted through the Astral Sea for millenia untold. Ancient sorceries of dragons and elves have sealed its access to the outer planes and cut it off from the multiverse for the sake of the fragile mortal lives that live on the dead god's surface. Terrible monsters lurk the depths of the once living god and as such was the going punishment for those mortals who committed heinous crimes on Vilia's surface. Into the depths went a halfling, a half elf, an Eladrin, a gnome, a Goliath, and a human. Within Vilia's depths they rose to power and slew Lolth's physical form. Thousands praised their names and the group felt their first taste of devotion and thus the Shadow Court was formed. As their numbers and devotion grew in the Depths, they were corrupted by the power and eventually resurfaced to seek revenge on those who had sentenced them to die in the depths, but the revenge was hollow. They wanted more. And so their power and influence silently grew tenfold in the backdrop of Vilia's many governments, but as the decades rolled on, they leaders of the Shadow Court aged and grew old and began to yearn for the vitality they once had. One day, while experimenting with powerful magics, they made contact by one Lich Lord Acererack who promised them power, true divinity, immortality, and even the blessing of the Raven Queen herself if they carried out one simple task for him: break the ancient seals that kept the Shadowfell from piercing through the Veil between worlds and allow him and his armies of undead to spread across Vilia. Tempted by the thought of immortality, the leaders accepted Acererack's bargain and began to carry out his accursed scheme. Using their multinational influence, they gained knowledge of ancient high magics. With that knowledge, they determined the weakest point in The Veil of Vilia, a small human nation if Aberia, and began making preparations for their plans. Five intentionally unsuccessful and bloody wars covered the cults actions while they built a dimensional gate in secret among the icy dunes and mass graves holding the casualties of both sides. Using their cult's influence, ceasefire was intentionally broken by the Ins Empire, a massive nation of Drow, triggering a sixth war on Aberia. This time, the cults preparations are compete and they will tear the Veil of Vilia and usher in a new era, an undead era. And that's how I used my first d&d group's cult as the campaign premise of my new d&d group's campaign.
I’m makiing a world where sports are a big thing. Every team has its own organization, leaders and goals and can be linked to other organizations such as guilds, entertainment or temples. Some goals are secret so want them to be like cults (with violent hooligans and extreme ‘tribalism’) just like real sport teams ;). Thanks for this video!
Throne of painted rocks. (remember all those painted rocks left all over the place a couple of years ago?) Soooo, the Art Barron, thought these rocks were magical. His followers, collected rocks and brought them to the Baron to have them interpeted....The Barron would usually be in a drunken haze when he attempted to read these rocks.....(he doesn't have to be noble, can just be a fool) He is out to get a few bucks, but doesn't have a real plan. Twist....the antagonist to the Barron is on a mission to hide coded rocks and interrupt the while, a tad crazy but otherwise harmless cult. The antagonist is more charismatic and he wants to direct the followers to change alliances and follow him. A small band of followers (players) want to protect the Barron. The are of that he is a fraud, but not really threatening. The antagonist (maybe ) the Barons brother or ex lover (genders can be decided later). They are smart and cunning. the see that the fraud rock reader has a good thing, but they feel that if they take over they can get rich and claim the whole thing. I made this whole thing in my head just now. Anyone is free to use and expand on my idea and run with it. Will the players try to help the baron/fool or will they beat the antagonist and take over the cult for themselves?
I'm trying to introduce Pandorym the Utter Annihilation into my campaign setting. Around level 5 a meteor shower of Star Spawn will crash across the continent and they will begin corrupting those who feel betrayed by the gods not knowing that releasing Pandorym will also destroy the rest of the material realm. Suggestions on making it more believable to sell to my party are very welcome!
I'm DMing Strahd and wanted to make big changes to Lady Fiona Wachter. Because in Barovia, souls are trapped and are constantly reborn in new children, I created a new god that lives in Lake Zarovich that Fiona worships. It's called The Rot Seamstress, based on this woman I used to have nightmares about as a kid. This woman sews the flesh of the dead together after they've rotted in the Material Plane, creating dresses for her to wear, hoping to get the perfect fabric so that she can breach the Material Plane. The cult worships her because the Seamstress promises not to rot the bodies of any of her devout followers. With their bodies perfectly in tact after they die, their wandering souls have the opportunity to return back to their original body instead of being reborn and losing their memories. She is also a godlike figure in opposition of Strahd, so many of her followers believe she will free them from Strahd's control. The party is going to be hired by Strahd to sever the Seamstress's connection to Barovia in order to give him complete control.
I found this video because I'm trying to make an cult for my champaign. The tips are very helpful. The cult is called the followers of the Everflame. They worship a hombrew God Dihn-amite 😂 they are the God of flame and rebirth.
So I'm actually in the middle of making a "snake cult" for a world I'm building, partly just so I can at some point play Zee Bashew's animated short for the party. It fits so good because the snake cult is trying to kill the "spider cult" [the Drow] and a PC is a drow.
Thank you for such an in-depth and educational video! Will definitely use it for the book I am writing and not to get free candy from my future followers ;)
@@HalflingHobbies If really condensed - a neurological research group is coming close to the truth behind life after death, and how it is connected to the moon cycle and dandelions. Things start to get out of hand as the researchers slowly form a cult. The book follows their first victim, but time is running short - being a ghost comes with its own set of consequences. That said, it's all subject to change ✨ Hope you’re having a wonderful day
☀ Excellent! Lord Ba'al will be most pleased! You have offered up rivals to be brought low, and their followers shall serve Ba'al! 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍
I was thinking of the grimleal from fire emblem and kobolds. And went wait didnt i make a internet cult to put in storys on a story forum And went i got it. A guy makes a cult out of a group of kobolds to make some kind of underground kingdom that is also an aboveground kingdom. They are filled with most of the monster races and a few people who are considered the dregs of society they run all the orphanages in the kingdom
how about a cult in faerun that knows that gods are created/powered by belief, and therefore is trying to do is create one. like, a bunch of people gathered together and decided what kind of god would make them crazy powerful/ suit their interest if they existed, and then started branding that false god. currently their main goals are to 1. recruit as many koa-toa as possible and convince them this god already exists and 2. recruit specifically as many dumb folks/ not already divine worshippers as possible to actually believe in this person I'm sure from the sheer amount of lore already existing for the forgotten realms, someone has already come up with this idea already, but I like it
Here's my attempt at an intro "Hey DMs, have you ever wondered what it would be like if the Onceler fandom gathered together to manifest their favorite twink into reality with power beyond our mortal comprehension?"
@@HalflingHobbies My DM gave me +2 Con and made him feel like in his 20tis again - but the more important thing is that they worshiped a brocken statue of the BBEG of the Campagne - so i hope my Character now took away some of his power :)
I think it’d be cool if I ran a cult like the Bakers from Resident Evil Seven. The benefit is “eternal life and power” that Eveline(although that might not be her name) gives her
cult of undeath, on the surface very peaceful believes in using the body after death to serve the living and that it is an honor to serve post mortem uses them for farming and basic tasks and such
I’m not a humanoid. I am actually a fae. Now the Faerie have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, nose, and mouth. We don’t have tentacles. The point is we are easy to mistake for humanoids because we have a similar primate structure. But as a faerie I hope that I am welcome here and this channel is not for humanoids only. Can I give you some literature on Fae Rights.
My forge cleric has started a cult that might have Apep as a patron :0, long story short her daddy might be a snake but she being a LN hero is wrestling with other cultists to make a faith based on rebirth through fire rather than her fathers total destruction of the world.
Ever notice that in D&D there are no fluffy bunny cults? No, it's always one dedicated to two headed snakes or the Seven Headed Phlegm God or something.
And that’s gonna be my next campaign. A gathering of humanoids dedicated to the fluffyness of the world. They seek to kill any “rough-skinned” things, such as reptiles and other spiky animals/plants. Wait, that got dark. Maybe cults just aren’t that great of people
Cult of the moon beast, it’s just a bunch of people who like the moon rabbit. They just wanted a culty name and all of them sound evil.
(Any/all)
I'm sure you could make a cult of the knight eater. Can be found in the retelling of king Arthur's story by the great bard Troup Monty python 😂
I'm planning to make a cult that worship the Deck of Many Things. Basically The Dealer promised them that if they are faithful, they get a chance to magically change their fate by drawing a card from the Deck.
But the ulterior motive of The Dealer is to use up the deck so that he can get the Moon card to wish for the evil gods to be released. (If one of the people drew it, he would use his magic to force them to mind control the person to wish what he wants)
Lol I once created a goblin character who hailed from a tribe of goblins that worshipped a "floating" and "talking" Rug. Their tribe was living underground in a cave system that had long since collapsed. The goblins were able to survive thanks to the Talking Rug who would rip open a hole in the top of the cave and rain down supplies for them. And all the Rug God asked for in return was for the goblins to make a certain number of rugs for him as payment. Mixed in with the supplies was tools and materials to make rugs. So the clan spent many of moons making rugs until rugs became their whole culture. The character later discovers that the whole cave was actually beneatha Rug store who were tricking the goblins into making the finest rugs in the world. This later spured the character to go on an adventure. It was a very silly concept but a Cult none the less
So my players have actually created their own 2 cults. By attempting to turn their sentient red dragon boat into a god. He developed a following. Then the party argued with them and accidentally created a schism in the religion. So now there's 2. One that worships the red dragon boat, and the other that worships the 7 hydra heads they grafted onto it.
Surely this won't go bad down the line.
i know this is an old comment but i love the wind waker reference
Hail the algorithm! But besides that I can't really say enough how much of a life saver your videos have been as I'm building my new world. Our previous campaign centered around a cult trying to bring the Moored Witch, the banished (evil) Goddess of magic, back into the world. Since it was such a big thing in our last campaign, I've been struggling with how to incorporate cults (because they are great) into the story without it becoming a Thing again. But this has sparked some ideas!
Yay! Thank you so much, I am glad these have been helpful 😁
My immediate thought is some sort of of cult based around the idea of the ripley's believe it or not museums. I have the idea of a rich and eccentric entertainment agent who likes the odd adventure coming across the Kuo-Toa. After witnessing their power to manifest their own gods to existence, his mind twirls and wishes to make his own eccentricity and the business it's founded upon worshipped and thus this cult is born as he gathers others with a mind like his to aid his efforts. He is now long gone but what's left are many other rich eccentrics using their power and influence as well as the decades worth of research and notes the founder left behind to further the goal of their founder. It's a rough idea i came up with in a few seconds and certainly not fleshed out but I like the idea
The Pirate King is secretly a blue dragon whose hoard is followers, so he has been recruiting the seafaring Halflings from throughout the ocean! (this is actually the current story arc of my game)
This was a great video! Cults IRL are one of my special interests, to the point of "too much knowledge" problem, and I've been scouring youtube for D&D cult advise to help me focus things down to tropes my players can handle. This video has been the most helpful of any of the dozen I've found, by far, so thank you so much.
Thanks so much for saying so! I appreciate the support!!
We're playing in Eberron, and my Tiefling Zealot Barbarian player decided to create a god that they worship named, Vinera. Didn't really have much to go off of, but with the power of reading into a couple of the player's choices, and what little they wrote. I created a god that is very much like Eilistraee.
However, as we got closer to the Eldeen Reaches, the player absentmindedly said that it would be pretty cool if it turns out they were in a cult the whole time. Well... This spiraled into me soon learning about the Fey of Eberron, about how each Arch-Fey is based on some story of sorts.
So Vinera has become an Arch-Fey, based on the stories of nature being a wonderful and playful thing, with a small "cult" following. I say cult loosely because some within who worship her believe she is a god. Like the player's character. Others know she is an Arch-Fey and still revere her, while an NPC they will encounter next session used to worship her until it all came crumbling down.
This Half-Elven, Way of the Drunken Master, Monk, once worshipped Vinera, very much like the player's character did, believing she was an actual god. However, they soon found out she was just an Arch-Fey, and that she even seemed to favor the player's character for some reason. (Story reasons). Becoming blind by betrayal, heartbreak, and rage, he was soon visited by the BBEG of the campaign.
So cut to where we are now. The party will have to deal with corruption in the Eldeen Reaches, as they've already encountered a Corrupted Pixie. (Thanks Tome of Beasts 2!). Plants and Fey alike will fight them, but the other side they have to deal with as well is that the stories that Vinera is based upon are being replaced by stories of gloom.
So in an elaborate arc that ties into the over-arching narrative, the NPC is the secret Bad guy of the arc, as all he wants to do is get back at Vinera, by bringing her down. And now that he's going to meet Amber, the player's character, he will want to crush her too.
It will be very entertaining to see everyone's reaction, but also the players, as this character is a monk, and will help them on their beginning to become a Monk. (They have 5 level of Barbarian, but recently took 1 level in Monk because of story).
What a great way to use a cult! I LOVE the thought and attention you put in to this. And you used my favorite time of DMing, nothing is concrete, everything can change. Perfect my friend! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hell yeah, I love the Cthulhu mythos and star spawn in particular. There is another RPG game system out there called Silent Legions, even if you don't play the game, its still BRIMMING with ideas and inspiration. There is is even a random name generator for Cults. Oh Hannah, its not pronounced "Mordenkainen" its pronounced "Mordenkainen" hahaha
HAHA! Thanks for clearing that pronunciation issue up! And YES! Anything Cthulhu I am down for. I will look into Silent Legions. That sounds awesome!
The cult I’ve made in dnd is “The order of light” people who pray to an eldritch horror and their antics are bringing this ancient evil to the realm
great video. I have been building my world for 2 years and needed to start filling it with interesting characters and groups. This has given me a ton to work with when I was losing steam.
Awesome! So glad it was helpful
@@HalflingHobbies Had a 6 hour session last night. I introduced the party to a brainwashed town and their cult leader who I fashioned after Joel Osteen. It was a huge hit.
Nerd LaB that is amazing!! Well done!
@@nerdlabmtg could ya tell me more about this cults beliefs and worship and backstory? It sounds interesting
"In D&D" should become the new "in Minecraft"
Uh yes I actually have a cult that is set on uniting the workers to crush the ruling class (in D&D)
"I'm not Evil, I swear!" That's EXACTLY what an evil person would say.
😅 busted!
@@HalflingHobbies My dad told me once. If somebody is saying you to trust him. Don't trust him.
Riel25 💯
Thank you for another great video. I did use the Kraken Society in a campaign. Ended up actually being a very helpful one and unraveled some interesting secrets to the party.
I am running the Oracle of War campaign right now and there's a lot of good stuff including the Lord of Blades and the Emerald Claw.
I haven't made any original cult, but you gave me some really good ideas.
Heck yes! Lord of Blades is AMAZING. I am so glad you enjoyed it! Can't wait to hear what you come up with! :)
I've come up with my own idea about the Lord of Blades, that he was originally created to prove that Warforged aren't just tools of war, but living creatures as well. Since he was created with the idea of being the first among many, to have emotions and free-thinking. However, during the Last War, something changed within him. He became warped by the violence of the Nations.
So he's actually an incredibly empathetic and caring Warforge, who just wanted peace. But, seeing as such a thing just can't happen, especially for his poor brethren. He started up a creation forge within the Mournland, and Warforged from all over come to gather under his banner. The plan he has in mind is to strike when Khorvaire is weak, and take down every nation with an army of Warforge, having the Titan and Colossus Warforged, once broken, now repaired and waiting, take action as well.
Once a seeker of peace. Now a bringer of a new era.
I made a cult for a Silent Hill setting in DnD which my friends seemed to like. I called them the brothers of silence. The lore I gave them was that Pyramid Head killed the Angels he served because they became corrupted and he began tormenting people who had sinned and now roves through towns to weigh punishment. He attempts to give sinners a pyramid of their own and those who can’t handle it are executed whereas those who can take on a vow of silence and live out their life paying for their sin with the punishment of the pyramid on the head while also following Pyramid Head. It’s a pretty simple concept but my friends enjoyed it
This was a great primer for me as I'm starting a new campaign and it centers around a cult seeking to re-open a rift. I had no idea how to design a cult, this has helped a lot.
Bit late to the party, but one of my players took out a preacher (shouting something about the Worm That Walks, whatever that is) with a single sling bullet. The player was surprised to learn that yes, commoner's do really only have 4HP. But one of the other players used healing word on the preacher.
Now imagine you're someone in the small crowd listening to the preacher, when he is struck on the head with a missile and is lying bleeding on the ground only for the wound to close of its own accord and the preacher to stand back up and thank the Worm That Walks for blessing him.
So you see, the players only have themselves to blame for Kyuss being resurrected and becoming the BBEG.
Love this!
This channel has some great tips
Thank you so much!
"Has your god been failing you? Is the end of the world not coming around nearly fast enough? Start a cult today!"
Hahahaha PRAISE BE TO ALGO RITH'M!!!
😂 love this!
The fallen angel one and the portal one are so damn good!
Thank you!! I have used both and they were super fun!
my pastor says I can't have a cult
Boo! Just a small one? Maybe one or two people and a cat?
@@HalflingHobbies ooo yeah that's just a "club" so I can do that.
Game On! 🤣
Another awesome video. And another situation in which the Book of Vile Darkness would make a very good campaign companion.
I love to see more dnd vids out there. Thank you for the interesting view point.
Nice that I'm seeing this now. The main bad guy in my campaign a prince from the Nightmare realm. He didn't have any followers on the material plane so he started invading their dreams while they slept. Slowly he would take over their minds and trap their souls in the dream realm, while he did with their bodies what he wished. He does not have any followers that do his bidding because they want to, all the cultists are just regular people he can mind control at will.
I have a ton of cults, some for homebrew demon lords, dark gods, a fallen angel, a star spawn pseudo demigod thing, and a few fae, but my most share-worthy one is the Kua Toa cult that warships this giant angler fish with a hundred human legs named Barlipsclabibi, who may or may not actually exist, but chanting its name in the best fish voice I can manage will always be a fond memory.
That. That sounds absolutely terrifying...well done!
A party of two (a cleric and a warlock) adventurers until either one dies. As tribute the other member goes around spreading worship and story’s of their adventures until a cult forms for the purpose of retuning their lord/lady saviour
here is my offer to the Almight Algorythm! Excellent video. I've been doing some worldbuilding for a campaign, and it has been super hard to create organisations/factions/cults without falling on uninspiring clichés
Even more fun, the cult or even the fallen angel themselves could serve as questgiver to the party for some of the adventure 😊
I’m anout to run a game in a couple months (when Icewind Dale is finished for my group) that has Loose Inspiration from Tyrrany of Dragons. Namely in that a cult worhsipping Tiamat wishes to release her. But in this case, she has lied to people, those who feel faulted by the justice given out by Bahamut (either not seeing it as equal to the crime done to them, or that it was too harsh for the crime they committed), claiming that Bahamut tricked the gods and mortals into sealing her, that he is a tyrant who wanted her out of the way so that he could control the other gods of this world.
"What cult would I make?"
The Cult of Thessalar, where only the toughest and most worthy of it's memebers partake in the transformation of his body warping gift that he has granted to the Thessalhydra.
Thanks for the inspiration I am putting this on my idea board. Cult of the Blue Jug.
Thank you youtube for recomending me this channel.
Cults can anchor some of the best plot hooks. Introduced a mimic of gargantuan size altered by Halaster to guard a secret entrance to Undermountain and the cult that spreads rumors of treasure and kidnapped damsels into my game.
Thank you so much! this was super helpful! My players have cleared out a small town of a cult. But now that they are headed to the big city, I want the cult to feel more fleshed out and established. This helped so much! Im saving this video in case I have to consult it again!
"The One who Grants" a Cult dedicadet to a old and long forgotten God. The Cultist mostly Drow, worship a Beeing who promise to grand a wish once everything is set up for it to be resurected, it is on top followed by the Wishholders a group who are there to keep track of the Wishes, The great Priest of what could be, the one who talks to "The one who Grants" and coordinate the troops. Plottwist: The One who Grants is a Aboleth Mother, her chields where looked up by some Gods now she fucks with the memorys of the Cult peaple to get her Childs back in order to destroy everything
A Hey Arnold reference followed by a Fallout reference? YES PLEASE!
Church of the Yellow sign. A cult centred around summonong the King in yellow using a version of the necronomicon embedded with the yellow sign. Or you can just up the fear factor with Nyolarthotep instead.
My setting is a modern setting and has modern cults to reflect the theming. One of the gods of my setting is a goddess of wealth, exchange, egotism and greed named Thoroune and is extremely active and involved in the world (much like all of the gods in my setting). The only caveat is that she’s way more active than the other gods who have actual jobs in maintaining the world, while her goals are literally to be the most wealthy and magnificent thing in the universe. Thoroune has a lot of holding in the material world, and so she formed a church that follows her teachings of shedding morality to acquire profit and material desires.
Her followers tend to be very varied. She has lower class people who pray to her for money or opportunities and will pay into her Church’s tithes and coursework to get closer to her. Her upper class followers desire to enrich themselves even more than they already are. And those that will never be satisfied with their day to day look to her to her in hopes that she will anoint them with a holy task to find some treasure to give to her. Everyone who follows her does so in hopes of receiving a tiny fraction of her infinite wealth generated by the Yugoloths, the Church of Thorounity, and her forcing her individual followers to give anything they can to her.
The current CRO (Chief Religious Officer) of the Church of Thorounity is Marceline Dour, who was in the inner circle of the Church’s executive branch before she had the Church’s former leader, Emmergrind Tharog, assassinated. She assumed the role of CRO and the exorbitant pay grade of that role soon after. Under Dour is the Executive Clergy, a group of 5 Chief Executive Priests and 20 Executive Priests. Below them are the many Branch Priests that comprise of a Church and the Clients who follow the Church.
All the Church wants from its followers is money. The Church blackmails its followers if they don’t donate regularly and buy courses that use manipulation to extort all manner of bad thoughts they have. These courses are also recorded and done in a nude pool, so there’s also a physical blackmailing involved. The Church makes billions a year from this model, and although Thoroune is never satisfied, she enjoys the money given to her and will grant tiny amounts of good fortune to the faithful, and great fortune to those who advance in the Church and reach a state of “Ultimate Prosperity”.
The symbol for the Church is 5 lines that generally make the shape of a hand with 2 circles on each of the “fingers” that represent rings.
The Church is not outlawed, it has enough say in the material plane to buy political figures. It’s members do have coded language to tell whose a member. Their common greeting is “Hail Prosperity” instead of just hello.
The Church of Thorounity does do some good. It emboldens people to shed past inefficient moralities and archaic ideas of racial hatred in the pursuit of money, but it’s all too happy to extort its faithful for every dime over what they need to survive, and the corporate structure of the Church definitely doesn’t help with that.
Yes, it’s Scientology in dnd
13:46
Quick reminder that since an angel can be cast out of heaven for being evil, additionally a Devil (not a daemon, there's a difference) can also be cast out of the 9 hells for being good.
Oooooo! Fun concept!
Really cool in depth video ticking a huge number of boxes.
I look forward to seeing more of this stuff
A warlock cult for an elder being, that is constantly attempting to summon their “god”. The twist is that the elder being is extra dimensional and doesn’t even know that the cult exists. The warlocks are taking power from the being like a mosquito take blood from a human. And when the summoning is attempted, the elder being destroys the offending cultists to the point those people never existed. so the surviving cult members forget that they actually summoned the being, and are continually attempting a summoning. So there are several perfectly spherical voids all over the world where previous summonings occurred.
Current cult in my own d&d campaign is a simple cult worshipping a beholder.. Beholder is a death tyrant and really doesn't care/like/tolerate the cult. Makes for some interesting encounters/RP.
Very cool! Always a classic!
I love the idea of mystery cults, exclusive temples to gods who don't need worshippers or who are very, very picky about their worshippers. These cults offer access to special magic or divine resources, and might also offer special avenues to political power if the cult has "infiltrated" the local government.
It's pronounced Mordenkainen's. Happy to help.
In more serious comments, cool to see that my Mammon Cult already follows most of your suggestions, and now I can add more details to flesh them out. Thanks for the inspiration!
Also hail the algorithm, your content and examples for this is so good and provided me with such good ideas. I’m definitely using that portal idea for a side adventure in my campaign centered on fantasy global warming via a cosmological collapse of the elemental planes
I’m running a home brew game, the cult is in the (Dante’s inferno book based) 9 Hells. And it’s throughout all 9 floors… from Limbo, to Treachery
I freaking love starting cults in DnD, both as a player and a DM. My roommate and I are co-DMing in a homebrew we’ve created. We have a cult that’s become a huge global issue called The Fleshcrafter. The cult believed that all ‘hybridized’ beasts (Minotaur, mermaid, harpy, saytr, etc) were created by one being and they channel their magic to create their own creatures. Drawback is that if you fail your craft too many times your magic will warp you pretty badly. Up side is that you can potentially combine any living creatures if you get good enough.
They’ve been fun so far!
Damn. I am literally about to start a campaign, and the main arc is about a cult summoning the star spawn emissary and the characters having to track it down and eventually defeat it before it merges their reality with Atropus, the World Born Dead. Gonna make undead aberrations a thing.
A cult to summon the dark flumph
Hey Arnold bubblegum shrine!! Haha great reference!
Pretty basic, but my solo player that I’m DMing for is trying to eradicate a village of kobolds and wants to capture one for information. It’ll probably be a knight-cultist of the villages’s holy dragon patron who’s been cursed and is plagued by unending nightmares.
Watching this video for inspiration cuz I'm doing a horror campaign sort of like Call of Cthulhu app for 5e my group is a ragtag bunch of Adventures but one of my players decided to be a part of the cult so I'm watching this for inspiration. good video
This was extremely helpful! Thank you
Absolutely! Glad it was!
I just found this channel. And I really like your approach to creating. Very nice work
intro: Hey people, have you ever wondered where Shelly Miscavige is?
Lol it’s the Hey Arnold reference for me 🤣
I love that there are other people who understand my weirdness! THANK YOU!
If I was to make a cult (in DnD) I would do one inspired from the real world order known as "The Golden Circle".
Have it lead by a Conquest Paladin and it writes itself from there.
The Shrike Cult borrowed from Dan Simmons book ‘Hyperion’.
Hi Hannah great video as usual
That’s a bit cliché, but I would probably include a cult inside an existing religious organization, like a monastery keeping a secret or worshiping an holy item / a false god in total heresy of the cannon dogma
Thanks for all your hard work
Thank you so much for the kind words! I love your idea! Religious corruption is a great twist!
I have a idea for a cult the object would be a ring this ring holds the soul of the god of magic, creator of the divine spell book and creator of the planet venorai. When he first taught his magic to mortals they were excited to learn and were very kind to him but sadly some got power hungry and used all the magic he taught them to trap his soul in a ring and steal his spell book they put his ring in a temple and left. Thousands of years later a young man named znnar the founder of a small town nearby started hearing the voice of the god of magic he went to the temple and took the ring to his village. The ring instructed him to put him on the strongest in the town. He took the strongest as a body and started to teach magic (and at this time magic has been outlawed in all of the world by kings and powerful leaders only they use magic to feel stronger) and soon they start worshipping him believing him to be the savior of the planet and soon the god wanted his spell book back that’s all I have so far what do you think?
Sorry for the rant-
Don't be sorry! This is GREAT! I love it! Thanks so much for sharing!
@@HalflingHobbies thanks 😃
Best one I've made was raben people in weird masks who kidnap weird people around the land and make them work on their underground magic items factory. Some workers were blind, others legless, some just ugly etc, and players thought that raven people tortured them, but all the workers were telling that they should work and they cannot leave. Later, players encountered the leader cultist, a business hag in a huge archive, who told that raven people are employing these guys because no one else would, and they give them work by possibilities and pay their families a cut from factory's income.
Great idea(s), thanks!
I'm ruining my CZcams algorithm and probably making my FBI agent nervous by looking up info on cults. Lol
Before the pandemic, I played in Adventurers League, but I like unusual characters. I made a warlock with a great old one patron. He was a kindly scholar that went insane after reading a book explaining the mysteries of the universe. He went around preaching the “good word of Cthulhu”. In a couple different games, I got really high persuasion rolls to convert NPC’s to Cthulhu, and started cults dedicated to Cthulhu in 2 different towns. With the later rules for AL, my warlock set up his cult as a new faction
Oh my gosh! That is great!!! 😆
@@HalflingHobbies thanks. You made another great video 😀
Jake Staples thank you!
I've already made a few cults... in D&D. My current one is a cult who's goal is to essentially drown the world in The Dark Water. They worship The Drowned One, Sameka. However, Sameka isn't real. He's technically, actually a Sphinx, which in my world are angels of the god of time, space and knowledge. However, this Sphinx, the mightiest of all the Sphinx and the first to be created by that god (first "born"), out of a laps in judgement and fear for his father ended up sneaking in to witnesses The Book of Knowledge. However, despite his level of power and capability, witnessing the book was still too much for him. Only the god of time and space was allowed to witness it for this reason, among many. As such, the book caused him a sliver of psychosis that would fester and grow. Eventually causing him to collude against his father, the god of time and space, but not until after a few more sightings of the book. Each time he snuck in and viewed it, a total of 4 times, he became more and more deranged. Which lead to his being cast from the heavens and stripped of his divine connection. It would be 10,000 years or so before he'd have the chance to regain strength and rise again. When he did though, he began his elaborate scheme to destroy the god of time and space, of which would require a world that is in chaos. So, he started planting seeds and spinning elaborate webs that would piece by piece keep the world distracted and disoriented. An extraordinary series of seemingly unrelated events and disasters happening all around the world with perfectly spaced timing so as to truly make it seem like they weren't related. One such event started 40 years ago when he began implanting ideas into the heads of certain individuals in a certain region. These implanted thoughts and visions would lead these individuals together over the span of 20 years or so and would lead to a belief in an entity known as The Drowned One. This cult would develop and grow to include more than one generation. The next most generation would include a child who happenstantially was endowed with the influence of a Phoenix that died nearby while he was conceived. Thus granting him an affinity and connection to fire. However, this was antithesis to The Drowned One, a water-based "entity", so his parents, upper echelon of the cult, and the rest of the cult, horrifically used the boy for endless trials and rituals meant to "purify" him.
This boy was a PC of mine in a campaign in a different world/game.
The boy ends up getting rescued from the cult, which caused amnesia, adventuring with a party, experiencing another severe trauma that caused him to lapse into who he was before, leave the party and return to the cult having "healed" from his affliction of the flames. Thus making him the messiah of the cult.
The Sphinx planned most of this, or at least put most of it in the direction it was going to go.
Now, the cult is being lead via implanted visions to a "holy sight" which is just a very important mining village and stone quarry for the country. They're going to occupy/capture the village, sacrifice some folks, try to convert some people, and ultimately flood the mine/quarry with The Black Waters, which is said to facilitate the emergence of Sameka. Completely unaware that Sameka isn't real and that nothing they have done or are doing are going to lead to their salvation like they think they've been promised.
For the gatekeepers cult, are those runes, the written language from bionicle? It looks so familiar. But honestly, I love this video and needed this to make my universal cult. I'll update this comment when it's done. Thank you so much!
I began a campaign a few years back which was a sandbox I had seeded with numerous adventures intended to level up my players so I could toss a Red Hand of Doom inspired grand adventure at them. The dragon cult in my game were Martyrs of the Forked Tongue. In the second ever session my players encountered the Martyrs and one of the generals of the cult, Lady Viessa. After a lengthy battle of attrition the session ended with the players becoming a hit squad for the dragon cult. I had to rework the entire sandbox to fit them turning semi-evil. The pandemic passes and one of my players, an elven rogue who had an epiphany and multiclassed into a druid told me her intentions for my world. Way back in her session zero she encountered a Yellow Musk Creeper with its musk zombies, and now that she could speak with plants she wanted to build a zombie garden in a swamp she controlled. After the Martyrs of the Forked Tongue officially began their war campaign to raise an aspect of Tiamat, my players turned on the cult. They escorted refugees from a local destroyed town, who mixed with some cultists and formed a new death/rebirth-through-undeath cult worshipping the plants and their zombies, and that's the way that campaign ended. That was a fun group to run for. In my current campaign that PC's character is an NPC cult leader. Cults man...they can really change an entire campaign.
This was such an excellent video and I was sketching down different symbols the followers will use to "protect" their homes from the "reclamation"
You're video style and bubbly personality make it so much easier to follow for my ADHD ass, with some clearly set out things to consider that are easy to understand and a lot more factual (a common flaw I have experienced in videos is being very non-committal with their advice)
Thank you so much! That is incredibly kind of you :)
We get that reference because Hey Arnold is amazing!
Vilia, the corpse of a dead god, has drifted through the Astral Sea for millenia untold. Ancient sorceries of dragons and elves have sealed its access to the outer planes and cut it off from the multiverse for the sake of the fragile mortal lives that live on the dead god's surface. Terrible monsters lurk the depths of the once living god and as such was the going punishment for those mortals who committed heinous crimes on Vilia's surface. Into the depths went a halfling, a half elf, an Eladrin, a gnome, a Goliath, and a human. Within Vilia's depths they rose to power and slew Lolth's physical form. Thousands praised their names and the group felt their first taste of devotion and thus the Shadow Court was formed. As their numbers and devotion grew in the Depths, they were corrupted by the power and eventually resurfaced to seek revenge on those who had sentenced them to die in the depths, but the revenge was hollow. They wanted more. And so their power and influence silently grew tenfold in the backdrop of Vilia's many governments, but as the decades rolled on, they leaders of the Shadow Court aged and grew old and began to yearn for the vitality they once had. One day, while experimenting with powerful magics, they made contact by one Lich Lord Acererack who promised them power, true divinity, immortality, and even the blessing of the Raven Queen herself if they carried out one simple task for him: break the ancient seals that kept the Shadowfell from piercing through the Veil between worlds and allow him and his armies of undead to spread across Vilia. Tempted by the thought of immortality, the leaders accepted Acererack's bargain and began to carry out his accursed scheme. Using their multinational influence, they gained knowledge of ancient high magics. With that knowledge, they determined the weakest point in The Veil of Vilia, a small human nation if Aberia, and began making preparations for their plans. Five intentionally unsuccessful and bloody wars covered the cults actions while they built a dimensional gate in secret among the icy dunes and mass graves holding the casualties of both sides. Using their cult's influence, ceasefire was intentionally broken by the Ins Empire, a massive nation of Drow, triggering a sixth war on Aberia. This time, the cults preparations are compete and they will tear the Veil of Vilia and usher in a new era, an undead era.
And that's how I used my first d&d group's cult as the campaign premise of my new d&d group's campaign.
I’m makiing a world where sports are a big thing. Every team has its own organization, leaders and goals and can be linked to other organizations such as guilds, entertainment or temples. Some goals are secret so want them to be like cults (with violent hooligans and extreme ‘tribalism’) just like real sport teams ;). Thanks for this video!
How fun!! Thanks for the great comment!
I've had the city "revive" the Roman Cult of the Divine Emporer.
I'm not an Evil DM as she laughs maniacally! ^_^
Fighting Tiamat and the Dragon Cult in one campaign and running the Cult of Cthulu in mine. An original cult would not be unwelcome. Lol. 😂
Throne of painted rocks. (remember all those painted rocks left all over the place a couple of years ago?) Soooo, the Art Barron, thought these rocks were magical. His followers, collected rocks and brought them to the Baron to have them interpeted....The Barron would usually be in a drunken haze when he attempted to read these rocks.....(he doesn't have to be noble, can just be a fool) He is out to get a few bucks, but doesn't have a real plan.
Twist....the antagonist to the Barron is on a mission to hide coded rocks and interrupt the while, a tad crazy but otherwise harmless cult. The antagonist is more charismatic and he wants to direct the followers to change alliances and follow him.
A small band of followers (players) want to protect the Barron. The are of that he is a fraud, but not really threatening. The antagonist (maybe ) the Barons brother or ex lover (genders can be decided later). They are smart and cunning. the see that the fraud rock reader has a good thing, but they feel that if they take over they can get rich and claim the whole thing.
I made this whole thing in my head just now. Anyone is free to use and expand on my idea and run with it.
Will the players try to help the baron/fool or will they beat the antagonist and take over the cult for themselves?
Good stuff. I’d wanna see how you treat religion in general as a contrast, especially considering the amount of cleric sub classes. 🤔
There might be a reason I have avoid that topic! lol There is a LOT to consider there..
I'm trying to introduce Pandorym the Utter Annihilation into my campaign setting. Around level 5 a meteor shower of Star Spawn will crash across the continent and they will begin corrupting those who feel betrayed by the gods not knowing that releasing Pandorym will also destroy the rest of the material realm. Suggestions on making it more believable to sell to my party are very welcome!
I'm DMing Strahd and wanted to make big changes to Lady Fiona Wachter.
Because in Barovia, souls are trapped and are constantly reborn in new children, I created a new god that lives in Lake Zarovich that Fiona worships. It's called The Rot Seamstress, based on this woman I used to have nightmares about as a kid. This woman sews the flesh of the dead together after they've rotted in the Material Plane, creating dresses for her to wear, hoping to get the perfect fabric so that she can breach the Material Plane.
The cult worships her because the Seamstress promises not to rot the bodies of any of her devout followers. With their bodies perfectly in tact after they die, their wandering souls have the opportunity to return back to their original body instead of being reborn and losing their memories.
She is also a godlike figure in opposition of Strahd, so many of her followers believe she will free them from Strahd's control. The party is going to be hired by Strahd to sever the Seamstress's connection to Barovia in order to give him complete control.
Ermagerd new favorite channel
I’m running a campaign called children of Kazar. It’s about a dragon cult trying to summon an ancient silver dragon.
That sounds awesome!
@@HalflingHobbies oh my gosh I can’t believe you actually responded thank you so much
Magic 101, of course! I appreciate the good comment! 😊 I love Dragon based campaigns. They are just classic!
I found this video because I'm trying to make an cult for my champaign. The tips are very helpful.
The cult is called the followers of the Everflame. They worship a hombrew God Dihn-amite 😂 they are the God of flame and rebirth.
Hey Arnold reference! Nice! Oh no too old school... am I old now?
Haha! I get told I am getting there 😂 (side parts, crying emoji and Hey Arnold, whatcha gonna do??)
So I'm actually in the middle of making a "snake cult" for a world I'm building, partly just so I can at some point play Zee Bashew's animated short for the party. It fits so good because the snake cult is trying to kill the "spider cult" [the Drow] and a PC is a drow.
The Cult of Vecna’s lost sandal
Thank you for such an in-depth and educational video! Will definitely use it for the book I am writing and not to get free candy from my future followers ;)
Haha!! That is exciting! What is the book about??
@@HalflingHobbies If really condensed - a neurological research group is coming close to the truth behind life after death, and how it is connected to the moon cycle and dandelions. Things start to get out of hand as the researchers slowly form a cult. The book follows their first victim, but time is running short - being a ghost comes with its own set of consequences. That said, it's all subject to change ✨
Hope you’re having a wonderful day
@@shurkatheshark this sounds super cool!! Can’t wait for you to publish it!
☀
Excellent! Lord Ba'al will be most pleased! You have offered up rivals to be brought low, and their followers shall serve Ba'al!
🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍
😂
I was thinking of the grimleal from fire emblem and kobolds.
And went wait didnt i make a internet cult to put in storys on a story forum
And went i got it.
A guy makes a cult out of a group of kobolds to make some kind of underground kingdom that is also an aboveground kingdom.
They are filled with most of the monster races and a few people who are considered the dregs of society they run all the orphanages in the kingdom
Interesting ideas, thanks :-)
how about a cult in faerun that knows that gods are created/powered by belief, and therefore is trying to do is create one. like, a bunch of people gathered together and decided what kind of god would make them crazy powerful/ suit their interest if they existed, and then started branding that false god. currently their main goals are to 1. recruit as many koa-toa as possible and convince them this god already exists
and 2. recruit specifically as many dumb folks/ not already divine worshippers as possible to actually believe in this person
I'm sure from the sheer amount of lore already existing for the forgotten realms, someone has already come up with this idea already, but I like it
Mind Flyer followers within a sunken temple
Here's my attempt at an intro "Hey DMs, have you ever wondered what it would be like if the Onceler fandom gathered together to manifest their favorite twink into reality with power beyond our mortal comprehension?"
Funny, 2 days ago my Tortle Druid Delko met a Kua Toa Village, defendet it and made a tomato field for them - now they worship him XD
YES!!! You should give him specific powers from them! Like a warlock 😂
@@HalflingHobbies My DM gave me +2 Con and made him feel like in his 20tis again - but the more important thing is that they worshiped a brocken statue of the BBEG of the Campagne - so i hope my Character now took away some of his power :)
woke up with new video, 70 more subs
Cult of warlocks worshipping different gods but reverring an ancient dragon.
Personally I am a huge fan of cults surrounding elder evils and Lovecraftian horror‘s
Me too!
I think it’d be cool if I ran a cult like the Bakers from Resident Evil Seven. The benefit is “eternal life and power” that Eveline(although that might not be her name) gives her
cult of undeath, on the surface very peaceful believes in using the body after death to serve the living and that it is an honor to serve post mortem uses them for farming and basic tasks and such
In an interview with Luke Gygax last month he says More Den Kay Nen.
I’m not too far off then!
I’m not a humanoid. I am actually a fae. Now the Faerie have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, nose, and mouth. We don’t have tentacles. The point is we are easy to mistake for humanoids because we have a similar primate structure. But as a faerie I hope that I am welcome here and this channel is not for humanoids only. Can I give you some literature on Fae Rights.
My forge cleric has started a cult that might have Apep as a patron :0, long story short her daddy might be a snake but she being a LN hero is wrestling with other cultists to make a faith based on rebirth through fire rather than her fathers total destruction of the world.
Wow! Super cool concept!