List of Cults

= Cults =
== So what is a cult anyhow? ==
A cult is any sect of a religion that attempts to operate out of the public eye, often imposing some restrictions of their members of encouraging illegal or antisocial behaviors. The Valley has the principle of free worship, and one can’t be legally persecuted based on their beliefs. 
That said, worship of many gods requires blood sacrifices, vandalism or other evil acts, so these must be done in secret. Some religions, like the followers of Hel are comprised entirely of cults, while others like Snuurgism has a mix of cults and normal worshippers.
Within most cults there’s a loose system of rank
* An initiate is someone who has joined the cult, but has not been granted any divine power.
* An acolyte is someone who has access to divine power or spellcasting due to their faith.
* A zealot is someone who acts out the will of the cult. They often aren’t so concerned with theology, and more with the use of force. They have a different set of divine powers to acolytes. If an acolyte could be considered a very weak cleric, a zealot might be a very weak warpriest.
* A priest is someone who has full divine spellcasting as a result of their worship.
Although these ranks and rules vary wildly.
Being part of an evil cult is a secret life. There’s many ways to avoid alignment-detecting spells for higher ranking members, and lower-ranking members are naturally immune to them.
== The Death’s head Cult ==
Patron God: Orcus (CE)
Goals: Generally to advance the plans of Orcus, whatever they may be at the time. Usually this means to disrupt and destroy lawful order, and to hinder the work of goodly people and institutions.
Members: Humans, usually men who feel slighted by society and want to get back at them. Often these cultists lust for power, and are willing to do anything to get it. Others are just along for the ride, enjoying the transgressive nature of the cult and the opportunity to 
Legality: The cult itself is legal, but nearly everything they do isn’t.
Garb: Black robes, hemmed with silver for high ranking members
Ceremonies and Activities: Blood sacrifices, raising the dead, and self-flagellation. Sex is sometimes involved, and almost always involves one of the former items.
Detail: The followers of Orcus are a diverse bunch, although they’re most often human. Orcus likes humans, for their short lives leads them to rash decisions, and looking for quick solutions to complex problems. Orcus is likely to grant even a lowly acolyte some amount of power, and his cults are plentiful, making this an attractive option for many. Orcus cults often blend into other local religions, subverting their practices and iconography. For example, in the Sands many microfaiths are built around mythical birds, so there Orcus is portrayed as an orange raven.
== The Cult of the Great Frog ==
Patron God: Tsathogga (CE)
Goals: To ensure the decay and entropy of everything around. Sometimes their goals appear to be the opposite; many Tsathoggans help build massive infrastructure or public works projects, only to sabotage them after all the hard work’s been done.
Members: Wide and varied, the membership of a local chapter will often be a pretty good reflection of the town’s demographics. People join for all sorts of reasons, but a big one is how Tsathogga provides a simple answer to a very common question: “What is the point of it all?” Tsathoggans learn that yes, everything is pointless, so you may as well do whatever you like and let everything fall apart.
Legality: The cult is legal, and not heavily discriminated against. Since most Tsathoggans are content to not do very much, and often help out in the community, they’re largely left alone.
Garb: Dull green or grey robes, hemmed with purple for high ranking members.
Ceremonies and Activities: Breaking things of value, but often in a lighthearted way, like throwing rocks at valuable paintings, or doing some arson and vandalism if they’re feeling particularly active. This can often extend to outright sabotage, but it’s usually done in such a way as to not draw suspicion to themselves.
Detail: Tsathoggans are a cheerful bunch, nihilistic and not in any great rush. Because they’re sure the world is doomed and there’s nothing that can be done about it, members are often pillars of the community, helping out the less fortunate and doing good deeds. Admittedly this is all a kind of ironic farce, essentially fattening up a settlement before a terrible disaster befalls it. Oddly they’re often called into to adjudicate arguments, both legal and divine. This isn’t because they’re particularly fair or impartial, but because Tsathoggans often lack any real agenda of their own, and with the exception of Dwerfater, Tsathogga has no animosity toward the other gods.
For a few hundred years early in the fifth era, Tsathogganism was the dominant religion in the Valley, and the average quality of life was pretty high, even as the land fell into ruin.
== The Cult of Kairen ==
Patron God: Orcus (CE), although a lot of the cult’s activities are more NE.
Goals: Its own destruction, and the destruction of Orcusism as a whole.
Members: Mostly goblins, as well as some displaced Duregar and cast-off Drow. Being part of the cult promises a life of wealth and power and constant danger. People join for that reason, and turnover is pretty high.
Legality: Since the cult mostly operates in places like the underground goblin city of Greznek, this doesn’t actually come up.
Garb: Black robes covered in blood. Doesn’t matter whose.
Ceremonies and Activities: Violence and Mayhem. Carving statues of minotaurs with impressive features is a popular activity; impaling a victim on the horns of the statue and letting their blood and viscera seep down is a sign of great faith.
Detail: Since those that die end up at Orcus’s side, the cult espouses that there’s no reason not to try and amass as much power and glory while you’re alive as possible, to the exclusion of all else including self preservation. The more power you have when you die, the greater your position among your fellow Orcusites. So Kairenites spend their time mining for riches, buying expensive magical items and murdering each other for their wealth. Ranks within the cult are occisorlinial, meaning your position and possessions pass to your killer..
== The Followers Akbeth Estella ==
Patron God: Akbeth (LE)
Goals: Unknown.
Members: Mostly women, and a few magical creatures. Akbeth promises secrets and power to those who follow her. Akbeth’s favor of women is something she inherited from Hecate, the god she replaced. Hecate had set her up in opposition to Nethys, a greater god of magic with a religion rooted in misogyny. Most of Akbeth’s highest ranking priestesses are also arcanists of equal power.
Legality: Quasi-legal. The cult does an extremely good job of hiding its existence, and since no one is sure who’s in it and what their overall goals are, it’s not actively persecuted.
Garb: Normal clothes. Why make yourself more suspicious than you have to be?
Ceremonies and Activities: Gaining Hecate’s favor by the sacrifice of ‘dumb’ creatures, namely anything illiterate. Additionally, magic items like scrolls and wands are burned, as they convey magical power on those who’ve not “earned” it. Otherwise, time is spent training and educating oneself, with reading being the preferred method.
Detail: Even the low-level members of this cult don’t understand its purpose or ultimate goal. With Hecate out and Akbeth in, things have changed. Gone is the value placed on youth, beauty and virginity, instead followers are judged strictly on their intelligence and will. Those that join are often entranced by the mystery more than the promises of power. The cult has been very active since the change in god, and her followers are suspected to be behind a high number of thefts of ancient tablets and books.
== The Flames of Snuurge ==
Patron God: Snuurge (NE)
Goals: Cement the superiority of the goblin race.
Members: Goblins, and not an inconsiderable number of hobgoblins. A sect of Hobgoblins believe that Snuurge is the father of their patron god, Kakabovia. Snuurgism is the default religion for the vast majority of Valley goblins
Legality: While Snuurgism is legal, The Flames are universally violent criminals, and are treated as such.
Garb: Leather armor to guard against burns, and necklaces of skulls are a common accessory.
Ceremonies and Activities: The majority of Snuurgites aren’t cultists per se, they’re simply normal members of the religion. The Flames are an extremist group who look out for the best interest of Snuurgism at large. This means finding spies and traitors and burning them, finding heretical texts or preachers and burning them, and so on.
Detail: The Flames of Snuurge are simple and straightforward. While they mostly spend their time below ground or in big goblin settlements, they occasionally leave to infiltrate other nations, to spy on them and see if they pose a threat to goblins. Their preferred solution to any problems they come across is to set them on fire, which often only makes it worse. Still the Flames are often powerful heroes of goblinkind, and are able to do a lot of damage.
== The Voice of Hel ==
Patron god: Hel (NE).
Goals: To spread pestilence and ruin.
Members: Humanoids, often simple farmers or herders. Hel promises protection from bad luck, illness or natural disaster. She asks in return that her followers visit these tragedies on others. For some, joining the Voice is a matter of self preservation.
Legality: Since the worship of Hel almost always involves committing a crime, her worship is illegal in much of the Valley, but still proliferates far from urban centers.
Garb: White robes, hemmed in green and grey for higher ranking members.
Ceremonies and Activities: Nailing dead and diseased animals to fences and posts to ward off pestilence. Poisoning a neighbor's crops and livestock. Every dirty trick of sabotage is employed to ensure Hel’s protection and push her wrath onto someone you don’t like. Her cultists only ever meet to make sure they stay out of each other’s way, and to trade tips and resources.
Detail: Hel’s church is unusual, as it has no real structure, leadership or places of worship. Her more powerful priests will often travel to meet lower cultists and instruct them on proper practices. These travelling priests, as well as cultists who travel as part of their lives (such as herders) are said to leave the land behind them black and barren, while the land in front is green and inviting. Despite their similarities, the followers of Hel and Tsathogga have no real feelings about the other; Hel’s are in it for the selfish short term, Tsathogga’s for the more general long term.
== Honorable Mentions: ==
* Set has no cults, all the members of his church wear their faith with pride, and intend to be seen as much as possible.
* Grootag’s orcish followers lack the subtlety for cults.
* Kal'ay-Mah the god of assassins used to have the most powerful and feared cult of them all, but after her and her followers instrumented the murder of Muir, her followers were all but wiped out. If any of her cultists remain, they are extremely well hidden indeed, and haven’t surfaced for a millenia.
== Non-canon (ie player added) Cults ==
== Jashinites ==
Patron God: "Lord Jashin" (CE)
Goals: Offering souls to their God
Members: Members can be from any race or locale. Cultists vaguely resemble Oracles in nature, in that they are chosen from birth by their God and granted powers directly. It isn't a cult one joins or leaves willingly, although most cultists are chosen well and are suited to it. All members of the cult are considered "Priest", all are equal under Jashin.
Legality: Stealing the souls of the recently dead is usually an activity which is frowned upon, and since that makes up the bulk of the cult's activities, they are heavily persecuted. The cults loose and nomadic nature makes this difficult, although individual cultists can be easily discovered due to the messy and open nature of their rituals
Garb: The cult has no uniform, although most members prefer dark colours made out of materials which don't readily absorb blood. Members do favour tattoos though, usually of simple geometric designs. Bladed weapons are also favoured
Ceremonies and Activities: Jashinites exist to collect souls for their Lord, Jashin. This is usually done through bloody and violent murder, but it isn't the only way. Some Jashinites masquarade as priests or other forms of caretaker, and sacrifice those near death. Others attempt to steal the bodies of the recently dead, and offer up the soul before others manage to perform last rite rituals. 
The exact nature of the ritual varies from Priest to Priest, but regardless of how it is done, the ritual is usually a bloody affair. Jashin, in turn, grants powers to the cultists, which varies depending on the nature of the individual cultist. Jashin is not a kind or forgiving God though, retribution is swift and fierce if the cultist has the opportunity to offer a soul and neglects the task. 
Details: The cult is loosely knit and nomadic - cultists rarely stay in one place for long as the risk of discovery is too high. There are no real ranks in the cult itself with most members referring to themselves as Priests. Nor is there much knowledge to share, so cultists rarely have reason to congregate. 
== The Dialetheist Society ==
Patron God: None. Many members worship Akbeth or Evermage.
Goals: To unleash the power to make everything true.
Members: Exclusively citydwellers. The society is particularly appealing to fringe scholars and social outsiders, as it offers both understanding of a baffling world, and the possibility of changing it. The society also attempts to actively recruit those with power or influence, with mixed results.
Legality: Being relatively new and small, the society has not drawn the attention of any legal authorities. Though the cult does engage in a range of criminal, and morally dubious activities - particularly brainwashing, extortion, blackmail, kidnapping, and morally questionable research - these activities are exclusively practiced upon the society's own members, or those over whom the society has influence, and so tend to go unnoticed by outsiders.
Garb: The society is very concerned with its public appearance, and members, regardless of personal wealth or occupation, tend to dress in the clothing typical of the upper-middle class of whatever city they are in, to present themselves and the society as basically the same, but just a bit better, than everyone else.
Ceremonies and Activities: The society's two main concerns are recruiting new members, and retaining current members. The former is broadly accomplished through public lectures and discussions, personality tests (designed to get people in the door), and hypnotic techniques. Occasionally more targeted conversion is performed by the society's elite members, which may simply involve focused attention, or more drastic measures such as kidnapping and brainwashing. The retention of current members is performed most particularly through a regular ritual known as "validating," whereby a newer member will be interviewed by an elder, purportedly to increase the member's freedom of thought, and open them up to new possibilities. In practice, this technique is designed to systematically destroy an individual's sense of truth and stability through a combination of hypnotism, gaslighting, social isolation, and light intimidation.
Detail: Members of the society praise it as a valuable path to self-improvement, while outside cynics tend to see it as concerned only with praying on the feeble-minded to gather power and resources. The true purpose of the cult is known and understand only to a few enlightened members, who firmly believe that the cult's activities, techniques, and treatment of its members are wholly in line with its goal of exploding the notion of truth, and bringing about a world where everything is true.