[Monster] Cult of Development

[Torc Ironwood]

Cult of Development “What have the gods ever truly given us that we couldn’t have done for ourselves?” ~ Quote from Cult Leader Draxis Sun Abstract The Cult of Development claims origins from Rupert Pycon , creator of the Pycon race. In truth, the cult formed from Alchemist’s, who using condemned prisons ,thought to eventually create a superhuman being. Men and women who join are often promised enhancements to their bodies; whether it is beauty, strength, even longevity. The cult leader will ask them to kidnap people or trap animals and perform experiments in trying to create a physical enhancement and further his knowledge of alchemy and the human body. Appearance Members of the Cult of Development can be from any race or sex. However, most will either have physical deformities or have an illness that is readily seen. For those members that have been chosen by the leader to receive a physical enhancement they will often have large deformities that look horrible and unnatural. Some of the more common enhancements are as follows: Bone growths: Usually horns, spikes, or hard dense plates are given to the member, though this enhancement one can have natural weapons and armor. However, it usually causes intense pain during movement and will restrict the member’s range of motion as well. As the alchemy decays away, the bone growths become weak and are easily broken. Extra limbs or organs: Though the Cult Leader will believe that having another arm or extra pair of eyes is a enhancement, most members that receive this gift are either driven insane or killed instantly. For example an extra heart usually circulates the blood to quickly killing off muscle tissue, extra eyes first confuse and disorient the member until finally the extra sight drives them crazy. The only successful enhancements act more like transplants. Should a member lose an arm or their heart is weaken from disease the Cult leader and give them ones from other people. Increase amount of muscle or new muscles: The Cult Leader will give the enhancement to his most trusted followers making brutish guards. Though if the muscle is increase too much, too quickly, bones will not be able to support the new muscle and break, in extreme cases of increase muscle the member won’t be able to even lift themselves or breathe. Harden skin: The member will appear to have thick skin or scar tissue everywhere. The enhancement given to the member tries to create a suit of natural armor like the bone growths but still allow for movement. Sadly the lost of sensation often causes just as much confusing for the member, not being able to feel heat or the barest of touches can cause accidents. History and Overview The Cult of Development started when Alchemists began to notice that in rare cases the release of Djed from items would give benefits to some of the people around them. Slowly Alchemists wondered if these enhancements could be controlled and given to people. Alchemists became to experiment on animals trying to understand how and why they had certain properties. The earliest of members began to pour over tomes of medicine, physiology, and anatomy. Journals of experiments from these members later helped expand the knowledge base, and even founded some of the more basic rules of why bones had to be certain sizes and how organs worked. Slowly Alchemist’s began to create different breeds of animals to fight in the war. Researchers would compare notes and attempt the breed the properties into further generations. As the war escalated some Alchemist made the choice to perform human experiments on men and women to create a super solider. All the early research was done on prisoners with death sentences, but as research progressed soldiers were given the enhancements and sent back to the front with varying degrees of success. Once the Valterrian happened, the few researchers to survive saw new animals that came from the primordial chaos. Strangely the Cult did more to capture and kill these monsters to figure out how they worked, then many of the earlier peoples. As famine and disease began to spread, the Cult looked at their research and began to try to help their communities by given their enhancements to the people. Slowly Alchemists began to believe that with the proper knowledge they could change the people around them to be completely self sufficient. Alchemists were still highly respected and were able to convince whole communities to volunteer for the experiments. For close to 100 years the Cult built and maintained an alchemy lab in the wilds, performing experiments and studying preserve ways to prolong life. It wasn’t till some of their followers formed a few labs in Syliras that the local population began to know the horrors of the Cult. Kidnapping and murder was necessary for the cult to continue their research which was now referred to as the divine path to enlightment. Syliras formed an army to hunt down the labs and destroy all its accumulated knowledge. The Cult was shattered after 7 years of hiding, when a patrol stumbled across a mass grave of the labs experiments. The army moved in and destroyed the lab along with many of the top leaders. Though many of the Cult’s leader were killed, several apprentices were able to escape and form small labs of their own. Many of the major cites contain Cult members and secret labs, they prey off the weak and homeless. Some will employ undertakers to destroy experiments gone bad, while others will sale alchemy wares and in the dead of night perform their experiments. The Cult views its work as the next step in human development. Some will argue that the gods gave them knowledge to change their physical shells, while others will say that eventually they can figure out how to change a person into a god. Whatever, their reasoning the Cult leader is usually a very talented Alchemist with large knowledge of the body. He/she will use animals till they believe they have the result that they want and then move up to people. Upon which they will choose one of their devote members for enhancement. Older cults usually have three to four Alchemists of varying levels and up to twenty devote members. The members will appear to be beggars or some other drudge of society as not to be seen by the regular public. Eventually the Cult will try to expand into the high social circles looking for money and power. Social Structure The High Priest is the most learned and talented Alchemist the cult has. He/She will have several enhancements given to them by the previous High Priest, and it is more than likely these enhancements are mental expanding their intelligence at the cost of their sanity. The High Priest will have a plan as to develop people into the next step and tell his apprentices to experiment until they find the safest way to obtain the next step. In the order Cults there are usually one to four Priests, they have been given one or two mental enhancements from the High Priest. They the High Priest apprentices and are working on theories and formula’s to advance the High Priest plan. They will also be responsible for one to five Advocates. Advocates are members of the cult that have received physical enhancements, and are responsible to breed those enhancements into the general population. They usually come as offspring from other Advocates or are physically deformed and hoping that a transformation will cure them. The Advocates act as guards and scouts seeking out sacrifices for their priest to test theories on. The Advocates will generally try to breed with one another to produce offspring. However, other means of introducing children into the population is treated as acceptable. Sacrifices are people who the Advocates have deem suitable in purity for their priests experiments.

[Alodian Aviastas]

This certainly is a difficult one. First off, where would this Cult be located? You did say that it claimed it's origin from Rupert Pycon, but you never did say where they would be located or how many members there are. Usually cults have someone they worship, and I wonder if this person is Rupert, or did you plan on having them worship a God or Goddess? There are a few grammar errors, and it is a bit confusing.

Second, how are the Advocates chosen? What requirements are there to become an advocate? For that matter, what are the requirements to become a regular member of the Cult?

I see this having potential, and I hope that it gets approved.

[Stitch]

Well! The first thing that comes to mind is the title. This doesn't seem like a monster to me. Sure, maybe the cult members could be considered monsters... But the article is mainly about the cult, with the members and social structure as a sub-category. Maybe that should be changed?

The picture makes me think of a vampire. Right off the bat. That might be a problem. The Founders might also have problems with the likeness to vampires, picture wise, since we try and stay completely original here.

The Cult of Development claims origins from Rupert Pycon , creator of the Pycon race. In truth, the cult formed from Alchemist’s, who using condemned prisons ,thought to eventually create a superhuman being. Men and women who join are often promised enhancements to their bodies; whether it is beauty, strength, even longevity. The cult leader will ask them to kidnap people or trap animals and perform experiments in trying to create a physical enhancement and further his knowledge of alchemy and the human body.

So, they thought to create a superhuman being. That is their goal? But then wait a minute, at the very end, the leader just seeks to further his knowledge of alchemy and the human body? Those seem like two different goals to me. Does the leader and the cult have two different goals, or are they one and the same? This might just be me getting confused too, I dunno. And, they gain potentional members by offering body enhancements? Wouldn't the members just leave after getting what they want? What keeps them around?

There could be some improvements in formatting, here. Maybe bold the titles of the deformities, and maybe put all the qoutes in italics, or something. Just to make them look different from the rest of the text.

It seems like their goals changed a ton throughout their history. Is that on purpose?

I think you might want to detail some of the NPCs the cult would have. Just a short little summary would be nice. The leader would be interesting to detail I think, but that might not be required. It would just kind of help with understand the clan, and helping Storytellers use them.

Remember first and foremost, Storytellers will have to use this if they decide to try out roleplaying the Cult. Make sure you include all the information they might need!

[Torc Ironwood]

Guys thank you for your feedback, but in truth I have decided to drop this monster. I realized that after making it that important skills were going unnoticed and decided to put all my energy into Glassworking and Metalsmithing. Sorry for the time spent, but if you like I could use some reviews of those articles.