Local city spirit cult

[Manu]

I have a bug city (5000-10000 people). The important and wealthy people of this city have a secret local cult of the founder (the wealthy founder). Should it be a local spirit cult? But it looks also like an ancestor worship. In the rules, I could only see Black fang (secret fightning society) and Oakfed (more wilderness cult).

What kind of 'power' should it give (except the fact that you are a member of the Wealthy of the city)?

[Joerg]

How exactly is this cult a secret? Are its inner activities a secret, but its members sort of well known for being members of the elitarian few, like Skulls and Bones or Rosicrucians or Freemasons? That would be modeled by a founder like Pavis, or an ancestor cult around Joraz Khyrem, the first king of Pavis.

Does the cult have a respectable front, but nobody suspects the cult activities behind that? Like a "guild of street sanitation" or similar? In that case, a Black Fang approach would make sense. That cult s also a guild of poisoners and backyard alchemists, in addition to their backstabbing branch.

Depending on where your city is located, an Arkat cult is an option, too, if the Founder goes back to the early Second Age, or, if earlier, one of his descendants flanged on Arkati secrets.

Spoiler

There are a few Arkati NPCs in Urvantan's Tower, in The Smoking Ruins. These cultists could be Arkati without access to sorcery, to make things easier on you, or you could milk the sorcery angle for secret powers.

If this is a city cult subcult, they could get a limited Command Priests for priests of that city cult, analogous to the Orlanth Rex spell in Red Book of Magic, in addition to City Harmony. That spell may well be limited to heads of the lineages descended from or linked to that Founder.

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, Manu said:

I have a bug city (5000-10000 people). The important and wealthy people of this city have a secret local cult of the founder (the wealthy founder). Should it be a local spirit cult? But it looks also like an ancestor worship. In the rules, I could only see Black fang (secret fightning society) and Oakfed (more wilderness cult).

What kind of 'power' should it give (except the fact that you are a member of the Wealthy of the city)?

We have quite a few city founder examples: Pavis, Balazar, Wilms, etc. Some are her founders, ancestors, everything really. There's also the city gods write up for RQ3 in GoG, roughly speaking:

Initiate and priest requirements: normal. Rune magic: Ban, Sanctify, Warding. Special: City Harmony - in RBM.

Looking at the size of the cult - if the city has a population of say 10k, 5k are adults, and say 1% are the wealthy, so 50 cult members. Thats enough for a single shrine that gives a single special cult rune spell - City Harmony. So you get a single priest running the cult. Throw in local ancestor worship and you get a bit more.

[AlHazred]

11 hours ago, Manu said:

I have a bug city

Is this a Timinits question?

[Manu]

11 hours ago, AlHazred said:

Is this a Timinits question?

Oups.. 😄

I see it as a secret society where some of the rich of the city, those that descend from the first settlers (it is in Umathela) and the local thieves guild work together for the prosperity (and the naval supremacy) of the city. Therefore it could be more of an ancestor worshiping or founder cult than city cult. And also, part of the members are Malkionists (Sedalpists here). And I don't have too much of a problem to mix Malkion and ancestor. They don't call it 'worshiping'. For them it is more a question of respecting the Founders.

 

Is Black Fang a type of ancestor worshipping?

 

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, Manu said:

I see it as a secret society where some of the rich of the city, those that descend from the first settlers (it is in Umathela) and the local thieves guild work together for the prosperity (and the naval supremacy) of the city. Therefore it could be more of an ancestor worshiping or founder cult than city cult. And also, part of the members are Malkionists (Sedalpists here). And I don't have too much of a problem to mix Malkion and ancestor. They don't call it 'worshiping'. For them it is more a question of respecting the Founders.

For Umathela, Arkati societies won't work. But then, resistance against the Cult of Silence may explain that secrecy.

Naval supremacy would be a rather recent phenomenon - up to the Battle of Oenriko Rocks, the Vadeli who had Opened the seas were very much in control of all naval activities, and many cities still have a Vadeli quarter where their former overlords remain plotting.

But then, your city may have been overlooked by the Vadeli, and may have come out ahead of the Oenriko Rocks destruction of the Vadeli and allied fleet.

Most seaports would have been founded in the Second Age, before the Closing struck. Not all cities would have been centers of God Learner heroquesting - those that were got hit hard by the retaliations, the main university cities left in ruins.

If you want to have a dark secret, it probably would be some remnant of God Learner activity.

 

2 hours ago, Manu said:

Is Black Fang a type of ancestor worshipping?

Not really - it is a gang of assassins, poisoners, and occasional robbers, survivors in the Big Rubble through the Troll Occupation with their abilities. More like a warband around a spirit cult. Maybe with a hint of Glen Cook's Black Company,

Spoiler

including an unpleasant surprise at the deeper nature of their cult entity.

 

[Darius West]

On 8/9/2021 at 7:28 PM, Manu said:

I have a bug city (5000-10000 people). The important and wealthy people of this city have a secret local cult of the founder (the wealthy founder). Should it be a local spirit cult? But it looks also like an ancestor worship. In the rules, I could only see Black fang (secret fightning society) and Oakfed (more wilderness cult).

What kind of 'power' should it give (except the fact that you are a member of the Wealthy of the city)?

If we are dealing with wealth I need more information about the economic situation to provide the best answer I can.  What are the city's primary exports?  Are those exports primary or secondary industry?  How many trade routes feed into it?  How strong is the domestic economy as opposed to the cities around it, and its reliance on external resources?  How heavy is the class divide within the city?  

The obvious answer is that the local wealth god is linked with the production of the primary export.  If the city is trade heavy, acting as a "middle man" then spells for negotiating favorable terms become important, i.e. a spell that doubles your bargain skills within city limits.  If the city has a habit of being over-run by enemies periodically, then maybe Asrelia is the best deity, given that she allows for the creation of magical caches.

It could be that the primary export is agricultural, in which case, the cult will revolve around land ownership and crop management.

On the other hand, you may want a deity that is less about wealth acquisition and more about conspicuous consumption.  The notion being that if the city is a fun place to party, that more people will want to go there and spend their money.]

As a rule of thumb, most city deities/spirits will not be overly strong, and will muster perhaps 1 cult specific rune spell, a couple of associated cult spells, and a few common rune spells, but not more than 12 spells in total as a rule of thumb.

If you are dealing with Timnits, it is quite likely that their local deity is a Timnit hero founder who worked with the God Learners, and is quite possibly a sorcerer, who provides a unique sorcery spell to help with wealth.

In Ancient Greece there was a secret society of merchants who swore an oath to cheat and defraud all non-members (just a thought).  It is quite possible to create a merchant cult that is utterly unscrupulous and quite willing to deal with thieves and bandits, or which engages in predatory intrigue and intelligence gathering to maintain their commercial edge.

The Japanese Imperial Family's central ritual is widely assumed to involve the success of the rice crop, but more in-depth anthropology reveals that the Yamato era rituals were actually for the success of the silk harvest.  This is more of a mystery cult approach, and one that invokes a blessing rather than adding commercial acumen, or expertise.

Asrelia is a hoarder, as is Argan Argar, and that has its place.  Issaries, Lokarnos and Etyries are essentially teamsters who make their money through taking goods from point A to point B that they know wants those goods.  Gustbran is a deity who offers technical expertise magic.  Ernalda, Dendara and the Grain Goddesses provide agricultural magic.  Pavis is primarily about maintaining Green Age peace and tolerance within city limits.

The mindset of managing power through wealth should be a primary concern for the cult.  The aim is to provide subordinates enough resources to keep them loyal, but not so much that they become a challenger.  A good leader often rewards subordinates with things they want to get rid of, such as underperforming assets.  Wealth can be used to dazzle, but it is often safer to be completely invisible (but where's the fun in that).  While some wealth is about being miserly, the more successful model is to create a higher rate of local transactions, and become the spider in the middle of the web of those deals.

Edited August 14, 2021 by Darius West