Chromatic Shadows Faction- THE VOID CULT

A Ravenous Darkness draws close, hovering in a spiraling iris. Eldritch energies hemorrhage through the wounds in reality made by man's hubris. The change has begun—prepare the crooked path. Those who usher its coming will be rewarded, and transformed. Every one else is a tool to be exploited or an obstacle to be destroyed.

A Corrupting Influence

Void Cult cells infect the sprawl like a malignant wound, their corruption spreads from the margins inward. The cult’s origin is shrouded in mystery--the member’s  identities and digital footprint are traceless. All attachments to the false world burned to cold cinders. With demonstrable power and dark prophetic authority, the Void Cult draws fanatical members into its ranks.

Claiming Nexus Points

Guided by hypnogogic omens, the Void Cult is spurned to seek out and claim Nexus Points—interstitial places in the sprawl where the skin of reality has worn thin. These sites are always tainted by some terrible trauma-- fallout from the Shadow War, a human tragedy, an environmental disaster. Here the cult performs rituals and hoards artifacts in order to commune with the Outside.

Artifact Hunters

The cult scours the sprawl for occult assets through their expanding secret networks. Artifact fragments and hypertech are relentlessly pursued, often in direct competition with the megacorps. The cult draws upon these artifacts to deepen their connection to the Outside, defend their territory and to destroy their enemies.

Eldritch Scars & Occult Gifts

Cult members are rewarded with Eldritch Scars—marks of favor from the Outside. The number of scars a cultist carries determines their rank within the hierarchy. Every initiated cultist carries a sign of corruption.  Black pits for eyes, boils that never heal, webbed hands, rubbery skin, shark-like teeth,  the pallor of the grave—these energies over time will overshadow a cultist, and subsume their humanity. A cultist gains a number of extra dice to all intimidation tests equal to their number of scars, and suffer an equal penalty to any tests involving empathy or appearance.

As cultist gains scars and rise within the hierarchy they also manifest “occult gifts”—terrifying powers fueled by the eldritch energies that permeate their being.

Dark Metamorphosis

Certain rare individuals are warped into something other than human. This “final gift” of the void,  is considered by the cult to be a true rebirth. A metamorphosis that brings them fully into the presence of the ravenous darkness.

Atavistic Saints

These “blessed ones” are atavistic cannibals, reduced to a state of perpetual hunger and alien malice. They never leave the nexus points. Blessed Ones are fanatically guarded by the flock, and continually gorged on the flesh of living victims. 

 

Cult Lairs

Void Cultists regard nexus points as sacred places to be defended at all cost. Nexus Points tend to be marginal spaces--buildings or underground spaces typically found in the Barrens or the Slags. As much as possible, the cult will live in these spaces. Acolytes sleep and eat in spartan, communal chambers, whereas the high priests claim private quarters.  The epicenter of outside energy is always reserved as the cult’s “inner sanctum”. These places become horrifying ritual chambers adorned with bleak, occult iconography. Here the gibbering “blessed ones” can be found skulking in the shadows near the bloodstained altars consecrated to blasphemous eldritch entities. The cult’s artifacts are held securely in these ritual chambers. Any given cult has between 1-3 minor or medium tier artifacts.

CULT HEIRARCHY

POSTULATES have no scars, and await full initiation. They don’t yet live at the Nexus Points, and their participation in the cult’s activities are limited until they have proven themselves. They still have identities and act as the necessary intermediary to the normal world that the cult has forsaken. (Postulates use any tier 3 or lower NPC stat block and have no Occult Gifts.)

ACOLYTES have 1-2 scars. They are the rank and file cult members, living in cenobitic community within the Nexus Points.They observe vows of silence and obedience, answering individually to the High Priest. Their lives follow a rigid pattern of ritual, work, &  meditation. Acolytes act as elite operatives of the cult when the need arises. Upon receiving their 3rd scar an acolyte is prepared for the priesthood, and the responsibility of founding their own cell. (Acolytes have 1 Occult gift.)
 

HIGH PRIESTS have 3-5 scars. They are the spiritual leaders of the cult, and the top of the hierarchy. They command the flock, lead the rituals, and have exclusive rights over any artifacts the cult may have acquired. (High Priests have 2-3 Occult gifts.)

BLESSED ONES have 6 or more scars, and have fully metamorphosed into bestial subhumans. They can not speak except in the tongue of the abyss, have little more than cunning animal intelligence, and suffer a perpetual cannibalistic hunger. They exist only to feast upon their victims, and worship at the black altar of their eldritch gods. (Blessed Ones have 4 occult gift.)

ELDRITCH SCARS

Roll or choose from the following table to determine the Eldritch Scars that warp the being of a Void Cult member. Use these scars as prompts to derive the final inhuman form that the cult’s Blessed Ones might take.

1. Webbed hands
2. Rubbery loose flesh
3. Eyes like black pits
4. Bestial double speech
5. Needle like teeth
6. Vestigial appendage
7. Corpse-like pallor
8. Balding in scabrous patches
9. Tumorous growths/ postules
10. Hands warped into talons or pincers
11. Coarse black hair covers body
12. Animalistic muzzle
13. Long, ape-like arms
14. Body slick with cold slime
15. Patches of translucent skin
16. Wriggling tubular growths
17. Ridges and spines on  limbs and body
18. Large tusks or fangs
19. Lamprey mouth
20. Extra fingers and toes