I stared out at the desert wastes before me. It was beautiful, in an endless and expansive sort of way. And it made a perfect backdrop for a moment of introspection.
This moment of peace and celebration, progress and victory is a good time for me to take stock of my current worshipers. I thought, wondering how the events over the last two months had changed the demographics of those who worship and serve me. And so I set about doing that.
----------------------------------------
I dove into my mind and quickly made it to the mental lake I had spent a fair amount of time at. This was a place I liked to visit when I needed a break, or when I felt annoyed with the world around me. But this time I was all business. I, in my thought-form. strode over to the lake and politely greeted it.
After a minute or so of exchanging pleasantries, I closed my eyes and opened my mouth. "I'm here today to check out the current demographics of my worshippers." I told the lake, confident and excited to see what sorts of creatures worshipped me.
In the time since I had gotten the notification that the system was done processing my new worshipers and allocating their abilities to me, I hadn't had time to sit down and actually sort through who all had come to my fold. I knew about many of my new powers, but not about the specifics of who worshipped me, even as far as their species went.
I had a vague idea about the demographics of my various cults, but the system's choice to delay informing me about shifts in the wake of the events in Undermoon had caused me to have blindspots. This was a chance to correct that.
"Alright, give us a second... Okay, here it is." The lake responded, hesitating in the middle of its statement as it gathered the requested data from deep within my subconscious and the domains themselves. My eyes flashed as a textbox appeared in front of me, one that differed from the one I saw when I had last done something vaguely similar to this.
Cult Or Coven Name: Description: Head Priest Or Priestess: Demographics: The Living Faith
This is a general cult dedicated to you that is overseen by a council of dark-elven priestesses and a few proto-witches. They worship you as a deity of sacrifice, minds, and tyranny.
Inhabitants of Undermoon who worship you generally and aren't members of other cults are automatically considered members of this cult. They aren't organized yet, because you've been doing other things. Can you organize these worshipers already? It's weird that they aren't organized.
This cult's central tenants revolve around sacrifice, minds, and tyranny.
Htlol, a dark elven priestess who witnessed the actions of your death cult at the old temple to Morthos. She became a worshiper at that moment and was the head of the temple already so she became the head of this cult automatically.
In the time since she converted to your worship, she has become an orderly cleric. Orderly clerics are clerics who serve deities of empires and tyranny and who seek to rigidly enforce the hierarchies of their gods.
12,800 dark elves
100 humans
35 dwarves
1 high-elf
"Don't sass me!" I shouted at the lake, and less directly at the system itself, annoyed at the text in the box that was rightfully chiding me.
"Fine! But seriously... organize your worshipers." The lake responded, smugly.
I hissed in annoyance. "You aren't wrong, but I'm at war!" I shouted, annoyed at the lack of concern for my current situation. The lake was silent, and I could imagine a number of valid responses that invalidated what I had just said and refocused on the textbox in agitated silence.
Cult Or Coven Name: Description: Head Priest Or Priestess: Demographics: The Hand Of The Dark Lord
These are Ranthor's forces. They worship you as a lord of tyranny, warfare, and subjugation.
This is an army and a cult. They can be considered your first crusaders. They are building an empire in your name.
This is an especially useful cult for a number of creatures who are focused on power and strength. That includes but isn't limited to orcs, goblins, ogres, Rust-Hags, werewolves, sharkfolks, and hobgoblins.
Ranthor. Ranthor's mind has long succumbed to your influence and it has driven him to fanaticism.
The orc is determined to serve you as his lord and god. He doesn't have many goals but one thing that drives him is the urge to unite all orcs under your banner.
1 Rust-Hag.
50 Goblins
39 Orcs
27 Ogres
24 Humans
8 Sobeks
Assorted unawakened animals.
The Mirrored Forest
This cult is also annoying independent and unorganized. You should probably correct that.
This cult of the creatures are the ones who live in your realm. Specifically, the beings who live in the copy of the forest you sprang to life in.
This cult worships you as their creator and as a lord of forests.
Mother Root, one of the dryads we created shortly after creating your realm.
Mother Root is a dryad and a druid. She is a powerful nature sorceress and she believes it's because you personally blessed her.
7 Dryads
30 High Elves
3 Satyrs
3 Faun
Assorted awakened and unawakened animals
Inhabitants Of The World Below
This cult is one of very few to worship you as a lord of fungi. This is the cult of the mirrored version of the city of Undermoon.
They worship you as a creator of life, the world they live in, coexistence and diplomacy, and as their protector thanks to the fungal folks who live in the tunnels surrounding the city.
Angelica. The diplomacy angel you rescued explored the city, learned about your portfolios and took it upon herself to build an organized religion in your name.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
She is recognized by the fungal folks who surround the city as a saintess and is thus obeyed by them, which lends her credibility when she discusses being one of your servants.
She teaches her followers to be charismatic, respectful to nature, and to use their words to resolve problems rather than their weapons.
155 Humans
45 Dwarves
55 Dark Elves
100 Fungal Folks
1 Angel
The Order Of Whispers
This is Hagitha's death cult. It consists entirely of dark elves and the ghouls they've raised.
This is a creepy cult. They are a secretive bunch who consist mostly but not entirely of older dark elven women who are willing to do anything to stave off death. They gleefully sacrifice other members of their race.
Hagitha deceived the founding members of this cult into thinking that in exchange for sacrifices you might come down and bless these women to grant them eternal youth. Whether you decide to do that or not is up to you.
Hagitha has been creatively coming up with rituals for members of this cult to follow. Some of her rituals include a weekly day of silence, a form of prayer that suggests that blood is a suitable offering to you and other strange things.
Each of the ghouls animated by Hagitha has regained some semblance of intelligence but none of their memories.
This cult worships you as a dread lord of necromancers, blood, undeath, and secrecy.
Hagitha. Drow's mother is the sadistic leader of this death-cult.
The oracle and spell-singer is a charismatic speaker who knows how to play on the fears of her enemies and allies alike.
She uses the things her cult members are afraid of to construct creative promises that her followers are likely to eat up.
This cult is one of the few that is heavy with potential witches. It, alongside with the covens constructed by Milene and Qu'Ren are the only areas to have more than 3 proto-witches.
25 Dark Elves
12 Ghouls
The Order Of The Golden Sickle
This is a cult of agriculture and greed. It is your first cult in Namira and consists of farming families throughout the city of Namira.
These cultists worship you as a provider of wealth, stability, and of agricultural success.
The membership of the Order Of The Golden Sickle are all farmers who were easily corrupted by greed. This brotherhood of farmers could easily be twisted into something more sinister.
Menanam your arboreal angel leads this cult.
Menanam's primary goal is to subtly scout the city for farmers who could be convinced to join the Order.
She uses her druidic abilities to explore the city stealthy, and carefully tests each potential recruit. As a result of this each member of the cult so far is deeply loyal to you.
The angel has quickly and easily adapted to the nature powers she was given the moment she became a real creature. She is a druid now.
1 Arboreal Angel
11 Desert Giants
The Traditional Sisterhood
Qu'Ren's coven consists entirely of female dark-elves. This coven is an elitist order that is dedicated to preserving the status quo.
These dark elven clerics and proto-witches are all noble or influential daughters, women, and matrons who seek to serve you in exchange for the power to secure their position at the top of a city and society that is rapidly changing.
Only a handful of the women gathered here are young, most are in fact middle-aged dark elven women with children of their own.
They revere you as a powerful magician and as a devil-lord of minds.
Qu'ren. Qu'ren, one of your first worshipers, leads this small but elite coven of skilled, knowledgeable, and elite dark-elven nobles.
She leads them in daily prayer and communion with the hopes that you will visit them and bestow them with true status as a witch or explicit recognition as a cleric.
19 Dark Elves
The Order Of The New Age
This is Milene's progressive coven for younger leaders and ambitious movers and shakers throughout Undermoon.
This coven is much larger than Qu'Ren's, but in Dark Elven society there's a reason the elites are elite. Elites are strong, and commoners are not.
Milene's coven consists of males and females, people of a number of classes, and they even welcome the lowest castes in society indiscriminately.
They revere you as a shatterer of the old ways, and as a meritocratic overlord who judges people on talent and skill alone rather than discriminating against species or having a preference for a certain gender.
Milene. The Dark Elven alchemist has taken to leading a coven quite easily and energetically.
Milene holds communion daily, and one of the other yous, the mind you, sometimes responds both to Milene and other members of the coven.
Milene has a charming personality and warm energy that enables her to disarm people and persuade them to come to a group communion. Often when they come they are so enthralled by the atmosphere and the drugs Milene uses as an alchemist to lure people to your worship that they become members.
50 Dark Elves
15 Humans
1 Gnome
2 Kobolds
3 Goblins
1 Dwarf
1 Gnome
The Changed Circle
This is an odd cult, one made up entirely of mutants.
This order consisted of the first jackal-Kin and Driders you could make. You made them out of worshipers who had pledged themselves to you in secret while being part of families that had resisted worshiping you.
They had willingly accepted the changes, gleefully reveling in them while fleeing their homes to live safely outside of Undermoon.
They revere you as a lord of mutations, mutants, and flesh.
Krivrivas. Krivrivas is a drider high-priest and is the son of one of the noble-families that has persisted in resisting your influence.
He was one of the people who converted to your worship after participating in the capture of Aggathas.
Krivrivas is intent on taking one of the driders in the cult as his bride and is preparing to pray to you for your agreement.
10 Driders
10 Jackal-Kin
The Cult Of The Sacred Spores
This is the other cult that reveres you as a fungal lord. It's also the only sex cult you have to date.
This strange order reveres you as a lord of ecstasy, sex, spores, drugs, and masculinity.
This cult is probably the most independent cult you have to date, but it came about as a result of its leader Rinor meeting with Milene and learning about you. Milene's fawning description of you hung in his mind, but Rinor's mind distorted what Milene said and concocted you as a paragon of masculinity and sexuality rather than as a meritocratic overlord.
Rinor. Rinor, a male dark-elf you overheard one of the few times you visited Undermoon, leads this odd cult.
Rinor has recruited addicts, druids, and all sorts of depraved figures to his cult. They live in the lascivious building he owns and they constantly indulge in their vices.
Rinor's devotion is sincere, but his vision of you is distorted and focused on two things: an understanding of you as a fungal lord, and as a devil. In his warped and lustful mind, the fusion of those two things naturally results in a vision of you he can worship.
150 Dark Elves
10 Humans
3 Ogres
11 Goblins
The Tyrant's Temple
This is the devilish cult dedicated to you as an archdevil.
Tristan.
Tristan the half-devil and priestess of the Order of the Dark Saint has become the head-priestess of The Tyrant's Temple.
She is a skilled priestess and a charismatic speaker. In the wake of the choice to cordon off half of the layer and line it with a long chain of forts, she has gained the freedom to leave the Dark Cathedral without fear.
She has begun to reach out to assorted humanoids throughout the layer and preach the diabolical faith freely. Various humanoids have converted to the faith.
The Devils Of Althos' Rebellion
25 Humans
7 Harpies
25 Jackaloids
The Way Of Nature
This is the faith dedicated to you that Silander preaches and practices. It is a faith that began by erroneously overfocusing on awakening animals, though that practice has changed since.
This faith reveres you as the lord of nature.
Silander. The great-frog and your first familiar is the head-priestess of a faith dedicated to transforming animals into your worshipers.
She works with Raverangos and other allies to capture animals, preach to them and makes a decision about whether or not to awaken them based on whether or not they would benefit Althos more as awakened creatures or as unawakened ones.
Assorted awakened and unawakened animals.
The Cult Of Splendid Dreams
This cult exists as a consequence of you experimenting with your dream powers to explore the dreams of the people of Undermoon and unintentionally affecting the minds of dark elves in the city's asylum.
This cult is located within the asylum within Undermoon and is led by its warden. They revere you as a lord of dreams, freedom, and insanity.
Urgoth the Warden. Urgoth is a strange fellow in charge of an even stranger cult.
45 Dark Elves
13 cults or covens, 13 leaders. I really should meet them and organize, shouldn't I? I thought, before immediately getting a response from a voice I found annoying given the context. The system.
[Yes. You should. Are you going too?] The system asked, clearly of the same mind as the lake on this issue. I sighed and knew that it was right.
[Yes actually. Y'all are right. I am going to begin to do that right now actually.] I told it, accepting that it was right. And with that I teleported, whisking myself to the dark elven city of Undermoon.