Soul-Snatcher Cults

These Soul-Snatchers will work slowly; converting their patrons and other powerful allies to their way of thinking, carefully presenting themselves as messengers and messiahs, offering salvation through their creed. Susceptible patrons soon become disciples, eagerly spreading the Soul-Snatchers’ message to both superiors and commoners alike. As they amass a following, the Soul-Snatchers will work tirelessly to enhance their flock, using their knowledge of biotechnology to create hybrids drawing on the strengths of both species. 

As these Cults grow in size, they accumulate more and more sincere followers, who are unaware of the influence of the Soul-Snatchers. These disciples embrace the creed wholeheartedly, unaware of the manipulation at the core of the Cult. Whether fanatical and eager to serve, or merely following their community, they form the greater part of the Cult. Followers eagerly seek to serve their mysterious masters and fulfil their ambitions as though they were their own. As time goes on, these Cults have begun to seek each other out, working together to extend their reach throughout the sector. 

How will you spread your creed through Sirius?

History

In the Hive

Soul-Snatchers serve the Alien Hives as powerful advisors, valued for their psychic powers and intellect. While they are respected within the Alien Hives, they are always second to their Hive Lords. Their Lords are not as susceptible to their psychic influence as others, and so conflict may arise between the Soul-Snatchers and their Lords. Within the Hive, the Lord always has final say.

Striking Out

A Cult begins when a frustrated Soul-Snatcher strikes out from the Hives, possibly joined by some like-minded apprentices. They will convince visiting merchants or diplomats to allow them to hitch a ride away from the hive, either through natural or psychic persuasion. They will then seek out a new community with people more open to their influence.

Infiltration

Typically, the Soul-Snatchers’ first step will be to seek out people in positions of power. They may offer biotechnology and their psychic powers to increase the fortunes of their patron. The leaders who accept their offer will slowly find themselves increasingly dependent on the Soul-Snatcher, as the Soul-Snatchers exercise their psychic influence.

Messiah Complex

As Soul-Snatchers become more influential over local leaders, they will begin preaching their own doctrine. They will present themselves as messengers and messiahs, offering salvation through their creed. The Soul-Snatchers will gradually share their biotechnology to enhance their flock, offering them stronger and more durable bodies.

The Masses

These cults attract many sincere followers, especially among the lower ranks. These disciples embrace the creed wholeheartedly, unaware of the manipulation at the core of the cult. Whether fanatical and eager to serve, or merely following their community, they form the greater part of the cult.

Wolves in the Flock

Built on manipulation and existing power structures, even cults with the most benign creeds often have cutthroat politics at their core of their community as Soul-Snatchers do what they must in order to maintain their cult and their power. At the same time, more ambitious followers will seek to rise through the ranks in order to get closer to their messiah, denouncing those who are lax in their faith.

Timeline

• 1324 BRC - First Recorded Instance of a renegade Soul Snatchr
• 0 RC - Radiance Cascade
• 104 ARC - Arrival of Alien Hive In Sirius Sector
• 123 ARC - Establishment of Communication between Alien Hive and DAO Union
• 128 ARC - Discovery of First Soul Snatcher Cult in Human Cluster

Society

The Soul Snatchers are a species originating from the Alien Hives. They are bred to be counsellors to the Hive Lords, imbued with traits such as ambition and cunning on a genetic level.

Some of these Snatchers, may be born in Hives that don’t have available positions for them, or frustrated with constantly being second in power, venture out by themselves into the Sirius Sector. Using their psychic powers and their sharp intellect, they convince humans (and sometimes other species) to become their affiliates, promising riches or enlightenment.

As their influence grows, the first followers will recruit others into the organisation, creating a vast network under the guise of being a church, a corporation, a union, or some other entity.

Pathologically Driven

Many from the Alien Hives see these rogue Snatchers as akin to sick animals. While a Snatcher’s mind is capable of extremely complex calculations, their lust for power is something that the other species from the Hive need to balance.

The societies these rogue Soul-Snatchers build are designed to brainwash their followers, having them constantly strive to prove their worth and climb the ranks, eager to get closer to their ruler. These individuals rarely matter to a Snatcher, so long as the Cult’s power keeps growing. The Snatcher’s own ambition bleeds into the Cult’s mentality and makes them both efficient and ruthless, even internally.

Assimilation

Snatchers Cults adapt to local culture until they can alter it. A lot of these cults blend into the local culture, with the Snatcher using every advantage he can find to attract followers, integrating local beliefs and ideas. The larger the cult, the less of its members are aware of who is at the top. Souls Snatchers will use their alien knowledge to biologically modify their servants, while they also exert a powerful psychic influence that makes their entourage blindly faithful to them.

Once the cult is large enough, it can start to use military force to extend its influence even more, with cult militias taking over the local government.

Organisation

While some Soul Snatchers present themselves as an explicitly divine figure, many more will pretend to be a business mogul, promising continuous growth to their low-level recruits as long as they keep bringing in more members. Soul Snatchers will also adapt to the weaknesses of the community they operate in. 

If they have managed to convert a few soldiers, they will act as pragmatists who want to put the best officers in command of society; if they meet pilgrims, they will learn about their beliefs before manifesting supernatural powers that mark them as envoys from the gods; and if they roam a merchant district, they will attract greedy businessman into a masterfully crafted pyramid scheme.

Fanatic Fighters

Rank and file members of Soul-Snatcher Cults are sincerely devoted and will fight with all their strength to carry out their patron's whims. The low-level militia fighters are backed by biologically modified mutants and powerful machinery repurposed from the cult’s civilian activities. The high-level cadres of the cult are there to stoke their followers’ resolve and drive them further. In dire situations, the Snatcher may even personally appear to lead them.

The Radiance

The Cults do not share a unified view of the Radiance, but many do believe that it led the Hives to Sirius for a purpose; perhaps, in part to bring them to alien species which could be easily influenced by them. Soul-Snatchers speak of the Radiance as Drithirekenaz, as the Whispering Void. Some Snatchers credit it with awakening them to their potential. Most are greatly pained by its resonance, but some have become convinced that it shares hidden truth with them. Those who are most convinced of this are badly marked with mutations and often convinced that the Radiance is a presence actively guiding them-- sometimes viewing it as something which they can even converse with.

Language

Leaders of the Soul-Snatchers speak in the tongue of the Alien Hives, while the masses of their cult speak in the language of their host culture, only occasionally peppering in Hiver loanwords.

Names of the membership draw on an eclectic mix of Hive names and those of host culture.

Soul-Snatchers usually have a fully Hive name, while Human minions and neophytes would mostly draw on the names of their home culture. Acolytes and Mutants who have undergone bionic enhancement may adopt a Clutchname and Number alongside those who underwent the same procedure.

However, this can vary greatly between cults as some encourage all Neophytes to adopt a Hive Name, while others may have Soul-Snatchers adopt names from a host culture to better disguise their presence.

Minion Name Examples

[Personal Name] [Surname] - [Jack] [Thompson]

Male Minion Names

• Jack Thompson
• Steffen Egger
• Tawara Taiga

Female Minion Names

• Helvi Manninen
• Malika Inarkaevica
• Laura Dias Pereira

Acolyte Name Example

[Personal Name] [Clutch Name] [Number] - [Pierre] [Sa’uth] [Zā]

Male Acolyte Names

• Pierre Sa’uth Zā
• Eric Frithne Zā’oir
• John Kseth Air

Female Acolyte Names

• Clara Rallan Thoir
• Danielle Kseth Greit
• Irene Drath Tas

Snatcher Name Example

[Personal Name] [Clutch Name] [Number] - [Trōseis] [Khnis] [Vras]

Snatcher Names

• Trōseis Khnis Vras
• Glāʻerkh Gleist Air
• Dhruzalth Frithne Tas

Note that characters are usually referred to by their first name (in italics).

Trivia

Proverbs

• False prophets demand loyalty and offer nothing in return. But I can give you arms, teeth and claws!
• Once you meet our Prophet, you shall see the light.
• Day by day, we grow stronger. World by world, we spread.
• Deliverance comes from the shadows.
• Paradise must be built upon deceit.