Okay, I'm looking for ideas on secret-society type Imperial cult operating on Hive Volg in Fenksworld. My plan is to introduce this cult into the game as something behind local rebellion and maybe have acolytes try to infiltrate the cult.

The cult in question is openly loyal to Emperor but believes both local administration and local adeptus are corrupt and thus see their rebllion as justified. The open teachings of the cult are not heretical and they actually worship Emperor as a god (as it should be). Almost all laymembers of the cult are in just out of honest greed and desire for easier and more pleasurable living that they will believe they get once the 'corrupt old regime' is out of the way. However, the inner core of the cult are actually Slaaneshi cultists who are trying to overthrow the Imperia Adepts rule on Volg and discreetly secude the laymembers of the cult into Slaaneshi doctrine of lust, excess, pleasure, perfection and hedonism.

Now, I am looking for any and all ideas on how this cult should look, what rituals they would have and how it would differ openly from normal, non-heretical Imperial Cult. Also, any ideas on possible clues to lead the investigators into the true, heretical nature of the inner circle cultists are valuable. Just remember, this cult is supposed to be a bit rebellious but not openly heretical and I'd really want to get acolytes slowly lead pretty deep into it before they find out what they are actually involved with...

Have you decided what the theology of this cult is going to be? If you want the cult to appear radical but benign, even as something the players' characters might sympathise with, you could go with something like this:

The cult is led by a charismatic preacher, or group of preachers, afterall cultists of Slaanesh ought to exude charisma. Possibly they use some form of unnatural perfume, or narcotic incense to augment their personal charms. They preach that the Emperor has forged mankind as one body, an indivisible whole that shares one holy destiny. Though some may say that the head is more noble than the foot, which trudges through the mire, or that the heart is more pure than the hand, which is dirtied by daily labour, the wise know that all members of the body are of equal dignity and must live or die together. But these days the head is sick, and full of corruption, and the heart is grown unsteady. Through lack of belief, through greed, and false pride, those who govern the body have forgotten that the property of the head is also the property of the hand, and that all the body's members must be sustained equally. It is the duty of all the faithful members of the body, even the lowliest who toil all day, to cut out this corruption, to set the body right, to restore its divine symetry. Such is the manifest will of the God Emperor.

The preachers teach that all property is communal and should be used for the equal benefit of all, which is tough for the nobles in their manses, but great for everyone in hive Volg. On the basic level this means helping the poor and needy, but on a planetary scale it means revolution. The God Emperor wills it. The God Emperor also wills that everybody becomes a lot freer with their 'favours'- monogamy (assuming monogamy is the norm, not that there's much canon on marriage practices) is positively selfish. Among themselves some of the faithful might eagerly anticipate teaching the wives and daughters of the nobility the error of their ways.

The communalism and free love aspects provide a cover for the inner cadre's worship of Slaanesh. The cultist could try to convert the acolytes, introducing them to the least radical aspects of the cult at first, perhaps demonstrating the virtue of communalism by distributing food and blankets to crippled beggars or orphans, and then gradually introducing the more radical ideas, such as the need for revolution.

As for rituals, how about Candlerite, a nocturnal ritual during which the congregation of the faithful process round the temple, or whatever other structure the cult are using as a place of worship. Everyone in the procession carries a burning candle and at the climax of the procession all of the candles are blessed, and the participants get to take them home. The procession is accompanied by much singing and dancing and the public line is that the blessed candles keep away bad spirits whenever they are burned in the home. The truth is that they give off narcotic fumes (a character with knowledge of such things, or perhaps of chemistry might be able to identify the substance).

Another ceremony might be a variation on the temple bake sale, but this being hive Volg the temple isn't selling bakery goods but powerful homebrewed spirits. Again, the event is acompanied by much singing and dancing and will eventually descend into drunken debauchery. Proceeds from the event are supposedly redistributed to the needy.

Finally the preachers might create a small community, the Sons and Daughters of the Emperor, intended to live 'perfect' lives in communal harmony. The community might be composed of a dozen individuals hand-picked from among the masses by the leader of the cult. They live in seclusion, treated with extreme reverance, and only appear in public wearing spotless white robes and idealised porcelain masks. They bear the holy objects of the temple in processions and manifest 'miracles', which the preachers insist are signs of the grace bestowed on this perfect community by the Emperor.

Hope that helps.

You could do far worse than to base a suitably modified (to Imperial themes) cult of personality on the real-life escapades of Rasputin (a cleric, no less!) in the Romanov court during the final days of Imperial Russia. Lots of drugs, sex, debauchery and possibly even unholy deeds performed with the women of the Romanov court, often under the Czar's own roof. The amusingly comical amount of effort it took to finally kill Rasputin obviously could lead to a memorable and tough villain for your mission. Plenty of information available in books, textbooks and websites, so dig in and enjoy the cheesy goodness!

ZillaPrime said:

Rasputin is a great model for a cult leader, but there is little to base a whole cult on... However, Sands idea is just such a good one. Maybe throw a Rasputinish guy in the lead of the "Inner Circle" and some Waco-farm rifle-toting lunatics to guard the processions and we have a tailor-made pro-emperor, anti-imperialestablishmen rebellion right there...

It's quite possible that for Hive Volg, and a rebellion amongst the lowest peons of this awful place, you may be better off with an insidious cult of Nurgle rather than Slaanesh. I see the Lord of Pleasure's Carnalites amongst the spires of Nova Castillia, tempting the elite with a way to self betterment in physical perfection to bring them closer to the God Emperor. In the sumps, tanneries and junk markets of Hive Volg, life is pretty cheap and brutal, but also dirty and sordid, with millions of humans having to live in the worst possible fecund conditions. It wouldn't be too difficult for a cult, promising for some a ticket out of the Hive and a re-distribution of the wealth of the better off, in the name of the God Emperor, to incite some fanatical rebellion. Of course, at their foul heart is a group of Nurgle cultists who would want to bring the corruption to Magnagorsk and then Nova Castillia, spreading plague and disease wherever they go - perhaps even a core group of cultists around a Vile Savant?

RedMike said:

I think Chaos Gods, being what they are, are versatile enough to worm their way into human soul no matter what the circumstances are...

If this was a "beggars revolt" with zombie-like gaunt figures in rags marching for liberation then Nurgle would make sense, but we are talking about a full-scale popular uprising that actually has a chance to succeed and thus it means the main culprits are middle-class, novoe rich or even nobility themselves. I need a subtle corruption and I think Slaanesh or Tzeentch are more subtle by definition that the blunt-instruments Nurgle and Khorne. Operative words in this cult are "perfection (of society)" and "change", not morbidity and disease.