So, has anyone considered how the Alpha Legion do go around setting up cults on Imperial worlds? How exactly would that work.

I have an idea about a game I'm running this week (if you are attending the Phoenix Games club Games Day in London on Saturday 8th, please stop reading now)

The soot-warrens of Fenksworld- a planet long known for its many heretical cults.

The reason? An Alpha Legion insurrectionist cell.

First thought- the Chaos Astartes cant simply travel around a hive- they are too noticable, even with stealth and cloaks. So they need Hydra human agents (per Abnetts Legion book) to act as organisers, spokemen, leaders and infiltraitors. The Legion can train up cultists in Al-Qaeda style training camps in the bottom of the Hive or off-world - teaching them how to use small arms, tactics, improvised explosives etc. The legion can also provide cultic training or knowledge, ritual objects and other forbidden Chaos items that are hard to acquire within the Imperium.

What else can they do? Possibly sabotage and decapitation attacks on the Adeptus hierarchy when the cults revolution starts.

Any other thoughts of how the Alpha Legion would act covertly within the Imperium (disguise themselves as Ogryn perhaps with some masks or facial surgery?) and how you'd have your Acolyte or Throne Agent PC's interact with them?

SJE

Even on a place as terrible as Fenksworld, I'd like to think people would look twice at anything obviously chaos-oriented. If you're in any doubt about this, consider the fact that anything obviously chaosy, with spiky bits and eight-pointed-stars adorning every crevice, is going to torn down by the Ecclesiarchy, Adeptus Arbites, and probably PDF/IG with little to no help from the Inquisition even being necessary. The PCs are going to be the more likely the ones uncovering all the stuff that actually necessitates their assistance.

Therefore, I'd expect the cult "front", at the very least, to pass off very well as a genuine Cult of the Emperor. As one gets higher and higher within the cult, however, the cult's beliefs inevitably start to warp the "Truth" (depending on how cynical you like your games/settings) that it is the Emperor on the Golden Throne.

Soon, we have the higher-ups (though still pretty low compared to marines and the cult leaders themselves) worshipping an Emperor Horus on his Golden Throne on far-distant Terra (god knows where the hell that is, it might be next door for all half the populace knows), fighting to liberate his worlds from the iron grip of the tyrannical Imperium.

The cult itself is provided with weapons, training, and religious education by their "benefactors" in the underground to help fight in the galactic resistance. This is where your training-camps method works really well. Good skills, equipment/tools, and motivation are more than the Imperium ever provided these guys, so they're likely to look up to something like this.

An even better way to make the cult credible, and add to its appeal? Have it actually be genuinely nice to its followers. Organised crime works because mob bosses promote their image to the younger demographic, lending them an air of assistance and being someone they can look up to as a rolemodel.

Who's the child going to grow up respecting more? The policeman who chased him down last night for tagging "Emprah suckzorz" on the back of a manufactorum and threatened him with a shockmaul, the cleric who cast his family out from the congregation for being 'unclean dirty sinners', or "Uncle" Tony Tiberius who gave him a few thrones to feed his family, and a job as a personal "errand boy" when his father died and his mother was ill?

Likewise, have the cult actually provide the basics for its members. Sure, they're going to die in a horrible revolution, but for now, they're happy to have found a church genuinely willing and able to provide more than spiritual sustenance to its congregation.

Well considering that the Alpha Legion are actually the most loyal of all the Space Marines there true mission would most likely be to remove corrupt poltical figures, crime lords that sort of thing. They'll most likely kidnap high ranking members and convert them via implants like they did in Legion. From there they'll remove the filth from the Goverment slowly bringing them more in line with the Alpha Legion point of view and removing anyone who disagrees. They'll be less of a Chaos lets all sacrfice virgins cult and more of a progressive polticial movement that demands change and better living standards somthing like "The Emperor would want all his children to prosper!".

Once the planet is firmly in their hand the Legion will appear personally and remove any formal resistance that might cause trouble and attempt to stop any potential counter attack. Once that world is in place they'll simply repeat the process for the rest of the system.

The Alpha Legion are puppeteers, despite being Astartes they never favour the frontal assault and will only appear when they know there presence will clench them victory or if they know they've won.