Hey hey,, do you have a "deathcult" onboard the ship? If so,, how do you work it? My group runs a ship whose primary imperial cult is a "Deathcult",, at the expense and persecution of the mainstream one,,, that is, there is NO normal imperial cult on the ship, and the captain keeps anarchy and relentless slaughter at bay through excessive use of violence and propaganda.. I want to get my hands on some in-depth material covering the rituals of a Deathcult, the info I’ve obtained by looking into the sources provided by the inq. Handbook and r.t supplements don’t really give you anything but the superficial so I was wondering if any of you know of any other sources for such? Thanx anywho!

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Disciples of the Dark Gods, The Temple Tendency. Perfect for your needs. They're a death-cult that believes itself to be the only true worshipers of the Emperor, considering the Imperial Cult to be a heresy of the highest order that suborned and usurped their rightful rule as the Imperium's spiritual guides.

As to how you use them in-game, that rather depends on the approach the Rogue Trader wants to take in dealing with them. Employing them on a strictly mercenary basis, pretending to join the cult and manipulate it that way, even legitimate conversion.

Temple Tendency aren't a death cult. They have trained operatives and guardians but killing is a tool of the Tendency, not their purpose. They want to establish themselves as the one supreme cult of the Emperor as they were pre-Apostasy.

Some relevant Dark Heresy reading:

Disciples of the Dark Gods has some information on Death Cults and their subtypes.

Inquisitor's Handbook has details on the Moritat cult.

Ascension has rules for high level death cultists.

from france

the astral knives once a sanctioned death cult since fallen out favor because some of them turn to the dark gods flourish in the koronus expanse in particular in footfall.

it s in "lure of the expanse"

bought it, read it,, fits like a glove,, thanx all!

Hmm... interesting

Has this widespread cult any "hard-and-fast" game effects? I could Imagine that the captain could order some cult activities leading into a of crew by 1d5 and an increase in moral by another 1d5 (not the same result!). As a draw-back, every time the moral drops below another tents diggit (80, 70, 60 etc) the RT and leading crew has to fullfill some social roles (Leadership, Intimdation...perhaps like an exploreration task)...or the crew will simply do this "cult activity" on their own!

If I remember right it's amongst the possible complications for a ship. The main effect is a lower morale loss when you lose some crew - for these guys dying is no big deal, so they'll accept more of it befor the survivors get angry. I don't remember if it has other effects.

Not all death cults put the accent on the ability of their members to deliver death to the unbelievers, there's plenty who consider that it's how you die that matters (basically accepting it as something good if it serves His will) and have no spevial interest in hastening the process for others.

Hey Manunancy n'others!

The R.T ship has the "Deathcultist" "Past history, p.198",, it simply states that, you reduce crew population permanently by 8, but reduce morale loss by 2 from any source.. That ship officers and ministorium officials have to deal varily with the cultist and that the cult produces assassins!!

I roll it this way,, the R.T is the last decendant of royal line from a planet that has been kept hidden from the umpire since the beginning of the "age of apostacy", before the downfall of Goge Vandire, due to warpstorms.. Meaning that the royal line has kept to the orthodoxy of the "Temple of the Saviour Emperor"! Amongst the first imperials to the planet after the storm lifted was agents from the "Temple Tendency" who had waited for millinnia for this to happen,, these agents where quick to bring the survivors on the planet up to date on the current state of the ministorium. shortly there after the king of the royal line switched planet supremacy for an inquisitorial rossetta (Isstvanians!) and a rogue trader warrant for his unborn son, built a ship and sailed off into the sunset spreading the heresy... the negotiation with the "Temple Tendency" was done by the R.T's father just before his birth,, the R.T has been kept deliberately out of this mess, but the fater has implanted a miniscule data facility in his brain that slowly leaks heretical thought into his dreams and puts him on the path to glory or damnation,, and topped it of with the "Deathcult"(Temple tendency assassin cell) " onboard ...

hey!

Up until recently the PCs in my game had a growing number of Astral Knives on board the ship. Which was useful. Need someone to go on a suicide shuttle run. They'll do it. The locals giving you trouble. No problem they can handle it. Of course things went south when the Astral Knives got spooked by a distaterous fight. (Well the PC's ship was unscratched until the enemy blew up...) Then they gave a few hundred souls to the Emperor to insure the next warp jump. Things went downhill from there, and in the end the death cultist were hunted down and executed by ejection via the nearest airlock....