#demon cultists

[ghost-bxrd]

"You're a kid whos mom was obsessed with a cult, and when you were just 12, she sacrificed you. You end in hell and expected to be tortured for eternity, but turns out the demon wanted a child of his own"

by WRITING PROMPTs

Maybe Bruce?

Aweee now, just imagine!

These cultists? Totally an accident that they for the ritual right. Jason doesn’t die so much as he just seem to kind of vanish into smoke and—

wtf.

Ok.

There’s- there’s a whole child.

Right at Bruce feet. All of a sudden.

A human child.

In hell.

And look, they couldn’t have chosen a worse demon to send a sacrifice to because Bruce? He’s a protector of children.

Because there’s something that so many story and demonology books get wrong.

Hell is for the bad people to be punished for all eternity.

And Bruce? And all the other demons populating hell? Well, they exist solely for one reason:

To punish sinners for the crimes they committed in life.

It’s a jail. Bruce and his fellow demons are the jailers. They don’t guard the doors of hell because they don’t want anybody to get in, they’re guarding them so nobody gets out.

But children, children have no business being in this place of torture and agony. Not ever. There’s a whole ass system in place to keep the good souls from accidentally wandering where they shouldn’t be.

So Bruce sees this tiny, starved child crying and screaming and— fuck. This is a Dick situation, isn’t it? He needs to go to earth. Again. And drag some people down to damnation all early and piss off death again. But you know what? Tough shit. They want a demon? They’re gonna get one.

(Jason is soon introduced to another strange human after he mysteriously pops back up on earth. His name is Richard “Dick” Grayson, and his teeth are too sharp and his pupils look almost reptilian in the right light, but he takes Jason to a big ass house with a real strange butler and lots of food.

Jason thinks he’s seen the weird Brucie guy who introduces himself as Dick’s dad somewhere before… but Jason is cool with not looking a gift horse in the mouth. After all, what are the chances he’ll fall into another cult’s hands so soon after the last?)

[mea-trinitas-profana]

baby's first faith oc. it's the demon caim. i have no story i just wanted to give it a go

[fhtagn-and-tentacles]

LADY IN BLUE

by Carpet-Crawler

[zkretchy]

Look, you gotta appreciate the timing I got for these kinda quests

[tozettastone]

Listen, burning the Gävle goat is a ritual of edge and forge lore. The struggle is the point, and through fire it is transformed. I don't make the rules.

[spiderin-space]

I can be a little gay . As a Treat

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

infodumps abt a new au idea (the demon-familiars au, or the un-familiars au)

TL,DR: Reader is a witch/wizard hired by a town to handle a poltergeist/demon problem (Vanny has a cult and is trying to summon demons lol), but they aren't very good at being a witch/wizard and after a bunch of 'throwing things at the wall to see if anything sticks' and absolutely nothing working, they, in a panic, kind of accidentally summon Sun and Moon, who are equally shocked to see them and after a bunch of staring at each other like ?????????? reader ropes Sun and Moon into helping them and hides them in plain sight as their 'familiars' until they've taken care of the demonic cult problem, promising to send them home as soon as things are ok again. PLOT TWIST THEY GET ATTACHED TO EACH OTHER AND KISS PROBABLY HAHAHAAAAAA

(the long initial ramblings/brainstorming i did w the space aces in discord is copy-pasted below, if anyone wants only vaguely coherent ideas n concepts abt this au and ur willing to torture urself, go nuts w it ig lol)

taken directly from the space aces discord, i present: the reason all of my aus are barely coherent and somehow overly thought through and barebones all at once, as shown by the following example (unfamiliars au edition)

weird silly demons/familiars Sun Moon au where Reader is a (less than talented) amateur witch/wizard trying to lie themselves into a position of relative security (bc theyve had to move three different times bc towns shun n drive away witches/wizards that proves to be unhelpful) and they werent actually trying to summon sun n moon so they end up getting them involved in their scheme but oops there is some kind of other demonic threat that is actually a big problem and oops oops now we have to seriously work together to not get killed by the other eviller demon or the cult summoning it while also fooling the townsfolk into thinking that u r competent and have everything under control

Sun and Moon, a couple of demons just chilling when suddenly summoned to the material world: what in the heck Reader, having just performed a spell/ritual they've never read the instructions for backwards and facing the wrong cardinal direction: SHUT UP AND PRETEND TO BE MY FAMILIAR FOR A MINUTE OR WE ARE BOTH GONNA GET KILLED, BURNING-ON-A-CROSS STYLE

hhhgj i just had. a rlly sappy idea for the 'familiars' part

basically like. witches n wizards naturally end up casting their own 'summoning' spell for their familiar at some point, most of th time when they are really starting to understand and control their magic? so to see a witch or wizard without one it's like 'wow they're a beginner' or 'something is wrong with them, why dont they have a familiar??'

so Reader asks Sun n Moon to pretend to be their familiars partly bc 'uh oh i summoned two whole entire demons without even meaning to i have to make this look intentional' and 'if i have a familiar the people will assume im a Real Witch/Wizard and respect me more'

and at one point when they r getting to be like, actual friends instead of 'weird roommates', Sun gets curious bc ofc he does

Sun: Soooo,, we're your pretend-familiars? Reader: Yea Sun: Sooooooooo,, do u not have a familiar? I've never heard of a wizard with no familiar Reader, visibly upset/disappointed (in themselves): Yeah, well, it turns out it's only the witches and wizards with actual skills that can summon familiars. So. Couldn't tell you if I've got one or not, I've never managed a proper summoning spell. Sun, foot in his mouth: oh,, Reader: Yep.

and then later. It turns out. There are ways to make a demon into a familiar! Turns out in the distant past some wizards used to make demons they frequently summoned for spell/magic services into familiars bc it was way easier than just doing the entire summoning ritual every single time

but at this point, Reader and Sun n Moon are close enough to be good friends, and Reader doesnt want to force that kind of permanent connection on them, they probably just want to go home, theyre probably sick of being here and being around u, and,,, u get the idea

and Sun n Moon dont wanna force that kind of permanent connection on YOU bc what if ur sick of them, or ur tired of feeding and housing them or putting up with their jokes n bickering, or maybe after everything u really dont want anything to do with demons!!!

so there's a lot of sad pining that none of them know abt

bc ofc they r all idiots in this au sorry thems the rules

and then at some point there is some big threat/place they have to go to, or maybe Reader gets injured in a fight, idk take ur pick, anyway in a heat of the moment panic Moon is like 'HEY U WANT US TO BE UR FAMILIARS RIGHT??' and reader like barely conscious is like 'w??? yea??????' thinkin he means the pretend thing theyve had going on

anyway spur of the moment/'im doing this to save ur life bc i love u' familiar binding spell/ritual performed BAM now ur stuck together

and when everything is calm again n the fighting is over reader looks at Moon and is like 'so ur like,, my actual familiar now,,' and Moon, sweating bullets, unsure if this is rlly what u wanted or if u went with it out of fear of dying, is like 'yyyyyyyyyes?'

and reader starts bawling their eyes out and kisses him bc this is like. th dream scenario to u

anyway reader n sun n moon are th worlds least likely wizard/familiars combo but somehow they r absolutely unstoppable together thank u for coming to my tedtalk

[annoyingann]

Of course I drew my friends too!

[khulthuskaotika]

[dailyadventureprompts]

Villain: Gorlogek,  Gatekeeper of the Woebegone

No one likes a thankless job

Hooks:

People throughout the realm are reporting strange nightmares involving a throne covered in thorns, a mountain where screams echo off the crags, and a door behind which their greatest dreams lay. Most are confused by these visions, but a select few recognize the door from somewhere in their life and are compelled to seek it out. Drawing signs they know not the meaning of, those that awnser these dreams often find themselves attacked or possessed when malign spirits creep out from their unwittingly made portals.

The party is hired to perform a simple enough job: retrieve untranslated texts from a long abandoned ruin, steal some artifact from a mage’s private collection. It’s only a little while later that they realize they were just one of dozens of groups hired ( with varying levels of success) to recover remnants of a long defeated cult. Either a collector has hit the market or an organization  thought wiped out has risen from nowhere and decided to get its stuff back.

Though he once sought to make himself a prince of hell, the schemes of the magister fiend Gorlogek were foiled by his rivals, resulting in his exile to an infernal mountain covered in vampiric roots and choking soot known as the Desperate Ascent. There he was charged with passing judgment on those seeking the ashen arch, a gateway that could allow access to the city of Dis, capital of hell, a place Gorlogek was forbidden from returning to for all time.

Though he spent centuries inflicting trials and punishments on those who made the climb , Gorlogek eventually realized that he could reclaim a little of his power extorting the devils and damned souls seeking passage through his domain, setting himself up as a petty tyrant in the badlands of perdition.  So long as he never actually lets anyone IN without authorization, he’s not abusing his post, and he can make his mobs of hollowed flunkies jump through whatever hoops he wishes as he once again amasses power.

[clickerflight]

Whump Week: "It's hard to love broken things"

@week-of-whump

Masterlist

I'm doing this event! I'm so excited! I'm also doing sketches for each one and I'm going back to my roots and writing about The Adventurers. The first whump event I ever did was writing whump about that thought project. (Also, you ever make a post and put it on the wrong blog and have to put the whole post together again? Yeah.)

Content: demon whumpee, half dragon caretaker, cultist whumpers, whip wounds, on the run

..........................................

Running through the forest on bare feet at high speeds, being chased by cultists who held him captive was not ideal for the now reopened whip wounds dribbling down Laurance's sides. His lungs ached, he knew his eyes were glowing red with the fear that seemed fused to his very soul, and he was certain he would have fallen if it weren't for the woman supporting him, running as fast as her legs could carry them. Her wings occasionally scraped his back as she flapped them on instinct, trying to get away from the cultists. 

"Leave me," Laurance panted. He didn't have the strength to get his arm off of her by himself. It was so much effort to get one torn up foot in front of the other. 

"No," Anisha growled, eyes flashing, reminding him that despite how weirdly human she looked, she was still a fiercely protective scaleon. "I'm not gonna!"

Laurance would have laughed if he'd had the breath. She talked so strangely, and it was just as endearing now as it had been when she was behind bars in the cult's dungeon. 

She huffed, flapping her wings again causing Laurance to stumble and wince. 

"Sorry!" she yelped, hauling him up as they broke out onto a dirt path. 

Laurance glanced back and his heart jumped into his throat when he saw the familiar red and black painted armor adorning the chests of men who had also found the road. 

"CITY!" Anisha shrieked. 

Laurance nearly cried with relief as he spotted the walls ahead, which turned into horror when he noticed the closed gates. "They aren't going to let us in," he said, stars starting to form in his eyes as the pain in his back and limbs reached the next level. 

"Do I LOOK like I care!?" Anisha asked, eyes bright with determination.

She moved so quickly it jarred Laurance's broken ribs, and when his vision came back from the blinding pain she was pressed against his bloody back, arms around his chest. 

"Nisha!?" Laurance gasped. 

All he got in return was a slightly hysterical cackle of laughter, and then pain as Anisha lifted into the air behind him, scaled wings sweeping down around them as she dragged him into the air with her. 

There was no way they were going to make it to the top of the wall. There was no way. Maybe if Anisha wasn't a stunted Scaleon, but she was tiny and Laurance, despite being mistreated and starved for months, was still bigger and heavier than her. 

Anisha growled in his ear, her wings sweeping down in defiance of gravity, in defiance of death and the wall approaching. 

"This is gonna hurt," Anisha hissed, and then Laurance was flying. 

He yelled, looking for something to catch onto, and like a miracle, or perhaps a curse, his hands caught the edge of the wall, sending waves of pain through him that nearly dislodged him. Still, despite how broken his new body was, it was still the body of a demon and it didn't give up so easily. 

He looked down past his torn up shoulder to find Anisha on the ground. She'd thrown him so hard it had sent her to the ground, but her diminutive size did not take away from the fact that scaleons could take a fall. 

The cultists were catching up, though, and Anisha had to roll to avoid a weapon that plunged down towards her face. 

Laurance tried to haul himself up onto the wall, but all he could do was hang there, his muscles quaking at the very thought of pulling him up. 

He looked down again to find Anisha climbing the wall, the talons on her feet, fingers, and the hooks on her wings searching for every crevice she could use to get to him, her tail lashing quickly behind her to keep the cultists from grabbing it. 

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she assured him, leaping up the wall to get there faster. "Almost there! Hang on, man!"

Laurance whimpered. He could hear people running along the top of the wall and all he could imagine was a knife coming down on his fingers, sending him to the ground again. 

"We're under attack!" a deep voice called. "Ready your bows!"

"They're coming over the walls!" another called, feet pounding towards Laurance.

"IF YOU TOUCH HIM, I SWEAR, THEY WILL NEVER STOP FINDING YOUR BODY!" Anisha roared, her voice so much louder than her tiny body suggested she could produce. 

Laurance heard her wings flap loudly, the wind blowing over his damaged skin until she reached the top. She hissed at the young man who had been watching them with an open mouth and he stepped back. She hauled herself over, stumbling for a moment before turning and grabbing Laurance.

"We made it! We made it!" she cheered as she started to lift him up. He screamed as she pulled him over, though she was very gentle in setting him on the ground, nudging him to curl up on his side in the fetal position. 

The sound of men screaming and yelling swirled around Laurance, the sharp twangs of bowstrings echoing in his ears as he dry heaved on the stone. 

"W-what are you?" the young guard asked. 

Anisha's sharp voice replied, "I'm a scaleon. You know, dragon person? Thought the wings made that pretty obvious." She took a deep breath to soothe herself and said, "Sorry. I have had a very stressful day. Where are we?"

"Ah, um Kaliaway, my lady. Is... that a semni?" 

"He's with me," Anisha replied, and Laurance could hear the exhaustion creeping into her voice. "Is there a doctor, er, medic? Healer? What do you guys call the guys who do the wounds and bandages thing?"

"The, ah, huh?"

"Oi, Phillip! Why aren't you- oh."

Laurance twisted his head to see a tall guard in a full suit of armor, captain's badge clipped to his shoulder, looking at the three of them. 

"Medic? Healer?" Anisha asked, exhausted as she gestured to Laurance. "Quickly?"

"He's a semni."

Anisha bristled, mantling her wing higher despite how her tail drooped. "And he was a slave to those heathens. Can we please get him a healer!?"

“Semni aren’t allowed in the-”

Anisha hissed, ears pinned back. “If you do not find him a healer, I will rip your fingers off and feed them to you through your nose!”

The head guard took a step back, and Laurance couldn’t blame him. Anisha didn’t have much of a dragon aura most of the time, but when she was using it it was terrifying. 

“O-of course, my lady,” the captain said, and with that, he scrambled to find someone to go get the healer while the rest of the guards continued to shoot at the semni below, chasing them off. 

Anisha crouched down, putting a gentle hand on the back of Laurance’s head, using her wings to shield him from the gazes of the guards. 

“Did you see how he ran?” she whispered, her smile wrinkling up her nose. 

Laurance huffed out something that was trying to be a laugh. “Absolutely….. You didn’t have to do all that. You could have been killed.”

Anisha shrugged, like none of it mattered, like saving him was the easiest thing in the world. Or perhaps, if not the easiest, the most logical. “It'll be a fun story to tell. For both of us.”

He stared at her. “Are you insane? I suppose you’d have to be to get me out of there.”

She smiled. “If it means that being sane is to abandon a new friend because it’s easy, then yes, beloved. I’m insane.”

Part 2

[abybweisse]

Hey, I've gone through your blog and as a modern day Thelemite I'd like to thank you for the research you did into the history of the use of "do what thou wilt" in occultism, as the philosophy of Thelema doesn't in any way condone what happened to the twins. One of the reasons I admire your Kuro theories is because of the amount of research you do and it really shows. My knowledge of the phrase was only its' Thelemic context so I was worried when I read that scene that it would be misinterpreted

Do what thou wilt... within guidelines

Yeah, Crowley and his pals never would have condoned what happens to the twins in Kuroshitsuji, and I definitely made sure to point that out in one or more of my early posts about it. I'm glad you noticed that. 😊 Thelemic rituals often include sexual activities, but it requires that all participants be willing and adult.

According to Crowley, the best sacrifice -- theoretically -- for summoning would be a young and highly intelligent male virgin who offers himself up for the ritual. He also said that people who self-sacrifice (even if it's just blood-letting, not actually offing themselves) are more likely to get desired results. The cultists in the manga completely turn this on its head by choosing 1. unwilling 2. children 3. of random intelligence... 4. that they defile. 😡 They don't care about their chosen victims... and they definitely don't care about following the rules of Thelema. Crowley would despise people who abuse children. Anyone selected for sacrifice should never be made to even feel like a victim. Of course, most of this was theoretical; Crowley says he was too cowardly to use himself (spill his own blood) for summoning rituals, and that he never made a human sacrifice.

Anyway, as mentioned in one or two more recent posts, Crowley got the idea of Thelema -- and borrowed that phrase -- from a series of books by Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel. I have yet to read them, but it sounds like there's a higher level of hedonism in there.... A pseudo-precursor to Thelema seems to also be based on the story, and they also used that phrase, but it was more like a dinner club... sort of -- the Monks of Medmenham. As I say in my addition to that post, they hired prostitutes and wined and dined with them before doing whatever else they wanted. They also made various (small, symbolic) offerings... but to statues of Pagan gods. Again, this wasn't about defiling and/or killing unwilling participants, particularly not children. In that post, I might not have made it clear, but I will here: though the cultists in the manga seem to be a cross between these two things -- Monks of Medmenham and Thelema -- they are clearly not following the rules of either one. The manga's cultists don't care about child welfare or consent or anything. The Monks of Medmenham and Thelemites, like yourself, would be appalled.

[fhtagn-and-tentacles]

MASTER OF DECEIT 

by Erskine Designs

[everybodyloveshippos]

throwback to this vid I made of our party experiencing the aftermath of the cassalanter ball from waterdeep dragon heist. first pc death! he got better tho <3

[butterflies-and-bumble-bees]

just heard someone on of the podcasts my mom was listening to compair dnd to playing with a oiuji board and it's really throwing me cause ouiji boards were invented by 'mediums' specifically with the purpose of contacting spirits and dnd was made by tolkien nerds as a form of escapism

[bodhrancomedy]

If I had a penny for every time I’ve created a TTRPG character partially as a joke, believing he would become far too annoying to live, but instead the other party members latched onto him to the point they tried to (jokingly) lobby the DM to give him immortality so they didn’t have to lose him… I’d have two pennies.