Jolgruul the Corruptor and other Chaos Cults

Jolgruul the Corruptor 

One of the more subtle and insidious Chaos Princes , Jolgruul prefers temptation over confrontation. Although he and his followers are quite capable of violence, he prefers to inveigle the foolish and unwary into his machinations. He will often use the seven deadly sins, particularly Avarice, Pride and Lust, to lure mortals into his grasp. Although most chaotic creatures do not consider contracts to be worth the paper they are written on, Jolgruul is much more likely to use contracts with mortals, with the end results never being in the mortals' favour. Such contracts are both cunningly written as if by a master lawyer and also magically enforced, and breaking the contract will bring terrible curses or other consequences on the reneger. Unusually for a paragon of Chaos, Jolgruul himself will also stick to his side of the contract, even if it is not in his favour. Whether he is concerned about practical consequences or he has some strange sense of obligation around these deals is not known.

Jolgruul's cultists may well have entered into contracts with him, or else been ensnared and corrupted and then found that their only option was to go along with him. They are typically sneaky, deceptive and occasionally quite charismatic, making everything they do and encourage others to do seem quite acceptable and reasonable. Jolgruul's followers are most often found in and around Thyatis, particularly the large cities, though there are rumours cult cells have made it to Specularum in Karameikos and also the pirate port of Vlaad in the Kingdom of Ierendi. Although not active in Darokin, Jolgruul is impressed with some chaos cults in Darokin City, particularly the Black Rabbits and the Lords in Scarlet and has encouraged his clerics to consider some sort of alliance with them. 

Although most of Jolgruul's followers are humans, there are a few monstrous creatures that are interested in his approach, including some that can shift into human form. Devil swine, mujina and doppelgangers have all been known to be part of Jolgruul's cult. But Jolgruul generally ignores those who cannot be subtle and deceptive. Centipede Demons are also found assisting these cultists - whether the cultists are powerful enough to summon and bind these fiends themselves or whether Jolgruul sent them as a boon to his followers is not clear.  

The Snake Cult of Jaboor

Art by Conceptopolis, source

Underneath the Ylari port of Jaboor there are a network of tunnels that lead down to the caverns that contain the sunken river bed of what was the river Nithia. This is now home to a colony of serpent people and some of their monstrous allies. However, in the last five years they have human allies in the town above as well. The human townsfolk are all expected to follow the official religion of Ylaruam, The Eternal Truth, and the vast majority comply, with many being true believers. But there are a few who resent such dogma and orthodoxy, and seek a different sort of immortal patronage. The serpent people have made contact with these, initially using magical disguises, and introduced these renegade humans to the worship of Apep the Snake God, the bane of ancient Nithia.  Although the cult now has human followers, the serpent people are definitely the ones in charge, though they very rarely emerge onto the surface. Most of the time it is the human followers who go down into the caverns, using an old cave entrance among a cluster of boulders to the west of town. 

Out of the town population of 4500 people, only about 20 are true followers of Apep while another 50 or so are hired by the cult as guards, mages and the like. As with many of these cults they are very selective and careful about who they try to recruit and convert. Some of these cultists want some sort of power and prestige that they cannot gain legitimately, including forbidden magic of ancient Nithia, while others join as angry, blasphemous defiance against what they see as the overbearing and smothering monotheism of the Eternal Truth that holds sway over Ylaruam. For the previous 5 years they were just establishing the cult, gathering trustworthy members, money and information, but now they are getting bolder.  Recently the cult has kidnapped several citizens of Jaboor. Two have already been sacrificed to Apep but another two are being held for the next ceremony, including a visiting cleric of the Eternal Truth. 

The Ravenous Maw

source

This cult is quite unlike the previous two and makes no attempt at subtlety. It is established in various humanoid tribes along the Black Peaks, Altan Tepes and into southern Rockhome, particularly among ogres, gnolls, trolls and hill giants. It is focused on hunting and eating, and since all of its worshippers are naturally carnivorous, this fits in with their primary concerns - finding and killing prey and eating their carcasses.  This cult has relatively few human members, but these are often the worst sort of degenerate cannibals. Even among the humanoid cult members, eating each other is not unknown, though for the sake of cult cohesion and combat strength the shamans only sanction eating other cult members when they have died from other causes such as battle against enemies of the cult. Of course, some of the more hungry members will ignore this rule - they are chaotic after all. 

The Ravenous Maw does not seem to have a coherent personality that the members worship but merely the concept of predation and carnivory. Having said that, shamans will often conflate the Ravenous Maw with chaos princes and minor immortals linked to their race - Yeenoghu for gnolls, Vaprak for ogres and trolls, and Baphomet for minotaurs, all of whom encourage their followers to hunt, kill and eat humans. It is believed from captured members that Maglubiyet the Immortal patron of goblins and hobgoblins holds the Ravenous Maw in contempt, considering it animalistic, disorganised and short-sighted, thus few of those races are found in this cult. 

The Ravenous Maw is quite open minded about who or what can join their ranks - as long as the new member is suitably vicious and hungry but controllable, it will be considered. Ettins, athaches, frost giants and thouls have all been found among them. Predatory beasts are sometimes used as mounts or war beasts, including cave bears, sabertooth cats and giant hyenas. 

The Ravenous Maw is not yet powerful enough to threaten major towns or castles but it has certainly attacked human villages in northern Karameikos, northern Thyatis and southern Darokin around Selenica, devouring villagers, livestock and pets. The dwarves of Rockhome have been threatened but so far have fended off attacks on their strongholds. The folks of Ylaruam have not yet been attacked but they could still be next on the menu. 

The Scuttling Scourge

Developing from a much smaller cult of scorpion-worshippers of Ylaruam who followed a Chaos Prince that had been a manscorpion (referred to as The Scorpion King), the Scuttling Scourge holds vertebrates in contempt and eight-legged arthropods in great respect. Spiders, scorpions, whip-scorpions and rhagodessas are all considered a higher form of life. This cult has spread from its homeland of Ylaruam and now has members dotted across the Known World including Davania, Yavdlom and Sind. Araneas are considered allies, although they are not religious and will not join in the ceremonies. 

Unlike the Snake Cult of Jaboor where human worshippers respect snakes and serpent people but do not expect to become one, the human worshippers of the Scuttling Scourge aspire to transform from a feeble four-limbed mammal into a much better form - an eight-legged predator protected by chitinous armour and armed with deadly venom. It is not known how this happens or even if it does happen (are the human cultists being fooled and just used as edible pawns?) but it is what the most fervent cultists desire. There are some manscorpions associated with the cult in its homeland of Ylaruam and on the eastern edges of the Great Waste bordering Sind who encourage this belief and it is possible that they have a way of transforming humans into manscorpions but this has not been confirmed.

Those familiar with a wide range of chaos cultists know that the Scuttling Scourge is not the only cult with an affinity for spiders - certain Arvorians of Norwold follow a spider-like entity called Mohosskith, though it is unlikely to be involved in this cult.