Zenita Wiki – The Blood Cultists

September 18, 2011 By: Christopher D. Eldridge Category: Zenita Wiki

The blood cultists believe that there is power in death. When killing another, man or beast, you may take his strength through blood. Death is never clean by the hands of a cultist, for it must be bloody. A cultists’ body must be painted red, as must the earth. Only then will the blood cultist gain his enemy’s strength.

The Kantic faith of the blood cultists requires a daily ritual of eating flesh, bathing in blood, and praying to the largest moon in the sky, the Blood Moon. To the blood cultists, the red moon, Zeladon, is the physical manifestation of their god, Kravin. They believe that each of the three moons are tied to the earth and feed off it, like infants on a tit. And so they must feed Kravin with blood; they must soak the earth crimson and dye the oceans red. So diligent are they to their god, that the Blood Moon has grown to be the largest in the sky.

Before the western empires were united, the blood cultists were ruled by a long line of kings, all who went by the name of Kalidor. Dembu, capital of the Mulanger Empire, was the mecca of the Kantic religion and home to this line of kings. The Kantic faith taught that their king was Kravin made flesh, that the Blood God had sent part of his spirit to occupy a body in order to see that His will was done. This is why Kalidor was beyond reproach; the law did not apply to him. He was, after all, a sliver of divinity, son of god himself. Read more about Kalidor here.

Kalidor’s fortress within the jungle city was a formidable one, made from qualog stone, so dense that it could withstand the magic of the Zenindorf Mystics. Although the Mystic’s magic was in fact science, that of black powder and cannon fire, they alone knew the secret of how to produce it (with the exception of Vendria, capital of the West. Vendria is privy to many scientific advances, as well as technology far more advanced than the rest of society. However, Vendria enforces the Great Law, a prohibition of “modern” science and technology. In effect, this keeps the people of Zenita in the “dark ages”, preventing humanity and society from advancing). Look for a post on Vendria and the Great Law at a later date.

Since the city of Dembu was first constructed, its kings collected war trophies, human skulls taken from their enemies. Over the centuries, Dembu became filled with countless thousands of them. This barbarism sickened the High Church of Vendria, and even pushed the peaceful Nama to the brink of war. After all, most of those sacrificed to the Kantic blades were Nama. But the blood cultists religion was strong, with many cults spread across the West. Even though most of the ten western empires followed Zenitonionism, without a united effort, the Holy Order did not have the means to fight the Kants. Not when they were at war with dozens of other religions.

Brigg Wardan, King of Vendria during this time, was a visionary. He wanted to unite the West under a single religion and banner. Each king or queen would retain control over their empire, yet they would each share equal power in ruling the West. A single monetary system would be devised, government built and maintained roads would link every major city, and each empire could trade freely between one another, with safe roads and ports. Wardan developed dozens of innovations, and under his new plan he promised a golden age. A time of economic prosperity and unparalleled peace. All he asked for was the use of each king’s army to destroy those who he believed, like all Vendrians, defied the one true god, the Almighty, and the said creator of the world, Zeniton.

To help carry his out vision was an ambitious knight who rose to the ranks of Grand Paladin in Wardan’s Army. As leader of the Golden Guard, Rygar Delba made it his mission to destroy the blood cultists, the last major religion that had yet to wane under Vendria’s might. Read part of his story here, and learn what happened to Kalidor and the blood cultists.

After the Great War, the blood cultists withered away. It is said that some went north into the Winterlands, and even so far as The Northern Taiga. Over the centuries, their heartiness allowed them to survive the frigid winters and escape Vendria’s Holy War. Today, some of the northern folk whisper that the blood cultists are not simply surviving, but thriving, growing in numbers and planning a new war.

There are other stories that say some of the blood cultists braved Deadman’s Pass and escaped to the East. Yet what they found was an even bigger war, one that had been raging for thousands of years. The Slave Wars had decimated the East, and the Vulkarians who ran the slave trades were inhuman, some said only half man. They were so terrifying in battle that no army could defeat the half-man, half-demon soldiers, not even the mighty Amarites, the legendary warriors of the East. Swept up by the Slave Wars, the blood cultists were either crushed or pushed into hiding. Over the thousands of years that have now passed, Eastern scholars believe that the cultists are the predecessors of the giants who now roam the Wildlands.

Check back later for updates and more about the blood cultists.

6 Comments to “Zenita Wiki – The Blood Cultists”


  1. Hmmm, are the blood cultists truly planning a new war? That will be exciting and “bloody”. : )

    1
    • Ha. A war with the blood cultists can be nothing else but bloody, and you know just how much I love to write “bloody” verse. ๐Ÿ™‚ But they aren’t the only ones planning a war. These are dangerous times, and the things that are coming are capable of more than destroying buildings and slaughtering men. There are forces at work that are so powerful, so maleficent, that they can eradicate all life and consume entire worlds.

      2
  2. Blood cultists… Hmmm… ๐Ÿ˜ˆ

    A Zenita Wiki is not only brilliant, but necessary! These entries (this and the previous post) are great stories unto themselves ๐Ÿ™‚

    3
    • Thanks, Daven. I’m glad you enjoy. Perhaps one day you might write a wiki or two here about my world as well. ๐Ÿ˜‰ As for the blood cultists, I hadn’t even thought about a connection with vampires (the blood cultists don’t feed off blood or anything like that) but now that you’ve commented on them, a vampire lover and writer such as yourself must certainly see a connection or find parallels. Originally, however, the blood cultists were “barbarians” in one of my earlier drafts. But then they weren’t their own race, they weren’t at all unique; they were just a copy of a copy so to speak.

      I want to be, and always try to be, as original as possible. You won’t find any elves, or trolls, or goblins, or such things in my stories. There are dragons in my world, but – “spoiler alert” –

      Spoiler:

      they aren’t really dragons. Dragons are so popular and so well known in fantasy fiction that they require no, or little explanation. Just a single word, “dragon”, is enough to invoke a powerful visual and/or emotional response. This is one reason for calling them dragons. But why humans call them dragons in my world is a long story, and one that will be explained eventually in the books. These so called “dragons” call themselves “grackkus”, which in the gerdanian tongue means “world guardian”. Each sub-species has its own name as well. For instance, what humans call a forest dragon, the grackkus would call a “Deletan” meaning “shepherd of the forest.” Not sure if you ever read the scene about the Ancient emerald dragon when I brought it into group, but that chapter introduces this. The grackkus are a race of beings that watch over and tend to the world. As they grow and age, they become intimately intertwined with the ecosystems they live in, physically, mentally and spiritually. Deletans shepherd the forest, Uguruts watch the plains, Vikia tend to the mountains, etc. etc.

      4

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