GLRP:EMs:Royal Spies & Guard:2011:Ouroboros:Cults and Cultists III
Title: Cults and Cultists III
Author: Sigmel of Umbra
In the desert, southwest
of our city of shadows,
the sands swirl around an
ancient pyramid. It is the
ruin of an ancient people
known as the Zealans.
While they are gone,
other people have taken
residence in their places
of power. One is the cult
known as the Mark of
the Snake.
The Mark of the Snake worships a great serpent named Aapep, believing it to be a god of death and chaos. They believe someday the snake of a thousand coils will rise out of Gravewater Lake and consume the world. Only those clothed in its scales and who drink deeply of the serpent�s venom will survive. While their beliefs are flawed, there is such a creature asleep in the still waters.
It is known that the Zealan people caused their own decline. Power lead to arrogance and borrowing against the future. This great debt worried the wise and prudent, but these voices were silenced by excommunication into the Void. So much life being tossed into currents of the Void attracted a powerful and hungry serpent. The python entered the Lands of the Dark Unknown and devoured entire armies.
Desperate to save her people, a great sorceress created a great web of magic, ringing the Great Lake in obelisks covered in Ether Gems. When the snake wandered into the Lake to consume its bounty, its soul was split and divided between the obelisks. Its dark form sank into the waters and slept. From that time on, the Great Lake was known as �the great still lake.� This became Gravewater in the coming centuries.
Over the years, many tried to remove the curse of the lake. It is said one group of Zealans came close. They devised a ritual to move the snake from the lake back into the Void. Before they could implement their plan, they were betrayed. Two demonic servants of the sleeping serpent, Mot and Sek, disrupted the ritual, and all were sent places far away from these lands. None ever returned, though stories say some survived to build monuments similar to the Zealan pyramid.
The Cult believes these
monuments still exist,
protected by the two
demons. They fiercely
guard the secret of
where the Zealan secret
is buried.
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