Editing Magipunk:Religion (section)

== Behind the Scenes ==

What are the New Cults? Are they a new way of worshipping the Old Gods? Are they harmless "false" religion, with no deeper truths behind them than what human psychology might create? Are they connected with some other entity than the Old Gods, whether benign or harmful? This is a mystery for every GM to decide on his or her own. There is no "canonical" answer. 

There are some possibilities, however: 

There are prophecies which imply that the end of an Age is upon the world. What that means is very unclear – it could be just the social upheaval already being experienced, or it could be something different. One heretical interpretation is that the Old Gods are fading, perhaps even dying. They may be reborn into new personae, or replaced by something else. If so, then the New Cults may be worshipping that "something else," which, despite not yet even existing, nevertheless has some power. If this is true, the Cults will likely increase in power, and Cultists may even gain some kind of mystical ability (which will probably NOT be traditional sorcery or magical power – in this interpretation, that entire system is burning out). 

What if the Old Gods were protecting the world from something? What we might term "demons" may now have an "in" to the world if the activities of the Church Mills are weakening the Old Gods. Perhaps the New Cults are people touched by those demons, performing half-understood rituals that make it easier for more demons to pour into the world. Cultists might be duped fools, power-hungry traitors to humanity, or a mixture of both. Of course, it's also possible that the "demons" are not so bad after all, in which case this possibility starts to blend with the first one. 

The New Cults might be a new way of worshipping the same Old Gods – a less destructive or selfish way. That is, ultimately, it's possible that the relationship established by this form of worship is one with the same Old Gods, but the benefits of the relationship are different from traditional or Passion-enhanced prayer. If you choose to go with an option that suggests that the Old Gods are being damaged by the forced-worship of the Passionate, then the New Cultists might be healing them or offering some kind of way of mutually, rather than selfishly, beneficial worship to the Old Gods. 

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