Editing LeviathanTempest:ChapterOne (section)

==== Cults ====
Those humans that become the Beloved of a given Leviathan have a tendency to congregate. After all, their whole lives have begun to revolve around a shared experience of a particular person. They'll spend time around the Leviathan, and that often means spending time around one another. The trend of this association is the formation of a Cult. The "echo chamber" of ideas and sensations that a group of Beloved experiences leads them to greater and greater reverence and focus on the Leviathan whose Wake ensnared them. They've encountered other people who are ready and willing to spend hours discussing what they feel, and can compete with one another for the Leviathan's attention or regard. Eventually you get a group whose devotion to the Leviathan is absolute and whose viewpoints are reinforced (and policed) by their fellow Beloved. This is a Cult. As long as the Leviathan spends time addressing the Cult, making them feel like part of a unified group, their devotion and focus become powerful tools. Receiving prayers and devotion provides the Leviathan with mystic power, while the mundane resources of a group of devoted individuals can lighten the burden of everyday necessities and desires. 

Cults are not limited to the merely everyday, however. A Leviathan that wishes to do so can shape his or her Cult, like any other society, imposing sanctions and requesting service. As long as the progression is gradual and the Leviathan remains "in touch" with the Cult, his or her followers can be forged into a more dangerous tool. Simple devotion can be replaced with elaborate rituals and sacrifices, while obsession can be turned outwards into violence. As a Cult grows, it can insinuate itself into positions of authority, or even overtake a small community - many "quaint little towns" in the world's remote corners are ultimately ruled by an insular Cult at the center, all working for the benefit of their "god." Even in a large city, the Cult's influence can become pervasive - policemen can be turned, and lawyers, and businessmen. A careful Leviathan can end up with "agents" operating at many levels of society, robbing his enemies of any hope of safety.

The greatest limitation of a Cult is that, no matter the intent of the Leviathan at its core, the structure is predicated on the intimidation and negative pressure created by the Wake, reinforced by harsh internal strife. Even the mildest and most fulfilling Cults are imposing on the wills of the participants, and most powerful Cults are ruthlessly violent in the pursuit of the will of the Leviathan. It is the nature of the Wake, and perhaps of the Tribe, that they do not have positive and self-affirming social relations. This effect infuses the Cult. The violent obsession that drives a cultist differs greatly from a mild and psychologically satisfying religious conviction. The Cult becomes a tool by which the Leviathan may indulge his or her vices, and its members begin to revel in the transgressions they commit. While the traditional model of the cult is the hidden religious conspiracy, a more apt modern parallel is a terrorist organization - indoctrination, manipulation, and violent fanaticism. Unsurprisingly, when Leviathans come into conflict, it is usually their cultists that become casualties of the conflict. Their utter devotion and apparent willingness to do whatever is asked of them offers an easy way past the horror of violence and acknowledging moral responsibilities. A cruel Leviathan might spend the lives of his cultists indulging his most grotesque and brutal impulses while claiming no personal stake in their actions.