Editing Lineage:Mage Society (section)

=Cults=

Periodically organisations dedicated (at least theorectically) to some sort of philosophical beliefs arise in mage society.  They are called "cults".  The largest of these is of course the Rebellion, but many others have arisen in the thousands of years of recorded mage history.  Cults don't often survive for long, being despised by the Houses and without allies among the rebels.  However, scattered idiosynchratic groups exist all over the world, usually in hiding.  Nobody knows for sure how many of the rumoured cults are real, nor how many of the cults that have been "wiped-out" in history live on in secret.  Famous historical cults inclue the Levelers, who sought to abolish distinctions of wealth, the Knights Templar, who embraced abmition and renounced morality as an illusion, and the Transcenders, who maintain that only virtual reality is real.  A favorite mage rumour is that two Orders are in fact cults not related to the Rebellion who are simply using it as cover.  Which two seems to vary with which Order the mage wants to get in trouble.