The Ash Zealots
The Ash Zealots, as they are called by outsiders, are a religious extremist cult that worships the Ash Gods as deities. Devoted to the point of death, this extremely dangerous group reveres the alien beings as divine arbiters whose retribution for the sins of humanity cleansed the Earth and remade it anew. They gather in the shadows of the colossal Constructs set up by the aliens, awaiting their next coming to the surface of the planet to judge the remainder of human-kind. Many sects of the cult have built altars and even temples near the bases of the Constructs where they worship their alien deities and perform ritual human sacrifices.
Public Agenda
The Zealots are almost universally hated by all other survivor groups that do not adhere to their beliefs. Even groups such as the Carvers despise them, viewing their human sacrifices as a needless waste of good resources. Despite this, they actively seek to convert all that they meet to their faith, going so far as to send emissaries to preach the necessity of repentance to such groups. These emissaries are almost always killed in brutal, spectacular fashion in an effort to demonstrate to the Zealots the futility of their beliefs. This does not deter them, nor stop future emissaries from seeking the same fate in the name of conversion.
Tenets of Faith
The temples of the Zealots are crude structures composed of scavenged materials and debris. Altars are built out on the ash flats in sight of the mighty Constructs, the central point of all worship. They are often surrounded by piles of offerings, including human bones and organs.
Worship
The Zealots believe that the Great Cataclysm was the divine retribution of the Ash Gods against a human race that had fallen too far into sin. As such, they consider the aliens the arbiters of ultimate judgement who will determine the fate of the world with their cleansing fire. Worship rituals involve invocations, chants, and dances at their altars and temples, injestion of the ash falling from the sky, and bloody human sacrifice to atone for the sins of the past.
Priesthood
The Zealots are led by a High Priests or Priestesses, an individual with absolute authority who claims to have direct communion with the Ash Gods themselves. When a High Priest is annointed, they serve a certain period of time in governance over the cult. Then, at the end of their term of service, they are sent into the mind-disrupting influence of the Constructs, emerging half-mad and delirious with visions. Before falling into total insanity, these individuals recount their visions to the cult, who view them as prophecies of the future coming of the aliens upon the new Earth. Beneath the High Priests or Priestesses are the lowly Priests, and below even them are the Faithful, laymen and women who believe in the cult's teachings. These laymen and women are often willing human sacrifices on the altars of the cult's temples, in service to the Ash Gods.
Type
Religious, Cult
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Location
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