OVERVIEW
Founded by their Parun and namesake
Rakdos, an ancient demon, the cult attends to the entertainment and services industry, which includes some less-than-savory offerings, such as assassination, loan sharking, drug dealing, and deviant pain clubs, as well as more agreeable ones, such as ore-mining, catering, theaters, circuses, and owning or working in storefronts, venues, and comedy clubs. Members of this demon-worshipping guild are referred to as cultists, no matter how little they actually worship their figurehead.
Like extreme utilitarians or hedonists, the Cult of Rakdos are a guild that places a premium on personal pleasure, or "fun", even if it cruelly causes pain and suffering to others and themselves. Some of the crueler, more evil, and more sadistic members of the cult directly and intentionally inflict pain on others. Other than being a guild of miscreants, the Cult of Rakdos does have a civic function in Ravnican society per the Guildpact; some members work as manual laborers and even slaves, and the guild overall has a niche as Ravnica's entertainment industry, such as clubs.
PURPOSE
As laid out in the Guildpact, the guild was intended to fill roles concerning entertainment, mining, and manual labor. Some argue that any effort to give a demonic cult a respectable role in society was doomed to failure, but the cult remains part of Ravnica's social fabric nevertheless. The Guildpact prohibits the cult's extermination, and its entertainments - even the ones that are dark and destructive - hold broad appeal. From rowdy mobs who love to see the cult skewer the powerful elites to decadent socialites who come to the Rakdos for illicit amusements, most of Ravnica's people don't really want the Rakdos to go away, as much as they might publicly protest otherwise when the ugly side of the cult shows itself.
The cult has a wide variety of performers that fill the odd niches Ravnican culture has created for entertainment; spikewheel acrobats, lampooners, fire jugglers, puppeteers, pain artists, noise musicians, dark clowns, and hellbent riders form the heart of the cult's bizarre diversions, putting on shows in guild-owned speakeasies and on portable stages in the streets. Performers called uncagers tend to - and unleash - the variety of the beasts and horrors used in Rakdos shows. Other Rakdos performers are spell casters of spectacular sort, using expressive, free-wheeling, and dangerous magic. They can be equally gratified by howls of laughter or howls of horror - any attention, in their minds, is good attention.
The cult's hedonism, and willingness to risk their lives in its pursuit, is an acceptance of death's inevitability and an embrace of the precious gift of life they have been given - as well as a reminder to others that life is both fleeting and precious, and thus should be treated as the gift that it is, no matter how harsh or short it may be. The Cult of Rakdos was originally recognized as a guild as part of an effort to channel the impulses of demons, giants, ogres, and humans into an acceptable direction. The effort, some would argue, has never been completely successful.
CORE VALUES
Tomorrow is an illusion; everything is ridiculous. Members of the Cult of Rakdos have witnessed the grandiose speeches and self- important plans of other guilds and concluded that their rivals take themselves far too seriously. Since death comes for everyone, and since order tends inevitably toward chaos, the Rakdos believe that unrestrained, moment-to-moment hedonism is the only sane way to live. Of course, few other Ravnicans would describe the cult as sane. The cult's chaotic nature fuels its passion, impulsiveness, and obsession with freedom. A guild of unbridled hedonism, it does what it wants, driven by base desires and a strong streak of cruel expressionism.
The Cult of Rakdos' worldview is centered on a demon lord who exemplifies the concepts of chaos and evil. At its worst, the cult is driven by a lust for power, extreme selfishness, and a lack of compassion, with some cultists taking delight in causing pain to others to make sure they know their place, which is subservient to those who live unfettered by the bonds of law. At its best, the cult is driven by a desire to create and share art, in a variety of different mediums, in order to make a point about what they consider meaningful, with some cultists busking on street corners, performing scathing comedy routines, or even curating an acrobatic performance for a circus show.
GOALS
As tension builds in Ravnica and several guilds attempt to crack down on chaos and criminal activity, the Rakdos cult reacts to this growing pressure with increasing violence, with several particularly wild sects seizing the opportunity to sew discord.
The cult already serves a megalomaniacal demon of chaos, so its members have no interest in seeing any other ambitious figure achieve supreme rulership over Ravnica. They fear that any other guild might gain enough power to overwhelm all the others and impose its own values on the entire city. For this reason, those among them who have a mind to change things, they focus their efforts on subverting other guilds' schemes, by undermining popular and powerful leaders and interfering - sometimes violently - with any effort to build a centralized concentration of authority.
The Azorius Senate currently stands as the greatest threat to the Rakdos way of life. The cult targets Azorius senators and arresters for ridicule, harassment, and occasionally assassination. The Boros Legion zealous pursuit of order and justice poses a similar threat, although their attention is focused on the Gruul Clans as of late. However distracted they are, violent cultists are well aware that any sufficiently disruptive performance with a high enough body count could bring the wrath of the Legion down on their heads. The overreaching of the Azorius and the self-righteous wrath of the Boros engender true fear in the cultist's anarchic hearts, and the less sane of the Rakdos respond to fear with mayhem and bloodshed.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
As one of Ravnica's original guild founders, known as Paruns, the demon lord Rakdos has lead the cult and been a part of the great city for over a millennia. Members of other guilds know the infernal showstopper through his reputation for capricious cruelty and megalomania, but most of those who join the guild idolize him for his magnetic presence, which inspires art and encourages utter wantonness. Because Rakdos finds destruction entertaining, his more dedicated cultists incorporate deadly acts into their performances in hopes of catching his eye and earning his favor.
The aggressive tormentors known as Blood Witches are the closest thing the cult of Rakdos has to ranking officials. The necromantic rituals and cannibalistic practices of this coven are a mysterious and not very well known, but they all serve as the acting leadership of the guild while Rakdos slumbers. What is known is that, when one completes the ritual to become a Blood Witch, they enter a state of demonic undeath and are assigned an enemy of the guild to torment. This enemy can be an individual, a family, an organization, or even an abstract concept. If a Blood Witch dies or can no longer be useful to Rakdos, she is devoured by her sisters so that no power is lost among the coven.
Examples of Blood Witch designations include the Judge of Judges, who targets the Azorius Guildmaster; the Tormentor of Wojek, who confounds Boros military intelligence efforts; and the Disintegrator of Law and Order, who undermines all efforts to uphold the law.
Most of the guild works together as part of a troupe, with an individual's artistic talents being used in service to a ringmaster's vision; however, this relationship is often misunderstood by the city at large. Ringmasters don't order around those beneath them in their troupe or provide them with a script / performance ideas, they all work together eclectically, often only being guided by the ringmaster only through suggestions and tips. Each cultist's performance is their own and it is up to them to find a troupe that can benefit from their particular talents.
The Cult of Rakdos encourages independent action on the part of its members. Its goal, besides entertainment and making enough money to keep upping the ante, is fomenting chaos, and it firmly believes in putting its own house in disorder before carrying that mission into the city at large. The only thing that is expected out of each member of the cult is to execute their own vision of grand satire and disruptive performance art, and to constantly outdo their last show; in fact, one of the few taboos this hedonistic cult has is going through a performance without doing something new.
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