Cultus Pythonissam

"And mark this, there is no purpose greater than ours. The world will founder without structure and discipline. It needs leadership to guide it to a new age of stability. It needs those with the will to stamp out the darkness that breeds in the cracks. We do this because we are compelled, by tradition, by loyalty, by laws. Without these, we are just animals. Evil reigns over animals, corrupting and compromising, toppling empires. So our empire must be incorruptible, must be uncompromising. Our conflict must be a righteous one. Your conviction will be tested. But among us, your faith will be unshaken."

- Witch Cult's motto

The Cultus Pthonissam (Witch Cult in Latin) are one of the three main factions fighting the Revelation of Qliphoth on Prime Earth, making themselves secret agents of magic while protecting mankind from the dark forces of Ara Astaroth for thousand years since the birth of the first humans. Unlike Ratatoskr and Iscariot Section XIII, the Witch Cilt are the only ones who will actually concern them selves with doing good (albeit being delusional) and protecting the common-man from the creatures that go bump in the night, attacking humans. The Witch Cult is most related to fight against monsters from legends and myths that humans do know the existence of. They are suave and sophisticated, but are fiercely brutal and uncompromising in their crusade against darkness of Triggers Hell on Earth to protect humans from what they must-not-know. They are a major heroic faction in LOTM: Sword of Kings and due to their nature they have some interactions in LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow much like Qliphoth itself.

Proudly tracing their royal lineage back to Babylon, the Witch Cult are the lions of the Magic World, being responsible for protect mankind from creatures coming from Hell and other demonic realities like Qliphoth and Purgatory. The Old Europe is theirs and the Witch Cult marble halls dominate the old London borough Ealdwic-historic capital of the magic world. Its not just a show of strength. Nothing is just a show with Witch Cult. At the forefront of the war against darkness, they decided for themselves what counts as darkness. Never backing down from a fight, never forgetting a grudge. They have tradition to uphold. For thousands of years they have been single-minded in their mission to obliterate evil in all its forms. Where angels fear to tread, the Witch Cult kick down the doors and killed thousands of vampires, monsters, zombies, ghouls, humanoid monsters, youkais and demonic forces coming from Hell to threat human lives.

Overview
The Witch Cult is a secret society of mages made to fight demonic forces in secret of the world. They are a faction of individuals who see themselves as the first and last line of defense against the evils in the World of Magic, and will do whatever it takes to ensure that the world is rid of the evil that plagues it. The old guard; suave and sophisticated, but fiercely brutal and uncompromising in their crusade against darkness. They don't participate in the war on evil. They ARE the war on evil. They're good in the sense that in order to get to that one demon in the middle of the town they're willing to burn the whole thing down, so good is a relative term. And they believe they're protected, untouchable, holy, even, though not necessarily in a religious way. It goes deeper than that--to the very core of the mystery of the world, which is a central part of the story.

The Witch Cult are crusaders, and the society operates like a private army. A giant private army made of mages and holy warriors. They pretty much have the resources of a small country. They could take countries like Novosic Kingdom in a second; maybe even Aldegyr Kingdom; definitely Godom Empire. And they don't hide their military power of the Revelation of Qliphoth. The Witch Cult also have countless facilities and buildings aroun d the world serving as their secret bases and holy temples disguised of banks and old temples of history. As such they have a huge stone building in London, because they are the least secret of all secret societies, they're very much out in the open.

They are old-school. They have been fighting evil for thousands of years and they've been doing with extreme prejudice but above all they are traditionalist. They see magic--the occult--as their birthright; something they've inherited, something that's in their blood; the pure blue blood of their ancient order. Players may find themselves looked down on to begin with, but they'll soon fit right in and gain access to the powerful relics that this society has accrued through the centuries. Not to mention, the members of Witch Cult are quite arrogant, after dominating much of the secret world for most of the past millennium, this cockiness has hurt them in the past and they refused to give their assistence to other organizations like La Nueva Familia de Arzonia merely for not fighting their swore enemies (Arzonia Family is most focused in Fallen Roman Catholic Church, an organization they want to get involved). But there's pressure from within their own ranks to change with the times--to adapt to the new world order--and this dynamic plays a big part in the Witch Cult's mission. As an initiate of the order, they definitely see for the newbies how these guys operate, and they'll be able to use their methods to get the information they need. But, yes, they definitely use their massive might to get what they need, and newbies will get to experience that for themselves.

Background
According to Wáng, the Witch Cult was founded by around 604,000 B.C. by one of the rulers of the Tower of Babel; Yuri Barnes, a young prince with a high-tone of arrogance and narcissism but a reliable and kind person who will never turn his back on the weak. The other ruler of the tower was his brother, Nimrod.

The Tower was once a temple to train new magicians and create a magic organization to fight Ara Astaroth and her minions that were appearing on Earth through Gates of Hell spread all across the globe. However, Yuri and Nimrod feuded over a woman and the tower ended up being destroyed and they went their own ways. Yuri Barnes went to Egypt and founded Witch Cult with the help of Latin people while Nimrod formed Iscariot Section XIII in the Old Egypt. When this happened is uncertain, but given the 2nd Age's love of ziggurats (tower of Babel) and the 3rd Age's "seafaring people"- it's possible their origins are during the 2nd Age (Although not confirmed by any means).

Modern Day
The Witch Cult currently operate out of in 7 countries. To the Global Pact Defense, they are some old old order from ages passed, just one that has managed to keep it's-self together.

The Witch Cult members wear their colors and roam the streets of London with impunity, supposedly just part of an old oligarchy. But the mages do more than just sit around in brightly lit halls and libraries talking about politics and legacy, they are still on the hunt, the hunt for monsters. The Witch Cult infrastructure may be a shell of it's former glory but they try to counter it by constantly bringing in new members. Whatever old corruptions may haunt the Witch Cult's legacy, the newest members are trained in the mind-set of the early Witch Cult, namely slaying evil.

Where the New World Order are motivated by power and Iscariot are motivated by philosophy, the Witch Cult now focus on keeping the world safe from evils that might harm it. It is the mages' supreme purpose to protect the world from vicious supernatural forces that normal people are ill-equipped to combat. The Witch Cult built up years of forbidden texts, ancient rites and priceless spells, only to find that anything their vast archives can give them, the common-man can get from a smart-phone and Wikipedia. The emphasis on tradition over modernization has left the Witch Cult's order struggling to adapt to a world that seems to be outgrowing them. What the Witch Cult have built-up, is a some-what contradictory position, esteemed in the public-eye yet stuck in the past in the eyes of their rival societies. Short comings of the Witch Cult aside though, it is said that the Witch Cult possess the man-power to take over and maintain control of a small country using just their own men and resources.

Outlook
The Witch Cult proudly proclaim themselves lions, and when they roar the world listens, this is true to an extent however they are still the least influential of the 4 main societies (Cult of Scathach, Order of Terror and Revelation of Qliphoth). The Witch Cult training makes them not only consider themselves to be holy soldiers but gives them the marital skill and discipline to be a terrifying military force. Their strong military force and official ties to the British government may be a source of pride to them but in-truth the New World Order (Order of Terror) view this as small praise. At times, the New World Order buy and sell resources right out from under the Witch Cult so often that the infrastructure of the American society is seen as a big joke.

The Revelation of Qliphoth see the Witch Cult as far too rigid in practice to effectively counter the intricacies of the modern era and actually try playing them against them so as to give themselves some breathing room. The Witch Cult's fervor and conviction in their fight against evil is more than enough for them to ignore the resentment of their detractors. To the modern Witch Cult there are no ugly secrets, no shames of the past, no out-dated practices, there is only them, their blades and the monsters which shall soon occupy the ends of those blades. Due to their extremist conviction, the Revelation of Qliphoth's Black Army often engaged in war with them for centuries but always ended defeated... Until the day Ara Astaroth got full of them and sent a small squad of Black Demons to their village in North Korea to devour, kill and torture all innocent people they used to protect only to show a small fraction of her true power and give them a slap in their face for showing such arrogance.

Trivia​​​​​​​

 * Despite the naming and symbolism which heavily references the Knights Templar, the CIS Productions has stressed that this faction is purely fictional and the background of the faction begins during the time of Babylon, long before Christianity and all concept of civilization even existed. The Witch Cult In-Universe won't be restricted to any religion or race.