Cult of Ara

The Cult of Ara is an all-female cult that worships Ara Astaroth, conducting ceremonies and wearing female outfits resembling her blackness. Their leader, Shiva, gave birth to female septuplets, who she and the cultists raised to be elite assassins known as the Assassins of Ara, created solely to kill Katarina Couteau to avenge Ara after 5 billions of years after her defeat. All of the members wear black cloaks with identical masks concealing their faces.

The Cult of Ara is the second main antagonistic force to appear in LOTM: Destiny, the sequel of LOTM: Sword of Kings and LOTM: A Draw of Kings. They're a supporting antagonistic organization but are the main villains of LOTM: Destiny - Second Arc.

Background
Not much is known about how the cult was started, but due to their devotion to Ara, they despise Katarina Couteau, her killer, just as much as she does. It's implied Shiva founded the cult 4,000 years after Ara's death in LOTM: Sword of Kings and continued active for at least 5 billion years with thousands of mere mortals joining Ara's Cult, gaining enough strength to give a total attack against the New Republic of Deus.Ex.Machina Industries. It's estimated that the cult has at least 5,000,000,000 members, including demons, fallen angels, wraiths, dark entities and mortal species (such as humans).



When Ara's Blackness first visited the coven in their temple, she was impressed by the statue they had constructed in her likeness (played for laughs) and praised Shiva for her efforts for still trying to revive. When Shiva bowed before Ara, she devil lady told her plans to take revenge in Katarina and how she wanted to die. When Shiva questioned Ara why she wanted to die, Ara answered that she has no meaning in life now and wish to die after taking Katarina down with her. However, the main reason for this is because Ara spent billions of years in her master plan and would take more millions of years to restart all over again.

Ara decided to "bless" them by dripping a portion of herself into a chalice. Shiva drank the entire chalice and thus became impregnated withdDevil-demon hybrid septuplets. Even Ara herself was surprised when she accurately figured out of what has happened but soon she decided to use her daughters to achieve her revenge. Towards the end of their training, the Assassins of Ara were made to kill most of the cult as a test of their skills.

Notable Members

 * Ara Astaroth - central Goddess
 * Shiva - founder and leader
 * Isuke Inukai - Assassin of Ara

Trivia

 * The cult is a strange phenomenon in the LOTM: Destiny's world since every mortal in the world and the universe fear, hate and despise Ara due to her massive cruelty, brutality and tyranny. It is unknown why the cult which is composed by 98% of normal mortals (and not demonic entities) worships a demonic entity like Ara. As Ara seemingly entered into a depressed semi-reclusion some time in the last 5 billion years and takes little notice of the cult, it seems that her absence might have inspired reactionaries.