The Three Major Cults

Lore Story
1

Hey!

During the years of Azeroth, there have been several cases of dark and shadowy cults, often very fanatical to their gods.
What is your favorite cult and why?

  1. Cult of the Damned -
    Kel’Thuzad, one of the most prominent mages who’s thirst for knowledge and power led him down the road of damnation.
    Kel’Thuzad was very intelligent and charismatic, when he sold his soul for power, he returned to Lordaeron and formed the Cult of the Damned, which he recruited thousands to his new religion, which was built upon worshipping the Lich King as their Death-God and in return, they would be granted immortality through undeath.
    Kel’Thuzad and the Cult of the Damned is probably the darkest and most sinister Cult in Azeroth’s history, he is credited for being the backbone of the Scourge.
    In the end, without the Cult of the Damned the Scourge would’ve never rose to the same success.

  2. The Shadow Council -
    Maybe not as cult-like as the CotD, but the powerhungry Warlocks that arose as Gul’dan betrayed his people had a major impact on Orcish society and the very corruption of the orcish race. Fel being extremely addictive and to sate their hunger they crave more fel to consume, which inevitably leads to their downfall.

Fel is no doubt one of the most potent and sinister magics there is, unlike the other cults though, the demon-worshippers in the Shadow Council and the sub-cults that grew out of it after its downfall, all fall due to their own greed.
But as the Fel empowers you, it also makes you crave more and more sources of magic or life to consume.
And since Fel in nature makes a wicked, powerhungry warlock crave even more, the loyalties in these “cults” or groups aren’t as religiously fanatical to the forces they call upon as other cults.
When the orcish warlocks power grew, they became unreliable, since they can only be trusted to further their own personal agendas for more power.
This is an obvious short-coming and til this day is their biggest weakness.

  1. The Twilight’s Hammer Cult -
    When Gul’dan fell, Cho’gall abandoned his old ways when he had an epiphany from the Old God’s. He became overwhelmed by the truths these Old Gods showed him and he offered himself and his clan to their service.
    Cho’gall began preaching and teaching the surviving members of the clan. Travelling to Silithus, the Twilight’s Hammer was transformed into a cult.
    While there were orcish survivors besides Cho’gall, their new religion started recruiting members from all races.
    The more they began performing dark rituals of sacrifice, the more power and influence they got. Using shadow magics as a way to enslave the elements and use their destructive force to cause chaos.
    The Twilight Cult had found their purpose, to usher in the apocalypse that would eradicate all life on Azeroth. They grew in vast numbers when the Cataclysm happened, Deathwings emergance drove the mortal races into fear and doubt, they started questioning their beliefs, which led to the Twilight Cult being able to recruit and corrupt both low and high ranking members from both factions.
    Due to their fanatical followers, the cult was extremely dangerous.
    Convinced the world was about to end and only true believers would be reborn in their masters image.
    Although deminished, you can be sure that on the sites and locations of the Eldritch Ones, remnants of the Twilight Cult isn’t far away.
    Even the Archbishop Benedictus of the Holy Light fell to madness.

So, which one of these most notorious and prolific cults do you think is the most dangerous/interesting? Maybe you love them or hate them?
Cults has always been a very interesting phenomenon in my point of view.

2 Likes
2

The Horde.

4 Likes
3

If your interest in these cults are so low? Why even mention something as boring as the Horde/Alliance conflict thats always in every subject everywhere? :smiley:

4

Making lame jokes about the faction conflict is the only reason I still come to these forums.

5

Scourge and Legion do not really exist any longer. Void do have big potential to come back again, so I’d say that the Twilight’s Hammer Cult can be seen as a bigger threat.

6

Honestly, so long as there is a tragedy, a phenomenon or even some colossal event that is set to happen, these cults will always have a prominent place and figure as an unorthodox method to escape or promote said events.

It is because of this that I would say my vote falls on the Twilight’s Hammer. Their entire worldly premise is bleak, and grim, and very dark. Yet in the span of a pre-patch reacting to the sudden ‘breaking’ of the world yet again, the cult recieved a lot of following in an instant. It wasn’t expanded on, but I am going to theorise that it was because a majority suddenly turned to new beliefs in response to the Cataclysm.

I both hate and love them for that reason. Because they’re the only cult - at least to me - that feels like has capitalized on that front around desperation and tragedy. And in a World like Azeroth, where threats seem to be happening on a yearly basis, who wouldn’t like the idea of finding some peace and order at face value? even if it’s an extremely bad idea behind it all in the first place.

2 Likes
7

What would be classified as a “cult” in the Warcraft universe is IMO not that clear. Out of the mentioned 3 most troublesome so far was the Twilight Hammer, but recently Cult of the Damned was for whatever reason brought back. But it happened very abruptly and with barely any exlanation / development.

Even though that one was not too much in the focus, Cult of the Forgotten shadow is largely represented by the horde members. While this one will likely be presented as “the devs wanted to show that not all Shadow follower = evil” thus they will magically avoid all the problems and dangers associated with the Twilight Hammer, on paper, should they be true Void followers, this cult would be a source of constant danger.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Cult_of_Forgotten_Shadows

gl hf

8

The cult of forgotten Shadow for me always felt like a representation of discipline priests, using both fundamental forms of magic while trying to keep a balance and not go too deep into one of them.
This is also part of the Site about it you linked.

The cult preaches balance, mandating that shadow priests must never forget the dangers of falling too deep into the dark energies they manipulate, for it is often too hard to find one’s way back to the Shadow from the deep reaches of the darkness.[2]

9

Conceptually it could be, but Natalie was “resurrected” with help of Xal’atath and is a part of shadow priest story rather than discipline (discipline funny enough have some nods toward the Scarlets, or what is left of them, without forgetting to mention how comically bad they are).

gl hf

10

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.