The Cultist Wars, Part 5 - Cultists

War had erupted on the continent. At the center of it were the followers of the Three Betrayers, the cultists themselves. Long before Ista Heera had given them arms and supplies to wage war, they had been preparing. Like a cancer, they had grown up, consuming entire villages so that children were born and raised in the faith only knowing of the Three and their eminent rise to power. Devoted solely to the Three, these cultists had then infiltrated the societies of the nations across the continent, only running into trouble with Hoovastadt - because of their almost eternal state of martial law, very few cultists had been able to gain a long-term foothold there.

When the foolish Istaheeran had begun supplying them, they took full advantage. Many cultists were brought in from the other continents, a centralization of their power and a building of their armies. Under the cover of the Mauwan tribal society and the constant Vekviran chaos, they increased their number of troops to the point where they could wage war, for the first time in remembered history.

Each of the major powers in the area was accounted for, for each of them had a weakness that could be exploited by the cultists to achieve their ultimate victory in this part of the world. Both the Phoenix Kingdom and Ista Heera had been infiltrated in almost every level of society, and they would be cast into chaos when the signal came to strike. To crush Hoovastadt, the cultists had been stirring up the barbarians and orcs in the north to anger, coalescing their armies around a single tribe ruled by the cultists themselves. And Corsuvian, who had avoided the complete infiltration of Ista Heera and the Phoenix Kingdom, but not as successfully as Hoovastadt, a combination of both methods. 

The main fighting was in Corsuvian, and predictably, the Phoenix Kingdom sent troops. What the leaders of both countries couldn't have known was how many of those troops and troop commanders were actually cultists. 

The trap was set, and it only happened because of one man. Normally fractious, the three cults had unified under a single leader, one who followed all Three rather than just one of the Three. He had overseen all the preparations, and knew that on a single day, the continent would be theirs. After the continent, the world. It had been foreseen.

And on a single day, the trap was sprung.

Every major power was paralyzed, or ready to be crushed, and complete victory was at hand. 

Except by the end of the day, their leader was assassinated by an unknown blade. Suddenly blaming each other for the murder, the three cults began fighting each other more than the nations they had set out to conquer, each cult wanting dominance over the other two in order to rule after their victory. But victory slipped from their grasp slowly as the nations struggled to rebuild and defend themselves. If one cult could dominate the others before all advantage was lost, they could still win, but it was now a race against time. 
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This is the day our strategy board game begins. Several characters in the comic fought in the Cultist Wars, and the repercussions of fighting an enemy made up of your neighbors and friends are still echoing through the world today, 20-30 years later.  

The game will require each player to choose what side to play, one of the four nations, or one of the three cults, with the game dynamics differing from game to game depending on who is playing what. The four nations can trade and assist each other, all while still striving for dominance over all. The three cults only work together when one of the four nations pulls ahead of the others, otherwise they fight with themselves and the nations. 

There's much more, but as I am unsure if my game ideas are automatically trademarked when I post them, better to keep them quiet for now. :)


Current mood: creative