Cultists: Not So Bad? [fluff, mostly]

[Zaq]

So I've noticed a trend. It's by no means universal, of course, and in no way am I saying it is. In general, though, I've noticed that cultists are basically a very easy form of go-to bad guys, and they're basically only one step above zombies on the "naw, it's OK, go ahead and kill 'em" scale. I've noticed this in my own games, in games run by other people in my group, in the games that people talk about online, in the occasional module or published adventure I've skimmed through, whatever. Cultists seem to be just flat-out irredeemable non-people that you can slaughter with impunity, because they're evil. (I've even seen people say, in essence, that it would be bad and wrong to just straight up kill the corrupt official or evil prince, but their second-in-command, who happens to be a cult priest, is fair game. This is an extreme position, of course, but it happens.)

Why is that, though? Why are the cults always so bad? I mean hell, there certainly seem to be enough of them (they wouldn't keep popping up all over the place otherwise, right?) . . . why do they always seem to be made up of people who only exist to do vague evil things and provide antagonists? Why can't we ever have any neutral cults, or good cults, or even evil cults that don't necessarily want to sacrifice babies to Orcus? Why can't we ever have any PC cultists (yes, I'm certain they exist, and I'll be very surprised if someone doesn't pop up in here with an example, but I've never personally heard of one)? Why does "shadowy midnight ritual" equate to "kill on sight"?

Yes, cult is a very loaded word in English. I'm not going to dispute that. You only rarely call people you like members of a cult. That said, D&D is, to be blunt, different. We don't seriously call people we like "evil," either, but many of us are perfectly happy playing evil PCs (or being in the same party as them). I don't see how this is any different, really.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like the stereotype of the evil cultist as much as the next guy. They do make entertaining villains if you do 'em right, and "oh, it's some evil cultist temple" is a very convenient handwave for explaining "um, so exactly why is there a dungeon here?" That said, I still think we can branch out. Relatively few groups go for the "all orcs, goblins, kobolds, and gnolls are evil, so it's OK to just go burn down their villages unprovoked" mindset anymore, and even undead aren't necessarily automatically kill-on-sight in the collective mindset anymore (admit it, how many of you have played Necropolitans?). I think we can do the same for cultists.

So, how can we go about doing this? Help me think of some fun reasons for having a PC be in a cult without it being some kind of weird character flaw. Help me think of some nifty cults that the PCs can meet without necessarily feeling justified in killing them to the last, even if those cults do happen to be evil (much in the same way that few PCs will feel justified in razing the temple of Hextor in the city's religious district). Help me think of some plot hooks that would feature cults in some capacity other than "them thar cultists are gonna summon a demon, so stop them before they can" or "mwahahaha, we evil cultists are going to hire you foolish PCs to help us do evil things, which you'll agree to because you're either gullible, greedy, or equally evil." Help me think about what we can do to make "cultist" not automatically equate to "insane, cloaked, ritual-casting figure that you can kill for points."

Thoughts?

[sengmeng]

I think it's more of a matter of they won't surrender or try to reason with you at all, again, like zombies. If they fight to the death, then they are irredeemable fanatics. If one surrendered, then he isn't and can be given the opportunity to change his mind.

[Bang!]

I thought this was what the "Deity" line on the character sheet meant.

[Moriato]

Well I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the connotations of the word "cult". Cult simply implies... well if not evil, at least a certain "wrongness". It implies things like brainwashing, an individual's personality and traits being replaced with an unwavering devotion to the cult or its leader, and other things that are just unwholesome. A "cult" without these bad aspects is... well in deference to the forum's rules, lets just say that we have a different name for that.

I just don't see how you can remove the bad aspects and still call it a cult.

[Zaq]

I thought this was what the "Deity" line on the character sheet meant.

I'm looking for something that's a little less background than that. I'd like something that actually comes up in play and really informs who the character is, how they act, and how other people act around them.

If you're happy saying "oh yeah, I'm some kinda cultist mumble mumble" and leaving it at that, go for it, but that's not really what I'm aiming at. Hell, I've played in many a group where people never once mention their favored deity (or even bother to write it down).

[Mr. Zolrane]

I think it's more of a matter of they won't surrender or try to reason with you at all, again, like zombies. If they fight to the death, then they are irredeemable fanatics. If one surrendered, then he isn't and can be given the opportunity to change his mind.

That's a bit of a broad brush, wouldn't you say? Lots of creatures, including unambiguously good ones, will fight to the death when it comes down to it. I think I see what else you might be driving at, though: if a creature is so devoted it doesn't value its own life or those of its comrades, then it may as well be an animated corpse, and summarily cloven asunder with something sharp. I would still take issue with that statement. It could be, that they do in fact value their lives, but at least to them their cult's goals are more important. That makes them fanatics, how? What if the situation was turned to, say, a church of Hieronius, the last bastion of righteousness and love in a wasteland overrun by liches, ghoulish cannibal gnomes and awakened anteater blackguards riding unicycles. One lonely paladin stands at the gate holding off the hordes of evil while the wizard tries to teleport a bunch of orphans away to safety. He is killed in the process. Does that make him a crazy fanatic, no better than a zombie?

[sengmeng]

Does that make him a crazy fanatic, no better than a zombie?

It's still the impossibility of reasoning with the enemy that determines the actions. Presumably, good characters could try to appeal to the cultists; if they don't, perhaps they need to reconsider their alignments. Your paladin doesn't have any options, and he wouldn't listen to any surrender demands anyway... but the terms of his surrender would not be the same as those offered to the cultists. It becomes less of a matter of right and wrong, and more one of irreconciable differences that result in two groups killing each other. It happens.

[AslanCross]

The Blood of Vol in Eberron has some cultists who are actually relatively ordinary people. These are usually the casual worshipers who haven't been subjected to any rituals that rob them of their reason.

The Blood of Vol fanatics, however....

http://www.waynereynolds.com/D&D%20eberron/WOTCGallery2A/FaithsofEberron02.jpg

See those wide-eyed guys with poisoned daggers and creepy hoods? Yeah.

[hamishspence]

There's an OoTS strip in Dragon that brings this up- not all cults are the same.

The Cult of the Bloodied Overlord believe their overlord will usher in a thousand year reign of terror- and is murderous and prone to sacrificing people-

The Cult of the Shrouded Overlord believe their overlord will usher in a thousand year reign of darkness- and mostly just make a big deal out of extinguishing street lamps.

[Tvtyrant]

You could have the cults represent the major religions; most religions had lots of splinter groups that were "heretics" in the loosest sense of the term. So if every religion has dozens of cults that have only minor differences then you can slowly introduce lots of more "insane" cults without the same level of antagonism.

So a cult of Pelor as the Sun (rather then the god of the sun) also harbors a cult of Pelor as the Chaotic Evil god of Demonic Fire.

[Eldan]

Yeah, make it a mostly casual thing.

Some people have an amulet of the sun god around their neck. Others listen to a priest tell about how some time in the future, the tyrannical overlord Bloodgore will return to enslave those who defied him and reward his supporters every weekend.

[Bang!]

I'm looking for something that's a little less background than that. I'd like something that actually comes up in play and really informs who the character is, how they act, and how other people act around them.
I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant all the text associated with deities, various religious practices, etc. is essentially establishing the cult structures.

The word 'cult' basically means a religious group that the speaker doesn't approve. To the church of one deity, all those that act as opposition would be "cults."

Any activities a D&D character does in association with their church or deity would essentially be a cult ritual, depending on who's narrating.

I don't know if my D&D experience has been abnormal, but it seems like most plots tied back into a church (read: cult) eventually, most parties had at least a couple divine casters (read: cultists) and most characters at least paid lip service to religious practice (read: rituals).

[Greenish]

The Blood of Vol in Eberron has some cultists who are actually relatively ordinary people. These are usually the casual worshipers who haven't been subjected to any rituals that rob them of their reason.Then there are other minor cults that aren't automatically irredeemably evil, such as many of the different groupings of Sovereign Host/Dark Six deities. Say, Three Faces of War or Sacred Spark.

And then there are the cults of Dragon Below, who're all evil and insane.

[Eldan]

How about a good book? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnbYcB9ctu8&feature=player_embedded)

[hamishspence]

Power of Faerun goes into some detail about splinter groups- and the various rules covering them.

There's a feat "Heretic of the Faith" with a selection of things it grants.
Among them are:
Ability to exchange a domain for one new domain from a list thats fit the tenets of the particular heresy.
Ability to exchange favoured weapon, and effect of the weapon of the deity spell, for one fitting the tenets of the heresy.
Ability to grossly violate deity's code of conduct without losing powers.
Ability to be two steps away, alignment-wise, instead of one.

On the minus side- you count as one of the False- so spend eternity in Kelemvor's city after death, suffering appropriate punishments- unless your deity chooses to intercede. Without a miracle or wish spell, this intercession will not happen unless your deity and faith adopt your heresy.

[akma]

First you need to define a cult properly: Is it merely a religious sect which is not supported by a mainstream religion? Is it a religion which is opposed by a mainstream religion? Is it a religion that contradicts a mainstream religion? Is it simply a religion that worships something that is not commenly worshipped? (like monsters where worshipping deities is mainstream)

Any one of those definitions seems right to me.

Cult, both in fantasy and in real life, is a word used to describe a religion which is considered evil, and when people hear cult, they think of brainwashing, isolation, wierd rituals, and imagine cult as something containing only a small number of members. I imagine you`ll only want to keep the last part as always true. However, having a good aligned religion and calling them a cult will create confusion. You could solve it simply by saying they call themselves a religion, and others refer to them as a cult.

There is possibly a lot of good and netural cults out there, they just won`t be called cults by anyone but you.
If you are still unsatisfied, make a post in the homebrew section and link it here, and I`ll give some creative input.

[wumpus]

Real world: A "religion" is a faith one is born into; a "cult" is a faith an adult joins voluntarily. - L. Sprague de Camp (who wrote some of the material suggested as "suggested reading" according to Gary Gygax in the AD&D DMG).

D&D World: If they start glowing after you cast "detect cultist" they qualify as cultists.

Oddly enough, this is an interesting question for DMs concerned with the metaphysics of their world. Presumably, the worship of any non-official god would be a cult. Certainly the worship of anyone/anything that lacked any divine ranks (although some DMs might grant them with enough worship) would qualify as a cult. While underground worship of the gods below tend to qualify as cultists, I suspect that there could easily be heretics who worship less approved gods of good? [Banjo worship anyone?] - [DDO spoiler: this is pretty central to Purge the Heretics quest. Followers of established religions might think twice before starting it].

As mentioned by other posters: religions could be downgraded to cult status for any group needed to be used as xp fodder.

[Epic] Adventure hook. Convince the council of gods to approve your cult as a religion. Adventure containing PC cultists - consider St. Issac of the Jug and Fafred.

[Tengu_temp]

Cults are underground religions. Most RPG settings have polytheism and are very open-minded as far as religion goes, so in order for a religion to be underground, there must be a good reason for that - and the most popular one is that they're worshipping something evil and twisted. Which is why most cults in RPGs are evil.

The best way to use a cult in your game is as a red herring. For example: the players are hired to find a missing person. There are rumours of a cult in the city, and the players will probably immediately think that they're behind this. Except that they're not, the cultists are just a bunch of mostly innocent folks who dance around in a circle naked for fun, and the true kidnapper is someone else. Maybe the cultists might even hold a clue to his identity and share it with the PCs if they treat them well enough!

[AslanCross]

Then there are other minor cults that aren't automatically irredeemably evil, such as many of the different groupings of Sovereign Host/Dark Six deities. Say, Three Faces of War or Sacred Spark.

And then there are the cults of Dragon Below, who're all evil and insane.

The Three Faces of War is pretty awesome, actually. I really like that one--equally recognizing the value of honor, strength and treachery in battle. Which one's Sacred Spark? Hadn't heard of that one.

[Greenish]

Which one's Sacred Spark? Hadn't heard of that one.Onatar and The Fury venerated equally. It's all big on creativity, arts and artisanship. "Creative madness" style of deal.

[Edit]: And yeah, Three Faces is one of my favourites too. If I ever felt the need to start tying PrCs to organizations, they would have my vote for RKV.

[Toliudar]

I tend to think of cults as groups of people who, for religious reasons, are significantly flouting the norms of their society.

A group of drow dedicated to the peaceful reunification with surface elves would be considered a cult. I've incorporated a cult of Olidammara that featured free-love orgies and the free sharing of belongings within the group. And a cult of Cuthbert that favoured making the enforcement of law easier by the eradication of all races with a strong individualistic bent to their culture (but were otherwise quite sweet and charming people).

So cult doesn't have to mean "Rargh. Must destroy/enslave world." They can be odd and distinct in a hundred different ways. A potentially useful mental model, I've found, is to picture a given religion (real or fantasy) in its normal form, and then picture how a certain writer would interpret the same group. Think of the same basic religious philosophy of Ehlonna, reinterpreted by Steinbeck, William S. Burroughs or J.K. Rowling. Whichever isn't the dominant interpretation becomes a cult.

[Veyr]

As noted, the word "cult" is pretty much universally used as a pejorative label for a religion you don't like. Even being large or "mainstream" doesn't really seem to allow you to escape it; it's a word for a religious group you don't like, really, and at this point, little else. Note that even avowed "occultists", in my reading, would not consider their religion a "cult".

Going with that definition, assuming Good PCs, a "cult", as in a religion they don't like, would be Evil. So, yes, they're targetable.

[Swooper]

As noted, the word "cult" is pretty much universally used as a pejorative label for a religion you don't like.
I dunno about that, in my language the word for cult means basically "minority religious group".

[Veyr]

Then the translation between that word and the English word "cult" is faulty, because that is not what "cult" means in English. It might be the closest thing, but that's not what the word means in English.

[Zaydos]

Well cult has loaded meanings in English, despite its dictionary definition being pretty broad.

Looking at it in the context of D&D the problem is the polytheistic nature of most D&D worlds where they're fairly inclusive of most religions except of the evil variety.

You could easily have a good cult, though, in an evil dominated region. Perhaps the PCs for some reason go to a duergar city and must seek aid from a secretive cult of Moraddin worshipping duergar.

In fact I think there is a good aligned drow cult in FR.

[Tvtyrant]

Then the translation between that word and the English word "cult" is faulty, because that is not what "cult" means in English. It might be the closest thing, but that's not what the word means in English.

Actually what cult "means" in English has tons of definitions even by a dictionary.

"Note that even avowed "occultists", in my reading, would not consider their religion a "cult" is hardly an argument for what it means in "English."

This is the meriam-webster definition:
Definition of CULT
1
: formal religious veneration : worship
2
: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
3
: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
4
: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>
5
a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

[Epsilon Rose]

A big part of the problem is the working definition of the word cult.
A lot of the time when people say cult nowadays they're talking about a fairly brainwashed group that's fairly insane and in fantasy bent on the annihilation of every thing (basically any cult from Lovecraft) and it's okay to kill them because 1) it's easier and the people who say it's not okay to kill their boss probably aren't actually reasoning things through all the way and 2) if you've dedicated your self to omnicide you not only probably deserve to die you're actively seeking your own death.

As for good cults that's fairly easy to create, but the use of the word cult will probably through people due to it's connotations. If you want some real world examples I'm fairly certain that all the worship of the ancient Greek deities was conducted by cults (mainstream or otherwise), but religion was a very different thing back then and I'm far from knowledgeable enough to be explaining it.

[Ernir]

I haven't seen much in the way of Irredeemable Evil cultists in the games I've played/DMed in. Evil cultists tend to be either normal people (as in, a farm, six kids, and their biggest worry is their sheeps' wool not fetching a good enough price this year) who honestly think the cult has the right idea, or normal people who have been very thoroughly lied to by very convincing people.

They also tend to run away and say "Oh no why!" when a gang of rich, violent hobos with entitlement issues a group of adventurers starts chopping them down. :smalltongue:

[Coidzor]

Well, they have a certain basis in being shrouded in secrecy given what I know of the real world origins of the term based upon Ancient Greece.

It's rather easy to ascribe wrong-doing or cast aspersions on groups that keep secrets or are even founded on them.

Especially when the ones adventurers so often run into are the ones who get it into their heads that human sacrifice is a good idea or that are basically a front for siphoning power to Random Demon Prince #276410824171148, generally not really going to rub elbows with the ones that hold tiers of mysteries that they initiate pelorites into in towns x, y, and z as opposed to 1, 2, and 3, so there's no reason for them to have impacted the collective consciousness of RPG players, really.

Generally, unless one is playing Exalted PCs, the PCs aren't going to offer quarter to the man they just stopped from eating a live baby or just watched disembowel a nubile love interest. And, well, generally people don't take too well to watching their leader getting their skull cloven in two by the beatstick's greataxe, so one thing leads to another and the local necromancers have some raw materials that come with their own robes to wrap up in.

[Zaq]

Generally, unless one is playing Exalted PCs, the PCs aren't going to offer quarter to the man they just stopped from eating a live baby or just watched disembowel a nubile love interest. And, well, generally people don't take too well to watching their leader getting their skull cloven in two by the beatstick's greataxe, so one thing leads to another and the local necromancers have some raw materials that come with their own robes to wrap up in.

See, this is what I'm talking about. Why is the baby-eating, love-interest-disemboweling cultist the default assumption? More importantly, what useful alternatives can we offer?

[akma]

See, this is what I'm talking about. Why is the baby-eating, love-interest-disemboweling cultist the default assumption? More importantly, what useful alternatives can we offer?

A. Worshipping monsters. The monsters don`t have to be evil, and even if they are, this doesn`t mean the cultists have to be.
B. Worshipping spirits of animals, and thinking an animal is sacred.
C. Worshipping a mortal. I`m fond of this one, but haven`t actully used it.
D. Trying to free an ancient locked being, that they believe is good. Bonus if the rest of the world believes the being they are trying to release is evil. The being doesn`t have to exist, and the cage could be empty.
E. Believing certain deities/deity to be extremly diffrent then how mainstream views them, and worshipping them accordingly.
F. Believing a certain area is sacred, and avoiding to step on it, instead, going through by jumping from tree to tree. They also considered darkness as a sign of holiness, and are pretty isolated.

[Yora]

A "cult" without these bad aspects is... well in deference to the forum's rules, lets just say that we have a different name for that.
In science, we call them "New Religious Movements". :smallamused:

Unfortunately, some of them survive quite long to a point where they aren't really "new" anymore. The Japanese fixed that linguistic problem by keep calling them "New Religions" and call the really new ones "New New Religions". :smalltongue:

[Veyr]

This is the meriam-webster definition:
I would say that Merriam-Webster is wrong and using the word "cult" that way in public (say, in a political speech) will get you in a lot of trouble, because those are not accurate definitions for how the word is used.

[Coidzor]

See, this is what I'm talking about. Why is the baby-eating, love-interest-disemboweling cultist the default assumption? More importantly, what useful alternatives can we offer?

Because it's the kind that's most commonly encountered in games and fiction as had been stated. At least I'd thought it'd been stated.

How it became the default assumption I can't remember, but I imagine it's a bit too far down the rabbit hole for us to really discuss properly here.

The only useful thing I can think of would be to tie certain PrCs to various mystery cults, which I object to on the grounds of it merely giving fodder to those who insist on seeing classes as in-game constructs.

[Yora]

Yes, let's get back to the original issue.

Relatively few groups go for the "all orcs, goblins, kobolds, and gnolls are evil, so it's OK to just go burn down their villages unprovoked" mindset anymore, and even undead aren't necessarily automatically kill-on-sight in the collective mindset anymore (admit it, how many of you have played Necropolitans?). I think we can do the same for cultists.

So, how can we go about doing this? Help me think of some fun reasons for having a PC be in a cult without it being some kind of weird character flaw. Help me think of some nifty cults that the PCs can meet without necessarily feeling justified in killing them to the last, even if those cults do happen to be evil (much in the same way that few PCs will feel justified in razing the temple of Hextor in the city's religious district). Help me think of some plot hooks that would feature cults in some capacity other than "them thar cultists are gonna summon a demon, so stop them before they can" or "mwahahaha, we evil cultists are going to hire you foolish PCs to help us do evil things, which you'll agree to because you're either gullible, greedy, or equally evil." Help me think about what we can do to make "cultist" not automatically equate to "insane, cloaked, ritual-casting figure that you can kill for points."
If you want to call them cults or not, I think we can define the subject of these thread as religious outside of the traditionally accepted religious institutions that are not treated equal to the established religions by most people.

One very basic approach would be sects, that is groups that split off from their original groups because they follow certain believes and interpretations of religious texts, that are not shared by others. While "heathens" are just misguided, they aren't so much of a problem to the established religions, since they simply got it all wrong and usually don't threaten other religions. But "heretics" who claim to belong to your religion and pervert all the teachings are a real danger as they can easily subvert and undermine the established religious institution. Best case is the Reformation in the 16th century in which the Reformers got entire nations to split from the old church and everything ended in several decades of terrible warfare. Someone who preaches about another god is not that bad, someone who comes up with a new interpretation of your own god is a huge problem.
If you have such a sect in your campaign and some of the PCs are firm believers of the established religion, it's very easy to treat the sect crazy troublemakers at best that have to be put down in a mostly non-violent way.
But if the PCs are not particularly fond of the high priests or don't belong to the religion at all, the sectarians may appear to have some valid points and want only to be left alone and leave it up to every worshipper which group they want to follow.

However, this works best in settings where the big religions are well organized with a clear hierarchy as we understand it in the western world. In Asia even the major religions are completely decentralized and you can found a new religious group any time you want without needing anyones approval to call it a buddhist or hindu religion.You might get some trouble if you claim to be affiliated with a specific group while you are not, but people claim they have recieved a divine massage, uncovered a new truth, or are the reincarnation of a divine being all the time and quite often they gain a considerable number of followers. Though it's quite likely that there are even much larger numbers of leaders who gain only a handful of followers that dissolve after a few weeks without ever gaining any attention by the public.
Standard D&D settings are an odditiy, because they combine both approaches to religion. You could probably start a new druidic circle at any time you want, but if you build a temple for Pelor and start making blood sacrifices, the other temples of Pelor won't be too happy about that.

[Coidzor]

But "heretics" who claim to belong to your religion and pervert all the teachings are a real danger as they can easily subvert and undermine the established religious institution.

For instance, take a look at how a demon or devil created rumor that Lathander was actually just Amaunthor spread in a certain heresy that the authorities didn't have the stomach to combat or suppress and then Lathander actually got eaten by Amaunthor's remains.

So it's especially troubling for gods because if enough people believe something about them, they'll be forced to change or die.

[awa]

see the easy way to solve this is not to call it a cult. as has been said before cult has strong connotations in the English(American English i have no idea how the term is used in England or Australia so my point may not be valid in those locations) language even if that isn't the dictionary definition. just not calling it a cult completely solves the problem.

[Ormur]

If the religion isn't that evil, unorthodox or brainwashing wouldn't it be called a sect or a congregation or something else instead of a cult (I know it's all subjective).

Of course I could imagine plenty of cults that might look kind of iffy without being "evil".

The most common worry about religions labelled cults seems to be that they brainwash people to give all their money and cut contact with those that don't belong to the cult. If you had such a cult in D&D that didn't actually do any other evil stuff, killing the members certainly wouldn't be a good solution.

Then again I'm not sure such cults would be very relevant to D&D adventurers. I don't think the players would like to take part in a non-violent intervention.


I dunno about that, in my language the word for cult means basically "minority religious group".

What would that word be? I think we simply don't have a word with that meaning, so we use the English one.


They also tend to run away and say "Oh no why!" when a gang of rich, violent hobos with entitlement issues a group of adventurers starts chopping them down. :smalltongue:

Haven't they mostly been just collateral damage, I don't think we've gone out of our way in killing them.

[Yora]

My personal favorites are groups that seem quite crazy in their believes, but don't actually do anything threatening.

In my setting, I have a group of people who worship ancient spirits they believe to exist deep under the surface of the world and use blood magic instead of divine or arcane magic. It's not nice to look at, but they don't sacrifice people and actually spend quite some energy at finding and destroying undead. They are not exactly pacifists or known for their hospitality but in many situations good PCs may find them as fighting for the same goal and not posing any threat to the people the PCs protect. A bit like the Pagans from Thief, I think.

[Caustic Soda]

One possibility could be to use mystery cults. Something mason-esque, where you have to be invited, there are tiers of membership, the information you can get depends on your tier etc. If the goal of the inner circle is bona fide Evil on an alignment scale, that doesn't mean that all members are, especially the ones on the periphery of the group.

They could be organized that way for different reason, however. For example, the Roguelike Incursion has a group of people that worship Kysul, which is basically LG Cthulhu. As such, its worship is organized by tiers so people get to learn more of it as their minds become more capable of understanding without going mad. For the same reason, exposing the unprepared to information about Kysul is considered anathema.

I'd say that the central theme for a mystery cult, whatever it's beliefs and goals, would be that people have to practice in order to be ready for more knowledge/skills/initiation rites. You can't just pull someone in from the street and make them Grand Wizard, Anathemant Salamander or whatever titles the cult uses.

[Randel]

I've always liked the idea of a group of people finding an abandoned 'dungeon' somewhere and deciding to live in it so they can better protect themselves from wandering monsters and such.

Imagine a land where there are monsters and semi-regular attacks by orcs or goblins or whatever. Then some guys in cloaks or whatnot find a dungeon or cave or other semi-securable place to stay and start putting up traps and walls to protect it. They then go look for new members, promising security from monsters and perhaps magical healing. People join them (maybe out of desperation, not having anywhere else to go, and not knowing of any adventurers who could protect them) and the group starts to grow under the guidance of charismatic leaders.

The "Cult" in this case is basically a bunch of people wanting to protect themselves from the various monsters out there and who are setting up a system to do so. They might have a firm believe that humans should be living underground (lie dwarves and gnomes do), or they could make deals with non-deific spirits to get magic power (like an NPC form of druid or warlock), or they might have an unnerving tendency to know alot about goblins and orcs and such (the cult might talk with goblins and orcs alot in order to negotiate with them and this makes humans distrust them). Its not that they really want to hurt anyone, its just that they are quite willing to defend themselves.