Designing a religious group with a motive to incite a revolt

[RealMarkP]

In my current campaign (faerun), I have a religious cult or preachers who want to cleanse the land of Orcish filth. I want to model this after the way people of color were treated during the early 20th century. I want to go as far as having lynchings and racial violence against Orcish kind, including half-orcs or anyone with Orcish lineage.

So far, the players have met only but a few of these 'cultists' and information is rather light. This cult has recently settled in town and have posted bills all over town. What the players know is that this group of people are new to this town and that they have small chapters in almost all major cities and towns in the area. They are motivated by the recent aggression by savage Orcs and the long history of tension between the civilized races and anyone of Orcish descent.

What I'm interested in is how I should go about structuring this cult, which God would they follow, how do they operate, etc. I've never actually designed a cult before, so I'm looking for ideas. Ideally, the outcome would be a passive aggressive cult that does not engage in violence but instead preaches and manipulates the populace. It would be the public that would do the lynching after being swayed.

Another aspect would be, how would the populace handle this? Where do the town guards stand? There would no doubt be sympathizers on one end of the spectrum and hard-core militants on the other (which want to lynch, burn and cleanse).

The town that the players are based in is low on militia (due to a recent draft of the King's army), so the setting is ripe for all sorts of revolts and the like. The reason why I want the cult to be passive is to invoke lots of role playing on the part of the players. Additionally, one of the players is a half-orc barbarian, which will make things interesting.

If there is any published material on cults that I can use, please list that as well.

[Seclora]

My first thoughts go to the Human Racial deity introduced in Races of Destiny; Zarus.

[Gildedragon]

Jeez. Grim stuff man.

Now, I wouldn't worry myself too much with the nitty gritty of the cult's inner workings.

Way I would go: small cells "parties" of 3-8 individuals with at least 1 divine caster (divine bard, (anti)paladin, cleric, adept (most probably fall into this category, multiclass commoner-adepts)) that acts as head. Above that are cells of casters with a leader knowing their disciples, those leaders have their own cells where information and orders are passed... and so on as you go up in the hierarchy

anonymity is prized, so masks are worn at large scale meetings, though at the ground level the laiety don't wear masks within their 'party'.

Gods:
Well there is Zarus (RoD) with a similar agenda, Nerull would probably sponsor this too, ditto for Erythnul
Ius, and Demon/Devil Lords would also like in on that action. They might pretend to be hieroneans or pelorites or some other decent faith.

[Keld Denar]

Pholtus from the Greyhawk setting would work as well. Pholtus is LG to the point of attacking anyone who isn't, and is particularly enamored with cleansing by fire.

The difficult thing for the PCs is that Pholtites ARE actually LG. Their zeal is just a whole octave higher than what normal sane people consider acceptable. Do the PCs really want to go around fighting LG clerics and paladins? They don't ping on the evil-dar the way other cultists might. Make them charismatic and have them lead race riots in town squares to whip the populous into a murderous frenzy against otherwise innocent orcish citizens simply for the crime of being of orcish decent.

[Gildedragon]

Pholtus from the Greyhawk setting would work as well. Pholtus is LG to the point of attacking anyone who isn't, and is particularly enamored with cleansing by fire.

The difficult thing for the PCs is that Pholtites ARE actually LG. Their zeal is just a whole octave higher than what normal sane people consider acceptable. Do the PCs really want to go around fighting LG clerics and paladins? They don't ping on the evil-dar the way other cultists might. Make them charismatic and have them lead race riots in town squares to whip the populous into a murderous frenzy against otherwise innocent orcish citizens simply for the crime of being of orcish decent.

Except killing because race is... Not G in the least. A pally that did that would fall so hard they'd need feather fall active to only take 20d6 falling damage

Weirder deity options: Gruumsh.
Uses the cult to weed out weak (esp G aligned) orcs and half orcs, cull the herd AND make non-human races fear and distrust humans, with the plan of creating alliances to wipe out humanity, and galvanize orc-kind together.
Though it gets problematic with the whole "imitate jim-crow america" concept you got going
Another option: no god, just a madman at the top, faith in his cause is what bestows the powers. Domains: humanity (rebuke humans or turn non-human humanoids, or favored enemy as ranger), community, destruction

[Segev]

Generally, religions such as this are more motivated by the believer/non-believer divide than by the racial one. Now, if there is a human-supremacist god out there who only accepts human believers, that's one possibility.

I do like the suggestion that the god in question be Gruumsh. If the area was becoming too accepting of orcs, and orcs becoming too civilized and willing to work and live with other races rather than go on raids to pillage the village, he may well want to stir things up from the "other side." Despite orcs' reputation for being less than bright, they're not completely stupid. Just lower on average than humans. And Gruumsh is a god; he can be devious.

Another option would be Mask, the drow god of thieves, helping out Gruumsh by enacting this plan. Maybe with intent to stir up trouble between elves and the other races once the orcs are "dealt with," as a ploy to make elves feel like they've made the drow feel.

[malonkey1]

Generally, religions such as this are more motivated by the believer/non-believer divide than by the racial one. Now, if there is a human-supremacist god out there who only accepts human believers, that's one possibility.

I do like the suggestion that the god in question be Gruumsh. If the area was becoming too accepting of orcs, and orcs becoming too civilized and willing to work and live with other races rather than go on raids to pillage the village, he may well want to stir things up from the "other side." Despite orcs' reputation for being less than bright, they're not completely stupid. Just lower on average than humans. And Gruumsh is a god; he can be devious.

Another option would be Mask, the drow god of thieves, helping out Gruumsh by enacting this plan. Maybe with intent to stir up trouble between elves and the other races once the orcs are "dealt with," as a ploy to make elves feel like they've made the drow feel.

Zarus. Zarus Zarus Zarus. Lawful Evil, enough followers to be a Greater Deity, and he hates literally all non-human races. Honestly, I wouldn't have them use too much by way of divine magic unless it's totally necessary. Their non-magical representatives would do well to have the Evangelist (http://dndtools.eu/classes/evangelist/) class.

[Gildedragon]

Zaurus as a mask of Gruumsh. Kill other races, make humans loathed, purge weakness from orcs...

There is a racial-assassin prestige class in cityscape iirc. It has elves and humans iirc. Make it elves and orcs...

Add another Orcish deity ascendant in orc communities: ancestor worship, an Orcish Kord, or an Orcish stonemason god... More community-friendly gods, 'weaker' gods in Gruumsh's eye

[RealMarkP]

I like the Zarus idea. But my main problem is that he is a god of Humanity and so far, the players have encountered a mixture of Humand and Dwarven cultists. I don't know how this god views Dwarves. If need be, I might bend the rules to include Dwarves or, if the players notice, it might be an excellent opportunity to unveil the true reasons behind the cult (possibly Gruumsh, like Guigarci mentioned).

Having Gruumsh behind this is such a sexy plot twist.

EDIT: The Jim-Crow laws interest me. Links to articles on this topic is always appreciated.

[JusticeZero]

In my current campaign (faerun), I have a religious cult or preachers who want to cleanse the land of Orcish filth. I want to model this after the way people of color were treated during the early 20th century. I want to go as far as having lynchings and racial violence against Orcish kind, including half-orcs or anyone with Orcish lineage..
What I'm interested in is how I should go about structuring this cult, which God would they follow, how do they operate, etc.They can be of any religion. The actual teachings of the god on the subject can even be irrelevant. People have no problems with taking very odd readings of selected sections of their holy texts to prove a point, and most holy texts are a virtual rorschach test anyways.
They would do the same way that it is always done. Go to the people who are poor, and start blaming it all on their target group. Just keep saying it and soon everyone will believe it to be true, so long as it helps them to create a story to tell how their misery isn't their fault.
The town that the players are based in is low on militia (due to a recent draft of the King's army), so the setting is ripe for all sorts of revolts and the like..
Only if you're revolting against the king. For what you're describing, less soldiers is actually going to make it slightly harder to get your lynch mobs. The firebrands who would be the most likely to radicalize are all off fighting, and a war effort means that they are having to ramp up the war machine. That means that people are working, and working people who are able to afford food are pretty easygoing.

[Gildedragon]

They can be of any religion. The actual teachings of the god on the subject can even be irrelevant. People have no problems with taking very odd readings of selected sections of their holy texts to prove a point, and most holy texts are a virtual rorschach test anyways.

Actually in D&Dland, with gods being kinda directly contactable, actively involved, and fairly humanlike in their mindset gross reinterpretations of their tenets, especially at a wide scale, is bound to draw their active ire.
Divine minions, favored souls, emisaries, etc are bound to appear to put their foot down.
Bahamut, for example, would take severe exception if his name was used to justify slaughter and merciless executions.

[JusticeZero]

You can always blame it on enemy action, and the wrath is one of the surest ways to make the people in the movement certain that they are correct.