#Dark-Side Running of Cults, Factions, and Domains

Contents

A villain faction holds a sentence before it holds troops. When people begin to believe or fear that sentence, the colors on the map change.

#Opening Fragment — The Repainted Shrine Gate

The old shrine gate had been painted red. At first it looked like repair work. Drawing closer, one could see that the red was not paint but blood mixed with medicine.

The villagers bowed their heads before the gate. No one prayed. They only spoke a name each time they passed, like people seeking confirmation that their own name had not been forgotten.

"Do they believe?" the samurai asked.

The feng shui master shook his head. "There are times when faith and fear bow in the same shape."

Inside the gate, the cult leader was smiling. He received greetings before soldiers and names before gold.

That village had not yet fallen. But it was already beginning each day in the words of another faction.

#Principle: Make No New Rules

The rules needed to run cults, factions, and domains are already in co.

For faith and cults, see Faith in the Sengoku.
For regional and resource operation, see Domain Management.
For the starting point of villain PCs and fiend classes, see Villain Play Guide.

This document adds no new action tables or costs. Instead it sets out, for the same rule outcomes, which scenes and traces to show them through.

#The Three Faces of a Cult

Face	Description	Scene Signal
Salvation	People truly gather in the wish to be saved.	The sick, the bereaved, defeated stragglers, an abandoned village.
Fear	They believe they will be punished if they leave.	Name-checking, surveillance, informing, the forcing of a sentence.
Dealing	Faith becomes a channel for goods and protection.	The price of a talisman, the rationing of food, permission to pass.

A good cult mixes these three. Not everyone has been deceived, and not everyone is evil. Some were truly helped, some are afraid, and some profit.

#Drawing Followers Out of the Numbers

A follower is not only a combat resource. In a dark-side campaign, a follower is the proof of persuasion that a villain PC has left in the world.

To a single follower or a single squad, attach the following.

Why they follow: salvation / fear / dealing / revenge / nowhere to go.
What they saw: the PC's miracle, cruelty, promise, victory, lie.
What they fear: the leader more than the enemy, the world more than the leader, their own sin more than the world.

With just these three lines, a follower becomes a scene.

#Regional Traces

Where a villain faction has passed, traces remain.

Faction's Way	Regional Trace
The rule of Hegemony	Tidy checkpoints, vanished dissidents, everyone with the same greeting.
The salvation of Void	A quiet temple, nameless memorial tablets, the bereaved who do not weep.
The domain of Demon	Boundary posts hung with bone, hunting rules, a road that empties every night.
The dealing of No Heart	A price tag on every door, debt deeds, a street where no one helps for free.

A regional trace lasts longer than a battle. Even after the PCs leave, it changes the map of the next session.

#The Cult Leader's Questions

When a villain PC leads a cult or faction, the GM asks the following.

Do the followers love you, fear you, or need you?
What is the first sentence of the doctrine?
Who was the first person that doctrine saved?
Who was the first person that doctrine cast aside?
When a hero refutes the doctrine, which of the followers wavers?

These questions are not a check bonus but campaign material.

#Domains and the Dark Side

A villain who holds a domain experiments with the way of evil upon the map.

A domain of Hegemony can be safe. But in exchange for safety it demands silence.

A domain of Void can be quiet. But quiet may be not hope but resignation.

A domain of Demon can be abundant. But it may be abundance after the weak have vanished.

A domain of No Heart can prosper. But it may be a market where no one trusts anyone else.

#GM Principles

When you make a villain faction strong, make its reaction as well.

Who lived thanks to this faction?
Who vanished because of this faction?
Who began to doubt within the faction?
Will the hero destroy the faction, seize it, or save it?

A faction is not a list of enemies but a social trace.

A cult does not begin at the altar — it begins when someone has nowhere to entrust their own name.