The Cult of Ug-Qualtoth

The Cult of Ug-Qualtoth is a nation based around the city of old Pittsburgh, named after their religion, which is based of the worship of the creature known by the same name. In their own words, they often simply call themselves "the faith" or "the enlightened". Founded by a man calling himself "The Prophet", which changed into "The blind Prophet" after he tore out his eyes in 2286, during the Invasion of the Capital Wasteland. An enigma to all of post-apocalyptic america, it is at the moment involved in the Three Highway-War.

Anthony Dunwich
The history of the cult begins with the water trader Anthony Dunwich, who in his late twenties, developed an obsession with his families past, after being plagued by continuous dreams of grandeur and horror. Using his noticeable wealth for deep inquire, he traveled all over the east cost, on a journey of discovery about his families pre-war history. Losing most of his fortune in the crusade for knowledge, his last journey took him into the swamps of Point Lookout, where he had been informed, a distant relative, named Obadiah Blackhall was living.

Besting the dangers of the swamp, he reached the Blackhall Manor, only to be turned away at the door, by its owner. Furious, Anthony broke into the Manor, blind with anger, and stole a book, which an enterprising scavenger had just delivered hours ago. Convinced, that it would hold information about his family, Anthony fled into the swamps, only to take a shot from Obadiah, wounding him. Bleeding and close to death, Anthony Dunwich, convinced of his own impending death, opened the book, finally hoping for some clarity, only to finding it filled with senseless scribbling and mad passages. Blind with rage, he tossed it into the swamp water, cursing it and his family, before passing out on the muddy ground.

Anthony Dunwich didn't die that day, as a group Punga-Tribesmen found him, bringing him to their Cathedral and tending to his wounds. For a few months, Anthony stayed in their care, finding solace in their mid and soon even accepting to become one of them. Wandering out into the swamp, for their ritual, he was attacked by swamp folk, forced to run for his life, and to hide under a muddy groove. There, his fingers clutched onto a book, and with shock, Anthony realized that it had been the same book he had stolen a few months ago. Found by the swamp folk, he held it up, trying to protect himself from an axe aiming for his face, yet the moment the swamp folk layed eyes on the book, they fled in pure terror, screaming out the name '''Ug-Qualtoth. '''Confused, Anthony kept the book, yet would not continue his ritual. As he remained in the presence of the tribe, his behavior changed, while he soon spend days looking through the pages of the book, able to slowly make sense out of the signs and the scribbling in it. A concerned member of the tribe, a woman called Pecktra, fearful of his obsession, tried to steal the book from him at night, to burn it, yet would wake Anthony, who in rage, would beat her to death.

Shocked by his actions, and fearful of the tribes retribution, Anthony fled on board of a steamer, bringing him back into the Capital Wasteland. Without any caps left and his water trade a faint memory, he became a meager cleaner in Rivet City, earning his keep by scrubbing the decks, while spending the nights, fearfully reading through the pages. His understanding of the content grew from day to day, as he could finally could connect the name he had heard so long ago. Ug-Qualtoth, was mentioned countless times in the book, as a being of great and terrible power. Yet more concerning for him, was the mentioning of a prophet, to come and spread the word onto this world, carrying the seed of the great old one into the realm of reality. Could it be, that he was this prophet? It was this thought, that soon infected his very being, giving him a new devotion in life. He spend the evenings in the chapel, not to pray, but to learn how to hold a sermon and to preach. Always a loner in Rivet City, his change in behavior frightened the people who knew him and before long, any suspicion was placed at his feet.

It was the brutal rape and murder of a young woman, that finally swayed the opinion, unleashing a mob keen for his blood. Anthony was innocent, as a month later, a mercenary would confess, yet the mob had judged him the moment it had layed eyes on him. With just the cloths on his back, he was chased into the Capital Wasteland, having to swim through the Patomac, to save his life. It was on the other side, that he realized that his book, his life, was still in Rivet City, unreachable for him!

Mad with grief over the loss, Anthony wandered through the wasteland, babbling and howling. So deranged was his behavior, that even the coldest raider avoided him, and rumors have, that even deathclaws would stop to watch him from a save distance, as he screamed in words from a language outside this world. Eating raw meat and drinking rain water, he would one day find himself eating from a rotten brahmin corpse of a raided trading caravan, as he suddenly opened felt an unnatural allure from the saddle-back of the beast. Opening it, the content fell out and with it, the sacred book! Taking hold of it, Anthony opened it, for now, in his mad state, the signs were as clear for him to read, as mere English. Yet in a cruel twist of fate, two pages in, his madness faded from him, leaving him in a terrifying state of sanity, reduced to skin and bones, more animal then man. Making his way to Megaton, in hopes of finding a play to stay where he could study his book, he was ambushed and captured by slavers. Stripped of the little cloths he still had, they took his book once more from him, before sending him off with other, to be brought to the place called The Pitt.

A shadow of a man, Anthony was as unfit to work as one could be. Instead, he was used as a punching bag for the raiders, forced to humiliate himself for a scrap of food, while being constantly beaten and abused. His life would have ended soon, if it weren't for a chance. Sandra Kundanika who in search of an assistant for her medical work, wandered down to slave pens, and spotted Anthony, who, while having been clearly exposed to radiation, showed not a sign of mutation in any way or form! Intrigued by this, she took him up for experimentation. Still struck with Sanity, Anthony quickly was able to show his old intellect to her, and while lacking an medical education, could easily proof his worth, due to his quick mind and talent for mathematics. Freed from his bounds, he became a member of the Pitt Raiders, with Ishmael Ashur soon placing great confidence in his new adviser, who so willingly offered his support to Sandras experiments, while also doing his best to help in the restoration of the city´s industry, learning much about industrial processes and theory. Still, in every night he could feel the book missing, and could not help, but know that it was not his destiny to be a mere lieutenant of a raider boss.

It was almost a year in his duty as a lieutenant, when he would overlook a delivery of new slaves, that one of them would catch his eye. With grim satisfaction, he spotted the same slaver who had captured him so long ago, in chains. Yet his grin vanished, when the slaver would present the book to Anthony, muttering madly about it having told him to bring it back. Still sane, Anthony was unable to read it, yet its mere presence work his endless ambition again. Writing down what he still knew about the book, and the glimpses he had taken in it, during his time of madness, allowed him to form an idea of his destiny. For soon, he would began to spread it among his peers.

The Rise of the Prophet
First, they mocked him, as he was preaching to him, for it took him a week, to earn more then just grim mockery. Ishmael was concerned about such actions, and demanded that he stopped wasting his time with such nonsense, yet before long, the first began to take his words in. A raider called Iron-Jaw was the first to take up the faith, becoming a stalwart supporter of Anthony, who from now on called himself The Prophet. Preaching in secret, the number of converts grew, while Anthony slowly made his moves on Sandra, who was pregnant at this time, with a child, holding some of the DNA that she had taken from Anthony all these years ago, yet had been fathered by Ishmael, her husband. Whispering into her ear, he was finally able to convince her to to sway Ishmael to allow the Prophets preaching, as it would help him keep his men loyal and the slaves in line. A faith of war and industry, a tool, just like the whip, he called it. And Ashur agreed finally.

Slaves and Raiders alike were welcome to hear the sermons of the prophet, transmitted through the radio broadcast and soon by preachers trained by the prophet himself. With Iron-Jaw as his own loyal lieutenant the prophet began to slowly make his moves inside the city, securing men and material, soon equal to Ishmael in power. Then, when Sandra finally gave birth to the child, the prophet declared in an impassioned speech, that his heiress had been born this very night. Challanged by that, Ashur beat Anthony to an inch of his life, yet the prophet did not flinch under the punches, as he kept on preaching. Disturbed to the core, he stumbled back from the bloodied prophet. recovering for the better part of a year, his influence wavered, as Werners Coup failed. His name was forbidden to be spoken out, and Iron-Jaw was imprisoned. Yet the Prophet was not dead, and neither were his words. For when he rose from his sick bed, he once more felt the madness inside him, easy as a feather.

And so, on a dark night, in the middle of a terrible rad-storm, the prophet led his own coup against Ashur. Men send to kill him, turned to his side, while others were told where engulfed with flames, as the prophet walked the streets, slaves and raiders behind him. Storming the Heaven, he cut down any loyalist, sacrificing their hearts to Ug-Qualtoth, who had send the rad-storm, turning them to ash in his hands, his mad laughter a beacon for his followers in the green mist. Ashur died, cut down by the followers of the prophet, trying to protect his wife and daughter, while Sandra was killed by the prophet himself, after she refused to give him the child. Both their heads were mounted on pikes at the great bridge, as the sign calling the city was torn down, replaced with another, calling it the holy city.

The first expansion of the Cult
With the prophet as the new lord of the city, a new regime took charge. Priests were trained in the words of the prophet, to preach in his name among the slaves and raiders alike, who now were called "warriors of the faith". Iron-Jaw received the title of Warmaster, as the prophet declared that expansion was needed to fuel his ambitions for greatness. With his eyes layed on the neighboring Scrapper Union, the first war of the Cult began. Iron-Jaw proofed a capable leader, using the new warriors with great effect, and was able to break the Union before the end of the year, bringing back great numbers of slaves, scrap and weaponry to the Pitt. With the Broadcast increasing in range, more and more people ventured into the holy city, the weak to be enslaved, the strong to be made warriors, while the smart were granted places in the temples of labor, placated and taken care for by the cult. Riches of the slave trade, and the loot of the expansion allowed for unknown comfort, as high above the ground, the robed elite of the cult could settle down in old sky-scrapers, worshipping far off from the rabble below, and serving the cult with their skills and mind.

Appearance in the RP
The Cult appears in the RP during the Vegas conference at page on and is present throughout the rp

Trivia

 * The Cult is highly inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft