Faction #16 The Cult of the Dark One

[DreamWeaver]

Ok having them show up as "Independent" clans on scouting reports would I think work extremely effective, and this would counter one of Davin's fears that everyone would hunt them down.  so the benefits could be rewritten to be:

Benefits:
1)The Cult can Ambush other clans. This would make them Shadows in the Dark and extremely dangerous. Fear would make people do what is asked of them, or else be killed. Remember this faction is called: The Cult of the Dark One. This faction wouldn't be combat army types, but within a city, they would be feared to be in every shadow. 
2)They would appear as an Independent clan when encountered on a scouting report.
3) Within a city they could appear hidden, thus not being located or seen on a scouting report within a city, if the clan's size is less than 20% of what the city population actually is. Example 20,000 pop city, would mean if the Cult clan is less than 2,000 retainers they would remain hidden to anyone coming to the city and not know that they are even within the city.

I also feel that a Cult Shrine would be hidden within any city it is built within. I like the note on the back of the CVR, of "Rumor is said that there is a Hidden Cult Shrine within the city". This all words to add a sense of mystery and intrigue to the whole faction and character that fits with the faction.

Or what if the Cult was a hidden organized faction, but remained NPC, and Independent players could just work their way into the Cult's good graces (role-playing opportunities here) and do "jobs" for them?  In that way they could support one or more "evil" factions without actually being members.

Somewhere in the reports (I forget where) we designed a section for rumors to show up, which would be a fine place for this kind of information.

Davin, call me slow because why would anyone want to remain as a "Independent"? You can't gain rank and you get like 200/400 Independent Influence a turn. So what, what is the point in remaining "Independent"? I just don't see the value, you have no support and no backing at all. Why bother?  The reason why rank is important, lets say you have a ORA - Oratory skill, and the higher you rank is the more effective your ORATORY (Political not Religious PRE-Preach) effectiveness will be.
I think you could play a effective Cult clan and have a lot of fun at it. The Cult requires a character that really want to roleplay and play a rather challenging  faction, but if you give them all the perks we have defined they would be able to successfully be able to play this type of challenge quite well.