Chapter 30: The Cult of Blood
DCU!Cult of Blood was a massive, long-term villain organization with religious overtones. It was the main villain for the Teen Titans for DECADES. It has a rich history in the DCU. Arrowverse tried to adapt some aspects of the Cult of Blood. They failed.
However, Arrowverse created Sebastian Blood. He was phenomenal. I think he was wasted as a sub-villain to Slade… I have issues with that whole season arc.
Anyway, in my AU!Cult of Blood, I adapted Arrowverse!Sebastian into a more DCU!Cult of Blood. My final AU!Cult of Blood is a fusion of DCU and my own head canon.
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ORIGIN:
The Cult of Blood was a very old form of worship. It was founded hundreds of years ago when the English Empire was spreading throughout the world. England came to the island of Zandia in colonial times. In the days BEFORE guns, Zandia had been conquered by the English. As with most of the English colonies of those times, Zandia rebelled against the oppressive English rule.
Christ's Prayer Shawl: This was an ancient magic item used by the English to aid in their conquest of the world. The Shawl was used by followers of Christ when fighting their enemies. The Crusaders used the Shawl to assist them in their conquests. It was being used in Zandia by the leader of the Crusaders. The shaman stole the Shawl from the Crusaders. He then used the Shawl against the Crusaders. The Shawl allowed the user to summon demons to fight on their side. It imbued the wearer with strength and healing. It allowed the user to resist the signs of aging. Trigon gave the shaman a ritual that allowed the corruption of the Shawl. It infused the Shawl's gifts into a blood pit. Blood magic. Death magic.
During the initial rebellion, a local shaman used magic. The shaman used the Shawl to summon demons and illusions. The illusions forced the Crusaders to fight false enemies while they were slaughtered by the Zandians. The shaman summoned the demon Trigon for his assistance. Trigon granted the shaman's request to help the people of Zandia win their freedom from the English. The Zandians won. Trigon had a foothold on Earth.
Trigon taught the shaman how to corrupt the Shawl with dark magic and death magic. He taught the shaman how to ready a pit of blood formed from the deaths of his enemies. How this pit would imbue him with strength, durability, and give him vitality for the length of his natural life. Trigon lied. These were properties of the Shawl that Trigon was able to corrupt in the blood pit. It did no imbue immortality, but the shaman was fooled.
The shaman was bewitched by the power the pit gave him. Soon the island of Zandia was free of enemies. The shaman took his conquest across the ocean. He started by attacking the other islands of Oceania. Then he moved to India and Africa as he made his way to the source of his anger. England. He attacked and conquered England with vicious glee.
However, his conquest of England and Europe was stopped suddenly by the magic held within various gypsy groups. The shaman thought he had succeeded when he captured the three of the strongest gypsy witches. They cursed him at their executions . They used their deaths to imbue the shaman and his bloodline with an insidious curse.
~Let bad luck chase you and all your blood kin.
~I curse your name, your house, and all your descendants.
~You will die by the hand of your son. As you are cursed, so is your son. Forever is your line cursed.
The shaman ignored these curses, but his armies soon fell to others through bad luck. Not long after the shaman returned to Zandia, he was assassinated by his son. The origins of the curse faded into memory, but every male in the shaman's line felt the desire to spread their line everywhere… and every man in their line was killed by one of his sons. Even if the curse skipped the women for a generation, their grandsons killed their fathers.
The original followers of the shaman named him in the way of the English. He was known as Father Blood. Father Blood kept the secrets of the blood pit, but he felt compelled to tell his children. This eventually became a family compulsion. Trigon's name faded into history. The Cult of Blood rose to power on Zandia.
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FAMILY:
The shaman took many wives and fathered a dozen children. The girl children were married off to his important supporters. His bloodline inherited the money and power on Zandia.
After a few decades, the people of Zandia noticed the curse. They took to fostering their children out far from their fathers. More than one Father Blood tried to wipe out their bloodline on the island to avoid the curse. Yet the hidden sons of Father Blood always rose in power to oppose their fathers.
Most of the local government and power people on Zandia are a part of the bloodline of Zandia. This enabled the island of Zandia to enact laws that were beneficial to the supervillains of the world. The island became a safe haven for those villains. The island grew rapidly. It became an economic powerhouse in Oceania, on par with New Zealand.
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MOTIVATION:
The primary motivation of the Cult of Blood was greed and power. The bloodline of the shaman had become ingrained into the culture of the cult. The followers of the cult became obsessed with the Blood Family. They went out of their way to perpetuate the bloodline, even if their current Father Blood did not desire to perpetuate the curse.
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PERSONALITY:
Trigon: Trigon was responsible for the personality and attitudes of the members of the cult and the bloodline. Trigon was pleased with the volume of violence done by the Cult. He received all the dead souls of the bloodline and the cult members into his level of hell.
Blood Family: The bloodline of the shaman was driven by its obsession with longevity and the gifts of the blood pit. The bloodline had ingrained the use of the pit to only Father Blood. This limited the children of the bloodline somewhat, but Father Blood was compelled to procreate until his death. This compulsion began at the onset of puberty in both the male and female sides of the bloodline.
Male Cult Members: Male cult members who are not a part of the bloodline are completely loyal to the bloodline. Their loyalty varies with individual members of the bloodline, but most of the male members on Zandia are solely loyal to Father Blood. The outlying members are those that smuggle the children of the bloodline to safety while they are young. They assume that the female members are not affected by the curse.
Female Cult Members: Female cult members were infatuated with Father Blood. This fascination usually ended with pregnancy. Then they become obsessed with protecting their child.
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NOTES:
I love the rich history of the DCU!Cult of Blood. I wanted to bring this history to my AU, but I also wanted to use Sebastian. I brought the practices and obsessions of the Cult into being. I like the result. Don't worry. Sebastian will still be going back to Starling.
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