Cult of the Ceph

The Cult of the Ceph are a fanatical terrorist cult.

Their belief system is based on the ancient Ceph of Charos, who used to hunt and slaughter Draconi to extract their natural Aperture, and gain access to the Aether. The Cult believes that they are descendent from the ancient Ceph, and that the Aether must be brought into reality in order to 'balance' human behaviour.

Origins and Beliefs
It's unknown whether the Cult truly are the ancient descendents of ancient Ceph from millions of years ago, or merely modern humans that dig up the texts, rituals and writings of the Ceph and merely imitate them. In either case, their beliefs are the same - that the Aether represents humanities true identity. They worship the Primordial Aspects as gods, despite knowing next to nothing about them. Their ultimate goal is to bleed the Aether into reality, despite the cataclysmic events that would follow.


 * "Humanity is the Aether, and the Aether is humanity. It is the ugly horror of ourselves. It is the side of ourselves we cannot face. It is the darkness that we define upon each other. It is the evil that men and women do. It is the distilled nature of mortals. Charos suffers because of the Aether, this will always be so. But humans bucher, torture, abuse and conspire against one another. Do we do all this because we want it to be so, or do we do it because the Primordial Aspects require it? Do we know that have free will, or are we puppets being danced to the tune of the dark lords more powerful than any mortal can understand?"
 * ―Cameron Krane

Activity and Rituals
The most prized possession any Ceph cultists can possess are ancient texts used by the Ceph during the age of the Draconi. These writings often contain spells and rituals that involve sacrificing or harvesting live Draconi for their Apertures, and using the resulting Aether energy to some unknown purpose. Exactly what the ancient Ceph used these rituals for is unknown, though the Shamans were believed to possess extremely long lives, supernatural abilities and precognition. Modern Ceph cults have attempted to replicate these rituals, replacing the sacrifice of Draconi with humans - be they willing subjects or unwilling captives. Homocides and mass killings across the globe may sometimes be attributed to Ceph cults, and their use of ritualistic circles and summoning chants likens them to a satanic pagan cult. Without proper Draconi or the presence of the Aether, however, Ceph cults have thus far been harmless (save for those murdered for their sacraficial rituals).

This changed during the events of Soulcreek. Ceph cultists that had infiltrated the Institute, and indeed caused the 2nd Icecrown Incursion in the first place, were able to perform an ancient ritual in the presence of the spilled over Aether energy from the Blacklight outbreak. As a result, a number of cultist successfully summoned a demon, the sheep, into the Institute.