3 More flame-based cults for your 5e games
Continuing the theme from last week, here are 3 more cults that follow or worship fire-related entities. Here is a link to the previous post if you missed it.
Cult of the Bestial Flame
Symbol: A patch of scorched beast hide with living veins pulsing beneath.
Motivation: To destroy civilization and usher in an eternal, ever-living summer.
People: Hunters, farmers, anarchists, those disillusioned by cities.
The Cult of the Bestial Flame burns not for destruction’s sake, but for a vision: a world where nature reigns wild and unbound, where the seasons no longer spiral toward death, and where no walls stand between the living and the land. Civilization is a stone prison that must be shattered. They dream of an eternal summer, fertile, wild, untamed, and pulsing with life.
To the Bestial Flame, cities are rot made solid. They believe that every law, every plow that breaks the earth for coin, every stone laid in the name of progress is a step further from the primal harmony of the world. Their mission is to raze the artificial and reawaken the ancient instincts buried beneath human skin.
Through forbidden rites and ancient communion with the primal forces of life, cult members can take on the forms of beasts—their claws, their senses, their hunger. Some speak of high-ranking cultists who no longer return to human form, vanishing into forests to become legends, predators, and myths.
They infiltrate farming communities, preaching liberation through the soil: "Burn the granaries, plant the wild seeds." Hunters become their disciples, taught not just to kill, but to unmake the hierarchy of man over beast. Anarchists, drawn by the promise of living without rulers, become firebrands who bring down towers of stone and order.
Where the Bestial Flame takes hold, cities crumble into moss-covered ruins, roads vanish beneath roots, and structured societies dissolve into wandering, self-sustaining packs. Life becomes a constant state of change, and change becomes sacred. There are no monuments in eternal summer—only growth. Only wild. Only flame.
Cult of the Dragonflame
Symbol: A Dragonhead.
Motivation: To bring the power of the archdragons back.
People: Mages, historians, dragonborns.
The Cult of the Dragonflame burns with reverence, not for the dragons of today, but for the Archdragons of myth: titanic beings who preceded the present gods. The Archdragons are shrouded in myth; some say they shaped continents with a breath, while others mention them in the same breath as ancient titans or evils of the world. To the cult, modern dragons are diluted echoes, their flames weak, their purpose lost. But they remain useful—as vessels, fuel, and keys.
This cult dreams of a world ruled not by distant, silent gods in unreachable realms, but by divine beings made manifest, walking the world with teeth, fire, and wisdom. To them, the gods in the other realms have abandoned the world, while the archdragons can help them in the present.
Their leaders collect the objects left by lost civilizations. Ancient effigies, weapons, and long-lost draconic ruins are the most sought-after items. The cult can use these objects, in conjunction with dragon bones, to harness the power of the ancient archdragons.
They operate from the shadows of academic halls and under the smoke of black markets, controlling the flow of dragon relics and ancient texts. Their fingers are in every archaeological dig that hints at a lost draconic age. Excavations disappear. Scholars vanish. Entire sites are “reclassified” under mysterious private interests.
Whispers speak of Basadrax, a dragon diplomat and famed Mask collector, as a member of the cult. Despite being a dragon himself, he has shown himself to be sympathetic to the cult's cause, often diverting funds to their archaeological digs.
To join the Dragonflame is to pledge loyalty to a future forged in flame, scale, and bone—a future where gods no longer hide, and the world is ruled by beings who have felt its heat, its sorrow, and its need for strength. Archdragons will rise again, and the sky will remember its masters.
Cult of the Starseekers
Symbol: A single star with a spiral in the center.
Motivation: To crown themselves rulers of the world through wealth and Starfell magic.
People: Merchants, nobles, and ambitious elites.
The Cult of the Starseekers worships no god, dragon, or flame—but instead aligns with something far older and stranger: the Starfell, eldritch entities that drift in the black between worlds, untouched by the laws of magic, divinity, or mortality. These beings offer power that breaks the rules, and the Starseekers intend to use that power to own the world.
At its core, the cult is driven by greed, not just for money, but for power and control. They enslave the minds, rig the markets, buy monarchs, and ensure their own success. They court the wealthy and the powerful, offering “miraculous” devices and techniques from “sentient” clockworks, to luxuries that never fade, technology only made possible by Starfell power.
Though small in number, their wealth makes them one of the most dangerous cults in existence. They finance wars, manipulate economies, and replace institutions with thralls. They believe the world was always meant to be ruled by the enlightened few, and that they are that few. The rest of society, to them, is livestock to be managed or reshaped.
But even as they grow more powerful, the cult is plagued by infighting. Each member seeks their ascendancy, their own pact with the Starfell. The greatest of these ambitions centers on the Astremax Mask, a relic said to have the power to reshape the fabric of reality itself.
In the shadows of palaces and counting houses, under starlit domes and in whispers carried by gold, the Starseekers climb. They will not burn the world, or conquer it with blades—they will buy it, bend it, and brand it as theirs. And when they are done, reality may not remember it was ever different.
https://www.axostories.com
Game designer and writer. Nebula finalist. Ennie winner. Short stories, videogames, and tabletop games. Alastor has credits accross a long list of mediums but Axostories is its happy place. DnD Radiant Citadel • Ixalan • Pathfinder • MtG • Kult Divinity Lost Enby Bi They/Them