Cults of the World Between II: The Red Devourer

(art by Jacopo Ligozzi)

The Cult of the Red Devourer – the cult of the Red Devourer worships an aspect of the Crooked Moon. In the guise of the Red Devourer, the Crooked Moon is depicted as a bloated, eyeless face whose gaping jaws are festooned with a variety of jagged, blood-red teeth. To become a member of this cult a prospective devotee of the Red Devourer must cannibalize a person who already belongs to the cult; members of the cult believe that to hunt, kill, and eat a worshiper of the Red Devourer honors her by repeating a mythic battle in which she slew and consumed her own godly kin. Furthermore, members of this cult believe that those who eat sentient beings of their own species gain their power and knowledge. Though the requirement for membership in the Cult of the Red Devourer dissuades the squeamish and well-adjusted, in times of famine communities in which the cult is active have become hotbeds of murder and cannibalism as neighbors vie against neighbor to join, as it is believed that the Red Devourer protects the faithful from starvation. Beings frequently summoned by this cult include manscorpions, driders, and purple worms.