PREVIEW MAY ONLY BE USED WITH PRIOR PERMISSION CORE RULES Chapter 1 APREVIEW World MAY ONLY BE USED in DarknessWITH PRIOR PERMISSION e live in a world where the sun has set. Fallen angels, twisted demons, and lost gods walk in our midst. So too do our eternal jail- ers, pitiless beings beyond Time itself, striv- ing to keep us imprisoned. Their corrupting influence seeps into every aspect of our existence. They wield almost total control over our top politicians, religious leaders, law enforcement officials, internet celebri- ties, and media industries. Their only goal is to keep us distracted, passive and quiet, so we never awake from our trance and see W the world as it truly is. 38 Chapter 1 – A World in Darkness twisted ideals of beauty, while the charming man on the dating site is one of Tipareth’s Incarnates. Crea- The Demiurge tures no longer fully human dwell in ghost towns, Ages ago, a being of immense power, known as the Demi- rundown industrial areas, and ramshackle buildings urge, ensnared us and forced us into submission. He forged in the inner cities. In hospitals, coma patients con- ten Principles with which to bind humanity, then fettered us struct vivid and marvelous dream worlds, places and quelled our divine fire, reducing it to a dying ember. We where they can rule unchallenged even as their existed completely in His counterfeit world, and our souls fed bodies wither. Terror also dwells within us and when its infrastructure when we died. The delicate Illusion depended the Illusion weakens, our nightmares assume physi- on infinitely complex machinery, where every facet of our lives cal form and stalk the earth. Our perverse appetites, served only to perpetuate our enslavement. Our jailers, the lic- repressed for millenia, birth unspeakable creatures tors, held positions of power throughout our societies, keeping of flesh and fear. Some of us seek our origins, us distracted with endless conflicts, impossible commitments, discovering pathways, puzzles, and magic to part and aching desires. The Illusion seemed impenetrable. the Illusion and lead us toward the dim light of our original divinity. But then, unexpectedly, the Demiurge’s power started to weaken. We began to question the intricately constructed system of faith and politics which kept us enslaved. The divine order was thrown into revolt, world religions lost their adher- ents, and the once crowded churches were abandoned. Over a few centuries, the worldview that had endured for thousands of Playing KULT years slowly fell apart. Early in the 20th century, this collapse In KULT: Divinity Lost, the protagonists are people reached its zenith and the Demiurge vanished from existence, who become involved in or are pulled into events either having fled or died. tied to their pasts. Past sins catch up with them, demanding atonement. Childhood fears bubble Now, the boundaries of the Illusion are weakened. Even so, up to the surface, manifesting in physical form. only a rare few have begun seeing through the lies. Most of us These terrors take their shape based on what close our eyes to the Truth, creating new distractions to keep lurks inside of us. As such, we cannot perceive ourselves enthralled, nurtured by our greed and vanity. Our jail- whatever exists out there without also being ers struggle to keep our hands tied, obscuring our perceptions, reflected in it. Every human being has their per- whispering new lies, and always fearing we will wake up. They sonal demons, their own purgatories. In these know that most of us, somehow, feel an uneasy sense of loss stories, the protagonists are forced to journey or emptiness, a pervasive need to know that there is more. The into the abyss, perhaps even across the thresh- Illusion’s disintegration creates mental discomfort and disor- 1 old of death itself, only to discover there is no der, which are controlled with therapies andPREVIEW medications that final destination – Death is only the beginning. also blind us to the True Reality. Madness – the irrational feeling something isn’t right – overwhelms and leads us further into The oracles and prophets seek our attention the darkness, away from the familiar and conceivable.MAY ONLYwith BE their USED graffiti inlaid with hidden meanings, WITH PRIOR throughPERMISSION their rambling screeds on conspiracy blogs, and by stopping us on the street and shouting the Truth into our faces with spit- laden monologues. Yet we immediately turn Beyond Darkness our gaze down towards the comforting light of our cellphone screens and keep walking on and Madness as if nothing happened. When we see through the Illusion, we glimpse a world far In KULT’s stories, the main characters are darker and more terrifying than the one we thought existed suddenly awakened from their slumber and, around us. Grim buildings, dirty stone façades, and darkened despite everything they thought they knew, doorways, leading to labyrinthine border worlds where pale realize their lives have been a lie. As the beings dwell in perpetual shadows. Demons and other tormen- reality these characters carefully constructed tors target the mentally ill for spiritual torture, using them as around themselves falls apart piece by bridges to claw their way into our reality. In housing projects, piece, they begin to glimpse a darker world local cults worship strange gods and ritually butcher outsiders lurking behind the cracks in the mortar. The who won’t be missed. Condemned men hunt for the secrets of Illusion is starting to tear. immortality, making pacts with fallen angels. Conjurers solve The characters will confront unthinkable intricate puzzles by deciphering arcane nonsense scribbled on horrors. Those who do not perish are subway walls. At the end of the street, the desolate house has a changed irrevocably. They will make pacts secret entrance, which only an unlucky few can see. Old gods with sinister entities to elude even darker linger in the slums, bewildered, remnants of ancient beliefs forces, glimpse the Truth that renders their sustained by humanity’s dreams of bygone years. Beneath her past lives meaningless, and experience well-dressed veneer, the smiling stranger is a flayed and man- both the sweetness of victory and its gled nepharite, who leaves bloody footprints behind her. The rotten aftertaste. exquisite model is a mindless semblance created by humanity’s The Demiurge 39 PREVIEW MAY ONLY BE USED WITH PRIOR PERMISSION 40 Chapter 1 – A World in Darkness GM: “Okay, you continue waiting there. As the minutes tick by impossibly Roleplaying slowly, hundreds, maybe thousands, of KULT: Divinity Lost is best suited for groups of three to six people hurry by you and out onto the wet people willing to experience a dramatic horror story. One of square, heading towards the surrounding the participants assumes the role of gamemaster (GM) and buildings to escape the weather. You’re just is responsible for leading the conversation and managing about to get on your way when you finally the story’s scope as well as the bulk of the game’s rules. The spot Johanna.” remaining participants are the players, who each utilize the Player: “Oh, damn. I approach her, quickly.” game rules to create a player character (PC), who represents their protagonist in the story. Before beginning the game, the GM: “Okay, as you start walking, you notice the group determines guidelines for the story, such as when and man following really close behind her. Johanna’s where it takes place, and any notable events the PCs have got the hood of her jacket up, but you can still been part of. make out the heavy bruising on her face. Some- thing is terribly wrong here. What do you do?” During the course of the game, the GM is tasked with describ- ing the scenes and people the PCs encounter, overseeing Player: “Fuck, fuck, fuck. I don’t know.” events which transpire during the story, and asking the players GM: “Do you continue approaching her, or do you just what their characters are doing. The GM also controls and stay out on the square?” portrays all characters who are not player characters – called The conversation between the GM and player continues non-player characters (NPCs). If a PC encounters an NPC in the in this fashion, letting the group discover what happens story, the GM describes what the NPC does and says. In turn, next in the story. Maybe the GM will switch to a different the players assume the roles of their characters when they PC, describe a scene, and ask the player what her PC does, converse with each other or any NPCs they encounter, as well or another PC is introduced into the scene described above: as describe what their characters do. All of this interaction is framed in the format of a conversation. GM: “Mary, you are crossing Sergel’s Square on your way home from work when you suddenly see John standing in The typical conversation might progress something like this: the middle of the square. He looks panicked, and is staring GM: “It’s eight-twenty in the evening, Saturday, November at a woman further down the square. She looks familiar but 22nd, 2014. Heavy sleet falls onto the streets of Stockholm, you can’t remember from where. What do you do?” turning the ground into brown slush. People are hurrying, almost running, through the ice-cold downpour. John, you’re hanging out by The Slab on Sergel’s Square, stand- ing underneath the roofing of thePREVIEW subway entrances. 1 You’re waiting for your contact at Daily News, Johanna, Rules, Moves, to show up. You’d decided on meeting her here at eight o’clock.