Spider Cult

The Spider-Cult was a minor sect of Ithilien which was active in Minas Ithil primarily, where their main center, the temple of the web was found in a converted former theatre in a back alley of the Gwathrynd.The Cult professed to be an eccentric but harmless school of philosophy,their main doctrines included:


 * 1. Order in Middle-earth comes not from earthly government, but from the collective essence of all living creatures, linked in the Great Web of Life.
 * 2. The powers of the mind, when unlocked, enable each person to govern his own destiny. This power exists in all Men equally, be they noble or common. It may be unlocked in ritual and with special herbs.
 * 3. The authority of the House of Elros has worked to suppress the freedom of human thought.
 * 4. Individually a single life has no meaning. True power lies in collective energy.

Other elements of the cult were visions of freedom from labor and nightly meetings with bizarre rites involving dancing and hallucinogenic herbs.

While openly posing as a mix of republican idealists and hedonistic pleasure-seekers in thuth however they were a cover for the Dark worship.Deep hidden within their halls the groups inner circle maintained a shrine dedicated to the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, the groups true patron and the current disguise of the dark lord Sauron. Besides using the emblem of the spider as their sign, the spider to them also had a second, more sinister meaning: on and off the cult captured an innocent vagrant or beggar, drugged him and dragged him to the entrance of Torech Ungol as a sacrifice to Shelob, who guarded the access into the Dark land of Mordor.

The Cult had some hundred members, mostly from the poor classes, but also some from the cities noble families who hoped to use the cults influence for their own benefit.Most members were good natured and unknowing of the groups true means as only the small inner circle was truly initiated into the dark religion.Yet the cult could rely on a group of violent street-thugs to carry out some of their more dirty work.