Cabal of Agony

"Death is the end, the final conclusion to all life. The Lord of Agony allows the strongest to take what they will from the living, and to determine who will next be sent into his cold, cruel embrace. We are the masters of life and death, holding absolute power over lesser mortals, through our master. This is the gift he gives to us for furthering his work."

- Hierarch Nezmajen, High Cleric of the Cabal of Agony

The Cabal of Agony is a deadly and highly dangerous Chaos Cult whose origins harkens back to the Age of Strife. The clerics of this outlawed faith worship the primordial deity Nerull - the Chaos God of Death, Atrophy and Pain. His domain encompasses death and all things of the grave, as well as the most basic and primal fear of dying. Nerull is the patron of those who seek the greatest evil for their own enjoyment or gain. All are equal in Nerull's cold realm. Every living thing is an affront to the Lord of Agony, and every death brings a dark spark of joy to his long-dead heart.

Appealing to those who tend towards jaded excess or forbidden pleasure, Nerull's supplicants are often austere, driven and dangerous individuals who obey their god's teachings and feed his hungry demand for sacrifice and suffering. In the past, multiple groups worshipping this evil deity have been in existence at the same time, either kept in ignorance of each other or set up as rivals to prove their worth, depending on their malevolent god's whim.

Background
The Cabal of Agony is a dangerous and highly organised malefic cult whose origins and activities go back according to some sources, to the founding of the Imperium of Man and quite possibly beyond. This cult has been repeatedly smashed time and again over the centuries only to appear again some years or decades later. Membership, size, form, and power may vary, but it is always recognisable in its core beliefs and the object of its worship - Nerull, the Lord of Agony. The Nerullytes are tasked with ensuring the people of the Imperium both fear and respect death. They spread fear for their deity, saying that the proper way to spread the message of Nerull is to make everyone fear and dread the fate they cannot escape, that no matter where they run and where they hide, the Lord of Agony will find them. To aggrandize Nerull's power they often propagate rumours that merely touching one of his priests brings certain death. Though recognised by the Ordo Malleus as a near archetypical Chaos worshipping cult, they are often better resourced and more dangerous than most.

Those who worship Nerull, who wholly give themselves to his will, praise their malevolent god through dark rituals, honouring the Pain Bringer with living sacrifices and acts of torture to represent the nihilistic nature of the Lord of Agony. Nerull's clerics are all sadists (and most are also masochists) who prefer to give pain rather than actually kill. Sacrificial victims dedicated to Nerull often take days to die, for they are tortured to death - the more slowly the better. Like their malevolent god, Nerull's followers delight in the sounds of screams and tearing flesh, and because they try to prolong a victim's agony, many are skilled in the healing arts. In their spare time, the clerics devise new tortures and new torture devices.

Teachings
Nerull's followers teach that life is ultimately futile and worthless, and that it makes no difference how one lives in life, as they will all ultimately suffer the same fate in death. They hotly dispute the idea that souls are judged according to their actions in life, and rewarded or punished accordingly, stating instead that all souls, whoever and whatever they may have been in life, and are tortured in Nerull's kingdom for the rest of eternity.

Religious Practices
Nerullytes often engage in self-flagellation, often in the morning when praying to their malign deity. They celebrate each season with the Rite of Pain and Agony, a ritual that involves followers dancing on glass, thorns, or barbed-wire while being whipped by higher-level Nerullytes. A smaller ritual occurring every twelve days involves followers passing their bodies through the flames of candles. During warfare, clerics of Nerull scourge their naked shoulders or tear their cheeks with their nails in order to evoke magic gifted from the Lord of Agony.

Interaction with Outsiders
Nerull's worshipers are a morose, secretive lot, reticent to share their faith with those outside their cult. The Cabal takes great pains to keep its existence hidden from the outside world. It makes extensive use of go-betweens, ignorant hirelings, secret tongues, ciphers, and a rigidly enforced code of silence to maintain its cover. Behind this curtain, the cult's structure is strongly delineated, with its masters holding complete authority of life and death over its lesser members.

Temples to the Lord of Agony are hidden behind false facades. The clerics often maintain front businesses, such as bakeries, dairies, and curiosity shops, with the temples accessible through hidden doors. The temple's rooms are soundproofed to muffle the cries of pain. Although most of Nerull's clerics are compulsive about keeping their temples clean, it is usually impossible to keep a dribble of blood or a loose tooth from dropping to the floor at any given time. Altars are usually baroque monstrosities of spikes, spines, clamps, and chains.