Cult of Mithras
Introduction
The Cult of Mithras, also known as the Mithraic Mysteries, is a blood cult centered around the fourth-generation Ventrue Mithras.
History
Roman Era
The vampire Mithras took over the existing Persian cult, passing himself off as the physical incarnation of the warrior-god, and followed that cult westward to Rome. The cult spread rapidly among Rome's military, and from there to every corner of the Empire.
In 71 CE, Mithras arrived in Britain, tired of the political infighting of Rome. He joined in efforts to pacify the Celts, exterminate the Lhiannan, and drive the Picti and their Lupine allies north. His cult became one of the principle religions of Roman Britain, with Cainite and mortal worshipers alike. The cult, and Mithras' temporal rule, were centered at the Mithraeum in what is now called Walbrook, outside Londinium.
However, the growing influence of Christianity in the Empire gradually eroded the cult's influence, and the collapse of Roman rule over Britain in 409 further reduced its prominence. Mithras himself went into torpor at this time, in the mithraeum of Vercovicium, leaving the cult without their god and leader as Anglo-Saxons flooded into the British Isles. The cult persisted for some time without him, and even made some inroads among the newcomers. Mithras' childe Cretheus attempted to spread the cult in Byzantium, to little effect.
Dark Ages
The cult was revived in 1066, when Norman invaders awoke Mithras from torpor. Simply re-establishing the cult in Christian England was untenable, but Mithras slowly rebuilt his influence behind the scenes, and by 1154 he claimed Princedom of London and rule over the Baronies of Avalon.
The cult was key to Mithras' control of Avalon in the aftermath of the War of Princes. The Rose Treaty forbade him from raising or leading an army, except for his personal bodyguards; he maintained the loyalty of his barons through bargains, blood bonds, and faith. Many Kindred warriors, and a few mortals as well, observed the rites of the Lord of Ages in private while maintaining a public veneer of Christianity. James Mannerly, a priest in the cult, occupied Dover for some time, and took a hard line toward followers of the Cainite Heresy crossing into England from France.
The Mithraeum at Walbrook in London once again became the center of the cult at this time. Large numbers of cultists also inhabited the Barony of Carlisle, and Marcus Verus, the Baron of Chester and Mithras' childe, also actively recruited both mortals and Cainites to the faith. One of these is his childe, Arcadius, who ruled as Consul in the independent city of Bath; here he recruited spies and warriors to the Unconquered Guard. Meanwhile, Cretheus continued his attempts to keep the cult alive in Rome, the very heart of the Church, as part of his strange pursuit of Golconda.
Victorian Age
