We are blind. We go through our lives sure of ourselves and our world. Our reality appears to us to be stable and explainable, run by the rules and laws of both nature and man.

Our reality is a lie. It is an illusion created by forces most of us can't even concieve of. Carefully crafted to keep us in check. Science, religion and politics provide enough answers to keep us relatively content, and with those answers in front of us we rarely question whether anything beyond those parameters even exists.

Beyond our comfortable world lies a reality that would drive most people mad. As the order of society breaks down so does the illusion. The powers that enslave us are losing their grip, and in some places the illusion is starting to crack.

This is the setting for my favorite role playing game, Kult. I've gamed for almost 20 years, and in that time I always sought out the dark and horrifying side of gaming. If the games I played weren't like that, I changed them to fit my preferred style. Then came Kult. Created by Target Games in Sweden in 1991, and translated into English in 1993, the game is a contemporary horror roleplaying game with an atmospere like the movie Hellraiser. It called to me like no other game ever had. I've played nearly nothing else since.

10-22-99
I just finished the Kult short story I've been working on. It's called Your own little piece of Hell and it's based on a character from a Kult game I ran years ago. I hope you like it.

The Veil of Madness used to be a huge Kult information site. Then one day it disappeared except for a note saying "Damned Lictors". Now after several months it's back, but it's completely changed. All the info is gone, and in it's place is a really cool Kult themed site with a lot of beautiful graphics. Go and wander the streets of the Veil and see it for yourself.

The cosmology of Kult is roughly based on the Hebrew Mystical text called the Kabbalah, as well as Gnostic mysticism and a few other things. The forces that control our world are the Sephiroth and their opposites the Qlippoth. Each represents an aspect of life, and embodies that aspect. In Kult, these primal forces are taken to their horrifying extremes, and the light and dark powers become in one instance merciless and in the other truly horrifying. I find myself drawn toward the Qlippoth, the dark forces. Below are the power structures in which these beings reside.

The ten Sephiroth, the forces which control the illusion, comprise the Tree of Life. In Kult they are called the Archons. Their palaces dominate the skyline of the infinite city of Metropolis. According to the cosmology of Kult, the beings Chokmah, Chesed, Hod and Yesod no longer exist. They were destroyed in a great war amongst the Archons. The remaining Archons have taken over their spheres of influence, and their palaces lie in shattered ruins.

For each of the ten Sephiroth there exists an opposite, or Qlippoth. They make up the Tree of Death. In Kult they are called the Death Angels. While the Archons strive to maintain an ever-weakening illusion, the Death Angels work tirelessly to widen the cracks and plunge mankind into Inferno. In the endless wastes and mazes of Inferno the Death Angels maintain their dark citadels. Populated by their faithful serviitors, the Nepharites and Razides, the citadels are eternal prisons for millions of tortured souls.