For reasons I’ll try to elaborate below, the various “official” descriptions of the Purple Hand and its aims don’t quite work with my – admittedly idiosyncratic – take on the Old World. Some things are mismatched because of my modifications of the background, some things just never made sense to me.
What I like and want to keep about the PH:
I like the whole faux-Illuminati “shadowy cabal of rich and powerful people secretly pulling strings” thing, so that’s definitely a keeper. I also like how they have their people in high places everywhere.
On the other hand, I also like the Hand’s bungling inefficiency and tendency to cripple itself with secrecy and miscommunication, while still being a genuine threat.
I also want them to be a truly evil force, although individual members could be deluded rather than wicked in many cases.
What I don’t like:
The originally stated aims of the PH, to “overthrow” or “dismantle” the Empire, always seemed a bit weaksauce to me. _Why_ do they want that exactly? What do they want in its stead? Tzeentch or whoever might just want change and instability for its own sake (though I think that’s a fairly boring motivation even for a god) but what’s in it for the cultists?
I suppose it works if you buy into the in-game propaganda (mainly of later editions) where Sigmar and the Empire is humanity’s great shield against Chaos, but that doesn’t really work in my version of the setting, where (as largely implied in 1E) the Empire is corrupt, complacent and not particularly worried about Chaos on the official level (the superstitious peasants, of course, are more concerned but they’re always on about something…).
So I've tried to write a version of these cults that makes a little more sense to me. But your mileage may vary, and I'd like to hear others' thoughts. I’m working on a longer document I’ll post when it’s more ready, but this is some brief notes on what I’m thinking so far:
The Purple Hand
My PH will be a shamelessly derivative mashup of ideas and influences. Apart from the various notes on the cult in official adventures, I’ll be borrowing from influences such as the Order of Esoteric Discoverie from Clockwork & Cthulhu, the Cult of Illumination from the 2E WFRP Companion, Lovecraft’s Church of Starry Wisdom, the N.I.C.E. and the Macrobes from C. S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, and real-world cults like Scientology.
Very briefly my version of the PH can be summarized as:
- A mystery cult ostensibly dedicated to collecting lost and forbidden knowledge, and employing this knowledge for power and advancement (with a penchant for political conspiracies). Its members are gradually initiated into the secrets and mysteries as they rise through the ranks. The cult also teaches some real magic to advancing members, which is a big deal in my very magic-restricted setting. The “truth” they perceive about the universe is a more Lovecraftian view than traditional Warhammer Chaos lore (I haven’t decided how much of it is actually true).
- The inner circles of the PH know about the hidden Masters: ancient, unimaginably powerful beings that uninitiated humanity can only tremble before. Some of these can be exploited and even controlled, some can be bargained with, and some need mortal middlemen in the world.
The inner circles of the PH cooperate with some of these beings for mutual benefit. To truly understand the world and gain true insight (and power), one must adopt the inhuman perspectives of the Masters.
The “Masters” more or less map onto greater and lesser Chaos gods and Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. Most important to the PH and in fact its chief sponsor is a being known as “the Messenger”, with elements of Tzeentch as well as (mainly) Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep. In fact at its heart the cult is the instrument of the Messenger, but many of the mid- to high-ranking cultists believe it’s more of a mutual cooperation as outlined above.
- The PH, along with other groups who have studied similar forbidden sources of knowledge, believe an apocalypse is coming – not necessarily the end of the world, but a time of great catastrophes and changes. Already we’re seeing the signs as the world is lurching wildly into the messy Early Modern period, becoming visibly more unstable and ever-changing.
The inner PH believe the coming apocalypse will serve the ends of the Masters, and the PH will play a part in it and come out on top - either as their favoured servants or even, in some interpretations, as true Masters themselves. It’s also consistent with the Masters’ will to help bring about conditions for the apocalypse by sowing discord, chaos and fear.
- While the PH has a fairly strict vertical hierarchy in ranks of initiation, “horizontally” it’s a loose networks of cells and Lodges that usually don’t cooperate and may compete for resources. The high-ranking Magisters can sometimes coordinate several Lodges.
On the entry level the PH looks like a fairly unexceptional, perhaps mildly subversive, upper-crust secret society concerned with some intellectual pursuit but at least as much with mutual backscratching and making influential contacts and intrigue, soon seasoned with hints of both magical power and political conspiracies.
In practice: the Purple Hand in my campaign
As will be seen, this setup allows the PH to act pretty much as it’s shown doing in TEW. Most cultists the PCs meet during DotR will be low-to-mid-ranking, with a limited understanding of the cult’s true nature and in all probability not suicidally fanatical. In fact, since the late Esther Lieberung was a high-ranking Magister, most cultists will approach the lookalike PC with a measure of fearful respect.
As the PH barely figures into PBtT as written, despite the main antagonist being their leader, I’ll have to do quite a bit more rewriting there. I’ll get back to that.
The Red Crown
My version of the RC is actually a splinter group split off from the PH over disagreement in theology and policy. The inner RC also believes in the coming apocalypse, but they envision it as coming sooner, faster and bloodier. Civilisation as we know it is ending in fire and blood – soon – and the true followers of the Masters will rise from the ashes. They prepare for their coming time by arming themselves (both with actual weapons and with magic) and recruiting mutant outcasts, beastmen and other outsiders to build an army of the forsaken – as well as using these pawns to accelerate the coming downfall. Basically, they’re fantasy survivalists.
The hostility between the two cults, as implied above, is both theological and political. They differ on esoteric but important points in their beliefs about the “secrets”, and obviously both groups think they will be the true chosen ones of the Masters. More practically, the PH consider the antics of the RC at best a distraction and at worst an active threat to their own plans (while they don’t mind sowing discord and small-c chaos, they prefer the powers that be to remain oblivious and complacent about Chaos rather than terrorized into vigilance). The RC, meanwhile, consider the PH’s elaborate conspiracies self-serving delusions that will count for nothing in the true apocalypse.
Any thoughts?
