Cult of Diablos

The Cult of Diablos (ディアボロス教団) is an ancient, secretive, and power-hungry organization that serves as the primary antagonists of The Eminence in Shadow. Considered a little-known myth at best by the public, their existence is carefully concealed as they manipulate global affairs from the shadows, seeking to control society while using the demon Diablos' power to gain immortality so that their rule will be eternal.

They have members in many high-ranking positions across the world and have manipulated history from the shadows, having long distorted the truth about the Three Heroes and renamed the "Curse of Diablos" into Demon Possession. They seek to ultimately resurrect the demon Diablos to gain further power and improve the Tears of Diablos which the Cult uses to grant its leaders immortality and strength, as well as abducting and experimenting on descendants of the Heroes to further their knowledge and goals.

Until Shadow Garden appeared, they were all but unopposed.

History
Long ago, the Cult gathered orphaned children from the three races of Human, Elf, and Beastkin in order to used them for experiments by implanting them with "Diablos Cells" taken from Diablos' blood. Nearly all of the children ended up dying save for but three girls, one from each race, that were found to be compatible with the cells. The Cult carried out further experiments on those three to make them stronger, creating weapons and equipment for them so that when they are adults and ready, they would be sent to fight the Demon Diabolos in order for the Cult to obtain more Diablos Cells. Aurora was also among the children which the Cult kidnapped, it is currently unknown how she became the demon Diabolos.

Years later, the Cult sent those three children who later become known as The Three Heroes to exterminate the demon Diabolos, which resulted in the demon's defeat and upon which they dismembered Diablos' body into many parts and sealed it within the Sanctuary. Before then, the demon Diablos is said to have cursed three heroes so that they and their descendants would be possessed with rotten bodies, resulting in the "Curse of Diablos".

Cultivating "Diablos cells" from the Demon's life energy by harvesting its remains also taking its blood and cutting its flesh, the Cult managed to create what they called Tears of Diablos which grants extraordinary strength, as well as immortality. However, these have the flaws of requiring a yearly dosage to sustain their effects and only twelve can be made per year, each given to the twelve members of the "Knights of Rounds" who constitute their leadership. The Cult currently is trying to find a way to rectify these flaws by various means, such as reviving the Diablos and abducting the descendants of the Heroes for experiments and cultivating Diablos cells from their blood.

For this task, they have infiltrated many high-ranking positions of influence including royalty, nobility, politics, military, economics, education, even religions and have manipulated history by renaming the "Curse of Diablos" into Demon Possession, so that the descendants of the heroes who originally sealed Diablos would be persecuted and abandoned, making them easier to collect for research. The Cult erases every trace of the truth about the Three Heroes it can, their efforts effective enough that people believe some of the Heroes were male among other disinformation, anyone who stumbles across the truth is killed or more rarely broken into becoming a member of the Cult. Even the Holy Church is under their control albeit with a small portion of its upper-echelon are members, with the rest of the Church and its believers innocent and oblivious.

The Cult is however not a monolithic organization. Members of this organization have all sorts of opportunities to progress their ambitions, with the higher-ups known as the "Knights of Rounds" forming their own factions with each member as its leaders and also naturally naming their faction after themselves. Some of these factions have been engaged in internal power struggles against each other for centuries.

It is worth noting that despite their title, the Cult of Diablos does not actually worship Diablos and merely desire its power and are thus not truly a cult, though Zenon does refer to it as a religion. Visions of the past within the Sanctuary, best shown in the anime adaptation, depict them (at least at the time of Diablos) to be more akin to evil scientists and researchers than a religion. While in the present day, they largely resemble as a secret society or conspiracy, although they have never stopped their experiments.

Membership
The Cultists are shown as power-hungry, self-serving, and ruthless, caring little to nothing of the lives they trample and end in pursuit of their goals. A handful of their agents have been shown to have once been decent people, but have been long broken by the Cult into joining their ranks, with the Cult having established 'traps' to lure in occasional would-be heroic individuals for elimination or forced recruitment. The vast majority of the Cult, however, is compromised of the "Children of Diablos" who are raised within the organization.

Children of Diablos
The "Children" begin as orphans or young citizens (typically from poorer families) who possess magic affinity, even the smallest amount, that the Cult kidnaps and brings to special facilities to be raised under the Cult's eye. These children will proceed to undergo a brutal regimen of harsh training, brainwashing, and administration of drugs that kills most of them. It's said that fewer than 10 percent of them manage to "graduate" (survive) this process. Subsequently these graduates are organized into rankings of 3rd, 2nd, and 1st.

The 3rd Children are those that survived but are deemed worthless, considered as the failures among the graduates and to be nothing more than disposable pawns. Their minds are too corrupted for them to leak any classified information if interrogated, and their fighting prowess is more powerful compared to the average knight, thus the Cult makes use of its failures.

The 2nd Children are mentally stable, while the relatively few 1st Children are said to be considered some of the most powerful warriors alive, possessing very significant power by the world's standards.

Among the Children of Diablos, those who have provided exceptional contributions to the Cult are granted a name. Most "Named Children" are 1st, but 2nd being named is not unheard of, if rare.

Knights of Rounds
The Knights of Rounds are the leadership echelon of the organization, consisting of the 12 strongest Cultists. Gaining a Seat position among them could bring an unbelievable amount of influence, prestige, and wealth. Being "Named" is almost considered a requirement as a gateway for a position in the Rounds.

Each member of the Knights of Rounds will take 1 drop of the Tears of Diablos annually to maintain their demonic strength and immortality. Only 12 drops a year can be produced, which is incidentally the number of Seats within the Knights of Rounds. Thus all other members in the Cult are hope to gain a Seat, for both the immortality and power promised by the position. It is possible to lose a Seat, with Lutheran having lost his and seeking to regain it.

There is also another requirement to become a candidate of the Knights without being "Named" and 1st and 2nd Children are allowed to participate. They will be nominated by their leader, which is a member of the Knight Rounds from their respective factions, if they have completed a very significant contribution to the operation mission given by the Cult.

Five years after the appearance of Shadow Garden, Fenrir remarks that the Knights of Rounds has degraded in quality and that someone like Petos would once not have been able to gain a Seat normally, blaming Shadow Garden and the Cult's leadership having grown complacent due to their immortality. Further he states that with the destruction of the Sanctuary at Lindwurm and the release of the demon Diabolos' left arm, the annual production of the Tears of Diablos has been reduced from twelve to nine, and may soon be eight.

Cult's First Unusual Report
About five years ago, there was a report about the attack on the demon possessed carriage by an unknown group. Fenrir wanted to handle it because his suspicion on the report so there won't be a problems, but the Rounds decision maybe confirm that the monster who attacked the carriage, so they let it off slide (unbeknownst that it was the bandit who attack the carriage until they are decimated by Cid Kagenō, then find the a possessed figure which will be known as Alpha and founding the Shadow Garden organization).

After that, they received several reports about carriage attacks, their branch headquarters being destroyed, and several of their members being killed including members of the Rounds for the last three years.

Claire Kagenō's Abduction
The first true meeting between the Cult and Shadow Garden happened when the Cult abducted Cid's sister, Claire Kagenou by Viscount Olba two years ago. Due to pure chance and the random luck of Cid, Shadow Garden was able to find the hidden secret base where Claire was locked up. The members of the Cult in that base, along with Olba were all killed and Claire was rescued.

However, this would not be the last meeting between the Cult and Shadow Garden. Rather, this was just the beginning of the Cult's first and biggest obstacle to their goal. The cult leadership are notice the repeated failure operation because there were suspicious activity movement from the Midgar Kingdom controlled by Fenrir's Sect faction territory, which make his faction fell into decline.

Princess Alexia's Kidnapping
The second meeting between the Cult and Shadow Garden would come when the Cult kidnapped Princess Alexia Midgar, planned by Zenon Griffey from Fenrir's Sect faction and framed Cid Kagenō as a scapegoat. Zenon using her royal blood for the cult's experiments in order to become 12th Seat Knight of Rounds. As a result of this action, Shadow Garden then mobilize their forces, simultaneously uncovering and destroying many of the Cult's hideouts in the royal capital. Alpha defeated a rampaging monster that the cult's scientist made, while Shadow rescued the princess and vaporizing Zenon into oblivion using his ultimate attack "I Am Atomic". These events caused the world to become aware of the existence of Shadow Garden and the Cult of Diablos.

Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
Now the Cult has learned that Shadow Garden is the name of the organization that has harmed every place of their operations that has spread across the country for the past 5 years. They first underestimated this organization because they thought Shadow Garden would surely be destroyed in an instant and not worthy of being considered a threat. Even so, they arranged a plan so that in the future the Shadow Garden would not become a hindrance to them. The former 12th seat, Lutheran Barnett with the ambitions to reinstated in the Knights of Rounds, while under the identity of a "Sir Gaunt" ordered his henchmen to commit misdeeds throughout the Midgar Kingdom while claiming to be from the Shadow Garden along with Rex, so that this organization would earn the contempt and enmity of the world.

While the Knight Order investigating a series of murderous attacks on citizens, Shadow Garden also went on search and successfully captured one of them then start interrogating him. When Lutheran and Rex hearing the lost contact report, the former states its fine as they located the item they need which is their priority to retrieving it. The Cult forces under Lutheran took over Midgar Academy by rounded up all the students and killed anyone that opposed them, in order to frame and discredit Shadow Garden as a public enemy number 1. Meanwhile, Rex's job is to retrieve the Eye of Avarice's control unit from Sherry's hands, while being intervene with the Crimson Order.

Rex reports to Lutheran and informed him about the artifact failed retrieval much to his anger by threatening him, until he heard Rex's reports that some of their men had been taken out by someone skilled and guesses that they manage to get the Shadow Garden's attention before Rex and his men immediately went out to search for the artifact. As Lutheran waiting for Rex (unbeknownst to him that he being killed by Shadow), the Cult starts shooting the students for fun. Suddenly, the magic blocking field has been disabled by the artifact control unit that Sherry thrown at the auditorium hall. In that moment, all the students start fighting back the terrorist with their magic back. As the fight starts, Shadow comes from the roof along with other Shadow Garden members and engages the Cult forces. Lutheran leaves, but activates a system that causes the auditorium and the rest of the school to burst into flames and sneaks into his room to burns some books to hide his involvements.

Lutheran decides to leave, but Cid suddenly appear at the room and tells him that he already knows who he is, which he praises Cid for his perception much to his surprises as he took off his disguise. Cid asks Lutheran why he doing this, which he replies that he did everything to reach the top he once was and started searching a way to cure his disease. He confessing to Cid all his misdeeds, as well as the murder of Sherry's mother and the manipulation of Sherry. Cid wonders if Lutheran used Sherry for his selfish reasons, which he confirmed. Cid then explains he doesn't care for Sherry and her mother, but suggest they start before someone else comes. Cid and Lutheran then face each other, but in an instant Lutheran cuts Cid down and he falls through the window.

A moment later, Shadow appears before Lutheran. Knowing his disadvantage because of his experience, he decide using the Eye of Avarice to its full potential because he cannot win against Shadow at his current state. When Lutheran acquires an immense magical power and his disease has been cured, he starts attacking Shadow. But even with all the magical power he has, he is not able to making a scratch on Shadow and still continues to attack him. Lutheran acknowledges Shadow's strength and explains to him that he will fail, because he already devised a plan to framed him on this incident so that the world will despises him and his organization. To his shock, Shadow states that doesn't matter to him, because they will continue on the same path they choose. Lutheran claims that Shadow isn't afraid of becoming the world enemy is an arrogance and prepares to kill him. But, Shadow then disarms Lutheran and proceeds stabbing his limbs, also recalls Lutheran about the way he killed Sherry's mother and Shadow did stabs him the same way he did and also discovers that Shadow true identity is actually Cid before he dies.

After the incident, the Midgar Kingdom's government labelled Shadow and his organization as an enemy to the kingdom and is wanted for mass murder, kidnapping, arson, and robbery. Despite their successful effort to bring Shadow Garden being branded as criminals, this was not enough to hinder them and continue their mission.

Holy Ground Infiltration
Before the "Goddess Trials" event, the 11th Seat Knight of Rounds, Jack Nelson the "Avaricious" order Venom the Executioner to kill the Archbishop Drake because of his dark dark rumors about corruption and missing orphans, in order to erase the evidence from Princess Alexia and the Crimson Order before they arrived in Lindwurm. Jack Nelson have an audit with Alexia, explaining that she was there to investigating the archbishop death. But, Nelson said that the church will be handling the investigation and already send the letter to the king.

Jack Nelson appointed to be an Acting Archbishop to replacing Archbishop Drake and hosting the "Goddess Trials" until the end for last challenger named Cid Kagenō to show, only to find Shadow appear at the stadium surprising the audience. Nelson order his men to gather the Church’s Holy Knights to surround Shadow, until he shock as he didn't activate any summons and saw the figure of ancient warrior known as Aurora, the Witch of Calamity. Nelson states to the princesses and miss Natsume Kafka that Shadow is unfortunate to summon her as she is the most powerful witch in all of history. Shadow and Aurora only face each other until they start fighting, as Nelson commented that Shadow is just observing and dodging all of Aurora's attacks and surprisingly defeats her with a single slash. Shadow decide to leave after shocking everyone, until the barrier breaks and a magic door suddenly appears in the middle of the arena.

Nelson startled and wonders if the magic door is responded to Shadow and worthy enough to pass through the Sanctuary. As the door starts opening, Nelson gives orders to evacuate the citizens and cancelling the trial. He then tries to make Alexia and the rest leave, but Shadow Garden appears led by Alpha and asks the princesses to not do anything until the door is closed and then enters the door. Epsilon had defeated Nelson's guards and states he will be coming with them inside the gate. Nelson refuses and calls his guard Venom to kill Epsilon only to sees Venom have been cut down. Epsilon then asks Nelson if he saw anything, he states didn't see anything and then grabs him and jumps into the door. Other Shadow Garden members take Beta (posing as Natsume Kafka) as "hostage" and suddenly Princess Alexia and Rose jump in as well.

The group follow Alpha as she explains that the Sanctuary is the place where the hero Olivier cut the Diablos left arm and they sealed it in Lindwurm. They came to learn more about the Cult and its goal, but knowing that Nelson won't talk so they decide to see for themselves as Alpha points at a statue of the hero Olivier that looked like a woman, surprising the girls to which Alpha even showing her face, which is the same as Olivier to them. Nelson then realizes she was a possessed, but she wasn't compatible and supposed to be dead. Alpha states they know the truth behind the Three Heroes and the Demon Possession, from which the cult want to maintain the situation under their control, even suspecting that the Cult goal isn't just reviving the demon and states they should proceed to see for themselves by exploring the Hero Olivier's memories.

Nelson pretend to follow the group, while luring them into the Sanctuary Center defense system as the group enough explore the facility and arrived at the Sanctuary center, they know that the Cult's true objective is to create Tears of Diablos which grants extraordinary strength, as well as immortality with its main ingredient is Diablos cells cultivated from the demon's body and the hero's descendants blood. Nelson then confirming every Alpha guess she had to confirm, until she exposing his true affiliation as a 11th Seat Knight of Rounds, which he confirms by stating that he is Nelson the "Avaricious" and separating them into groups. As he faces Alpha and Delta, he multiplies himself by making copies and stated that they will fell regret for baring their fangs against the "Cult".

Delta started by easily cuts down Nelson's copies, but feels something is wrong as Nelson explains that the closer they are to the center of the Sanctuary, the more of their power is drained, to which Alpha adds that at the same time the closer is Nelson to the center, he gains more power. Nelson was hoping to get them even closer, but states this is far enough to be able to defeat them. Even though Delta is loosing power, she still obliterating his copies, which makes Nelson shocked by her power and the memory starts break. Nelson surprised over hundred of his copies has been erased, which Alpha states that even if he was able to create a hundred copies, they all still have one brain and he couldn't control them all that well. So, Nelson then calls for Olivier to come and join him, but at the same time the Epsilon's group join Alpha and states they are done with the investigation and can leave. Nelson is surprised that they are running away, but Alpha explains their objective is to cut off the source of power and now know how the Sanctuary defenses work, so they will be returning again.

As Alpha and the rest leave, Nelson starts wondering what to say on the reports to the fellow rest of the Rounds and guesses he will explain to them that he lured them to the Sanctuary in order to expose their identities and with Alpha's blood they can perfect their experiments. Before he leaves, a notification appear and it said that someone is in the Sanctuary's center, which he decide to personally deal with the intruder along with Olivier.

Nelson appears and only saw two figures, Aurora and the boy (unbeknownst to him that the boy is Shadow) and sends Olivier at them and the boy goes to face her, even knowing that she is quite strong. Olivier attacks the boy and manages to injure him, making Nelson orders Olivier to finish him off until Aurora then jumps in and asks him to stop, knowing that no human can defeat Olivier and tell the boy that he done enough. Nelson laughs at her, noting that without magic she can't do anything, but if she agrees to help him, he will spare the boy. But, the boy interrupts them, stating that he doesn't need help and they shouldn't assume he will lose. Annoyed, Nelson orders Olivier to kill him and she jumps in and stabs him. But, the boy stating he got her while opening his right eye and then grabs her and bites her neck, ripping it and defeating her.

Nelson wonders how the boy still alive after being stabbed and he explains that it was easy to survive a stabbing, if protecting the vital organs and arteries, much to his surprised to see that Olivier getting defeated by a kid with no magic. But, Nelson states that she was just a copy and with his amount of magic he have in this Sanctuary's center, he summons countless copies of Olivier. Several of them attack the boy until he opens his right eye and defeats them using his magic, much to Nelson surprised that the boy is able to use magic as he explains that he just tempered with the magic until it was too solid to be absorbed which took him some time, but its something simple.

Nelson felt that's not possible to which he did not believe when he heard boy's explanation about the method and orders the Olivier copies to kill him. The boy fights them, but as his wound continues to bleed, he decides to take out all copies at the same time and start casting his ultimate spell "I Am the All-Range Atomic". One of the Olivier copies stabs him in the heart before he finishes the spell. However, the boy is unaffected and finishes his spell and unleashed the explosion to which obliterates all Olivier copies, along with the chained door, holy sword, then Jack Nelson and everything else inside the Sanctuary.

Hearing the news of the Sanctuary at Holy Ground is wiped out from existence, the cult placing more notoriety for the Shadow Garden by using the authority of the Midgar Kingdom's government from the shadows. Even so, they cannot covering the Sanctuary because the public noticing and Princess Alexia explains to her older sister, Princess Iris Midgar that she wants to investigate the Divine Teachings of the Holy Church because the Acting Archbishop Jack Nelson was part of the Cult and deducing that there must be a big organization that are be able to keep the Sanctuary a secret from the public, to which Iris also had suggested the same thing to the King Klaus Midgar, their father. But fortunately for the Cult, the King told both princess to not do anything and they didn't care about Nelson's death because they will choosing another replacement for the 11th Seat.

But, the Cult's greatest fear is that the Sanctuary that had been destroyed in Lindwurm that was once the sealing place for the demon Diablos' left arm has been released, which their fear is that the quantity amount of the Tears of Diablos given to the Knights of the Rounds for their strength and immortality will likely begin to decrease. Because of this, they will postponing the election candidate for occupying the 11th and the original vacant 12th Seat until the confirmation of how many drops will be produce this year.

The God of War Tournament
TBA

Great Trading Company Conflict
TBA

Oriana's "Black Rose" Civil War Wedding Incident
TBA

The Academy Disappearances
Despite the Oriana Kingdom operation ending in failure, the cult managed to minimize Shadow Garden's gains by creating a faux story of their puppet ruler, Rose, being a patricide who summoned the Black Rose in the first place, turning the nation into a heretic state.

At the same time, the cult had begun running out of the Tears of Diabolos that granted the Knights of the Round their immortality. As a result, they send out members to Midgar Academy, where Diabolos' arm was being stored, to get more samples of the demons' blood.

Using false evidence, the Cult has also managed to manipulate the Crimson Order into believing that the diablos religion does not exist and that the Shadow Garden invented it to cover up their crimes.

Equipment and Artifacts
With the passing of time, the cult has created, collected and stolen all kinds of artifacts, weapons, among other things to increase the power of its organization and that of its members throughout the magical world and at the same time, used the powers of powerful entities, as living weapons among other things, such as:


 * Pills or Tears of Diablos (Used by cult members and their superiors which are the 12 Knights of the Round Table, also by their allies, Gettan)
 * Swords
 * Fire Arms (Anime only) (Equipment that are normal for the cult and its members to use and maybe improve)
 * Magical Restraints
 * Eye of Avarice (Used by Lutheran Barnett, to cure his disease and gain magical power)
 * Sanctuary (Used by cult members and their superiors as territory they created)
 * The Holy Sword (Weapon that can only be used by Olivier's direct descendants or maybe the other 2 heroes)
 * Invisible Magic Sword (Used by Mordred, as his special weapon)
 * Black Rose (Used as a portal gate that can connect to the Realms)
 * Blood Fang (Used by Fenrir, as his special weapon)

Knights of Rounds
The highest authority within the Cult; they consist of the organization's strongest knights and receive the "Beads of Diablos", which granted them demonic strength and immortality.


 * Loki, Unknown seat
 * Hela, Unknown seat
 * Jormungand, Unknown seat
 * Fenrir, 5th seat (Deceased)
 * Mordred, 9th seat and the "Knight Beyond Men" (Deceased)
 * Petos, 10th seat
 * Acting Archbishop Jack Nelson, 11th seat and the "Avaricious" (Deceased)

1st Children

 * Marquis Zenon Griffey, prime candidate of the 12th seat (Deceased)
 * Rex, the "Game of Betrayal" (Deceased)
 * Kouadoi, the "Raging Gale" (Deceased)
 * Viscount Jean, the "Dark Smile" (Deceased)
 * The Black Spider (Deceased)

2nd Children

 * Viscount Olba (Deceased)
 * Assistant Principal Lutheran Barnett / Sir Gaunt, former 12th seat (Deceased)
 * Royal Chancellor Duke Doem Ketsuhat, 12th seat candidate (Deceased)

3rd Children
These children are the 10 percent who are deemed worthless; bearing no names, and as such, will never be recorded below.

Allies
Over time, the cult managed to persuade or force the individuals of other races and people with different statuses and positions to temporarily work with them from the outside and complete missions requested by the cults leadership before being able to fully enter the organization, acting as collaborators, conspirators, sleeper agents, and spies. Regardless of their loyalty, they are easily expendable for the organization.


 * Venom (Deceased)
 * Gettan, 12th seat candidate (Deceased)
 * Queen Reina Oriana (Deceased)

Trivia

 * The Knights of Rounds are based on the Knights of the Round Table from Arthurian legend, with some members even sharing the names of the real knights.
 * Within the Cult "Knights of Round" members, there are some names are also inspired by gods and divine beasts from Norse mythology, such as Fenrir or Loki. In the game The Eminence in Shadow: Master of Garden at "Seven Shadows Chronicles" story, there are two members' names revealed, namely Hela and Jormungand.