Sultan cult

Overview
Sultan cults are factions that worship a particular sultan from the current playthrough. There will always be five procedurally generated sultan cults, each corresponding to one of the procedurally generated sultans of periods 1-5 in the history that was determined as part of world generation. Sultan cults are initially hostile toward the player and always hostile towards creatures of all other factions.

Cult Members
The members of the sultan cult will be chosen from among creatures of the sultan's favored factions, which are the factions with whom the sultan had positive relations with in the significant events of their life. Generally, most sultans will have three or more favored factions. For example, this snippet of sultan lore indicates that crabs are one of sultan Oroleseh II's favored factions:

Sultans can have favorable relations with practically any faction (even Joppa or newly sentient beings, for example), and thus there is a great amount of variety in the possibilities for creatures that compose a sultan cult. For example, if a sultan was favored by unshelled reptiles and flowers, a cult could be composed of formidable creatures, such a and. On the other hand, if a sultan was favored by fish and fungi, a far less threatening cult composed of and  may compose the primary cult members.

The specific members chosen to represent the sultan cult will generally be chosen from among creatures appropriate to the zone tier of the current location. For this reason, you might notice that the same cult has different (weaker or strong) creatures that compose it in different locations in the world. This can also sometimes result in no creatures of a certain faction appearing if the zone tier is too low and there are no appropriate creatures from the faction for that tier.

Sultan Cult Names
Sultan cults will have procedurally generated faction names that are based on one or more of the following factors:
 * The name of the sultan they worship
 * A cognomen of the sultan they worship (for example, a sultan with the scholarship theme might have the cognomen "Quillborn")
 * The sultan's themes or words related to those themes
 * The sultan's favored factions
 * The names of one of the sultan's historic sites
 * One of the following cult-related monikers: brood, cabal, church, clan, cult, family, flock, folk, host, kinfolk, kith, order, people, sect, society

For example, a sultan associated with the ice theme, having vines as one of their favored factions could have a sultan cult called the Frosty Seed of Vines Family.

Sultan cult names range from the very simple, such as Cult of Yshram, to the far more complex, such as Inquisitive Spectre of the Oscilloscope-Worshipping Theocracy of Kiwan People.

Presence In Historic Sites
There are four procedurally generated historic sites in each playthrough. Two of those sites will be inhabited by members of the sultan cult for the period 4 sultan. Two others will be inhabited by the members of the sultan cult from the period 5 sultan.

Sultan cults (including the cults associated with sultans from periods 1-3) can also appear in other locations, such as random locations deep underground or in the.

Tips

 * While it is possible for the player to achieve neutral or positive reputation with a sultan cult, it is not particularly desirable to do so or worth the effort. Water ritualling with cult members is almost guaranteed to reduce reputation with multiple other (more useful) factions.
 * Certain painted or engraved items can increase reputation with a sultan cult.