Sisterhood of the Masked Messenger

Name(s) of the Cult: The Sisterhood of the Masked Messenger

First Appearance: First appeared in David Conyers's short story 'The Faceless Watchers'; the society is discussed further in the Secrets of Kenya source book.

The Sisterhood of the Masked Messenger is a secret society dedicated to an avatar of Nyarlathotep.

History and Scope

Cult membership is exclusive to women; the Sisterhood is active all over Africa despite having relatively few members. The cult is strongest in Morocco where it is centered in the ancient city of Marrakesh. Small pockets of the cult exist in a number of the larger towns all along the East African Coast (particularly Zanzibar and Mombasa).

Identification, Psychology and Behavior

The Sisterhood of the Masked Messenger is a secret society dedicated to the Masked Messenger, an avatar of Nyarlathotep. Cult membership is exclusive to women, though the cult has close ties to similar cults with mixed membership and mixed parties of cultists from different cults of Nyarlathotep have been known to work together.

Many of the cult members live double lives - often marrying Arab men who have no idea about their wives' occult activity. Members of the Sisterhood usually carry a small curved dagger designed for carrying out stealthy assassinations.

Resources

Tomes, Artifacts, Sites

• tome: The Masked Messenger; a collection of short stories written by the former cult high priestess Sharinza, is considered particularly important to the cult.
• artifact: small, curved knives of peculiar and characteristic style and workmanship which might identify its owner as a member of the cult and which might be used as weapons of assassination and sacrifice, but perhaps otherwise only symbolic significance within the cult
• location: The Temple of the Masked Messenger, a mysterious building which is said to rise out of the desert sands at times of great significance.

Allies, Creatures and Deities

• The Sisterhood is said to be served by a pair of enigmatic beings known as the Faceless Watchers.
• the Sisterhood has connections to:
  • The Cult of the Bloody Tongue
  • Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh
• Sharinza, a former high priestess of the cult, who helped to codify, modernize, and evangelize the cult's philosophies through her collection of short stories, The Masked Messenger.

Temple of the Masked Messenger

The Temple of the Masked Messenger is a mysterious building which is said to rise out of the desert sands at times of great significance; the location of the temple and the dates of the times it is said to appear are known only to the Sisterhood.

Faceless Watchers

The pair of enigmatic beings known as the Faceless Watchers is said to serve The Sisterhood.

Sharinza, Priestess

Sharinza, a former high priestess of the cult and a concubine of Sultan Moulay Ismailand, helped to codify, modernize, and evangelize the cult's philosophies in 1726 through her Arabic collection of short stories, The Masked Messenger, after (according to legend) glimpsing Al Azif in her youth.

Appearances

• first appeared in David Conyers's short story 'The Faceless Watchers'
• described further in the Secrets of Kenya source book