Cults & Crisis: The Exiled Drow
As I go through these cult dissections, one of the hardest things to realize is that just because someone left a cult does not mean they cannot find themselves in another cult. It also does not mean they won't walk back to the cult they left. One of the people that I am following to learn more about cults says, "You cannot reason someone out of what they did not reason themselves into." Cults do not operate on logic, they avoid it like a plague. Cults latch onto emotion and they twist it to placate their members, to make them dependent on the cult and The Idol. For some, they were born into cults and molded by it, and the cult is all they know. This applies to Minthara, Lae'zel, Orin, and I will consider Shadowheart as well since she was dragged into one as a child and her life before the cult was wiped from her memory.
Cults take advantage of those in crisis, and sometimes generate crisis to keep their members dependent on the cult. Cults provide community, a sense of belonging, a home, a family, answers, and a higher/divine purpose. Cults figure out whatever the person is missing and they fill the void, they find whatever is wrong and promise to solve it. They present themselves as a panacea, the cure to someone's every ailment. Once you're in, cults fracture your emotional regulation to keep you in. They put you through constant ups and downs. They create a problem, freak you the hell out, and then give you a solution. Whenever there is pain, the cult is there to alleviate it. They quite literally reshape your brain and manipulate how you see the world, where the only thing that is the truth is the cult, and The Idol.
Viconia was a Sharran in the previous games after having left the Underdark and Lolth. On the surface, it seems strange. Why would someone who rejected and defied Lolth go to Shar? She should know better! Well, no, she doesn't, thank Lolth for that. For some back story, Viconia was once given an order to sacrifice a child (not her child, but someone's in House DeVir). She refused the order. This caused quite the kerfuffle which resulted in Viconia needing to flee the Underdark.
All of this put Viconia into crisis. She lost her entire family, lost her house, lost her home, lost her god, lost her purpose, lost everything she has ever known (sound familiar?). It isn't as if the surface has been kind to her either. She has been harassed, prosecuted, hunted, and assaulted. The surface isn't kind to drow. She understandably would have been filled with fear, grief, despair. Those are all Shar's brand. Viconia being a former Lolthite already has a poor relationship with her own emotions. She was prime for manipulation from Shar, and Shar sure did have a field day with Viconia. That's how Shar gets people. She comes to them while they are in crisis, promising that "all this pain, all this loss, I can fix it all for you. Don't you want the pain to go away?" And for some, Shar does steal their memories and so they do not recall their crisis. But for the rest, Shar gives purpose to their pain. In Viconia's case, Shar twisted Viconia's pain so she would do Shar's bidding. Shar did the same thing to Ketheric.
I know I'm a broken record on this, but Lolth and Shar are similar gods and fond of the same things: darkness, death, treachery. So as a cleric of Shar, Viconia easily falls into old habits as Shar filled the void left behind by Lolth. Shar gave her a purpose, a place to belong, a home, family. Unfortunately, Shar also tasked her with destroying her enclave in Waterdeep, claiming they were all full of traitors. A rough, but easy task for Viconia to accomplish. In an old life, she would have been expected to slaughter her own family on a moment's notice. The drow like to play it off, like murdering your family is just a normal day. She even says that she had doubts about their treason because they had always shown loyalty to her. She put her faith in Shar, and believed that what she had to say was the truth. But there is no way it didn't fling Viconia back into another crisis and looking for answers. But it's okay, all she has to do is go to Baldur's Gate and do it again. She'll get her home back, her family back, her purpose back.
One day, Viconia is tasked with retrieving a young Selunite who is going through her own rite of passage. The father of the young child found out that Viconia and her Sharrans were in the woods, ready to snatch his daughter. So he goes full lycanthrope to protect her. But the girl doesn't know her father is a lycanthrope and thinks it to be a wolf chasing after her. She is scared and running for her life, thinking she is going to be mauled to death. The young Selunite trips to the ground, blood tricking from the new wound on her face. The wolf approaches, trying to warn his daughter, but all she sees are sharp teeth primed at her throat. And who swoops in at just the last second? Viconia and her Sharrans, saving the frightened little girl from the big bad wolf. Telling her she and Shar will keep her safe, that the dark is nothing to be afraid of, and that others (Selune) were leading her astray and into danger. Only she and Shar can protect her, and they will show her the way.
Viconia invented a crisis to trick a young Shadowheart into going with her and joining Shar. And no matter how many times her memory was wiped, this is the one memory that remained. This crisis is the foundation of Shadowheart's Sharran worship. Her first memory is one of Viconia and Shar coming to her when she needed help, solved her crisis, gave her a place to belong. They gave her a family where she forgotten she had one. The cult, Shar, Mother Superior, they became her family and all she had ever known. Viconia made it so that Shadowheart felt that she owed her life to Shar.
Unlike Viconia, Minthara did not choose to reject Lolth, but she was exiled all the same. She lost her entire family, lost her house, lost her home, lost her god, lost her purpose, lost everything she has ever known. Twice. Once with Lolth, and then again with the Absolute. The Absolute was ripping her brain apart, targeting her emotional core. She thought she was going to die. She was in a crisis. She prayed and begged for someone to come save her because she knew she couldn't save herself. And who swooped in and saved her? You did. You came in while she was in crisis and you promised her, "I will save you from all that troubles you, and I can keep you safe from the biggest threat of your life." I used to say in previous posts that Minthara sees you as a "god figure" to replace Lolth. Now, I am sure that is exactly what is happening in her head. You and the vagabonds become her family, her home, her purpose. You are The Idol. And if you're Durge, your existence as a demigod reaffirms her faith in you as a god-figure. Babygurl still thinks she's in a cult, but it's centered around you.
Yes, Minthara is actively in the process of deconstructing things, but still engages in cult like behavior with you. She has an undying loyalty and devotion to you, literally willing to die for you, and her oath keeps her to it. Her oath is literally a divine vow to you. She does not believe you would ever hurt her because she has faith in you, and you as The Idol promised that you never would. That, and she has no reason to believe that you ever would hurt her, she has no reason to believe you would ever lie to her, use her, or manipulate her. She is very selective of genuine criticism of you to where it mutates into cognitive dissonance if you do something she doesn't agree with. She has to find reason in the things you do that she doesn't understand because The Idol cannot be wrong, so she twists her own logic so that you are right. She is pretty quick to insult the others, but she would never dare to insult you because when you're in a cult, you. do not. speak ill. of the leader. The moments where she is actually afraid of you, she either internalizes her fear, or expresses sexual arousal as if that will keep her safe from you.
This cult thinking could lead her to repeating certain habits that you would think she would have learned a thing or two about. But her previous cults literally and actually prevented her from learning these things. Ugh, why is she pushing Shadowheart towards Shar, is she stupid? She's in a cult. Ugh, why is she pushing Durge towards Bhaal, is she stupid? She's in a cult. Ugh, after everything she has been through with Lolth and the Absolute, she's such a hypocrite to want you to claim the Absolute. Yeah, SHE'S IN A CULT!
You cannot reason her out of what she did not reason herself into. She will say to your face you cannot change her mind, and no amount of evidence will change her mind. Her desire for power is not driven by reason or logic, it is driven by emotion, it is driven by fear. She says it plainly, she wants to be free from the gods, she wants to be their equal, she does not want to need Idol's. She wants autonomy, she wants safety, she wants security. She is being driven by her lack of autonomy, safety, and security. It takes the emotional turmoil of killing Orin to see the first real and true cracks in her programming. Where she finally sees things for what they are and finally uses reasoning. The gods like Bhaal, Lolth, the Absolute were the reasons why she didn't have autonomy, safety, or security.
With you by her side, Minthara can safely continue to deconstruct her own cult mindset and get out of it. You are no longer The Idol, just her lover. She lives for herself because you didn't punish her like every other cult she has been in. These cults taught her to fear the world, to fear someone like you. But it was your kindness, compassion, and mercy that made her realize that all of these cults told her nothing but lies. But without you, she goes right back into crisis mode. She doesn't feel a bond or connection with the rest of the team. You do not want her around. She has no community or family, and with the destruction of the Absolute, she has no purpose. The sun burns her eyes and burns her skin and the surface doesn't want her, it can never truly be her home. So she goes back to the Underdark to fulfill the only purpose she has ever known, to look for a solution to her pain, to the one thing that can fill the void, Lolth.
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