The Four
By Buffy Aura

FOUNDING MEMBERS: MotokoKusanagi Kutanaga, Haze Lunardi

OVERVIEW: “I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

With the destruction of civilisation and the collapse of society, sometimes when all hope is gone those whose minds have snapped turn to deeper, more savage beliefs. The church of The Four, or The Four, is one of many apocalypse cults that have sprung up since the Outbreak began, but it is one of the most chilling.

Disciples of The Four worship only one thing; the apocalypse itself. Based off of the scriptures about the Four Horsemen, the founders of the cult have styled themselves in their image; Conquest, Death, War and Pestilence, and these are the pillars of the “faith.” Members are encouraged to assist in the apocalypse any way they can whether it be by conquest (rape, kidnap), death (murder, assassinations), war (taking part in or instigating combat) or pestilence (becoming a carrier for the HN1 virus, unleashing zombies.) The fact that this often leads to death of the disciple doesn’t seem to bother the founders either, after all they will just rise again.

The most frightening thing about The Four is whilst they are not against killing the Infected (especially Death, she likes to kill anything!) they will often use them much like pack animals or attack dogs. They are also worshipped by many Raider tribes and clans and individuals, as well as the unhinged, the desperate and sometimes just the lonely and weak.

The church itself will survive through tributes, "fundraising" (which may or may not be legitimate). and answering "prayers" (for which there will be a fee!)

There will be a prayer box set up in the church which people can drop a notecard into with their "prayer" (I wish so and so would meet a bad end, I wish everyone in Coach's caught HN1Z, and similar.) The Four will try and make these prayers come true so long as the appropriate HUD donation has been made and so long as it furthers The Four's agenda. Though like any prayers, they are never guaranteed to work. What does this mean for Arklay? Any one of The Four leaders could visit a “branch” of the cult at any time, and the newest branch has just sprung up in the old Arklay church. One or more will be in residence. Disciples will openly preach in town about the apocalypse, and how it will end everything, eventually. Zombie activity may increase. Animals and people may go missing. Food sources may be destroyed or sabotaged. Unexplained disappearances and deaths may become more commonplace. All of this could be blamed on The Four, even if it actually had nothing to do with them whatsoever. The idea of The Four is to create a sinister force that may not always be prominent in day to day roleplay, depending on how many members the group has, but will always be lurking in the background. Anyone interested in creating chaos and trouble may say they worship The Four as a disciple, and in fact, maybe some townsfolk secretly worship them too and perhaps pay tribute at the old church, however it’s not a group that requires full time membership or necessarily a lot of activity.

POTENTIAL ENEMY: The Four may ally with bandit groups, the Garage, and anyone else who can help fulfill their agenda of causing chaos. Their enemies could be everyone but particularly the Arklay Protective Services.

EXPERIENCE: I've been at the forefront of Outbreak since it's inception and have had my hand in about everything, but particularly led The Dollhouse, the ATC, and been sim admin. My aim is to keep creating stories using whatever is at my disposal to do it - sometimes that means leaving a group to build a story elsewhere in the sim that needs it, the most important thing is that the roleplay keeps coming.

IDEAS: I will reach out to new players who may be interested in joining the band by giving some sort of initiation ritual, and then they will be a disciple, and those who impress could end up as one of the "horsemen" though we only have four spaces for those!! And they'd need a horse, or at least a motorcycle, or maybe a pedal bike!