Witch Cult

The Witch Cult (魔女教) is an organization that worships the Witch of Envy Satella.

History
The Witch Cult has existed for over 400 years since the times when the witches were active. It is shroud in secrecy and mystery thus little is know of the organizational structure and other specifics like their doctrine beyond rumors as a result. They are evil enough that knights are ordered to annihilate them immediately should they appear. Followers are elusive, their means of hiding unknown, allowing them to survive until the current time. Their purpose is rumored to be the resurrection of the Witch of Envy.

100 years ago, the Witch Cult consisted of a moderate side, led by Petelgeuse, and a radical side.

Information
The Witch Cult is made up of followers at the bottom and a group of members at the top known as Sin Archbishops (大罪司教). The Sin Archbishops each "represent" one of the seven sins other than envy that the other six witches were said to represent. They are selected based on whether they are compatible with Witch Factors, and currently only the representative for pride is vacant. Also, each member owns a book known as the Witch Cult's Gospel (魔女教徒の福音), which shows the members a route to a future they desire through vague details. These books can only be read by the holder and appear to be incomprehensible to others. Despite their recent appearances in Lugnica, the cult is actually active throughout the world with members in various countries.

Regular cult members are often known to commit suicide when faced with the prospect of capture, by using mana stones embedded in their bodies to trigger poisons to keep information about the cult from leaking out. This makes them notoriously difficult to take alive without risks. Petelgeuse's fingers are an exception as they have an explosion ritual instead that only activates when they kill themselves in an effort to take out all nearby enemies with them when Petelgeuse needs to swap to a different body.

Sin Archbishops
The executives of the cult who function as the organization's leaders and use unknown forbidden powers. They have somehow inherited powers of the "witches of old" called an Authority which they brandish at their pleasure and for the goals of the cult, effectively becoming their modern day equivalents. However, they all detest each other and rarely work together without their orders coinciding with their respective gospels.

Their appearance is rare but when they do show up, disaster always struck. Out of all the Sin Archbishops, two stood out the most; Sloth and Greed. Sloth was the most active Sin Archbishop, noted to be responsible for more than half of the Witch Cult related attacks across the entire continent. In terms of reliable records, Sloth was also the most prevalent. Greed on the other hand, was associated with few calamities but the damage done by him was like no other. He rarely appeared but when he did, cities burned and causalities were extremely high. Perhaps his most notorious appearance was 15 years ago, when he single-handedly conquered a heavily fortified Vollachian city of Garkla which was (at the time) housing thousands of soldiers and the Vollachian hero Kurgan.

Current

 * Lye Batenkaitos (gluttony (gourmet))
 * Roy Alphard (gluttony (bizarre eating))
 * Louis Arneb (gluttony (satiation))
 * Sirius (wrath)
 * Capella Emerada Lugnica (lust)

Former

 * Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti (sloth)
 * Regulus Corneas (greed)
 * Stride Vollachia (pride)

Former

 * Ketty Muttart
 * Faust
 * Sergei
 * Fogg
 * Sado

Associates

 * Pandora

Trivia

 * Louis described the Witch Cult as "a gathering of people loathed by the world" and the Sin Archbishops as "a gathering of people loathed by the world who are called differently, but they're the same as the Witch.
 * Louis also pointed out that the nature of the Witch of Envy is worse than that of the Sin Archbishops so they dislike being lumped together with her. In every other way however, the Sin Archbishops are the same as the Witch. The "good-for-nothings" compatible with the Witch Factors are just called differently due to different eras and positions.