Editing Degenesis (section)

===Scourgers===
The Scourgers are a rather controversial cult and out of Africa's three factions, they are the one that is to blame for the reputation of Degenesis as a 'social justice' game.

Simply put, the Scourgers idolize Africa. Rather, they idolize everything that they perceive that Africa was. They see it as the land of the black man, who conquered and tamed the wildest continent through strength and might alone. They see the white man as fat and feeble, as the bringer of wealth and weakness that allowed the white man to subjugate the black man, enthralling them through promises of riches. When the Eshaton came, wealth suddenly meant nothing and all that the white man had was weakness. So the time for vengeance came and the black man used his strength to storm Europe, to kill and enslave as vengeance for everything that the white man had done. At least, this is how the Scourgers view Africa's relationship with Europe.

Yet there is more complexity to them than that. They are seen as descendants of eight ancestors, eight spirits that watch over and guide the Scourgers more than any other African. There might be some truth in this legend, as there are moments in a Scourger's life that cannot be explained. Spontaneous hysteria, sudden bursts of clarity or fey, creative moods, an unmistakable gut feeling about something that the African shouldn't know about. It's almost as though the Scourger is possessed when in this state, inhabited by the spirit of one of the eight ancestors. Perhaps this phenomena is linked to the eight scientists of the Anubis Syndicate, who inhabited Cairo before the Eshaton?

Just as strange as the Eight is the phenomena that the Scourgers call the Warui. Before the Eshaton, there were thousands of languages in Africa but now there is only one. Whenever the Psychovore encroached, it had a unique impact on the Africans, stripping away their mother tongue and replacing it with an odd, primal language that everyone in Africa has come to share.

The Scourgers call this language the Warui and consider it a gift from the ancestors, the Eight. It is responsible for the unity of the Africans. The Scourgers feel it more strongly than any other African, with their souls supposedly bound together by their common ancestry and their ties to the Eight. This is what ties together in packs and is why they operate so well as military units. However, the Warui has its limits. When they venture too far North away from the Psychovore and Africa, the Scourgers lose this intimate understanding of each other. They can no longer communicate through a few short phonemes and a little body language, they must resort to actual conversation. In order to strengthen their pack-bond while they're away from Africa, they eat Psychovore seeds in order to rekindle their connection to the Eight.

Communication and community is everything to the Scourgers. They are not just warriors, but they are hearts of community. Should they catch one of their own engaging in vice by whoring and gambling, they bind and torture him until he remembers his place in the world. Any information they share is done entirely through mouth; they are an oral cult that does not dare engage in any sort of writing outside of the wood carving that they perform as a hobby. When they are not fighting the enemy away from Africa, they pursue escaped slaves, hunt wild animals and guard caravans during the day. During the night, they tell stories and share history with African communities that love and adore them. Even the acceptance of a new Scourger requires some interaction with the African community; any new Scourger must be given to the cult by his own mother. The cult doesn't accept anyone else.

So that's what the Scourgers are. A primal cult fixated on imitating the primitive history of Africa, who are fundamentally tied to the Psychovore and eight ancestor spirits, who are adored by and bound to the African community. Your mileage may vary.