Beast cult

Beast cult was a term used to refer to a variety of different, less organized or "primitive" belief systems in the Realms. A more archaic term for referring to such groups in the plural was Cults of the Beast.

Types of Beast Cults
Some beast cults worshiped certain animal-related deities, typically on the level of demipowers or lesser powers, such as Lurue the Unicorn Queen and Nobanion the King of Beasts. Such groups could be divided into benevolent and malevolent cults.

Others worshiped living monsters or mundane animals, considering them to be emissaries of the gods, the embodiments of divine wrath, or a "perfect form" of their species. Some for example worshiped dragons, especially in the ancient days of Toril, considering them to be truly divine creatures. Those who believed the creature they worshiped was the "perfect form" of their species, viewed it as the leader or master of all others in their species.

Activities
The dress and practices of beast cults varied significantly from location to location and from the beast or deity worshiped. Though in northwest Faerûn, totems were a typical aspect of beast cults.

Benevolent beast cults tended to try living in harmony with nature, cherishing and praising the nobility of their patron, while malevolent cults tended to revel in bloodlust, brutality, and savagery.

Equipment, Spells, and Relics
The type of powers that a beast cult cleric received varied with the cult, but there were some commonalities. Such clerics typically received access to the animal sphere, as well as either the charm, combat, plant, or weather sphere. They also could shapechange into the type of creature they worshiped and had access to spells that would summon creatures of that type.

Besides clerics, beast cults that venerated magical beasts were known to harbor totemists, shamans who learned to shape the spiritual energy associated with their beast into magical effects.

Practitioners
Beast cults often attracted nomads, evil humanoids, and individuals that were removed from the normal circles of civilized society. Such people typically did their best to keep their activities and cult a secret, especially in urban areas. Performing their religious rites and sacrifices covertly.

Beast cults were also quite common in tribal cultures.

Major Cult Figures
Some of the most noteworthy, individual entities to have one or more beast cults in the Realms centered around them included:
 * The various Animal Lords of the Beastlands were worshiped by some beast cults.
 * Dermos the Proud was a wereape in the Shining South that proclaimed himself to be a manifestation of Malar.
 * Felidae, a lesser deity of cats.
 * Haaashastaak, a demigod of all lizardkind.
 * Lolth the spider goddess was considered a form of beast cult in some areas, such as the Gulthmere Forest or the city of Kormul.
 * Lurue.
 * Malar over the years acquired additional human worshipers from the ranks of beast cults by slaying the totem spirits they worshiped and assuming their portfolios as aspects of his own.
 * Nobanion.
 * Sneel, a lesser deity of rats.
 * Spider Lord, a shadowy figure that was worshiped by a beast cult in the Spiderhaunt Woods.
 * Varae, a demipower of snakes.

Named Cults

 * The Cult of the Dragon was one of the most organized beast cults of dragon worship, surpassing others in their power and reach.
 * The Cult of the Eyeless was a beast cult in Athkatla that worshiped a beholder who called himself the Unseeing Eye.
 * The Ice Hunters of the Savage Frontier, with their worship of various nature spirits (beast totems ), were considered a form of beast cult.
 * The Risen Eye was a beast cult in Kormul that worshiped beholders.
 * The Sacred Scales were a beast cult in Kormul that venerated the city's local yuan-ti leaders.
 * The Uthgardt barbarian tribes' belief system was often considered a form of beast cult. The Blue Bear tribe in particular unknowingly worshiped Malar, who had slain their animal spirit, the Blue Bear.

Unnamed Cults

 * Kormul, also known as the City of Cults, was a major hub of many beast cults. Including "wyrmcults" that worshiped specific living dragons, such as Ahzalundelarr, Belathellar, and Helauzatyl.
 * There were a number of beholder worshiping beast cults across Faerûn, particularly among barbarian tribes and among city dwellers who felt oppressed or slighted by their rulers.
 * There were a number of dragon worshiping beast cults among the barbarians that lived in the Far Hills and Earthfast Mountains. There were also believed to be some among the barbarians of The Ride.
 * In the Lands of Intrigue, in the years leading up to the Eye Tyrant Wars, many beholders established cults within the sewers of cities. Planning to one day have them pour out and conquer the cities when they had grown strong enough.
 * A wide number of beast cults lurked within the city of Waterdeep.

Trivia
In the mid-14 century DR, the number of beast cults in the Realms was far greater than the number of sects of the Elemental Lords, otherwise known as elemental cults.

Background
The initial concept for beast cults and the term "Cults of the Beast", as presented in Dragon #54, "Down-to-earth Divinity", were inspired by and taken from (respectively) the beast cults of the Lankhmar setting. In that setting each type of beast had a group of thirteen protectors or "perfect versions" of its respective animal type, which later inspired the description of beast cults in Forgotten Realms Adventures.

In-universe there has not been an explanation given for the term "Cults of the Beast," as it stopped seeing use after 1st edition. Because of that, we present the explanation given in the article "Down-to-earth Divinity", even though that is a pre-canon blueprint of what would become the deities of the Realms. In that article it's said that the term "Cults of the Beast" was derived from an ancient belief that many of the beast cults in the world were splinters of a very ancient religion that worshiped an enigmatic, evil entity called "the Beast", and whose followers reveled in a return to the baser natures of man.