Apex (Chaos Cult)

Stolen without shame from Infinity Train seasons 2 and, especially, 3. Some spoilers follow.

In Infinity Train, Apex was a group of child Passengers who believed that the Train existed for their benefit, that the Denizens of the train (whom they called Nulls) were not real and, thus, could be damaged or destroyed with impunity, that One-One was a false conductor who replaced the True Conductor (who was also a Passenger with a very large number), and that raising one's number was a good and righteous goal (whoever had the largest number was the leader of the Apex). Apex were founded by Grace Monroe, who had been saved as a child by Amelia in her guise as the Conductor and came to believe that "he" was the real conductor (he thanks to the voice modulator Amelia used). She noticed that the Conductor had a very large number that went all the way up the arm, so she believed that increasing her number was a laudable goal. When Tulip helped One-One returned to its rightful place as the conductor, Grace labeled it the false conductor and sought to oppose One-One's management of the train. Apex wore a sine wave of lipstick across their faces in emulation of Amelia's conductor mask. They made their home in a Mall Car and raided other nearby train cars, using their grappling harnesses and magnetic boots, for food, supplies, loot, and to cause general mayhem. Raiders would offer up tribute to Grace after a raid and would often dispose of unneeded items or denizens by "wheeling" them (throwing them off the train car to be destroyed by the train's treads).

In Trokair, Apex is obviously a chaos cult. They exist to cause mayhem and destruction, existing somewhere within line of sight of solipsism. They view others as "not real" and have no compunctions against hurting or killing them (in fact, they often delight in being able to hurt and kill others). An Apex attack happens seemingly at random. They scatter around the targeted location, wearing cloaks and even masks to hide their identities. On the signal of their leader, they doff their cloaks and begin ransacking, seeking to damage property, objects, and people with equal abandon. The use of disguises, the age of the participants, the preference for property damage, and the looting are how one would distinguish an Apex attack from the Sons of Wrath.

The leader of Apex is still Grace Monroe, and she keeps much of her history (daughter of nobles or otherwise influential people, naturally talented dancer). However, the leader of the Apex is, in truth, a parasitic demon that consumes the soul of a child and abducts its body. When the body grows too old or suffers a life-threatening wound, the demon transfers to another child's body (preferably another Apex member but sometimes you take what you can get). Unlike many of my other chaos cultists and villains, this demon is no voice-in-your-head tempting you to evil acts. It kills the host, boots the soul, and animates the body. You cannot appeal to the "real Grace" deep inside to fight against the demon because, surprise surprise, there IS NO "REAL" GRACE! I really like how this upends the whole Apex philosophy of real vs null.

I am not sure yet what the Apex uses to differentiate the real from the not real. My main thoughts are:

1. Magical creatures are null
1. Anything outside of our actual world, definitely monsters like dragons and griffins but maybe including orcs, elves, etc.
2. Apex are normal humans who hate magic
2. Non-magical creatures are null
1. Death Eater vibe, all Apex are spellcasters and attack the mundane world
2. This somewhat wants the Apex to be jerks from Vane who traveled to another city to cause chaos
3. Commoners are null
1. All Apex are noble children and view commoners as null
2. This would not work very well with Wyndhaven since the Ispanite Rebellion overthrew the nobility, so recruiting former noble children would be quite difficult (dead or fled)
4. Bullshit manipulative cold reading null
1. The parasitic demon just decides who to recruit based on their lack of willpower and the ease with which they can be manipulated
2. An "emperor's new clothes" situation where members know they cannot tell who has "it" or not but, kids being kids, act like they totally can

Number 4 is the best option, having written them all out. I like all of them, and each brings it own flavor to the idea, but 4 hits all the buttons and ties into the meaninglessness of the null label.