Breeding Cult
A subset of Secret Circle of Secrets, and usually an Ancient Conspiracy, a Breeding Cult is usually either an attempt to create a Chosen One or a Master Race.
This type of Cult takes one of two forms:
- controlling the world's marriages/relationships/pregnancies to create a new generation, closer to fulfilling its Prophecy or Grand Plan.
- where the members of the cult are itself the result of the Breeding Program, secretly choosing their partners inline with the aims and desires of the Cult.
Tropes used in Breeding Cult include:
Literature
- In Dune the Bene Gesserit have worked for 90 generations to create the Chosen One, the 'Kwizatz Haderach'.
- The Howard Families are a fictional group created by Robert Heinlein, featuring heavily in books such as Time Enough for Love. The Howard Foundation was started in the 19th century by Ira Howard, a millionaire dying of old age in his forties, for the purpose of extending human lifespans.
Live Action TV
- In Dark Angel's second season, the enemies of the X-series are Breeding Cult members of "pure-blood" that have comparable abilities to the impure, gene-hacked super soldiers. The transgenics are obstacles to the realisation of the cult's planned extinction of the rest of humanity