The Services of the Cult of Assassins: The use of the cult was for the most part restricted to the upper echelons of the sith (the Dark Lords, their heirs, and the highest ranked sith). They offered their services as long as they were able, and accepted any target- so long as their masters received the private recognition of those who purchased their services. Targets were for the most part non-Sith political moguls and so on from planets ruled by the Sith; this was a means of assisting the race in keeping strong control over others and thereby having an iron ruling thumb.

The Blood Hunt of S’slan: At the annual 15 year period of the sith, the Cult Assassins go through a magickal transformation. Strictly through the magicks of their sorcerer overlords, they take the on the physical appearance of the Sith. This is because the dark lords often, in their hopes to gain greater divine favor with S’slan, desire to show mercy and leniency to what is to them the underling. While transformed, they allow the assassins to partake in the Blood Hunt to S'slan, so this transformation only occurs every fifty years. ((See "Blood Hunt" in these forums.)) They go through the transformation so that they might give themselves the illusion of greater stamina and strength (things they would need to go through the month long crusade) and so that they may work alongside other sith without suspicion or prejudice. A day after the ritual is over, they revert painfully back to human form- often with new personal outlooks, greater experience, and a psychopathic tendencies they might not have possessed before. After all, it is a mind-tearing event to suddenly become what one is not...

The Tome of Z'natchei: Back in the original founding of the Cult Assassins, Z'natchei, with the aid of her masters, wrote a book that was infused with magic’s. It explained the process of creating a sith assassin, the history of the assassins, and the codes and rules of the assassins. It also had a fair few gene-encoded placements, which would answer the subliminal base questions of the assassin readers or their blood descendents. It could only answer things that had a definite answer: "Where is the lounge in the warrior temple?" For example, as the text was also a good study guide for assassins to learn how to find locations.

The Worship of the Cult Assassins: Though the assassins worship the dark lords as demigods, they find S’slan high up along. They also traditionally worship Dane and Z’natchei as their founders. Dane is their god of Stealth and Agility, as Z’natchei is their god of Assassination and Knowledge.

The Equipment of the Cult Assassins: Generally, a cult assassin will always wear a mesh armor full of small pockets to contain weapons and store whatever necessary supplies they may need. They often use throwing knives, punching knives, and a sword to deal with their means. If they truly have difficulty in assassinating a specific mark, they may resort to the mundane means of sniping or assassination in the target’s sleep.

The Training of the Cult Assassins: The Cult Assassins are given rigorous mental and physical training throughout their lives, so that they might perfect their art each time they perform it. They learn three kinds of martial arts: A human form, a sith form, and an assassin form. Though the sith and human forms are for practice and regimen, the assassin form was designed so that the assassin could better strike at the critical points of the sith body, counter the sith martial art, and learn the sith autonomy better.

The Powers of the Cult Assassins: The Cult Assassins do not have the wide range of magicks endowed upon them as do their sorcerer overlords, but they do have the following: The ability to conjure flame, enhance speed, cloak themselves as invisible, create sleeping wards, and erase their tracks and signs of their passing.

Finally, cult assassins were rigidly controlled by their masters. Using the highest of magicks, higher than anyone but the Dark Lord himself could overcome, they ingrained within their nasty little minions the inability to attack and kill any Sith without direction or instruction from another Sith. This was meant to prevent the assassins both from ever becoming too powerful, or turning upon their Masters. Any attempt to kill on their own would trigger a neuron-pulse that would effectively paralyze the assassin, and he would simply pass out for an entire day, Sith-time.

Thus the cult assassins magicks had to be powerful, if they were meant to work against other magickal beings. However, they might be less effective against simple warrior races, who tend to snub magick for brute strength, fighting skill, strategic ability and general finesse.

Beings with strong magicks (yes, Sith too: the Elite of the Sorcerer's clan such as their Lords in general and of course the Dark Lord of the Sorcerers) would have better luck fighting against cult assassins than would lesser sorcerers, underlings, and young lords and ladies still in the process of learning their craft. Primarily though, targets were usually not Sith, as the Sith were a strong and highly honorable race. They viewed the idea as killing another Sith as being beneath them, but then, there are always the odd exception...