Cult of the Aten

"Say your last prayers to your deceased deity, and prepare to face the eternal fire. The Black Sun will scorch the flesh from your bones, and burn you to ashes. Go forth, my children, and devour this blasphemy in the name of Aten! For the Sun! For the Black Sun!"

- Abdel Daoud The Cult of the Aten is a villainous organization and cult appearing in the second major story arc of the Funcom MMORPG ''The Secret World. ''First established in Egypt by the infamous Pharaoh Akhenaten, the cult was thought extinct for millennia, having been formally dissolved by the Marya at the end of it's founder's reign, with all known means of rebuilding the organization being destroyed or suppressed.

However, in 2012, something awoke the long-dormant forces that once commanded the Atenists, and now the cult has been reborn; though the Marya have prevented the Atenist armies from moving beyond the desert valley where it first reappeared, the cult is currently moving more expeditiously towards it new goals: releasing Akhenaten from his tomb and paving the way for the arrival of the Aten, the monstrous deity they serve. If the player cannot stop them, apocalyptic consequences are sure to follow...