I love these weird micro-cult stories, thank you for posting this!

What made it extra weird for me was the fact that I grew up among people obsessed with tolkien and larping, ocasionally being labeled as a cult by the general public, except they actually pulled off the fantasy/scifi convention part. And they are still going strong for more than a decade. It was a humbling experience for me as a young adult to see my peers exhibit such dedication, discipline and organization skills just for the sake of building something together.

Seeing how the same drive can backfire under different conditions was quite a ride!