In my aborted online HQ1 game set in Wenelia, I had a spirit cult of "Uncle Tusk, the Boneman," whose followers gather secrets, work bone, and who can get spirits that allow them to work bronze (it is far too magical a process to perform with mundane means, don't you know!). They are not overly pleasant....but they were always tolerated, and even fairly widespread, because they can work bronze. They are in decline every since the Trader Princes introduced more refined smithing cults.
I doubt it appeals to anyone else, but for me it fits Wenelia well.
Uncle Tusk "The Boneman"
Introduction
Uncle Tusk is the only native Wenelian smithing cult. Its practitioners have been rare whenever outside religions have brought in more effective smiths, but the practice's important role in creating items for ancestor worship has kept it alive amongst conservative clans even in those times. Practitioners are often great artists and skilled at working bone, however to work bronze they have to use their fetish spirits, meaning they are not the most productive of smiths.
Mythology
When Dokal Hairy Man was wooing Truffle-Girl, she was very resistant about giving up her hidden treasures. "You only want my hidden treasures, not the rest of me!" she accused. Dokal denied it, and proved how he would appreciate her skin, her muscles, her fat, and her organs. But finally she demanded "But what would you do with my bones?"
Dokal did not know, so he asked his mother, Oak Woman. Oak Woman said that the magic of Truffle Girl's bones would only be understood by her own family, so Dokal went amongst her family, asking what he should do with her bones. None would answer, until at last he came to Uncle Tusk, who was much too greedy to waste anything, and much too lazy to want to look far for anything, and much to fat to escape Dokal's questioning. After three days Uncle Tusk finally told Dokal "This is a secret of the soul of my family, if I tell you I will be lost, and so will Truffle Girl. But if you give me her bones I can work them, into tools or decorations." Dokal broke off Uncle Tusk's tail bone and had him demonstrate, and using it Uncle Tusk made an awl and seven perfect beads.
Dokal took the awl and the seven perfect beads, and gave them to Truffle Girl, saying "This is what I would do with your bones." Truffle Girl threaded the seven perfect beads on a lock of her hair and hung them around neck. She took the awl and stuck it in her hair. Then she replied "This is my Uncle Tusk's work, and this is the answer of what to do with my bones." So she gave up her hidden treasures to Dokal, and stayed at his camp. Each time that she died Dokal took her bones to Uncle Tusk, and he made tools and decorations and even weapons from them, so that Dokal would later beat the Plant People and trick the Dark People and even dig a hole to hell when it was time.
The Cult Today
Even today people bring bones, both of Truffle Girl's children and of Dokal's children, to the followers of Uncle Tusk. If you take a pig you will get back tools and decorations of bone. If you take a pig and the little fingers from a dead loved one you will get back seven beads and an awl. Most importantly of all to the Wenelians, if you bring a pig, beer, wood, the three black and seven white stones, and a supply of Truffle Girl's own bones (bronze), you will get back bronze tools, decorations, or weapons.
The Bonemen are notorious for making what they think is needed, however, rather than exactly what was requested, which is one of several reasons that they don't compete well against outland smithing cults. The cult has relatively few followers, but even in more open minded tribes the king supports at least one Boneman for ritual reasons. In more conservative and isolated areas Bonemen are more common, and most clans may support one.
Bonemen are notorious gatherers and horders of secrets, and many are known more for their scheming, gossiping, or knowledge of obscure rituals than for their metal or bonework.
Along the same lines was Marks on Bark Girl, a minor goddess adopted by Dokal in the bad times, whose followers make the sacred birch bark bundles that record important ritual information. Not quite a literacy cult, but a record keeping cult of a sort, again mostly superseded by foreign cults and literacy, but still existing around the fringes due to ritual reasons.
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