Category:Cult of the Morninglord

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The Symbol of the Morninglord
The Symbol of the Morninglord, redrawn by Radaghast Kary

Also called the Children of the Morninglord[1], The Cult of the Morninglord is the a growing faith centered in Barovia. In fact, its presence is almost exclusively in Barovia, as the Cult of the Morninglord is perhaps the only active faith in modern times that can be considered a "native" Barovian faith. The Cult worships The Morninglord, a strangely distorted version of Lathander from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, though Lathander himself is not necessarily the source of the Cult's priests spells due to The Unspoken Pact.

Though the Mornginglord's faithful may not openly oppose Count Strahd von Zarovich or hunt vampires, a secret society of vampire hunters exists within the Cult known as the The Dawnslayers. One of their tenets is that of The Midnight Clarion.[2]

Overview

As the Barovians know him, the Morninglord is a deity of everlasting hope and optimism, even in the most severe of conditions. His faith has few strictures for the faithful, save keeping hope alive and bearing good will to each other.[3] The Morninglord's doctrine is one of liberation, calling his clergy and other faithful to uproot the oppressors and uplift the oppressed, bringing hope through action.Undead are seen as a common enemy to the Morninglord and are to to be destroyed when encountered

The Cult's religious authority is decentralized into largely independent temples. Doctrine leaves the justice that comes to all evildoerss not to laws made by humanity, but rather to the actions of his worshipers or through fate catching up with the transgressors. Still, the Cult does have its traditions. Martyrs for the faith may become sainted as chanticleers, and Nevermore Night is a commonly observed religious holiday.[4]

Church doctrine holds undead as common enemy to the Morninglord and the dawn. They are to to be destroyed when encountered.[4] To this end, a secret society of vampire and undead hunters exist within the faith. They are called The Dawnslayers. The Herald of Dawn Prestige Class is associated with the Morninglord's undead hunters. The Dawnslayers' base of operation is the catacombs beneath the Sanctuary of First Light, the greatest of the Cult's temples. It is located in Krezk.[2]

Statistical Information

Alignment

Chaotic Good[4][5]

Favored Weapon

Spell domains (3rd Edition)

Good Domain[4][5], Luck Domain[4][5], Protection Domain[4][5], Salvation Domain[4], Sun Domain[4][5]

History

Humble Beginnings

By the time the Cult first came into existence, the Church of Andral had largely faded from existence, leaving the Barovians mostly faithless. In fact, the Cult's origins did not begin with a formal founding by the Barovian people but rather in the mistaken delusions of an outlander child. Martyn Pelkar, whom would later become known as Martyn the Mad by the majority of the Barovians of his time, was born in the Outander Land of Faerun some ten years before his family was taken by the Mists to Barovia. The year by the Barovian Calendar was 475 BC, the same year that the Mists had claimed Jander Sunstar.[6]

While Martyn's family camped in the woods of Barovia, Count Strahd von Zarovich, his vampiric minions, and a somewhat reluctant Jander crept upon them. Most of Martyn's family was murdered and exsanguinated by the vampires, but Martyn was spared at Jander Sunstar's insistence. As Jander was a gold elf with a correspondingly golden countance, the then 10-year-old Pelkar mistook Jander for Lathander Morninglord, interpreting Jander's intercession as an act of divine mercy stopping the vampires.[7]

Soon after in that same year of 475 BC, Martyn Pelkar emerged from the Svalich Woods into the Village of Barovia, murmuring about being saved by the Morninglord (see above). His talk lays the foundation for the Cult's emergence later on.[8] Over the next decade, Martyn preached the word of the Morninglord for a decade[9], fixing up the old church in the Village of Barovia and restoring its status as a holy place.[10] Martyn managed to spread his the word to a handful of souls, but he was known as a harmless but mad eccentric by most Barovians.

In 485 BC, disaster struck the Kartova Family, when Strahd and his cronies beset the family's cottage and burned it to the ground, killing the majority inside. Sasha Petrovich, was away at the time, allowing his life to be spared. A giomorgo by birth, Sasha's pleas for assistance went unanswered by the villagers, blaming the fire on his Vistani relatives. Martyn came upon the scene and helped Sasha collected the bodies of his deceased relatives and properly dispose of them such that they would not rise as undead. Although by chance Sasha's aunt Ludmilla had survived the attack, Martyn adopted the now orphaned and outcast boy.[11]

For almost a decade and a half, Martyn raised Sasha as his own son and instructed him in the ways of the Morninglord's faith.[12] Sasha too became one of the Morninglord's priests, and he aided his mentor into gathering a small number of converts to the Morninglord's cult.[2] However, in 499 BC, Martyn died of sickness, refusing to allow himself healing as he thought it was Lathander's will. Sasha mourned the death,[12] but continued his covert vigilante crusade against the vampires of Barovia Village he had started months earlier.

In 500 BC, Jander Sunstar contacted Sasha about the elimination of Strahd von Zarovich, outing the count as both vampire and the murderer of Sasha's family. Though he deduced Jandar's in both the massacre of Martyn's family and his own, Sasha was able to set aside his differences with Jander in order to unite against Strahd.[13] Subsequently, Jander, Sasha, and their friend Leisl journeyed into Castle Ravenloft, retrieved the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and attempted to destroy Strahd and his forces.[14]

Though they survived an ambush by Strahd and the ensuing epic battle, the trio failed to destroy Strahd[14]. They only drove him into retreat and hibernation. Moreover, their Pyrrhic victory came at a high cost. Katya, a werewolf ally and lover of Strahd, heavily injured Liesl and in all likelihood infected with lycanthropy. Jander, realizing the Dark Powers were manipulating him into fighting with Strahd, opted for suicide by letting the sun's rays consume him. Sasha and Leisl went into hiding[15]. They may have left for Vallaki, rebuilding the faith there

Development and Journey West

Though Sasha knew the truth of Martyn Pelkar's supposed divine inspiration, Sasha took his late mentor's message and adopted it as his own. Sasha continued to spread the faith, and his secret oath of vengeance against Strahd and others of his kind evolved into The Midnight Clarion, a covert policy of destruction to the undead, though mercy to afflicted lycanthropes. According to Gazetteer I, how this policy of mercy came to be is unknown to present-day Barovians[2], it most likely originated in response to Liesl's infection.} Regardless, The Dawnslayers eventually emerged as a secret society within the faith, so secret in fact that of the Morninglord's own faithful know not of its existence[2]

The Cult of the Morninglord gradually moved west, relocating its headquarters, the Sanctuary of Blessed Succor, first to Vallaki and then to Krezk. Critics attribute this western move as the Cult's attempt to put space between its greatest temple and Strahd.[2]

The Great Upheaval

In 740 BC, the seeming apocalypse known as The Great Upheaval occurred. The domain of Gundarak dissolved, its western half absorbed by Barovia. Upon orders of Count Strahd, the Barovians were quick to invade and annex the formerly Gundarakite controlled lands.[1][16] Subsequently, the optimistic and hopeful message of the Morninglord's cult attracted and the attention and veneration by many now oppressed Gundarakites.[1][2] This has caused a number of the Barovian authorities to suspect the Cult's link to Gundarakite rebel activity.[2]

The Cult Outside Barovia

Strictly speaking, the Cult of the Morninglord is not exclusively confined to Barovia, though its presence outside of Barovia in canon sources. In the Borcan (formerly Dorvinian) town of Ilvin, a single Barovian priest sits reading his books in solitude in a a rickety temple there.[17]The Mordentish paladin-hero Eia Pax was recruited into the Cult as a girl by a wandering priestess, and Pax was raised and mentored by Brother Ashmore in a remote monastery in Tepest. She went back to her monastery and is currently training an elite group of undead hunters there.[18]

The Cult of the Morninglord is known in Nova Vaasa thanks to its trade with Barovia, but the Morninglord is not worshiped there. Rather, he is despised, for his doctrine is all but diametrically opposed to that of the Church of the Lawgiver.[19]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Domains of Dread p. 59
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Gazetteer I p. 24
  3. ↑ Ravenloft Player's Handbook p. 68
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Gaz I p. 25
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 RLPHB p. 69
  6. ↑ Vampire of the Mists p. 98-102, p. 267 gives the year of Jander's arrival.
  7. ↑ VotM p. 98-102
  8. ↑ Gazetteer I p. 18
  9. ↑ VotM p. 134
  10. ↑ VotM p. 136
  11. ↑ VotM p. 140-170, 214
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 VotM p. 213-214
  13. ↑ VotM p. 268-277, p. 268 has 500 BC as the last journal entry he reads before hatching his plan.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 VotM p. 303-333
  15. ↑ VotM p. 333-341
  16. ↑ Gaz I p. 19
  17. ↑ Gaz4 Author's Notes
  18. ↑ Heroes of Light p. 80-82
  19. ↑ Gazetteer V p. 36

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Ravenloft Third Edition
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I

Ravenloft Third Edition - p52
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - p25

Ravenloft Third Edition - p54
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - p25

Ravenloft Third Edition - pp13,16-17,52-53
Vampire of the Mists - p134 and onwards
Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - p25


Subcategories

This category has the following 5 subcategories, out of 5 total.

C

H

S

T

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