Heretical Wars

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Mentioned in the Ravenloft product line novel Shadowborn, the Heretical Wars are a further elaboration of the backstory between Kateri Shadowborn and Ebonbane first presented in Islands of Terror (Sourcebook). The fallout of the Heretical Wars also indirectly provide the backdrop for how Alexi Shadowborn comes to take on her mother's mantle as imprisoner of Ebonbane.

Details

The Heretical Wars were a series of conflicts between between the outlander lands of the Great Kingdom of Avonleigh and the Southern Empire. Possessed and driven mad by the fiend Ebonbane, Grand Caliph Muhdar ab Sang initiated a series of aggressions that sparked the start of the wars. Over the course of the Heretical Wars, thousands of lives were lost. Thousands of lives were lost in the raids of Letour and Saschay, two cities in the southern provinces of the Great Kingdom, ordered by the possessed Grand Caliph and overseen by the Ahltrian.[1]

Over the course of the war, Lady Kateri Shadowborn emerged a hero. One of the Ahltrian, a man named Lysander Greylocks led an ambushed on the knights situated in Hammerlin, killing the majjority of the knights but captured a handful. As with previous atrocities, Ebonbande's domination caused Lysander to perform a number of horrible tortures upon them until the Grand Caliph ordered them to be brought in for interrogation. Kateri led the survivors to escape. The shoe was on the other foot two years later when Kateri captured defeated Lysander's troops and captured him at Sined Pass some two years later. With Lysander captured, Kateri detected the evil possessing him and freed him of it. With Lysander acting as advisor against Ebonbane's tactics, Kateri faced Ebonbane and banished it from the mortal world, including the Grand Caliph's soul. Unable to bear the weight of his actions under Ebonbane's influence, the Grand Caliph committed suicide soon after.[2]

After his freedom from Ebonbane, Lysander Greylocks settled in at Forenoon Abbey and became a monastic. A year passed and the Great Kingdom's armies, led Lady Kateri Shadowborn, returned home victorious. Having become tired by war, Lady Kateri declared her retirement[3] and returned to Shadowborn Manor, a home she had constructed in the south that was a replica of Shadowfast.[4]

Despite the seeming respite, evil was not so easily thwarted. Dark Triad, the remaining three Ahltrian with an evil agenda of their own, attempted to conjure and bind Ebonbane within a special sword. Although they managed to imprison him inside the sword, the fiend was not subject to their orders. It killed them all before it reanimated them as ghouls in its service. From there, Ebonbane set about its plans at revenge. it sent its ghouls to kill the monastics at Forenoon Abbey. All were slain and reanimated as ghouls in the service of Ebonbane.[5] Lysander was among and them. Possessed by Ebonbane and wielding the blade, Lysander attacked Lady Kateri in her own home. When he struck her dead, the Mists claimed Shadowborn Manor as a Ravenloft domain with Ebonbane as its lord.[6] The year was 611 BC.

Legacy

Following her demise to a killer unknown to most, Kateri became known as a martyr to the war effort[7] and was later sainted.[8] Her spirit lingered on as a ghost, holding the spirit of Ebonbane within the domain of Shadowborn Manor.

Kateri also left behind a son, Alexi Shadowborn, whom had been conceived from the time in Lysander's captivity. Dominated by Ebonbane, Lysander had raped Kateri, planting in the seed not of his own but of Ebonbane's.[9] As a Lodestone Paladin, Alexi Shadowborn later went onto succeed his mother as imprisoner to Ebonbane in 626 BC.[10]

References

  1. Shadowborn p. 132-134
  2. p. 134-138
  3. p. 173
  4. p. 129
  5. p. 126-127
  6. p. 173-176
  7. p. 24, 41, 75
  8. p. 139
  9. p. 274-277
  10. 308-309