The Evening Glory

Evening Glory or the Evening Glory was an outlander deity of love, beauty, and immortality through undeath. Her doctrine taught that true love need not die with the passing of age or even mortal life but may, even should, last eternally. Those who seek such eternal love should become undead such that their love stays unravaged by the passage of time. Although resurrection can bring life back to lovers slain through accident or violence, only undeath can stave off the progression of aging. Evening Glory's alignment was True Neutral, and her holy symbol was an outstretched palm with a heart-shaped hole in it. In ancient Barovia, she was imprisoned in the Amber Temple as a vestige until her liberation by—and merging with—Esmae Amarantha.

History

In ancient Barovia over two millenia ago, a secret society of good wizards constructed the Amber Temple to hold the vestiges of ancient and powerful evil beings. Over time, most of these wizards of the Amber Temple were thoroughly corrupted by the beings they imprisoned and either perished or otherwise gone long before the coming of Exethanter to the Amber Temple. This is untrue for the wizards of the lowest level of the temple, whom sealed themselves off from the rest of the Amber Temple and survived in a sense.

Although the wizards of the Amber Temple were chiefly concerned with the imprisonment of evil beings, the wizards on the lowest level, led by Dr. Keletifold, captured the essence of the Evening Glory and imprisoned her in an amber sarcophagus. After the Temple was drawn to the Demiplane of Dread, the demiplane's dark nature warped the Evening Glory further toward evil, and she absorbed obsessed love into her portfolio. She in turn, began to warp her imprisoners.

Dr. Keletifold and his associates erected wards to protect themselves from the corrupting influences of the vestiges around them. Their endless devotion would ironically prove to be their downfall, for it resembled the Evening Glory's doctrine of eternal devotion enough for her influence to bypass the wards and influence Dr. Keletifold's group. Each of the wizards became fettered with an obsession, and their emotions and desires began to tear apart their unity. Each of the wizards imagined their own plan for holding the vestiges. Magister Krausenatti decided to solve their disputes by poisoning all of them. All perished but then reanimated as undead. All but Dr. Keletifold, their leader, became incorporeal undead, whereas Dr. Keleitfold rose again as a corporeal undead. The Evening Glory was the party responsible for their reanimation.

A few months before the present time, Ivan Randovich, burgomaster of Orașnou, found a scroll detailing the Amber Temple and specifically the Evening Glory's imprisonment. He ventured there with his boss, Esmae Amarantha, to find this vestige. Burgomaster Randovich seduced one of the wizards into murdering Keleitford for good, a task needed to open the vault that held the Evening Glory. Inside the vault, the Evening Glory promised to Esmae that her love for Strahd von Zarovich could last eternally if she but freed the vestige. Using the silver locket, a strong artifact, Esmae used captured the essence of the Evening Glory and merged with her. Esmae and Burgomaster Randovich left the temple, and the traitorous wizards resealed the vault. Thus, the murder of Dr. Keleitford remained a mystery, at least for a time.

Esmae ultimately hoped to use her new power to become an undying incarnation of Tatyana Federovna, winning Strahd's heart by becoming his beloved. Her ritual at Boszórkan Keep was a potentially world-altering one. It would have allowed her to reach across the planes of existence and draw more land into Strahd's domain. Adventurers may have located the silver locket in the Amber Temple vault and used it to bind the Evening Glory again. Regardless, Esmae was defeated before her plans could come to fruition.