Category:Cult of the Morninglord: Difference between revisions

This section contains canon info from officially published sources

The Cult of the Morninglord is the a growing faith centered in Barovia. In fact, its presence is almmost 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 the source of the Cult's priests spells.

Though the Mornginglord's faithful do not openly oppose Strahd or hunt vampires, a secret society of vampire hunters exists within the Cult known as the Dawnslayers. One of their tenets is that of the Midnight Clarion.^[1]

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.^[2]

While Martyn's family camped in the woods of Barovia, Count Strahd, 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.^[3]

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.^[4] Over the next decade, Martyn preached the word of the Morninglord for a decade^[5], fixing up the old church in the Village of Barovia and restoring its status as a holy place.^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8] 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.^[1] 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,^[8] 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.^[9] Subsequently, Jander, Sasha, and their friend Liesl journeyed into Castle Ravenloft, retrieved the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and attempted to destroy Strahd and his forces.^[10]

Though they survived an ambush by Strahd and the ensuing epic battle, the trio failed to destroy Strahd^[10]. 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^[11]. 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^[1], it most likely originates with Liesl's infection.} Regardless, the Dawnslayers eventually emerged as a secret society within the faith, so secret in fact that many of the Morninglord's own faithful know not of its existence^[1]

The Cult of the Morninglord gradually moved west, relocating its headquarters, the Sanctuary of Blessed Succor, first to Vallaki and then to Kresk. Critics attribute this western move as the Cult's attempt to put space between its greatest temple and Strahd.^[1]

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 Gundarkite controlled lands.^[12][13] Subsequently, the optimistic and hopeful message of the Morninglord's cult attracted and the attention and veneration by many now oppressed Gundarakites.^[1][12] This has caused a number of the Barovian authorities to suspect the Cult's link to Gundarakite rebel activity.^[1]

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