Heretical Wars

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.

Over the course of the war, Lady Kateria Shadowborn emerged a hero. In Hammerlin, 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.