Humans
The everyday life of a human varies dramatically according to one's class. The wealthy families and clergy live in comfort and safety. Thraben clergy, in particular, have every need met by the church. The middle classes—artisans and merchants—are also quite comfortable. But the working class and farmers have a much shorter lifespan; they are more at risk from the dark things of the world, and they suffer from more sickness and famine as well. A farmer lives an average of forty years, while a bishop lives closer to seventy.
Safety is the main commodity in Innistrad. The wealthier you are, the safer you can make yourself. The high walls of Thraben protect the well-to-do who live inside. Titled families in Gavony have fortified manor houses, while the farmers must make do with the wooden walls of their farmhouses.
Because of the lack of physical safety, the poor spend a larger portion of their income of enchantments and non-physical means of protection. Tithing is required for everyone, and the church charges a small fee for every blessing and spell. Even at unstaffed little altars, payment is expected, and many of the faithful diligently pay even when there is no one to enforce it. Not unexpectedly, there is resentment among some for the amount of money required of the poor to uphold their faith. This resentment increases dramatically as the effectiveness of the Avacynian blessings diminish.
Community
The sense of community is very strong among humans in Gavony and in other provinces as well. Little altars and crossway chapels aren't as common in Gavony as in the other provinces because of the strength of the parish churches. The parish church is the focal point of any community in Gavony. Most people worship several times a week, and many pass by the church on a daily basis for a blessing of safety.
Travel
The roads in Gavony are best in the four northern parishes, although there are adequate roads in the Moorlands as well. It is easy to hire a soldier to guide you along the roads between Thraben and the Nearheath, and if you can make your trip during the daytime, such guides are usually not needed.
A few terms to know:
- Chapel. An enclosed space of varying size devoted to worship. There are many chapels built along the crossways of Innistrad. Most have resident clergy who attend them. These sometimes serve has hostels for travelers.
- Parish. The equivalent of a county. Each parish has its own chapel.
- Crossway. The name for roads in Innistrad. Most are just dirt tracks for horses and carts.
- Crossway Altar. An open-air altar along a crossway somewhere in the wilds.
Defense
Martial prowess is highly valued among humans. Cathars, particularly inquisitors, are highly revered. Poorer families have a harder time getting their children accepted to train at the Elgaud Grounds. When children show aptitude for spellcasting, however, they are accepted at the Fal Seminary no matter what their parents' status.
The Church of Avacyn
Why there is evil in the world really isn't a question on Innistrad. There always has been, and no one expects it to change. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, spirits, devils: these are part of the natural order of the world. Humans have always battled the forces of darkness and had their back to the wall in the fight of good versus evil. At times the prospects for the continued existence of the human race have seemed grim indeed.
The Blessed Sleep
For the humans of Innistrad, the purpose of life is not to live forever, but to have a restful "sleep" after death—tranquil oblivion, or perhaps oneness with everything, rather than becoming a tormented spirit, mutilated corpse, or undead abomination, as so often happens on Innistrad. The Sleep is considered a reward for a virtuous and vigilant life. "May you spend an eternity in the ground" is a common blessing among the people of this plane.
Theological Underpinnings
Faith in the church of Avacyn actually works, but there are no formulas that are consistently successful. Saying the mystical words in the right combination will result in protective magic, but some days it works better than others. And sometimes the evil it's warding against is more powerful than other times. The unreliability of the wards and blessings has led to disagreements over dogma. Although there is still only one church, sects have emerged over disagreements about the right way to do things. The goal of the church is safety, not perfection. Humans want to live in reasonable safety until they die, and then they want to remain peacefully in their graves. Cremation is forbidden because it is believed to result in a restless, angry spirit.
In the Church of Avacyn, there is no conception of heaven and hell. The humans of Innistrad do not believe in a heavenly afterlife to reward their past deeds. And their equivalent of hell is a very literal thing: there are actual cracks in the ground where demons dwell. Avacyn is not expected to eliminate evil in the world or to create a perfect life for everyone. Instead, she is the font of safety and protection. She is the authority to whom the faithful must go before something bad happens, to help ward off those evils that have always been a part of the world.
Church and State
In Innistrad, church and state are deeply interdependent; there is virtually no separation of the two. Local governments rely on the power of the Church to keep order and maintain public safety. Often the rule of law is adjudicated by the prelature, lawyers and judges ordained by the Church. All education is handled by the Church, although different sects sometimes establish their own schools and training grounds. Except for merchants and artisans, all professions are part of the Church. Even merchants and artisans are governed by fellowships, which must be sanctioned by the Church.
Church Hierarchy
Avacyn
The archangel Avacyn is the focal point of the human's worship. She is believed to be the source of all protective magic. It is thought that she controls the seasons and is the force that brings an end to the long and bleak Hunter's Moon. Adherents to Avacyn are called Avacynians, and their church is the Church of Avacyn, or the Avacynian Church.
Avacyn's Host
The archangel Avacyn has a host of angels who serve her.
The Flight of Goldnight. These angels are associated with the sun, in contrast with Avacyn herself. Once a year during the Harvest Moon season, the sun will not dip below the horizon for two full days, and during this time the moon isn't visible. Known as the Feast of Goldnight, this is the holiest day for the humans. It is the time when the Avacynian enchantments are strongest throughout Innistrad.
The Flight of Alabaster. These angels personify the Blessed Sleep and are associated with the Hunter's Moon season. They provide magic that wards against the desecration of dead humans.
The Flight of Herons. These are the angels of birth and purity and are associated with the New Moon season. Their magic is said to ward humans against harm in life (as opposed to the Alabaster host, which wards against harm in death).
Clerical Ranks
Lunarch. The head of the church. This is a position elected by the council of bishops. Currently, it is held by a man named Mikaeus, who is searching desperately for the reason behind the decline of the church's power.
Bishop. The highest order of clergy. They reside in the cathedral at Thraben as members of the Thraben Council, the governing body of the church.
Mayor. Sometimes called the elder, this is the political leader of a parish. He or she has a mix of administrative and religious duties, but the day-to-day administration is left to the priests.
Priest. Priests oversee the church and attend to parishioners' needs. They all use divine power to weave spells, but with varying degrees of skill.
Monk. These wandering priests are the lowest order of clergy. Some have been sanctioned by the church to seek out people living alone in the wilderness. But many are fanatics who are no longer formally part of the hierarchy, having said the wrong thing or enforced the wrong dogma and been cast out.
Cathars
Lunar-smiths. Blessed weapons are an important part of Avacynian magic, and these clergy are trained in the art of weapon-making. Certain blessings must be said at certain times during the forging process to make a weapon magically effective against a particular foe. Silversmiths are particularly revered because of the difficulty in imbuing the silver with strong magic, especially anti-lycanthropic magic.
Inquisitors. Inquisitors are cathars who can be hired out to come help a parish if they have a particular problem with vampires or devils.
Parish-blades. Cathars stationed in parishes serve as escorts along roads or protect the cathedral in Thraben. This is an ordained military force that assembles whenever the clergy demands.
Runechanters. Runechanters are a specialized branch of the clergy that specializes in engraving blessings on material objects, including weapons. Everything from swords to axes to children's toys has words written on it in an effort to protect its owner. The best runechanters can write so small that hundreds of these blessings can be squeezed into a small space.
The werewolf is a creature of duality, forever dragged between two worlds: it is both monster and man, nature and civilization, rational thought and raw savagery.
Killer or Victim: Perspectives on the Lycanthrope
Some werewolves see themselves as victims cursed with the souls of untamable killers. Others see themselves as glorious scions of nature trapped inside a cage of civilized lies. Though most of Innistrad society focuses on the mass-murdering horrors of the werewolf's beast form, the lycanthrope can be seen as a tragic figure with an identity chained to the treacherous moon or an avatar of nature's inherent wildness.
Human Form: A Tenuous Hold on Civility
A person afflicted with lycanthropy is forever in doubt of his or her own urges and instincts. In human form, a werewolf feels the pull of the wolf's essence within even while trying to integrate into polite society. A lycanthrope can feel the war of emotions in his or her heart, and as the moon grows full, the influences of conscience, religion, and personal restraint do less and less. The full moon makes the change inevitable, but in fact, any strong emotion or traumatic experience can trigger a lycanthropic crisis and allow the transformation to occur.
Beast Form: The Natural Killing Machine
Werewolves in canid form are beings of unparalleled savagery and strength. Their bodies are perfectly engineered for slaughter, with jaws capable of snapping bone and claws sharp enough to rip the entrails from a beast many times their size. Their minds are explosions of instinct and adrenaline, fed supernatural awareness from their heightened senses yet cognitively blind to almost everything but the kill. They can walk upright for manual dexterity or can lope on four limbs for speed. Their howl is said to release the wolf's spirit within, a harrowing sound that fogs the air and chills the night. Werewolves in beast form cannot speak human languages, but seem to be able to communicate with each other on matters of hunting, dominance, and social hierarchy, as canines do in the wild.
The Transformation
The transformation process is harrowing for the lycanthrope and incredibly disturbing to any witnesses. The eyes change first, the whites darkening and the iris filling with color. The claws go next; the hands elongate, knifelike claws extend from the fingertips, and the thumb forms a claw back near the wrist. The muzzle thrusts forward out of the human's skull, and the teeth jut through the gums in sharp points. Bones crack as they rearrange. Marrow spills into the bloodstream as ribs and skull fracture and telescope. Thick, wiry fur pushes through the skin, often pushing out normal human hair. The tailbone elongates and becomes a shaggy wolf's tail. Metabolism speeds up, increasing blood flow, oxygen flow, and glandular production, creating cravings for protein and fat. Any clothing that was worn at the time of the change is generally torn to shreds and falls away. If a werewolf dies in beast form, it changes back to human form, a process called death reversion.
Aftermath
A werewolf that has just changed back to human form is usually naked, disoriented, and covered in the debris, wounds, and bloodstains of the previous night's hunt. He or she has flashes of memories left over from canid form, often experienced with involuntary heart spasms and jolts of adrenaline, not unlike the experience of panic attacks. The days following a transformation are often filled with shame, guilt, and depression—and repression, as the lycanthrope struggles to feign normality, construct alibis, and hide evidence of his or her savage crimes.
Repentants vs. Wantons: Living with the Curse
After reverting to humanoid form, most werewolves have partial memories of their time in canid form, and they clearly see the aftereffects of the destruction they've caused. This can send lycanthropes into the throes of depression, shame, or even hostility against others. A minority of lycanthropes actually embrace their werewolf nature, however, and actively seek to return to their canid state. Werewolves that revile their lycanthropy are called repentants; the few who embrace the wild are called wantons. While in canid form, however, all werewolves are savage beasts, all traces of their humanity gone.
Religion: Warding Against the Change
Humans destroy known werewolves when they can; all lycanthropes are seen as abominations and mass murderers. But werewolves are dangerous creatures to face head-on, so wide-scale magical prevention is often employed to curb lycanthropy passively.
Regular and repeated application of Avacynian magic can help prevent the change to canid form. Roadside shrines, prayer, angelic rites, the blessing of accomplished clerics, and the presence of holy symbols all help reinforce the werewolf's humanity, helping her hold on to her human form. Repentant werewolves often stay within the city limits, around their fellow man and the influence of religion, whereas wantons often venture into the wilderness, far from the wards and priests that keep their wolf essence in check. The full moon, however can overcome even powerful religious precautions. In addition, the power of angelic magic has waned in recent times, and werewolf transformations have become more common and harder to predict.
Lycanthropes and the Moon
There's no doubt that the moon holds sway over werewolves. As the moon's phases change, so changes the power of lycanthropy over the werewolf. As the full moon approaches, the effectiveness of divine magic becomes dampened, and werewolves change more readily.
Blessed silver
Werewolves in canid form are supernaturally strong and tough, and since the weakening of Avacynian magic, few protection spells have been able to harm them or keep them at bay. But werewolves have a weakness: pure silver that has been ritually blessed by a powerful cleric of Avacyn can cause them great agony. According to alchemists, silver's purity of material readily absorbs the divine magic. Arrowheads, spearpoints, and other weapons made from blessed silver can be powerful instruments for fighting werewolves.
Silver and the Moon
Mages have presumed a relationship between the moon and the metal silver for centuries, but the nature of that relationship remains a mystery. The respected astronomancer Jenrik once posited that Innistrad's moon is actually a vast desert composed of tiny grains of silver. He believed that any silver found on Innistrad actually originated from the moon's silver desert, and that terrestrial silver maintains a relationship with the moon's power. Why the moon seems to empower werewolves while silver harms them is not well understood.
The Cause and Nature of Lycanthropy
There are many theories of how lycanthropy is caused or spread. Most sects of the Church of Avacyn hold that lycanthropy is a kind of demonic possession, but ritual exorcisms have not successfully purged the affliction. Most afflicted humans appear to become werewolves at some point in their lives rather than being born so, although there are sporadic (and chilling) tales of child werewolves in remote areas. Many alchemists and wolfhunters believe that werewolves are sterile, and only reproduce by cursing humans with lycanthropy; however, many commoners fear that they might be able to interbreed with humans or give birth to their own kind.
The True Cause
Lycanthropy is a supernatural curse that causes the victim's spiritual essence to become mingled with the wild essence of nature, symbolized by the wolf. The lycanthrope in effect has two souls, or one split soul. These two essences constantly battle for control within the victim. When the wild wolf-essence triumphs, the werewolf change occurs. This may explain why werewolves hunt humans so often; the wolf-essence desires to destroy the human side and triumph over humanity, and does so symbolically by brutally slaying humans.
Transmitting the Curse: The Call and the First Hunt
The curse of lycanthropy overtakes a person over a period of one night. One or more werewolves howl in the night, calling out to the victim. Soon after, the victim finds himself in the wilderness, under the silvery moon, surrounded by eyes glowing in the night. The victim's will is compromised already, the wild essence entering him and doing battle with his human conscience. The victim and the werewolves crash through the woods together, and over the course of the night, they hunt and kill their prey—usually woodland game, but other humans or even another lycanthrope is not unheard of.
The called victim begins to express wolf characteristics throughout the night, and as he sinks his teeth into bloody flesh, the curse perceptibly takes hold, and he transforms fully into canid form for the first time. There is a bone-chilling chorus of howls, and the First Hunt is complete. Later, the new lycanthrope usually staggers back into civilization, half-naked, barely recognizable through the blood and offal and wilderness debris, and nearly mad from fear and shameful memories. Thereafter, the werewolf must remain vigilant with prayer and caution, lest the wolf essence manifest again.
Detection
Werewolves in either form seem to be able to tell a human-form lycanthrope by smell. Indeed, humans who are mysteriously spared during werewolf rampages are often suspected of being werewolves themselves.
No Known Cure
No known remedy, blessing, or ritual has effectively purged the curse of lycanthropy. The closest anyone ever came was alchemist Theodora Glick, who was brought in to inspect Guthril, a werewolf captured by the local constabulary. Through a complex ceremony involving mystic circles inlaid with the wolfsbane plant, a blanket woven with blessed silver thread, and a lightning storm, Glick managed to force Guthril to revert to human form and stay that way through three lunar cycles. Unfortunately, the ritual was only temporary, and Guthril re-emerged stronger than ever. He utterly destroyed Glick's laboratory in Gavony and fled into the night.
Howlpacks
Werewolves are often lone hunters, stalking and killing humans as singular monsters in urban settings. But some werewolves form loose, evolving social groups out in the wild called howlpacks. The populations of howlpacks wax and wane like the moon, gaining and losing members as individual lycanthropes enter or leave their canid state. Some werewolves seem to be continually drawn back to their howlpack, returning to it time after time as soon as they drop their human guise and reenter the wild. Howlpacks can be tiny hunting parties of just a few werewolves, or can be massive hordes of over a hundred. A howlpack is often led by a single alpha (male or female) that dominates the pack. Alphas must often defend their power by defeating challengers in combat.
Three of the larger, more stable howlpacks are the Krallenhorde, the Mondronen, and the Leeraug.
The Krallenhorde: Innistrad's Largest Howlpack
When an average Innistrad human thinks of a werewolf pack, he or she thinks of the Krallenhorde. The Krallenhorde has existed in some form for decades, composed of anywhere from fifty to over two hundred werewolves depending on the availability of prey and the phase of the moon. The most heterogeneous of howlpacks, Krallenhorde includes a mix of repentant and wanton werewolves, and has drawn members from all provinces of Innistrad. The alpha of Krallenhorde is currently the werewolf Ulrich, a cunning and perceptive wanton who remains in the wild and runs with the howlpack even when he reverts to human form.
Mondronen: Carnal Ritualists
The Mondronen howlpack is composed of around sixty werewolves who are said to control a dark, bloody magic of nature. Their alpha Tovolar is a mute, silver-furred werewolf who leads his pack on revels of carnage and howling songs, and who never seems to revert to human form. The Mondronen wolves historically stayed far from centers of civilization, only preying on farmlands, rural communities, and remote monasteries. But as Avacyn's protective wards have diminished in strength, it's said that the Mondronen territory has grown closer to cities, and that their dark magics may soon spill over into genteel life.
Leeraug: Killers of the Absent Moon
Few know of the Leeraug, a relatively small and tight-knit pack of Innistrad's most vicious werewolf predators, but almost all have heard tales of their destruction. The Leeraug are unique in that they hunt under the black night of the new moon, rather than transforming when the moon is full. They favor the flesh and entrails of children, and often steal into homes and orphanages through chimneys or windows left ajar. The Leeraug alpha is Skaharra, a black-furred she-wolf noted for her tendency to kill along bloodlines, murdering entire families in a single night while sparing unrelated farmhands and servants.
Innistrad's vampires comprise its only nonhuman civilization and the biggest threat to humans on the plane. Their existence represents a sort of externalization of self-indulgent desire; if werewolves are a symbol of repressed rage, vampires are a symbol of repressed desire. On Innistrad, vampire manor houses, courts, and even the occasional castle exist across the plane, and vampires themselves vary considerably in aggressiveness toward their human prey.
The Nature of Vampirism
Vampirism on Innistrad is neither a virus nor a curse, but what the vampires themselves somewhat euphemistically call a "condition of the blood." It is an anointing that persists and is perpetuated by magic alone, and few if any of its bearers consider it a curse. When reflecting on the nature of "the condition," vampires sometimes poetically call it an ablution, a washing of the self in blood that results in a new state of being. Innistrad vampires are not truly undead, although they have some undead traits (such as agelessness and skin that's cold to the touch).
Vampiric traits. The most distinctive thing about vampires' appearance is their eyes. The sclera is black and the irises gold, silver, or other colors. The skin is pale and cool to the touch. The hair is often black but is sometimes deep purple, dark magenta, burgundy, or even dark blue-green. Some vampires wear wigs, however, for variety, novelty, or to disguise themselves more easily among humans. A vampire's canines are very slightly pronounced at all times, and when they bite someone, the canines extend about a quarter inch. Vampires also tend to have long and slightly curved fingernails.
Vampiric powers. Humans have a multitude of tall tales about the evils and wonders of which vampires are capable. In reality, though, the vampires' universal suite of powers is limited to just three things: agelessness, slightly enhanced strength (approximately double that of a human), and a two-foot-wide aura of silence that emanates from them at will.
Vampiric magic. That said, many vampires learn a uniquely vampiric form of glamer (quasi-illusion magic) that enables them to move among humans undetected. These are mind-affecting spells that alter what nearby humans think they're perceiving, rather than true illusion magic that changes the subject's appearance. As such, particularly strong-willed humans can sometimes shake off the effects of the glamer and see the vampire truly. Also, given time, power, and mana, elder vampires learn all manner of powerful magic, including flight, hypnotic gaze, transformation into other forms (such as that of a bat or a mist), and so on.
Vampiric Vulnerabilities
All vampires inherit a set of weaknesses linked to the ritual that created their race. First, although they can be harmed or killed by any weapon, weapons of living wood have special efficacy—this is the so-called Dryad's Legacy (dead wood is inert, no more effective than stone or steel). Second, a vampire can't cross running water in which the moon is reflected, because of the link between water as the source of human food and the moon as the source of angelic power. Third, Avacyn herself can enchant water with the power to burn vampires like acid by touching it. But this water is scarce and becoming scarcer with each passing day.
Silver, the soothsayer. Because of the connection between Innistrad's silver moon and its angels, and because the ritual that created vampires required the drinking of angel blood, silver has special properties vis-à-vis vampires: it causes them to see how they would have been in normal, mortal life, ignoring vampire glamer and reality alike. Because of this, vampires go to great lengths to avoid mirrors (glass backed with a coating of silver), because mirrors reflect their mortal images rather than their actual ones. This is also the reason why vampires can't cross running water in which the moon is reflected. Although silver weapons aren't particularly deadly to vampires, the presence of silver unsettles them, putting them at a disadvantage.
Avacyn's power. The archangel Avacyn is (or was) the living covenant of the balance between humans and vampires. Avacynian holy symbols can induce in vampires a paralyzing fear and the desire to flee, although their ability to do so has significantly diminished in the last year (because of Avacyn's disappearance). Despite Avacyn's absence, however, the strength of faith alone imbues a degree of continued power in the symbols of Avacyn: the silver collar and the heron crest.
The Unquenchable Thirst
A vampire will starve to death in one full cycle of the moon unless it drinks as much human blood as an average human contains (about five liters). Almost any vampire will drink more than this if given the chance, however. Without enough blood, a vampire starves quickly—in a matter of several days—first desiccating before eventually crumbling to dust. Because of the source magic that created all vampires, only blood from a living human will suffice. Vampire alchemists have attempted transmutations of animal blood to human blood, but all have failed. Blood from a dead human is also insufficient; if blood from a living human is like wine, blood from a dead human is like vinegar.
Blood trade. To vampires, blood is indeed like wine. Vampires enjoy a lively commerce in blood, although the commodity is only good for a few days before it provides no nourishment—about the same length of time as wood stays alive once cut from its plant. Small castles and manor houses in relative proximity to each other trade blood via carriage and experiment with various blends. Particularly interesting or delicious samples are occasionally preserved by well paid time-mages who can use sorcery to prevent the blood from "dying" for a short time (freezing doesn't work). When a time-mage can't be secured, however (which is often), some vampires resort to slavery of the victim, shipping him or her from place to place to be supped on. Specialty carriages exist for this purpose.
Feeding and siring. A vampire will drink the blood of his or her human victim, usually until the victim dies of blood loss. Sometimes the vampire is interrupted and the human will survive and recover. Although other humans might suspect the survivor of a vampire's bite of becoming a vampire, this isn't a possibility, because siring requires an exchange of blood. The survivor will be plagued by disturbing and sometimes traumatic dreams for years but will not turn.
When a vampire wishes to turn a human into a vampire, to sire the victim, the vampire must introduce his or her own blood into the victim. The simplest way to accomplish this is for the vampire to cut his or her own cheek or tongue before or during the bite. This act will "anoint" the victim, endowing him or her with the same "condition of the blood" that all vampires have. But this is only the first step. The victim, once anointed, will begin to feel the bloodthirst, and food will become unsatisfying within one to three days. But this first bloodthirst is special; only the blood of the sire can quench it. A newly anointed victim who doesn't drink the sire's blood before the next new moon will die. But if he or she does, the siring will be complete and the anointed will become a full-fledged vampire.
Only the gifted. Who do vampires choose to sire? Because vampires believe they are humanity's saviors, and because of their own decadence and hedonism, only the cream of the human crop is fit for siring. A vampire might decide to sire a human because of the human's beauty, charisma, intelligence, or talent, for example. In short, only the most remarkable humans become vampires.
The bite. When vampires feed, they will sink their teeth into any exposed flesh. Usually the neck is most convenient, but an arm or even a cheek will do. But the siring bite is special. Vampires want to avoid marring the appearance of their future peers, so often a siring bite is made in some out-of-view location, such as on the upper thigh, the torso under the arm, or the bottom of a foot (although in this last case the victim must be special indeed to be worth the vampire's self-humiliation).
Bloodlines
Not all vampires are created equal. Among the existing vampiric bloodlines, some are more common but prestigious whereas some are rare but less respected. There were originally twelve bloodlines, which originated long ago in a ritual that had something to do with the Markov progenitor, Edgar Markov. Three of these bloodlines have died out completely. Five others are relatively minor, having sired fewer vampires. The four major bloodlines that remain are:
Markov. This is the bloodline of Edgar Markov and is the most prestigious of the bloodlines. The Markov line has been fairly ambitious in its siring over the many centuries, and as a result the Markov vampires exist in all four of Innistrad's provinces. This isn't to say that all vampires of the Markov line are all high-minded or noble; a bloodline doesn't determine temperament, self-discipline, or restraint. Markov elders seem to have a talent for psychic magic.
Falkenrath. The Falkenrath line, concentrated more in Stensia than the Markov line, had a famous falconer (now dead) as its progenitor and remains associated with far-reaching activity and predation. Falkenrath vampires are the boldest in walking among humans, taking pleasure in choosing their victims from deep within human communities that consider themselves safe. Falkenrath elders are more likely to master powers of flight than those of other lines.
Voldaren. The progenitor of the Voldaren line,
Olivia Voldaren, was in life a beautiful but strange, hermetic, antisocial woman who preferred to live far away from human civilization, in manor homes built for her from her seemingly boundless wealth. Like their progenitor, Voldaren vampires tend to live in the distant places, in the borderlands and edges of Innistrad's provinces. Voldaren elders can more easily master magic that enables them to transform into animal forms, especially those of the bat, cat, and rat.
Stromkirk. Unwilling to take part in the political and social machinations of Stensian vampires, those of the Stromkirk line chose to concentrate their power in Nephalia instead. As a result their disguising glamers are more powerful and more sophisticated. Stromkirk's progenitor, Runo Stromkirk, was a high priest in life who worshipped a pre-Avacynian god of the sea and storms, and Stromkirk vampires still feel a slight affinity with the coast. Some Stromkirk elders have achieved the ability to transform themselves into mist.
THE UNDEAD
Two distinct kinds of corporeal undead creatures plague Innistrad. The first are ghouls, sometimes called "the unhallowed," which are necromantically animated corpses. The second are the skaab, beings alchemically constructed from the dead.
The Unhallowed
Necromantically animated zombies are more commonly called ghouls or "unhallowed" on Innistrad, because they're drawn forth from unhallowed graves. One of the duties of Avacynian clergy is blessing the final resting places of the dead to try to ensure "the Blessed Sleep." Now that Avacyn is no longer present, the dead can be more easily stirred.
Ghoulcallers
Necromancers on Innistrad are usually referred to as ghoulcallers, the black-mana mages that call forth the dead from graveyards, or "grafs." There are several varieties of graf, each of which draws forth a unique mix of the walking dead.
Fengraf. A fengraf is one of the many flooded lowland graveyards. These sites were once hallowed ground, but have remained untended for many years. Fengraf ghouls are usually smiths, cobblers, brothel workers and other common and poor folk.
Seagraf. A seagraf is a "fisherman's graveyard." Much like minor nobles, fishermen are often buried with their most prized possessions, such as nets, long harpoons, and large hooks for getting hold of a slippery catch. Seagraf unhallowed have not completely forgotten their trade even in death, and they will pursue victims using the tools and deftness they had in life.
Diregraf. A diregraf is the site of a particularly gruesome battle. Unhallowed awakened from a diregraf carry the armor, weapons, and fatal wounds from their last bloody battle. Diregraf ghouls carry this lust for an unfinished battle within their fogged minds, and they often attempt to fall into military formations as they were trained to do in life.
Once the dead have risen, the ghoulcaller then supplants all other addled thoughts of the dead with one single driving purpose in their minds. The near-mindless ghouls will call on what skills they have left to carry out the task, and the results are a grotesque parody of their lives. Blacksmiths attempt to "reforge" their opponents, fallen warriors emit rasping pseudo-cries, and undead murderers reawaken their taste for killing. Occasionally, fallen mages even show a limited ability to weave spells, but this often results in some aberration of the spell's original purpose.
The Skaab
Necro-alchemy is much more of an art than ghoulcalling. One who practices the art of creating skaabs is called a skaberen. The true goal of the skaberen is to create life, an undertaking which usually produces malformed "offspring" rather than true life.
There are four steps to producing a skaab.
- Corpus Creare, also known as "corpse cobbling," is the collecting of various anatomical parts from corpses from which the skaab will be constructed. This is usually performed by paid grave robbers or homunculi under the skaberen's charge. In some cases, even the limbs of beasts are used for the construct; if a human arm is not available, a horse's leg can suffice.
- Patin Ligitus, or rune-bonds, are the "binding plates" used to join various anatomical features together. These are plates of copper and/or brass, with silver-inlaid runes scribed on them. They provide an arcane bridge of sorts between disparate parts gathered by corpse-cobbling.
- Viscus Vitae, or vital fluid, is the key to the skaberen's art. Viscus vitae is created by mixing a large quantity of lamp oil with the slightest pinch of the dried blood of an angel. Once a perfect mixture of viscus vitae is created, any blood remaining in the corpse is replaced with vital oil, via transfusion. As a result, skaab are often highly flammable.
- Vox Quietus, translated as "the silent word," is the final step in creating a skaab. The skaberen whispers a fairly lengthy incantation over the corpse which awakens the creature, but in a much calmer manner that that which is used by ghoulcallers. Once awakened, the skaab is in a calm, "tabula rasa" state, which allows the alchemist to begin the long task of re-educating the creature. In the eyes of a skaberen, the technique used by ghoulcallers is crude, heretical, and provides unacceptable results.
Skaberen usually ply their trade in remote and inhospitable places, since they are viewed as blasphemers by commoners and clergy. Skaberen often become obsessed hermits who surround themselves with ancient scrolls and books, phials of rare noxious liquids, glass jars full of pickled organs, anatomical charts for both human and beast, rune-engraved skeletal remains, and small anvils and hammers for inscribing runes on brass and copper plates.
Geists
Innistrad is a world filled with the ghosts of the human dead. These spirits, called geists, take many forms. Some are protective spirits of ancestors. Others are vengeful creatures bent on resolving conflicts they couldn't resolve in life.
Malevolent and Benevolent
Geists have always been a presence on Innistrad, but before Avacyn, all such spirits were malevolent, manifesting on the plane only because of a grudge or regret powerful enough to disturb the Blessed Sleep of the body to which they were connected. In Avacyn's absence, the malevolent spirits were counterbalanced by the appearance of many benevolent and neutral geists, from nurturing apparitions of family members who have passed on to inscrutable ghosts who seem to want to continue whatever duty they had in life.
Avacyn as Psychopomp
This new balance in the spirit realm resulted from Avacyn's function as psychopomp for the dead; her existence shepherded the souls of the departed back into the plane's Æthereal space. This metaphysical guidance from Avacyn enabled geists to elect to turn away from reunion with the plane's essence—a phenomenon that previously occurred only when a geist's anguish or regret overcame the pull toward the Æther.
Material and Immaterial
Geists exist in the space between the material and Æthereal realms, so to varying degrees they possess qualities of both worlds. Thus some are able to walk through walls and then slash open throats. Others use the beliefs of the living against them; victims believe in the spirit so completely that they harm themselves with the power of their own mind. Some use fear to literally scare the victim to death. Some spirits use cold to freeze opponents or reduce their temperatures down to hypothermic levels when humans become lost on the moors or wander too far into the bogs. Other, more powerful ghosts use their force of will or emotion to condense matter (called ectoplasm) around their hands or weapons for a split second when they attack. Some use psychokinetic power to wrap objects around them (e.g., brambles, chains, spikes, glass, etc.), and then wield them against their foes.
Faith's Power
Even in Avacyn's absence, divine magic is not impotent. With a combination of powerful faith and divine magic, clergy can banish geists in various ways, from dispersal of the geist's essence to functioning as a surrogate psychopomp to guide the geist toward its rest in the Æther.
Guardian Geists
Many guardian geists are harmless or even protective spirits of dead family and friends who haunt the living out of a sense of duty, fealty, responsibility, or love. Malevolent guardian geists do exist, however, and are usually twisted by guilt, feelings of failure, or unrighted wrongs. Some are ghosts of fallen soldiers that still patrol the moors, looking for their vanquishers.
Madness Geists
Some geists are projections of the animating principles of the mind. Vicious or obsessive thinking as well as collective human memories come to life by attracting enough latent aether around them to become autonomous entities. They carry on as obsessive ghosts—repeated knocking, patterning, arranging, stacking, marking, etc. They can also possess one's mind and cause repetitive movements, speech, epilepsy, obsessive behavior, schizophrenia, and other such maladies of the mind. These are also the geists most drawn to the water, storms, frost, and mist—even the mist of the breath.
Shadow Geists
These geists eternally hunger for life, power, or the settling of a wicked grudge. These are spirits that must be appeased by offerings of food, goods, and even blood. If not appeased, these geists can be responsible for disease, accidents and death. Whereas geists associated with other afflictions might be benevolent or neutral, shadow geists are almost always dangerous and malevolent.
Terror Geists
These spirits have attached themselves to rampant emotions, unfulfilled desires, and thirsts for revenge that were frustrated during life. They can manifest as blood dripping from statues, whirls of dust on roads, minor rockslides on hillocks, cliffs, and mountainsides, and, in the case of possession, as sudden mania or murderous rage. The ghosts of the unavenged are some of the most dangerous geists on Innistrad, sometimes appearing as living fire or as "blood mist" entities that engulf a hapless victim and inflict cuts and welts that are slow to heal.
Nature Geists
Some geists long to be reconnected with the nature they revered in life. Energies within the woods that have been called into being by druids or other nature-mages take on form by entwining roots and brambles around their Æthereal bodies. Some of these spirits attach themselves to animals, plants and landforms, imbuing them with special power or mutating them into strange, otherworldly entities. If the spirits that inhabit landforms are not appeased, it can often result in blight, crop failure, and famine.
Master Fjerd was more than generous to allow me to stay with him for so long, but I think he was ultimately happy to have me go. I thought it was daring of him to pose as my father. Any of the gossips in the shop could have easily called his blatant bluff in front of the adventurers. He was always kind to me, allowing me to use his sparing gear when the shop was closed. He even gifted me with armor purchased from his own pocket. Mrs. Fjerd was equally kind; though, like her husband, I got definite hints to not get comfortable. She reminded me of my late aunt who would smile at your approach, but would never vary from unthought-out small talk. It seemed impossible to get anything deep or telling from the woman.
