Monastery Name: Monastery of the Bleeding Scourge
Spiritual Focus: Disease, Plague, and Suffering
Master: Plaguebearer Morwenna Thorne, Human
Morwenna is a gaunt woman with sickly pale skin and a haunting presence. She is an expert in the study of diseases and their cures and has a deep understanding of human suffering.
Economic Means: The monastery produces and sells medicinal herbs, potions, and antidotes. They also offer pest control services, purging homes of vermin and disease.
The Temple of Nergal, the Reaper, is a foreboding and powerful presence in Seregon, looming ominously in the Temple Way district. Dedicated to the God of Plunder, Conquest, Death, and Plague, the temple is a place of dread and dark ambition, attracting those who seek power through death and decay.
The temple's architecture reflects Nergal's grim domain, built from dark stone with jagged spires that pierce the sky. The entrance is guarded by statues of the Ashen Lion, Nergal's symbol, their eyes seemingly watching all who dare approach. Inside, the temple is dimly lit, with walls adorned with images of conquest and the skeletal form of Nergal himself, depicted as a hooded skeleton clutching a phylactery, the source of a lich's immortality.
Worshippers of Nergal are drawn to the temple for various reasons, but most come seeking the secrets of lichdom, hoping to transcend mortality by binding their souls to powerful phylacteries. The temple is a gathering place for the Wizards of the Jeweled Skull ambitious wizards, led by Johan van Kroos. They are rivals of the Wizards of the Black Ring and the followers of the Golden Peacock. These wizards, who revere Nergal as their patron, often engage in dark rituals within the temple, hoping to gain favor with the Reaper and achieve their own dark immortality.
The temple's influence extends beyond the arcane, as Nergal's role as the god of plague ties him directly to the zombie apocalypse ravaging the world. Many believe the rise of the undead is a sign of Nergal's coming, a harbinger of a time when death will conquer all. The priests of Nergal, called The Hands of Nergal, shrouded in dark robes and adorned with symbols of the Ashen Lion and the Jeweled Skull, preach of a world where Nergal's reign will bring about the ultimate conquest of life by death.
Legends speak of the The Arcane Octad, a group of powerful wizards who revered Nergal and sought to bring about his vision of a world dominated by death and decay. Their legacy lives on in the temple, inspiring a new generation of wizards who seek to wield Nergal's power for their own ends.
The Temple of Nergal stands as a dark beacon in Seregon, a place where the ambitious, the desperate, and the damned come to worship the Reaper and embrace the path to lichdom, all under the shadow of the impending apocalypse.
Notable Groups: The Hands of Nergal, Wizards of the Jeweled Skull