Church of Moander

The Church of Moander was an ancient organization dedicated to worship of Moander the Jawed God. The Clergy consisted of clerics, and specialty priests–Darkbringers. In the days of ancient Netheril, Moander's worship included "druids", while following its death, the Church became a sporadic collection of cults and secret societies, with warlocks as of late-15 century DR.
==Clergy==
Many lonely folks, adrift in the world at large, were drawn to the Darkbringer for the firm direction it gave their life. Servants of Moander were required to endure a ceremony to join the cult that involved the absorption of a seed of Moander. If worthy, the seed gradually grew in the initiate's body until the entire internal structure was replaced with rotting plant matter. A small tendril with a flower protruding from the ear and wound through the hair was the only visible indication of the change. At this stage, whenever it wished, Moander could assume complete direct mental and physical control of the recipient. It could also speed up or slow down the rotting process, which allowed for further control of Its servants through fear.
===Ranks===
Priests of the Darkbringer were referred to as Minions of Moander, with senior clergy taking the title of High Minion and the high priest being called Master Minion. The head of the entire Faerûniun church was the Mouth of Moander, usually a human female priestess. Extremely rarely, a Master Minion would become an Undying Minion upon death, an ooze-like undead creature known as a skuz. Minions were expected to spread rumors of Moander's power, feed its Abomination, and infect new followers with the seed of Moander.
==Holy Objects==
*Boots of Moander, boots worn by clerics of the Darkbringer that rendered the wearer immune to the entangle spell and similar magical effects.
*Darkmoon, a moon blade corrupted and enchanted by the influence of Moander.
*Gauntlets of Moander, a set of unique gauntlets forged to be used as a weapon against Tyranthraxus the Possessing Spirit. By the late-14 century DR–securely kept by Elminster.
==Abilities==
Minions of Moander were made unaffected by poison, as well as mundane and magical diseases. This immunity included such dangerous afflictions as mummy rot and lycanthropy. The clergy of Moander could sustain themselves on polluted water and consume molding putrid rotting food without suffering any adverse effects. The Darkbringers were proficient herbalists and trained to use virtually any armor and weapons.
==Magic==
"Druids" who worshiped Moander in the days of ancient Netheril, who then was known as the Beast-Lord, were granted such winds of antiquity as animal horde, elemental swarm, etherwalk, fear contagion, highway, interdiction, revelation, shooting stars, spiral of degeneration, stalker, storm of vengeance, and wolf spirits.
Moander's Darkbringers were apt in using plant spells with a doubled area of effect, compared to other wielders of divine magics. When they used the plant growth spell, it produced sizable fields of vegetation that immediately began to rot and putrefy its surrounding. The rotting effect could only be stopped via dispel magic, or blessing the area. Early on in their training, the priests gained the ability to cast entangle and puffball spells once per day. A special spell of the handfang became available to them relatively early on as well, allowing the clergy to cast it once per day. With experience, plant growth and speed rot were added to clergy's repertoire. Powerful Moanderites were given the ability to summon rising rot and spirit trap of the Darkbringer spells once per day, and eventually – roots of the assassin and tentacle of withering once per day as well. A spell that created the seed of Moander was also granted to Moanderite priests by the Jawed God.
==Equipment==
In their daily functions, the clergy of Moander wore mundane clothes to hire their true colors. Ceremonial garb was donned when the clergy attended rituals and services in the god's temples. Traditional Moanderite robes were of mottled greens and browns, trimmed with images of climbing vines. The priests hid their faces behind featureless white masks decorated with a single fang-encircled eye in the mask's forehead. Ranking officials' robes were imbued with magic and colored in copper. These robes allowed colonies of fungi slowly grow and move along the robes. Master Minion robes were of copper color but devoid of any fungal activity. The church's highest-ranking members – the Mouths of Moander, were dressed in clean white robes with a single red fanged eye on the chest.
When traveling or adventuring, the church's clergy used a wide variety of weapons and protected themselves with the best possible armor while decorating their outfits with subtle elements of their ceremonial garb. It was a common ruse for Moanderites to wear druid disguises and carry scimitars. The most commonly used weapon among the clergy were brown cudgels covered in fang-like shard shards. Oftentimes, clergy members carried small colonies or spores of russet mold so spread their god's glory and minions.
==Dogma==
The main task of the followers of Moander was to feed their god with fresh carrion and death created by the worshipers' own hands. Moanderites were tasked with gathering loving trees and plants to fuel the deity's rot. Moander demanded from its followers to keep warm the Abomination and the church's lands. Each new clergy member was mandated to receive the seed of Moander that whispered its directions in their minds: to slay living things, turning them to rot and decay.
==Holy Days and Rituals==
Cultists were expected to kill something or gather vegetation on a daily basis to spread rot and decay. Most also celebrated Balefire on the first of Hammer by constructing huge bonfires in its name to hold back the cold.
The clergy and cultists of Moander sought out deformed, dying, diseased forms of life such as plants, animals, mongrelmen, and creatures that venerated destruction, such as orcs. These living things were to be slain and fed to the rot in reverence of the Jawed God. The cultists left behind plant-like rotting creatures subservient to Moander.
==Regions==
The oldest pace of Moanderite worship in Faerûn was an underground temple of the Abyss of the Abomination in the city of Yûlash in the Moonsea region that was over 1,000 years old by the 14 century DR. The temple was a sizable hidden complex that predated the city itself. Forests of Ylraphon were rumored to shelter a hidden shrine of Moander. A temple of Moander could be found proudly standing in the City of a Thousand Temples–Bezantur in Thay. Before the 14 century DR, Moander had a solid worship in the nation of Sembia.
Following the Jawed God's death during the Time of Troubles, the main well-hidden active place of worship was the Hidden Glades temple by the town of Torsch in Chondalwood. The faith was led by the Mouth of Moander Dalchatha Maereegh. She ran a wide spy network and guided cultists to capture, slay, and rot enemies of the church, turning them into new bodies for Moander to turn into Abominations.
In the ages predating and during the ancient Netheril, the center of the Jawed God's worship was a secret grand temple at the headwaters of the Pox River, in the south of Moander's Footsteps mountains.
==History==
In the , Moander's "creeping evil" was unleashed on the city of Tsornyl in Cormanthor. The corrupting forces spread blight through the lands surrounding the city. The deity's dark influence twisted and mutated every living thing in the vicinity of Tsornyl, including members of its own church. Unable to cleanse nor destroy the evil, elven High Magic was used to sever the "creeping evil" part of Moander and imprison it within the ruined Tsornyl, later renamed to the dreaded forest of Darkwatch. This act cost 32 elven lives, including two High Mages of Myth Drannor. The loss of power echoed in Moander's diminished influence on Toril.
During the time the Moonsea was ruled by Tyranthraxus, the Possessing Spirit, the fiery creature, attempted to claim Moander's holding in the land later known as Yûlash. The Church forged a set of enchanted Gauntlets of Moander, an artifact that could devour magic of pools of radiance from whence Tyranthraxus drew power. With the help of gauntlets, Moanderites drove the Possessing Spirit and his servants out.
In the , the Cormanthyr elves of Myth Drannor battled the deity's avatar in its last remaining major temple, located in what later became the city of Yûlash. The avatar was known as the Abomination of Moander–a huge mass of rotting vegetation and carrion that left the ground void of any living thing in its wake. The Coronal of the City of Song and sixteen of High Mages weaved elven High Magics and cast the binding on the Darkbringer. It sealed the essence of the Abomination beneath the ruins, to be released only by an "unborn child." Most of the priests were slain, yet some cultists fled south, and the church managed to survive. Over the next millennia, they tried to free the Abomination, but to no avail.
A group of halfling Akh'Velahr scouts discovered a large group of Moanderites in the , not far from the imprisoned god. The seven halflings violently destroyed the encampment becoming heroes of Myth Drannor. In the , Lord Illitran Starym of Myth Drannor came across Moander's prison and entered a pact with the Jawed God. Moander altered and corrupted the man's moonblade, making it wieldable by those undeserving. As a result, Illitran Starym proved his loyalty to the City of Song by proudly unsheathing his moonblade in front of Myth Drannor's rulers.
In the , a cadre of drow invaded northern Cormanthor, attempting to build a stronghold atop an ancient temple of Moander. The drow were repelled by Myth Drannor's Akh'Velahr within the next 20 months. In the , the darkness within the temple of Moander started turning. The area became flooded with foul beasts of the Jawed God and its cultists. With the effort of Myth Drannor's High Mages and three battalions on the Akh'Velahr, the are was made safe once again. In the wake of the Moanderite invasion, elves discovered many of "lost spells" excavated by Moander's church and restored to use.
The Moanderite worship's decline began over a thousand years before the 14 century DR when the forest elves of the City of Song, Myth Drannor clashed with the Darkbringer for the last time. They buried that Temple of Moander under the land that would later become Yûlash and slew the church's clergy. Moander's avatar – the dreaded Abomination of Moander, was imprisoned in the buried temple, held trapped by a curse that could only be lifted by a "nonborn child," something that seemed impossible. The god himself was banished from Toril, and elves of Myth Drannor hoped the worship of the god of decay would wither and die. It was not to be, however, as enough of Moanderites survived the massacre and carried on growing the faith in the lands south of Cormanthor.
One of Moander's temples in the Underdark was claimed by the Church of Eilistraee, before the 14 century DR. The followers of the drow goddess expanded the Promenade of the Dark Maiden and made the abandoned Moanderite temple part of the complex. Before that, the Moanderite temple was desecrated by the worshipers of Tyr.
In the , Moander's church joined forces with Bane, Red Wizard Marcus and the pit fiend Tanetal. The sinister cabal used the magic of pools of radiance to abduct cities of the Moonsea. Moander's cultists and rotten walking trees besieged the city of Phlan but eventually were stopped by valiant defenders.
As years passed, Cults of Moander attempted to free the god's avatar from under Yûlash to no avail, leaving behind stones carved with the Darkbringer's symbols. The god was remained trapped until the Kythorn 5, the . The Church of Moander found unlikely allies in a sorceress Cassana, her lich ally Zrie Prakis, Moander's ancient enemy Phalse, and the Fire Knives assassins. The dark alliance pooled their resources to create a living construct, a "nonborn child," each member of the alliance planned on using the construct for their own purpose. The Church of Moander sought to use it to unleash the Abomination of Moander onto the world once more. Against all odds, the construct was lost to the group and gained sentence, becoming the hero known as Alias. Via manipulation and the compulsory magic of her azure bonds, Alias and her companions were lured to the war-torn Yûlash and freed Moander. Eventually, Moander's avatar was destroyed in the battle over Westgate, and many of the Darkbringer's cultists were killed in the battle of the Hill of Fangs outside of the city. Of course, the cultists of Moander were far from gone, before the god disappeared from Toril, it sent visions to the High Priestess Mogion.
Several months after the battle over Westgate, Moanderites, under a dramatic name of the Survivors of Moander, joined the New Alliance of the Bonds, a revived attempt to use adventurers branded with azure bonds. The Survivors allied once again with the Fire Knives under the leadership of Radatha, the Zhentarim, Thayan Red Wizard Dracandros the Mad, and Tyranthraxus, the Possessing Spirit. Moanderites sought to open a dimension door into their deity's Abyssal realm through human sacrifice in Moander's temple in Yûlash. Mixilia, cleric of Helm became aware of the cult' return to Yûlash and contacted Alias and Dragonbait for aid. Accompanied by a group of adventurers branded with azure bonds, the heroes confronted the Survivors of Moander in the hidden temple. The Survivors flooded the temple complex with Moander's shambling mounds, vegepygmies, and giant slugs and Mixilia fell victim to one of the rotting monstrosities. Eventually, heroes confronted the leader of the cult–High Priestess Mogion. She was successful in briefly opening the gate to the Abyss, letting several Bits of Moander into the Prime Material. The priestess herself became possessed by the Jawed God but was defeated and succumbed to rot.
The following year, Moander attempter to return to the Realms through a tribe of enslaved saurials snatched from another world. The attempt was unsuccessful and resulted in the deity's seeming death at the hands of Finder Wyvernspur, who, in turn, claimed the Darkbringer's divinity and reached apotheosis. However, even with Moander's apparent death, the church functioned as sporadic cults and small hidden temples. Enough worship could return Moander to his past strength in time. However, that was made complicated by the drow goddess Lolth. Seeing Moander's portfolio unused by Finder, she took the name of Moaner as her aspect to spread the worship beyond Underdark. During the Time of Troubles, which had shaken Toril in the , shortly after Moander's defeat, the followers of the Jawed God became desperate due to the disappearance of their deity and the cult's assassins. The church participated in numerous inept terrorist attacks and sabotage attempts against organizations that held power in the Realms and other churches. The attacks were filed by confusion and desperation and mirrored similar activities of the Cult of the Dragon, several thieves' guilds, and renegade cults of dark gods.
In the , an adventuring band of the Six Spiked Rings arrived in Ylraphon from Turmish to investigate rumors of the fallen House of Moander temple. The adventurers faced a greater darktentacles creature inside. Two of the Six Spiked Rings survived the encounter and emerged with sacks full of gems and magical metal wands. The saw the Cult of Moander appearing in the city of Zhentil Keep. However, its intentions remained a mystery. During the same period of time, the Abyss of the Abomination in Yûlash became animated with resurfaced cult's activities. A group of Zhentar beholders uncovered a passage into Moander's tomb under Yûlash through cracks that spread from a magical battle above. The beholders used a portal to move between Zhentil Keep and the bowels of Yûlash, and the discovery prompted revived interest in delving into the buried temple complex. Certain cultists of Moander tried to recover a long-lost artifact from the temple, while beholders pursued their sinister agenda. The temple was infested with Moander's rotting shambling mounds and otyughs
In the , strange fog started appearing in the High Forest. All living beings who found themselves within the roaming clouds were turned into rotting mummies adorned with Moander's holy symbol. Meanwhile. a band of Moanderite cultists uncovered ancient Netherese magics and attempted to use them against Finder Wyvernspur. The attempt to rob Finder of his divine spark, evidently, was unsuccessful.
The 15 century's Second Sundering heralded Moander's true return to the Prime Material plane. Moander's cult found willing participants among foolish mortals seeking power. The god of decay offered pacts to warlocks in exchange for spread the seeds of Moander among individuals of power and influence in the Realms.
==Associated Orders==
*Contagion of Moander, a conclave of ancient Netherese wizards who committed their efforts to uncover new plagues and diseases.
*Eyes of the Darkbringer, a clandestine order of rogues that served the rotting god's church. The order placed two of its Darkeyes in each of the major settlements of Faerûn to serve as spies and assassins of the church.
*Nature's Reprisal, an organization that was said to be associated with the Church of Moander in the days of ancient Netheril. The Church, however, neither confirmed nor denied these rumors.
==Notable Members of the Church of Moander==
*Coral, a saurial priestess, the Mouth of Moander circa the Time of Troubles, who was enslaved by Moander's seed and put out of her miserly by Dragonbait.
*Dalchatha Maereegh, the Mouth of Moander and a mistress of intrigues after the god's disseverance during the Time of Troubles. She reigned from the Hidden Glades temple in Chondalwood.
*Mogion, the Sembian High Priestess of Moander in the Moonsea who perished in an attempt to bring her deity to the Realms in 1357 DR.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
:;Adventures
::Curse of the Azure Bonds • Tantras • Undermountain: The Lost Level
:;Novels
::Azure Bonds • Song of the Saurials
::
::The Simbul's Gift
:; Video Games
::Curse of the Azure Bonds • Pools of Darkness
::
::Icewind Dale
===Gallery===
Survivors of Moander.jpg|A member of the Survivors of Moander cult.
===References===
Category:Religious organizations
Category:Moanderite organizations
Moander
Category:Organizations in Cormanthor
Category:Organizations in the Moonsea
Category:Organizations in Yûlash
Category:Organizations in Westgate
Category:Organizations on the Dragon Coast
Category:Organizations in Interior Faerûn
Category:Organizations in the Dalelands
Category:Organizations in Tarkhaldale
Category:Organizations in Ylraphon
Category:Organizations in the Vast
Category:Organizations in North Faerûn
Category:Organizations in the Flooded Forest
Category:Organizations in Undermountain
Category:Organizations in Bezantur
Category:Organizations in Thay
Category:Organizations in Sembia
Category:Organizations in Zhentil Keep
Category:Year of Miracles