Wayward Daughters

The **Wayward Daughters** is a fringe Elunite cult characterized by a belief in reincarnation, the primacy of Elune as the sole being worthy of veneration, and by a rejection of the spiritual authority of the Darnassian priesthood. Founded in approximately 618KY by a now-deceased Half-elf resident of the Barony of Whitewater, the Wayward Daughters are now found primarily in southern Eversong Woods where members of the cult have achieved the patronage of a so-far unidentified Sin'dorei noble house. Only with this protection from their enemies have the Daughters begun to stabilize and explore their doctrines in depth. They number less than twenty believers, but are known for their remarkably high birth rate, leading to a suspicion that they are attempting to outbreed their rivals.

## Central Beliefs

### Elune

Central to the belief of the Daughters is the worship of Elune, who is viewed not as part of a greater pantheon or as a polymorphic deity as in traditional Elunite worship, but as a single, monolithic deity. The Daughters hold Her as the only spiritual entity worthy of worship, with all others being false or Her servants. Elune is also strongly identified by the Daughters as holding a rivalry with the Light, which they perceive as a false 'god' which manipulated the Queldorei exiles millennia ago to mislead the faithful. Wayward theology teaches that belief in the Light must inevitably end only to be reborn again and again by unbelievers, with their cosmology teaching that there will be 'epochs' ruled by Elune and epochs in which the false Light is dominant, patterned after the rise and set of the sun and the moons. The incompatability of a belief in an all-powerful Goddess at times being powerless has not yet been resolved by the Cult.

### Reincarnation

The Daughters believe in the impermanence of existence and a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth, influenced in large part by Kaldorei druidic teachings. All things being fated to die and be reborn, it necessarily follows to the Daughters that the soul must also be reborn in time, in accordance with the cycle. As such, the bulk of the cult's members believe themselves to be the reincarnation of Kaldorei slain milennia earlier, with the exception of the cult's mysterious leader and patron who claims to have been a second incarnation of the cult's founder even prior to the founder's death.

### Racial Policy

Influencing their belief in reincarnation is a strong belief in the power of bloodlines and the importance of lineage. Consequently, the Daughters do not allow those without Elven blood - however dilute - membership without a 'divine message' to the contrary. Reincarnation, in the theology of the Daughters, will always follow blood wherever possible. Accordingly, no seeker without the blood has ever been admitted to the Cult.

### Chosen Daughters

This earliest belief developed by the Daughters, and one of the most fundamental, is that certain souls were chosen specifically by Elune to die and be reborn among the people of the Eastern Kingdoms. These Chosen Daughters are reportedly endowed with the ability to work miracles and with the ability to communicate directly with the Goddess. Notably, only the founder and her 'reincarnation' have so far claimed to be Chosen Daughters, and it is likely nothing more than the mechanism by which the cult controls its 'lesser' members.

## Relations with other Religions

### Sisterhood of Elune

Almost completely unheard of by the Sisterhood on the whole, the Daughters are the primary source of tensions between the two groups. They expressly reject the authority of the High Priestess, believing that she has - over time - been corrupted and lost sight of the true teachings. The Sisterhood has no official policy towards the Daughters, though the handful of Priestess who *have* heard of the sect dismiss it as unimportant.