Necrourgists (A to Z Challenge, N)

Necrourgists

(For an explanation of the term, visit this post)

Those who specialize in the magic and manipulation of death are not that rare in the Sea of Stars but they are rarely very popular, it strikes most people as something that is best left alone (though some states encourage its use such the Dark Star Dominion or the High Kingdom of Laccini).  The Empress does not favor it as a path of magic but nor does she condemn it, leaving it as just one of the many routes to magical power.

Necrourgy is a comparatively new field of open and accepted magical study, its study and use was suppressed  in the age of the gods leading to isolated practitioners and secretive organizations of necrourgists.  In the thousand years since the Sundering it has rose to be an accepted (if unpopular) part of the magical fields of study, the objections of the Sun Cult to such magic are tacitly ignored.

Moon Sect (A to Z Challenge, M)

Moon Sect

Also known as the Moon Cult, Order of the Moon and scores of others names, it is a fragmented religion found in isolated corners of the Empire hidden and hiding from Imperial enforcement.  It has to remain hidden as the Moon Sect is proscribed by the Empress with a sentence of beheading for any confirmed member of the Cult.  The individual dragons do not have to enforce the dictate in their own lands but most have no love for the Moon Cult though they are usually happy to turn over enforcement to Imperial agents.

The Moon is the only surviving god beside the Sun, she escaped death at the hands of the dragons and fled to hide among the stars.  The long years of hiding and avoiding the dragons have, it is said, driven her mad, or perhaps it was the death of the other gods that drove her into insanity.  In any case, her appearance in the sky, always as a crescent moon or less, heralds interesting times.  “The Moon smiles and chaos follows,” it is sometime said.

The Moon Sect exists to bring down the current order.  What it seeks beyond that as varied as the number of cults but they are all willing to cooperate until the hold of the Imperium is finally shattered.  They are one of the most successful revolutionary organizations in the Sea of Stars if only by the fact that they have survived so long.  Surprisingly, since membership is so dangerous, the Moon Cult has members hidden everywhere.

Clerics of the Moon Sect have access to the Chaos, Madness, Travel and Trickery domains.

Notes: The Moon Sect can make surprisingly good allies, as long as you are working towards the same goals.

Moon photo by Wendy and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license