Cult of the Wolf God - Roleplay Resources

[DM Macabre]

The Wolf God

Symbol: A snarling wolf’s head or a single, bloody paw print.
Alignment: Chaotic evil.
Portfolio: Predators, the wilderness, hunting, savagery, blood, the moon, wolves, werewolves.
Domains: Animal, Chaos, Slaughter, Strength, Trickery.
Favored Weapon: Natural weapons.

The Wolf God is worshiped in the primordial forests of the southwestern core. Outsiders know only scattered tales concerning this savage and predatory entity. These stories claim that the Wolf God is worshiped by demonic wolves that walk like men, and these man-wolves honor their patron through frenzied and carnal rites, drenched in sacrificial blood, performed under the light of the full moon.

Nearly all of the Wolf God’s worshipers are werewolves, and only werewolves may become divine spellcasters in his clergy. The natural werewolves of Verbrek are the Wolf God’s most devoted followers, but scattered clans of lycanthropes throughout the southwestern Core also worship him. Those humanoid Verbrekers who choose to throw their lot in with the werewolves and their malicious deity are rare in the extreme. Elder priests among the Verbreker werewolves select only an honored few to join their ranks. Since they act as emissaries to the endlessly ravenous Wolf God, priests must follow strict taboos, lest their deity devour them. They must not be tainted with the scent of prey creatures, and any wounds on their bodies must be concealed at all times. The Wolf God has no holy text or orthodoxy; priests pass on the traditions of the faith to their successors through vicious, gruesome ordeals.

Clerics of the Wolf God pray for their spells at sunset, when twilight shadows provide concealment to predators. Their worship bears little resemblance to the hymns and sermons of civilized faiths. Hunting is itself a sacred act, and the werewolves worship their god simply by following their natural inclinations. Priests engage in strange rites intended to prove their fanaticism and bestow terrifying visions. The Wolf God has a fondness for the sacrifice of powerful humanoids and other werebeasts, whose throats are torn out and bled to death.

The Wolf God has no temples. Devout werewolves construct crude cairns of stone to honor him, adorned with bloody paw prints and the bones of slain victims. The Wolf God demands that his children respect and fear the moon, which is thought to hold power over fate. Rituals are coupled to the waxing and waning of the moon, and priests are always watchful for lunar omens, with eclipses considered particularly dire. The werewolves who serve the Wolf God are usually adepts, although clerics, druids, and even rangers are not unusual. Priests rarely pursue more than one class, as their duties demand vigilance and devotion.

Followers of the Wolf God hold that wolves are divine creatures. All other predators — and humans in particular — are abominations, pathetic rivals that must be slain or a herd that must be thinned.

Dogma: Hunt. Kill. Feast. You are master of the forest and the nightmare of the civilized world. Do whatever it takes to survive, thrive, and breed. Slay the weak, even among your own kin, for they diminish your race. Revel in the crack of bone and the screams of prey. Follow your instincts. Do not let pity or remorse trouble you. Offer howls to the moon, for she knows your secrets and your fate. Honor wolves as your allies. All other creatures are prey to be eaten or rivals to be slain.

[EO]

The Wolf God in Verbrek

Despite the fact that the Wolf God is the most widely worshiped entity in Verbrek, few Verbrekers can speak with authority on the fundamentals of his faith. The Wolf God is the unholy patron of the werewolves, worshiped by no sane humanoid. Though he is a central figure in Verbreker myths, the Wolf God's true followers are lycanthropes and a handful of deranged human cultists. He represents everything that the Verbrekers hate and fear about nature. They hold him in awe only insomuch as they live in terror of his children.

This is not to say that the Verbrekers do not acknowledge the power of the Wolf God. They never speak his name aloud in Low Mordentish — Mæstealdulph — and take pains to avoid his wrath. No Verbreker would ever construct a shrine to the Wolf God or mark a possession with his holy symbol. They are not, however, above whispering prayers to the Enemy of Man in moments of fear. They flatter the Wolf God by extolling his strength and ferocity, beseeching him to show mercy to prey that is beneath his notice. They craft tiny effigies of forest creatures with twisted twigs, leaving them in the woods as sacrifices. Superstitious hunters offer the first animal they kill each autumn to the Wolf God, seeking to satiate him. Mothers swaddle their infants in cloth saturated with polecat musk, believing that it conceals their scent from the Wolf God as he roams the forests at night.

Once in a great while, Verbrekers whisper tentatively of humans who stand defiantly against the Wolf God and his children. Most Verbrekers chafe at the thought of these fools stoking the wrath of the werewolves. Members of the Woodcutter's Axe, as they have been dubbed, believe the Wolf God hates humans because he fears them and covets the fruits of civilization. Members refuse to offer prayers or sacrifices to the Wolf God even out of fear. They seek to break the stranglehold of the werewolves in Verbrek and ultimately to topple the Wolf God himself. How they aim to accomplish this is unknown, as the Axe keeps close to the shadows and covers its tracks diligently, admittedly out of necessity. There are prophecies in the oldest legends, legends told only on nights of the new moon. These speak of a third born child who will one day slay the Wolf God and drive the werewolves from the forests forever.

There exist aberrant individuals in every culture, and in Verbrek rumors persist of men who revere the Wolf God as master. These folk are solitary madmen rather than a cohesive cult or conspiracy, yet their sheer lunacy haunts the Verbreker consciousness, as exemplified in the myth of the Wolf God. It may be reverence for power, craven sycophancy, twisted attraction, or even grim fatalism that drives the rare Verbreker to betray his entire race. The realm's werewolves supposedly claim as their own any humanoid who exalts the Wolf God; such zealots likely view lycanthropy as an honor and a divine blessing. They are more likely to supplicate themselves right into the werewolves' gullets.

Source: Ravenloft Gazetteer IV