Drow & Lloth - A Retelling of these Poisonous People

This blog post is a reimagining of both Drow and a different lens then "gods are people too." This draws on religious symbology similar to the Nahua (Aztec Empire), where gods are ideas and symbols to be worn, channeled, and used.

The Nature of Divinity

This post cannot continue without a quick meditation on how I see divinity.

The divine, ie gods, angels, and their various servants and miracles, are not single-bodied entities. A god is unlike a creature; they do not have one form, one face, one name, nor one identity. To believe that a god has a stable form is the same as believing that water is water and ice is ice and that there is no overlap. In truth, there is nothing but overlap.

Let us ground this idea a bit more. When praying, you are not praying to a distant - albeit powerful - entity in another dimension. Instead you are praying to a flowing Power that manifests as you need it to manifest. This is what a miracle is - a manifestation of that Power. Thus, if someone were to see a god walking the world on two feat, what they are seeing is a miracle, no different than seeing someone brought back from the dead or water turned to wine.

This flowing Power has a personality. Just as the Power is too great to be stuck in one form, so too is the personality too mercurial to be defined as one thing. In this way, a divinity can display many different traits and identities despite being the same thing. Most pantheons are in fact a single Power interpreted through a suite of different perspectives. Religions based around a single Power are no different in reality, despite their seeming desire to be seen as one instead of many.

In a desperate bid to weaken divinity some have stated that worship is their lifeblood. This is untrue. A divinity has wants and it has limitations. Though it it incredibly powerful, these limitations are unique to it as opposed to creatures such as ourselves. So then, why is worship seen as a fuel for divinity? Worship is the act of communing and making Power manifest. In other words, it is the only way the Power can communicate with the world. So, if more people worship and pray, there is more communication, thus more miracles, thus the divinity is in a better position to get what it wants.

Worship and prayer need not be limited to only verbal orisons. Rituals and symbols are just as good. Thus, any religion worth its salt is filled with both in order to maximize the manifestation of miracles. These rituals and symbols, of course, must be relevant to the divinity in question. And though some symbols may be shared between divinities, it is wise not to try and mix and match. Heresy is punished wrathfully by the Powers that be.

I guess if you could "see" a divinity's true form, it might be something like this?

The Origins of Lloth

Drow are old and ancient and spiteful beyond comparison. It is ingrained in their flesh and blood, in the very heat of their bodies - that is, their souls. And living as they do buried in the bedrock of the world, where neither sun nor star nor moon can see, surrounded in the veins of the earth with things terrible and undeniable, things that gnaw at the world's roots like worms in the rotten tree, they found themselves horribly alone . And to be alone, with just their magics and their spite to protect them, they were prey to any and all else.

This is how Lloth found the drow: alone and desperate and dying faster and faster.

She came to them as a miracle. Their infravision saw a great heat surround them and that heat turned into spiders infinite and these spiders joined to form the woman known as Lloth. There She banished their predators and hollowed them a cave to call home. She protected that cave with the daemons that served Her, and with knowledge older than any living creature she helped the drow fashion a city deep in the veins of the earth.

But for one thing did Lloth ask and this She wanted above all else: food. The first sacrifices were thus of beautiful drow women and then rebellious drow men and then of the many predators that still harried the drow, even in their new utopia. This led itself to a culture symbolic of Lloth; a culture of trickery and lies and slavery and ritual sacrifice. From their Spider Queen they learned to weave webs of enmity and bloodlust and these webs have not stopped catching the doomed since their very first making.

Eons passed. The drow are long lived, you see. And communication with Lloth grew ever more detailed. Thus, the religion has taken on the form it has today. 

A miracle-manifestation of Lloth.

A Quick Summary of Lloth Worship

Below is a quick summary of Lloth Worship's core ideas. Though the drow have no name for this religion (for it is interwoven with their identity now, and thus to be a believer is to be drow) you can refer to it in your games as "Web Worship," "Spider Heresies," "Ink Belief," "Llothism," or "Drow Major."

The Mother is Matron & Heart. Lloth's primary identity is as a mother, matron, and queen. Thus, drow women exist in a society that puts value on them above that of males. It is believed that the femininity of a drow empowers them with a cunning mind, a quickness to learning, and an ability to more effectively manifest any of Lloth's many miracles. A drow woman may have many mates, is seen as virtuous if she has many children, and is considered powerful if she has destroyed rivals and subsumed their own legacies. Drow men who are born intersex, transsexual, or non-binary occupy a similar but different status. These individuals are seen to live in the same holy fringe as Lloth herself. Often times this leads to them becoming oracles and soothsayers, aids and confidants, and other similar positions of shadow-power.

Heat & Touch are Holy Language. Drow are famed for their highly detailed infravision, which allows them to see even minute details in the Veins of the Earth. Compounding this is their highly developed touch. A drow can know a person by their footsteps, and distinguish materials by simple touch. This has become interwoven with the idea of the spider's web, which in turn has lent itself to a philosophy of omniscience and omnipresence. Drow sacred text, which take the form of different gems and stones being heated in different ways, are worn by drow as symbols that communicate their feelings, their loyalties, their thoughts, and their believes. Amethyst earrings heated by spell to room temperature is a warning that the wearer will curse any who cross them, whilst quartz amulets drastically cooled are a signal that the wearer seeks violence, war, or bloodshed. As drow can percieve these signs from some distance and sometimes even through walls, it has led to a society who debates not through speech but through symbol. Likewise, heatless creatures, such as the dead, are seen by drow as being unknowable and dangerous. Creatures that exude great heat - but not enough to be fully inflamed, as that is blinding - are considered perfect sacrifices to Lloth and the matrons. Drow skin, with its cool colors reflecting little heat, has also led to a stratum of stereotypes. Darker skinned drow are seen to be chosen by Lloth herself to bring food and virtue to the drow, while drow with violet or grey skin are thought to be bastions of vitality perfect for miracle-work and self-sacrifice.

All Life is a Web Spread Far. The hunt for food is never ending, and thus the trickery needed to capture it must be the same. From the moment a drow is born they are given true names and false names. They are taught lies and then have their worldviews shattered to better show them what they must do to others. They are put into situations where they must make quick decisions about the lives of others and that if these decisions do not benefit the drow then they must suffer the consequences. This has created a culture of silver-tongued, quick-witted, and overtly roguish people. Their communications are encoded and their minds are trained to concoct schemes interwoven with other, deeper, greater schemes. It is virtuous to create conspiracies to sabotage other drow houses. It is a sign of great strength to wage a war of disinformation and to win. And it is an act of self-actualization, of true and utter drowness, of complete euphoria to reveal to a victim the drow's trickery at the moment of the victim's destruction. To not do so is a slight; it says to the victim, you are so inconsequential that you need not know of this moment. Were it not for such an act being capable of materializing miracles, it is doubtful such a conniving, pompous people could thrive as they do. But there is another layer to this too. The web is connected. All who are on it respect all others who are on it. If a plan fails, then it means many more have failed too. In this way, drow will help each other with their conspiracies, for to do so is to both help themselves and the drow as a whole.

All is Food. Feeding Lloth is a holy act. She is a divinity with a deep and great appetite, however, and one that is not easily slated. Thus, all things must be seen as food in order to appease her (and the matrons who rule in her name). Such a viewpoint has led to the drow seeing all living things, including each other, as a potential sacrifice to keep their people alive. In turn this has enabled them to commit great atrocities. When one no longer sees another as something sacred, special, and worth preserving, they are quick and absolute in their destruction of it. All the tales of the horrific things drow have done owe their truth to this one universal belief: all is food, and food must be eaten. Do not expect mercy from a drow because of this. Do not try and conceive of lengths they cannot go to. If it means attaining sacrifices and slaves, the drow will sin blacker sins then any ever before witnessed.

Wearing Symbols is Deific. To wear the symbols of Lloth is to become Lloth. Matrons and other religious leaders are thus treated as if Lloth herself is communicating to the drow. Generals, slave masters, and other important drow likewise adorn themselves in these symbols, and thus too are Lloth's physical manifestations. Below, a list of possible worn symbols:

1. Manifesting two additional pairs of arm, for four total limbs.
2. Embedding six gemstones into the forehead and face, representing the eight eye's of the spider.
3. Keeping venomous spider pets underneath one's tongue.
4. Adorning one's limbs in dangling glass and jewels, mirroring captured prey wrapped in cocoons.
5. Wearing the shrunken heads of sacrifices offered to Lloth.
6. Flowing garments of spider silk.
7. Fungal incenses and perfumes with a scent similar to blood mixed with roses.
8. Curved daggers, similar to a spider's fangs, hanging from the neck and shoulders.

Drow Miracles are Predatory & Spiteful. A drow survives because others do not. That is the way of the Veins of the Earth, where life cannibalizes life, uncaring of how precious or rare it may be. Thus, all drow miracles are then predatory and fueled entirely by spite. The more a drow hates a victim, the more it feels wronged by it, the blacker the thirst for vengeance in their mind the more potent, the more poignant the miracle that they manifest. In this way, there is little difference between a drow miracle and a drow curse. Below in the section detailing Drow Predations & Spites, you can find examples of these miracles. Note that a drow prayer will never ask for forgiveness, mercy, or compassion. Instead prayers will ask for opportunity, advantage, and insight.

In the Greater Cosmos, Naught But Danger. Lloth has taught the drow paranoia. In her scriptures, the entire cosmos is a place of endless danger, where all things will wrong the drow, all things will hurt the drow, and all things will destroy the drow - all to simply be above something else. Locked underground in the Veins of the Earth whilst filled with spite endless it is hard to shake such a primordially violent belief. Their home, Menzoberranzan, is the only haven in all the universe where drow are free to live unshackled by the hatred of other peoples. Though this is untrue, such a xenophobic mindset has only whet the blades of drow imperialists. They destroy other cultures they find, enslave and sacrifice what they can, and leave peoples alive only so that they may continue to provide them tribute. 

Rebirth For All Drow, Always and Forever. A drow that follows Lloth (for there are other drow, on the surface, who worship the moon and have secret afterlives on the dark side of that celestial traitor) will be reborn by Lloth after their death. All drow souls are connected to her through a spiritual web; when born, a blood sacrifice is done, where in some of Lloth's daemonic essence infests the drow. This is why drow are so accepting of assassination amongst each other, and of drow-sacrifice to Lloth. Every soul will be reborn, and so long as she exists, nestled in Menzoberranzan's shrines and idols, in her people's symbols and prayers, the drow will never go extinct, their predations never ended.

A matron of Lloth who embodies all of Her divine poison.

The Eighty-Eight Prisms

The Eighty-Eight prisms is the name of the Lloth holy text, created by the first generation of drow to serve Her.

As the name implies, these are eighty-eight gemstones weighing roughly 10,000 pounds each. The prisms are cut with a near impossible level of detail, and are heated to turn each one into another chapter of the overall holy text that comprises the core of Lloth's worship. From a young age do Drow spend countless hours touching and meditating around the Eighty-Eight Prisms, divining the secrets of their heritage, their afterlife, and their core belief. Likewise, at the heart of each prism is another daemon; a servitor of Lloth who whispers into the ears of entranced drow who come here to worship or learn. These daemons are called the Psalms.

While the full contents will not be disclosed here, every drow is taught to recite different prisms by heart depending on their trade. Matrons are forced to learn the entirety of the text by heart in order to gain access to the High Miracles (7th level +). Other drow carry small gemstones embalmed with choice bits of information that they can draw from with but the barest brush of a finger.

This technology has revolutionized to all forms of drow communication. Every home carries prisms inside of it encoded with different information. Essentially, these prisms are the books of drow society, containing stories, tales, facts, and secrets. And inside each personal prism is another daemon, allowing Lloth to know all that her people know, forever more.

A saboteur turned oracle late in their spiteful life.

An Assortment of Angels

Lloth is an old divinity. During the course of her existence she has birthed many a great creature to serve her, and these great creatures remain now, her angels, her daemons. Their forms are crafted from the molten earth below the Veins of the Earth and their souls are but a sliver of Lloth's own. Occasionally truly virtuous drow are ascended too, joining her pantheon of daemon-angels.

Their core form is a melted rush of eight-eyed flesh. It boils and roils about, tentacled, watching, like candles made of meat forever burning an invisible flame. When given purpose they take a form.

• The Sabouteuth look just as drow do, though without faces. They speak through whispered telepathy and weave webs between their fingers that burn with heat. A Sabouteuth will capture whatever it is Lloth wants captured - usually a sacrifice of some sort - wrap in her divine web, and spirit off to the demon pits at the center of Menzoberranzan. They have 1 HP, a thac0 of 9 (or an AC of 10), and no method of attacking. Sabouteuth move through shadow and stone as if it were open space.
• Eggsacks are just as they sound. They appear mysteriously inside of corpses or in hidden places and hatch. Each spiderling carries a message and they will swarm a drow to tell them some desire belonging to Lloth. Then, they will fade into green vapor and then into nothing, only the bitter smell of rot left behind.
• Drider's are half-drow (who are faceless) half-spider monstrosities. Each is fashioned from the heat-soul of a heretical drow and the daemon-angels that Lloth has spawned. They appear only to destroy heretics, to fight off predators too great for normal drow, and to enforce her will upon the rebellious and foolish. A drider has no face and does not need to breathe. They have 6d6 HP, a thac0 of 2 (or an AC of 18), and attack with spear-sharp legs (1d8 * 8) or a greatsword fashioned from the bones of their once-drow lower half (2d6).
• Messiah Daemon are rare, only called upon when the drow beseech Lloth to eradicate some great foe. A daemon will manifest and sleep with a matron, impregnating her with itself. The birth is a six-armed, white-furred monstrosity that grows to an abominatable eight feet in height within eight hours of time. Loyal only to its matron mother (and to Lloth), the Messiah Daemon will speak only the Eighty-Eight Prisms and move to violence against any who oppose its creator(s). A Messiah Daemon has 10d10 HP, a thac0 of 0 (or an AC of 20), and attacks with all six arms in an attempt to rip its victim apart (each hand dealing 1d10), or utilize its breath weapon: a silver, heatless fog that fills a target's stomach with dozens of eggsacks that hatch, swarming the victim's innards with spiders.

A Sabouteuth carrying a sacrificed artifact back to Lloth.

Hierarchy of Drow

It took generations for a hierarchy to form. As the drow expanded, and as their power required more structure to be properly used, a hierarchy formed amongst them. This system of class-power is stratified but it is not impossible to move up and down the ranks.

1. Matron Marqueeses  - The eight matrons who are either oldest, most pious, or most powerful of the many matrons. Their council speaks as one, and speaks as Lloth.
2. Messiah Mothers - The various matrons who have birthed Messiah Daemons. They cannot be commanded by any save the Mother Matrons, but each has their own mission which they must attend to with their spawn.
3. Matron  - The title given to the female head of house. A house consists of eight drow families united by either blood or oath.
4. Oracles & Diviners - Non-binary and MtF drow more often than not become oracles, soothsayers, and similar such figures.
5. Silk Countesses - The formal title of drow who are both masterful hunters and faithful religious acolytes. 
6. Daughters - The name for the standard acolyte of Lloth. Daughters lead rituals for other drow, and are the go-to liason between divinity and drow.
7. Cocoon Marquis - Male drow who hunt, fight, and enslave for Lloth. The Cocoon Marquis are males who, unlike the others, have been blessed by Lloth with authority over others and some measure of miracle.
8. Whispering Brood - Young drow who are slowly being initiated into the secrets of Lloth attend to the older daughters and various other members of the hierarchy.

Beyond this, drow positions are based on role and duty, and not so much their religious connotations. 

A Silk Countess - the blend between warrior and holy woman.

Drow Predations & Spites: Miracles of Lloth

If you play a cleric, than these miracles are for you.

At 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th levels, instead of learning a spell, you can instead learn a miracle. Consider these more powerful than normal spells, themed to your divinity of choice, and gated by more than just spell slots. These miracles are level gated; higher level characters who sacrifice more wealth and power to Lloth are rewarded with one of her many secrets. A miracle may be used by rolling 1d8. Add to the roll a +1 modifier if any of the following conditions are met beforehand:

• 1,000 gp worth of wealth, or creatures totaling 20 HP, were sacrificed to Lloth less than an hour beforehand.
• The would-be victim of the miracle has defaced a holy object or is a heretic in the face of Lloth.
• More than 100 drow will die as a direct result of the miracle not manifesting.

If the roll is an 8 or higher, the miracle manifests.

Miracles work essentially the same as spells, but produce effects purely in line with what Lloth as a divinity is. Once any miracle is granted, another cannot be granted that game session - divinities are strange and fickle in their responses. Likewise, if a drow beseeches a miracle and does not roll an 8 or higher more than twice, they cannot beseech another; Lloth has forsaken them for now.

LIST OF MIRACLES BY LEVEL

1st 

• A Song to Share my Pained Destiny to All ; a Hymn to Earn their Vengeance
• Crawling Forward in a World of Hateful Heresy 
• Punish Them for Denying My Righteousness, My Life, & My Truth

3rd

• Blood-Hot Trail of Those that Curse Revealed to Me
• Incense that Creeps with Secrets
• Wounds Upon Thy, Overflow with Poison

5th

• All my Spite ; a Dirge of my Vengeful Suicide
• From About Me Comes HER Hunger-Revenge
• Overflowing Secrets Pool in Mine Mouth

7th

• Demise Comes for Me, but to You Has It Loved
• From Your Webs Hang All You Love
• YOUR Children, Here Now, For All to See

9th

• Cocoon of Faith to Rebirth All the World's Spite
• Here Be the Haven, the Nest, the Future
• SHE Places a Kiss Upon Thy's World

A Daughter performing a ritual honoring the spite of all her kin.

MIRACLE DESCRIPTIONS

1st Level Miracles

A Song to Share my Pained Destiny to All ; a Hymn to Earn their Vengeance

You must view your life as the life of the oppressed, the attacked, and the lonely. Your must see your friends as enemies, and you must see everyone's friends as their enemies too. Appalled by the bloodthirsty nature of all bonds, sing. Sing loud and sing keenly. Sing to Lloth of your disgust at this treacherous cosmos and sing for her to show to all who walk it that your vengeance is owed and they must learn why. In answer to your vindictive hymns, all around you will be envenomed by your worldview. They will grow hostile to all that they see, save you. And they will act to destroy each other in order to accomplish the revenge they never knew they needed. When this miracle manifests, its divine effect does not end for 10 minutes, after which all involved are aware of the atrocities they have now committed. First used by a generation of drow enslaved by surface dwellers and who sung to Lloth for freedom.

Crawling Forward in a World of Hateful Heresy 

Why is it that you are so righteous and yet so beaten down by all that exists? Why do you suffer? Why are you dying? And it is at that moment, where you are fearful of death, where you feel that there is no way forward, that the miracle manifests. In these conditions you must reaffirm to Lloth the truth of your drowness - that no matter what, you will crawl forward, to give her food, for Her, for all the drow. And in response to your devotion, She will turn your body (and all you carry) into liquid shadow, and you will melt into shade. While in this heatless, textureless existence, you crawl forward. Those who see you see shadows of spiders on the wall with no source. Nothing can hurt you. Nothing can stop you. And until you feel safe again, you will not resume your existence as a drow. First used by a young hero who had food in a time of starvation but was blocked by an enemy too great for them to conquer.

Punish Them for Denying My Righteousness, My Life, & My Truth

When someone or something has tried to kill you and no retaliation works know that Lloth will come to your aid. Curse that murderous thing with all the spite inside of you. Hate it truly, utterly. Your hate will bring Her attention to that creature and you will find, in your garments, hidden as if it were always there, an amethyst dagger, warm as if alive, writhing shadow burbling inside its countless perfect facets. Attack with the dagger. It will never miss. When it slides into the body of whatever bastard sought to end the life of a holy drow, the blackness will invade it - Lloth will invade it. Their eyes will turn black, their skin too if they have it. Their bones will become hollow and brittle. For  eight months and eight days and eight hours of time will the antagonist suffer with every movement and thus go rigid and still. Prepared perfectly for sacrifice. First performed by a Cocoon Marquis whose sacrifice rebelled mightily.

3rd Level Miracles

Blood-Hot Trail of Those that Curse Revealed to Me

Something has evaded you. It has left you in a state most compromised. You cannot find it. Revenge cannot be exacted. You have exhausted every resource at your disposal and still it is gone. How dare it. The audacity. Name this temerity and beseech Lloth. Offer a bit of your blood from the tips of each of your fingers - no more than eight, though. Touch your eyes directly. Pull them away and your infravision has changed. You see brighter then all else the heat trail of the fiend who wronged you. It could be prey for a sacrifice, or the assassin of a cherished kin. It could be the trail of someone who took from you a prism, or who overheard a secret never meant to be uttered. Their trail leads directly to them, and so long as you move upon it you move with great speed - thrice that you normally could, as do any companions with you, and none of your lot grow tired either. The trail disappears when the spite fades or the creature dies. First performed by a young girl whose Matron was assassinated and who was denied her revenge.

Incense that Creeps with Secrets

Lies thick as stone barricade you in a prison of conspiracy. There are things you must know. All who keep those things from you keep them from Lloth and they must be taught the vanity of their impudence. Take the skull of a drow assassinated. Break it to pieces in your hands. Ask Her why the names of these fools insist on lying to you. Discover with surprise that the skull breaks into dust, into fine grave dust, into grave dust so fine it blooms outwards, is alive, moves with purpose. Inside this grave dust float Lloth's children. The smell of roses and blood twinned. All who know the secret that you wish to know will smell this incense. Lloth's children crawl into their ears, their brains, bite their thoughts. Whispers fill your head. The truths that were hidden from you for so long. Only answers a single question, but will bring you the thoughts of eight creatures to solve this riddle. First used by an Oracle-Vizier whose matron was surrounded by politicking enemies.

Wounds Upon Thy, Overflow with Poison

For one creature whose heart still beats and whose heat still burns does your hatred overflow. You see it. You see that it is hurt but it has not the grace to die or be sacrificed as it should. But it is hurt. It has suffered a wound to its flank or its arm or its face or something else entirely. If that wound would respond to your hatred it would overflow with poison. And so it does. Reach towards the wound. Tell Lloth how much you hate this thing. Tell her how it should be blighted and torn apart and left here in the bedrock of all creation to rot and rot and die and rot. Your eyes glow violet with heat. Poison bubbles in the open wound of your victim. It screams in pain. Poison flows from it, burning flesh black as drow skin. For every point of damage it has received so far, it receives it again so long as you remain conscious to hate it. When it dies, no soul is released; the poison damns it to lie here, forever suffering, until the end of all time lest an exorcist appear. First used by a Daughter whose mates killed her pupil and left her half-dead.

A Cocoon Marquis emerging again, reincarnated into something spiteful - a miracle indeed!

5th Level Miracles

All my Spite ; a Dirge of my Vengeful Suicide

For so long have you nursed in the core of your heart, in every ounce of blood, through every iota of heat you produce - you have nursed an enmity for all things. A spite so deep and so justified that try as you might you could never communicate it truly. And from just the barest spark of resistance from someone or something else does this hate becoming an all-consuming rage. A conflaguration of damnation. And it makes you sing. Sing as beautifully as you can. Lloth will sing with you. Your voice will change to hers, and inside of it the voice of all drow can be heard. Singing itself is a ritual. A spell. You are trying to communicate what you are to some wretch before you. And in the midst of the song, its mind will drown in the beating waves of your anathema. Unable to cope - for what living being could other than the holy drow? - it will suicide. It will slit its own throat in order to stop the madness. There is no other course, lest it plug its ears and pray to its own distant divinities.  First used by a Matron whose daughter was taken by some drake. The drake learned its lesson from her sorrowful rage-dirge.

From About Me Comes HER Hunger-Revenge

All the world has turned against you. You are broken. Your weapons are shattered. Your poisons are useless. You are hurt. Death comes for you; predator in the gloam, eyes twinkling with heat, with fire, cool as black. On your hands and knees you must go. Beg for Lloth to kill this thing. Beg for her to eat it. Not to save your life, but because you cannot do your duty, and you must invoke her to do it for you. Mercy through servitude is blessed. The walls will melt. The ceiling, the ground. Spiders the size of cavebears will emerge. Do not look. Do not dare look upon HER when you have failed to uphold your end of this bloody, eon-long bargain. Listen only. As everything around you is killed and devoured by these arachnid angels. Then they fade - the cave left empty as if you were ever the only one there. First used by a Matron whose entire house had abandoned her. They paid the price for their selfishness.

Overflowing Secrets Pool in Mine Mouth

There are things no living thing can know. Things only Lloth can know. Lie down. Fall into a trance. In that trance, see yourself standing on a great web in the deep darkness, a web that glows with heat, a web that stretches out into the infinite abyss. Ask this void a question. A true question. A question on the nature of the cosmos. A question of complete knowledge, esoteric and eldritch. Wake in pain. When you come out of your trance do not close your mouth. Inside of it, spiders swarm, and one by one each turns into a drop of poison that singes the tongue black. When they are all gone, speak - and what you speak will be the answer that you seek. First used by the original Messiah Matron, who knew not how to get the revenge she so lusted for.

7th Level Miracles

Demise Comes for Me, but to You Has It Loved

Wrap a thread of spider silk 'round your neck. When you die, with your dying words, ask Lloth to take as sacrifice not you but that which has killed you. Undone comes the silk from your neck. Your wounds disappear. If you had lost hit points, or were cursed or diseased or poisoned, you are no more. Instead, that thing that struck you a mortal blow suffers from every ailment you have ever suffered. That spider silk is wrapped 'twixt its neck. Watch as it is pulled upwards, into the stone, into the shadow. See a great heat there. Feel in your bones the mighty presence of something truly Impossible. That is Her. Lloth. You cannot look away as she eats that which has killed you. Never in your life will you feel as vindicated as you do now. First used by the very first drow that encountered Lloth and became her mate.

From Your Webs Hang All You Love

For a foolish reason has another living thing placed a curse upon you. Aware of this, you sought Lloth to dispel and turn such wicked evil. Name that which has cursed you, or name the curse itself. On a prism, create an effigy of love. Name it after the curse. Wrap it in spider silk and consume it. Wait. Eighty-eight hours later, the first will come. A spider the size of a drake will crawl from the ink of the underdark and with it will be a eight cocoons. It will leave them here, hanging from the shadow. Each cocoon has inside of it the still conscious, barely alive loved one closest to the curse-giver. Do with them as you will, so long as they are eventually sacrificed to Lloth proper. If the curse-giver comes for revenge, their loved ones will plead for them to stop, knowing that the curse-giver's life can be taken for theirs to continue. First used during a war between houses. Lloth manifested this miracle for the one that fed her better drow,

YOUR Children, Here Now, For All to See

With eyes seeing only hate gaze upon the heat of a thing that has killed eight drow. Knowing that you yourself are too infantile to take revenge, instead fashion a prism and take it to the Eighty-Eight. There, listen to the Psalms. Listen to their anger. Take the prism in hand and offer it to one. Watch the thing in your hand turn black as a heatless cave. Crush it into dust, beseeching Lloth for the most virtuous child she can spare. Watch as the dust rises in whirls and know that those whirls are your miracle. They solidify. The Drider stands before you seething. It sees only that thing that you have gazed upon, and it leaves with haste to destroy it. If it fails, know it will reform eight days later before you. It will drink of your blood, leaving you only half-alive, before going again to kill its foe. So it will do, again and again, until its victim is dead. First used by a Marquees to doom a wyrm most horrible.

Your Brother; your Savior

9th Level Miracles

Cocoon of Faith to Rebirth All the World's Spite

In your hands is the corpse of a drow most honorable. Flay the skin, devour the meat, break the bones to dust, and leave the skin out for an hours time. Watch as spiders flock to it. They will wrap the skin into a ball and seal the ball into a cocoon. Silk so thick that it is mucous. Touch it. Feel a heat inside. See a heat inside. The ball swells pregnant. Eight days pass, then eight more. It is the size of a drow now. It is one thing, slime-encased, an egg just laid. The heat inside is formless. Boiling like poison in the pot. Cracks open and gunk slithers out. The rebirth steps afterwards. Drow, reincarnated, reborn into the world for one reason: to destroy that which led to its death. A revenant of scorn. Empowered with all the miracles of Lloth and capable of wielding them without mistake. Chosen by Her. Loved by Her. This drow will continue its mission and every time it is destroyed it will be reborn again, here, at this spot, emerging ever more spiteful, ever more powerful. First used by a Messiah Matron to return to life her daemon child.

Here Be the Haven, the Nest, the Future

There must be eighty-eight of you, just as there were eighty-eight drow in legend when Lloth blessed them. The eighty-eight of you must hate all else. You must be alone. You must be on the precipice of death. Sacrifice one of you. Then another. Do this for eight days. When there are but eight drow left, the cave they are in will expand. Lloth herself will shape it. She will turn stone into home and darkness into love and air into web. A new city will be created and those sacrificed reborn and the eighty-eight of you will repopulate this new haven. The future expands. The drow continue. First used by Lloth herself to make Menzoberranzan.

SHE Places a Kiss Upon Thy's World

As you lie dying, say this -

"O, Lloth,

Whom from cave-dusk made Haven, and

From poison made water, and

From me made me -

O, Lloth,

Who sits in the heart of eight amethyst

Seeing those beyond and suffering from their cruelty,

Please, from your lips -

O, Lloth,

I am dead

But you will not let me die

For you love me

As I love -

As I love -"

And there She will appear. Rising from your shadow just as she did the primordial stuff of the universe. Smile on her face. She knows why you pray. Lloth herself, Goddess of Conspiracy, Murder, and Sacrifice, will seek out that one thing you hate most. She will kiss it. And in doing so, she will utterly destroy it - and all that get in her way. First performed by a child who was taken from her home and killed by a villain most horrible.

All the world's life for Her hunger.

In Realms Forgotten & Bloody: The Moon, Lycans, & Boons

The Silvered Marches  are moon-blessed and moon-cursed. It is no coincidence that minted coins are based off of phases of the moon, or that highways are called moonways, or that silver is found in abundance here more so than anywhere else. Nor is the plague of lycans in her forests and hills a wholly natural cruelty.

In this blog post, I'm going to expand the setting of the Silvered Marches in terms of roll tables and luff, as well as some interesting and frequent boons, curses, and lunar magicks.

Three Manifestations of the Moon.
From left to right, the Waxing Child, the Night White Lady, and the Waned Princess

THE MOON & SILVER

In the Forgotten Realms traditional canon, Selune is the Goddess of the moon, also known as Our Lady Silver, the Moonmaiden, Night White Lady, and She Who Guides.

Religion in the Realms Forgotten & Bloody is a bit more complex, but before we get to that, Selune has to be addressed in full.

Selune's original name has long since been forgotten. Her creation story, that her and the goddess of darkness Shar are the first twins and deities, has likewise been lost to time. These ancient tales may not be true at all. But it is known that there is but one true Moon in all the universe; all others are her children, born from prayer itself when the various worlds, planes, and multi-verses were created.

The pronoun her is not truly accurate for Selune. While her manifestations are almost always female, Selune is sexless. Manifestations appear this way due to the creation of the many moons across the cosmos. To many mortals, such a thing appears feminine and motherly. Essentially, it is the cultural beliefs of those that acknowledge her that have shaped her physical form. This is true of all deities.

Selune's identity changes with the waning and waxing of the moon as well. This has in turn birthed a number of quasi-deities and lunar powers, and has led to powerful souls across time joining her and co-opting some of these identities. The Drow moon goddess The Dark Danceri, for example, was a Drow who escaped the curse of Lloth by joining Selune and becoming one of her phases. Likewise, the Raven Queen, known in the Silvered Marches as Quaca, Queen of the Moon joined with Selune's New Moon phase in hopes of one day finding her tragic true identity.

In the Moonwood, the only living animals are wolves.
All others are ghosts that wolves consume.

Because of the multi-identity nature of the Moon, religions, powers, curses, and blessings that manifest from it are as varied as they are many. These many identities congeal in the Silvered Marches--the first place the moon's light ever shone upon. It is, for all intents and purposes, Selune's home, her cradle, her grave, and her prison. Nowhere else in the Realms Forgotten & Bloody does the moon shine as bright, as truly, and no where else does it have such an effect on the Weave.

The Dark Side of the Moon, though unknown to the people of the Silvered Marches, is a colonized place. It is here that drow Matrons build their Celestial Gardens, medusae petrify demons and devils to add to the moon's size, illithid plan secret invasions, and shadar-kai looking for tragedies build grim outposts. This is a setting for another time, however.

LIST OF LUNAR ASPECTS RECOGNIZED IN LUARAR

Below is a list of Lunar Aspects--the various identities the moon takes on--that are recognized in the Silvered Marches. Some are bard's tales, others deities, some are scriptures, and others rumors of supernatural wanderers.

• The Waxing Child, a cultural hero who is said to go on adventures at night. Many children play pretend as her, and she is a loved protagonist in many plays.
• Our Night White Lady, a woman of power invoked by lovers and women in labor at night. Midwives pray that she does not take women away from their children during birth.
• The Waned Queen, a tragic figure whose stories represent the dangers of silver-healing. The story goes that she practiced silver-healing to save her wife, and in doing so turned her into a werewolf.
• Quaca, Queen of the Moon, a raven-masked aspect of the New Moon, central deity in Moondancing, and thought to create tragedies during the new moon.
• Silver Scriptures, a central tenant in Weavism focused on silver-healing and silver-based rituals. Teaches that silver is where all arcane knowledge originates.
• Fenris, Eater of Hope, an aspect of the waning moon and believed by Moon Druids to be the moon's central aspect; father of all wolves, mother to all lycans.
• The Moonmaiden, a crying, wandering woman of pale silver. It is said that whoever shows her love becomes a great leader, but inevitably dies a tragic death.
• Our Lady of Silver, a mythological avatar of the moon that represents the aristocracy's arcane right to rule. Merchants carry statues of her wherever they go.
• Sariel, Course of the Moon, the chief servant of all phases of the moon, guider of silver light, brother-friend to owls, and hope's shepherd. Tattoos and pendants of him are worn, and offerings made to owls in search of greater wisdom. Believed to be the one who taught humanity how to chart the course of the moon and learn many of its secrets.
• Elah, a war-deity whose lances of moonlight and falling stars are worshiped by the Bedine nomads of Desert Anauroch.
• Innkeeper Luna, a mythic innkeeper whose inn, the Sweet Dream is said to appear before those who need respite desperately.
• Dannan, Who Hunts Cities, an ancient archdruid and the first to become a lycan and ascend to his palace on the Dark Side of the Moon.
• Silvadin, Who Wanes and Waxes, the god of rebirth in Lunagricultism. Said to be he who first turned the moon, and he that guides all souls back to the Silvered Marches.
• Miada, Mother of Moonrises, avatar of the rising moon and goddess of agriculuture in Lunagricultism. Said that it is her light that enriches the soil of the southern parishes.
• Selune, the First Moon, believed by those who worship old faiths to be the true identity of the Moon, and warrior-goddess who wages an endless battle against the night sky.
• The Dark Dancer, guiding patron of surface-living drow and half-drow who is said to inspired song, dance, and to create masks needed.



Sariel, Course of the Moon.

• Argentilunacies, Silver Dragon of the Citadel, a legendary silver dragon who once fought alongside the dwarves of the now empty citadels. Disappeared hundreds of years ago, believed to have joined the moon out of despair for losing so many friends. Prophecized to one day return and smite the Nether Mountains with moonlight flame.

Silver: The Moon's Gifts to the Silvered Marches

Silver is literally the physical body of the moon. When melted, it is the moon's blood. When solid, it is the moon's bones. Thus, silver has a number of magical properties well-known by the educated.

That being said, note this: silver is not the end-all be-all. Though a cornerstone of the Silvered Marches and a cultural power, its true strength lies in the hands of the upper castes; the wealthy and aristocrats control 99% of silver flow. Rare is it that peasants gain access to the benefits of silver not provided by clerical temples, the Conclave of Silvermoon, or the governments themselves. Mining silver, because of its importance, is also a vert respectable job. While many poor do it, the money they make it but a sliver (sometimes literally) of what the powers that be do.

Because of this, cultural belief has expanded to value more than just the Moon. The warsmithing, agriculture, hunting, and arcane study are other important cultural artifacts in the Silvered Marches.

Argentilunascies is said to have breathed a
 storm of silver blades upon his foes.

Supernatural Properties of Silver

• Silver is receptive to enchantments. Most magical artifacts found in the Silvered Marches are made of silver, or contain silver portions.
• Undead cannot stay corporeal in its presence, and must flee or be destroyed. For every 10 minutes an undead is exposed to silver within 5 feet, their maximum and current hit points decrease by 10.
• Cursed creatures, including undead and lycans, are purified when silver touches them. Creatures that are cursed, are undead, or are lycans are vulnerable (take double damage) from silver weapons.
• Silver can be used as an arcane focus for arcane magic, and a divine focus for divine magic.
• 100% purified silver can be consumed. It extends one's life, makes them more magically inclined, and positively improves mood.
• Working with silver can infect one with supernatural abilities. Many sorcerers owe their power to a life working as a silver miner.
• Suits of armor made of silver grant advantage on rolls to withstand spells.
• Polished silver mirrors are not only integral scrying tools, but serve as prophetic tools if the right rituals are done.

Character Benefits of Carrying Silver

• For every 10 pounds of silver you carry, gain +1 additional hit points.
• Consuming 1mg drop of 100% purified silver (worth 1 full) restores 1 expended spell slot.
• Silver jewelry grants advantage on being possessed.
• Charms made of silver and given the proper rituals provide advantage on saving throws against being cursed.

Using Silver in Rituals

• Using silver in rituals that require expensive material components halves the price of the ritual.
• Rituals using silver done on the Full Moon are completed in half the time they normally require.

Silver-Healing

Silver-healing is an age-old tradition in the Silvered Marches, now taboo. By using silver in medicine, a host of diseases can be cleansed, the mind can be focused and made stable, magical potential can increase, and physical abilities are heightened. However, silver is horribly addictive when used in this way, and addiction leads to lycanthropy. Those who provide silver-healing are called silver-doctors, the silver-gilt, moonmen, or shades.

Finding a silver-doctor requires spending at least 5 fulls in Silvermoon. This amount of money will earn their attention. Likewise, one must sign a waiver stating that if they grow addicted, they are liable for immediate, unquestioned execution. Because of these reasons, only foreign powers and the absolute rich can ever afford silver-healing of any form.

A silver-doctor will provide healing that takes 8 hours of time. The process is strange; a drip of molten silver, cooled through spells, is set up as an IV drip into the arm of the recipient. Prayers to the moon and arcane spells are written onto the body in silver ink. Over the course of the 8 hours, miraculous healing can be done.

For every session of silver-healing done, make a saving throw (Wisdom DC 15 or vs poison). On a failure, you have the seed of addiction. Make another saving throw for the next 10 days when the moon rises if you do not receive additional silver healing. If you fail more than you succeed, you are addicted and will pay any amount to receive more silver-healing. After a month, make one last saving throw (Wisdom DC 20 or vs death). On a failure, you become a lycan. On a success, make another 10 days of saving throws, as per the above rules. If you ever succeed on more saving throws than you've failed during these 10 day periods, you break your addiction.

Silver-healing is how resurrection is done in the Silvered Marches. If you are brought back to life, you have an automatic addiction to silver-healing until broken.

 Cooled silver kept liquid is famed across Faerun.

Services Provided through Silver-Healing

Additional fulles are added to the initial 5

• Restore all HP (including putting maximum HP back at its normal amount) - 2 additional fulles.
• Restore a lost limb - 1 additional full per lost limb.
• Cleanse or restore mind to sanity - standard price.
• Enhance mind (gain +1 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma modifier) - 3 additional fulles.
• Enhance body (gain +1 Strength, Dexterity, and Constiution) - 3 additional fulles.
• Enhance magical ability (gain an additional spell slot at a level you can cast) - 2 additional fulles per spell slot level.
• Polish magical ability (learn a cantrip) - standard price.
• Gain magical ability (gain 1 level in magic-user or sorcerer) - 5 additional fulles.
• Become powerful (gain +1 class level) - 100 additional fulles.
• Break curse - 2 additional fulles.
• Resurrect - 100 additional fulles.
• Become hearty (immunity to disease/poison for 6 months + gain 30 hit points) - 10 additional fulles.

New Magical Item: Silvered Spellbooks

Wondrous item, rare (attunement required by wizards or other spellbook-using classes)

A Silvered Spellbook.

A Silvered Spellbook is given to the Silverhands of the Conclave of Silvermoon, as well as to adventurers who prove themselves as positive impacts on the Silvered Marches. It is a spellbook bound in silver, whose pages made of liquid silver that become stable when read or written upon.

When attuned to a Silvered Spellbook, it serves as an arcane focus. Spells cast while using the Silvered Spellbook have advantage on spell attack rolls against undead, lycans, or cursed creatures, who also have disadvantage on saving throws against these same spells. The Silvered Spellbook also counts as 40 pounds of silver and grants the various properties mentioned above when used, save for the suit of armor property.

LYCANS

It is peasants that bare the brunt
Of lycan cruelty.

Lycans, known regionally as the moon-kissed or moon-hated, are shapeshifters born from the moon itself. Or, to be more accurate, their obsession and interaction with the moon.

The first moon-kissed are recorded as having appeared nearly 2,000 years ago. Strange rituals were done to consume the moon's light, leading to a bodily change into that of a wolf--the beast that first worshiped the moon and her first champions. These rituals are known now, but forbidden in all cities as taboo. It is simple: by imbibing large amounts of silver, the shift begins to happen.

It is akin to possession, this shift. With the waning and waxing of the moon, your mind grows erratic. Predatory instincts blossom in your chest, your sense of who you are ebbs and flows, as does your memory, your love, your respect for others. At the peak, when the moon is full, the wolf erupts from within. Your skin breaks apart, hair grows through, your teeth elongate--you become a werewolf in true; moon-fanged, angry, no longer caring of friend or foe, hateful of all outside the moon's shadow.

Intelligent Lycans are spoken of in rumor, superstition.
They're said to be conspirators seeking to spread
their curse as far & wide as possible.

Across the history of the Silvered Marches has the imbibing of silver been used for various purposes. Increasing one's life, gaining more strength, improving one's magical talents. Churches have built up around this imbibing and silver-healing is something that Luarar is famed for. But the dangers have long since outweighed the benefits. Addicts who become lycans have torn apart the countryside more than once, and many of these monsters still haunt the southern parishes. Thus, silver-healing is offered only to the rich few, and only in small amounts, and closely watched over with the threat of execution hanging over the heads of those that abuse it.

The Moonwood alone is exception to this restraint. Druids of the Circle of the Moon who worship their namesake and wish to have a seat amongst her power freely consume raw silver and ethereal ghost-flesh. In doing so, they gain the power to shift into powerful animals, namely wolves and direwolves. All Moon Druids are werewolves. Inside of their precious forest, they freely hunt and indulge in their addictions, hoping to grow closer to the Moon proper. They are led by the legendary Fenris--an aspect of the moon born in the Astral Sea who fell to the Realms Forgotten & Bloody who knows how long ago. Under his hateful shadow do they thrive.

Rare is it that these Moon Druids leave their Moonwood. They trade lumber, meat, and skins in exchange for silver and stay to themselves. Those that leave are hunted down by their kin and dragged back to these secretive haunts. During these times, Silvermarch's Knights in Silver are told to protect the southern parishes from the appetites of super-packs descending from the forest. Though careful not to bring too much ruin with them, every time a super-pack descends is a time of calamity where many inadvertently end up dead. More on Moon Druids in a future post.

Werewolf hunting is common north of the Nether Mountains.
Only desperate adventurers take such jobs.

Most horrendous of all is the ability for lycanthropy to spread. A werewolf's fangs are the fangs of the moon. Any that their pierce has a chance of becoming moon-kissed themselves. There are known cures to this, but the herbs needed are found either far beyond the Silver Marches or deep in the Moonwood. Thus, the most often cure is simple execution.

If You Are Moon-Kissed

1. While the moon wanes, you become morose, depressed. You reject things you once enjoyed, people you once loved, and only feel satisfied at night and when outside.
2. While the moon waxes, you grow aggressive, angry, and lash out easily. You no longer care for the things you once cared about; responsibilities evaporate, alongside respect for others.
3. While the moon is full, you transform. You shed your skin as a snake would and your anger towards those that are not moon-kissed blossoms into a violent rage.
4. While the moon is new, you regain all sense of who you are. Often this comes with guilt, despair, or liberating freedom.
5. Once you've enjoyed this cycle once, you can choose to embrace the moon, allowing you to freely transform into your werewolf and direwolf forms; or, you can reject the moon and suffer this cycle again and again until you eventually fall in, die, or are cured.
6. If you embrace the moon, the moon retroactively possesses you so that you were always possessed. You forget your life beforehand, and your entire brain is reworked to be a lycan in true.

Curing Lycanthropy

Embracing the moon is synonymous
With fiendish worship in Luarar.

• Limeflower, found in the Moonwood, Chult, and across the Sea of Fallen Stars, eases the cycle, allowing one to remain relatively stable. If enough is taken, and mixed with numerous other herbs, incenses, and strange rituals, silver bleeds from your body, taking with it the lycan's curse.
• Delving into the Underdark and the Veins of the Earth makes it impossible for the cycle to take hold. You are always in your "moon wane" state-of-mind and, if you can resist going back to the surface (a saving throw of Wisdom or against spells death every 12 hours), you vomit up silver & curse alike.
• Remove Curse or Greater Restoration or a Wish all strip the curse from the body.
• Death & resurrection sees the body reborn without the curse.

Werewolf Benefits

• While transformed, you gain the Strength, Dexterty, and Constitution ability scores of a werewolf, an additional 30 hit points, and a werewolf's attacks and features, as per your system of choice.
• Silver weapons do double damage to you.
• While not transformed, you gain an increased movement speed of 20 feet, and +1 to your Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution modifiers.
• You lose all respect for material goods and non-lycans, to the point where you think killing them is better than letting them live in their wretched state.

CREATE A WEREWOLF NPC

Roll on the following tables to create a werewolf for your games.

Life Before Transformation

1. Silver miner.
2. Farmer or farmhand.
3. Magic-user at the Conclave of Silverhand.
4. Adventurer.
5. Knight in Silver.
6. Noble or aristocrat.
7. Religious acolyte, cleric, or cultist.
8. Moon Druid,
9. Merchant.
10. Foreign visitor.

Why You Transformed

1. A broken mind required silver-healing. You became addicted.
2. A broken body required silver-healing. You became addicted.
3. Hateful of your own weakness, you consumed silver to prove you were strong.
4. A super pack descended and left you marked and your family dead.
5. A ravaging lycan crossed your path and left you cursed.
6. Praying to the moon for aid, you found yourself moon-kissed.
7. Desiring freedom from society's chains, you went into the Moonwood and joined the druids.
8. Wolves haunt your dreams, and eventually you became one.
9. After killing a direwolf, it cursed you to carry on its legacy.
10. You wanted revenge on someone more powerful than you, and threw everything away to get it.

Omen Heralding your Arrival

1. Wolves gather en masse, howling to a moon no other can see.
2. The moon is visible in the sky despite the fact that it is day.
3. The moon is clear, even during the Season of Thunder when clouds hide the sky.
4. Silver begins to melt and form strange puddles on the ground.
5. There is total silence, as if all animals were hiding.
6. A strange howl cuts through the night wind.
7. Ghost doe run across fields, fleeing something vicious.
8. Sudden anger blossoms in the minds of all who worship the moon.
9. Like a wall of electricity slammed into you, every hair along your spine stands on end.
10. Bloody claw marks stain tree, soil, and home alike.

Your Horrific Howl Sounds Like

1. A hundred wolves howling at once.
2. Flesh being torn and bone broken.
3. The death cry of a deer being eaten alive.
4. An avalanche of snow and ice.
5. Silver blades clashing against silver blades.
6. White noise, crackling.
7. The pleas of their last victim.
8. The scream-chanting of a hundred cultists.
9. An explosion, never-ending.
10. The hateful rage of a woman twice scorned.

Color of your Fur

1. Snow covering a bloodied corpse.
2. Dirt turned to mud by viscera.
3. A night sky bathed in starlight.
4. An aurora twisting underneath the moon.
5. Shadows over snowcapped mountains.
6. A man's chest torn open.
7. Blackness found only on the dark side of the moon.
8. Tree bark clawed by an alpha wolf.
9. The ethereal white of a ghost doe.
10. Darkness in which the golden eyes of a wolf shines.

Unique Ability

1. Having eaten so much ghostly flesh, you can become ethereal at will.
2. See trails of blood-smell leading towards living creatures.
3. Your shadow is a lycan too, leaves your body, and hunts alongside you.
4. Your shed blood becomes 1d4 silver direwolves that aid you in your hunts.
5. When howling to the moon, prophecies of the night's hunt fill your mind. Gain advantage on all attack rolls against 1 target of your choice.
6. Claws and teeth made of silver allow you silver's bless'd properties.
7. Those that hear your howl must save (Wisdom or vs paralysis) or be consumed by fear and become paralyzed.
8. Can cast the spell moonbeam fired from your mouth.
9. Can scale surfaces as if a spider.
10. You teleport into shadows at night.

Lycans grow more monstrous the longer they go without feeding;
And more twisted the longer they go without silver.

BASIC MOON RELIGIONS

While Lunagricultism and Moondancing are the two most popular religions in Luarar, they will get their own blog posts. Below, some basic shared pslams of moon worship are given, as well as blessings and boons.

Basic Pslams

• Bless'd thou who judges not by sex, not by destiny, not by work.
• Wicked are thus those who hunt without eating.
• A sliver of silver is worth only the love in which it is handed to another.
• At night, turn off all lights not needed for art and appreciate the glow of Our Night White Lady.
• Children under 10 years wane and wax law and chaos; of no crime are they guilty, but a lesson must be taught.
• Let those who ask for succor find it, so long as they have teeth and not fangs, love and not hate.
• Tragedy is to life as water to the seed; fortune comes, fortune goes, and wisdom is born.

Worshiping

When you finish a rest and say an earnest prayer to the moon (including any of its aspects), your GM rolls a 1d6 and gives you the following. This happens once every 24 hours, and does not happen with every prayer.

GMs, when a player makes a prayer and is eligible for one of the following benefits, roll d% in secret. Roll under their level + each prayer they've made since the last to roll on the table below.

1. A boon or blessing from the Dungeon Master's Guide.
2. An additional spell slot between 1st-5th level.
3. A free hit die for regaining hit points.
4. A d20 is rolled. You can replace 1 roll of your choice (yours or someone else's) with the number rolled before you finish another rest.
5. Dancing Lights appear and float around you, the tears of the moon itself.
6. A wolf leaves an uncommon magical item at your feet. It turns into silver dust when you begin your next rest.

A Moondancer in the midst of an arcane ritual.

In Realms Forgotten & Bloody: Spellcasting, Spell Levels, & Spell Slots

It's a legacy, but I don't like how mechanical "spell levels" and "spell slots" sounds. I want something for my 5E game(s) that sounds more authentic to the settings I run in (mainly a variant of the Forgotten Realms right now). Let it be known that in cannon FR, arcane magic is THE ART and divine THE POWER.

I'm thinking (in order of the above) - Spell Circles & Weave Knots.

Mathematic & Arithmetic + Fantasy = Spells 

Spell Circles, of which there are 9, are circles of magic upon which a magic-user acts. The weave is organized into these circles somewhat naturally; it is a tapestry of magical force that spellcasters "witness." Once witnessed, their minds are literally rewired in such a way that allows them to perfectly perform the actions required to cast a spell even under duress. Anyone who has access to any spell circle should roll a 1d12 for a trait gained from the rewiring.

1. Anything lyrical (poems, riddles, stories, etc) becomes an obsession of yours. You seek out these things, make these things, and sometimes even speak these things frequently.

2. Fear is baptized from you. Replacing it is an "arrogance response"--whenever you would normally be afraid, you instead seek to dominate whatever is triggering the response.

3. You lose the ability to read words of any languages you know or learn. Instead, whenever you see text, you see silvery images replacing the text that communicate the same ideas. When you write, you instead draw similar images.

4. Your sense of time is lengthened to the extreme (or shortened). Days feel like either hours or years; years feel like weeks or lifetimes.

5. Decide one mundane thing that makes you happy. That thing is replaced with an esoteric version of itself. For example, if you enjoyed eating, you now only enjoy eating when the North Star is obscured by clouds or when comets streak through the heavens.

6. Whenever you see your favorite color, you instead see an incredible kaleidoscope of shades replacing it.

7. Your pain response changes so that whenever you feel pain, you instead feel the strange, indescribable sensation of a tree experiencing the change of seasons.

8. You are utterly unmoored from those you love. For these people, you no longer feel any emotion, and when you begin to feel love again it quickly evaporates.

9. Your witnessing of the Weave has left you with a tick that requires you to weave your own strange tapestries whenever you take a rest.

10. Even when confined in small rooms, or with chains and rope, or surrounded by a dense forest, you feel as if you are in a vast space too big to be filled with anything else.

11. Movements of the stars and other celestial bodies take up most of your nights in viewing.

12. Suddenly made aware of a world within and beyond your own, you cannot help but lose all sense of value for material goods.

Magic-users can physically see and touch the threads they knot in their minds.

Weave Knots, of which there are many, infest a spellcaster once they witness the Weave. The more a magic-user's skill grows and the more access they gain to Spell Circles, the more weave threads knot in their minds. These threads are literal; the brains of magic-users, when dissected, are filled with ethereal, glowing knots of something that unravels and dissipates. Magic-user's who are memorizing their spells, or praying for powers from deities, or otherwise practicing magic at all are literally knotting these threads in their minds. Once the spell is cast, the thread is untied.

When all mechanical spell slots--now Weave Knots--are spent (now untied), roll 1d6 to see how you change. This change is reverted the moment you regain at least one tied Weave Knot.

1. You are impossibly morose; almost anything that happens or that someone says puts you in an ill mood.

2. You can no longer see colors, instead shades of grey.

3. Your sense of smell and taste are lost, and your skin goes partially numb.

4. Suddenly, the air, your clothing, your hair, everything feels much heavier. It is a struggle to stand upright, and walking takes momentous effort.

5. Your thirst and appetite increase exponentially; no matter how much you eat and drink you do not fill full, but you do feel very ill once you've eaten too much.

6. Looking at things that are put together, like houses, suits of armor, or even books gives you sharp, stinging headaches.

Witnessing the Weave -- psychadelic, symbol-riddled, almost grounded but not quite.

Duskwood Tree

These ill effects are known well to any magic-user, especially wizards in their schools and cabals. Collectively, they are called the Six Punishments. While apprentices are routinely trained to untie all knots so that they can function under the effects of the Six Punishments, there are a number of ways to give a "boost" around them. Namely, drugs.

THE AURORA MUSHROOM, found across Faerun, is named for the strange colors it lets off every night. Eating it alleviates the effects of the Six Punishments for upwards of 8 hours. Additionally, it gives a sense of giddiness to the ingestor, makes it so colors they see melt into one another, and strips them of any magical knowledge for the duration. A favorite amongst sorcerers.

DUSKWOOD MILK, the name of the milky white sap of the Duskwood tree, when drank in small amounts, alleviates the Six Punishments for upwards of 14 hours. However, all sensory input is interfered with; sounds are intense, touching others is either incredibly unfun or too much fun, and staring at bright lights is very, very difficult.

BLOODLETTING, specifically from cuts made underneath the eyes, softens the effects after 10 minutes, and completely counteracts them after 1 hour. Not an enjoyable process; it requires making several cuts every 10 minutes until the Six Punishments ends. The preferred method of practiced wizards.

INCENSE using blood of the spellcaster, blood of another spellcaster, and leaves from the Golden Wand tree alleviate the Six Punishments within seconds, and continues to alleviate them so long as the incense is burning and actively breathed in, regardless of one's ability to smell. Used often by clerics and bards.

REKNOTTING the weave knots instantaneously undoes any effect of the SIx Punishments. This is difficult, however, often taking 1-8 hours to complete depending on the training of the magic-user and the spell circles involved. The most common method amongst spellcasters.