The Plane of Innistrad (A Gothic horror setting based on MtG)

[Cilvyn]

Justification why I put this thread here: This is indeed an excisting setting, but since this is not a world 'set in stone' as per description of what should not be on this forum and my goal is not to have discussions about the already given meterial, but in stead use the given information to build a 'new world', I thought it right to catagorize this project as 'World Building advice'. If I misinterpetated the rules applying to the forum, I apologize and will put this thread in the section where it, according to you, belongs.


Hello dear Giants and Giantesses and everything in between,

A while ago I gathered all the lore I could find about a world created for a game called Magic the Gathering (You don't have to be familiar with this game to be of help and/or contribute in this topic). It is practicly a world like you are used to in worldbuilding. It has a setting, creatures, culture, geography etc. The information on the net is mostly meant for an audience who wanted to get context for the game they are playing. It focusses mostly on interresting facts and describing a certain mood and feeling. What I want to do is expand this lore with more precize descriptions and with another goal in mind: To make it usable for RPG.

You will like to give this a try if you:

Enjoy working with an already given setting and guidelines so you can base your ideas on already given pieces of lore and draw inspiration from them
Enjoy a horror gothic setting with supernatural beings like undead, vampires, werewoves and humanity struggling to survive.
Like the magic the gathering Innistrad Block


Everything I have gathered can also be found on the internet (https://www.google.nl/search?q=Innistrad+lore&oq=Innistrad+lore&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l2j69i59.2156j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8). The document can be found here (the information is identical to what can be found online, it is a direct copy paste):

Innistrad Lore Document (https://www.scribd.com/doc/262850579/Innistrad-Lore)
*All the information in this document is also shown in the posts below this one, for those who prefer to remain here on the boards rather than reading an external document. It is quite some information and if you just wish to give comment or suggestions about a certain subject, I will list later in this post, you can look it up in the posts below.(The document got pictures though!!)

What do you need to take part

You do not need any knowledge of the game, although knowing the game can be usefull to draw inspiration from.
All I really ask is: read the lore and bring anything that you feel would be right for the setting and throw it at me.


Here you can find the two games I am running in this setting, maybe you can use this for inspiration as well.

Crusade on Havengul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?411333-IC-GROUP-1-Crusade-on-Havengul)
Dark Secrets of Havengul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?411467-IC-GROUP-2-Dark-Secrets-of-Havengul)


To keep some sort of structure I would like to present my thoughts and questions according to the structure of the book that I want to make as endproduct.

I will list here all the chapters and catagories I want to write about like I want to list them in the book iself (for reference you can find the information of the subjects more or less in the same order in the document.


Innistrad

Part I: The Plane

Setting
• Time setting and reference to our world
• Gothic Horror

The idea is here to set the mood for what kind fo world this is without going into specifics of the world itself.
What more things can I write about the world without going into specifics?


Humans
• Human Qualities

Culture
• Languages
o Low Gothic
o High Gothic
o Gavonian
o Kessig
o Nephalian
o Stensian
o Celestial
o Infernal
• Moons
o Harvest moon
o New moon
o Hunter's Moon
o Holidays (bonfires?)

What I would like to do here is give a general overview of the languages spoken in the world. I have no intention of creating new aphabeths or languages so that it can be used in different systems. For example in the game I am running now, I let this table replace the normal D&D languages.

The moons are very important to the world, and more importantly they are the seasons of the world. I do want to make a calendar of the world with the most important holidays of the world. to get an idea of howmany days there are in each season (there are no months, they treat each season as a month on its own) you can read this overview of letters (http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/166a). Besides giving alot of information about the lore I want to give them a close look to determine howmany days there are exactly in each season and if there are already certain dates dedicated to a certain saint of event. If you have ideas for holidays, please shoot!

What more cultural subjects could I explain in this chapter. It should be general for all of Innistrad. I am not sure yet, but I think I will also go in depth to the local culture in every province, so this should be more an overview of all human traditions and habits throughout the whole plane.


Theology
• Religion
o Church’s Creed
o Faith
• Creation of the World
o Old Gods and religion
o Dawn of Avacyn
• Angels and Devils
o Avacyn
o Angels (Avacyn’s Host)
 Flight of Goldnight
 Flight of Alabaste
 Flight of Herons
o Devils
o Demons
Church as institution
• Clerical Hierarchy
o Lunarch
o Bishops, Mayors, Priests and monks
• Infrastructure
o Churches
o Cloisters
o Cathedrals
o Crossways
Cults
• Skirksdag
o Griselbrand
Heresy
• Disobedience
• Alchemy
• Forbidden magic


This is a rather big chapter. Innistrad is a theocracy and I thnik by describing all these aspects it will show how the world works. You can compare it to the 40K lore. This can be seen as The Imperium with the lunarch as living Emperor. His power is indirect but all-present. The church as institution is something that is not very clear however in the lore. There is material about the hierarchy and some of the functions certain positions have. I would like to build a clear overview of the actual worldy power the church has, what they do, whatare te actual things they do to express their power?
What are the guidelines to live by (this can be based on ideas drawn from religious moral codes of our own world).

How the world was created is unclear in the lore and I think it is not of extreme importance what the actual hsitory is. There is something about that pre-Avacyn culture was polytheistic and people worshiped nature gods. How and why avacyn was created is very clear in the lore, although there is not a clear uotlining of what the definition of faith actually is in Innistrad. I would like to get suggestions of actual aspects that would define the faith in Innistrad. FOr example, people do see angels, so faith is very real and prove is all around (both by physical proof of celestial beings as for holy magic that has a visible effect on the world. How can I discribe this properly?



Vampires
• Vampire Culture
• Powers and magic
• Vulnerabilities
• Feeding and Siring
Werewolves
• The curse
• Powers
• Howlpacks
Ghouls and Skaabs
• Ghouls
o Fengrafs
o Seagraf
o Diregraf
• Skaabs
o Alchemy and creation
o Nature
Geists
• Birth of spirits
• Kinds of Geists
o Benevolent
o Dark
o Nature
Other
• Demigods (planewalkers officially)
o Garuk
o Sorin (as demigod)
o Tibalt
o Tamyo
o Liliana Ves (I had the idea of using the magic origins idea here and let her have her transformation on this plane so her 'promotion' to 'demigod' will be on the timeline and depending on the current date, be or be not still a human)

Also a large chapter since there is alot to write about every specific 'monster'. Maybe I should break it up in several chapters? and put them in e seperate part X because it is so big?

Vampires: The lore on vampires is very extensive and I know alot about vampire lore in our world, so I think I can manage to work that out myself. I would like however to work more on the bloodlines. There is a little information on the nature of the bloodlines. I would like to make it more detailed, give more names, maybe work out the original family of each vampire family (the elders). I could use information from the show 'Vampire Diaries' or ' The Originals' and if you have suggestions, please let them hear, this is something I haven't have a clear idea of in my head. I was also thinking about something like a special heirloom vampire elders have, like a ring (obviously, it really doesn't have to be so original.. oh dat pun!)

Werewolves: Same here, I want to narrow down much more into detail what the howlpack are exactly, what their practices are. See it like what would be in a Monster manual when you roll a Nature or streetwise check on them and roll a 25. What makes them different from other packs, what are their characteristics, leaders etc. The nature of the curse is quite well described in the lore already, but any suggestions are welcome!

Zombies: I haven't given that one a good thought yet... help is welcome.

Spirits: Same here...

Other superatural beings: If you are familair with magic the gathering, you know the names of these planeswalkers (for the setting I called them demigods, but another more fitting name is welcome!) They can be of any race (like Sorin is a vampire originally) before they ascended to demigodness. They are very powerfull and are like a normal demigod we are accustomed to in other fantasysettings. I don't want to give them specific levels from a system since I want to try to keep this system as much as i can not related to any system. But attributes, and their business in Innistrad is something that should be worked out

Are there more supernatural beings that I forgot? (only if this is fitting for the lore!)

The thing about Liliana. I want her to be part of a noble (non-vampire) family. This also brings up the idea of working out other noble factions and families (I imagine the political situation a bit like in the 12th century Europe. the church and nobility is struggling for power and are at the same time intertwined. powerful nobles would also have high places in the church. This would make the plane fragmented if it comes to politics. I will make an extra chapter about politics...


General overview
• Political situation in Innistrad
• Different political situations in different provinces
o Gavony
o Kessig
o Nephalia
o Stensia
Noble Families
• Role of Noble Families
• Nobility and the church
• Noble Etiquettes
• Families
o Vess Family
o ...more?

I just made this chapter so I haven't had much time to think this through carefully. It should have a short overview of the different forms of gouverment in the provinces to give a general idea of how the world is governed beside the church as institution.

I think it would be nice to work out some noble families with power in Innistrad and what their general characteristics are, maybe quarrels with eachtoher, the church and their relationship with vampire vamilies? It is stil lgothic, so I expect there to be a very civilized inner circle of noblemen and -women with their own way of life and way of life above the common folk and farmers on the plane. Ideas of how to give this shape is welcome. I don't recall there much about it in the excisting lore.


Part II: Gavony

General Geography
• Infrastructure
o Roads and Crossroads
• River Kirch
Parishes and Cities
• Thraben
o Thraben (city)
• Videns
o Hanweir (town)
• Wittal
o Estwald (town)
o Trostad (city)
• Effalen
• Moorland



Human Life
• Culture


Part III: Stensia

General Georgraphy
• Outer Valeys
o Farbogs
o Ashmouth
• Inner Valeys
o Somberwald
Mountain passes
• Ziel pass
• Hofsaddel (to inner)
• Needles Eye (to inner)
• Getander Pass (to outside)
• Kruin Pass (to outside)
o Notable Places
• Castle Falkenrath
• Markov Mannor
• Voldaren Estate



Human Life
• Culture
Vampire bloodlines
• Markov
o Edgar (the first Vampire)
o Sorin
• Voldaren
o Olivia
• Falkenrath


Part IV: Kessig

Ulvenwald
• Lambhold (town)
• Hollowhenge (city)
• The Breakneck Ride (Main road)



Human Life
• Culture
Howlpacks
• Mondronen
• The Krallenhorde
o IronFang
• Leeraug



Part V: Nephalia

General geography
• Silver Beach
• The Erdwall
Cities
• Havengul
• Drunau
• Selhoff



Human Life
• Culture
Vampire bloodlines
• Stromkirk
o Runo
• Rakish



I will leave this for what it is for now and first focus on the general information of the plane before zooming in on the seperate provinces, since I am also not entirely sure what infor I want to put in here.. so This will come later.






Okay, as you have seen I have some ideas of how to work things out, but also alot of stuff is unclear for me or I would like to get suggestions. Also I am very thankfull if you bring up other aspects I do not have a chapter on.

I hope I managed to make you enthousiastic. I am happy with every littlebit of help and every small suggestion. As I said there are alot of different aspects here you can work with, so please feel free to choose something you think is interresting and shoot!

Again, Below you can find the already existing lore of Innistrad if you rather read it here on the forums than in an external document.

Thank you very much for reading, taking time for this and everything you will write.

Kind regards,

Cilvyn

[Cilvyn]

The people of Innistrad were accustomed to living in a world plagued by evil. The protective wards held monsters at bay, keeping the villages relatively safe. Prayers and holy oaths banished geists and skewered vampires where they stood, allowing humans to control nests of horrors when the danger got too great. Thanks to the presence of the archangel Avacyn, hope and belief held real power to smite the darkness, and so hope and belief flourished.
Even after Avacyn disappeared and the fiendish creatures of the night advanced, the people of the four provinces survived. The power of the wards waned, but the Church recruited new holy warriors to take up arms and fight back. Prayers to the angels went unanswered, but villages closed their borders and shut down the roads into the fog-cloaked wilderness. The ghouls and geists had gained an advantage on humans, and things looked bleaker than they had for generations. But together the people of Innistrad presented a united front, able to keep humanity safe almost as if Avacyn had never forsaken them.
But safety on Innistrad was a comforting fiction. Among the sinister forces of the world, word has spread.
 


The horrors of Innistrad have learned the weakness of their prey. The werewolf howlpacks have tested the defenses of the country villages and found them pathetically thin. Now, werewolves terrorize hamlets across the countryside without fear of wolfhunters or weapons of blessed silver. Vampires pick and choose their human prey as they see fit, letting the vampire families gain in ascendancy across every province. Geists appear undaunted in the bedrooms of children and saints. The walking dead pierce the defenses of even Church-dominated towns. Monstrous flesh-constructions lurch unimpeded into protected sanctuaries, slaughtering innocents who relied on Avacyn's promises. As humanity's defenses crumble, Innistrad's tale of horror has become ever more dire.

The Undying Threat
The humans now face a dark new twist in the fight against the fiends. It's not just that the wards and prayers no longer bind these creatures. Now even the bonds of death no longer hold. Apparently slain werewolves have begun to stagger back to their feet, their hunger only renewed by their seeming destruction. Geists return after being exorcised by the clerics' most powerful banishment spells. Vampires laugh off stakes and fire, rising in spite of every trick and country secret known to kill them. Reassurances from the Avacynian Church fall on impatient ears as, more and more, the old lore no longer applies.

Wavering Devotion
Even more distressing, there are signs that the people of Innistrad might be losing hope. The Elgaud Grounds report fewer and fewer recruits to become undead-slaying cathars. Statues of the beloved archangel are found toppled, not by the random attacks of rampaging werewolves, but by despondent humans. Demonic cults have gained in membership as people seek some power, any power, on which they can rely. Entire ships full of evacuees sail into the mists in search of some far harbor, never to be heard from again. Some villages have taken to making offerings of their own weakest members, hoping that innocent lives chained to posts will mollify the hungering beasts in the night.

Infernal Risings
But the darkest news of all may be the emergence of infernal forces. Cults such as the Skirsdag beckon forth demonic beings from the deep abysses of the world. Cracks in the earth, such as the Ashmouth, spew forth demons and devils who spread mayhem and death wherever they go. Emboldened by Avacyn's long absence and the waning potency of holy magic, the demons have begun to use humans to further their whims, sacrificing innocents to fuel dark magics. Humans have become the playthings of the fabled monsters they once spoke of only in scare-tales and campfire yarns.

The Eleventh Hour
If anything good has come of this dark time, it's that humanity knows the stakes of its plight. Humankind's collective back is to the wall, so the few parish priests, pitchfork-wielders, and fiend-slayers who remain have learned to dispense with the traditional pleasantries. Avacyn might no longer support their feats of faith, but their magic has become enhanced by desperation, as the threat of death encroaches. Those practitioners of magic have learned to hurl the despair of their spiraling losses into their spells, giving them the strength to slice through the ranks of the dead rather than join them. The humans have even learned from their enemies, discovering new ways to tap into the tempting power of the grave and to cast deathly spells with amplified strength.


The vampire Sorin Markov, the self-serving aristocrat who was once drenched in privilege in his role as the favored lord of Markov Manor, created Avacyn, the angelic champion of the meek and divine source of the protective power on Innistrad.
How did this come to be? To understand that, we have to learn about another member of the Markov family—Edgar Markov, Sorin's grandfather.

The rise of the vampires
Thousands of years ago, before there were vampires on Innistrad, Edgar Markov was an alchemist in the land that would become Stensia. Famine was sweeping the land, and the old alchemist Edgar searched for a solution that could help the starving families feed themselves. The answer was a brutal one: to undergo a blood ritual that would cause some of the people to feed on blood. It would provide sustenance to those few, reducing demand for the failing crops, but it would also cull the overall population, reducing the number of hungry mouths to feed. Thus were vampires born on Innistrad.
But Edgar Markov's chilling tale has an even darker truth behind it. The famine was an expedient excuse for Edgar's blood magic, but in truth the aging alchemist was experimenting with ways to achieve agelessness for himself and his only grandson, Sorin. A demon called Shilgengar preyed on Edgar's ambition and whispered secrets that would point the way toward Edgar's blood-feeding experiment. Shilgengar also helped the old man overcome his squeamishness at what must be done. Still, Edgar needed prodding for him to go through with the ritual to create the blood-feeders. Shilgengar was one of few demons to exist on the surface of Innistrad at the time, and as it turned out, he became a kind of harbinger for his own kind. Edgar inflicted his curse of vampirism on his grandson, Sorin, awakening Sorin's latent planeswalker spark. And later, Edgar's actions indirectly led to a resurgence of demons in the world.
And that's when the famine put him over the edge. The famine might or might not have been Shilgengar's doing. Either way, it was the genesis of this world's vampires. With his blood magic experiment, Edgar succeeded at finding a way to extend his own life. He anointed Sorin with the same vampiric state—and shockingly, his grandson disappeared.
The trauma of the transformation had caused Sorin's devine spark to ignite.

Sorin's Creation
Sorin was a demigod now, but he was also the grandson of the honored progenitor of the entire vampiric race back on his home plane. As the Markov bloodline spawned other bloodlines, Edgar remained the prestigious forefather of all vampires, and Sorin's "life" became like that of a royal.
Over the centuries, as vampires spread further into human lands, Sorin spent more and more time away from his homeworld, sometimes disappearing for years at a time. Vampires became disdainful of the race from which they had spawned, hunting mortal humans more and more boldly, and Sorin became distant from his own vampire-kind.
But Sorin always kept watch on Innistrad. From his world-hopping perspective, he could see the changes on the world of his birth. He saw that as vampires gained in power, the human villages were dwindling. Although he was no longer human himself, he saw the curse his grandfather had brought to the humanity of their world, and he saw that in time, they would be wiped out by the blood-feeders.
Sorin borrowed from long-held beliefs about the moon and the afterlife, forging a warrior who could hold back vampires and other monstrous forces that would extinguish life on Innistrad. He created an angel he named Avacyn and tasked her with protecting the plane. Through her, the magic of faith would create true power to fend off the darkness. The Church of Avacyn grew up around the power Sorin invested in her.
Some of the vampires understood Sorin's act, but most reviled him as a traitor. Edgar still lives in Markov Manor to this day, and to this day Sorin is not welcome there. Avacyn was Sorin's gift to his home, but she was also his betrayal of his own people.
But now Avacyn has disappeared from Innistrad. How could this have happened? Sorin has always had a dark edge to him, and he has never hesitated to destroy anyone who got in the way of his ambitions. But at the same time, he never meant these shadows to rise over the world of his birth. Sorin might be his grandfather's creation, but Sorin's own creation was meant to preserve a way for humans to survive Edgar's crime.
And now, after Sorin's long absence, it is the disappearance of that creation that has called him home again.

Tales of Demonkind
Even before the time of Sorin Markov and his grandfather Edgar, before Innistrad's race of vampires existed, the people of Innistrad feared demons. Few of these demonic creatures ever made themselves manifest, to the point that some believed demons were mythical or long dead. But others knew the legends of wicked demon-spawn were true and they feared the day when the demons would return.

Avacyn's Campaign
The archangel Avacyn and her host of angels took up the sword against those who would harm humanity. They slew vampires with holy fervor, prompting Sorin's kin to brand him a traitor to their kind. The angels thrashed the werewolf howlpacks that threatened to overwhelm those towns bordering the wilds. They banished malevolent geists that haunted the shipwrecks and ancient manors of the plane. They incinerated unholy ghouls with piercing light. They were never able to cleanse the plane of evil, but Sorin's creation had done her job.
Humanity was able to flourish again. The Church of Avacyn grew up around the archangel, and faith in her helped fend off the flesh-hungry monsters. The power balance on the plane tipped in humanity's favor. None could have foreseen what evils this would bring.

Demons and Devilry
The retreat of the supernatural fiends of the plane opened a space—an opportunity for Innistrad's infernal forces to manifest. Like Shilgengar long before, the demons and their hosts of impish devils began to make their presence known in far greater numbers.
Avacyn engaged each demon in single combat, defeating them one by one. She found that new demons would appear a short time later and decreed: "What cannot be destroyed must be bound." She then forged a collar of silver to bind demonkind, so they could be hauled away and imprisoned. The Silver Collar became Avacyn's symbol and the holy symbol carried by Avacynian priests and cathars.

The Helvault
One by one, Avacyn and her host of angels captured the demons, imprisoning them in a huge mass of silver that came to be called the Helvault. Said to be a piece of Innistrad's silver moon, the Helvault sits in the cathedral yard in the High City of Thraben overlooking a cliff's edge and the sea beyond. Stories say it and Avacyn first appeared on the same night, and it remains the most holy object on Innistrad after Avacyn herself.
With the proper incantations and rituals, Avacyn and her angelic host could cause wicked creatures to be drawn into the Helvault. She trapped so many demons within the Helvault that only a handful remained. To the relief of all but the demon-worshipping Skirsdag cult, demons and devils were largely out of human life.
It was only a short time ago that the demon Griselbrand, the most powerful of his kind and one who had never become imprisoned, committed an act of unprecedented boldness and heresy: he landed on the Helvault itself, under a full moon, and challenged Avacyn to combat.
 


Humans
The everyday life of a human varies dramatically according to one's class. The wealthy families and clergy live in comfort and safety. Thraben clergy, in particular, have every need met by the church. The middle classes—artisans and merchants—are also quite comfortable. But the working class and farmers have a much shorter lifespan; they are more at risk from the dark things of the world, and they suffer from more sickness and famine as well. A farmer lives an average of fifty years, while a bishop lives closer to seventy.
Safety is the main commodity in Innistrad. The wealthier you are, the safer you can make yourself. The high walls of Thraben protect the well-to-do who live inside. Titled families in Gavony have fortified manor houses, while the farmers must make do with the wooden walls of their farmhouses.
Because of the lack of physical safety, the poor spend a larger portion of their income of enchantments and non-physical means of protection. Tithing is required for everyone, and the church charges a small fee for every blessing and spell. Even at unstaffed little altars, payment is expected, and many of the faithful diligently pay even when there is no one to enforce it. Not unexpectedly, there is resentment among some for the amount of money required of the poor to uphold their faith. This resentment increases dramatically as the effectiveness of the Avacynian blessings diminish.
For the humans of Innistrad, the purpose of life is not to live forever, but to have a restful "sleep" after death—tranquil oblivion, or perhaps oneness with everything, rather than becoming a tormented spirit, mutilated corpse, or undead abomination, as so often happens on Innistrad. The Sleep is considered a reward for a virtuous and vigilant life. "May you spend an eternity in the ground" is a common blessing among the people of this plane.

The Moon of Silver and Innistrad's Seasons
Innistrad's moon is both a source of hope and a harbinger of woe. Many Innistrad astronomers believe that the moon is a vast desert made of grains of pure silver, and that any extant silver on Innistrad originated from the moon.
Cathars and priests know the power of specially blessed silver to harm werewolves and ward off other horrors, so the moon has become associated with the divine strength of the archangel Avacyn. Some even perceive the shape of a heron in the areas of dark and light on Innistrad's moon, and so the heron has come to be a symbol of Avacyn. But the rise of the moon can also dampen protective magic and cause werewolves to transform from human to wolf. The fickle silver moon seems both to serve humanity and to bring out the worst evils within.
Innistrad humans also name the world's seasons by different aspects of the moon, as it seems hold a strange influence on the world as the seasons change.

Harvest Moon
This is Innistrad's autumn. A huge orange-to-blood-red moon hangs in the night sky. The days grow shorter. The weather cools with each passing day and the forests turn vibrant colors. This is considered to be the time when vampires are the strongest. Bonfires are common during harvest time, when farmers toil late in the fields until after twilight. The bonfires are thought to keep the vampires away.

Hunter's Moon
This is Innistrad's winter. The chill never leaves the air and the sun's apex is close to the horizon. This is the longest season, and the time when food becomes most scarce. More hunters have to venture out into the wilds in search of food, which results in increased attacks on humans. This is considered to be the time when werewolves are the strongest. Since there are more humans hunting and traveling in the woods during these months, werewolf attacks are more prevalent. The humans believe the attacks have something to do with the season itself, although there are no more werewolves at this time than any other time of year.

New Moon
This is as close as Innistrad gets to a spring and is the shortest season. The days are longest and the sun is the brightest, though still pale compared to some worlds, and there is new growth in the forests. Humans consider this their season, associating it with new life and birth. Babies born under the New Moon are considered to be holier, with a better chance of attaining the Blessed Sleep.


 


Religion
Faith in the church of Avacyn actually works, but there are no formulas that are consistently successful. Saying the mystical words in the right combination will result in protective magic, but some days it works better than others. And sometimes the evil it's warding against is more powerful than other times. The unreliability of the wards and blessings has led to disagreements over dogma. Although there is still only one church, sects have emerged over disagreements about the right way to do things. The goal of the church is safety, not perfection. Humans want to live in reasonable safety until they die, and then they want to remain peacefully in their graves. Cremation is forbidden because it is believed to result in a restless, angry spirit.
In the Church of Avacyn, there is no conception of heaven and hell. The humans of Innistrad do not believe in a heavenly afterlife to reward their past deeds. And their equivalent of hell is a very literal thing: there are actual cracks in the ground where demons dwell. Avacyn is not expected to eliminate evil in the world or to create a perfect life for everyone. Instead, she is the font of safety and protection. She is the authority to whom the faithful must go before something bad happens, to help ward off those evils that have always been a part of the world.
In Innistrad, church and state are deeply interdependent; there is virtually no separation of the two. Local governments rely on the power of the Church to keep order and maintain public safety. Often the rule of law is adjudicated by the prelature, lawyers and judges ordained by the Church. All education is handled by the Church, although different sects sometimes establish their own schools and training grounds. Except for merchants and artisans, all professions are part of the Church. Even merchants and artisans are governed by fellowships, which must be sanctioned by the Church.
Church Hierarchy

Avacyn
The archangel Avacyn is the focal point of the human's worship. She is believed to be the source of all protective magic. It is thought that she controls the seasons and is the force that brings an end to the long and bleak Hunter's Moon. Adherents to Avacyn are called Avacynians, and their church is the Church of Avacyn, or the Avacynian Church.
Avacyn's Host
The archangel Avacyn has a host of angels who serve her. These angels appear frequently to humans and fight all supernatural monsters who are a threat to human society. These angels try to keep the world in balance.
The Flight of Goldnight
These angels are associated with the sun, in contrast with Avacyn herself. Once a year during the Harvest Moon season, the sun will not dip below the horizon for two full days, and during this time the moon isn't visible. Known as the Feast of Goldnight, this is the holiest day for the humans. It is the time when the Avacynian enchantments are strongest throughout Innistrad.
The Flight of Alabaster
These angels personify the Blessed Sleep and are associated with the Hunter's Moon season. They provide magic that wards against the desecration of dead humans.
The Flight of Herons
These are the angels of birth and purity and are associated with the New Moon season. Their magic is said to ward humans against harm in life (as opposed to the Alabaster host, which wards against harm in death).

Clerical Ranks
Lunarch
The Lunarch is the head of the church. This is a position elected by the council of bishops. Currently, it is held by a man named Mikaeus, who is searching desperately for the reason behind the decline of the church's power. The Lunarch is chosen among the bishops and will only be replaced when dead. Being a Lunarch means having immense power over the church and state. The Thraben Council gathers as much as they can to discuss political and religious matters.
Bishop
The bishop is the highest order of clergy. They reside in the cathedral at Thraben as members of the Thraben Council, the governing body of the church. Bishops also are like governors of the provinces. They gather with the mayors of villages and cities and are the point of mutual interests for every priest and mayor. Bishops are honored by the common people and are often strong leaders or even cathar leaders.
Mayor
Sometimes called the elder, this is the political leader of a parish. He or she has a mix of administrative and religious duties, but the day-to-day administration is left to the priests. Mayors are men of the people, they are chosen from the common people and don’t have to be a man of the church per se.
Priest
Priests oversee the church and attend to parishioners' needs. They all use magic to weave spells, but with varying degrees of skill. Priests mostly stay in villages to protect the common people and be there in times of need.
Monk
These wandering priests are the lowest order of clergy. Some have been sanctioned by the church to seek out people living alone in the wilderness. But many are fanatics who are no longer formally part of the hierarchy. Most monks put their quiet life behind and joined the forces of the cathars. Many monks have beside their clerical rank also a place in the cathar ranks.

Cathars
Cathars are soldiers of the church. All Cathars get trained to track and kill supernatural beings. A Cathar can either be a master of the martial arts or a holy priest who can banish ghosts back to the Æther
Lunar-smiths
Blessed weapons are an important part of Avacynian magic, and these clergy are trained in the art of weapon-making. Certain blessings must be said at certain times during the forging process to make a weapon magically effective against a particular foe. Silversmiths are particularly revered because of the difficulty in imbuing the silver with strong magic, especially anti-lycanthropic magic. These smiths are not in particular soldiers, but more like craftsman which provide weapons and armor for their fellow cathars.
Inquisitors
Inquisitors are cathars who can be hired out to come help a parish if they have a particular problem with vampires or devils. These cathars are fierce warriors and are specialized in tracking down demons or vampires who disguised themselves. Becoming a Inquisitor takes many years of training and experience.
Parish-blades
Cathars stationed in parishes serve as escorts along roads or protect the cathedral in Thraben. This is an ordained military force that assembles whenever the clergy demands. These cathars are mere soldiers who operate in small armies if possible. They are used to fight back zombie hordes. Some parish-blades become inquisitors after long years of training and fighting.
Runechanters
Runechanters are a specialized branch of the clergy that specializes in engraving blessings on material objects, including weapons. Everything from swords to axes to children's toys has words written on it in an effort to protect its owner. The best runechanters can write so small that hundreds of these blessings can be squeezed into a small space.

The Skirsdag
A Demonic Cult
The Skirsdag is a demonic cult of worshippers of Griselbrant, the demon who was bound by Avacyn in the great silver mass of the Helvault. Demons existed long before Sorins divine spark and his creation of Avacyn to keep the world of Innistrad in balance. Nowdays cults still exists and wait for the return for their master who will reward their loyalty and will spare them from the other monstrosities who will make an end to this world.
The Goal of the Skirsdag
Skirsdag cultists have many ranks and followers throughout the world. Now people don’t longer can rely on their former savior the turn to other powerful beings in the hope for salvation.
Skirsdag priests try to open as many gates to the underworld as possible resulting in more and more demons and devils swarming into this world and leaving a trace of death and decay. Skirsdag followers know their summons bring destruction to Innistrad, but are willing to pay the price for … of their own lives.
Though cathars and the powers of the church actively fight vampires, werewolves and cultists alike, the Skirsdag try to remain underground, though society can feel the influence in their daily lives. Many Skirsdag rituals require human sacrifices or a tribute of blood for their demon masters and it is not uncommon for people to find bloody altars in cellars of houses or in the wild days after a demonic ritual.

Cultists and priests
The skirsdag hierarchy is a lot like that of the church of Avacyn. The high priests is the first in command. Since Griselbrant is no longer in this world he still obeys other demons but can order devils to do his bidding. Priests perform rituals and are in command in larger regions while cultists are more the experienced members of the Skirsdag. Skirsdag followers are considered to be new members or people without any magical powers. The Skirsdag welcome new members which have to perform an oath to pledge their loyalty to the cult. This makes it very hard to infiltrate the cult not to mention the contact with powerful demons which can easely pick out the undercover members. This also creates a very save aspect to the cult and its members.

[Cilvyn]

Vampirism on Innistrad is neither a virus nor a curse, but what the vampires themselves somewhat euphemistically call a "condition of the blood." It is an anointing that persists and is perpetuated by magic alone, and few if any of its bearers consider it a curse. When reflecting on the nature of "the condition," vampires sometimes poetically call it an ablution, a washing of the self in blood that results in a new state of being. Vampires are not truly undead, although they have some undead traits (such as agelessness and skin that's cold to the touch).
The most distinctive thing about vampires' appearance is their eyes. The sclera is black and the irises gold, silver, or other colors. The skin is pale and cool to the touch. The hair is often black but is sometimes deep purple, dark magenta, burgundy, or even dark blue-green. Some vampires wear wigs, however, for variety, novelty, or to disguise themselves more easily among humans. A vampire's canines are very slightly pronounced at all times, and when they bite someone, the canines extend about a quarter inch. Vampires also tend to have long and slightly curved fingernails.

Vampiric powers and magic
Humans have a multitude of tall tales about the evils and wonder of which vampires are capable. In reality, though, the vampires' universal suite of powers is limited to just three things: agelessness, slightly enhanced strength (approximately double that of a human), and a two-foot-wide aura of silence that emanates from them at will.
Many vampires learn a uniquely vampiric form of glamer (quasi-illusion magic) that enables them to move among humans undetected. These are mind-affecting spells that alter what nearby humans think they're perceiving, rather than true illusion magic that changes the subject's appearance. As such, particularly strong-willed humans can sometimes shake off the effects of the glamer and see the vampire truly. Also, given time, power, elder vampires learn all manner of powerful magic, including flight, hypnotic gaze, transformation into other forms (such as that of a bat or a mist), and so on.

Vampiric Vulnerabilities
All vampires inherit a set of weaknesses linked to the ritual that created their race. First, although they can be harmed or killed by any weapon, weapons of living wood have special efficacy—this is the so-called Dryad's Legacy (dead wood is inert, no more effective than stone or steel). Second, a vampire can't cross running water in which the moon is reflected, because of the link between water as the source of human food and the moon as the source of angelic power. Third, Avacyn herself can enchant water with the power to burn vampires like acid by touching it. But this water is scarce and becoming scarcer with each passing day.
Silver, the soothsayer
Because of the connection between Innistrad's silver moon and its angels, and because the ritual that created vampires required the drinking of angel blood, silver has special properties vis-à-vis vampires: it causes them to see how they would have been in normal, mortal life, ignoring vampire glamer and reality alike. Because of this, vampires go to great lengths to avoid mirrors (glass backed with a coating of silver), because mirrors reflect their mortal images rather than their actual ones. This is also the reason why vampires can't cross running water in which the moon is reflected. Although silver weapons aren't particularly deadly to vampires, the presence of silver unsettles them, putting them at a disadvantage.
Avacyn's power
The archangel Avacyn is (or was) the living covenant of the balance between humans and vampires. Avacynian holy symbols can induce in vampires a paralyzing fear and the desire to flee, although their ability to do so has significantly diminished in the last year (because of Avacyn's disappearance). Despite Avacyn's absence, however, the strength of faith alone imbues a degree of continued power in the symbols of Avacyn: the silver collar and the heron crest.
The Unquenchable Thirst
A vampire will starve to death in one full cycle of the moon unless it drinks as much human blood as an average human contains (about five liters). Almost any vampire will drink more than this if given the chance, however. Without enough blood, a vampire starves quickly—in a matter of several days—first desiccating before eventually crumbling to dust. Because of the source magic that created all vampires, only blood from a living human will suffice. Vampire alchemists have attempted transmutations of animal blood to human blood, but all have failed. Blood from a dead human is also insufficient; if blood from a living human is like wine, blood from a dead human is like vinegar.

Blood trade
To vampires, blood is indeed like wine. Vampires enjoy a lively commerce in blood, although the commodity is only good for a few days before it provides no nourishment—about the same length of time as wood stays alive once cut from its plant. Small castles and manor houses in relative proximity to each other trade blood via carriage and experiment with various blends. Particularly interesting or delicious samples are occasionally preserved by well paid time-mages who can use sorcery to prevent the blood from "dying" for a short time (freezing doesn't work). When a time-mage can't be secured, however (which is often), some vampires resort to slavery of the victim, shipping him or her from place to place to be supped on. Specialty carriages exist for this purpose.



Feeding and siring
A vampire will drink the blood of his or her human victim, usually until the victim dies of blood loss. Sometimes the vampire is interrupted and the human will survive and recover. Although other humans might suspect the survivor of a vampire's bite of becoming a vampire, this isn't a possibility, because siring requires an exchange of blood. The survivor will be plagued by disturbing and sometimes erotic dreams for years but will not turn. When a vampire wishes to turn a human into a vampire, to sire the victim, the vampire must introduce his or her own blood into the victim. The simplest way to accomplish this is for the vampire to cut his or her own cheek or tongue before or during the bite. This act will "anoint" the victim, endowing him or her with the same "condition of the blood" that all vampires have. But this is only the first step. The victim, once anointed, will begin to feel the bloodthirst, and food will become unsatisfying within one to three days. But this first bloodthirst is special; only the blood of the sire can quench it. A newly anointed victim who doesn't drink the sire's blood before the next new moon will die. But if he or she does, the siring will be complete and the anointed will become a full-fledged vampire.
Who do vampires choose to sire? Because vampires believe they are humanity's saviors, and because of their own decadence and hedonism, only the cream of the human crop is fit for siring. A vampire might decide to sire a human because of the human's beauty, charisma, intelligence, or talent, for example. In short, only the most remarkable humans become vampires.
When vampires feed, they will sink their teeth into any exposed flesh. Usually the neck is most convenient, but an arm or even a cheek will do. But the siring bite is special. Vampires want to avoid marring the appearance of their future peers, so often a siring bite is made in some out-of-view location, such as on the upper thigh, the torso under the arm, or the bottom of a foot (although in this last case the victim must be special indeed to be worth the vampire's self-humiliation).

Bloodlines
Not all vampires are created equal. Among the existing vampiric bloodlines, some are more common but prestigious whereas some are rare but less respected. There were originally twelve bloodlines, which originated long ago in a ritual that had something to do with the Markov progenitor, Edgar Markov. Three of these bloodlines have died out completely. Five others are relatively minor, having sired fewer vampires. The four major bloodlines that remain are:

Markov
This is the bloodline of Edgar Markov and is the most prestigious of the bloodlines. The Markov line has been fairly ambitious in its siring over the many centuries, and as a result the Markov vampires exist in all four of Innistrad's provinces. This isn't to say that all vampires of the Markov line are all high-minded or noble; a bloodline doesn't determine temperament, self-discipline, or restraint. Markov elders seem to have a talent for psychic magic.

Falkenrath
The Falkenrath line, concentrated more in Stensia than the Markov line, had a famous falconer (now dead) as its progenitor and remains associated with far-reaching activity and predation. Falkenrath vampires are the boldest in walking among humans, taking pleasure in choosing their victims from deep within human communities that consider themselves safe. Falkenrath elders are more likely to master powers of flight than those of other lines.
Voldaren
The progenitor of the Voldaren line, Olivia Voldaren, was in life a beautiful but strange, hermetic, antisocial woman who preferred to live far away from human civilization, in manor homes built for her from her seemingly boundless wealth. Like their progenitor, Voldaren vampires tend to live in the distant places, in the borderlands and edges of Innistrad's provinces. Voldaren elders can more easily master magic that enables them to transform into animal forms, especially those of the bat, cat, and rat.
Stromkirk
Unwilling to take part in the political and social machinations of Stensian vampires, those of the Stromkirk line chose to concentrate their power in Nephalia instead. As a result their disguising glamers are more powerful and more sophisticated. Stromkirk's progenitor, Runo Stromkirk, was a high priest in life who worshipped a pre-Avacynian god of the sea and storms, and Stromkirk vampires still feel a slight affinity with the coast. Some Stromkirk elders have achieved the ability to transform themselves into mist.
 


The Nature and Role of Devils
Devils are infernal perpetrators of malicious mischief. They stand about three or four feet tall, have a face full of needlelike teeth, and often have ruddy or deep red skin. They usually have one or two back-sweeping horns and most of them have long, whiplike tails, but their morphology can vary from individual to individual. They are agile and can be passable fighters, but they do their best destructive work by sabotaging things of value and by inciting violence in others.
The work of Devils
Devils often work in the employ of demons, stirring up chaos and woe. Devils aren't very dependable minions when it comes to servant tasks—they don't do well retrieving fragile objects or remembering to guard choke points. But devils are experts when it comes to generating and fueling bitter emotions. Demons are most interested in ways to demonstrate and expand their own power, seeking to tempt mortals to give up what's most precious to them. Devils, on the other hand, just want to repeatedly check who's at the top of the Things Are Going Okay in My Life Leaderboard and go wreck some self-respect. That works out well for their demon masters, because once a poor human's will has been broken and livelihood destroyed by devils, that human is much more desperate and apt to agree to a demonic deal with shudderingly harsh terms.
Devilish Humor
A devil's laugh is a brain-needle forged from pure spite. You might laugh when someone trips and falls—whatever. It's okay. It's kind of a human reflex. But a devil's sense of humor isn't satisfied until someone trips, falls, breaks an ankle, loses the ability to work, loses the farm, dies penniless, and dooms his or her starving heirs. Hilarious.
Devils don't have that little boundary of decorum that divides the harmless, schadenfreude-induced chuckle into your hand from the full-blown sadistic cackle at the dispensation of harm. The farther a prank goes, the more wrong it gets, and the more pain it causes, the harder a devil laughs. They will insult the memory of your dear, departed aunt—while waving at you with her own severed hands—just to bray at the look of anguish on your face. They have an uncanny knack for sniffing out exactly what you care for most just so they can break that thing and watch you cry. They can't be reasoned with; they are not creatures of reason. They can't be bargained with; they want nothing but your admission of defeat.

They can, however, be killed. Devils swarm out of the crevices of the plane, their shrill laughter heard in every village and along every route through the wilds. Priests and cathars have taken to killing them on sight whenever possible, even given their diminished holy powers, knowing that devils only herald ruin.
 


Two distinct kinds of corporeal undead creatures plague Innistrad. The first are ghouls, sometimes called "the unhallowed," which are necromantically animated corpses. The second are the skaab, beings alchemically constructed from the dead.

The Unhallowed
Necromantically animated zombies are more commonly called ghouls or "unhallowed" on Innistrad, because they're drawn forth from unhallowed graves. One of the duties of Avacynian clergy is blessing the final resting places of the dead to try to ensure "the Blessed Sleep." Now that Avacyn is no longer present, the dead can be more easily stirred.

Ghoulcallers
Necromancers on Innistrad are usually referred to as ghoulcallers, the black magic mages that call forth the dead from graveyards, or "grafs." There are several varieties of graf, each of which draws forth a unique mix of the walking dead.
Fengraf
A fengraf is one of the many flooded lowland graveyards. These sites were once hallowed ground, but have remained untended for many years. Fengraf ghouls are usually smiths, cobblers, brothel workers and other common and poor folk.
Seagraf
A seagraf is a "fisherman's graveyard." Much like minor nobles, fishermen are often buried with their most prized possessions, such as nets, long harpoons, and large hooks for getting hold of a slippery catch. Seagraf unhallowed have not completely forgotten their trade even in death, and they will pursue victims using the tools and deftness they had in life.

Diregraf
A diregraf is the site of a particularly gruesome battle. Unhallowed awakened from a diregraf carry the armor, weapons, and fatal wounds from their last bloody battle. Diregraf ghouls carry this lust for an unfinished battle within their fogged minds, and they often attempt to fall into military formations as they were trained to do in life.
Once the dead have risen, the ghoulcaller then supplants all other addled thoughts of the dead with one single driving purpose in their minds. The near-mindless ghouls will call on what skills they have left to carry out the task, and the results are a grotesque parody of their lives. Blacksmiths attempt to "reforge" their opponents, fallen warriors emit rasping pseudo-cries, and undead murderers reawaken their taste for killing. Occasionally, fallen mages even show a limited ability to weave spells, but this often results in some aberration of the spell's original purpose.


The Skaab
Necro-alchemy is much more of an art than ghoulcalling. One who practices the art of creating skaabs is called a skaberen. The true goal of the skaberen is to create life, an undertaking which usually produces malformed "offspring" rather than true life.
Corpus Creare
Also known as "corpse cobbling," is the collecting of various anatomical parts from corpses from which the skaab will be constructed. This is usually performed by paid grave robbers or homunculi under the skaberen's charge. In some cases, even the limbs of beasts are used for the construct; if a human arm is not available, a horse's leg can suffice.
Patin Ligitus
Or rune-bonds, are the "binding plates" used to join various anatomical features together. These are plates of copper and/or brass, with silver-inlaid runes scribed on them. They provide an arcane bridge of sorts between disparate parts gathered by corpse-cobbling.
Viscus Vitae
Or vital fluid, is the key to the skaberen's art. Viscus vitae is created by mixing a large quantity of lamp oil with the slightest pinch of the dried blood of an angel. Once a perfect mixture of viscus vitae is created, any blood remaining in the corpse is replaced with vital oil, via transfusion. As a result, skaab are often highly flammable.
Vox Quietus
Translated as "the silent word," is the final step in creating a skaab. The skaberen whispers a fairly lengthy incantation over the corpse which awakens the creature, but in a much calmer manner that that which is used by ghoulcallers. Once awakened, the skaab is in a calm, "tabula rasa" state, which allows the alchemist to begin the long task of re-educating the creature. In the eyes of a skaberen, the technique used by ghoulcallers is crude, heretical, and provides unacceptable results.
Skaberen usually ply their trade in remote and inhospitable places, since they are viewed as blasphemers by commoners and clergy. Skaberen often become obsessed hermits who surround themselves with ancient scrolls and books, phials of rare noxious liquids, glass jars full of pickled organs, anatomical charts for both human and beast, rune-engraved skeletal remains, and small anvils and hammers for inscribing runes on brass and copper plates.

 


The origin of Spirits
Innistrad is a world filled with the ghosts of the human dead. These spirits, called geists, take many forms. Some are protective spirits of ancestors. Others are vengeful creatures bent on resolving conflicts they couldn't resolve in life.
Geists have always been a presence on Innistrad, but before Avacyn, all such spirits were malevolent, manifesting on the plane only because of a grudge or regret powerful enough to disturb the Blessed Sleep of the body to which they were connected. In Avacyn's absence, the malevolent spirits were counterbalanced by the appearance of many benevolent and neutral geists, from nurturing apparitions of family members who have passed on to inscrutable ghosts who seem to want to continue whatever duty they had in life.
This new balance in the spirit realm resulted from Avacyn's function as psychopomp for the dead; her existence shepherded the souls of the departed back into the plane's Æthereal space. This metaphysical guidance from Avacyn enabled geists to elect to turn away from reunion with the plane's essence—a phenomenon that previously occurred only when a geist's anguish or regret overcame the pull toward the Æther.

Material and Immaterial
Geists exist in the space between the material and Æthereal realms, so to varying degrees they possess qualities of both worlds. Thus some are able to walk through walls and then slash open throats. Others use the beliefs of the living against them; victims believe in the spirit so completely that they harm themselves with the power of their own mind. Some use fear to literally scare the victim to death. Some spirits use cold to freeze opponents or reduce their temperatures down to hypothermic levels when humans become lost on the moors or wander too far into the bogs. Other, more powerful ghosts use their force of will or emotion to condense matter (called ectoplasm) around their hands or weapons for a split second when they attack. Some use psychokinetic power to wrap objects around them (e.g., brambles, chains, spikes, glass, etc.), and then wield them against their foes.

Faith's Power
Even in Avacyn's absence, divine magic is not impotent. With a combination of powerful faith and magic, clergy can banish geists in various ways, from dispersal of the geist's essence to functioning as a surrogate psychopomp to guide the geist toward its rest in the Æther.

Kinds of Spirits
Holy Geists
Many white-aligned geists are harmless or even protective spirits of dead family and friends who haunt the living out of a sense of duty, fealty, responsibility, or love. Malevolent holy geists do exist, however, and are usually twisted by guilt, feelings of failure, or unrighted wrongs. Some are ghosts of fallen soldiers that still patrol the moors, looking for their vanquishers.

Magic Geists
Some geists are projections of the animating principles of the mind. Vicious or obsessive thinking as well as collective human memories come to life by attracting enough latent aether around them to become autonomous entities. They carry on as obsessive ghosts—repeated knocking, patterning, arranging, stacking, marking, etc. They can also possess one's mind and cause repetitive movements, speech, epilepsy, obsessive behavior, schizophrenia, and other such maladies of the mind. These are also the geists most drawn to the water, storms, frost, and mist—even the mist of the breath.

Dark Geists
These geists eternally hunger for life, power, or the settling of a wicked grudge. These are spirits that must be appeased by offerings of food, goods, and even blood. If not appeased, these geists can be responsible for disease, accidents and death. Dlack geists are almost always dangerous and malevolent.

Fury Geists
These spirits have attached themselves to rampant emotions, unfulfilled desires, and thirsts for revenge that were frustrated during life. They can manifest as blood dripping from statues, whirls of dust on roads, minor rockslides on hillocks, cliffs, and mountainsides, and, in the case of possession, as sudden mania or murderous rage. The ghosts of the unavenged are some of the most dangerous geists on Innistrad, sometimes appearing as living fire or as "blood mist" entities that engulf a hapless victim and inflict cuts and welts that are slow to heal.

Nature Geists
Some geists long to be reconnected with the nature they revered in life. Energies within the woods that have been called into being by druids or other nature-mages take on form by entwining roots and brambles around their Æthereal bodies. Some of these spirits attach themselves to animals, plants and landforms, imbuing them with special power or mutating them into strange, otherworldly entities. If the spirits that inhabit landforms are not appeased, it can often result in blight, crop failure, and famine.



The werewolf is a creature of duality, forever dragged between two worlds: it is both monster and man, nature and civilization, rational thought and raw savagery.

Killer or Victim
Some werewolves see themselves as victims cursed with the souls of untamable killers. Others see themselves as glorious scions of nature trapped inside a cage of civilized lies. Though most of Innistrad society focuses on the mass-murdering horrors of the werewolf's beast form, the lycanthrope can be seen as a tragic figure with an identity chained to the treacherous moon or an avatar of nature's inherent wildness.
A person afflicted with lycanthropy is forever in doubt of his or her own urges and instincts. In human form, a werewolf feels the pull of the wolf's essence within even while trying to integrate into polite society. A lycanthrope can feel the war of emotions in his or her heart, and as the moon grows full, the influences of conscience, religion, and personal restraint do less and less. The full moon makes the change inevitable, but in fact, any strong emotion or traumatic experience can trigger a lycanthropic crisis and allow the transformation to occur.
Werewolves in canid form are beings of unparalleled savagery and strength. Their bodies are perfectly engineered for slaughter, with jaws capable of snapping bone and claws sharp enough to rip the entrails from a beast many times their size. Their minds are explosions of instinct and adrenaline, fed supernatural awareness from their heightened senses yet cognitively blind to almost everything but the kill. They can walk upright for manual dexterity or can lope on four limbs for speed. Their howl is said to release the wolf's spirit within, a harrowing sound that fogs the air and chills the night. Werewolves in beast form cannot speak human languages, but seem to be able to communicate with each other on matters of hunting, dominance, and social hierarchy, as canines do in the wild.

The Transformation
The transformation process is harrowing for the lycanthrope and incredibly disturbing to any witnesses. The eyes change first, the whites darkening and the iris filling with color. The claws go next; the hands elongate, knifelike claws extend from the fingertips, and the thumb forms a claw back near the wrist. The muzzle thrusts forward out of the human's skull, and the teeth jut through the gums in sharp points. Bones crack as they rearrange. Marrow spills into the bloodstream as ribs and skull fracture and telescope. Thick, wiry fur pushes through the skin, often pushing out normal human hair. The tailbone elongates and becomes a shaggy wolf's tail. Metabolism speeds up, increasing blood flow, oxygen flow, and glandular production, creating cravings for protein and fat. Any clothing that was worn at the time of the change is generally torn to shreds and falls away. If a werewolf dies in beast form, it changes back to human form, a process called death reversion.


A werewolf that has just changed back to human form is usually naked, disoriented, and covered in the debris, wounds, and bloodstains of the previous night's hunt. He or she has flashes of memories left over from canid form, often experienced with involuntary heart spasms and jolts of adrenaline, not unlike the experience of panic attacks. The days following a transformation are often filled with shame, guilt, and depression—and repression, as the lycanthrope struggles to feign normality, construct alibis, and hide evidence of his or her savage crimes.
After reverting to humanoid form, most werewolves have partial memories of their time in canid form, and they clearly see the aftereffects of the destruction they've caused. This can send lycanthropes into the throes of depression, shame, or even hostility against others. A minority of lycanthropes actually embrace their werewolf nature, however, and actively seek to return to their canid state. Werewolves that revile their lycanthropy are called repentants; the few who embrace the wild are called wantons. While in canid form, however, all werewolves are savage beasts, all traces of their humanity gone.

Warding Against the Change
Humans destroy known werewolves when they can; all lycanthropes are seen as abominations and mass murderers. But werewolves are dangerous creatures to face head-on, so wide-scale magical prevention is often employed to curb lycanthropy passively.
Regular and repeated application of Avacynian magic can help prevent the change to canid form. Roadside shrines, prayer, angelic rites, the blessing of accomplished clerics, and the presence of holy symbols all help reinforce the werewolf's humanity, helping her hold on to her human form. Repentant werewolves often stay within the city limits, around their fellow man and the influence of religion, whereas wantons often venture into the wilderness, far from the wards and priests that keep their wolf essence in check. The full moon, however can overcome even powerful religious precautions. In addition, the power of angelic magic has waned in recent times, and werewolf transformations have become more common and harder to predict.
Lycanthropes and the Moon
There's no doubt that the moon holds sway over werewolves. As the moon's phases change, so changes the power of lycanthropy over the werewolf. As the full moon approaches, the effectiveness of divine magic becomes dampened, and werewolves change more readily.
Werewolves in canid form are supernaturally strong and tough, and since the weakening of Avacynian magic, few protection spells have been able to harm them or keep them at bay. But werewolves have a weakness: pure silver that has been ritually blessed by a powerful cleric of Avacyn can cause them great agony. According to alchemists, silver's purity of material readily absorbs the divine magic. Arrowheads, spearpoints, and other weapons made from blessed silver can be powerful instruments for fighting werewolves.

Silver and the Moon
Mages have presumed a relationship between the moon and the metal silver for centuries, but the nature of that relationship remains a mystery. The respected astronomancer Jenrik once posited that Innistrad's moon is actually a vast desert composed of tiny grains of silver. He believed that any silver found on Innistrad actually originated from the moon's silver desert, and that terrestrial silver maintains a relationship with the moon's power. Why the moon seems to empower werewolves while silver harms them is not well understood.


The Cause and Nature of Lycanthropy
There are many theories of how lycanthropy is caused or spread. Most sects of the Church of Avacyn hold that lycanthropy is a kind of demonic possession, but ritual exorcisms have not successfully purged the affliction. Most afflicted humans appear to become werewolves at some point in their lives rather than being born so, although there are sporadic (and chilling) tales of child werewolves in remote areas. Many alchemists and wolfhunters believe that werewolves are sterile, and only reproduce by cursing humans with lycanthropy; however, many commoners fear that they might be able to interbreed with humans or give birth to their own kind.

The True Cause
Lycanthropy is a supernatural curse that causes the victim's spiritual essence to become mingled with the wild essence of nature, symbolized by the wolf. The lycanthrope in effect has two souls, or one split soul. These two essences constantly battle for control within the victim. When the wild wolf-essence triumphs, the werewolf change occurs. This may explain why werewolves hunt humans so often; the wolf-essence desires to destroy the human side and triumph over humanity, and does so symbolically by brutally slaying humans.

Transmitting the Curse: The Call and the First Hunt
The curse of lycanthropy overtakes a person over a period of one night. One or more werewolves howl in the night, calling out to the victim. Soon after, the victim finds himself in the wilderness, under the silvery moon, surrounded by eyes glowing in the night. The victim's will is compromised already, the wild essence entering him and doing battle with his human conscience. The victim and the werewolves crash through the woods together, and over the course of the night, they hunt and kill their prey—usually woodland game, but other humans or even another lycanthrope is not unheard of.
The called victim begins to express wolf characteristics throughout the night, and as he sinks his teeth into bloody flesh, the curse perceptibly takes hold, and he transforms fully into canid form for the first time. There is a bone-chilling chorus of howls, and the First Hunt is complete. Later, the new lycanthrope usually staggers back into civilization, half-naked, barely recognizable through the blood and offal and wilderness debris, and nearly mad from fear and shameful memories. Thereafter, the werewolf must remain vigilant with prayer and caution, lest the wolf essence manifest again.

Detection
Werewolves in either form seem to be able to tell a human-form lycanthrope by smell. Indeed, humans who are mysteriously spared during werewolf rampages are often suspected of being werewolves themselves.

No Known Cure
No known remedy, blessing, or ritual has effectively purged the curse of lycanthropy. The closest anyone ever came was alchemist Theodora Glick, who was brought in to inspect Guthril, a werewolf captured by the local constabulary. Through a complex ceremony involving mystic circles inlaid with the wolfsbane plant, a blanket woven with blessed silver thread, and a lightning storm, Glick managed to force Guthril to revert to human form and stay that way through three lunar cycles. Unfortunately, the ritual was only temporary, and Guthril re-emerged stronger than ever. He utterly destroyed Glick's laboratory in Gavony and fled into the night.

Howlpacks
Werewolves are often lone hunters, stalking and killing humans as singular monsters in urban settings. But some werewolves form loose, evolving social groups out in the wild called howlpacks. The populations of howlpacks wax and wane like the moon, gaining and losing members as individual lycanthropes enter or leave their canid state. Some werewolves seem to be continually drawn back to their howlpack, returning to it time after time as soon as they drop their human guise and reenter the wild. Howlpacks can be tiny hunting parties of just a few werewolves, or can be massive hordes of over a hundred. A howlpack is often led by a single alpha (male or female) that dominates the pack. Alphas must often defend their power by defeating challengers in combat. Three of the larger, more stable howlpacks are the Krallenhorde, the Mondronen, and the Leeraug.

The Krallenhorde: Innistrad's Largest Howlpack
When an average Innistrad human thinks of a werewolf pack, he or she thinks of the Krallenhorde. The Krallenhorde has existed in some form for decades, composed of anywhere from fifty to over two hundred werewolves depending on the availability of prey and the phase of the moon. The most heterogeneous of howlpacks, Krallenhorde includes a mix of repentant and wanton werewolves, and has drawn members from all provinces of Innistrad. The alpha of Krallenhorde is currently the werewolf Ulrich, a cunning and perceptive wanton who remains in the wild and runs with the howlpack even when he reverts to human form.

Mondronen: Carnal Ritualists
The Mondronen howlpack is composed of around sixty werewolves who are said to control a dark, bloody magic of nature. Their alpha Tovolar is a mute, silver-furred werewolf who leads his pack on revels of carnage and howling songs, and who never seems to revert to human form. The Mondronen wolves historically stayed far from centers of civilization, only preying on farmlands, rural communities, and remote monasteries. But as Avacyn's protective wards have diminished in strength, it's said that the Mondronen territory has grown closer to cities, and that their dark magics may soon spill over into genteel life.

Leeraug: Killers of the Absent Moon
Few know of the Leeraug, a relatively small and tight-knit pack of Innistrad's most vicious werewolf predators, but almost all have heard tales of their destruction. The Leeraug are unique in that they hunt under the black night of the new moon, rather than transforming when the moon is full. They favor the flesh and entrails of children, and often steal into homes and orphanages through chimneys or windows left ajar. The Leeraug alpha is Skaharra, a black-furred she-wolf noted for her tendency to kill along bloodlines, murdering entire families in a single night while sparing unrelated farmhands and servants.

[Cilvyn]

Innistrad's Four Provinces

The known landmass of Innistrad is divided into four regions called provinces.

Gavony
The province of Gavony is where humanity remains safest and strongest. It is home to Thraben, largest city in the known world, which houses the mighty Cathedral of Avacyn, seat of religion in the world and the place where a great archangel once presided. Smaller towns radiate outward from Thraben across Gavony's rocky moors. Small copses of trees dot the landscape of rolling hills and heaths. Because more human dead are buried here than anywhere else, Gavony is more plagued by the undead than other provinces, and geists are more common as well.

Kessig
Innistrad's vast, wooded hinterland is called Kessig, a province in a state of perpetual autumn. The deep woods are king here, although small human communities have carved out farming villages, and groups of hunters and trappers venture into the forest to make a living. Even new arrivals to Kessig know not to venture out at night. Even if the wilderness weren't haunted, it wouldn't be safe—werewolves prowl the province, sometimes alone and sometimes in packs.

Stensia
Vampires control the province of Stensia, which covers the darkest and most mountainous parts of the plane. The evergreen forests here seem to always be half-dead and the roads always misty and deserted. Jagged hills hide isolated, wary human villages and vampire manors from each other. At the province's edges, the forlorn pines give way to high cliffs above which no human dares venture. In Stensia, the sun seems never to break through the strangely colored clouds.

Nephalia
This coastal province is home to a number of small-to-medium port towns, most situated at the mouth of a river that leads further inland. Nephalia's sloughs, sea mists, and mysteries cloak its commerce and crimes; it is populated mainly by humans, geists, and vampires, all of whom seek business, secrets, or solitude. The province's silver sand beaches, punctuated with rocky promontories and sea caves, afford easiest access to its fog-shrouded ocean.




Overview
The province of Stensia is the darkest both literally and figuratively on Innistrad, but also the most dramatic, the most storied, and the most unexplored. Its valleys range from pastoral (albeit dusky) range-lands to black bogs into which dead conifers slowly sink. Its black-pine-forested midlands, riddled with wisps of thick fog, show colors from deep green to purple to orange-grey. Its far-flung indigo and black mountains disappear into the clouds, and humans can only imagine what dwells among the shrouded peaks.
The mountain range that dominates Stensia, the Geier Reach, defines it utterly. This chain grows steadily higher in elevation as it moves from the borders with Gavony and Kessig toward the province's outer edge. Inland, the mountain peaks are forested, whereas in the chain's middle the tree line gives way to bare rock, and at its verge, the peaks disappear into the clouds. The highlands are dotted with caves and crevasses where vultures, bats, and other, larger creatures reign.The sun never quite seems to break through the oddly colored clouds in Stensia. The ruling power of Stensia, the vampire bloodlines, prefer it that way. Innistrad's moon is more seldom fully seen here, and the Z-shaped mountain range that dominates the province, the Geier Reach, separates the valleys from each other, making them easier to monitor and control. The long-suffering humans of Stensia, for their part, hold an illogical loyalty to their homeland. Truth be told, most have little choice; they are trapped between the province's narrow mountain passes and bound to their time-honored lives of herding and gathering.

Human Life and Culture
Sheep and shepherding
Because not many crops will grow in Stensia's rocky soul and dim light, humans are reliant on sheep for wool, leather, milk, and meat. Shepherding traditions are ancient here, and Stensian wool is considered the finest in the world. Vampire dominance has prevented werewolves from gaining a foothold in the province, so the flocks are safer from predators than they would be elsewhere. In Stensia, humans depend on sheep and vampires depend on humans—an irony not lost on the vampires.

Stoicism
Stensia's humans are not an expressive or demonstrative bunch. Countless generations of hardship and proximity to the vampire strongholds—lost children, lost neighbors—have taught Stensians to guard their hearts. They are proud and fervent in their beliefs but seem brusque or even cold to humans from other provinces.

Village moats, cottage trees, and welcome mirrors
Humans have adapted as best they can to life surrounded by vampires. Almost every Stensian village is surrounded by a shallow moat from which the sheep drink, because although clouds often obscure the moon here, while the moon is out, the moat will keep vampires from trespassing. In small villages, the cottages are usually arranged around a small grove of hawthorn trees for centralized access to living wood. In larger villages, the cottages themselves are often built around a hawthorn, with the tree's trunk in the center of the common room and its leaves above the roof. Caring for the cottage tree is the oldest child's responsibility. Lastly, almost every Stensian cottage features a mirror on the outside of the front door to dissuade vampires from approaching.

Faith in Stensia
In Stensia, the vampire families are experiencing a dark renaissance, a show of power similar to the earliest era of their existence on Innistrad. Vampires have always enjoyed a kind of macabre celebrity status on this plane; when a curtained, well-appointed carriage snaked its way down from the bat-plagued mountain ranges of Stensia and past a human village, it left in its wake the ghoulish fascination and excited whispers of the human villagers. But now, more and more, the major vampire families have taken up residence right among the humans, carousing, hunting, and holding week-long revelries where the glasses of blood never go dry. Vampires make examples of the cathars who stalk them: the blood nobles impale the humans with their own living-wood weapons and toss their drained bodies into the streets. Although messages of hope and reassurance do reach the parish priests of Stensia, the authority of the Avacynian Church is failing here, and fast. The population ratio in Stensia has already shifted radically, tipping in favor of vampires, and Sorin's fear of a world absent of humans looks ever more possible.

Vampire Life and Culture
Innistrad's vampires comprise its only nonhuman civilization and the biggest threat to humans on the plane. Their existence represents a sort of externalization of self-indulgent desire; if werewolves are a symbol of repressed rage, vampires are a symbol of repressed desire. On Innistrad, vampire manor houses, courts, and even the occasional castle exist across the plane, and vampires themselves vary considerably in aggressiveness toward their human prey.

Noble benefactors
Vampires' attitude toward their own role and the role of humans is predictably self-centered and skewed. Vampires believe themselves to be the saviors and keepers of humanity. The "sacrifices" they made—surrendering their mortality and their relationships with human kin—are to them proof of their beneficence, and their demeanor toward humans is similar to that of a rich philanthropist toward a pauper (except they occasionally drain the pauper of blood).
The social lives of vampires are every bit as treacherous and debauched as those of royal courts. Vampires visit each other to conduct parties, feasts, romances, entertainments, and so on. Grudges and betrayals are as much a source of amusement to them as they are a serious matter, and keeping track of vampiric trysts and enmities would be a full-time job.

Demand for finery
Vampires want only the finest clothing, the finest weapons and armor, the finest furnishings and transport. Sometimes these desires can be met by a vampire artisan, but once in a while a human achieves a level of artistry that surpasses anything among vampires. In these cases, the vampire finds a way to acquire the thing in question, whether by arranging a deal through intermediaries or paying a visit to artisan(s) directly. Usually the humans in question can tell easily enough that their clients are vampires, because vampiric tastes differ so sharply from humans'. But whether because of profit, blackmail, or simply fear for their lives, most artisans comply.

Mountain passes
The passes through Geier Reach are few and precious; all travel into or out of the province must use them.
Ziel Pass
Only one pass crosses the final zig-zag of the Geier. Ziel Pass is the only way to reach the sea from Stensia's inland valleys. The cliffs at the end of Ziel Pass descend for 1,600 feet, and the only way to get to the churning waters is to jump... or to trek by foot or mule down a treacherous path of endless switchbacks plagued by the geists of those who have died trying to do the same.
Hofsaddel and Needle's Eye
These two passes connect the inland valleys to the outland ones. Hofsaddel is a wide and well-trodden pass, and one that the vampires leave alone. The reason: human interaction is good for the long term, as long as it's among Stensians. Needle's Eye, however, is a narrow, treacherous, and deadly path because of the presence of vengeful geists on the route as well as its proximity to Ashmouth and its devils. Humans will take the Needle's Eye path only in the event of emergencies in the neighboring valleys.
Getander Pass and Kruin Pass
Two passes lead from the adjacent provinces into Stensia. The pass from Kessig is Getander, a long, zig-zagging route watched by the rapacious Falkenrath vampires. Gavony must use the Kruin Pass, which is just as long, but in vertical elevation rather than horizontal turns, and is lackadaisically watched by the well-fed Markov vampires.


Stensia's valleys
The shape of the Geier Reach creates two long valleys in the provinces, and foothills separate those valleys into numerous, isolated segments.
The outer valley is divided into eight pieces by terrain, three of which are noteworthy: the human village of Shadowgrange, the abandoned Maurer Estate, and the human rancher community of Lammas. Shadowgrange and Lammas are strange places populated by humans that are fiercely passionate about their lifestyles but also paranoid and fearful. Few other humans of Innistrad ever see these distant places.
The inland stretch houses two significant human communities with a prominent vampire holding: Silbern, a tiny stone watchtower manned by fatalistic cathars and surrounded by several family farms, Wollebank, a large village of shepherds and their families, and Markov Manor, a hilltop estate that towers over both. Markov Manor is the home of Edgar Markov, grandfather of Sorin Markov.

The Farbogs
Twin bogs, one in the inland valley and one in the outland, blanket the center of Stensia like two puddles of ink. Both were once groves of pines, but those trees now sink into the peat muck at odd angles, creating a tangle of dead trunks. The peripheries of both bogs are home to ancient grafs, and as the graves dissolve into the slime, geists proliferate. A few ghouls wander here as well, most of them products of the young, self-taught ghoulcaller Rinelda Smit, an irresponsible teenager trying to make her mark on Stensia by creating her own force of beings to defend against vampire attacks.

Ashmouth
In the middle of the Geier, in between the Hofsaddel and Needle's Eye passes and cloaked by forest, lies Ashmouth, a huge chasm deep enough to glow with magma from below. Ash-ridden smog rises from it, mixing with the dark clouds above. Ashmouth is an infernal gateway, and perhaps the most important one. The demon Shilgengar emerged from this pit, which also spews out bands of devils according to some eldritch pattern only the demons understand.
Somberwald
Despite its darkness, Stensia still holds places of beauty. Between its contested valleys and savage peaks, the Geier is forested with a winding, melancholy, drooping pine wilderness. These woods are home to some of Innistrad's most noble and pristine creatures: bears, stags, and other things that have fled here over the centuries for safety and seclusion. Many of these creatures were once found in Kessig, but the spread of hunters, trappers, and werewolves there have driven them here, where they're safe in the shadow of the vampires.

Vampire Locations and Manors
Some of the major vampire bloodlines have their most important strongholds in Stensia. All are on high ground, away from the prying eyes of the humans below.

Castle Falkenrath
In the middle strip of the Geier Reach, between the Hofsaddel and Getander Passes, lies Castle Falkenrath, a towering, menacing Gothic masterpiece that houses scores of vampires of the Falkenrath line. Although the bloodline's progenitor is long dead, the castle is meticulously maintained. Smaller manor homes exist around the castle and along the border with Kessig, but Castle Falkenrath is the home base from which Stensia's most dominant vampires conduct their ambitious predations.

The Voldaren Estate
Four miles from the end of Ziel Pass, cloaked in mist and surrounded by jagged peaks, is the huge estate of Olivia Voldaren, famous eccentric, bon vivant, and progenitor of the Voldaren bloodline. Olivia travels often, visiting the far-flung Voldaren manors and fortresses that are scattered across the four provinces of Innistrad. The elite among vampires know that Olivia throws the best parties, and the nobility will happily make the trek out to the estate for her seasonal ball.

Markov Manor
In the corner of Stensia closest to Gavony, Edgar Markov's manor home overlooks Kruin Pass, and the High City of Thraben is visible in the far distance from its balconies. Although the Markov bloodline is the most prestigious and perhaps the most widespread, Edgar lives in comparative simplicity relative to the other vampire elders.
 


Overview
Innistrad denizens interested in commerce are attracted to Nephalia, which makes for an interesting mix of occupations and races in the province. Nephalia has numerous towns in which order is maintained by Avacynian clergy and their representatives. It has a "stock" of humans to be fed upon, thus the Stromkirk line is well represented here. It has busy trade routes with caravans of merchants and townsfolk milling between the cities for the Krallenhorde to prey on. And it has the ever-present Nebelgast, the so-called "Breath of the Sleepless," that rolls in and out with the tide, bringing with it a host of geists.
In Nephalia, skaberen (creators of skaabs, the alchemically vivified constructions of flesh) and ghoulcallers (practitioners of necromancy) alike can find out-of-the-way places in which to practice and further their art with little or no interference from suspicious townsfolk or Avacynian authority. Both must remain highly secretive, as their trade is still feared within the general human populace, but the Stromkirk vampires and Nephalia's merchants see money to be made, so their arcane trinkets and dark services are tolerated as long as they remain only rumors at the local taverns.
The merchants, known as the metzalar, are the glue that binds Nephalia together. They keep every separate party joined together by the exchange of goods and services and, of course, coin.


Nearly Treeless
Nephalia has always been lightly forested, but in the last century its few trees have been cut down or destroyed due to the vampires' fear of them being turned on them as stakes and other weapons.
Runo, progenitor of the Stromkirk line, was crafty in his removal of the woodlands. Early on, using his glamers and sizeable fortune, he turned the human populace into artisans, supporting their efforts in building fine cities, proud ships, and a vigorous, provincial commerce—all based around wood.
Prosperous and plentiful humans are good business for the Stromkirk, so Runo became a kind of secret Nephalian patron, supporting master craftsmen and commissioning buildings, towers, and ships, while funding any vampire-friendly efforts by alchemists and magisters. Out of this, Nephalia has become widely known for its masterful crafting and artistry with wood. Nephalian buildings, ships, chapels, and houses all bear a distinct and inspired art that sets it apart from the other provinces.

Faith in Nephalia
In Nephalia, the Church's role has been to keep humans safe from the actions of necromantic ghoulcallers and corpse-stitching skaberen. Now that holy magic is losing its strength, undead attacks on already-terrorized merchant outposts and port towns have gotten even worse. The underground corpse trade is in full swing, delivering precious bodies to those who wish to harvest them for their dark magics. Geists blow in with the sea's mist, restless spirits fresh from shipwrecks or roused from the Blessed Sleep as the Avacynian blessings over cemeteries fail. Nephalians regularly see the faces—or other body parts—of their loved ones at the ends of their silver weapons. Sometimes those faces are mercifully decomposed and unrecognizable, but it's not uncommon for them to be attacked by deathless versions of the same beloved priests who were supposed to be guarding the town gates.

Port Towns of Nephalia
This province is defined by water—by its access to the ocean (the easiest of any province), by its many rivers that lead deep inland, and by its deltas, marshes, and lakes. Water enables commerce here but also gives Nephalia a silvery, mystical character; the clouds and the moon seem to be both above and below in most places.
Silver Beach
Nephalia's coastline consists of the Silver Beach, which stretches countless miles, interrupted by rocks, sea caves, and occasional large promontories. The sands of the beach are rich in granular silver, giving them an unearthly shimmer that dazzles visitors from other provinces. This is no vacation spot, however. Threats are far too numerous, and the ocean too dangerous, to invite beachcombers. Only experienced Nephalian sailors know the spells and the land well enough to venture out into the sea and return with fish, trade goods, or treasure.
Nephalia has three main port towns along the coast: Havengul, Drunau, and Selhoff.

Havengul
The largest of the three cities, Havengul, stands at the mouth of the Silburlind River. The population consists of human craftworkers, shipbuilders, smiths, and traders. The Avacynian church has a strong presence here to take part in the burgeoning trade and marketplace, but many Nephalians are wary of the priesthood and watch them like hawks. As long as the church brings trade to and from Thraben, they are given a pass from the key players in Nephalia.

Elgaud Grounds
A contingent of the Avacyn Church long ago established a small fort here known as the Elgaud Grounds where new cathars are trained to spread the word of Avacyn and protect the people. Once trained, these graduates are sent out in small groups (of two or three) to neighboring towns to establish an outpost. These are known as Arms of Avacyn, and they attempt to strengthen trust in the Church under the offer of protection and security. Many townsfolk are wary or outright untrusting of these "Arms" and would rather protect themselves with their own blood, sweat, traditional folklore, and superstitions.

Corpse Trade
Even with the presence of the Cathars, there is money to be made in corpses. Havengul, having the largest human population, is rife with bodysnatchers who disinter corpses and then shuttle them off using the network of underground passageways, known as the Erdwal, for high-paying ghoulcallers or skaberen.
The most influential of Nephalia's merchants is Ludevic of Ulm, a wheezing and reclusive alchemist. Some say that Ludevic's consumption of potions and inhalation of toxic vapors has left him no choice but to abandon his experiments, leaving him to devote his sizeable intellect to the problem of making himself and his partners filthy rich. Others gossip that Ludevic still dabbles in the alchemical arts.

Drunau
Drunau is where the Stromkirk vampires under their progenitor, Runo, have established their ancestral manor and their center of commerce outside of Stensia. If it is blood you want, Drunau is the place to get it. Humans who possess especially delicious blood are treated like the most precious livestock, knowing a life of pampered bondage but being protected from all the other dangers of Innistrad. All this takes place within the elegant ballrooms and mahogany studies of Stromkirk manors.
In Nephalia, when vampires must walk among humans, they use glamers to disguise themselves so as not to drive away their human neighbors. Occasionally, a newly sired vampire leaves the family fold of civilized decorum and goes on a blood-soaked frenzy of feeding. Often the Stromkirk deal with this as swiftly and as quietly as possible, especially if the vampire is a rogue from outside of the bloodline.

The Fauchard
These warriors are not cathars, but are a distinct order of human vampire hunters. Some have come to Drunau especially to destroy the undead and possibly Runo himself. They are a secretive group that recognizes one another through an elaborate, symbolic code, either worn, written, or gestured. Runo knows of them and tolerates them to some degree, as the Fauchard destroy the vampires whom the Stromkirk consider to be most crass and distasteful. That said, the Stromkirk vampires will relentlessly pursue and destroy any Fauchard who becomes known to them. The metzalar here deal in the usual fare of ships, handcrafted goods, wares from other provinces (such as holy items from Thraben), and weapons.

Selhoff
The foggy, quiet port of Selhoff is where the Nebelgast, the spirit-mist, is most active. The mist almost perpetually covers the town and the nearby Morkrut Swamp. Because of the spirit activity here, it has repelled some humans, but it has attracted others—namely the skaberen and alchemists who experiment with geist energy. The elite of Selhoff dwell within towers and spires that set this town apart from others of Nephalia, which is why the phrase "the spires of Selhoff" is often used when Nephalians talk of their southernmost town.

The Tide and the Nebelgast
Here in Selhoff and all along the Nephalian coastline, spirits come and go with the tide, but that isn't to say that when the tide is out, spirits are absent—there are just far fewer. Because the tide is connected to the moon, the pull of the moon brings the spirits into the world of the living to haunt. The Nebelgast consists mainly of the marei (drowned sailors and shipwreck victims) and the niblis (frost phantoms), but there are a host of other ghosts and spirits that are pulled by the moon.
The River Ospid and the Morkrut. Selhoff lies on a small river delta where the river Ospid empties out into the Bay of Vustrow. This creates a sizeable marsh known as the Morkrut. Few set foot within the Morkrut other than ghoulcallers, and even they can become lost in its mists. The Morkrut has been a dumping place for murder victims and unclaimed bodies for which no one will pay for proper burial. Because of this, the Morkrut is filled with banshees and other malevolent geists.

The Erdwal
Colloquially known as "The Ditch," the network of underground passageways and crevasses called the Erdwal originated as trenches created by Nephalians in each of the major cities of Havengul, Drunau, and Selhoff for resisting zombie and werewolf attacks. Over the years, the trenches between the three cities were connected into a network of defensible walkways for transporting goods and continuing trade even while wandering zombie hordes, demonic fiends, hungry geists, or the Krallenhorde wander about looking for victims. Major merchants of Nephalia have paid special attention to the uses of the Erdwal and have put serious resources into making it a legitimate artery of trade, thus it has developed a bustling underground economy of its own dealing in all manner of grey- and black-market goods: human blood, assassinations, counterfeit silver, necromancy, curses, and bloodsport.

Near the larger towns, the Erdwal becomes a trench marketplace of colorful rogues, seedy merchants, filthy sailors and gaunt strangers, all doing business in dark alleyways and roughly hewn tunnels branching off the main trench. Along the clandestine nooks, the skaberen and ghoulcallers ply their trade and human blood is bought and sold by the flagon. Flesh golems are created and experiments in transmuting base metals into pure silver are carried out. Skaberen stitch together hideous monstrosities, some of which get loose and cause havoc throughout the Ditch. As long as these dark dealings do not make it above ground level, the Church of Avacyn and its cathars do not intervene. Nephalia is a province of "understandings," and this is one of those uneasy truces that, if maintained, benefits all parties concerned.

Jenrik's Tower
Along a particularly bare stretch of the Silver Beach looms a tall tower. The mortar has been mixed with sand from the Silver Beach, making it glitter in the moonlight. Within the tower, Jenrik, the astronomer, mysteriously conducts his work studying the stars, eschewing all contact with the outside world. He is making observations of the moon, charting its path across the heavens with excruciating detail. Wards keep away werewolves, and the Stromkirk actually fear his knowledge, for anyone with such a vast understanding of the moon is holding great power indeed. Some say he is predicting the future of Innistrad, or that he is a spirit trying to get home. Others say he is an angel attempting to restore Avacyn, or that he is a demon plotting to destroy the world.
 


Overview
The province of Gavony is where humanity remains safest and strongest. It is home to Thraben, the plane's largest city. Thraben houses the Cathedral of Avacyn, where the archangel herself resided before vanishing. Smaller towns radiate outward from Thraben across Gavony's rocky moors. Small copses of trees dot the landscape of rolling hills and heaths. Because more human dead are buried here than anywhere else, Gavony is more plagued by the undead than other provinces, and geists are more common as well.

Human life and Culture
The sense of community is very strong among humans in Gavony and in other provinces as well. Little altars and crossway chapels aren't as common in Gavony as in the other provinces because of the strength of the parish churches. The parish church is the focal point of any community in Gavony. Most people worship several times a week, and many pass by the church on a daily basis for a blessing of safety.

The roads in Gavony are best in the four northern parishes, although there are adequate roads in the Moorlands as well. It is easy to hire a soldier to guide you along the roads between Thraben and the Nearheath, and if you can make your trip during the daytime, such guides are usually not needed.
Chapel: An enclosed space of varying size devoted to worship. There are many chapels built along the crossways of Innistrad. Most have resident clergy who attend them. These sometimes serve has hostels for travelers.

Parish: The equivalent of a county. Each parish has its own chapel.
Crossway: The name for roads in Innistrad. Most are just dirt tracks for horses and carts.
Crossway Altar: An open-air altar along a crossway somewhere in the wilds.
The everyday life of a human varies dramatically according to one's class. The wealthy families and clergy live in comfort and safety. Thraben clergy, in particular, have every need met by the church. The middle classes—artisans and merchants—are also quite comfortable. But the working class and farmers have a much shorter lifespan; they are more at risk from the dark things of the world, and they suffer from more sickness and famine as well. A farmer lives an average of forty years, while a bishop lives closer to seventy

Safety is the main commodity in Innistrad. The wealthier you are, the safer you can make yourself. The high walls of Thraben protect the well-to-do who live inside. Titled families in Gavony have fortified manor houses, while the farmers must make do with the wooden walls of their farmhouses.
Because of the lack of physical safety, the poor spend a larger portion of their income of enchantments and non-physical means of protection. Tithing is required for everyone, and the church charges a small fee for every blessing and spell. Even at unstaffed little altars, payment is expected, and many of the faithful diligently pay even when there is no one to enforce it. Not unexpectedly, there is resentment among some for the amount of money required of the poor to uphold their faith. This resentment increases dramatically as the effectiveness of the Avacynian blessings diminish.

Martial prowess is highly valued among humans. Cathars, particularly inquisitors, are highly revered. Poorer families have a harder time getting their children accepted to train at the Elgaud Grounds. When children show aptitude for spellcasting, however, they are accepted at the Fal Seminary no matter what their parents' status.



Faith in Gavony
The province of Gavony, home of Thraben and site of the Helvault, might be where the strangest changes have arisen. Faith was so central to so many lives in Gavony that the loss of Avacyn has rocked this land most of all. Since so many humans are buried here, the undead—both corporeal and incorporeal—have always been a problem in Gavony, but many incidents went overlooked. Now, with the sense of safety drained, each rising of hungry ghouls or midnight haunting by child-voiced geists grips whole villages with terror. Small churches go abandoned even during holy days. Communities founded around the cherished traditions of Avacyn are splintering. Perhaps most disturbing, the ranks of the demon-worshipping Skirsdag Cult have been growing in these dark times. Bishop Volpaig, a crude-minded minor bishop of the Church, has secretly been working for the Skirsdag and has overheard that his master Griselbrand has fallen into the Helvault.

Volpaig has been more open with his involvement with the Skirsdag of late, and his pro-demon message is gathering listeners as the citizens of Gavony long for any institution they can count on. Some humans have actually stepped forward to voluntarily sacrifice themselves at the hands of the Skirsdag, just to feel that they were making a difference, just to feel that they could affect the surge of darkness that threatens to envelop Innistrad.

Thraben
The city of Thraben sits on a massive mesa in the middle of the Lake of Herons, a long body of water that flows around the rock and over an enormous waterfall. The eastern tip of the rock juts out over the waterfall itself, and it is on this dramatic pinnacle that the Cathedral of Avacyn stands.

Thraben is the largest city in the known lands of Innistrad. It's the seat of the Avacynian Church, built as a city of walls and various bulwarks designed to keep supernatural threats at bay. While smaller settlements are constantly under siege by monsters, the inner parts of Thraben and the Cathedral are the safest areas in Innistrad, which sometimes gives the bishops of the church a skewed perspective on how dangerous the world outside really is.
The Walls of Thraben are a complex system of bulwarks and defense lines. There are remnants of older walls, which have crumbled and lost their effectiveness. But even the old walls demarcate the ity into sections, some which have a penal or ceremonial function.

Outer Wall. The main defense of Thraben. A thick, high wall that rings the perimeter of the city. The church has approved the expansion of the wall several times to keep the city from getting too crowded.
Merchant's Wall. A complex of fellowship halls that forms a substantial market square. This is the center of commerce in Thraben.
Child's Wall. The inner wall that surrounds the grounds of the Old Cathedral. Nearly as strong and tall as the outer wall, the Child's Wall has not been altered in ages. It is inscribed with the names of every child born in Innistrad. Many parents make a pilgrimage to the wall in the year after their child's birth, believing that having their child's name written on the wall will add protection to its life.
Fang Wall. When werewolves are caught, they are executed in front of this wall. Then their fangs are removed and shoved between the crevices of the stones.
Bloodless Wall. When vampires are caught, they are chained to this wall and left to starve to death.

Cathedral of Avacyn
A massive cathedral with three wings and a network of cloisters, courtyards, outlying schools, and forges. There are well-kept gardens and substantial training grounds for cathars (holy warriors). Outside of Thraben, churches are quite rustic, constructed from rough planks and often containing only a single room. The Cathedral is opulent by comparison.
The grounds between the wings form a triangular courtyard that is locked from public view by high walls. Most people don't know the courtyard exists. Only the most powerful bishops are permitted to set foot in it. The Cathedral's structure symbolically divides the wealthy and poor of the world. Each class has its own designated place to worship

Common Cloisters
The covered corridors along the edges Midvast Hall where commoners stand during worship. There are only certain holy days when the commoners are permitted to enter the Old Cathedral. At first glance, the courtyard resembles an ornate garden with stands of fruit trees and gold-and-white flowers that are cultivated with painstaking care. At the heart of the garden, the trees fall away, leaving a view of a curious object: the Helvault.
The Helvault
The Helvault is the huge silver mass that stands at the precipice inside the courtyard of the Cathedral of Avacyn. Its surface is rough and unrefined, and thin veins of dark mortar branch across its surface.
Blessed Grafs
Thraben has city blocks devoted to burial sites known as Blessed Grafs. These are a grid of tombs and mausoleums under heavy guard from Elgaud soldiers and tended by horticulturists to keep trees and flowers blooming around the tombs. In Thraben, these are the equivalent of parks, and people visit them recreationally. It is considered relaxing to spend time in a place where kin are enjoying their Blessed Sleep.

Gavony's Geography
Thraben lies in on the northern edge of the province of Gavony. It's the largest walled city in Innistrad, although parts of Nephalia's seaports are more densely populated. Thraben's population is mainly clergy, merchants, and artisans. With the church's influence, the city maintains a high standard of cleanliness and order. There is a standing militia and the church pays a host of workers to keep the streets swept, the public gardens and grafs tended, and the riff-raff off the street. Begging is strictly prohibited, and there is a street curfew enforced by the militia. Several alms houses exist just outside the main walls of Thraben, and the church regularly sponsors "caravans" to take the needy to the sea ports, where they will ostensibly be able to find employment or trade work more easily.

The River Kirch
This wide, fast-flowing river originates in the mountains of Stensia. It empties into the Lake of Herons, with murky water, high ridges bordering the bank, and depths of hundreds of feet. Great sea serpents and other creatures are said to hide in the depths of the Lake of Herons, which stretches almost 20 miles before flowing over the 2,000-foot waterfall known as Kirch Falls.
The mist from the waterfall is collected in long banners of heavy, white cloth. The water wrung out is considered holy, but once it is gone, the shrouds still have magical properties. Skaberen will kill for these shrouds, as they give extra stamina to their undead skaab creations.

The Voice of the Moon
On Innistrad, as elsewhere, the moon controls the tides (as well as the path of rivers and other bodies of water). The River Kirch flows into the Lake of Herons, over Kirch Falls, and into the sea. The continuous roar of the water over the falls has a different rhythm depending on the season and volume of water coming down from the high lands. The Cathedral grounds are lush and fertile from the continual spray of mist.
A sect of clergy sing prayers according to this changing rhythm, believing it puts them in better connection with the moon. Others in the church believe that you should commune with Avacyn herself, not the symbolic power of the moon.

Gavony Parishes
Parishes are an administrative designation used by the church. Gavony has five parishes, including Thraben. There are three in the area called Nearheath: Videns, Wittal, and Effalen. The region known as the Moorland is a single parish of the same name, although it is larger in size than the other four combined. Each parish may have multiple priests, chapels, and small altars.
Two of the main villages in the Nearheath are Estwald and Hanweir. Estwald is the center of woodworking in Gavony and part of the Wittal Parish. Hanweir is the agricultural jewel of Gavony. Hanweir is the site of the largest open-air market, the place where livestock are traded and trappers from Kessig bring their wares. Hanweir is in Videns Parish, and the River Kirch runs through the village, making it a bustling port where goods are brought in from the other provinces before being transported up to Thraben by horse and cart.
Nearheath
Within a few miles south of Thraben's walls, there are several medium-sized towns. This area is called the Nearheath and is inhabited mainly by artisans and farmers. Being so close to Thraben affords a good deal of protection to these towns. Most have fortifications or walls in case of a ghoul attack or some other threat, but there are many outlying farms as well. Nearheath is composed of several parishes:
Videns
The region of vineyards and rolling hills with small castles with walled estates. The River Kirch runs through this region.
Wittal
This is the most thickly forested area of Gavony. Although small in size, the forest is dense and dark, with ancient pines trees that dwarf the deciduous forests in the neighboring parishes. The forest has become particularly dangerous now that the infamous werewolf Skaharra and her Leeraug cohorts have moved to the area.
Effalen
This is the rockiest area of Gavony. A vicious coterie of vampires have taken to preying on the periphery of the parish for sport.
The Moorland
Beyond the Nearheath is the Moorland. This has always been a more desolate region, filled with stories of spectral wolves and wandering spirits. There are few trees in the Moorland and the ground is covered with coarse grass, bracken, and violet heather. There are boulders and standing rocks, and the countryside seems to be covered in perpetual mist. The area is rife with geists, many of them dangerous, and travelers are constantly at risk from them as well as other things that wander the countryside.
Trostad
This was formerly a village of trappers on the border with Kessig, which has been entirely overrun by undead creatures. Many cathars are sent to the place to save the remaining villagers. A constant battle rages in this area between hordes of zombies and the armies of the church.
 

[Cilvyn]

Overview
The province of Kessig consists of rolling farmlands surrounded by grasping fingers of dense, dark woods. The woods hide werewolves, ghosts, and other supernatural menaces, while the farmlands support a hardscrabble rural livelihood for Kessig's humans.

Ulvenwald, the Misty Wood
Howl-haunted woods of aspen, birch, and maple border the edges of Kessig province. The woods are almost supernaturally dense, filled with dark, sinuous trunks and a constant, hanging mist. The trees have broad leaves in muted reds, golds, and greens, and the forest floor is papered in damp leaves. The Ulvenwald tends to isolate Kessig from the other provinces, as travelers through the woods are subject to attacks by werewolves, hauntings by all manner of primordial spirits, and mysterious disappearances in the mist. At night, the autumnal colors of Ulvenwald turn stark and steely under the silver glow of the moon. The only spots of color that appear are the luminous eyes of animals and the geistfires of shimmering apparitions.

Human Life and Culture
Kessigers are hardheaded and unpretentious people, and the face-to-face realism of the Avacyn religion fits right into their worldview. Kessigers believe in "the worked earth below us, the hand-hewn stone walls around us, and the angel above us." However, they don't trust the shiny boots of big-city cathars, the pristine fingernails of Gavony ghost-hunters, or the out-of-touch decrees handed down from the aristocrats of the High City of Thraben.

For the Kessiger, life is work. Kessigers are farmers, millers, weavers, stonemasons: they are close to the land and must work hard for every meal. This makes them self-reliant, pragmatic, and plainspoken. A Kessiger doesn't purchase tools from the general store; he forges them himself. She doesn't learn arithmetic or memorize the names of royal families; she learns harvest dates and the shapes of edible weeds. He doesn't quote great works of literature; he calls it like he sees it, in his own simple words.

The Curfew of Silver
Ever since Avacyn went missing last year, the church at Thraben has kept the truth of her disappearance from Innistrad's denizens. Kessigers, for their part, know that Avacyn hasn't been making appearances as often these days, and there are doubters and gossips who believe something has happened to her. In the meantime, werewolf attacks have gotten worse and spirit hauntings more frequent. There is a rising sense of panic throughout the countryside.
Recently, a new decree came down through the local priests and cathars. As a measure meant to protect citizens against werewolves and other hunters of the night, the law states that commoners of Kessig out after dark must wear an amulet of blessed silver. The amulets were crafted and blessed in the High City of Thraben, and have a potent effect against lycanthropes. But they are in limited supply, and some priests have quietly begun giving them out preferentially, in exchange for favors or promises of protection. Since the Curfew of Silver, relations between Kessig and Gavony have worsened. Some Kessigers have begun to refuse shipments of goods from Gavony and deny service to travelers from that province.

Etiquette in a World of Supernaturals
Superstition and fear of supernatural creatures has woven its way into etiquette in Kessig. When you meet someone for the first time, it's polite to show that you are wearing an item made from silver (even though silver can easily be counterfeited, and only blessed silver has real protective power). Wreaths of living wood are commonly given as gifts, and are often placed on the door of a home where a child has just been born, a gesture meant to protect the child's life from vampires (even though the wood and its effectiveness die after a few days). It's customary to eat sour root soup before traveling, or to fast for up to a day before a long trip, habits that are thought to make one less appealing to werewolves and other hungry beasts.

The Sleep Revel
It's traditional in Kessig to celebrate a person's life on the anniversary of his or her death, a joyous ceremony called the Sleep Revel—as long as the deceased has successfully stayed in the ground that long (instead of reemerging as a ghoul, geist, or other supernatural fiend). The continued undisturbed sleep of one's ancestors is seen as almost a greater blessing than the continuing birthdays of one's living relatives.

Faith in Kessig
Kessig is a province where all the commoners' Avacyn-based rituals have come to an awkward end. All pretense at agriculture has been dropped: sheep herds and shepherds alike have been decimated by werewolves; geists emerge from the wilds to torment farmers carrying wagons full of crops along lonely country roads; fields lie fallow as old ghosts roam the rows. The folk songs and rustic sayings of field laborers, once imbued with notes of Avacynian power, are now just so much chilly breath. Kessigers already felt great mistrust toward the shiny-booted and curfew-imposing priests of the High City, but now the commoners of Kessig won't even open their doors to travelers in need.

Supernatural Creatures of Kessig
Werewolves in Kessig
Several howlpacks hunt in Kessig, as do many lone werewolves. The Mondronen howlpack is dominant here during most seasons, but during the New Moon season, the Leeraug howlpack terrorizes Kessiger villages. Smaller, nameless howlpacks also claim dominion of some fingers of the Ulvenwald, waning and waxing with the moon.
The elder of Gatstaf once famously declared, "In Kessig, the werewolves outnumber the priests." Many lone werewolves live in secret among the Kessigers, too afraid of retribution to reveal themselves but too attached to their families and Kessig roots to leave. Suspicion and speculation run rampant among Kessig's commoners, fueled by frightened exaggeration and misremembered anecdotes. Kessigers hold conflicting views about how to detect, hunt, or cure werewolves, how many exist, what keeps them at bay, and what it all means for humanity.

Geists in Kessig
Ghostly apparitions are second only to werewolves in terms of danger to the Kessigers, and geists may cause even greater psychological damage. The geists in Kessig are wild spirits of nature, prone to taunt or terrorize civilized life. They can be cold-burning geistflames made of surreal fire, mischievous poltergeists that shove at the physical world through the power of their outrage, or blood mists that envelop and devour the living. They can be beautiful nature spirits tressed in vine and thorn, beast-possessing geists that shimmer through the mouths and eyes of feral animals, or vindictive crop-spoilers that vex farmers and druids alike.

Other Supernaturals in Kessig
Kessig is so ravaged by werewolves that many other supernaturals have been squeezed out, although rare individuals occasionally appear. Kessig has experienced few devils or demons, but a smoking fissure called Devils' Breach lies in the tall stone hills at the edge of the province, and threatens to boil over with demonic activity soon. Alchemically created zombies (skaabs) have become a kind of symbol of the evils of the big city; Kessigers often equate necromantic alchemy with black market trade, prostitution, religious heresy, and murderous conspiracy.
The average Kessiger has a double-edged opinion of vampires. In public the vampire families are spoken of as the height of urbane evil, but in private, Kessigers' salacious whispers betray fascination with vampires' refinement and celebrity. Few actual encounters with vampires have occurred in Kessig to date, so word spreads quickly whenever someone comes along the Hairpin Road in an elegant, shaded coach.

Locations in Kessig
The Breakneck Ride
There are a few main paths that lead into Kessig from the other provinces. Each crossway is fraught with peril, leading travelers through the Ulvenwald and over treacherous slopes, so those who make the journey do so at as brisk a pace as possible. Kessigers sometimes collectively refer to these paths as the "Breakneck Ride."

Lambholt, the Threatened Pasture
Lambholt is a farming village at the center of miles of sheep, goat, and cattle pasture. The pastures near the town were once mingled with woods—dense arms of forest that once joined the Ulvenwald—but the Kessigers here chopped down all but a few trees to clear room for their farms. It's thought that wild essences resent the destruction of their forests, for werewolves continually terrorize the livestock and humans of Lambholt.
The villagers of Lambholt celebrate a harvest festival at the rise of the red moon, working late into the night by the light of bonfires, and cooking great feasts of fresh meat and vegetables. Lately, as the power of Lambholt's protective shrines has waned and werewolf attacks have become more frequent, the tenor of the harvest festival has changed. Now the highlight of the festival is a great hunter's contest, in which warriors and priestly champions go on hunts through the surrounding Ulvenwald, trying to slay the most powerful supernatural creature. Many never return.

Hollowhenge, the Lost Capital
A ruin of wood and brick now stands where Kessig's county seat stood. Only a year ago it was a thriving small town of manor houses called Avabruck, and you can still find wooden signs among the splintered wood and broken gates that say "Avabruck" in cheery paint. But a new name has caught on—a vulgar name, a commoners' name: Hollowhenge. One year ago, after the protective power of Avacynian magic began to wane, the wards around Avabruck's central cathedral, the Temple of Saint Raban, failed. It took only two nights for the werewolves to discover this breach in protection. The howlpack known as Mondronen ripped through the town, slaughtering any in their path, charging straight for the Temple. There they took up siege, tearing down the cathedral and feasting on those who attempted to attack them. City magistrates gave the order to evacuate, but communications became chaotic, and many residents opted to ensconce themselves in their homes.
Seven days into the Mondronen occupation, the werewolf savages enacted some unknown type of blood ritual. A mystical, concussive force leveled the city from the center out, flattening most of the structures in town and killing hundreds. Only the outermost ring of Avabruck's buildings remained, forming a circular "henge" around the devastation within. Rescue attempts met with further werewolf attacks.
As time went on, the city was abandoned, even by the howlpack. Now only wild, terrified ghosts and the occasional werewolf scavenger scuffle among the ruins. It's said that all who were killed in the cathedral-shattering blast still linger inside the walls of Hollowhenge, trying in vain to reconstruct their homes or recover their lost loved ones. Some spirits are deeply angry and ferocious wights, dangerous to all who seek within. Despite the danger, travelers often pass near to Hollowhenge, as the former county seat lies at the crossroads of two major Kessig thoroughfares.
Devils' Breach
Far from the towns, off the wagon-beaten paths, through vaults of primeval forest, a fissure known as Devils' Breach has opened in the earth. Smoke and heat waft from the chasm, obscuring its depths, and eerie voices mutter and cackle. Trappers claim to have seen literal devils near there, but so far, the influence of demonic forces has not been strongly felt in Kessig.

[Belac93]

I like this idea, I enjoy doing D&D in mtg worlds.
I point you to this excellent adventure: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1pdYIcfHauwLXoyMjhjSTJvWlE/edit?pli=1