The Unholy Work

Campaign Background

Nekrutan, progenitor god of the Devnar, has been around since the beginning of Chenravo’s history, and his church for nearly as long. In the thousands of years since, it has grown, changed, and splintered. It has schemed, connived, killed. Begged, borrowed, and stolen. They have been agents of death and undeath. By design and sometimes necessity, their churches function in the shadows, where only the truly devout or the truly desperate might find them.
There are many sects and churches, or Ecclesia, within the umbrella of Templum Nekrutan. Though they vie for power and recognition, they do all work together to further the goals of the god of death & undeath. This unity is preserved through the leadership of the Custos Mortuorum. The present Custos Mortuorum is Bartir of the Wasting Flesh, a Devnar. Bartir is advised by the Profanum Concilium, which is made up of the Duxes of the church. Each Dux is the head of a separate major Ecclesia. Presently there are six: Ecclesia Inanimatus, Ecclesia Strages, Ecclesia Pravus, Ecclesia Innominatam, Ecclesia Exsequiis, and Ecclesia Mors.
The Duxes may name, at their discretion, Caromonks. No Dux has ever had more than five at any one time, and that was considered excessive. They serve as advisors and leaders within the Ecclesia, and may be given additional duties and responsibilities by the Dux. They are often sourced from within their own ranks or from monasteries dedicated to the God of the Dead. Should anything happen to the Dux (which has happened few times in the history of the Templum) Caromonks are often heavily favored to become the next.
Each Dux is also served by the Episcopi, look after different regions of Chenravo for their church. The Episcopi also report to a Primatus Episcopus, who are responsible for all Episcopi in a given region. The Primatus Episcopi report to both the Custos Mortuorum and the Arca Mysterium.
The Arca Mysterium is a group of individuals within the church that operate outside of the chain of command. They are the keepers of secrets, who hold dangerous knowledge of the past, present, and future. Their commands can only be countermanded by the Custos Mortuorum themselves, who is loathe to displease the source of deep knowledge. The Arca Mysterium holds its own staff, though nothing as regimented and ordered as the Templum Nekrutan as a whole.
The Episcopi are in command of Prelates, Legates, and Sacerdos/Sacerdotis in a particular area. Prelates are preachers who travel to different churches to work with the Sacerdos who tend to specific parishes. Legates are envoys who are invested with the full power of the Custos Mortuorum to negotiate and work with nations on the church’s behalf. A Sacerdos is a priest of an Ecclesia, and a Sacerdotis a priestess. They tend to specific churches, and those who worship there.
Below the Sacerdotes and Sacerdotises are whatever staff they require for their churches to function. Some Churches may be small, and require only the preacher, while cathedrals may require a full staff of cleaners, cooks, attendants, administrators, and more.
Theirs is a church dedicated to giving the living to death, bringing life back to the dead, and inducing a state between the two. They run services for assassinations, resurrections, and for the exceptionally devout they offer rituals to turn them to undeath.
The Ecclesia Inanimatus is perhaps the Ecclesia the layperson is most afraid of, though they may not have the insight into the organization of the church to know that this is who they fear. The Inanimatus is the source of the undead and is a powerful arm of the church. Their goal is to find a way to take massive amounts of the living and put them in a permanent state of undeath. Vampires, liches, zombies, and more have all been the result of their profane rituals and dark rites. They seek to enact Nekrutan’s greatest vision: a world not of the living, not of the dead, but of the undead. Led by the Dux Inanimatus, Viniccenti the Horde Germinator, this Ecclesia has uncovered many roads to undeath, but still work on perfecting their trade. The Dux Inanimatus has two Caromonks that walk two paths: Caromonk Inanimatus Pellshar – a Death Knight – leads a branch of this Ecclesia that helps people become undead, and Caromonk Inanimatus Kappor – a Tortle lich – directs their study of new paths to undeath.
The Ecclesia Strages is Nekrutan’s house of murder. This is the Ecclesia that trains assassins, gives the hungry the means to sate their hunger, you hope never hears even a whisper of your name. Prayers for the deaths of others are often answered by those who roam the halls of Ecclesia Strages. Dux Tuprini – a small and unassuming gnome – took the reigns of Strages upon killing her predecessor, the feared Ex-Dux Yorllik of Midnight’s Reaping. She has pushed the Ecclesia away from murders with distinct signatures, and towards killing methods that are much more anonymized. This makes it easier for the church as a whole to deny involvement in such illicit matters. While some of the killings undertaken by the Strages are in response to prayer to Nekrutan, the vast majority of their work is as hired killers by the wealthy or informed, who pay in their various ways for murder to be done.
Ecclesia Pravus is the most publicly celebrated Ecclesia of them all, for it is the one that returns the dead to life in all its glory. Headed by Dux Cacciano of a Thousand Rebirths, This Ecclesia returns family members, loved ones, even the occasional pet; for a price. Be It in worship, gold, or services to Templum Nekrutan, Pravus is the arm of the church with the best contacts in the world. By selling their life assurance policies, they guarantee that death need not be permanent for you. Outside of gold fare, their payments mean they have much to bargain with when dealing with the other Ecclesia. Being on good terms with them means easier access to whatever it is you may desire. They frequently work with Strages to raise back the very people killed by them, so the Templum is paid twice. At least.
Ecclesia Innominatam is home to some of the darkest magics the Templum has. When people have lost everything, when they are filled with a deep sense of rage and a need for retribution, Innominatam is there like a genie to grant their wish with a price that makes the deal more than questionable. The Nameless Dux, whose precursor was The Nameless Dux, has created an army of Nekrutan, who all want only to do his will unto the world. When the Innominatam grants your wish and trains you to take revenge for yourself, all they want in return is everything you have left. Your personality is burned away, your remaining years are spent in service to the Templum. Your history is no more, even loved ones will forget your existence. All that remains in the empty shell of the person is the desire to serve Nekrutan, the pit of rage, and the need for retribution and justice. No memories, no personality, no name.
Ecclesia Exsequiis is the church of comfort in the last moments of life. The church of grief and last rites. This is the arm of the Templum that attracts the bleeding hearts (such as they are) of Nekrutan’s worshippers. This Ecclesia is the domain of Dux Korbin of the Final Horizon. The Exsequiis predominately works with the poor and vulnerable, who often don’t have the means to engage the Templum’s other services. Their comfort extends not only to the nearly dead, but also to those the recently deceased leave behind. They offer comfort and a way to manage grief to the families and loved ones that are left behind.
Finally, there is Ecclesia Mors. While Strages focuses on the act of murder, the direct killing of one person by another, Mors’ interests are more varied. Natural death, plagues, famines, natural disasters, Mors deals in it all. They are the house of death, by any means. Their Dux is Dux Repicart of Five Sorrows. The Mors remind everyone that no matter who they are, they will face Nekrutan before their afterlife, and in this, all mortal lives must give him his due. Mors is constant. Mors is patient. Mors is inevitable.
These are all of the major Ecclesia, but there are more minor Ecclesia, but none of them have their Dux on the Profanum Concilium. They all have smaller roles. Some deal with administrative duties, others work as envoys or communications within the Templum and with external entities.
Each Ecclesia has its own territory, but the areas of the main six converge at Mount Arrecci, the highest point in the Deadlands, and the territory of the Custos Mortuorum. Arrecci is where all of the Ecclesia come together, and it is wholly considered a safe place. The stronghold here, the first Temple to Nekrutan built, Moriban, is the Custos Mortuorum’s physical place of power. Any killing, physical conflict, or battery in this place or on this mountain can result in multiple executions followed by a period of indentured servitude to the Custos Mortuorum.
There are also the monasteries of Nekrutan. Many are throughout the world, hidden from all but the most devout pilgrims and worshippers. They work closely with the various Ecclesia, but do not answer to them. They are centers of training, philosophy, and study. Each monastery is largely responsible only to itself, though they hardly have the political capital to challenge or go against the decrees of the Ecclesia, the Arca Mysterium, or the Custos Mortuorum. Some individuals may graduate to work with an Ecclesia, but many more stay at their monastery for study, defense, meditation, or rumination. Many classes come here for training. Monks, clearly, but also Barbarians learning to get in touch with their abilities, druids learning of the desolate landscape, paladins for meditations on their vows, and wizards for reading ancient scrolls. Not that they are the only ones to visit the monasteries, only the most common.
Brackenfall is a monastery within the deadlands, closely associated with the Ecclesia Mors, Innominatam, and Strages. They focus on training monks to act as agents of death. They have a high rate of their trainees leaving to do their work in the world and serve an Ecclesia. Brackenfall trained Innominatam are considered to be some of the most loyal and brutal warriors of the Templum.
Light’s End is the most public monastery, and works closely with the Ecclesia Exsequiis and Pravus. It is also the only monastery to have a warpstone on the grounds. Located high in the mountains of the land of the Magiliths, it is regarded as a place of healing and comfort for those in dire need. Hidden away in dark passageways and festering caves beneath, however, Ecclesia Inanimatus works on those who were not, or could not afford to be, saved.
The last major monastery is Tenebris Domum. It is in the deep jungle of Gerule, were sunlight never manages to breach the thick foliage of the canopy. The constant gloom makes it a perfect place to practice stealth and to contemplate the philosophies of Nekrutan. The Ecclesia Strages, Pravus, Innominatam, and Exsequiis all have strong presence in the dark stone halls.
This is not the full scope of the Templum, nor has one ever truly been produced. The secrets and shadows in the Templum are many, necessary, and valued. There is little trust for others beyond what has been exceptionally proven. Few alliances are made, and even fewer kept, but those that are enable leverage in a sea of paranoia.

Campaign Prompt

The year is 4744 (roughly 1353 years after the events of Braving Cinemire & In the Halls of the Kobold King), and you are all members of the Templum Nekrutan. Recently, you have received orders that you are to be placed on a team under the command of Prelate Mors Lordran of Grasping Bones. This team is an experiment in small scale cross-Ecclesia cooperation. Your orders also relay that the higher ups of your Ecclesia have staked their reputation and more on the success of the team. The success of the team could also translate to success for you individually, as well as advancement in your Ecclesia.
Details of this new team are scarce, only that you are to report to the Prelate Mors Lordran in two days. In those two days, you learn some things about the Prelate Mors. He is a devnar of some ambition, ambition that has been hindered. He was a part of a small, niche, Ecclesia, more of a cult. The reason he seems stuck at the rank of Prelate is that his old Ecclesia held heretical beliefs, though what beliefs exactly those were, you have not been able to uncover.
The team will operate both in and out of the Deadlands. Outside of the now dedicated lands of the church, your identities and involvement will often need to be obscured from public view. The Deadlands were created by the Goddess Chenravo nearly at the moment of her creation to contain the undead masses created by the Nekrutan Worm. What was once part of the Federation of Forested Kingdoms sank into the ground. The Templum has overtaken it completely, turning it into a massive laboratory testing methods and means of creating undead.
Since this team is supposed to be acting as a proof of concept, the Prelate Mors largely has free reign on the missions conducted. He has to prove the value of the team in a certain amount of time to the Profanum Concilium. Should you prove effective, you may be appointed to a new council overseeing the program as it grows. The Ecclesia that did not send members to the team are convinced that it will prove an exercise in futility. Some of them may take measures to ensure that the team is a failure, so that they come out ahead in Nekrutan’s divine eyes.
What the orders do not mention is who the other members of this team will be, or what Ecclesia they hail from. The missions will be varied as you cross the continent to serve yourselves, Prelate Mors Lordran’s desires, and the interests of the Templum.
Lordran’s motivations with the team aren’t clear. Perhaps it is as simple as proving that the Ecclesia can work together despite differences in philosophy, goals, and methods. Perhaps, it is something altogether different. Whatever his goals, and your own, this team has the ability to change the way the Templum interacts with itself and the world for millennia to come.

Campaign Details

1. Build characters at 5th Level
2. This game will use Milestone leveling, with one level gained after every mission.
3. Character Alignment must be Evil of some flavor
a. Please create a good motivation for being evil.
4. Suggested subclasses (only suggestions, go wherever your heart takes you)
Artificer: Alchemist
Barbarian: Ancestral Guardian, Zealot 
Bard: Spirits, Whispers 
Cleric: Death, Trickery, Twilight, War 
Druid: Moon, Stars, Spores 
Fighter: Banneret, Psi Knight 
Monk: Kensei, Long Death, Mercy, Shadow 
Paladin: Conquest, Devotion, Oathbreaker, Vengeance 
Ranger: Gloomstalker, Swarmkeeper 
Rogue: Assassin, Mastermind, Phantom, Soulknife 
Sorcerer: Lunar, Shadow 
  Warlock: Celestial, Hexblade, Undead, Undying 
Wizard: Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy 
5. Place your character in one of the Ecclesia of your choice. 
If none of the major Ecclesia feel right for your character, we can create a minor Ecclesia that feels more suited, or you can be part of the staff of the Arca Mysterium.
Your rank can be up to Episcopus 
6. Come up with up to 5 contacts that you have; just name/Ecclesia/rank is good to start with, anything else you come up with is gravy
Minimum 2 
I’ll work with you afterwards to come up with more histories and their relationship to your character 
7. Figure out what Aspect of Nekrutan (found on his God Summary) you follow most closely. These are listed and detailed in God Summary – Nekrutan, which you can find in the Discord. If none of them appeal to you for your character, please let me know, we may be able to come up with an alternative