Followers of the moon

A religion based upon the worship of Cegilune, patron goddess of hags and the moon. The dark rituals are kept secret, their victims kept alive for months before the big sacrifice/festival.

Divine Origins

In the dark of a young world the fearful races sought protection from the terrors that haunted the night. In response to the multitudes unheeded prayers the moon came into being and brought with it a queen who ruled over its light—Cegilune. Cegilune’s worship quickly spread across lands and through numerous races. A silver-haired beauty, she was said to be as fickle as the zighted orb over which she held sway, and thus her followers constantly courted her favor. Those who pleased her best, pious priestesses whose comely forms reminded her most of herself, Cegilune adopted as her daughters and granted them powers with which to further her worship. The so-called songs of Cegilune were granted beautiful voices to entice others to her service, Cegilune’s prophets were given the power to tread across water as easily as land so to spread her word, and the protectors of Cegilune were granted great strength with which to defend the goddess’s followers. For an age, Cegilune garnered the fear and love of her worshipers, but eventually she grew complacent, indulging in her followers’ adoration but rarely intervening on their behalves. At the same time, the deities of distant lands began to encroach upon her disciples’ hearts. Only when a wrinkle first marred the moon goddess supposedly eternal beauty did she realize her error. Appearing before her remaining followers, the goddess found that only her daughters had remained devout, but that they too had aged as she weakened. Others who had left her fold bitterly mocked the moon goddess, flaunting the powers of their new divine patrons. Enraged, Cegilune slaughtered hundreds of her former worshipers, sending her remaining daughters on a bloody crusade. The moon goddess’s holy war was terrible but brief. Cegilune’s willsome acts offended numerous younger deities and her outnumbered devotees were cut down and driven into the shadowed reaches of the world. In addition, her divine tantrums had expended much of her remaining power, devastating her failing beauty and leaving her a weakened, monstrous crone, who too fled to the darkest, loneliest pits of existence. With the departure of their goddess, the surviving daughters of Cegilune found their divine blessings corrupted and their hearts infused with their patronesses hatred. Thus, the voices, prophets, and protectors of Cegilune became the first green hags, sea hags, and annis hags. Today, the daughters of Cegilune, hags of all types, still strive to wreak their mother’s dark will and bring suffering to all the treacherous mortal races. As for Cegilune, from her desolate home at the bottom of the multiverse, a pit in the Gray Wastes known as Hag’s End, she fosters her remaining powers while seeking ways to bring ruin upon all mortal races and the imposter deities of the night.

Worship

Cegilune’s only places of worship are small grisly shrines kept near the cauldrons and meal places of her devotees. Every night worshipers offer lengthy praises of their goddess’s virtues and curses on all who betrayed her. These profanities escalate on the night of the full moon nearest the winter solstice when Cegilune’s follower’s perform tortuous sacrifices, each seeking to dedicate the greatest suffering to her name.

Priesthood

Hags are the supreme authority, with slight hierarchy between them.

Granted Divine Powers

The greatest power of them all; immortality. The worshippers get a glimpse of it, doubling their lives for the truly devoted followers. The hags, however are truly immortal. Though this is not a power achievable by worship.

Permeated Organizations