The Via Venatori

The Via Venatori ("Path of the Hunters" in High Boros), often known simply as The Venatori, is a clandestine and decentralized order of monster slayers whose members walk the breadth of Lloegyr. They are inheritors of an ancient Hyperborean blood rite which, when performed, changes the very essence of an individual; their mortal senses and urges become dulled, and are slowly replaced with the honed predatory instincts of the very monstrosities the Venatori themselves hunt.
Having sacrified a part of their mortality to better do battle with the inhabitants of the world's darkest corners, the Venatori often find themselves distanced from the sentient peoples of the world. Some feel as though they have little in common with the 'flock' after their transformation; others become disdainful of the ungrateful commonfolk who brand the Venatori as monsters and freaks, and others still simply prefer the wilds away from civilization which smell of home to their new, monstrous sensibilities. All Venatori follow the path of the Blood Hunter (though some reject the name in favor of the more formal 'Venatori'), even as some of their number dabble in other disciplines to complement their abilities granted by the Hunter's Bane.
Living on the edge of society, fighting a thankless and endless battle against the deadliest creatures, the Venatori have survived countless centuries thanks to their mastery of blood magic, tracking techniques, and their strong traditions of martial excellence. The life of a Blood Hunter of the Via Venatori is an unhappy one, fraught with despair and devoid of many rewards, and only the most embattled hearts last long in their ranks. They all share one singular truth; that the horrors of the world can only be tended to with blades and blood.

THE HUNTER'S BANE

The initiation ritual of the Via Venatori is a profane ritual known officially as the Venenum Venatoris, but is more often called by its name in the common tongue; The Hunter's Bane. The Bane has been passed down from the ancient blood mages of the Old Hyperborean Empire, and is guarded jealously by the eldest of the Venatori.
The secrets of the Hunter's Bane are forbidden and known only to a select few living souls, and the ritual differs from chapter to chapter. However, the core of the ritual remains the same; a concoction is brewed by a chapter's master alchemist and is imbibed by a hopeful initiate, and after a period of excruciating pain, the initiate either perishes or rises, physically transformed by the experience into an apex predator with capabilities beyond the limits of ordinary mortals.
Effects of the Hunter's Bane on an initiate's physical appearance can differ from case to case. Some Blood Hunters emerge with cat-like eyes, some with drastically altered hair color, and others still experiencing nails sharpening into claws or blood darkening to an oily black. Besides these seemingly random physical alterations, the Hunter's Bane universally confers the following effects to those who survive it:

• Heightened physical strength, dexterity, and mental acuity
• A 'sixth sense', granting the Venatori an instinctual knack for sensing, detecting, and tracking otherworldly beings such as fey, fiends, and the undead
• The abilty to utilize the life essence inherent in one's blood to shape hemocraft magic; the same type of magic used to create the Bane itself
• Lengthened lifespan; human Venatori often live at least a century beyond normal ranges
• Slowed effects of aging; Venatori well into their hundreds can remain youthful
• Dulled emotions; survivors of the Hunter's Bane suffer varying degrees of damage to their personality and ability to feel emotions. Some remain quite similar to their prior selves, while others become outright unfeeling sociopaths
• Heightened aggression; initiated Venatori will feel violent predatory instincts and compulsions in times of stress or tension
• Greatly increased appetite
• Effective near-sterility; children conceived by those whose bodies have been altered by the Hunter's Bane are almost always stillborn, with those few that survive inheriting some of the parents' physical enhancements granted by the Bane

In addition to these alterations, different Banes administrated by the different orders are tailored for the particular prey focused upon by their members, and may produce effects unique to their individual methods of concoction.
The Bane is often only administered to adults of any given species, as children often lack the fortitude to endure its rigors, though this is by no means a rule. The Bane can also be administered as a sort of 'cure' for terminal maladies, with individuals risking a painful death to exchange life-threatening conditions for the powers and inhuman changes granted by the Bane.
The effects of the Hunter's Bane are permanent and irreversible due to Bane's changing of a creature's biology on a fundamental level. Spells such as true resurrection or greater restoration will restore a Blood Hunter to their self post-initiation, with the effects of the Bane still in effect. Short of the Wish spell, there is no known way to reverse the effects of the Hunter's Bane.

THE FOUR ORDERS

Although the Via Ventaori is split into a myriad number of chapters all throughout Lloegyr, most align themselves with one of the four Orders. These Orders are akin to schools of thought and martial tradition, focused on altering their adherents' bodies in different ways to better suit the hunting of their particular favored prey.
These Orders do not exist as organizations, only followed disciplines, and thus no one can lay claim to the title of a master of a particular tradition throughout all of the Via Venatori. Even among the Orders, a great deal of variety to their practices can be found in various chapters.

The Order of the Ghostslayer

Followers of the Order of the Ghostslayer attune themselves to the negative energy plane, the domain of the undead that they often hunt as their favored prey, and also specialize in maligning the living with curses derived from the very same creatures they stalk. Venatori of the Order of the Ghostslayer cast powerful curses, smite the undead with blades of light and holy fury, purge the afflicted of their ails, and even traverse the ethereal plane itself to stalk their prey.
Chapters that adhere to the Order of the Ghostslayer often attract individuals such as fallen knights, disillusioned clerics, repentant sentient undead, and survivors of massacres committed by undead hordes or powerful necromancers. True to their abilities, they favor hunting the undead and are at their most effective when annihilating those seeking to escape Pharasma's grasp. However, they remain highly effective even against living monstrosities.

The Order of the Lycan

No Blood Hunter order encompases the virtues of personal sacrifice and loss of self better than the Order of the Lycan, whose adherents purposefully inflict themselves with lycanthropic curses and turn the powers granted from them against the beasts of the world. These bestial Blood Hunters are among the most physically powerful of their kind, with towering fortitude and brutal strength tailored to obliterate their similarly gifted prey.
Chapters that adhere to the Order of the Lycan are usually populated by prior lycanthropes seeking control over their curse, former inhabitants of frontier regions, particularly vengeful druids and rangers, and totemic barbarians seeking to embody the animal spirits they venerate. They are at their most potent when stalking the great beasts of the land, slaying great beasts and colossal predators before they can threaten the natural balance and the fringes of civilization.

The Order of the Mutant

Oldest of the Blood Hunter orders, the Order of the Mutant is credited for the creation of the Hunter's Bane from old Hyperborean alchemical manuscripts, and its students demonstrate a mastery of the ritual's effects on mortal biology. The Venatori of the Order of the Mutant are peerless alchemists, who futher augment the Hunter's Bane via ingestring alchemical mutagens, and they often complement their martial abilities and hemocraft with a command over poisons, venoms, and other miracles of hermeticism.
Chapters that adhere to the Order of the Mutant are typically home to well-read philosophers or academics who wished to apply their knowledge to culling the world's dangers, as well as former healers or scientists. As the oldest of the Orders, their ranks are typically the most varied of them all. Blood Hunters following the path of the Mutant are respected generalists, who can modify their own biology on the fly to tailor their capabilities to specific prey; few are the creatures that the Mutants do not have a plan for the slaying.

The Order of the Profane Soul

Possibly the most feared and reviled of the Orders, the Blood Hunters of the Order of the Profane Soul entreat their souls to beings occult in origin to gain power at any cost for their critical mission of eradicating the esoteric and unknowable. The most magically gifted of all Blood Hunters, those of the Profane Soul are masters of Hemocraft and exemplify the dark power of ancient Hyperborean blood magic.
Chapters that adhere to the Order of the Profane Soul call to individuals such as former cultists, brave occultists, victims of fiendish pacts or fey trickery, and cursed beings with nothing else to lose. Although their magic powers grant them a versatility second only to the Order of the Mutant, the Blood Hunters of the Profane Soul are at their best when fighting the extraplanar from which their powers are derived; fiends, fey, celestials, and even the unknowable from beyond the stars.

THE LIFE OF THE VENATORI

The Via Venatori is loosely structured into chapters that exist all throughout Lloegyr, each with their own names, leaders, traditions, variations of the Hunter's Bane, philosophies, preferred prey, and relationships with local society. No chapter operates identically to another, and some even make enemies out of other Venatori chapters that oppose their ideals or infringe upon their territories or attempt to steal their secret lore.

Blood Hunters & Civilized Law

Due to the nature of their powers' origins, Venatori are rarely officially welcomed in civilized lands. Those hunters that find themselves in cities must often conceal their identities and powers or risk discovery; often this may lead to being chased out of town, being branded a heretic or a monster, or even being burned at the stake.
However, some regions and societies maintain a more open mind to the ways of the Venatori; the White Wyrms chapter, with their Lodge in Revelmoore, is the sole Blood Hunter chapter with an official presence in a large city. Other chapters maintain a cordial relationship with local governments, accepting commissioned hunts in exchange for gold or legal leniency for their occult origins. Some Venatori chapters even establish themselves as leaders of small and remote settlements, acting as veritable bandit lords that demand food and support from the peasants in exchange for the protection they provide from monsters.
Most Venatori chapters, however, establish remote outposts on the edges of the civilized lands. They often claim lost ruins, old fortresses, or other abandoned abodes as their homes. They rarely face opposition to their claims, as a superstitious peasant mob is rarely a match for their might, and their remote occupation can often prove to be too expensive of a problem for the armies of a local lord to commit resources towards. This keeps conflicts between the Venatori and local governments to a minimum.

Individual Blood Hunters

Blood Hunters of the Venatori most often work as lone agents, mingling with the civilized world until they find a target that befits their abilities and ideals. They either pursue their targets alone, or gather a small party of like-minded adventurers or volunteers to help slay their quarry. Once their hunt is complete, the Blood Hunter will then usually return to their chapter's place of residence to rest, recuperate, and reminisce among others of their kind until it is time once again to venture out for new monsters to slay.
Most Blood Hunters are compelled by either hatred or ideology, and do not seek coin, glory, or reward for their deeds. There are exceptions, of course, and those of the Venatori can earn a great amount of coin in exchange for their services.
Members of the Venatori are by no means compelled to live among their chapter brethren (unless their chapter's laws dictate that they must), and may lead lives on their own among the frontiers or even lead discrete existences in larger settlements. Some Blood Hunters even live leagues away from their home chapters, having drifted over the course of many hunts, having been exiled or banished, or having survived some great tragedy that claimed their brethren. Some can even choose to leave the life behind altogether, although there is no escaping the changes the Hunter's Bane has inflicted on their person.
However, most Blood Hunters choose to remain close to their home chapters; they provide safety, reliable provisioning, protection from the law, and an understanding few other sentient peoples can provide them. Feelings of siblinghood are often strong among chapters, for who better to understand the hunter of monsters than another hunter?

Inter-Chapter Relations

Relationships between chapters are as varied as the Blood Hunter chapters themselves. Due to the Venatori's sparse numbers, chapters are rarely close enough to one another to establish any sort of rapport. In those few instances where they find themselves close to others of their kind, Venatori have been known to find fire-forged allies and sworn enemies among other chapters in equal measure.
Choice of order is often a point of contention between various Blood Hunter chapters. In particular, a traditional animosity exists between adherents of the Order of the Ghostslayers and followers of the Order of the Profane Soul; and yet, some of the strongest alliances in the Via Venatori's history have been among chapters of these two Orders.
Allied chapters treat each other with devotion, fighting to the death to protect one another. These relationships can even cause a merging of chapters after decades of co-existence, further reducing the number of chapters near one another. Conversely, violent rivalries often last for decades due to the natural resilience and long lives of Blood Hunters.
Blood Hunters that find themselves removed from their home chapters, either by way of being exiled or their chapter falling to ruin, can apply for membership with a new chapter. The chapter must determine if the individual is compatible with their unique beliefs and alchemical traditions. Through this 'adoption' process, Blood Hunters of one Order may find themselves in a chapter dominated by Hunters of a different Order. Opinions on this mixing of Orders, like many things, differs from chapter to chapter.
Encounters between individual Blood Hunters in the field are often exempt from politics outside of cases of extreme emnity and rivalry. Two Blood Hunters encountering each other on a hunt often leads to a temporary alliance until the hunt is complete, despite whatever relationship their home chapters may share. Among Blood Hunters, there is a saying; "There are no enemies under the shadow of a roc's wings."

NOTABLE CHAPTERS

The exact number of Blood Hunter chapters is not chronicled and is therefore unknown. However, several chapters have reached statuses of renown and fame (or in some cases, infamy), and are listed below.

The White Wyrms

Headquarters: The White Wyrm Lodge in Revelmoore's Southern Ward
Order: Predominantly the Order of the Mutant, but hosts hunters of all four Orders
Leader: Edzul Granseal
Other Notable Members: Vaida Sundever
Favored Prey: Varies

The White Wyrms are named after the legendary serpent that leveled the Hyperborean city of Tsen centuries ago. They are headquartered in the cosmopolitan city of Revelmoore, and are the most famed, civilized, and wealthy of all the Blood Hunter chapters. They maintain a longstanding, if a bit terse, relationship with the City Watch and City Guard, and are often deployed to the countryside to track down and slay monsters that threaten the city.
No Venatori chapter enjoys the level of freedom and levity from the local government that the White Wyrms hold; as a result, they take their relationship with the Council of Lords very seriously, and go to great lengths to ensure it remains positive.
The Noble House Sundever also maintains a close relationship with the White Wyrms, although few become actual members due to their emphasis on continuing their family line conflicting with the sterilizing effect of the Hunter's Bane. However, family matriarch Vaida Sundever famously underwent the rite not long after bearing her seventh child, Contrast.
The White Wyrms have held a ceasefire agreement with the Mad Mage Halaster since just after their founding; any Blood Hunters seeking entry into the Undermountain to hunt a creature must receive special permission from the Mad Wizard himself, to prevent them from 'spoiling all the fun' of his mega-dungeon.
The surly dwarf leading the White Wyrms is Edzul Granseal, once of the noble dwarven family Granseal. He gave up his inheritance and status to his younger brother and current lord of the house, Daerdain Granseal, after abandoning the traditional Granseal dream of reclaiming the Undermountain for the dwarves. After spending time abroad, he returned home as a Blood Hunter, refusing to speak on the matter of how this change came to be, and then joined the White Wyrms. Decades of service have seen him become a prolific hunter, the chapter's leader, and something of a local hero.

The Stone Pilgrims

Headquarters: Granite Hold, an abandoned fort outside of Endhome
Order: Order of the Ghostslayers
Leader: Victor of the Gallows
Favored Prey: Undead

The Stone Pilgrims have long existed on the fringes of Endhome's borders since the fall of Barakus, where they hunt the undead that have long plagued the region. Many of their number were called to action during the undead invasion of 3518, with few surviving the emergence of dracolich Vix'thra.
The Pilgrims are led by an ominous, sentient undead human known as Victor of the Gallows. Victor was, in life, a criminal and a murderer who was hanged in the central square of his small home village for his crimes. Years passed until this village was invaded by a horde of undead commanded by a necromancer seeking fresh corpses for his army; this necromancer acquired a sample of the Hunter's Bane and experimented with it on the raised cadaver that was Victor, which had the unintended side-effect of granting Victor great strength and free will. After strangling his necromantic master, Victor departed with the sample of Hunter's Bane, his hatred for his own kind being his only driving force.

The Black Sharks

Headquarters: A small unnamed hamlet on the shores of Tranquil Bay, south of the Free City of Brookmere
Order: Order of the Lycan
Leader: Bek'rah the Behemoth
Favored Prey: Lycanthropes

Few residents of Brookemere and the nearby city of Ravenscar know of the battle that has long raged in the dark forests of the region; that between the Black Sharks Blood Hunters and the werecreatures that have long hunted their steps. Though long reviled by the people of the area, the Black Sharks have long been the wall keeping the people of the Falconmere Peninsula safe from an outright lycanthropy epidemic.
Bek'rah the Behemoth, the half-orcen leader of the Black Sharks, was once a famed mercenary in the area until she was stricken with lycanthropy after a deadly skirmish against a wereshark pack. She was luckily found by the chapter before losing control of her condition, and now wields the ferocious power of the shark in her battles against her untamed brethren.

The Sanguine Templars

Headquarters: Caer Nixilis, a fort built near an entrance to Menzoberranzan in the Stoneheart Mountains
Order: Order of the Profane Soul
Leader: Coranzen Belatur
Favored Prey: Fiends, Drow

The matron mothers of Menzoberranzan and nearby drow cities often turn to abyssal allies in their bids to dominate their peers and the people of the surface, making inhabitance near the Stoneheart Mountains dangerous to the uninformed and unprepared. The Sanguine Templars were established to combat the occasional escaped yochlol or nabassu serving the matron mothers, and often come into conflict with the drow as a result.
The Sanguine Templars themselves often strike pacts with demons themselves to better fight their hated foes, sometimes capturing and imprisoning demons summoned by the matron mothers for the sole purpose of siphoning their power to enhance their own hemocraft.
The current leader of the Sanguine Templars is Coranzen Belatur, a dark elf and former inhabitant of Menzoberranzan. Coranzen once served as a combat instructor in Tier Breche, Menzoberranzan's training academy, but grew resentful of Lolth after centuries of feeling his talents were being wasted on the enemies of the drow. His ascent to the surface, ingestion of the Hunter's Bane, and pact stricken with an imprisoned demon have all served for forge him into a deadly predator.

The Frozen Chorus

Headquarters: The Ivory Bastion, a fortified cave in the Snowdrift Hills of Frostgale Taiga
Order: Order of the Mutant
Leader: Ashera Tharann
Favored Prey: Large Beasts

This chapter of mutated Blood Hunters favor mutagens that bolster their resistance to the frigid temperatures of Frostgale Taiga, where they stalk the great beasts that threaten the battered people of the Snowdrift Flatlands. They are notoriously shrewd, favoring coin in exchange for their services, and often charge steep rates that the inhabitants of the Flatlands can barely afford; but afford them they must if they wish to be free of the beasts hidden in the snow.
Ashera Tharann, the leader of the Frozen Chorus, is a red dragonborn warrior and former bandit. During her time as a brigand, she realized that bounties on ferocious beasts often yielded greater rewards than outright robbing folk, and her subsequent hunting career put her in the company of the Venatori that would soon become her family.

The Breakers of the Eclipse

Headquarters: Nomadic; favors the lands of Barovia
Order: Order of the Ghostslayer
Leader: The Grey Knight
Favored Prey: Undead, Cultists of Hecate & Morrigan

One of the newest orders of the Venatori, the Breakers of the Eclipse began to appear in the year 3519 as several exiled and homeless Blood Hunters flocked to the newly appeared land of Barovia, which still crawled with undead creatures after being liberated from the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna. Small in number even for a chapter of the Venatori, they continue to operate throughout the lands of the Akadian Pact, where they voraciously seek the blood of any and all that would revere the dark goddesses Morrigan and Hecate.
The Breakers of the Eclipse are a strange mix between a Blood Hunter chapter and a holy order, and its members openly revere gods such as Solanus, Muir, Mitra, and Thyr even as they evoke forbidden & profane magics to hunt their enemies.
The leader of the Breakers of the Eclipse is a particularly enigmatic figure; a towering armored man known only as the Grey Knight. Rumors abound that the Grey Knight himself is no man, but an undead being himself, driven to pentinence for his great sins in life. Others believe him to be an animated suit of armor seeking purpose, and others still believe him to be an avatar of Muir brought to Lloegyr to answer Morrigan's emergence.
All that is known is that the Grey Knight is a deep-voiced man of few words, a nigh-unkillable juggernaut of steel and holy fury who brings harsh judgement to all the enemies of his order with powerful strokes of his blade of sunlight. Further mystifying this figure is his complete lack of powers of hemocraft; despite not being a Blood Hunter himself, the Grey Knight has still earned the faith and loyalty of many displaced Venatori, who believe in his cause and mission despite him having not undergone the Hunter's Bane.

Mors lupi agnis vita: "The death of the wolf is life to the lambs."

Founding Date

Thousands of years ago; sometime after the fall of the Hyperborean Empire

Alternative Names

The Path of the Hunters, the Venatori, Blood Hunters

Training Level

Elite

Official Languages

• High Boros

Chapter Leaders

Edzul Granseal, White Wyrms chapter leader

Victor of the Gallows, Stone Pilgrims chapter leader

Bek'rah the Behemoth, Black Sharks chapter leader

Coranzen Belatur, Sanguine Templars chapter leader

Ashera Tharann, Frozen Chorus chapter leader

The Grey Knight, Breakers of the Eclipse chapter leader