The Blood Cauldrons

The Blood Cauldrons refer to a set of ancient cauldrons that date back to over five thousand years ago. In fact their very creation and first use marks the beginning of the first year of the first century of the modern era according to the Fate-woven Calendar utilized by the Cult of the Spider. They are a collection of the most ancient and holy relics of the world’s most widespread religion, yet little is known about them outside the upper ranks of the cult. The cauldrons were, at one time, simple works of bronze forged by devote servants of the Spider Goddess. Engraved in their exterior are countless depictions of spiders upon a web that spreads out across its surface. The craftsmanship is far beyond what anthropologists believe was possible with the technology of the time, suggesting that the intricate decoration may have been the result of magical manipulations. The unique coloration of the metal, a pitch black that seldom appears in nature, is said to have occurred when the first drop of the Spider Goddess’ venom touched each one.
There are eight cauldrons in total. Each one was, according to legend, filled with the venom of the Spider Goddess herself. Her eight most devout priestesses then stepped forward and drank deeply from her venom, transforming them into the first Venom Queens. Or, as is more commonly said in the modern day, the first vampires.
That the cauldrons were used to create the first vampires is generally accepted as historical fact. Their names were Amenset, Hasina, Ten-Kheta, Iseret, Kasmut, Layla, Nanu, and Zahra and seven of these went on to found one of the petty queendoms that would later become the Black Sun Empire. Zahra, first to drink and be reborn, would dedicate herself to the goddess entirely and build the first great temple to her goddess, founding much of the religion’s basic tenets along the way.
What is often disputed by modern mages is the idea of the venom literally coming from the Spider Goddess. Astral entities can interact with the physical world but they cannot enter it or leave a part of themselves within it. This is widely accepted as irrefutable fact. Matter can be changed by magic but never fully created. Instead a common theory is that the ancient priestesses merely utilized a ritual to transform some substance into the “venom” that they consumed. This is consistent with the use of the cauldrons in creating the black blood used in modern reanimation. Blood is poured into the cauldrons and a spell is cast that turns the blood thick and black while imbuing it with the mystical property to bind spirits to hosts of flesh and bone. While undead created with the black blood do not have many of the powers associated with the Venom Queens it still functions similarly enough that it could be the result of a watered down ritual. The true words of power used to create the venom having been lost to time after creating new vampires was banned after the Vampire Wars.
Regardless of the true powers of the cauldrons they are regarded as some of the most powerful and ancient artifacts in the known world. Of the original eight only three are currently known to still exist, the other five having been lost to history after the many wars that plagued the Black Sun Empire. The three cauldrons that still remain are kept safe within the necropolis of the Spider Cult. Two being kept in the temple proper while the third rests at the bottom of the underground College of Reanimation.