The Cult of the Foul was a recognized political faction of the Gloomvales, a dependency of the night elven city of Vor Thomil in the Feywild.

Creation: Sister Veleanne

The Foul Mistress in 645 b. OW, with two fomorians.

The Andan Human Auxiliary sent a delegation of two warrior-sisters to Dureanh to negotiate the release of a Mirkarr hobgoblin ambassador, who had been captured by a night elven raid while intending to parlay with the fomorian citadel of Mag Tureah, an opponent of the dark elves. They had a score contingent of goblins in support.

The two women successfully made it into the Gloomvales, twisted forests that stretched west of the Grand Plateau, despite fears and anger by Veleanne's companion that they were used as expendable, and likely expended, assets.

Veleanne did not care, however. She used her military assets to intervene in a fomorian dispute in caves beneath the Gloomvales, outside Vor Thomil's sphere, and gain control of twenty fomorians by allegiance. With this force, she approached the ruling ladies of the Gloomvales - a small council whose mission was to protect the buffer dependency, to keep Vor Thomil safe - and killed her companion, demonstrating her dedication. The ladies agreed to assign one border valley to Veleanne's jurisdiction, paying her the allotted funds in return for her service.

Trensandor never tried to exact retaliation, because the Auxiliaries had been quite expendable, and civil troubles enflamed the empire soon after.

Political Position

Veleanne, calling herself the Foul Mistress, had an inherently military function: to defend her frontier valley. To do so, she used expendable fomorian troops.

She had built a reputation among the primitive fomorians of being a goddess and fey queen; in fact, it was a typical feudal relationship, the fomorians owing her allegiance and manpower in return for their "safety"; though she was mostly using different fomorian tribes, and a retinue of fanatics devoted to her, for this. The few times a threat to her vale appeared, she simply called up all the fomorians from below, smashed her enemy, and then chained them to a cliff face and let them die of hunger; thereafter, none dared enter the valley of the Cult of the Foul.

Using night elven funds and workers, the Mistress built a whole palace complex, on top of old ruins. It was a simple open-roofed complex, with several staircases and colonnades. It never rained in the Gloomvales, though there was a near constant dreary fog. She relied on the complex's isolation, a broad curtain wall and moat, and her fanatics to protect her from outside threats. She could live quite extravagantly with Vor Thomil's resources.

Cult Structure

The Cult of the Foul, often represented by a white skull on a red circle (a symbol painted on rocks to warn people at the entrance of the vales, too), was ruled uncontested by the Foul Mistress. She had a retinue of approximately three score fanatically devoted fomorians, who most often were garrisoned at her palace.

The Cult built on top of preexisting fomorian conceptions, and a prophecy about a fey queen who would come and raise them into the light.

Aside from military obligations, the tribes could sometimes be called to work in the Mistress's name, or to supply a handful of individuals to her service: either the best, most loyal warriors, or the criminals, fools, or blasphemers. The warriors, if they passed deadly tests of ability and loyalty, could join the fanatic guard, while wrongdoers were pressed into slavery attendance in the palace. The Mistress was known to exact severe physical torment on her servants for her own pleasure, and to use them for sexual pleasure, for which she was widely regarded with distaste.

End

An unnamed fomorian, enrolled into the fanatic guard, was unhappy about his posting and argued so insistently to the Mistress that he should be collared with the servants instead, that she gave in and made him a servant as punishment. However, after one disappointing encounter she posted him to latrine duty, and never allowed him close to her. Frustrated, he attacked and severely maimed her while she was in a vulnerable position. She survived and he was killed by the guards, but there was a broader brawl then, and afterwards none of the fomorians understood how to help their severely wounded mistress. She died eventually, in great pain.