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The Cult of the Sanguine Web (House Valen'dros) - AI-generated fantasy Faction

The Cult of the Sanguine Web (House Valen'dros)

Three centuries ago, House Valen'dros was a minor noble family in a grand Drow city. While their kin squabbled for the Spider Queen's favor, Lady Vhaera Valen'dros led her house into the forbidden Undermyr. They discovered the Ancient Conduits - rhythmic stone pipes that pulsed with the magical energy of the planet. Believing this to be the literal blood of a dormant god, Vhaera discarded her religious oaths and performed the Rite of the Congealing. She sacrificed her own children to the conduits to forge the first Blood Spiders, arachnids whose bodies are composed of sentient liquid hemoglobin. Since then, the House has become a cult, operating in isolation while feeding their Great Siphon.

Factions
Hemomantic Drow Sect · Neutral Evil

The Cult of the Sanguine Web (House Valen'dros)

Boogeymen of the deep who steal children and turn blood into monsters.
Type
Hemomantic Drow Sect
Size
Large
Reach
High
Base
Vat-Shara

Overview

Three centuries ago, House Valen'dros was a minor noble family in a grand Drow city. While their kin squabbled for the Spider Queen's favor, Lady Vhaera Valen'dros led her house into the forbidden Undermyr. They discovered the Ancient Conduits - rhythmic stone pipes that pulsed with the magical energy of the planet. Believing this to be the literal blood of a dormant god, Vhaera discarded her religious oaths and performed the Rite of the Congealing. She sacrificed her own children to the conduits to forge the first Blood Spiders, arachnids whose bodies are composed of sentient liquid hemoglobin. Since then, the House has become a cult, operating in isolation while feeding their Great Siphon.

How it began

Vhaera Valen'dros was a middle-ranking priestess who suffered a divine vision after being bitten by a spider that had fed on a dying archmage. She saw a world where drow were no longer slaves to gods but masters of the very fluid of life. She led a bloody exodus, killing those who would not follow, and founded her seat of power directly atop the Heart-Chamber of the Undermyr.

How to know them

MottoThe life is in the ichor; the ichor is in the web.
EmblemAn obsidian heart entwined in a spider's web, with three crimson droplets falling into an open, pupil-less eye.
Colours

Oxblood Red, Dull Charcoal, Polished Bronze

Signs
  • A needle-tipped fang
  • A glass vial filled with glowing red liquid
DressSilken black robes infused with copper wire that glows faintly when magic is cast. High-ranking members wear living biological masks that throb in time with the wearer's heart.

Standing

AlignmentNeutral Evil
Age314 years
WealthExtreme (Based on biological resources and stolen relics)

What they say they want

Attaining physical perfection through hemomancy
Securing the Undermyr from surface incursions
Restoring the 'lost' glory of the Drow race through biological evolution

What they are doing now

Infiltrating the noble houses of the surface world to catalog unique bloodlines
Sabotaging the traditional temples of the Spider Queen
Capturing a dragon to extract its ancient essence for the Great Siphon

Where it leads

A reality where the entire multiverse is connected by a singular circulatory system, with House Valen'dros acting as the heart.

How others see them

Boogeymen of the deep who steal children and turn blood into monsters.

People

5 ranks

The First Pulse

Vhaera Valen'dros

Clinical, obsessive, and deceptively motherly toward those she deems useful.

  1. The Heart-Mother1 member

    Ultimate authority, conduit for the Great Siphon, and final judge of all life.

  2. Arterial Lords12 members

    Commanders of the cult's war-hosts and governors of regional outposts.

  3. Phlebotomist Priests150 members

    Maintaining the health of the Blood Spiders and conducting sacred transfusions.

  4. The Pulse-Sworn800 members

    Elite warriors and assassins who drink the blood of their foes to replenish their magic.

  5. The Donors3,500 members

    Lowest members and thralls who provide the physical materials for rituals.

Other key members

  • Kaelen the Hollow High Executioner
  • Xalith Vane Spy-Mistress

How they are organised

How it is runRitualistic Meritocracy (Power based on blood-volume contributed)
Who comes nextThe Sanguine Inheritance: When the Heart-Mother nears expiration, she selects three candidates to duel within the Great Siphon. The survivor absorbs the blood and memories of the predecessor.
How they recruitThe cult preys on drow who have been cast out or whose houses have fallen. They offer a 'true family' and power beyond divinity. Recruits undergo a process where their natural blood is drained and replaced with Sanguine Essence.
To join
  • Proven drow or half-drow ancestry
  • Survival of the Hemorrhage Trial
  • Relinquishing all family ties and surnames for House Valen'dros

Relations

4 factions
The Iron RingMERCENARY PRAGMATISMThe Rust-WizardsSYMBIOTIC TRADEHouse BaenrePOLITICAL HOSTILITYThe Order of the…HOLY WAR
Ally · Symbiotic Trade
The Rust-Wizards

Technomancers who build the mechanical housing for Blood Spider nodes.

Operations

What they do

Ichor Extraction
Biological Engineering
Planar Siphoning
Political Assassination

How they do it

Biological Terror Attacks
Ritual Sacrifice
Hostile Transfusions
Infiltration of Medical Guilds

Services for hire

  • The Crimson MendThe donor's soul or a decade of service.
    A dark ritual that can heal any wound or disease by replacing the victim's blood.

What they can do

Tracking individuals through their pulse across vast distances
Wound manipulation (preventing healing in enemies)
Animating the blood of fallen enemies to fight for them

What they have

The Great Siphon (A massive magical artifact)
Hives of Blood Spiders (Biological warmachines)
The Ledger of Veins (A database of every significant family line's magical potential)

Where they are weak

Vulnerability to high concentrations of sea-salt which crystallizes their blood-magic
Dependency on the Great Siphon for magical replenishment
Constant fear of divine retribution from traditional spider deities

Territory

Headquarters

Vat-Shara
KindFlesh-Altered Fortress

A fortress carved from the living rock of the Undermyr, featuring walls that literally beat like a heart. Red waterfalls of ichor flow from the battlements into the surrounding moats.

Lands they hold

The Deep Undermyr
The Crimson Tunnels
The Salt-Desert of Morakh

Outposts

  • The NeedleBeneath the merchant district of a major surface cityKidnapping targets for biological research
  • Vein-WatchThe border of the Underdark and the Sun-RealmsA military choke point guarded by Blood Spiders

Secrets

The big secret · GM only
What they really want · GM only
Hidden plans · GM only
Smaller secrets · GM only
What insiders say · GM only
Trouble inside · GM only
Crimes · GM only

Plot hooks

2 hooks
  • 1
    The Stolen Pulse
    ModerateReward: Personal Tie/Loyalty
    A player's relative has been kidnapped to serve as a 'Unique Donor' for a new Blood Spider mutation.
  • 2
    The Red Deluge
    HardReward: Artifact/Political Influence
    The city's reservoir has turned to thick, syrupy blood, causing people to transform into mindless husks.

Work they offer

1Retrieve the 'Essence of a Solar' from a high celestial being to purify the Great Siphon.

What gets in the way

Exposure to Valen'dros magic causes 'Sanguine Corruption', making the user crave iron-rich foods and suffer light sensitivity.
Traditional Drow assassins target anyone seen interacting with the cult.

Rumours

1The Blood Spiders can recognize their original owner by the smell of their ichor.
2Lady Vhaera has already died, and the woman on the throne is just a shape-shifting puddle of blood.
3If you kill a member of the Sanguine Web, their blood will crawl into your own skin to curse you.

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