Ravenmark Cabal

The Grand Hierophant directs rituals and research. The Raven’s Council oversees specialist studies, while Dread Scholars lead cells and teach apprentices.

Grand Hierophant — Alaric Graveborn sets direction and oversees rituals and forbidden lore.
Raven’s Council — Senior necromancers overseeing planar research, souls, and undead control.
Dread Scholars — Experienced specialists who lead cells and train new members.
Neophytes — Apprentices gathering reagents, studying grimoires, and assisting rituals.

Research — Recover death-magic texts and study souls, planar forces, and undeath.
Rituals — Harvest souls, manipulate undead, and collaborate on ethereal studies.

Acquire lost texts, grimoires, and relics and recruit necromancers.
Develop undead-control and ethereal rituals with the Grim Court.

Achieve immortality beyond lichdom through ethereal omnipresence.
Weaken the boundary between life and death and influence the Boneyard and River of Souls.

Scholars dissatisfied with conventional magic, renegade wizards, and defrocked priests join through fascination with death. The inner circle follows a secret ethical code often at odds with ordinary morality.

Demonstrate knowledge of necromancy and willingness to pursue its practices.
Take part in the Rite of Sable Ascendance.

Guarded necromantic texts and planar knowledge.
Rituals extending life through necrotic energy.
Some members return as revenants or other intelligent undead bound to the Cabal.

Protect the Cabal’s secrets and contribute research or power.
Carry out soul harvesting, dark rituals, and undead manipulation.

Rite of Sable Ascendance — An initiate binds part of their soul to a deathly artifact; the bond grows through later necromantic acts.
Dark Vigil — On moonless nights, members commune with the dead in the Sepulcher of Echoes.
Harvesting — The Cabal marks a death site with its emblem to claim the soul for ritual energy or service.

Alaric Graveborn — A necromancer and planar mage said to be centuries old, seeking immortality beyond the soul’s mortal limits.
Seraphina Morghaine — A former priestess specializing in spirit-binding and souls; some attribute her ambition to a tragic past.
Thaldrik the Unfading — A revenant enforcer and bodyguard bound to the Cabal, with an aura that drains nearby life.

Grim Court — closely collaborates on rituals and exchanges death-magic knowledge.
Ebon Inquisition — occasionally exchanges insights on undead control and planar manipulation despite its wider campaign against dark magic.
Whispered Oath — trades dark lore and information for mutual survival.
Sovereign Watch — hunts Cabal members as criminals and dark mages.

The Sepulcher of Echoes lies in Ebonrest’s ancient necropolis, concealed by illusions and wards amid crypts and catacombs. Enchanted bones and glyphs light its halls.

Its inner Sanctum of Mournful Whispers is surrounded by spirits, warded against intrusion, and open only to trusted members.

History

Scholars exiled from academia for studies of death and the afterlife founded the Ravenmark Cabal. Over centuries, the society became a necromantic organization using the Sepulcher of Echoes as a hidden sanctuary.