Children of Mother Night

The werewolf clan of Barovia call themselves the Children of Mother Night, because they all worship that deity. Recently, a schism formed within the pack as the result of a challenge to Kiril Stoyanovich‘s leadership. The rift began when another werewolf, Emil Toranescu, questioned the treatment of children kidnapped by the pack. KiriI would arm the children with weapons and force them to fight each other to the death until only one child was left standing. The winner would then be turned into a werewolf, ensuring what Kiril called “the strength and purity of the pack.” Emil advocated keeping all the children alive and turning them into werewolves, thus increasing the pack’s size. Emil believed that a larger pack would ensure the werewolves’ survival, whereas Kiril saw a larger pack as too difficult to control and feed. This ideological divide couldn’t be reconciled and led to many disagreements. The other werewolves were split between the two camps, and it seemed likely that either KiriI or Emil would die before the conflict could be resolved. Then KiriI disappeared for several days, causing the other werewolves to wonder whether he had fled or had been quietly disposed of by Emil and his allies. When Kiril returned, he was accompanied by a pack of several dozen dire wolves loyal to Strahd, and he brought word from Castle Ravenloft that Strahd was not pleased with Emil’s attempt to fracture the pack. The dire wolves took Emil back to Castle Ravenloft to face punishment, and·he was never seen again. Kiril reestablished his dominance, but his ideas and tactics didn’t sit well with the pack’s older members such as Skennis, and they certainly didn’t please Emil’s mate, Zuleika Toranescu. She knew she couldn’t slay Kiril on her own, and after what happened to Emil, the rest of the pack was unwilling to challenge Kiril’s authority and face Strahd’s wrath.