Children of Berwyn
Culture
These humans worship Berwyn, God of the Cold and patron deity of Vampires. They bow to the cold and to Berwyn's "true" children, the Vampires. They live to provide blood for vampires, remembering their god through the icy venom constantly running through their veins preventing them from feeling warmth.
They only accept warmth if they happen to imprint, particularly with a vampire, at which point they put themselves wholly at the mercy of their mate, even if that means their death.
Most members die young due to extreme cold, not properly training to handle the pain from vampire venom, or giving too much blood in a short period of time. Generally, these are considered noble deaths.
Some humans follow the cult for respect of the cold ones. Others follow out of an addiction to the pain vampire venom causes them.
Public Agenda
The Children of Berwyn wish to normalize one's willingness to provide blood for vampires and embrace the cold their god gifted them.
Divine Origins
The Kingdom of Vuston is cold, and within it resides the Cold Ones, or Vampires, the True Children of Berwyn. For the longest time, humans had difficulty living on the large island with the vampires. While some turned to heating technology and warm clothing, others learned that by allowing vampires to feed from them freely, they would be less affected by the cold of the land because venom would fill their very blood with cold. When done carefully, this method was effective and seen as a gift from the god Berwyn to his human friends.
The cult grew around this strange symbiotic relationship between the vampires and humans in Vuston. Reasons for following the Children of Berwyn have shifted over time, but the core beliefs still remain.
Ethics
These humans live in constant cold, within their bodies, and in the world. To remain a faithful member of the cult, they cannot go too long without feeding a vampire and revitalizing the venom within their bodies, nor can they seek potions and other remedies for the pain and cold caused by that venom.
Worship
These humans live in close-knit communities, always available for a vampire who needs feeding from them. Some groups live within the walls of a wealthy vampire's home, following their whims, and others live in small temples where vampires will come to worship Berwyn and feed. Other than their basic duties within the temples, humans of the cult live relatively free lives.
Priesthood
Most leaders of the cult are the mates of involved vampires, humans who have supposedly been so deeply dedicated to their beliefs that Berwyn gifted them with warmth once again by partnering them to a specific vampire.
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