The Tapestry of Dark Souls

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Also known as "The Gathering Cloth," the Tapestry of Dark Souls was a fell artifact guarded by Brother Dominicand the Order of the Guardians until its destruction[1] in 735 BC[2]. The Cloth served to gather and hold Evil imprisoned. Although seemingly a good thing, the Tapestry was itself an object of dark desire because it imposed a corrupting effect on everyone nearby. It brought out and enhanced preexisting negative emotions and sins to the point that those around it entered states of moral degeneration. Moreover, it had such an alluring, captivating quality that many would steal and even murder to possess it. Those who felt the Calling of the Guardians were the only exceptions.[1][3]

Beyond mundane thieves and murderers, the Cloth also contained many beings of supernatural evil, such as undead and lycanthropes. Am immensely powerful undead wizard and vampire, Morgoth was perhaps the most powerful and most evil creature contained within. Yet not every soul held within the Tapestry deserved to be held in there. At least one soul, that of Leith, had resisted its alluring corruption yet surrendered herself to it because of the curse of lycanthropy she suffered indirectly due to the tainted meddling of the Cloth.[4] To potential victims less willing, the Cloth could enfold itself around them and draw them into its weave.[3]

History

Creation

The silk for the Gathering Cloth was found by Skya in the Nightmare Lands and collected by her fellow Abber Nomads.[5] The Abber Nomads traded the vast majority of it away to Welse, a Nova Vaasan weaver in Arbora. He wove the silk into the Cloth and [[prideful]ly hung it in his shop. Despite numerous offers to buy it, two theft attempts, the loss of his son Moro, and the begging of his wife Ronae to get rid of it, he refused. After the Tapestry was finally stolen, Welse murdered his other son Geryn for the role he played in its theft. When Welse confronted the thief in Egertus, the thief simply handed it over to Welse with but a cryptic warning. Welse heeded not the warning, and the Cloth claimed him as its third victim.[6] After this event, the thief reclaimed the Cloth, and it disappeared, its whereabouts the subject of myth and legend.[7]

According to some tales, a warlock sought it out to imprison his enemies, paying a small fortune to buy it. Yet, as the wages of sin weighed upon his soul and he felt drawn to it, the warlock payed a fortune to get rid of it that was ten times larger than what he had purchased it for.[8]

The Cloth Resurfaces

Regardless of whatever happened to it prior, the Cloth eventually ended up in the hands of the Guardians. The Guardians of that type were many and powerful[9], yet perhaps a little less wise. They venerated, even worshiped the Cloth. This changed when a powerful wizard[9] named Morgoth upon the orders of his master. Morgoth made it to the Cloth, but he could neither penetrate its magical protections nor protect himself from it.[10] Yet, at least according to Morgoth's testimony, it took him only two days to find a way to free all the prisoners of the Cloth. Morgoth and the other freed souls brought the attack the Guardians and the wards that bound them inside the monastery.The Guardians prevailed[11], but at great cost. Only three of the youngest survived, one of which (Mattas) was still in the Order in the timeline of the Tapestry of Dark Souls novel.[9] A prophecy was given, that the Tapestry will be undone by corruption from within, the "corruption" of love.

The disaster brought the surviving monastics to move to a place remote, to Markovia. They passed through Linde near the bordering side of Tepest, staying a night at the Nocturne, before moving onto Markovia. There they resided in seclusion within the warded, fortified monastery in Markovia.[12] A handful of others would join them in time, coming at the behest of the Calling. Meanwhile, in nearby Tepest, the Cloth became woven into local beliefs about the afterlife, that the Tapestry somehow cleansed the world beyond as as a paradise after death.[12]

The Story of Leith and Vhar

In 717 BC[13] Morgoth called the outlanders Vhar and Leith from their homeworld to Markovia, depositing near the Monastery in Markovia. Lost, they approached the monastery and received shelter from the Guardians. Though they were given shelter, Vhar roused his wife early and bade both of them to flee the monastery for their lives.[14] In reality, he had become ensnared by the corrupting qualities of the Tapestry. He had stolen it, concealed the treachery from his wife[15], and even stabbed a monk to death on his way out.[16]

The couple fled over the border to Linde, a hamlet in Tepest. At the Nocturne inn, they met Maeve, Ivar (of Tepest), Dirca, and Andor Merriwite. Vhar became inebriated and spilled the beans about his transgression to the other people in the Nocturne inn. Leith discovered the Tapestry, which almost convinced her to murder her husband to escape him and keep it. However, she resisted the compulsion enough merely to try to leave with it. However, the Tapestry captured Vhar and imprisoned him inside it with the other transgressors, trapping Vhar in a horrible state neither truly alive nor dead.

Th taking of her husband horrified Leith and disillusioned her from the Tapestry. She left with haste to return to the monastery in Markovia.[17] From there, a long series of events triggered, ending with Leith being victimized twice in unconnected ways. Maeve infected Leith with lycanthropy, and Morgoth reached through the Tapestry to impregnate her. With the assistants of the Guardians, Leith gave birth to Jonathan in 718 BC. Shortly thereafter, she surrendered herself to the Cloth to escape falling under Maeve's domination.

The Guardians raised Jonathan as one of their own. They taught him a number of skills, the practice of wizardry among them.[18] At the age of 17[19], Jon exerted his independence by withdrawing from the monastery and coming to live in the town of Linde.[20] Unknown to anyone but Morgoth himself, his manipulation of Jonathan had already begun.[21]

Morgoth's Scheme

With Jon's coming of age, Morgoth had waited seventeen years (735 BC[22]) before he was fully able to fully manipulate his son. Casting the Guardians as liars and deceivers, Morgoth manipulated Jon into freeing him. Portraying himself as a benign father figure and teacher, Morgoth persuaded an oath of loyalty from his son, with the implicit threat of doom to his loved ones, especially Sondra, weighing deeply upon Jonathan's heart.[23] One of Jonathan's first tasks was the murder of Brother Leo when Leo approached their lair. Jon went through with the act, albeit tearfully.[24]

Beyond the corruption of Jon, Morgoth set about gathering strength and recruiting allies (or perhaps, pawns.) He accomplished the former through draining as the life from goblins and humans alike. Morgoth gained minions through animated his dead victims.[25] In addition, he seduced and tempted Maeve[26], a lycanthrope, and through her, manipulated her pack.[27]

Morgoth's loyalties ultimately were with the other lost souls in the Tapestry (for whom he intended to free[28]) and to his progeny (so long as they served him). Like the Gentleman Caller, Morgoth intended to act as a breeder of his children, producing a family of mystically endowed servants to enforce his will. Unusual for a tyrant, Morgoth was quite accommodating in granting Jon's favors when asked.[29] Morgoth was even forgiving despite Jon's attempts at rebellion.[30] With his other pawns, such as Maeve[31] or Dirca[32], Morgoth was more willing to toss aside.

Destruction of the Cloth

With Jonathan at his side, Morgoth engineered two attacks upon the Guardians' monastery, hellbent on retrieving the Tapestry. The first attack, utilizing Maeve's pack of werewolves, failed.[33]

In the second attack, Morgoth led a mass of undead minions taken from the villagers of Linde. However, he was lured into a trap planned by Jon and his mother Leith, whom he had visited earlier and spoken with from across the veil of the Cloth. They would come together to fulfill the prophecy of the Cloth's destruction through corruption coming from within, specifically the "corruption" of love. Leith joined with Ivar (of Tepest) and Jon to allow a Lightning Bolt spell to resonate within the Tapestry, bypassing its immunity to magic. With the last minute intervention of Maeve, the Tapestry and Morgoth were both destroyed, although at the cost of Ivar, Leith, and Jon's lives. Leith was able to fit in an final embrace with her son before they perished.[34]

The various evil creatures stored within the Gathering Cloth also met their end with its destruction.

Imprisoned Beings

Beings to known to have been imprisoned in the Tapestry:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Champions of the Mists p. 42
  2. ↑ Domains of Dread p. 17
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Tapestry of Dark Souls p. 41
  4. ↑ ToDS p. 86
  5. ↑ ToDS p.1-5
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Weaver's Pride, Tales of Ravenloft p. 251-265
  7. ↑ [[ToDS p. 6
  8. ↑ ToDS p. 34
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 ToDS p. 90-91
  10. ↑ ToDS p. 211
  11. ↑ ToDS p. 212
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 ToDS p. 34-35
  13. ↑ Domains of Dread p. 17 places the events of the Tapestry's destruction at 735 BC. Jonathan (Son of Morgoth) is 17 at the time, which would make 717 BC the year of conception
  14. ↑ ToDS 9-23
  15. ↑ ToDS p. 30-33
  16. ↑ ToDS p. 49
  17. ↑ ToDS p. 26-42
  18. ↑ ToDS 112-119
  19. ↑ ToDS p. 117
  20. ↑ ToDS p.149-151
  21. ↑ ToDS p. 112, 139, 149
  22. ↑ DoD p. 17
  23. ↑ ToDS p. 212-217
  24. ↑ ToDS p. 241
  25. ↑ ToDS p. 207-210, 243-244, 283-284
  26. ↑ ToDS p. 227-230
  27. ↑ ToDS p. 242-243
  28. ↑ ToDS p. 252-253
  29. ↑ ToDS p. 290=291
  30. ↑ ToDS p. 282, 284
  31. ↑ ToDS p. 250
  32. ↑ ToDS p. 275
  33. ↑ ToDS p. 250-260
  34. ↑ ToDS p. 303-307
  35. ↑ ToDS p. 86
  36. ↑ ToDS p. 48
  37. ↑ ToDS p. 89

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Tapestry of Dark Souls - throughout
Champions of the Mists - p42

Tapestry of Dark Souls - cover

Tapestry of Dark Souls - p

Tapestry of Dark Souls, The Tapestry of Dark Souls


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