Monastery of the Silent Crow

The Monastery of the Silent Crow is a decrepit monastery near the heart of the Dark Woods that houses a small conclave of priests, monks and their family. Devout worshipers of the light and known for their nigh-over bearing generosity to travelers, the Monastery is odd in the way that such devout followers practice an art known as Ravenry.

History
Repopulated by the original High Priest William Falsemire about one hundred years before the fall of the Greymane Wall, the Monastery originally was designed as a housing for monks who had lived in the area and delved into the woods for serenity; this order of monks later died out from unknown causes leaving the monastery abandoned. In the years that would pass, it was later retooled as the forward base for the mission of the High Priest, who believed the woods were tainted by some dark force and had sought to bring the light to purge it. The Monastery was founded within the center of the woods by what eventually came to be known as the Misted Basin; a large basin of water that flowed out through most of the Ashen Coast. One morning, Falsemire departed the monastery with ten of his followers to scour the woods as they did often for the darkness; only three returned including Falsemire. Stated to have been descended upon by in-penetrable darkness followed by a horde of hideously deformed spiders, Falsemire and his troop were barely able to escape.

Gathering men from the local towns, Falsemire descended into the woods. Of the two hundred fifty men only Falsemire and another man returned. By some unknown means, Falsemire had lost his ability to speak, and the man that returned with him merely uttered the darkness had been buried before later committing suicide several days later. Unable to lead the monastery with his teachings, his son William Falsemire the Second, took up his father's mantle of High Priest. In the coming days following his father's return, Falsemire began to spread the teachings of Ravenry, an odd form of Shadow Magic. Many claimed it to be heresy, but Falsemire justified it by saying it was from whispers of the light. Those that claimed him to be mad branded him and those who chose to remain in the Monastic grounds as heretics and departed from the woods; but those who remained began to learn and teach the practices of Ravenry. It would later be found that those who departed spread the word of the monastery to the priests within Gilneas City, and many of the records of the Monastery were purged from the libraries and archives as with most heretics.

William Falsemire the first followed his son in teaching the ways of Ravenry in what ways he could, his voice merely a whisper after several years following the defeat of the darkness within the woods. He would later pass on five years following the defeat of the darkness and was buried upon a hill behind the Monastery.

William Falsemire the Second has led the monastery for nearly sixty years, himself well into his eighties. Many wonder who will lead the monastery once William passes, as he himself has bore no heir.

Ravenry
Ravenry is an odd practice of shadow magic that is designed around the usage of strange creatures known as Shadow Ravens. These ravens look like normal ravens of Gilneas except for their odd purple glowing eyes and the fact that when they move they leave behind an ever following trail of feathers that appear to melt in thin air. Raven Priests are ordered to have with them a normal raven companion. These ravens are said to remind them of the light and to help steel themselves against the temptations of the dark magic. They are the conduits from which Raven Priests cast shadow magic, using an ancient art to take pieces of their own soul to create these creatures. Once they have been expended, the fragment returns to the priest; without the taint of the void.

Raven Priests from the monastery are known to be devout worshipers of the light, believing that what they do is in the light's name and by using this dark magic to do it's will they are in turn using the forces of evil against its self. These teachings are archived within the Monastery in several volumes written by the two Falsemires.