Church of Talona

The Church of Talona was a collection of clerics, mystics, and specialty priests called malagents devoted to Talona, the Lady of Poison.

Organization
Priests of Talona were known as Talontar and her faithful were called Talonites. The Talontar usually covered their bodies with ritual scarring and tattoos. Malagents carried the title of Most Fatal Horror. These individuals were sometimes called Fatals by the Talonites, but never to their face. Other titles within the clergy included Most Debilitating Holiness and Young Venom.

Activities
The Talontar preferred to operate as quietly as possible. They made and sold poisons and antidotes to raise funds for the church. Given their tolerance and immunity to diseases, the Talontar often treated diseases in others or served as food-tasters for wealthy clients to earn coin as well. The Talontar would band together to inflict disease in any nation that cast out one of their own.

Celebrations
Prayers were offered to Talona three times per day in the morning, highsun, and evening. A holy festival, called a daernuth, was held every twelve days. Initiates were inducted into the faith on the daernuth closest to Highharvestide.

Base of Operations
Talona's temples and shrines were spread throughout Faerûn, though these locations were often secret and hidden from the general public as Talona was more feared than worshiped. The Talontar operated in secret, working from the darkness to spread disease and contagion. Lairs in catacombs or sewers beneath cities were usually overflowing with mold and fungi. Wilderness temples and shrines were constructed near swamps or marshes laden with disease-carrying mosquitos or other insects. Talona's temples were often decorated with gargoyles that appeared as humans wracked with disease. These statues also served as guardians.

The center of Talon's power was the House of Night's Embrace in Tashluta.

Dogma
Talona stressed that life and death were in balance, but that death was more powerful and should be respected. Through this respect for death one could lengthen one's own life. Those who thought themselves safe from death needed to be brought low with Talona's breath–disease.

Orders
The Plague-mother's Children was once a group of crusaders who sought to prolong the Rotting War in Talona's name. The group had degenerated into a group of thugs extorting others for money by the.