Crones of Thanatos

The Crones of Thanatos, also known as simply the Crones, was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship of Kiaransalee, the drow goddess of undeath and vengeance.

Dress
Crones always dressed in loose black hooded robes, wore a gray skullcap, and sported at least one silver ring on each hand. Some of them smeared their faces with a mix of ashes taken from a pyre and fat and had a bone dagger and a necklace with a white hourglass around their neck.

Magic
Crones wielded clerical magic bestowed by their patron goddess Kiaransalee, but they were also accomplished necromancers in their own right.

As many of them eventually embraced undeath, they became either revenants or keening spirits, raised by the goddess herself.

When undead, they were powerful enough to be unaffected by the rebuke of a cleric and could paralyze at a distance. They could cast illusions related to the past of the victim and damage living beings with just a touch. They healed from physical wounds in mere seconds.

History
When Cavatina Xarann and Kâras were in the Hunt, they came across a Crone revenant, who had previously had been Kâras's lover in Maerimydra.

In the Underdark, Q'arlynd Melarn and many other diviners of Sshamath realized that when casting divinations they emitted a flicker of faerie fire, which was unprecedented. After contacting the priestesses of Eilistraee and confirming that only drow were affected, Seldszar Elpragh, Urlryn Khalazza and Qilué Veladorn organized a joint expedition to uncover the mystery. The situation got worse, with divinations becoming increasingly difficult to perform, but evidence pointed to the Acropolis of Thanatos, the largest temple of Kiaransalee, which was heavily guarded by Crones and other undead. The expedition discovered that the Crones were amassing a massive amount of voidstone within the Acropolis, hoping to create a gate and summon an army of undead from the Negative Energy Plane. Incidentally, the voidstone reacted with the faerzress, increasing its energy and disrupting drow magic in the region. When Q'arlynd Melarn and his apprentices used Elven High Magic to erase Kiaransalee's name from the minds of her worshipers, all the undead Crones died on the spot, and the rest stumbled about, confused about the sudden lack of purpose and patron deity.

Although Cavatina, noticing the Crones' defenseless and pitiful state asked Qilué about the possibility to redeem them and spare their life, Wendonai's influence, acting through the possessed Crescent Blade, made Qilué order their death.

Notable Crones

 * Cabrath Nelinderra

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Storm of the Dead