Plot: Rabenvater/Summary

The cult of the Crow Father, or in the original German “Rabenvater”, was a society of occultists in Germany and Austria in the later half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th with German’s occult revival. The organization was a contemporary of the Ordo Templi Orientis and other mystery societies and many considered it to be little more than just another social organization with a hint of neopaganism thrown in for color; the poor cousin to the Thule Society.

Towards the end of World War Two, rumors started to surface that their members began performing ritual sacrifices to a dark figure in return for blessings and secrets to dark power. Some speculated that they tried massively impressive rituals in order to save Germany from its enemies but in the end it was either too little power or their plans were disrupted. Their members, often high-placed officers within the Nazi party, scattered to the wind as the war was coming to an end. Some were hunted down and captured but a few were able to escape with their most precious items of power and books of lore and ritual.

The surviving members reformed in the colleges and industrial towns of the post-war United States, their Nazi symbolism was abandoned and additional neopagan flavor was added to conceal their origins. They left the Teutonic rune symbol as their banner and adopted a mixed icon involving crossed raven legs, crossed bones, a pentacle-centered eye and plenty of droplets of blood. With the sole remaining copy of their collection of rituals, the organization scattered itself among the states and created for themselves small enclaves here and there to build their numbers, amass power - both financial and political - as well as plan for their future goals.

So when a curious glance at what was thought to be a gaming map reveals a more sinister and subversive truth, a world of hidden cults, bizarre rituals and dark magic was revealed to those foolish enough to follow the trails left in the shadows.