D&D 5E Help me define Mother Night (CoS)

We all know everything about the Morninglord, but what about Curse of Strahd's mysterious Mother Night? Have you detailed this deity any further in your campaigns?


One of the D&D people (Crawford maybe?) said the domain to describe her is Trickery... But that's very poor, I need more.


The reason I'm asking is because I have a Drow worshiper of Ellistraee in my game and she's been dancing naked to her goddess every night. Apparently Ellistraee grants blessings on the full moon, like making her hair shiny silver and coating her weapons with radiance for about a month ( http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Eilistraee#Powers ). That's what my player is hoping to get... I told her that I'm still thinking about it. There's 3 more in-game nights till full moon.


I'm going with it because it's pretty cool, and the poor elf will have to dance naked in the freezing montains these next nights. It can be basically a magic weapon, she doesn't even have any magic items yet, so that's a cool way to get one. But not permanent powers.


However, because there are no other gods in this land, I was thinking of having Mother Night answer her dancing prayers instead, and grant some different powers. They both share godly aspects after all, they could even be parts of the same goddess.


The easy (and powerful) option would be to make her weapons deal radiant damage.
But I'd rather grant a more interesting power, one that clearly comes from Mother Night. Necrotic damage? Trickery domain's Invoke duplicity 1/day?
For a start, she could get the silver hair of a crone instead of beautiful flowing shiny hair.

For me, the night sky despite being beautiful is cold, lonely and remote.
I like your idea of the crone hair.
Perhaps any powers/bonuses granted result in a cold detachment to other players and NPCs. Maybe not in terms of Charisma as such characters could still be charismatic but maybe empathy, certain perceptions and a general growing antipathy towards her.

Bonuses along these lines would be cold damage I guess. But when fighting groups the cold can cause a chance of revulsion in other combatants so that they feel compelled to attack the wielder no matter who they were targeting.

Eilistraee and Mother Night seem to have little in common (aside being somehow tied to the night, ofc). The former stands for beauty and hope, and tries to be a loving mother to all drow; the latter has even been believed to have abandoned the Barovian people for a long time. That said, Mother Night can ofc answer the prayers of the drow character, but if you want her to do it, I'd try to make a plotline out of it. For example, why does this deity (who hadn't asnwered to prayers for a very long time and has only recently begun to react to rituals, as far I can see) all of sudden answers to the dancing drow? What does she hopes to get from the characters? Does she have any particular plan going on? Etc...

As for the powers, Mother Night doesn't seem to embody very nice aspects of the night/moon. Necrotic damage would fit thematically, but it seems a rather underwhelming gift, considering that you are in Ravenloft. Cold doesn't seem too useful either, but it is fitting as well. Some believe that Mother Night sent Strahad as a punishment for the Barovians, so why not give her some power over the undead? Idk, X times/rest, when her weapon strikes an undead it is "charmed" or controlled, or rebuked, or something along those lines.

On a side note, unless you want this to be some kind of surprise effect, I'd advice to discuss it with your player first. Maybe she/he has made the faith in Eilistraee a big part of her character, and wouldn't be happy to see it taken from her. For example, the plotline I mentioned in my previous post might even involve the drow character resisting Mother Night's attempt at manipulating her, while trying to hold close the light of Eilistraee and uphold her ideals. Idk just something to not let the player feel like she/he lost the character concept.

Irennan said:

Eilistraee and Mother Night seem to have little in common (aside being somehow tied to the night, ofc). The former stands for beauty and hope, and tries to be a loving mother to all drow; the latter has even been believed to have abandoned the Barovian people for a long time. That said, Mother Night can ofc answer the prayers of the drow character, but if you want her to do it, I'd try to make a plotline out of it. For example, why does this deity (who hadn't asnwered to prayers for a very long time and has only recently begun to react to rituals, as far I can see) all of sudden answers to the dancing drow? What does she hopes to get from the characters? Does she have any particular plan going on? Etc...

As for the powers, Mother Night doesn't seem to embody very nice aspects of the night/moon. Necrotic damage would fit thematically, but it seems a rather underwhelming gift, considering that you are in Ravenloft. Cold doesn't seem too useful either, but it is fitting as well. Some believe that Mother Night sent Strahad as a punishment for the Barovians, so why not give her some power over the undead? Idk, X times/rest, when her weapon strikes an undead it is "charmed" or controlled, or rebuked, or something along those lines.

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My understanding is that it's the Morninglord who has abandoned the Barovian people. Mother Night is the reason for Madam Eva and Baba Lysaga. You even get cursed by her if you steal anything from her shrine. She seems pretty active to me.

The people's belief that she sent Strahd is just that, their belief, which is untrue. She isn't necessarily evil. It's just that there is a lot more night than light in this world.

I was going for something as simple as Mother Night enjoying the nightly naked dance, and stepping forward, as she's "closer" to the drow than Ellistraee herself.

Cool idea about the undead

Irennan said:

On a side note, unless you want this to be some kind of surprise effect, I'd advice to discuss it with your player first. Maybe she/he has made the faith in Eilistraee a big part of her character, and wouldn't be happy to see it taken from her. For example, the plotline I mentioned in my previous post might even involve the drow character resisting Mother Night's attempt at manipulating her, while trying to hold close the light of Eilistraee and uphold her ideals. Idk just something to not let the player feel like she/he lost the character concept.

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Last time she danced I told the player that she felt a faint divine spark, of feminine energy, moonlight and night. Next time I was planning on making her realize that this divine energy feels different from what she remembered.

My Mother Night won't be evil. She's probably even benevolent... Which in Ravenloft doesn't mean the same as in other worlds...

But good point on Ellistraee, I didn't realize that she's that Good and pure. Actually, I should read more about her...

Honestly I'm a bit annoyed at all these good drows... Evil should run deeper in their blood, turning good should shouldn't be this easy.
Now there's even a good drow goddess... I don't think I'll allow drow elves again in my games.

Actually, a good goddess helps explain the aberration of good drows...

Anyway, gods don't always have to be either good or evil and Mother Night isn't evil

Wepwawet said:

My understanding is that it's the Morninglord who has abandoned the Barovian people. Mother Night is the reason for Madam Eva and Baba Lysaga. You even get cursed by her if you steal anything from her shrine. She seems pretty active to me.

The people's belief that she sent Strahd is just that, their belief, which is untrue. She isn't necessarily evil. It's just that there is a lot more night than light in this world.

I was going for something as simple as Mother Night enjoying the nightly naked dance, and stepping forward, as she's "closer" to the drow than Ellistraee herself.

Cool idea about the undead

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IIRC, before Curse of Strahd, both deities were believed to be no longer active, although I'm aware that Mother Night is active in the latest book (that's why I used the wording in my post), so I thought that it was a recent thing. I didn't mean to imply that she was flat out evil, but she surely doesn't seem to be nice. Eilistraee is the moon and stars in the nightsky, while Mother Night could be more focused on the darkness of night itself (or that's the impression I have from it).

In any case, I think it depends on why you want Mother Night to bless the drow. If it is because of lore reasons, yes, it's true that Ravenloft is Mother Night's turf, and that clerics of external deities feel an emptiness inside them while they enter Ravenloft.However, just like divine spells still work, I guess blessings could also work in a similar way. Since communication with deities is impossible, and since Eilistraee enjoys to be at her people's side when they need comfort or help, I guess that the moonfire blessing could be her way to tell her follower that she's not been forsaken.

If you want Mother Night to be involved because you like the idea, then I think that it'd be somewhat of a waste to not make a stroy out of it. If you want to spin the undead power in a more positive way, maybe you could have both Mother Night and Eilistraee be close to the drow. Perhaps Mother Night--if you want her to be benevolent--plans to use the drow (and others) to free and purify the undead of Barovia, or to make them into something different, more alike to people than twisted tormented creatures, while retaining their undeath. Eilistraee's light--which is soothing, a light of acceptance, that brings confort and hope--could prove instrumental for this.

For example, the drow's weapons could be surrounded by cold moonlight which can "charm" the undead when struck, by soothing the pain that they feel. With time (levels), that power could grow. For example, it could return lucidity to the undead's minds for a limited time, then for longer periods of time, until the point is reached when the two goddesses' magic combined can purify the undead (which is my suggested idea for Mother Night's general goal, one which Eilistraee and someone who shares her belief would be fine with).

Discussing this with the player could be helpful, even though in the end the choice is oviously yours.

Wepwawet said:

Honestly I'm a bit annoyed at all these good drows... Evil should run deeper in their blood, turning good should shouldn't be this easy.
Now there's even a good drow goddess... I don't think I'll allow drow elves again in my games.

Actually, a good goddess helps explain the aberration of good drows...

Anyway, gods don't always have to be either good or evil and Mother Night isn't evil

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In the Realms drow are not the same as they are in Greyhawk. if you read their story, then it's only logical that there is a non neglectable number of them who aren't evil--even more so because Corellon cursed a lot of innocent dark elves. Eilistraee is actually *old*. She dates back to Ed Greenwood's own campaign, and he decided to make her official back towards the beginning of 2e. She's integral part of how the drow are in the Realms (for example, she was worshiped by the Torilian dark elves even before Lolth was, she was patroness of one of their nations, etc...).

I agree on Mother Night. I didn't mean to say that she was evil, she looks more harsh than anything to me. But harsh doesn't preclude benevolence.

In my two CoS games, Mother Night isn't actually a deity at all, but rather is the archfey Queen of Air and Darkness. The only reason she is here is because Lord Strahd had the three fanes of magical energy he needed protecting (the Megaliths of St. Andral, the Menhirs of St. Markovia, and the Obelisk of St. Ecatarina), and made a deal with the QoA&D to "hire" three fey hags (Baba Morgantha, Baba Lysaga, and Baba Zelenna) to hold and protect them so he could continue to draw power from the fanes.

By doing this... it gave me a deity in the land for any clerics or paladins to draw from (the Morninglord) and gave me a patron for any warlocks or blood hunters to draw from (Mother Night, the QoA&D). And it helps explain why these hags are here hanging out in Barovia, because their "mother" has basically pressed them into service and they have no choice.