#Yagno Petrovna

[darklordazalin]

Azalin Reviews: Darklord Yagno Petrovna

Domain: G'Henna Domain Formation:  702 BC Power Level: 💀💀⚫⚫⚫ Sources: Domains of Dread (2e) Circle of Darkness (2e), Domains and Denizens, Realm of Terror (109-110), Ravenloft 3e

Yagno Petrovna is a sickly man clinging onto his ever dying belief in a fake deity as the land of G’Henna dies around him. Blinders are a necessary component to religious zealots and the ones Yagno wears are endless.

Yagno grew up in Barovia. Though I am uncertain which village he hailed from, it matters not. One unremarkable village made up of dilapidated buildings and mud is the same as any other. Barovia is not known for its religious populace , but Yagno was…well, let’s just call him imaginative. 

He was physically weak in a family that prided themselves for their vitality. This resulted in much cruelty from his brother, Yoshtoi. Hmm. I can sympathize a bit there, though my elder brother was more the type to lazily insult me from his chair than actually excrete any physical energy against me. 

Yagno would make up stories about the monsters in the woods and he actually feared them himself. I’m not sure why one would need to make up more monsters in the svalich woods or why others would not believe such tales, but siblings will be siblings and Yagno’s brother and others constantly abused him for it.

His brother locked him out of the house one night, telling him to find comfort with his monsters. Yagno became hysterical with his own fear and sheltered in a small cave. The next morning he found the word “Zhakata” scrawled upon the cavern wall. Instead of realizing it was just one night in a cave, a feat most young people would survive, Yagno believed that Zhakata had protected him from the monsters of the woods.

Like a true zealot, Yagno didn’t bother to look into this deity of his or the source of the word “Zhakata” (a code word used between two Vistani), he set up an altar to Zhakata in the cave. And, naturally, decided that Zhakata required ritual sacrifices. 

He sacrificed a number of servants and family members, Yoshtoi included, to this “god” of his. Eventually, he was discovered in the act of sacrificing his sister’s baby. His family saved the child and chased Yagno into the woods, where he fled into the Mists and G’Henna was created.

Yagno rules G’Henna as a Theocracy, making those that dwell there worship his false god. The people of G’Henna believe Zhakata has two forms, the Devourer and the Provider, though none have ever seen the Provider. The Devourer was said to have walked the land, thinning and drying the soils, freezing the people and making the land hostile to all living things.

Having never communed with his God, Yagno is plagued with doubt in Zhakata’s existence. He hides this doubt behind religious decrees and punishes any who question his or their own faith. It is said that the Mists are the ones that grant Yagno his power. A strange sort of torment, to obtain power yet never know its source. 

So powerful was his doubt that he hired a wizard to contact Zhaktat and find the Provider. The wizard ended up summoning a nalfeshnee named Malistroi who mocked Yagno and told him his god was false and never existed. Enraged, Yagno killed the wizard and left the devil bound in the wizard’s summoning circle. Yagno then told his people that there was no Provider, just the Devourer.

In a way this is true, with Yagno being the Devourer himself. His laws require that all food grown in G’Henna are offered to the church. The church pointlessly sacrifices some of this precious resource to "Zhakata" and distributes the rest to the people, barely enough to survive off of. Buying and selling food is considered a crime. Honestly, is anyone upset that the Grand Conjunction threw this Domain out into the floating pockets? No, I only continually get blamed for the less desirable changes.

Yagno’s real power comes from the altar within his grand cathedral that towers over the city of Zhukar. There he can charm the masses as if using a charm spell himself. He can also transform any native G’Henna into a beastial humanoid. These transformations are used quite often on those whom Yagno views as transgressing against him, though they only work on those that believe in Zhakata. In making these transformations, he is simply destroying his own followers. Quite simply put, Yagno is nothing more than a fool's ouroboros.

[oldschoolfrp]

Old time religion: "The mists of Ravenloft lead to G'Henna, land of famine and zealous devotion to Yagno Petrovna, high priest of the Beast-God, Zhakata." (Scott Burdick cover for AD&D 2e Ravenloft adventure Circle of Darkness by Drew Bittner, TSR, 1995)