| abstract | - In life, Antiochus Bland was a zealous priest of Morr who politicked his way to the rank of Temple Father of Altdorf. He used his position to begin a popular campaign against the Undead of the city—Altdorf is rumoured to contain a small but thriving community of Vampires, perhaps because its population is large enough, and compressed enough, to hide them. Bland used these rumours to stir the Altdorf mob into a frenzy that reached its strange conclusion when he was turned by a Vampire of the Lahmian bloodline, effectively defusing his war against the undying ones before it could truly begin.[1a] Bland is still temple father, but he controls the Morrian monastery through his puppet Father Knock, who handles most of the drudgery involved with maintaining the site. Bland cloisters himself in a secure cell in the temple, where he speaks to his minion through a window in the door—and where his minion delivers the beasts on which the Vampire feeds. Knock serves Bland because he believes only Morr has the right to strike down one of his own priests, so he refuses to slay the Undead temple father. Thus far, he has maintained the secret, but he fears if word spreads to the rest of the monks, the entire complex would collapse from infighting.[1a] And what of Bland himself? His self-loathing consumes him; he bathes and blesses his unclean new body all night long, and he burned himself on holy symbols before they were taken from him. Father Knock insures that Bland has animals to feed on (though Bland feeds only when his hunger conquers his disgust) and observes him through a peephole, making notes for his treatise on the Undead and how they pose little real threat to the living. Knock believes that the people’s fear of Vampires is mostly unfounded and that the cult has wasted too much time and money hunting exaggerated legends when it should be concentrating on its role helping the bereaved and burying the dead.[1a] For some reason or another, be it Bland's own self-loathing or Morr's withdrawal of patronage, Antiochus has lost his ability to use the divine spells of his cult.[1b]
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