Editing The Wolf God

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Wolf God
|Symbol = [[File:Wolf God symbol.jpg|150px]]<br>A snarling wolf's head or a bloody wolf's paw print
|Alignment = Chaotic Evil
|Divine Rank = Unknown
|Pantheon = Ravenloft
|Portfolio = Predators, the wilderness, hunting, savagery, blood, the moon, wolves, werewolves
|Domains = Animal, Chaos, Slaughter, Strength, Trickery
|Home Plane = ''The Deep Woods'' (Demiplane of Dread)
|Worshippers = [[Werewolf|Werewolves]], [[Shifter]]s
|Favoured Weapon = Natural Weapons
}}
'''The Wolf God''' is a malevolent deity worshipped by [[werewolves]] in the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] setting of [[Ravenloft]]. His worship is concentrated in the domain of Verbrek, which is literally The Werewolf Land of Ravenloft, but his faith is spreading throughout the southwestern Core.

His entire creed is basically that werewolves are the alpha predators of the world and that they should embrace their most savage, twisted, and destructive impulses. Needless to say, he's not a very fun guy.

==Church==
Only werewolves - or the rare madman who wants to become a werewolf - are inclined to worship the Wolf God, and only werewolves can become his clerics. These lycanthropic clerics must follow strict taboos, such as never being tainted by the scent of prey creatures or reveal any wounds they may be carrying. There is no holy text or orthodoxy for the Wolf God; clerics pass on his traditions through vicious, gruesome ordeals. Clerics pray for their spells at sunset, and the Wolf God is worshipped predominantly through the act of hunting, which is considered sacred in and of itself. His clerics engage in strange rites intended to prove their fanaticism and bestow holy visions, with a particular love of sacrificing humans and werebeasts by tearing out their throats and letting them bleed to death. Fitting with the nomadic nature of his faithful, the Wolf God has no temple; instead, werewolves construct crude cairns of stone and bone, decorated with pawprints made with blood. 

The Wolf God, as you'd expect of a pretty stereotypical lupine deity, is very focused on the moon; his clerics preach that werewolves should respect and fear the moon, as it holds power over fate. Rituals are tied to the waxing and waning of the moon, and lunar omens are hugely important, with a lunar eclipse being a particularly dire omen.

The Wolf God's priests are typically single-classed, and usually [[adept]]s, although they can also be [[cleric]]s, [[druid]]s or even [[ranger]]s. Alfred Timothy, the [[Darklord]] of Verbrek, is the high priest of the Wolf God.

==Dogma==
Hunt. Kill. Feast. You are master of the forest and nightmare of the civilized world. Do whatever it takes to survive, thrive, and breed. Slay the weak, even among your own kin, for they diminish your race. Revel in the crack of bone and the screams of prey. Follow your instincts. Do not let pity or remorse trouble you. Offer howls to the moon, for she knows your secrets and your fate. Honor wolves as your allies. All other creatures are prey to be eaten or rivals to be slain.

==Does the Wolf God Actually Exist?==
Given the Dark Powers' outright ban on divine interference in Ravenloft, such as the actual physical presence of a deity, its divine guidance, or its divine proxies and servants, the actual existence of the Wolf God is an unanswered question, since even if it did exist it would be unable to send any irrefutable proof to the Demiplane of Dread. However, the Dark Powers have been known to actually grant divine spells and other powers to anyone who worships a false or nonexistent god fervently enough, delighting in the crises of faith suffered by worshipers of these false deities, and how they so often double down in the fanaticism of their belief to try and win the nonexistent "favour" of such imagined entities. 

One canonical case of the Dark Powers granting divine spells to a worshiper of a false god is the Darklord Yagno Petrovna, whose entire Domain is centred around the worship of a self-imagined god he named Zhakata. However, no canonical statement has yet been issued on whether or not the Wolf God is in fact real, so it's really the DM's call in this case. If a DM wants to actually make the Wolf God real within the campaign, then perhaps the Wolf God could be portrayed as an lycanthrope-centric aspect of [[Erythnul]] given that god's focus on bloody slaughter and the overthrow of order. 

{{D&D-Ravenloft-Deities}}