Greatmother Lucaerna

The Greatmother, once known as Lucaerna Duskstalker, is the founder, ruler, and nominal leader of the Shadow Cult of Elune, an organization spawned from the remnants of the old Covenants of Demon Hunters. Formerly a Demon Hunter herself, Lucaerna stood the Long Vigil of the ages between the invasions of the Burning Legion, and through her actions as an independent huntress, kept her own faith alive.

Since then, her pursuit of divinity and purpose has led her down the darkest paths possible, leading her from the path of the Demon Hunter, and down the road of worship Herself.

History
The early days of Lucaerna are shrouded in mystery and hearsay. Some say that she was a renegade cast out from her sisters, others name her a sentinel, or perhaps some highborne vestige clinging on to the edge of society. Those scholarly types who trace back the tomes and writings of the Broodmother might identify that she once belonged to a minor order of the Sisterhood of Elune that arose in the early years of the Long Vigil. Spotty records identify one Lucaerna Moonsong, a young and exuberant priestess who served in the War of the Satyr alongside her sister, Amlae Moonsong.

The Moonsong siblings disappear from any official rosters and records sometime around the year -3031, as humans and the High Elves's magics began to spread across the world. Interested daughters of the Cult speak of stories gleaned from human historians where tales of berserk demons rampaged through small towns. Often singular demons, women, seductresses, appearing suddenly, eliminating some small part of the population in maelstroms of violence in the wake of minor demonic incursions. The pattern stems from a small ingress point towards the Elflands of Quel'thalas, moving south towards the human lands and through what would be called Arathi.

Historians of the Cult note a slight deviation in these tales as time goes on, and the population culls became infrequent. A legend emerges among the ancient Arathorian stories of a cursed woman. A Half-Elf by the stories who slew all they met. If this figure is Lucaerna is unknown, or perhaps an early child of the Mother; efforts to find this figure have been met with no success, and the legend of the Mother's origin vanishes as the trail of destruction over the decades went cold.

Reemergence
Records become much more solified and reliable as the Illidari emerged unto the world as a coherant fighting force. For when the time came, Lucaerna answered the summons of Illidan Stormrage when he called his Demon Hunters to his side once freed from his 10,000 years of Imprisonment. Though having spent the long centuries in exile Lucaerna came without a moments hesitation to aid her people and acted instantly in the name of the master of all hunters. Though her time in the presence of The Great Shan'do was brief, she gladly and zealously fought under his command against the demons of the Felwood. When Illidan and the bulk of the Demon Hunters departed for Outland, Lucaerna stayed behind on Azeroth as part of the rear guard composed of those elves who felt the strongest ties to the world. She has since found herself joining with other hunters who remained behind under the teachings of Covenant of the Dark Embrace, coming together to prepare for the legions impending return.

And her faith did grow, over the years until the return of the legion her own following and powers grew, as did her instability. In the months leading up to the third legion invasion of Azeroth, Lucaerna traveled to the demon world of Mahz'arahk with her Thero'shans Kyphaz Duskwolf and Ysandiir to locate the sibling demon of she who was bound within her, she tracked down the counterpart demon and confronted it. It would prove to be her undoing, for as the demon within her was in danger of slipping its binding, the true name of the beast gave it that last push it needed.

Engaging in a battle of wills and faith that lasted days, Lucaerna confronted her demon upon her mental landscape, wrestling with the essence of the thing. The priestess of elune vs. the priestess of the false god Sargeras. Where mortals would quail, she succeeded, and as her bindings were tied shut once more by her Shan'do and her students, Lucaerna consumed the mind of demon within, silencing it for all time and merging completely with it. She was changed forever, a demon in flesh. Possessing an immortal demon soul.

Founding of the Dark Faith
For much of its history, the faithful acolytes of Lucaerna thrived solely on the zealous and charisma of their leader, without much material of physical proof of the claims. Ideology and philosophy drove the faith of the initiated and formed a devoted core of followers. Their faith was finally rewarded when Ysera was saved from damnation and corruption at the hands of the Emerald Nightmare, and it was the spark that so many had been seeking. Physical proof that those engulfed in darkness could be brought back into the light. It was a moment of vindication for Lucaerna, a turning point which solidified her zeal

The writings were greatly grown and expanded, and the cult began to spread out into multiple avenues of thought. The radical mindset of the Illidari crept into the cult, and demons were first introduced into the ranks of the cult, some loyal adherents to this aberrant faith, some forcibly enslaved. The foremost Children of the Mother took their places within the burgeoning religious community.

Somewhere along the line, the direction of the cult under Lucaerna would radically diverge. For Lucaerna had found the Sayaad Queen Xazariel, and took the Sayaad into her confidence through binding such as to gain information on the Legion in her war, and many outside of the cult within the Illidari whispered that it was Lucaerna who was enthralled to the Demon and not the other way around.

It was in this time that Lucaerna began to see the great boon of demonic servants and children of the cult who could not disobey. Lucaerna began appearing to the cult publicly pregnant with child, bearing the offspring of the Sayaad Queen, using the body to hide her actions from the greater Illidari. Nominally it was justified to the Demon Hunters of the cult as a bargain or trade, that in exchange for carrying child, the Sayaad Queen provided valuable intelligence on the Legion. It was true in a sense, and valuable knowledge flowed from the renegade demon.

From Lucaerna though flowed something else. Demonic offspring, demons birthed of an unholy union. And the influence of the demons grew over the body and over Lucaerna, causing her to retreat further into the practices of the cult and less into the destruction of the legion, remaining deep into her own desires and pleasures. The tipping point would come when Lucaerna first imposed the act upon anouther of the cult; an acolyte by the name of Shalana Starrunner, and the Demon Hunter Syraelinn. Both volunteered, but if by voice, it was not known. But it was done to grow the power of the cult. Among the demon hunters of the cult, the influence of Xazariel was seen. And so the demon hunters rose up and cast out the demon, banishing her back to Nether. Lucaerna was confronted finally, and questioned on her actions, and found glad to languish in her gravid state. The Demon Hunters, unwilling to accept such a being as their leader, broadly defected from the cult, save for a dedicated few who either agreed with her changing beliefs or did not care, seeing her ways as a valid way to combat the Legion at any cost. Those remaining few demons hunters willing to follow Lucaerna formed the Dark Brethren, and would serve as Lucaerna's most elite followers.

The Growth
The whispers of what Lucaerna could do and could give would gradually spread. Lucaerna’s influence spread like slithering roots, and interested parties would come across her. Trading their essence for powers and ancient knowledge. One such interested party among many was Mirajade Nightshadow, an old highborne noble. She was intrigued by the cult, and, enraptured by Luc’s gifts and her offspring, dwelt among them. She awaited Lucaerna to bear her last children and beseeched her for training. She served well as an acolyte and then student, learning the ways of the demon hunter. And at the height of training, would lie with Lucaerna, revealing her own endowments, and leaving Lucaerna with child.

The priestess would leave the temple, particularly attached to the new thing gestating within her. She went to seek sufficient food for this carefully grown creation, and in her travels met the Draenei Warrior, Thelissa. The warrior was taken by the prospect that life grew within a demon hunter; that belly of Lucaerna's which had provided so. Lucaerna travelled with the warrior, who offered her her aid, and found them to be a former vindicator who had lost faith, and as they travelled, a spark of interest grew in the warrior, and that interest turned to attraction when Thelissa, endowed properly, lay with Lucaerna, and left her with the seed of the Man'ari within her. They would lie together again and again, and as Lucaerna's belly grew, the draenei would become obsessed with the notion of new life and purpose. They travelled no more, hidden in fel tainted wilds until the huntress grew encumbered, her stomach swollen with new life; the first Man'ari who would serve the cause, but with great difficulty made to eventually return to the temple to birth, and Thelissa returned with her, and was baptized into the Shadow Cult. Lucaerna would continue to grow, seemingly never ceasing in her birth and impregnation and her breeding perpetuating. With little else to focus on, her research and readings only grew more and more perverse, and only her closest daughters and consorts attended her to assist in ritual where she could no longer properly engage, those close to her unable to meaningfully disobey anymore, much to the delight of the huntress. And so she fed on demons until she grew so encumbered she could no longer stand. Her own personal obsessions with birth and death becoming so pronounced that she lost all concern for her original missions, seeking only the growth of her brood. To this end, she summoned the final demons of her mortal existance; the Fecund Triad, a trio of Imp Mothers who had gained the following of Sayaads, and begun producing them themselves. And as she learned their secrets, she would slay them, her consorts filling her with meat and seed in grotesque rituals which served to bloat her body and swell her powers imaginably.

Ascension
In time, Lucaerna began to lose what made her a hunter in the first place as she grew to phenomenal size. Her body grew as her powers grew, and she sought her prime consort out, Mirajade was summoned forth, and the two took to each other with difficulty as they were born up on palls to be taken to the caverns below. And in those fel saturated depths, she was elevated to Demonhood. Mira's potency grew tenfold, and it only matched Lucaerna's fecundity. In passion, Mira took the huntress and they bred and bred and bred. Fel seed, essence, and powers filtered through a worthy mate filled the woman, and Lucaerna finally had what we desired for so long. A perfect body, swollen to unimaginable size, such that she might never know want nor lack of child again. As her flesh underwent its final corruptions, her consciousness and power grew a thousandfold as she became something other than an elf, something other than a demon; she was the Broodmother, and she shall never be alone again.

And so The Mother was born. The demon mother was said to have cried out at that moment, as if realizing her own fate. Others recall it as a moan of pleasure befitting her dozens of sayaad daughters. The Broodmother would never stand again, and she was born up in the magics of her Prime Consort even as her body continued to grow. She was taken to the pool of the Grand Chapel and placed unto the waters such that she might support her own body mass properly. Her equally embiggened consort ordered a throne built, and knelt with her, draping her in her wings, and in one last herculean effort, Luc stood, placed herself upon the edge, and moved no more. She would feed and feed and lift herself only to birth and be bred. Knowing no limits, that belly which had held so many and had been traded for power and for favours swelled to hold uncounted young, and continued to gestate new demonic life even as she devoured their essence. Even now, the terriffically bloated broodmother strains against her own nature, and her convulsing body betrays her desires. No matter who she must take to have what she wants, she is compelled to breed, feed, and birth. As Broodmother she is both less and more, but her bloodlines shall always love her.

Unique Place in the Cult
As the nominal leader of the faith, Lucaerna instead serves virtually as the godhead and object of worship. Many of the demons and mortals of the cult worship at the foot of the Altar of the Mother, but in truth they worship Lucaerna, and beyond that, the idea of distant goddesses who might save the world, and it shall be done through birth and by death. The Shadow Cult of Elune is totally under Her control, but how much of it she is aware of is anouther matter. In her ascension, her soul burns with Fel powers and might, such that small fragments are embedded within all that take her magic and all that are born to her.

Each being born to her that gestates within her womb is processed of a infinitesimal piece of the Mother's power. A shard of greatness that binds them to the Greatmother through gossamer threads of soulstuff. Any being devoured by the Mother is absorbed into her womb, and shall be born again as demonkind, and as she devoured more and more souls, she only grew in power as the individual demons under Her control gained power and knowledge, and through the soul links, that power and knowledge flows back to Her. This manifests in what the Cult refers to as "The Presence", this sense of belonging to Lucaerna and to their brethren. It is calming, sensate, and invigorating. The link is stronger the closer the subject is to Lucaerna, and her control over the subject even more total until it is completely overwhelming. The longer one spends in the presence of the Mother, the more they are subject to her whims and her curses. Will erodes, control slips, and passions ignite. Mutations grow wildly out of control. Demons which die return to Lucaerna, growing once more to be reborn in the material world, her soul ad body a beacon for those linked to her. And those linked to her number in the hundreds or thousands.

Personality and Beliefs
Lucaerna retains her ultimate goal, to eliminate demons of the Burning Legion. But in her warped mind, she seeks to replace them with her own. New life from old. Lucaerna the Broodmother is very different than as she was as Lucaerna the Demon Hunter; some aspects of her personality remain in her playful and devious nature, but she has adopted a matriarchal role that sets her apart distinctly. Caring and watching over and through thousands of her offspring has altered her mind and priorities such that she only truly cares for the propagation of her young. She has been completely overtaken by that goal, and she grows immeasurably vicious and spiteful to anyone who would attempt to thwart that goal.