Greymoria Morality Plays
Greymoria Morality Plays are intended to scare peasants into greater piety towards Greymoria. Due to the spectacle involved, these plays sometimes inspire wonder instead of inspiring fear. These plays are often the easiest and cheapest way for a typical peasant to get a close look at real magic.by me with Midjourney"The stories in Greymoria-themed plays are always gruesome and dark, and I'm not a fan of that. But Nine help me, I love to see all the amazing magic effects they put all of these plays. That's why I keep coming back and why I actually look forward to when the Children visit the village." -Havro, the peasant farmer
History
For thousands of years, Greymoria, the Dark Mother, has been stuck in a feedback loop with mortals. She feels like she isn't loved and worshiped enough by mortalkind so she afflicts them with curses and monsters which causes more mortals to turn from Greymoria which causes her to lash out again.
In the Feudal Era of the Third Age, this cycle of pain has slowed down as mortals around Scarterra reluctantly go through the motions of Greymoria worship in order to placate the Dark Mother's wrath. This isn't exactly what Greymoria but it's better than nothing.
For millennia, Greymoria's priests and priestesses, the Children formerly were best known for skulking in the shadows and carrying out acts of vengeance on behalf of Greymoria, but in recent centuries, more and more Children are choosing to take a softer approach to advance Greymoria's interests. The priests and priestesses play the role of "Good Cop" and Greymoria is the distant but terrifying "Bad Cop".
Greymoria morality plays are a new strategy in playing "Good Cop".
by Zeta Gardner
Execution
All Greymoria morality plays revolve around characters suffering for not loving Greymoria enough.
Most Children who dabble in writing plays like to mix up the length and breadth of their play subjects.
Sometimes there is an ensemble of suffering characters, sometimes a play is entirely about the suffering of one mortal. Sometimes the suffering protagonist is a lowly peasant, sometimes it's a mighty king or anywhere in between these two extremes. Protagonists are roughly equally likely to be male or female.
Components and tools
"- Carcelli priestess and part-time stage effects directorCarcelli, Parchment Background by Zeta GardnerMy illusion magic is worth a lot of money on the open market, but it technically costs me nothing other time. We have a lot of expensive costumes and set pieces but we reuse these things, so these are one-time expenses. Our biggest expense in running a play is hiring outside actors and musicians to augment our in-temple teams, but this isn't too much. The fear of the Dark Mother helps with haggling too. We normally charge a very small admission, usually a copper quarter. This is usually almost enough to break even for our expenses, but we almost always get a surge in voluntary donations after one of our play comes through town, making 'theater change' so to speak."
Participants
Most of the time, the bulk of the performers and set crew are Children, but the play runners will often try to recruit a headliner from outside of Greymoria's immediate spiritual family if are a solid acting or musical talent, and they pay well.
Observance
I'll take this healthy competition over making the best theater over fighting with swords and spells any day."-Zajac of the Fumayan Lanterns, thespian and honorary priestby Eron12 with Heroforge"Given the bad blood between the Lanterns and Children, I've never participated in a Greymoria morality play. That said, a lot of my friends are actors and a lot of actors play in both Greymoria and Zarthus plays, and I always make sure to attend Greymoria morality plays when they debut near me, and I see a lot of Children are in the audience when I perform. The Children's ability to incorporate physical props and magical illusions is groundbreaking and we have been working on emulating their techniques when able. Our acting and makeup is better than theirs but they have been emulating our techniques.
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