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THE STORY OF SAINT CATHERINE
Catherine of Notrenoc was born in that high city in the Grand Province of Fertilium in I.C. 1,010, the daughter of a cherry grower. She grew up amid the family’s lush orchards, in a land rich and bountiful. She was a girl of some wealth and privilege, and a follower of Cuthbert as was customary, but not particularly or overly devout. Both she and her family intended that she would marry well and further the family’s prestige and fortune. In her early teens, however, she began to see things which began to cause her increasing distress, things which she began to realize were morally wrong; The draconian methods of rule employed by the dominant Spade Family; The accepted (though not talked-about) practice of enslaving the two non-human races indigenous to Fertilium (Dervi’s & Wogs) and forcing them into agricultural servitude; A growing tendency in the society to worship Cuthbert for social purposes only, while greedily pursuing wealth, power and the enslavement of weaker races. Cuthbert’s words started having increasing impact on the girl.
By her 18th year, she could no longer stomach the immorality and hypocrisy, could not stand idly by while the weak were forced to toil and die under the harsh hands of wealthy families, her own included. The local Church, her family and friends were willing participants in this ongoing sin, and would not understand, so throughout her youth her only solace lay in prayer and the teachings of Cuthbert, which she had been practicing in secret for years.
When Catherine bravely announced to her family that she had no intention of marrying someone they chose for her (or anyone else, for that matter) and wished to journey to the Capital of Florenta to enter a convent and prepare for life as a cleric, her father was enraged. He beat her savagely, but she would not change her mind. He locked her in a tower for a year, but still she would not relent, and her commitment to her path only grew stronger. Finally, her father sent her away in disgrace to a “finishing school” a facility on Spade lands, run by the Spade family. Here she would learn to be a proper and obedient girl. Her true nightmare began.
The school was little more than a prison, filled with violence and sexual assault. Girls who managed to survive were pimped-out as courtesans for Spade Family parties, balls and events, the threat of violence and death hanging over any girl hesitant to comply. Catherine was a survivor, and despite being enslaved and forced into prostitution, she kept her sanity, her will and her faith. This time in her life hardened the girl, and she began learning the fundamental (though crude) skills of a fighter and a rogue, while still maintaining her faith in Cuthbert and studying his teachings whenever possible. She also became a sort of protector for some of the younger, newer girls, and even killed several female aggressors at the school in their defense.
One night, while she and a handful of girls from the school were at Iron Tree Estates (the great home of the Spade Family), assigned to be “party favors” for wealthy merchants at a Grand Ball, Catherine’s life took a dramatic turn. She had just finished with a drunken nobleman and was walking down a hallway when she heard the muffled screams of a child coming from behind a door. Without thinking, she went inside where she found two fat, sweating, naked merchants, reeking of wine and forcing themselves upon an 11-year-old girl (another plaything brought in by the Spades for their guests’ amusement.) The horror and pleading in the child’s eyes were too much for Catherine. She pulled a longsword out of the gauntlets of a suit of armor in a corner, and butchered both men, hacking at them until they were unrecognizable, sobbing and shaking while she did it.
The guards of the house found her kneeling over the bloody mess, sword in hand, whispering a prayer, and hauled her away. The Spades were enraged and had her locked in a small cottage on the property. Lord Douglas Spade himself, master of the house, paid her a visit. He announced she would be executed in the morning… unless, of course, she agreed to willingly join his “private collection” of girls. He liked her fire, and wanted to break her personally. (Lord Spade was known to be especially depraved and sadistic with young women.) Catherine defiantly announced that he could do what he wished with her corpse after she was executed, that this was probably more to his taste, then spit in his face. He beat her viciously, then left her with until morning to change her mind, That night, with only hours to go before her death, Catherine prayed. She received a ghostly visitation from Saint Rosalyn.
Rosalyn’s spirit told the 23-year-old that her work was just beginning, and that Cuthbert had much for her to do before she could join him. She spoke of the Madrigala, of their works and calling. She spoke of the Abbey of St. Rose, and instructed Catherine to go there. She said the journey would be perilous, that Catherine must be clever and strong and trust in Cuthbert. As the vision faded, the door to the cottage clicked open, revealing the night. Catherine set out at once, filled with a light and hope she had never dreamed of. She traveled alone across the vastness of Fertilium, moving by night, stealing food and clothing and weapons, evading Lord Spade’s pursuing troops, for a considerable bounty had been placed upon her head for murder.
Along the mountain road which led to Butcher’s Pass, Lord Spade’s men caught up to her, and Catherine was forced to turn and fight. She felt Rosalyn’s presence and strength, and waded into her hunters in wrathful fury, killing them to a man and emerging without a scratch. She buried her would-be killers and prayed for them, then continued on.
When she finally reached St. Rose she told her story and begged for sanctuary. The monks of Opus Dei immediately took her in, and the ranking bishop not only gave her sanctuary and absolution for her sins, but a chance at a new life. She was educated and trained in the ways of a paladin, and served with distinction. At age 28 she took the vows of the Madrigala and went forth to fight evil and protect the weak.
Not surprisingly, Catherine’s path took her back to Fertilium. The land was rapidly turning into a godless place of vice, corruption and evil, the practices of slavery and exploitation of the weak in full swing, all in the name of wealth and power. Certain elements within Fertilium were even consorting with and employing the undead. The Church in the Grand Province paid lip service only to Cuthbert, ignoring the pleas of the common folk and even trading their true faith and clerical powers in exchange for riches, prestige and forbidden physical pleasures. Driven by an indomitable faith in Cuthbert and St. Rosalyn, Catherine became a crusader, bringing down corrupt clergymen, freeing slaves and forming a devout resistance movement.
At the Basillica, the debate about Lady Catherine raged. One group claimed she was a rogue, a heretic intent upon the destruction of the Church, and called upon the Cardinal to excommunicate her and turn her over to the hands of the Inquisition for purging (the Spade family had a long history of being Inquisitors, and their Church connections were strong.) Another group counseled that Catherine was an Avenger, sent directly from Cuthbert to wipe out corruption and the sins of a Church-gone-astray, and therefore her mission was divine and should not be interfered-with. The issue of slavery was little discussed, since although it was officially illegal and against Church doctrine, the Church took a sizeable percentage of slave-generated profits out of Fertilium.
While the debate went on, Catherine pursued her Holy War against injustice and evil, putting corrupt clerics to the sword, destroying their undead servants, helping freed Dervi’s and Wogs escape into Northern Castille, and burning churches which had become little more than money-counting houses and brothels. She cut down Spade Family troops wherever she found them, and was aided by a core of freedom fighters and Opus Dei monks.
In the meantime, the Cardinal remained silent. There was no question the Church in Fertilium had slipped into “unsavory and unsanctioned practices,” and there was no denying the outlawed practice of slavery taking place. Lady Catherine had the support of the Bishop of St. Rose (a bit of a maverick himself in clerical circles), and it was said she received visions from St. Rosalyn. Cuthbert himself had apparently abandoned the clergy of Fertilium, stripping them of their powers and spells. Yet there was tremendous pressure from the opposition, comprised of Inquisitors and other forceful powers within the Church, high ranking members of the Imperial Court, and the powerful Spade family. Their massive agricultural interests represented a considerable flow of gold directly into Church coffers. Added to this was the simple fact that even a Cardinal could quietly be eliminated with something as subtle as poisoned tea… Weighty decisions indeed, and the Cardinal feared to make the wrong choice, so made no choice at all.
In the end, it was the Spades who decided the issue. Frustrated with the Cardinal’s indecision and inaction, and increasingly harried by the young paladin’s campaign against them, the family decided that since the Cardinal had not decreed that Catherine wasn’t a criminal, they were free to defend themselves and their interests as they saw fit. They used their wealth and influence with the Mage community in Florenta at Torri Duo to contract a trio of high level sorcerers, and turned them loose on the rampaging paladin. The result was a deadly confrontation, ironically in the cherry orchards of Catherine’s family north of Notrenoc. Spells and battle leveled the orchards and left Catherine’s loyal cadre dead, but she survived to put each of the three contracted sorcerers to the sword.
Mortally wounded and knowing her time was short, Catherine managed to carry her broken body back to St. Rose, where she died curled up against the sepulcher of her patron saint. It was 1,042, and the young woman was only 32.
The Spade family considered the matter closed, as did the Church. Allegations of corruption quietly faded away, and life quickly returned to Fertilium as it had been before “Catherine’s War,” though many humans, Dervi’s and Wogs owed their freedom to the fallen paladin.
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