Gavony

Gavony
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Plane	Innistrad
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Gavony is Innistrad’s most populous and staunchly defended province, where the Church of Avacyn once stood as the shield and soul of humanity. Anchored by the great fortress-city of Thraben and stretching across bleak moorlands and fertile hills, Gavony’s parishes and scattered settlements have endured endless assaults by geists, undead hordes, werewolves, and cults of demons. Though Thraben’s cathedral and holy warriors once kept the darkness at bay, the disappearance of Avacyn shattered this fragile safety, leaving Gavony’s people to cling to crumbling walls, flickering faith, and the fading hope that the light might someday return to their haunted homeland..^[1]

Description

While the surrounding settlements were constantly under assault, Thraben and its immense cathedral remained relatively safe. Small towns grew away from Thraben on Gavony's rocky moors. Small groups of trees stained the hills and moors of the province.

With the disappearance of Avacyn, the geists of the dead rose in bunches to torment the living. As there were more dead buried here than elsewhere, Gavony was full of growing hordes of the undead. Skaab stitchers and deadcallers carry out their wicked trade within the walls of Thraben, while secret cults conspire to serve demonic powers.

Mikaeus, the revered Lunarch, tried to keep the people of Gavony calm, but this was a speck of dust compared with the light of Avacyn. Without the grace and guidance of the archangel, his power waned, and he depended too much on the Thraben holy warriors who fought werewolves and vampires with silver and steel. Mikaeus frantically tried to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Avacyn, but darkness fell as time ran out.

Geography

Gavony is located to the south of a range of mountains.^[2] It is located northwest of Nephalia.^[3]

In Innistrad, the church and the state are deeply interdependent, and the parishes are the administrative designation used by the church. A parish is comparable to a county. Each parish may have multiple priests, chapels, and small altars. Gavony has five parishes in three regions. See each region for detailed locations:

The Moorland - a region and parish of the same name. Larger in size than the other four combined. Westvale Abbey can be found here.
Nearheath - an area containing the three parishes Effalen, Videns, and Wittal.
Thraben - a parish and city of the same name. Former heart of Gavony, now largely devastated by war and ruin.

Secession of Hanweir

As told in The Hanweir Chronicle, the village of Hanweir had declared independence from Videns Parish and Gavony and styled itself a new province, before the complete town was mutated by Emrakul into an Eldrazi Ooze.^[4]