Karnstein Castle is a naked attempt to shoehorn Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla into the setting. Look, if you have the opportunity to include lesbian vampire shenanigans, you leap at it. Also, I've included an in-joke here with Carmilla's origins being "in Styria." That's true to Le Fanu's fiction, but I've also noticed that fantasy novels have a strange proclivity for including Styria among the made-up place names. Why not have a Styria in the world of Krevborna too?
Our Lady of the Drowned exists because I love the idea of creepy nautical rites and monstrous sea goddesses. A lot of this bit of the setting was inspired by the film version of Dagon, but big chunks of it were also inspired by an actual Krevborna campaign that focused the cult's rise.
Karnstein Castle
On the outskirts of Piskaro sits Karnstein Castle, the abode of an ancient vampire posing as a foreign noblewoman who retired to the city for the healthful benefits of its fresh sea air.
• Carmilla Karnstein purchased the castle to use as her lair; she claims to be a noblewoman from a far-off land known as Styria—though no one has ever heard of such a place.
• Carmilla plays the part of an invalid stricken with a strange and incurable malady, but this merely disguises the fact that she is a bloodthirsty vampire.
• As a woman of status and means, Carmilla Karnstein often holds balls, dances, and masquerades to which the well-to-do and aristocratic are always invited.
• If Carmilla takes an interest in a young woman at one of her parties, the girl is invited to become her companion.
• When these companions return to their homes after a stint with Carmilla, they are always curiously anemic, listless, and sometimes lovelorn.
• Some of Carmilla’s lady companions are never heard from again.
Our Lady of the Drowned
Our Lady of the Drowned is a grand church in Piskaro dedicated to Scylla, a morbid goddess of the sea, who is in actuality a primordial monster of the depths feared for her bloodlust and fecundity.
• The church was built from the remains of ships that capsized, foundered on Krevborna’s shores, or otherwise became less than seaworthy.
• The church’s altar is constructed from driftwood and carved figureheads recovered from sunken ships.
• The faithful come to Our Lady of the Drowned to pray for the souls of those lost at sea and to petition Scylla for safe passage before undertaking ocean voyages.
• The church is presided over by Belle Silvra, the high priestess of the cult of the Lady of the Drowned in Piskaro.
• Belle Silvra always appears in public wearing a veil that obscures her face.
• The effective proselytizers for the cult are the Daughters of the Eel, strange “nuns” trained at the Nightsea Priory in the nearby town of Lachryma.
