Bylorak is a minor god of marshes in the Old World Pantheon who was worshipped by the ancient Fennonen tribe of Men that came to inhabit what later became the Imperial province of Sylvania.
When the Black Death rolled through Bylorhof after 1111 IC the people there became desperate and returned to their roots with the worship of Bylorak, seeking any divine help they thought might save them from the plague's ravages. The plague victims had ropes tied around their necks to mark them as offerings to the marsh god. Their bodies were not to be taken to the local Gardens of Morr but to the marshes near the town.[1a]
Modern theologians in the Empire believe Bylorak to be an aspect of Taal, the god of nature and wildlife or Manann, the god of the sea.[2a] When the Vampire Lord Vlad von Carstein initiated his purge of the priests of the Old World Pantheon within Sylvania, the priests of Bylorak were among the only ones who resisted and stayed with their flock. The Vampires soon lost interest in what they deemed a "god of the swamp behind the chicken pen," while the people of Bylorhof became fanatically devoted to their god.[2b]
After the Vampire Lord Mannfred von Carstein returned to Sylvania during the reign of Emperor Karl Franz, he sent his lieutenant, Count Ranelf von Feuerfliege, to administer Bylorhof. The ambitious count tried to take on the priesthood of Bylorak and lost, his staked and decapitated body being sunk in the Bylorhof Marsh.[2b]
Faced with the resurgence of Vampiric powers, the priests of Bylorak reopened the temples to other gods, while starting to petition the Elector Count of Stirland in Wurtbad to bring them back into the fold. Bylorhof remains one of the few bastions of the Old World Pantheon within Sylvania, with belief in the god of the marshes at an all-time high.[2b]