Vallenguin is ruled by the Grand Council, consisting of the 10 great Houses. Each sends a representative (commonly the matriarch or patriarch of the family) to each council session. The Grand Council is generally only summoned once a year to decide on the greater course of Vallenguin. Power within the council depends on the prowess said family showed in the Magus Games of that year. Lower administrative duties depend on the ruling House. The Patriarch or Matriarch position is hereditary, running from holder of the title to the eldest child. In dire times, a supreme ruler is chosen. While the position holds no actual title, it is commonly referred to as the 'Greater King'-position. In the whole history of Vallenguin, that position has only been filled once and it cannot be carried across bloodlines. Once the Greater King dies, a new is chosen should the need arise.


Stuck in the armpit of the Holy Sphere, the land of Vallenguin is well hidden away. To the north you’ll mostly find sandy shores, with on the other side of the canal the Huayuan’s land. To the eastern shores the sandy shores continue. The Western shores become much more cliff-like, until the very western tip, where the cliffs reach their highest point. Then following the southern coast, the cliffs shrink again, about 3/4th of the shore. Then they make place for the white beaches. The landing place of the First Exiles. So here, in the South-West of Vallenguin lays Hudrin, the capital city. Towards the East, in the mainland you’ll mostly find forests and plains. Nearing the West-Eastern cliffs, you’ll find Wraequin, the Weathered City. These two are connected with a road, but that’s the only road on Vallenguin. Many slaves toil away in the feels between these two cities.


Hidden Land
Vallenguin was created by Exiles who, by chance, gathered on a small island just outside of the Heavenly Sphere of Huayuan. Through painful diplomacy the Exiles could maintain their independence but act as a proxy for the Huayuan. To maintain that ability, Vallenguin does everything in its power to remain hidden from the vast nations. Instead they try to spread false rumors and myths surrounding them. The most common rumor is that of the Pirate Haven. As Vallenguin’s acts of piracy grew more numerous, and they vanished so quickly through the fog back towards the East, many rumors say that somewhere in that sea is a small island that is a true Pirate Haven. More educated people will have heard rumors of a so called Freehold City State, a place for artistic and magical talent. A true Utopia.

Lesser & Greater Houses
Born from the ancient Exiles, the Lesser and Greater Houses form the framework for Vallenguin. Greater Houses generally rule over cities directly and allow their subordinate Lesser Houses to manage the smaller villages and so on. Higher Houses often give their children important positions like High Admiral of the Dreadfleet. While Lesser Houses fill the ranks of Seafangs. While Lesser Houses must answer to their liege, they generally still exercise a lot of power over so-called freemen, people who are not slaves but not affiliated with any House either.

Blood Purity & Magical Affinity
Obsessed with magic and the power it brings, the earliest Exiles that landed at Vallenguin began to map their ancestry back to the Primordials. When the Exiles formed their houses, blood became an important factor, as it is one of the three known factors for magical aptitude. When Houses marry, skill, talent and prestige are important, but so is the purity of the Houses. Many lesser houses are generally lesser in blood purity, while the Greater Houses will do everything to breed stronger and purer mages. This makes marrying upwards rather tricky. Only to be done through skill, talent and prestige can it be achieved. However, there will always outsiders that are purer, more talented or gathered more skill. Even though Vallenguin wants to maintain its mystical, hidden nature, it desire for power outweighs it. Individuals, especially in the west, can be invited to be adopted into one of the Houses. Though such invites must first be explained before the Grand Council, so that no needless amounts of them are send out and Vallenguin remains hidden.

The Trials
As said before, each House’s power within the council comes from their power in magic. This power is gauged yearly during the Trials. The Trials are a week long time of challenges. On the first day or two, heirs of Lesser Houses are pitted against each other in an attempt to win favor with their Greater House, as well as to settle rivalries. These battles are not just to decide who is stronger. They are an attempt to secure important posts like captain for a Waverider or even Dreadship. After that come the heirs of the Greater Houses, facing off against each other. This is the first part where that year’s power of that Greater House is decided. Not every Trial demands the heirs to face off directly. The Trials of the Stars, for example, drop off each heir on a small boat on the sea. Using the stars and their own knowledge they must reach Vallenguin again. On the final days the entire generations of the Greater Houses and their subordinate Lesser Houses join together in an all-out battle. There are magical wards in place to make sure nobody is killed, but this gauges the power of each Greater House the most. Two weeks after the Trials, the Grand Council gathers.

The Academy of Exiles
There are few institutions in Vallenguin, considering the nation itself is so young it didn’t even exist during the Era of Legends. Never the less, one institute was born when the very first Exiles set foot on the land. The Academy of Exiles began as a place where knowledge was shared among the Exiles that arrived. Scrolls and books were voluntarily given up, in return for access. When the Houses were established, a conscious choice was taken to gift governance over it to one House. In return, the House would never be named Greater or Lesser. It would have no chair at the Grand Council, but it wouldn’t be a subordinate either. When marrying, the other person would join the House, no matter the prestige or gender. So nobody could marry him/herself out of the many demands of the position. In the end House Ulstur took up the task of Keepers.

These days, that one small hut gathering all those scrolls and books became the Arcania, the largest Academy on Vallenguin. A myriad of diciplines are taught to children for all Houses, Greater and Lesser. True to their vow, House Ulstur has never tried to exert any semblance of power. Instead, they alone have send the most envoys in pursuit of knowledge. In fact, the name Ulstur is the only name that some rumors outside Vallenguin share. Their sages, dressed in mothed, grey robes and carrying gnarled wooden staves, can sometimes be seen accompanying the strange, rich dressed independent merchants. But the Ulstur Sages carry gold, enough to buy the books and scrolls they must have.

Arreantis, the Reclaimed Primordial of the Southern Sea
Arreantis was once a Primordial that had exiled herself into the Southern Sea, far from the surface world. Instead she lived beneath the waves, with the fishes and other creatures of the sea. She was a stern but fair Primordial, often warding off storms to those who prayed for her. Yet she send waves and storm for those that exploited the sea and took the calm waters for granted. She was a rarely worshipped, and when she died all knowledge of her swiftly vanished from the surface world. Until Leviathan was awoken. The ancient being, after years, told the Choir about his maker: Arreantis. The Primordial of the Southern Sea. With this one tale, the True-Seers began their dives again, searching for anything on the bottom of the sea that could point to the ancient, forgotten Primordial.

These days she has the largest Temple in Hudrin, the Capital. Her worship is wide-spread amongst Vallenguin. Both the Pirates and Merchants pray to her, one in public by sometimes even sacrificing captors to her, the others pray in secret. Each hoping that her god-like power that they believe remains amongst the people will bless them and their voyage on sea.

Pirates and Merchants
To the outside world, Vallenguin does not exist. Instead they see two facets of it. The first are the Merchants. Travelers and traders that bring goods from Huayuan. They will maintain that they are independent traders, not affiliated with any nation. As strange as that might sound, they will continue this claim. Most Merchants do truly go out to trade with the outside world, forming a bridge between Huayuan and the other nations. Of course they heed the demands of the Huayuan. However some have other primary interests. Many Truth-Seekers and House Ulstur sages travel amongst the Merchants, disguised.

The Pirates are another part, completely separated from the Merchants. There are strict rules to maintain the unaffiliated status. No noble that was once a Merchant can ever become a Pirate. Nor vise versa. These pirates operate on the Southern Sea. They raid merchants, patrols and fishermen alike. The Pirates often vanish in mist and towards Huayuan, using the massive country as a passive shield against anyone who would give chase. At Hudrin they dock and trade the stolen goods with Merchants who then transport it towards Huayuan’s Southern Peninsula.

Both these factions are part of Vallenguin’s official forces.


There are not enough people on the island (including the slaves) to fend off any nation's invasion. In fact, if Huāyuán wanted, they could just reconquer Vallenguin again. What separates them from others are the pursuit for magical talent and ability. Mages are bred in the houses and their expertise is applied everywhere possible in an attempt to nurture even more skill. On land, Vallenguin's individual career soldiers are fair. Though very low in numbers. On the sea, however, they become a real hidden menace. In terms of size, the fleet is small but compared to the other nations, it's not too bad. However, it is each ships quality that brings the treat. While slaves row away in the lower decks, career soldiers man the upper decks, ready to fire magic, arrows or to board an enemy ship and ruthlessly and indiscriminately slaughter everyone onboard. Only to vanish in a thick fog.















Last 20 years
Vallenguin, under the protection of the Heavenly Sphere, mist and myth has remained undetected even till present days. The ten Houses, while not united on every subject, have little hostility towards each other. Piracy attacks in the Eastern bay against Lynnfaire have escalated cautiously. Twenty years ago the first Dreadship has entered the Pirating waters there. The High Admiral then, Lord Easling of House Quinjin and father now current High Admiral Syvella has send in total a single Dreadfleet there, led by a single Dreadnaught. Increasing the acts of piracy from simple Waverider raids upon fishing ships and small traders to larger, international trading vessels. Mostly targeting Lynnfairian ones. Under High Admiral Syvella the deployment of Dreadfleets increased considerably, showing a more aggressive stance in the pirate acts as well.

Lord Ittain of House Ulstur has decided to send several expeditions towards Marathan. He believes the many Primoridal Sites houses knowledge that could proof useful. These expiditions will be deployed with the World Hauler ‘Northern Sun’. This will be the first time a World Hauler enters the Eastern Bay. Northern Sun will send its smaller crafts to dock at a Vlaanderburg port soon.




The Kingdom of Lynnfaire - Vallenguin has send many smaller raids against Lynnfaire, mostly meant to distrupt fishing and small, regional trade. However, recently the pirate attacks have increased massively. Captains are commanded to kill everyone, unless they are on a return voyage to Vallenguin. Then taking slaves is allowed.
Holy Sphere of Huayuan - The only nation that knows of Vallenguin's existence. Vallenguin has special trading rights on the Southern Peninsula and many traders go from the western nations here and back, trading. Vallenguin knows that they are still looked down upon, but under the protection they have survived and thrived.





Optional section. Put any info about any characters here. Examples of this would be your kings or queens, military leaders, and non-hero “badasses”. You can also put more detailed info of your heroes here as well.

To those on land, there is no secret of who commands the Morktish waters. The Mistress, high dictator of Morkt, rules with a looming noose just tight enough to feign the illusion of free will. In reality, all non-cecaelian inhabitants are slaves to the master race, the Morj, which lurks below the waters. Whether their collection was achieved by naturalized birth, or as acquired trinkets; they are bound to service of their mistress for life. Enchanted neck rings are fastened onto each humanoid subject after their initiation below the black waves. To ensure Her hold, shaman’s known as “plagues” are sent with any party of humanoids who leave the Morktish waters. These agents of the Mistress are fowl servants who poison not only the minds of their crew, but often those whose shores they land upon.

Beneath the icy tides, the lines of power blur. The seas are a dark and vast place with many whispers. Though the Mistress maintains control, her rule is a loose hegemony of various mobs with ever morphing allegiances and tolerances. These mercurial desires do unite on their hatred of land bound creatures, and the merciless use of such beasts to appease the personal, political, and religious ends of the Morj. The only such human swine to escape their grasps live high in the icy mountains trapped on all sides by swarms of loyal agents and tides of the sea… where still greater dangers lie.


The archipelago of Morkt is located in fiercely arctic waters. Amongst its steep fjords, the major portions of humanoid slaves cling to an existence in the form of wharf fishing villages. Deeper into the interior of these islands are bog lands that—through some twist of dark magic or geothermal runoff—stay temperately humid warmth. These swamps are the proving grounds for those whose blood can handle the guiles of magic. It is in these bogs that the plagues are forged.

The center island of the archipelago lays a massive volcano, known to be as fickle and violent as the merfolk who lie beneath. Due to its chronic billow, the island is covered in a misty cloud of soot. It is said that a great voyager returned here after traveling to the far East. Since that day the volcano has cracked back to life.


The enslaved population of Morkt hails from all corners of the known globe and beyond. As such, their culture largely mirrors this melting pot boiled together over the furnace of their merfolk masters. The frigid conditions and almost total reliance on the sea for sustenance has bonded them into a quiet, no-nonsense people where trust is a rare but prized commodity. All religions except for strict Primordial worship are wholesale banned by the merfolk and enforced ruthlessly by their plague agents. It is further professed that the primordial seaborn offspring hold an infinitely higher status than their bastardized land dwelling ilk (who were little more than agents of the deep much like plagues).

The merfolk themselves gather in a loosely clan based structure and inhabit a labyrinth of caves and gothic crevice cities. They make sport of hunting creatures of the land and sea, frequently performing elaborate sacrifices to appease their primordial ancestors. Juxtaposed to this predatory, often barbaric, society is a taste for the finer things. The merfolk adore fine jewels and metals. They have a keen sense of fashion and aesthetically design their structures and tools to the point of obsession. They are inherently elitist and though they can survive on the surface for hours, the thought of such depravity often disgusts them. The only reason they tolerate the enslaved land dwellers is their pension for looting treasures, capturing more live offerings, and filling their nets with fish. However, were the Mistress not so fond of them, they might endure a much mixed fate.


The humanoid arm of the Morkt exists almost solely as fishers and raiders, often relying on both traits during their distant incursions. They generally arm themselves with an ax and shield which is finely embossed with the cephalopod figures. Their true strength lies in the form of the longboats and dragonships which are capable of cutting even rough surge with blistering speed. It is this quickness both on open sea and in brackish shallows that is the hallmark of Morkt raids. They often strike at the softest targets and sow massacre and black magic in their wake. However, their attacks are more than a business enterprise as unsuccessful raids often risk their lives more than the combat itself. The Morj expect returns or the price raiders pay is gruesome.

The true destructive power of the Morkt lies in their fight at sea. The Morkt armies focus on one enterprise only, sinking ships and drowning air breathers with cackling delight. To this end they often prefer the thrill of destroying a hull by hand: cutting the bottom from boats, fishing sailors with billhooks, or destroying the hull and mast to watch the crew fester to death from immobility. For sturdier tasks they often use an array of metal netting chained to whale-beasts. They often use subsurface currents to maneuver large warbands with unmatchable speed hidden below the oceans depths. However, the Morj are cripplingly water bound. Though they can survive in amiable surface weather for a matter of hours, their appendages reduce their speed to a slow jog at best.


The Mistress- The Mistress is the most recent Lady of Morkt to ascend to the throne. Her title is not without contest, but her recent use of the land dwellers has proven a powerful political lever. It was her great grandfather who saw an opportunity for such exploitation and the family business has flourished. At her core, the Mistress is a talented sorceress. However, the fear of her name and seemingly omnipotent surveillance of her waters has increased her power parity tenfold. Her only known hamartia is a penchant for fine foods from across the globe. The subjects under her crown are wise to tailor their gifts to such ends.

The Voice- A siren of the deep, this vile creature ranks chief among her kind. The Sirens of Morkt have played an intricate role in the “settling” of the islands by their wayward human colonists. It is said that the call of the Voice can be heard even across continents for those who know to listen.

Trygve- Like most of the rabble who inhabit the isles of Morkt, Trygve was not born in this land. He and his father were captured off the North coast of Tarkima when he was a child. His father, a renown berzerker both in his homeland and in the service of the Morj, was killed shortly after enslavement. However, Trygve’s orphanhood was not a lonely experience. He was raised by the island and rose to prominence from a young age. As a maverick raider his exploits became the stuff of legend, said to have even sailed around the southern horn of the dragon kings and returned with the fangs of a vampire. His rise to prominence has caught the attention of the rules beneath with whom he plays a precarious game of prized pet or threatening usurper. He is untamable, inspired and an artist with an ax.

Trygve’s crew bear the mark of a seahorse.

---

The Sound- A colossal whale said to hunt the deepest trenches of the earth.


The Morkt has long been the ancestral home of the Morj, an eldritch cecaelia who rule its waters with an iron fist. Though it is rumored that a few native humans have lived for centuries on its mountain peaks, these freefolk are little more than myths for the hordes of slaves who inhabit its fjord coast. These slaves have been bound both geographically and more recently by enchanted throat manacles to the Morj who inhabit the icy waters around them. From within their human ranks the Morj have recruited and trained shamans (plagues) to act as their agents abroad. These agents are commissioned a boat and act as the thrall master of the crew for the means of raiding, slaving, or trading as the situation seems fit. These missions enjoy a fair amount of autonomy, wealth, and prestige provided they capitalize on this tightly monitored freedom. However, it is a dangerous game to become famous on these islands.


Pending personal convos.


Ida-
Yvette-
Gnima-
Radoslaw-

Despite being nominally a monarchical state, Lynn-Naraksh resembles a feudal oligarchy (with strong theocratic undertones) more than a true imperial order. Its lands are divided into Demesnes, regions of roughly comparable size, each of which is under the rule of a member of the aristocracy, known as a Blood Lord. The Lords hold almost unlimited authority within their domains, being capable of creating and altering laws, issuing decrees and levying militias on a whim, as well as wielding immense power in individual fields of administration. They are free to command the imprisonment, execution and conscription of whomsoever they wish, as well as to pass judgment over any dispute, whether called to do so or not, levy armies and command the undertaking of grandiose projects such as building a castle or dam. All that is formally required of them is that they pledge their loyalty and obedience to the imperial throne, observe the tenets of the Order of the Divines, which are few and liberal, and bolster the armies of the suzerain with their own forces in the event of a war.

In practice, however, all is not so simple. While the Emperor is indeed the highest authority over all matters temporal and spiritual, being, by virtue of position, the head of the Order, they rarely act directly or even pronounce themselves on any subject short of those affecting the entire nation. Instead, all necessities below this threshold are administered to by the Imperial Court, a gathering of the most disparate figures in the realm. Advisers, commanders, high cenobites, members of the imperial bloodline, envoys from the Kuraxxi bog-folk and the Vurogg tribes, executioners, kennel-masters, magisters of the militant orders, even some influential (and high-blooded) guild council members form complex but rigid hierarchies bound together by even more complex webs of codes and statutes. The Imperial Demesne, vastly larger than any other, is virtually a small empire within an empire, with various court dignitaries presiding over sections of it even as the Blood Lords do over their feuds. Knowing who of them can issue commands, who can give "advice" that is more or less worth heeding, and who can be disregarded altogether is vital for a Lord, lest they incur the displeasure of the Emperor or the scorn of their peers.

Emperor and Lords alike generally come into their position by succession. As the Blood Lords' title indicates, for one to be admitted into the rank they must be of sufficiently "high" blood, that is, with strong enough traces of Primordial lineage. Prospective heirs are placed through gruelling ritual trials by priests of the Order, in the course of which their blood is sampled and their force of will, desire for power and mastery of the magical craft are put to the test. Should any of them fail, they are quietly done away with, and a suitable replacement is drawn from the ranks of the Deathless Guard. The procedure for heirs to the throne is similar, though the trials are harsher and carry heavier symbolic connotations. Candidates for substitution are numbered among the more prominent Lords, though to this day there are no records of it ever having been needed to call upon them.

While, as far as most people in Naraksh are concerned, the power of the Blood Lords is absolute, there are nevertheless certain forces in the realm that are exempt from their rule and answer to the Emperor alone. The most notable of them is the Order of the Divines, the clergy of the state-mandated Primordial-worshipping religion, along with its affiliates, the Deathless Guard and the Scourge Knights. Tasked with upholding the old faith in the lands of the Empire and the minds of its subjects, the adherents of the Order can be spiritual guides, inquisitors and enforcers as the situation requires.

The other parties not subordinate to the Lords are the Kuraxxi and the Vurogg, who exist as semi-independent polities within territories allotted to them by the imperial administration. Their only duty, aside from the universal pledge of obedience, are to offer a regular, yet not greatly onerous tribute to the throne. However, it is a tacit assumption that they are to support the Empire with force of arms should they be unofficially called to do it, and so far they have never disappointed. Internally, the two races are loosely organised into, respectively, a cult-like structure and a confederacy of minor tribes; owing to their small populations, such simple systems can exist in relative stability.





Even as its name is a dissonant amalgam of reverend speech from the east and the harsh accents of the region, the lands of Lynn-Naraksh are a patchwork of stridently unnatural contrasts. From the north, covered in cold, barren tundra and icy hills rising, here and there, into strange isolated mountains capped with glaciers, long and narrow stripes of frozen ground stretch like talons to clash with dry, scorched barrens. In the south, the soil is dry and smothered in ash perpetually rising from innumerable calderas and pits of restless magma which irregularly surge up and withdraw with no apparent rhyme or reason. These fiery regions have their own mountains - monoliths of bare rock, rich in valuable ores, yet perilous and volcanically unstable. Deep beneath the earth are vast chambers, once the abode of a Primordial, and now little more than glorified catacombs. Only the inhuman Lords of the land, the fanatical Order of the Divines, and hardy and ferocious beasts willingly make their home at these two unforgiving extremes. However, many fertile patches of volcanic ash in the more temperate central regions are inhabited and cultivated, and most of the subjects of the southern Blood Lords have little choice but toil in the mines to make a living.

The west is an anomaly all unto itself. There, swamps, marshes and damp moors intersect and mingle with perfectly flat salten wastes, pitted with bitter lakes and veined with torbid rivers. They are no more welcoming than the tundra: the swamps crawl with all manner of pestilential vermin and venomous foulness, the lakes are tainted with divine blood, and miasma chokes the skies, too heavy for any wind to disperse. In sparse and unlikely places, thickets and small forests of twisted trees rise from the white desert, and they are replete with perils of their own. None but Kuraxxi and Vurogg lives here, for the land is too wretched even for the Lords to scavenge; yet those monstrous beings seem to thrive here, festering in the traces of their fallen progenitor like the parasites to which they have a strange affinity.

Of the four corners of Naraksh, the east is beyond a doubt the least harsh for mortals to inhabit. While it is not without its oddities, for rocky plains cluttered with strange growths are common there, its soil is rich and well suited for tilling, and far fewer horrors plague it than the rest of the land. It is thus little wonder that most of the Empire's human population should be gathered here, both spread over fields and assembled in towns and cities. Several forests, less forbidding than those in the west, provide for many of the population's needs. Yet every blessing has a counterbalance: the fertile nature of the region is such that the Empire has deemed it ideal to sustain its war-beasts, and what the east lacked in monstrosity is amply compensated by the many kennels and stables that have grown across it over the years.



While Lynn-Naraksh's population has always been divided since the days of the Great Beasts and their hybrid spawn's cruel rule over the resentful masses of their subjects, the passing of centuries and the weakening of the Empire's rule have greatly aggravated this. The two formerly monolithic strata have fragmented into numerous splinters, sects and factions; while the dominant class remains mostly united by its enduring common cause (with the notable exception of the heresy of the Charnel Prophet), the larger populace has become divided by discordant faiths and causes. This separation notably only extends to the Empire's human population, since the Kuraxxi and Vurogg minorities have, as far as anyone can recall, always been cohesive not only internally and with the Lords, but, curiously, between themselves as well.

Superior to all in the imperial hierarchy are the Blood Lords, direct descendants of the Primordials that once held sway over the lands of Naraksh. Their efforts to maintain their bloodlines as pure as possible have led to virtually all of them being related to some extent, and generations of inbreeding, along with the strength of their elder lineage, make many doubt whether they are truly human at all. None has ever seen a Lord's face; all of them invariably appear clad in more or less ornate suits of armour. This is as much a tool of intimidation as it is a natural consequence of their abilities: the invariably high magic potential of the Blood Lords allows them to exert particular mastery over metal, ash and magma, which they are adept at conjuring and manipulating for their purposes. This enables them to wear their armour as nothing short of a second skin, reshaping it at a whim and not suffering any apparent ill effects from remaining encased in it for most of their lives. Due to the impossibility of discerning what is beneath their helmets and their own silence on this matter, the terms "Lord" and "Emperor" carry no connotations of gender in Narakshi, a peculiarity which has gradually spread to include most other titles and ranks in the Empire.

The staunchest supporters of the Blood Lords' regime are the clerics of the Order of the Divines, recruited for the most part from offspring of the aristocracy not in line for succession and those portions of the people who, through either cultural inertia or misguided loyalty, remain genuinely faithful to the Old Gods and their descendants. Though politically united, the Order, as well as its militant offshoots, is doctrinally split into two main currents. The Successionists maintain that the demise of the Great Beasts is final and irrevocable, and that the sacred duty of Lynn-Naraksh is to produce worthy inheritors of their legacy, who will eventually become deities themselves. They are ideologically opposed by the Resurgentists who hold that the absence of their Primordial lords is only temporary, with them having disappeared to face threats unknowable to mortals and fated to rise again when the time shall come. While the latter sect is somewhat influenced by Tranquilist doctrine, the latter is clearly heavily distorted, as some of its core tenets - animism and personal closeness to the divine - are fundamentally incompatible with the centralised and rigidly hierarchical religion of the Three Eyes. It is worth noting that the two currents do not violently clash with each other, and several syncretic teachings exist.

The colossus of the Empire's ruling faith is contrasted by the haphazard collection of what most of its subjects turn to for hope and support. While the worship of any entities, or even ideals, other than the Great Beasts is forbidden, the masters of Lynn-Naraksh have long since lost the power to effectively control the private lives of their citizens, and can only attempt to maintain appearances through terror and the occasional string of inquisitional trials. In the comparative safety of their homes, many revere the unnamed Primordials who struck down the Great Beasts and crippled the Empire's iron fist. For many, their number has been joined by the Prophetess, who is seen as a bringer of hope; tales of her being of humble origins are popular, as is the belief that the Silver Legion would have dethroned the Blood Lords, who scorned it, had it triumphed over the darkness in the east.

Strangely, the Serene faith has failed to obtain much of a hold in Naraksh, despite having been at the roots of the rebellion against the masters of Lynnde. Its support of a strong aristocracy is regarded negatively by the land's inhabitants, who have long grown weary of the uncontested excesses of tyrannical rulers and firmly believe that power will corrupt any who holds it, regardless of any codes they might try and impose upon themselves. Nonetheless, those remains of the ancient bonfires of rebellion the Blood Lords failed to stamp out have not fully abandoned their erstwhile religion. Most of them have come to embrace Protestant Serenists doctrines, which continue to slowly gain support at somewhat irregular rates as their proponents conduct clandestine evangelism.

Outside religious matters, life in the harsh environment of Naraksh, under the enfeebled but still vicious dominion of demigod-like figures who scorn them and treat them little better than slaves, has left many of its common folk hardened, if a little cynical. Though it will rarely find truly hostile manifestations, a distrustful, somewhat secretive and at times irreverent "us-against-them" mentality is a common sight among them, as are pragmatism and a strong attachment to family or small community ties. The Narakshi folk work hard when they must, rest when they can, preferably without being noticed, and celebrate quietly. Given the dismalness of the public order enforced by the Empire, the ability to find reasons for hidden joy in small things is valued and almost necessary.

Far removed from most of this, the monstrous races of Naraksh are for the most part culturally insular. The Kuraxxi, creatures combining insectoid, reptilian and a number of other, not better identified traits are the less human-like of the two. Little is known about these hideous, agile beings, said to be the offspring of the Bogwraith, the Primordial of the west. They live in moderately large clades in some of the most perilous places of the swamps and gnarled woods, refusing to speak or even show themselves to anyone other than the Lords and the Order; anyone else attempting to discover more about them inevitably fails to return from their expeditions. Among the few things they are noted for are their skills with poisons, pestilential curses and the taming of many of Naraksh's terrifying beasts. The latter makes it so that they are often sought after as handlers for the imperial army.

The Vurogg are believed to be descended from men touched by the vile blood that spilled from the Bogwraith when it fell. Large and strong beyond what most humans could hope to achieve, yet clumsy, feral and freakishly deformed, these brutish horrors are barely intelligent enough to congregate into tribal communities and follow the commands of the Blood Lords. Like the Kuraxxi, with whom they seem to understand each other quite well, much about them remains unclear, including how they reproduce - given that they are difficult to distinguish from each other in any way, and no one has ever seen anything that could be recognised as a Vurogg child.





The bulk of Narakshi forces in times of war is made up of troops, or more accurately militias, levied by individual Lords from their Demesnes. Their rank and file are far from an impressive force: they are sparsely armed, as each is required to assemble their own equipment and weapons (mostly consisting of pikes and the occasional crossbow), poorly trained, and their morale leaves much to be desired, seeing as they know full well they are fighting for interests far from their own and they will be fortunate to make it out of it alive at all. And yet, it would be dangerous to deny that the armies of the Empire are capable of tremendous destruction and bloodshed.

The truth is that the strength of the hosts of Lynn-Naraksh does not reside in their bulk. The imperial armies are infamous for their use of monstrous beasts of war and of small units of individually tremendously potent combatants. Their tactics are invariably of the aggressive sort, regardless of their position; while this would be suicidal for a more conventional force, the sheer brute strength they can bring to bear is such that no obstacle seems too great. This might, however, comes at a price. Terrifying though the Narakshi forces might be in direct combat, many of them are unwieldy and difficult to control, and collateral damage tends to be significant whenever they take the field.

At the core of the imperial hosts are horrifying creatures of the accursed lands of the Blood Lords, tamed and trained by the arts of the Kuraxxi. From the immense bonejaw terrors of the northern tundra and the cinderhide wurms of the south to the less describable monstrosities of the swamps, the most lethal and horrifying dwellers of Naraksh are fielded against the enemy, some even clad in plates of armour to add to their already fearsome resilience. Their handlers are often close by, with envenomed spears and plague-enchanted claws at the ready.

Next into the fray are the troops proper. The Blood Lords themselves are seldom far from the heat of battle, either tirelessly marching on foot or, depending on how close their Demesne is to the tundra, charging astride monstrous armoured boars who have little to envy to the creatures unleashed by the Kuraxxi. Those without such a mount are typically accompanied by small, heavily armoured retinues, who, while they might lack the magical potency of their lieges, are for the most part well-trained and superbly equipped. Reinforcing them are the forces of the Order. For the most part, they are comprised of Scourge Knights, skilful and zealous warriors sworn to the Old Gods. Despite not having exceptional numbers of magic wielders among their ranks, the Knights are redoubtable foes, capable of combining hefty armaments with dangerous mobility on the field of battle. More rarely, they will be joined by Deathless Guards. This cryptic order, largely made up of Blood Lord offspring, is usually tasked with the defense of sacred sites in Naraksh; however, its members have been known to march to war when summoned by an Emperor. Completing the Narakshi ranks are Vurogg auxiliaries, poorly disciplined yet savagely effective if employed by a skilful commander.













In the long-gone Age of Legends, Naraksh was part of the sprawling Lynnde Empire that covered most of eastern Askor. It might have been one of many unremarkable provinces, had it not been for its vicinity to the Empire of Huayuan, which time and again repelled the invading armies from the north. Perhaps curious about the force that could withstand the advance of the mightiest dominion in the known world, or perhaps simply drawn by the smell of battle and bloodshed, three of the Primordials that ruled Lynnde, known as the Great Beasts, came to join the fray in person. They are remembered as the Ashen God, the Bogwraith and the Iron Maw, their names either lost to the ages or never having existed. The Great Beasts reshaped Naraksh to suit their unfathomable tastes, and begat monstrous spawn to serve as their lieutenants. At their command, legions were marched off to the south every day, accompanied by unnatural creatures of magic and ferocity, yet still they could not overcome Huayuan's defences. The war dragged on, amid the torments and vexations with which the Primordials prodded their more reluctant subjects, until rebellion struck. Over all of Lynnde, mortals rose up against their divine masters, seeking to break their brutal rule, and so it was in Naraksh.

Yet the Narakshi rebels did not possess the secrets that allowed their fellows in the east to overthrow the Emperor, and the blood-spawn of the Beasts, loyal to their progenitors, stood against them with their own forces. The uprising would have been crushed had it not been for the unexpected intervention of five other Primordial beings. Of those, much less is remembered than of the masters of Lynn-Naraksh; only their number remains in myth and chronicle, and it is said that they came from the sea. The five fought and slew the Great Beasts, supposedly due to taking pity on the plight of their thralls. They did not, however, take up arms against the Blood Lords, either deeming it dishonourable to battle such badly outmatched foes or hoping that even they might be brought to embrace freedom, and withdrew, leaving nary a trace of their passage.

From that point, the tide of the war had turned in favour of the rebellion. The Blood Lords of old were said to wield each the might of an army, but they were few, and their enemies were many. But, once again, a force from outside Naraksh stepped in to alter the course of the conflict. The Empire of Huayuan would have rather aided its old foes than seen the Serene faith triumph, and so it happened. With its support, the Blood Lords were able to rally and soundly defeat the rebels, shattering the resistance, it seemed, once and for all, and bringing Naraksh under their sway once more. After the Huayuan withdrew into its borders, they spent years consolidating their rule and stamping out the last vestiges of the rebellion. Though the Empire of Lynn-Naraksh is but a shadow of its former self, the ambition of its rulers has not changed over the generations, and, now that war and chaos are stirring through Askor once more, they prepare to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.



[To be added at a later stage.]



[Idem.]