Our current party roster is:
- Baladur, Level 1 Wise Tainted Shaman
- Kasat, Level 1 Wise Librarian of the Circle
- Otto, Level 1 Strong Ordo Contemnite Mors Knight
- Remmy, Level 1 Deft Shriek Tamer of the Windriders
All of my players opted to be from various outsider groups and backwaters in the rough eastern regions of the world. I wanted to get some of my ideas down about this region and some of the aspects my players have injected into the setting.
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| Zdzisław Beksiński |
We will starting on the Road of Tombs, a grand imperial highway towards the eastern edge of things that was hit hard by the Wars of Regicide. Further east, past the Ash Wastes and fang-like mountains, is the distant domain of the Kingdom of Vheissu with its volcanic legions and magical mastery. The Road of Tombs is a mixture of somber memorial and monument of hubris, untold generations upon generations of ancient Agarthans entombed along its path for reasons long forgotten. Plundered during the wars as an easy source of necromantic fodder, it has been corrupted like much of the southeastern empire. Along its monolithic pathways the dead are particularly restless, dark shrines host shadowy groups, and necrophagic wyms carve out their desolation. Only the foolish or the exceedingly brave would travel its worn stones into the depths of the scoured Agarthan Heartland, making it a perfect route of travel for blackguards and secretive travelers.
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| Doe |
Ordo Contemnite Mors
Less of a formal martial order and more of a loosely connected group of fanatics hellbent on stopping the universal decay that Death has unleashed on the world. These warriors accept a Thrall Mark (a degenerate curse, based on potent dark Thaumaturgy) in order to gain potent abilities and power to oppose the abominations and horrors that now roam the world. Some even go so far as to turn to dark necromancy to stave off Death's foul embrace and carry on their forsaken crusade in this world, coming closer and closer to resembling the things that they hunt.
The eldest of the Ordo would be monstrous to the average person. If not for the now infamous Thrall Mark, it would be easy to mistake these old warriors as liche lords or dark knights. Many villages or caravans are shocked to find their savior, standing over the ruined remains of their monstrous attackers, to be quite monstrous themselves.
Others still, lose themselves to their endless crusade, becoming just another horror roaming the world and spilling blood. As a result, the public opinion on these fanatics can range from adoration and appreciation to being detested and even hunted.
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| Zhengyi Wang |
Tainted Peoples of the Ash Wastes
The Ash Wastes are probably most well known for two things: the infernal blood that runs deep in the people who live there and their mastery of unsavory magics. These shadowed borderlands made the perfect refuge for the demonic-hosts (individuals possessed and used for war), with the most stable of these beings being able to breed. Generations later, the infernal blood still touches some the folk of these lands, called the Tainted, with some more overtly affected than others. Perhaps as a direct result of this, the voodoo-esque magics of these nomadic tribes contain some of the most potent necromancy, hexes, and curses that can be found outside of the most well-preserved Imperial magics or demonic tomes.
Far from the picture of violent and bestial savages that the laughably exaggerated tales and Imperial propaganda abroad paint them as, the nomads of the Wastes are a very pragmatic and communal peoples. They exalt Demon Kings not because they aspire to be servants of darkness or seek great destruction in this world, but because of the ease with which their ancestry allows them to commune with the underlords and how useful such powers are in their difficult lives. These slaves to darkness would leap at a chance to escape the pacts and bargains that they have made, but with the rest of the world regarding them as monsters fit only for extermination this isn't likely to happen any time soon. The real dangers of the Wastes are the arcane creatures, leftover demon-hosts, and even outsiders summoned whole into the terrestrial world staling the crags and old battlefields of the those harsh lands.
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| Paul Canavan |
The Revived Library of Pythag
In the cold, north eastern reaches of the Agarthan Empire lies one of the most complete collections of knowledge on history, the outsiders, the Mystery Thaumaturgic, and more. The Library, practically a city with the population of its upper levels, is a bastion of learning and scholarship. The lower levels are seemingly infinite in their depths, plagued by secrets long forgotten and eager to escape. It was claimed centuries ago by a heathen god of hidden knowledge, with the ultimate goal of collecting and preserving all the world's knowledge and wisdom, who now rules this Bastard Kingdom from the Library as a Philosopher God-King.
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| Tatyana Kupriyanova |
You could spend a hundred lifetimes searching his collection and indeed many dedicate themselves to plumbing its depth and adding to its vast holds of information. As a reward for this service, Pythag whispers fragments of lost secrets of the Mystery to his Librarians. He only shares tiny fragments of his knowledge though, delighting in the boasts of his wisdom and jealously guarding the most potent of secrets. His Librarians are well know for their mastery of the mystical mathematics and their study of the alchemy of old. Pthag and his servants are particularly interested in scouring the Successor Empire and its ruins for every last scrap or fragment of forgotten knowledge and wandering Librarians can be found all across the imperial territories.
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