Ahazar

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Rock of the Fraternity
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Ahazar

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

The Land:
An island of terror, adrift in the Mists in the true sense of the word, Ahazar seems to shift location over time and can interpose any known Mistway.
Upon arrival, travellers find themselves on the Old Bridge, an ancient and cyclopean structure that spans the domain's sea and connects Mists to msinland. A full day and night's journey puts travellers on the sprawling island which the natives call St. Aleister.
There are two main cities; the crumbling port city of Semoth, which serves as the heart of the domain's fishing industry and its shipyard; and the equally geriatric inland city of Meekham, which dominates manufacturing industries and learning. Students flock to Meekham University every year, and it is said that any and every subject known to man can be taught there. Numerous towns and villages dot the interior of St. Aleister, which rises through curving hills through grand old growth forests to towering mountains.
The inhabitants of the island are predominantly human, the majority identifying as English or American, but there is a mixture of Russian, Italian, German, French and Jewish neighbourhoods in Semoth, and Vistani and Giomorgo are not unknown.
Although the domain appears to be at peace, military influence is evident in the cities; great curtain walls have been erected, grey-hulled warships float off-shore, and soldiers patrol the winding streets. A surprising variety of temples and churches feature in the cities, many of them freshly constructed and dedicated to most of the deities of the Demiplane as well as from beyond the Mists. Even more surprisingly, the usual religious conflicts do not seem to exist here; if asked, the priests usually mutter something about 'unity in the face of the true enemy' and leave it at that.
Political and military power seem to go hand in hand. Although there is a fair bit of friction in the Hall of Offices in Meekham, debate and compromise prevent flare-ups from becoming conflagrations, and the man in the street is cautiously appreciative of the conjoined government.
The average citizen is industrious, follows directions from the authorities, and enjoys the protection and bounties offered by the state. And never goes outside at night.

The Darklord:
England-born and expatriate captain Edmund Darling is a veteran of Gothic Earth's WW II. He saw too much; the horror of Hitler's death-camps, the battlefields awash with gore, and the supernatural horrors that revelled in the carnage. Forced into an administrative position after he took a bullet to the knee, captain Edmund suffered unfairly from a misconception that he had mutilated himself to get out of active duty. Even after he was discharged from the army, his family refused to see him on the basis of this erroneous stain on his honour.
Captain Edmund took to travel, hoping to find some new meaning in his life, but everywhere he went, he only found fresh horror. Corruption, exploitation, the resurgence of colonialism... it seemed to the embittered soldier that there was nothing good left in the world.
And then he found the book during his travels through Arabia.
In the book, captain Edmund found his worst fears confirmed. He read of an ancient universe full of incomprehensible forces, in the face of which humanity stood meaningless and defenseless. Other men might have gone mad. Captain Edmund found a goal.
Determined to scour the Earth of humanity and end the tragic farce that was its existence, captain Edmund sought out other books. He also found cults and 'survivors' of elder times. Through ruthless military discipline, he harnessed their potential and spearheaded an effort to bring forth one of the Old Ones. He found the perfect location in an island off the American coast named St. Aleister, where decommissioned warships sat rotting in the bay and an illegal 'black site' still held prisoners of war awaiting a trial that would never come.
Captain Edmund's cult descended on St. Aleister and unleashed horrors there. While the town screamed and burned, the captain lead the ritual that would unleash the Beauty of Oblivion. The ritual succeeded, and captain Edmund saw the abomination rise from the sea - an instant before a ragtag crew of prisoners and soldiers who had escaped the black site and commandeered one of the old warships blasted the horror to death with the ship's guns.
Edmund saw the gargantuan abomination fall to crush him, and darkness claimed him.
Darkness ... and Mist.

Captain Edmund does not understand how he survived. He also does not understand how St. Aleister came to be adrift in the Mists, or why he is in charge of one of its Offices - that of military procurement. His cult is gone, though some of the backwoods villages of inbred yokels proclaim to follow its way, and eldritch survivors lurk beneath earth and wave and in the high mountains, and all acknowledge him as their Lord.
By day, Edmund labours to hide his true allegiance and to shift supplies to his followers. By night, he studies the ancient texts and works towards a new uprising, but his work is constantly stymied.
For in Ahazar, the people know of the abomination from Beyond, and though they are afraid, they will not despair. The 'stiff upper lip' and 'everyone does their part' attitudes encouraged by the government has made the people of Ahazar into a close-knit community capable of weathering great storms. Worse, light and dark unite against the obscene. Temples to good and evil gods all pray for the safety of the land, making it hard to perform rituals to the Old Ones in the cities. Lycanthropes and vampires stalk the backwoods, and villages connected to Edmund's cult are their preferred targets. A thriving colony of mermaids has been assisting fishing ships and guides military ships to drop depth charges on any settlements Deep Ones and Aboleth try to build.
By day, captain Edmund is a respected cog in the machine that keeps Ahazar going. By night, he is Lord of a congregation of mewling, inbred cultists and beings out of time he believed were all-powerful, but now falter and look to him for leadership and protection. He has not aged a day since Ahazar was formed, though no one but he seems to notice. He has committed suicide several times, only to wake up in his office the next day with no one commenting on his brief snatch of oblivion.
He is afraid that there truly is no purpose to his existence, as any effort he makes to cause an uprising is crushed by either good or evil ... and that he is going to live forever.
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Re: Ahazar

Post by Mistmaster »

Not a fan of Island of Terrors, nor of Gothic Earth, but the basic idea I like; I would like to know more of the Domain, however. And while is it called Ahazar, if the Island's name is St Alistair?
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Re: Ahazar

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Ahazar for Abdul Al-Alhazred, author of the text that would become the Necronomicon. ;)
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Re: Ahazar

Post by ewancummins »

Darklord says,
"I was once a seeker after horror, like you. Then I took a bullet to the knee."
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Ahazar

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

I wondered how long it would take before someone made that joke.
I basically wanted something that would disqualify the captain from active duty and stay with him for the rest of his life, while close enough to shooting his own foot to create the impression he might have done it to himself.
Last edited by Rock of the Fraternity on Fri Nov 03, 2017 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ahazar

Post by ewancummins »

On a serious note, I like that vampires, werewolves, and evil priests all agree destroying everything is BAD, and so oppose the Darklord and his cultists.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Ahazar

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

It's a classic case of Good and Evil ganging up on Oblivion, because really, there's no point playing the game against each other if some squid from space is trying to eat the whole game board. ^_^
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Re: Ahazar

Post by GreenWood »

That's a great domain you have designed! Cosmic horror is fun to include.
I, the Lord of the Midnight Green, now give rise to my final dream.
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Re: Ahazar

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Thank you! :) Very kind of you to say so.
I got the spark of inspiration to create Ahazar from reading a thread about Bluetspur, and the claim that gothic and cosmic horror don't really mix.
I figured it was just a matter of using the material the right way. ^_^
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Re: Ahazar

Post by GreenWood »

Bloodbourne is a really good example of how they can mix well. It starts off as a Gothic horror game and gets very Cosmic. It's a great game to boot!
I, the Lord of the Midnight Green, now give rise to my final dream.
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