Ravenloft Reanimated Domain Contest - Round 2

[WolfKook]

After the first round, the number of domains have been reduced to 28. These are: Annaes, the Archiginnasio di Felsinea, the Black Showroom, Casteldebole, Cirundi-Velle, Cratia, Crewsaw Island, the Devil's Fork, Endemia, Este, Felsinea, the Forest of Hunger, the Forest of Memory, the Free League, Grand Central, the Isles of Saint Helena, the Labyrinth, Nosos, Oriebo, Pharazia, Phragma, Il Principato delle Grazie, Richmont, Roeschap, Sassomonte, Scarabraech, Veaer, Vespa, Vinara, the Woods of the Floating Coffin and Zumbera.

For the second round of the competition the authors of those domains will have to extend the domain/darklord description to about 300 hundred words, creating a summary of plot and feel based on the fan made domain list Jöel gathered here. Plus, the summary should be accompanied by a small stat block for the domain, including the following:

Cultural Level:
Ecology:
Climate/Terrain:
Main Settlements: (Without population)
Races:
Languages:
Religion:
Government:
Ruler:
Darklord:

As you've seen, the judges have been very tough on the open call and the first round, but the competition is still on its beginnings, and there's still a lot to improve on each domain. We're looking for descriptions that make the judges fall out of their chairs in surprise and excitement. Remember that this will be the last round (Except for the finals) that the judges will make their call... Next round it will be the forum's decision!

We encourage the contestants to keep in mind the recommendations of the judges on the open call and the first round to improve the submission on this second round of the competition.

As before, all submissions should be sent to wolfkook@gmail.com.

[Igor the Henchman]

What language patterns does RLR go for? The old "Most domains have a language of their own" approach, or the 4E "keep the list short" thing?

[DocBeard]

This is still a closed thing, right? Just double checking.

[Sorti]

Of course if anyone has any idea about how a domain should be or what could make it more interesting, or some part they'd be excited to see expanded, I'm sure the contenders would love to hear them

This is a community project, so what does the community think about it?

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

So is this 300 for the domains and dark lord is this all together or each?

[Sorti]

When is the deadline?

[WolfKook]

What language patterns does RLR go for? The old "Most domains have a language of their own" approach, or the 4E "keep the list short" thing?

Well, IMO, Ravenloft's language list shouldn't bee too short, but having each domain having its own language isn't good either... I'd prefer an in-between sort of thing.

The important thing here is to make cultural connections (Or disconnections) explicit. So, if you want to make one of your domains related to -say -Mordent, perhaps you should think on including Mordentish in the language box.

This is still a closed thing, right? Just double checking.

Yeap, Doc. Only the authors of the domains which passed through the second filter may participate. However, you can still make comments and suggestions to the contestants (And, thanks to Igor's suggestion, I have a proposition just for you, Doc).

Of course if anyone has any idea about how a domain should be or what could make it more interesting, or some part they'd be excited to see expanded, I'm sure the contenders would love to hear them

This is a community project, so what does the community think about it?

Yes, please. Don't forget to use this thread as you wish to send comments and suggestions to the contestants. They'll sure appreciate anything you have to say to improve their domains!

So is this 300 for the domains and dark lord is this all together or each?

300 words for the entire summary, excluding the statblock. The summary should capture the entirety of the domain's underlying plot and feel, and it could include part of the darklord's backstory, cultural references, going-ons in the domain... Anything you want that will make the judges interested in choosing your domain!

When is the deadline?

Right. Submissions should be sent no later than April 5th, 2009 (I also receive gifts and congratulations, as it'll be my birthday ). From then, the judges will have until April 19th to publish their opinions.

So, are you ready? Let's go![/quote]

[WolfKook]

Don't forget that the deadlines are due this Sunday! Only three of the contestants have sent their proposals already... (And that means just 12 domains...)

[Igor the Henchman]

I promise that you'll get mine as usual: less than an hour before the deadline.

[Sorti]

I checked the calendar and it says the results will be out on the 19th, so I wanted to ask: does anybody have a time machine to lend me?

[WolfKook]

I'm afraid that because of the problem with the forum, there have been some problems of communication with the judges (With Tec-Gob, especially), so I apologize in advance if the deadline extends even a little further.

Even so, I'll be posting the candidates here so people can make their comments.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I'm afraid that because of the problem with the forum, there have been some problems of communication with the judges (With Tec-Gob, especially), so I apologize in advance if the deadline extends even a little further.

Sorry about the timing of that.... :/

[WolfKook]

I'm afraid that because of the problem with the forum, there have been some problems of communication with the judges (With Tec-Gob, especially), so I apologize in advance if the deadline extends even a little further.

Sorry about the timing of that.... :/

No problem, ´ron... It wasn't your fault. On the contrary, I'm grateful you made it in time for us to go on with the contest without further traumatism. I've made my share of web site maintenance over the years, and I know it shouldn't have been easy.

[WolfKook]

So, without further ado, here they are!

Annaes
Cultural Level: 4 (but see below)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate/sub-tropical plains and wetlands
Main Settlements: Annaes
Races: human, halfling, half-elf, gnome, others
Languages: Nesan [Darkonese]
Religion: Set the All-Seeing, Mithras
Government: Despotic autocracy
Ruler: Michael Carcaros
Darklord: The Black Dragon
Summary of plot/feel: For millennia the ships of Annaes, the City Infinite and Eternal, voyaged among the crystal spheres and returned with the wonders—and horrors—of ten thousand worlds in their holds. A thousand sentient races made their homes there, ten thousand languages were heard in its streets, and its inhabitants were past counting.
Then the Builders departed, and the city they had made was left to dwindle in knowledge and power—like all works of mortals, neither infinite nor eternal in the end. Slowly, slowly, the city has contracted, abandoning its buildings and broad streets generation by generation to the river, the jungle, and the murderers, robbers and madmen who fled beyond the reach of civilization into what became known as the Dying City. The time when Annaes ruled far worlds had become more myth than history.
Then, one night, a star fell into the center of the city, and a man came from it who understood the secrets of old times. He used his knowledge to become the city’s ruler and promised he would give the Annesans the stars once more. Three hundred years later, he has not made good on his promise, but he still rules, and the Annesans still dream of the stars—and of freedom.
Annaes is inspired by books like Jack Vance’s Dying Earth and Demon Princes novels and Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. Its mood is eerie, bizarre, and melancholy—with the occasional eldritch horror or blood-soaked war between crime families thrown in for variety.

Archiginnasio Di Felsinea
Cultural Level: Renaissance (9)
Ecology: -
Climate/Terrain: -
Main Settlements: -
Races: Humans 99%, Others 1%
Languages: Odiaran*, Nidalan
Religion: Belenus*
Government: -
Ruler: Magnifico Rettore Giulio Poretti
Darklord: Humbert Greimas (male human Adp15, LE)
The Archiginnasio of Felsinea is the place where the library of the University of Felsinea stores books and tomes of all the fields of knowledge, restored after a mysterious fire occurred a couple of decades ago which destroyed countless manuscripts.
It’s now divided in departments, each adorned with plants, art objects and architecture appropriate to its field. The Magnifico Rettore Giulio Poretti recently lowered University’s fee, to allow a greater number of students to be able to afford membership and make them choose to study in Felsinea instead of other cities.
Humbert Greimas, esteemed professor of philosophy and literature, is a man who prefers to make experiments about what he reads and studies. The fire which risked to destroy the whole Archiginnasio was the result of a failed alchemic experiment he made inside a laboratory, though all the proofs which would have lead the Faculty of Criminology to identify a culprit were lost in the accident.
Overwhelmed by the guilt of having destroyed so many tomes, he gathered many brilliant sages and professors to quickly rewrite all the lost knowledge.
Not being satisfied of the time required to completely restore the library, which would exceed his lifespan, he experimented obscure alchemic ritual to turn the flesh and blood of his co-workers into tomes containing their knowledge, effectively speeding up the restoration project, but putting intelligent flesh constructs to the shelves.
Everyone’s mind turned into a tome is dangerous for those reading them; their deep desire is not to see Greimas completing the library, so they influence the mind of the readers, making them ‘addict’ to read the book further, and on regular basis, to later suggest them to steal all the books of the same field or commit bizarre acts linked to its field of study, inside the library.

The Black Showroom
Cultural Level: Chivalric (9)
Ecology: -
Climate/Terrain: Variably
Main Settlements: -
Races: Humans 100%
Languages: Mordentish*, Balok, Falkovnian
Religion: -
Government: -
Ruler: Arthur Black
Darklord: Arthur Black (Exp8 NE)
Arthur Black is the eccentric, rich, artistic prodigy who owns a prestigious showroom routing among rich towns, hosted by influential atistocrats or important governors, always in an environment where talented young artist are likely to gather.
His ‘crew’ is formed by around fifty people moving around by caravans, carrying all which is required to create an outdoor showroom with gazebos, exotic plants and an immersive background.
Once a Mordentish lord’s painter, his skills ranged to simple views to complicate portraits, improving through the years until his fame brought him wealth and prestige, as an artist as well as a patron of the arts, and his showroom’s presence if now often contended among several lords.
The desire to create a ‘perfect’ potrait, once it was clear he was one of the most talented painters and he wanted to surpass all the others with an immortal masterpiece, obsessed him to the point he almost losed his sanity by working without pausing.
When he finally completed a perfect self-portrait, he realized that the painting was much better than his very self, worn out by years of work, and he thought he had sacrificed himself for it; enraged, he cut his veins to soil with his blood the painting before dying, but before passing out he remembered his smiling self-portrait to promise him to restore his youth in exchange of his soul, and he, dazzled, accepted.
Next day he woke up, alive and young once again, and the self-portrait explained him smiling that, in order to preserve his youth, he would have had to sacrifice souls of other very skilled artists, and from that day Black goes around in search of the most promising and talented ones, offering them fame and fortune if they fully devote themselves to Art.

Casteldebole
Cultural Level: Chivalric (8)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate forests, hills and plains
Main Settlements: Edera, Saliceto, Roverino
Races: Humans 94%, Dwarves 4%, Halflings 1%, Others 1%
Languages: Odiaran*, Nidalan
Religion: Belenus*
Government: Feudal hereditary monarchies
Ruler: Duke Manfredi of Saliceto, Duke Umberto of Roverino
Darklord: Baccio di Albanera (male human Exp11, CE) and Chiara di Albanera (female dread flesh golem Ari5, NE)
The dukes of Saliceto and Roverino have been struggling for generations over the rich city of Edera, on the border between their duchies, home of famous artists and literates.
Lately the conflict has toned down to less open warfare and more tournaments and artistic competitions, and of course more subtle struggles like assassination, espionage, hiring of mercenaries, usury, to motivate more minor families to fight or to discredit and weaken the opponent, as the dukes try to increase their prestige and power before the final battle. Saliceto is home of an important school of warmages, while Roverino is supported by rich dwarven banker families.
The struggle continues village after village and competition after competition; the Council of Edera tries to undermine the dukes' power to keep their city free, but unsuccessfully for now. A mute masked swashbuckler called “Rodomonte” seems to be on their side, striking suddenly in the night and disappearing quickly afterwards; both dukes put bounties on his head.
Baccio di Albanera, greatest sculptor in Edera, lost his wife Magda in a skirmish between the dukes and vowed for revenge; following an ancient legend he made an alabaster statue of the goddess of Love and prayed Discordia, lady of Strife, to give her life. The statue came to life, and he introduced her to the dukes as his long-lost daughter Chiara. Both were quickly seduced by the golem's power, and he promised her hand to the one who will prove himself worthy defeating the other.
Chiara lives on strife and would return a statue if the war ended, so she's trying to make it continue forever, unbeknown to Baccio. Unable to love, she longs for it, but men see her only as an object of lust.
Having no blood, she falls into hysteria at its sight.

Cirundi-Velle
Cultural Level: Classical (4), Indications of previous highly advanced society (9+)
Ecology: Full Ecology
Climate/Terrain: Cold Settled Area
Main Settlements: Herone-Velle
Races: Elan 99%, 1 % other
Languages: Sythen
Religion: None
Government: Elected council of citizens
Ruler: d'Rakh-Boeth, The Great Council
Darklord: Gaeus Dioria
Several hundred years ago, the remnants of a dying race planeshifted one of their greatest cities across the multiverse. Whatever the catastrophe was is unknown, but from what scholars can tell, the elders died out centuries ago due to disease, leaving only their language, their gleaming towers, and the elan as testimony to their mastery of science and psionics.
The elan were the original human inhabitants of the region, taken under the tutelage of the elders, and transformed by then into something more, or less, than human, remade more receptive to the psionic art favored by the elders. No longer aging, nor requiring food or warmth, yet they lacked the knowledge and understanding necessary to maintain the elder race's technological marvels. Over time the city's systems started failing, and escaped experiments or malfunctioning constructs began roaming the streets. As years became decades, the elan were pushed towards the city's harbor, entire wards declared off limits. This continued for nearly a century, the city fading around them, before the elan began to fade with it, and their need for the mundane, for sleep, food, water and heat, returned.
Many tried to discover a cure for the affliction, but the only Gaeus Dioria showed any success. His experiments on the tribal humans hunting near the city, while ethically questionable, was supported by the entirety of the council, however he vanished before he could complete his experiments, believed to have been the first to succumb to the draining disease, a horrible affliction that transforms the victim into a brain-dead shell. About this time that strange ships began appearing in the harbor, carried there by the mists. The elan established a rudimentary barter system with these strangers, trading ancient relics and artifacts for the food and clothing they no longer knew how to make.

Cratia
Cultural Level: Classical
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate Forests, Hills, Plains and Mountains
Population: 300.000
Main Settlements: Athria (80.000), Teliopolis (23.000), Evlogia (7.000)
Races: Human 93%, Gnome 3%, Half-Vistani 2%, Halfling 1%, Other 1%
Languages: Cratian*, Darkonese, Mordentish
Religion: Cratian Pantheon
Government: Hereditary Monarchy
Ruler: King Aischos
Darklord: King Aischos
Aischos and Diodorus were the twin sons of king Aniketos of Cratia. Diodorus was perfect in every sense, but Aischos was hunched and deformed, and would have been sacrificed if he wouldn't have been the king's son. Even though Aniketos openly preferred Diodorus and despised Aischos, both were loving brothers. When they got older, Diodorus fell in love with a beautiful girl, but Aischos started to have feelings for her. Confused, he went to the Oracle, which told him that he would end up marrying this girl. However, it also said that he would destroy his entire family first. After his own father tried to kill him over this prophecy, Aischos fled, and after discovering dark secrets of his father, he ended up teaming with the centaurs against him. In the end, Aischos faced his father, but ended up accidentally killing his beloved brother. In grief, he accepted his own fate, murdered his own father, took his horrified sister-in-law as his wife, and became an even worse ruler than his father.
Today, the centaurs and the amazons have turned to savagery, while the deformed Aischos enforces the old decree that all people with physical limitations have to die in the risks. The oracle speaks prophecies of doom for anyone who listens and while the sages try to hold to the old ways, while Synthyche, the new queen, tries to gather people faithful to Diodorus, to rise against her new husband.

Crewsaw Island
Cultural Level: Savage/Chivalric
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Warm Forests, Hills, Plains, Marshes and Mountains
Main Settlements: Last Stand (120)
Races: Human 88%, Caliban 3%, Half-Elf 2%, Half-Vistani 2%, Other 5%
Languages: Mordentish*, native dialect.
Religion: Ezra*, pagan gods.
Government: Meritocratic Monarchy
Ruler: Captain Reuben Crewsaw
Darklord: Captain Reuben Crewsaw
After a disastrous shipwreck, the survivors of the Silvery Maiden gathered in the remnants of the boat, striving to stay alive. After days without food or water, one of them finally died, and they agreed on eating the remains to stay alive. They had to do this again before they got to an unknown island, which they named after their captain. Even though the island offered everything they needed to eat, there was no meat anywhere, and the captain started to crave for meat once again. In the end, desperate for some meat, he resorted to killing another one of his companions, and eating him. He did it again before the first body was discovered, and -afraid of being discovered -he accused a group of cannibals of the fact. As if he was invoking them, the cannibals arrived on the next full moon to feast on their recent kills, leaving them horrified as they watched from afar. The cannibals discovered and chased them, but they caught only Reuben. Seeing how different he was from them, they made him into a living god, and started asking him for his favor, which he showed by leaving them find, kill and eat his remaining friends.
Soon after, the crew of an entire ship arrived to the island after their wreck, and they found only Reuben Crewsaw there. He warned them of cannibal tribes in the north of the island, and helped them build an entire village where anyone who commits a crime gets exiled to the north. Sadly, Reuben Crewsaw's feelings towards anyone also give him a strong hunger for his or her flesh.[/b]

[WolfKook]

Devil’s Fork
Cultural Level: 9
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Arid mountains
Main Settlements: Devil’s Fork, Solum Flats, Barraketty, Four of Swords
Races: Human, dwarf
Languages: Zherisian, Darkonese
Religion: Divinity of Mankind
Government: No central government
Ruler: No central government
Darklord: Henry “Hank” Spurling
Plot/Feel: The miner came with his pack donkey down from the red-rock hills to find water in the little creek bordered by cottonwood trees, and when he had drunk he looked up and saw the creek forked, one stream coming from the northwest and the other from the southwest. As he thought of which he should follow, a tall man in a black coat, with horns under his hat and boots that fit no human feet, appeared beside him.
“Tell me, stranger,” said the miner, for one should never show he knows the Devil, “where does that northern fork of the stream lead?”
“Well,” the Devil said, smiling a small smile, “If you follow that fork right to the very end, you’ll find it runs from beneath a door made all of gold, and that’s my front door.”
“And the southern fork?” the miner asked.
The Devil grinned a little wider. “Ah! Well, if you go to follow that fork right to the very end, you’ll find it flows from beneath a door of silver, and that’s my back door.”
The miner thought on that, and then said, “And if I were to go downstream?”
The Devil showed all his teeth. “Why, if you go downstream right to the very end, you’ll see the stream flows beneath a door all made of brass and iron, and that’s my cellar door.”
“I see,” the miner said, and thought. At last he said, “Well, then, I think I may just stay here a while.”
“Suit yourself,” the Devil said, and began to chuckle. “For this is my own front parlor, and no fork in the path can get you to anywhere but Hell from here.” And howling with laughter he disappeared in a puff of fire and brimstone.
And that’s why they call this town Devil’s Fork.

Endemia
Cultural Level: Modern
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate Hills and Plains
Population: 250.000
Main Settlements: Endemia (120.000), Firendroit, Honenfeld
Races: Human 92%, Caliban 2%, Half-Vistani 3%, Other 3%
Languages: Zherisian*.
Religion: None.
Government: Hereditary Oligarchy
Ruler: Parliament of Endemia
Darklord: Lord Isaac Burney
Isaac Burney was born frail and weak, and his wealthy father recluded him in his bedroom, where he was tended by a faithful servant who spoiled him to the point he almost didn't tolerate anyone else. He was homeschooled, but he inevitably had problems with every teacher or servant he had, and when his nanny left, he felt very alone. Determined on not having to depend on anyone, Isaac asked his father to borrow a servant who'd help him build a mechanical, spider-like chair, which would help him move about. He became an engineer of renown, even though his harsh manners were almost as famous as himself, and when war came, he became important, and powerful.
But when the war ended, he started to run dry, and he turned his frustration on his workers, who were underpaid, and overworked. They eventually went to strike, and Isaac, fearing for his life, turned to a last resource: He sealed himself in his office, and released the toxic fumes of the forges in the factory. That day, all of his employees died before his very eyes.
But that was not a total loss, as Isaac discovered how to reanimate them with small engines and mechanical pieces, and how to create bigger, stronger workers from wood and metal. But even these workers have started to develop a mind of their own.

Este
Cultural Level: Medieval (7)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate Plains, Swamp, Forest
Main Settlements: Este, Cento
Races: Humans 99%, Others 1%
Languages: Odiaran*, Mordentish
Religion: Belenus*
Government: Feudal hereditary monarchies
Ruler: Duke Leonardo Ferrara II
Darklord: The jester Pietro Gonnella (ghost rank III Exp10)
Este is the main town of the homonym Duchy, it’s circle-shaped and surrounded by channels and dams to prevent the swampy waters of the lands to submerge it, since it lies below the sea’s level, and often in the Autumn and Winter floods are caused by the poorly-designed sewer system.
It’s connected by a small land passage to Cento, the other relevant town of the Duchy, much more economically relevant because of the frequent transit of caravans, being in a much better position for the trade.
The high spread of swamps gave birth to countless legends about monsters living in the sewers, kidnapping children and killing whoever enters them unprepared.
Duke Leonardo Ferrara II, whose father died falling from a towers few years ago, was a good ruler, sedating small rebellions and conflicts among the local nobility, until a strange form of what seems a contagious madness spread. Doctor Mondino de Luizzi, called by the duke, studies scientifically what he thinks to be a mental disease, inside the protection of the Diamonds Palace in Este.
The truth is that Pietro Gonnella, the ghost of a jester, seeks vengeance by making respectable persons to make strange and horrible acts he finds ‘amusing’, like putting vermins inside of the food of the best tavern of Cento, switching the ball children play with with the head of a dead rabid dog, planting wood shards in the hands of a carpenter to make him fall insane.
The former duke made him believe he would have been executed because of a bad performance (which was instead truly amazing), and he committed suicide.
The old duke mourned the victim of his bad joke, though Pietro is now only determined to spread chaos and madness according with his diseases sense of humor.

Felsinea
Cultural Level: Renaissance(9)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate forests, hills and plains
Main Settlements: Felsinea
Races: Humans 78%, Subhumans 18%, Dwarves 2%, Halflings 1%, Others 1%
Languages: Odiaran*, Nidalan
Religion: Belenus*
Government: Commune (aristocratic oligarchy)
Ruler: Podestà Ottavio Bentivoglio
Darklord: Astylos (male sphinx Sor18, NE)
The enlightened city of Felsinea, home of the most prestigious university of the known world, a place where knowledge, philosophy and science are valued above everything else; the university is so ancient that some of its bowels are unexplored and the weird books and stone tablets hidden therein host the unknown magic of a forgotten race.
Centuries ago sphinxes lived where now the city is, an advanced race whose magic was based on solving Riddles that gave power over reality.
Astylos, the wisest historian of the sphinxes, killed all the others and absorbed their knowledge to solve the Riddle of Life that would make him a god; but their combined knowledge wasn't enough, so now he “gifts” knowledge to talented humans, hoping to get more insight on the Riddle. The Gifted usually become insane, behaving like the heroes of ancient tragedies or developing Astylos' own hate and contempt for all inferior races like humans.
The famed Faculty of Criminology's investigators have been studying for years why some brilliant men sometimes become madmen bent on murder and other deranged crimes, but for now they didn't manage to solve this riddle.
Outside the city walls, on the hills, savage tribes of subhumans refuse knowledge and civilization, their shamans telling them that Felsinea hides a great evil which must be destroyed, though they cannot hope to defeat cannons with spears. Mostly, the Felsinese are happy to keep this barbarians away from their countryside, and they don't push their patrols to the hills.
The caverns this savages live in are the forgotten temples and necropolises of the sphinxes, and many expeditions continue to be sent from Felsinea from Dean Grimaldi of the Faculty of Archeology, to retrieve the ancient treasures buried therein, despite the deadly traps and riddles claimed many lives.

The Free League
Cultural Level: Chivalric (8)
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: Temperate forests, hills, marshes and plains
Main Settlements: eventually Felsinea, Monte Mal, Oriebo.
Races: Humans 92%, Halflings 5%, Dwarves 2%, Others 1%
Languages: Odiaran*, Nidalan
Religion: Belenus*
Government: League of independent Communes (aristocratic oligarchies)
Ruler: None (each Commune has a local government)
Darklord: Cesare Claudio Maria de'Medardi (male human Ari14)
The Free League is an alliance of independent Communes that joined together years ago to fight against an aggression from the neighboring Nidala. After the war ended the cities kept close but less idyllic relationships.
The plains are plagued by what is called the ‘Piaga delle Campagne’ (Scourge of the Countryside), maybe originated by a curse on the land; scarecrows becoming alive, swarms of dire locusts attacking farmers instead of harvests, flocks of birds killing travelers, and the apparition of strange ‘Foxweres’, foxes capable of assuming human form, wielding magic and feeding on living chickens and farmers.
Several mercenary companies sell their swords to one or another Commune, feeding on their endless economic struggle; the great landowners often employ them too, though the cost is such that often some farms are left unprotected, when their harvests are poor.
Cesare de'Medardi is a frail Machiavellian nobleman who provoked the war with Nidala to be able to lead the armies of the League. He manipulated the conflict to assure his family would have been taken hostage and killed by the enemy, inheriting his family's lands.
This tragic loss and his victories in the war thanks to his skills as military strategist gave him the sympathy of the people, but not enough to become king as he planned, since the local governments didn't want to renounce their power just for the safety he promised. He is now planning to goad the Nidalans into slaughtering the local governments in a bloodier war, so nobody will deny him the title of King once he turns the tide of war.
Cesare is physically weak and incapable of fighting; in fact he never killed a man himself. He lives in terror of being hurt or assassinated, and is constantly surrounded by bodyguards and tasters.

The Forest of Hunger
Level: Little to no technology
Ecology: Full
Climate/Terrain: An expansive rainforest
Main Settlements: Scattered ruminants of the natives and the invaders
Races: 90% human 10% other (population 500)
Languages: Darkonese by the invaders, and a unknown tongue spoken by the natives
Religion: Original native religion lost when a majority of the people died
Government: None
Ruler: General Fentrat is in charge of the remains of the invaders, and the ruler of the Last Bastion
Darklord: Tar’Karus
Summary of Plot/Feel: The will to consume all others, until one finally eats themselves is a feeling that rapes the souls of those who enter. The few human settlements that survive have fallen into savagery, and even the last bastion is controlled by a man who must bind himself to stop the madness.
Travellers are drawn further into the forest, which spirals ever downward, in a desperate search to sate their hunger. Using their will to survive against them, till their body and mind has been destroyed and unable to get out. Tar’karus will only then consume them.
The closer one gets the more one will begin to notice the earth becoming flesh, and notice the wind become the breathing of some great beast. At the end one notices a yawning chasm lined with teeth like razor blades, and the remains of those who fell for his trap.
Bound to the land itself Tar’Karus uses hunger to draw people in. With the strong he uses there ego against them, twisting the victims morals till they consume those weaker than them, and eventually eat themselves.