Sunday, January 27, 2019

[LEGENDARIA] Northern Regions of Legendaria

Region 01: The Burning Wastes and the Cities of Steel
This region is dominated by rocky, sandy, and muddy wastes punctuated by verdant meadows, the few rivers meandering from the north to the south to merge with the Great Glittering River on the Silver Steppes (Map 04). The eastern border is punctuated by the north-west spur of the Shadow Peaks, which here trails off into canyon-riddled hills, plateaus, and buttes occupied by strange and terrible monsters.
 
The wastelands are home to strange clans of various races each of which claims a ruined city of crystal and steel as a holy taboo. The plains are home to small clans of nomads who follow herds of wild beasts, on foot or riding various other four or more-legged beasts. All the various clans hate each other with a passion, but they unite as needed against the Abhuman Hordes to the south and against the Offworlders.
 
Here and there amidst the savage clans are found small walled towns, each built around and amidst a series of hydrocarbon wells and/or rare mineral mines. These towns are a mix of Modern and Futuristic technologies, having been founded in the last decade or two by the Offworlder Tyrants, small, independent off-world entrepreneurs, who have settled here for resource extraction with little concern for the locals or the ecology.
 
Offworlder Colony
These Offworlders are generally an evil and despicable lot, though there are no few who are here merely to seek a living. But as a rule, the settlements are each controlled by a group of self-serving criminal types who use misery and tyranny to control the settlers and squeeze every last credit from them that they can. As none of the settlements are legally registered with the Reserve Galactic Authority – what passes for the law in this sector of the Galaxy – whatever rules the Offworlder Tyrants make are the law, including slavery, theft, gambling, murder, and other worse vices.
 
Fortunately for the natives of the region, the various leaders of each settlement generally loathe each other, each wanting to be the “big man” in power, and none willing to give an inch of their own power to any others. Against all this is a small group of rebels, led by Marshal Lance Starstrider of the RGA. He and his posse do not have the resources to take the Offworlders on directly, so they work to try to unite the locals, assist the oppressed slaves and workers, and pit the various Offworlder Tyrants against each other to bring the whole ramshackle colony down.
 
Region 02: The Shadow Peaks and Demonfang Citadel
The great Shadow Peaks are home to the Banemasters of Demonfang Citadel. The Banemasters do not generally rule over the villages and hamlets of the region so much as they simply raid and oppress them at will, generally unopposed by any other factions, save irregular raids by the Champions of Castle Blackhawk. As such, the towns, villages, and hamlets of the region are poor, the peoples thereof mightily oppressed and downtrodden, and the coffers of the Banemasters fill with the treasure won with the blood, sweat, and tears of their slaves.
 
The larger settlements are loosely ruled by a governor of the Banemasters, the others kept in line by the regular raids and patrols sent through the region. Patrols consist of a Banemaster, a handful of minions, and a troop of Demonfang Citadel Dumbot Warriors. By this point, most are used to dealing with well-trod-upon peasants and slaves and are not at all prepared to deal with strong, independent hero-types who might actually fight back. At any sign of the Champions of Castle Blackhawk, their standing orders are to fall back and call in a strike team of Masters and more experienced minions (and swarms of Dumbot Warriors).
 
The Shadow Peaks
The Shadow Peaks are a narrow range of very tall conical mountains that run east to west, from the Fairy Forest to the Burning Wastes. Demonfang Citadel stands atop the tallest peak near the center of the range, its four demon faces facing the four cardinal points of the compass. The grav-bikes and grav-sleds of the Banemasters and their flying Dumbot Warriors swarm in and out of the mouths on their evil errands. Other than the handful of minions who remain in the larger towns and those who are on patrol, most Banemasters, their minions, and the dumbot warriors remain in citadel, ready to deploy for action wherever their Grand Master dictates.
 
The Grand Master of the Banemasters of Demonfang Citadel is the Sorcerer-King Typhon, a mighty magic-user (Sorcerer). The founder of the Banemasters, he wears purple robes, a golden mask with a horned demon face (which moves as would a living face, often with a sneer or a frown), and wields a magical black staff capped with a golden demon skull. He is always accompanied by Zahak, his pet purple dragon/familiar/steed, which can change from cat-sized to horse-sized.
 
The mountain range is no wider than 50 miles at any one point, and runs along the southern border of the region, spilling at times into the Patchwork Lands. Settlements in the mountains are found in the narrow valleys amongst the peaks. The midlands are rolling forested hills, with finger ranges of hills reaching north and dividing the deep jungles and swamps of the riverine lowlands. Rivers mostly flow north from the mountains, though some flow south into the Great Glittering River.
 
The rivers and the swamps of the northern part of the region are home to alien dinosaurs, giant serpents, giant frogs, and giant leeches. These swamps are also home to serpent-folk, lizard-folk, and frog-folk; half their settlements are dominated by the Banemasters, the other half by a mysterious force from the north known only as the Order of the Almighty Anura, said to be led by the Priest-King Xenopus.
 
Region 03: The Fairy Forest and the Foul Fens
This region is wild and fey; the power of magic is strong here, and high technology is rare and foreign. The “Fair Folk” – predominantly halflings, but also including elves, dwarves, gnomes, near-humans, amazons, changelings, and other demi-humans of goodly magical sort – are the dominant races, with the majority of other races generally being manimals (who live in peace with the demi-humans). These races dominate the wide swath of forest and meadow in the center of the region, the whole known as the Fairy Forest
 
The goodly demi-humans and manimals are balanced in power by the “Unfair Folk,” vile goblinoids and mutants that dwell in the Shadow Peaks and the Hidden Hills, the valleys and hills of which are covered in the shadowy, unpleasant “Dread Wood,” counterpart to the bright Fairy Forest. The Unfair Folk are generally independent from the Banemasters, though all have served them at time of need or in fear of their powers when called upon to do so. The goblinoids generally live in the ancient system of tunnels and caverns that riddle the mountains and forested hills; the surface lands of the mountains and hilly forests are usually home to the mutants and all manner of strange unique mutant monsters created by the energies of the Glowing Waste, the native warped Chaos Magic of the region, and the experiments of the Banemasters to the west.
 
The Fairy Forest
The Fairy Forest and the Fair Folk are protected by Jack Redcloud, the Champion Fair, a most puissant human of another world who arrived here by mischance some years ago. He wields the Seelie Sword, a mighty magical artifact that grants him great power (though not as great as the Lord of Legends of Castle Blackhawk). He and his allied heroes strike against the raids and other depredations of the Dread Overlord, a mighty mutant cyborg who seeks to conquer the region. The Dread Overlord wields the Unseelie Sword, the counterpart of the Seelie Sword, and is served by mysterious black-cloaked magic-users (said to be of the ancient Unseelie race) and mutant techno-priests of Chaotic sort. The Dread Overlord is a sometimes ally of the Banemasters but seeks to retain his independence; it is said that he once served the Techno-Mage of the Tower of Techno-Terror (Map 06), and thus he and his minions have access to Futuristic and Super-Science technology and technomancy.
 
The swamps, marshes, fens, and mudflats to the north, the Foul Fens, are inhabited by the same mix of serpent, lizard, and frog folk and kin native to the similar lands to the west (Map 02). These, however, are more independent, and only a few are beholden to the Order of the Almighty Anura (generally the frog-folk and kin, as the serpent and lizard folk and kin unite against the batrachian overlords).
 
The region is home to numerous ancient ruins, many predating the rise of the Last Galactic Empire, and all of fey and mystical sort (though some of the tunnels under the Shadow Peaks and the ruins in the valleys thereof, especially those abutting the Glowing Wastes to the south, are of Futuristic or Super-Science sort).

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