LORE WAR Chapter V: The Desert Conquest

Transcription

1 LORE WAR Chapter V: The Desert Conquest

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS: MASTEMA S FALLEN THE CULT OF MARDUK THE NATION OF UZ THE BORDERMEN THE MARAUDERS MASTEMA, FALLEN LORD BEL, PRIEST KING ENLIL IN FLESH MYSTERIOUS PROPHET SARGON, HIGH WARLORD...9 THE BATTLE OF SINKING SUMER

3 MASTEMA S FALLEN: It has been 3 years since the destruction of the Shadowlings. 3 years since the prayers of the Pact were heard and the lands of Spiria and the Riftlands were purified, causing panic among the Shadowlings. They had all disintegrated under the intensified sunlight, which returned to normal afterward. It was assumed that, as the Watcher s War morphed into the Great War, that the Shadowlings had slain or corrupted Mastema, his Watchers, and their cult. This has proven to be only partially true. Many of Mastema s Outcasts were corrupted or slain when the Shadowlings turned on those who had given them access to the known world, but Mastema and many of his people were able to flee into the desert that was once the Nation of Uz. Furious at the collapse of his plans on controlling the Invaders, he set about creating a new order. The fallen angel first became a vampire. He then had his Watchers turn the same. His cult transformed as did his plans. Mastema s Fallen, a derogatory name given to his cult by the Levanites to the north, are an unusual order of undead, necromancers, and cultists. His whole society works under a very strictly enforced hierarchy that anyone can ascend. The freshly dead are brought back to life by Low or High- Order members who capture their souls before they ascend to the sky. The soul is put back into the body and they are offered a second chance at life and at immortality, not in the far off Land of the Sleepers where all the dead go, but here in the Known World. Those who accept are called Freshers because they are freshly awakened. Those who turn the offer down are made brainwashed thralls to any one of the high ranking members. Undead are not truly immortal though. They are immune to disease, poison, and age but can still die again. Similar to the regular living they simply need to sustain severe enough injuries. Split a 3

4 skeleton s ribcage and he will not rise again. Cut the heart out of a Fresher, assuming they still have one, and they will perish. Of course, if an Order member is nearby nothing may stop him from putting the soul back in the body and reviving them. Consequently Order members tend to hang far back in battles, losing one of them who knows the secret rites of resurrection is a massive blow to the Fallen s military might. Freshers do the bidding of Mastema and his cult and are rewarded by being transformed into more powerful beings. A Fresher can become a priest, or a shade, or any number of other undead beings. Their body is remade more powerful than before. Those beings then earn their keep and move on up and so on it goes. The ultimate goal is to become a vampire, the most powerful of undead creatures. Vampires are youthful and attractive, they do not resemble the zombies and wispy spirits that the lower ranking members do. Though they require blood they have mighty powers at their command; acquiring sustenance is easy, especially since a member that has gone that high up the chain has by then lost their moral compass. However, none will ever reach the High-Order which is reserved for the Watchers. Of course. Why would Mastema ever allow former mortals to ever come close to reaching his status? The Fallen are few in number but are gaining power. After 3 years spent acquiring enough manpower, the Fallen Lord has finally decided that it is time to claim a proper home territory for his cult. The various warring factions that make up the rest of the Uzzite Desert are weak and petty. It will be trivial to remove them and lay claim to a large territory. Thus begins the desert conquests. 4

5 THE CULT OF MARDUK: The two major conflicts that ultimately led to the downfall of Uz were the rebellion of the elves in the forested northern territories and the banishing of the worshipers of the former god Marduk. Marduk was the Uzzite god of war and manly honor. Though his cult was extremely popular and famous for vigorously enforcing the pantheon against the remaining Allmor worshippers, their failure to keep the majority elf population of the north displeased the powers back home. The high priests of Molech declared that they were told by their bull god to ban Marduk worship and that Marduk had been struck down by the rest of the pantheon. This only caused enormous and violent civil unrest to breakout and then turn to war. The Cult of Marduk is a band of priestly warriors who continue worshiping their heroic god. They are located on the easternmost section of Uz. They congregate along the coastline where many young men set sail to adventure around the world. Conquering the unknown is one of the best ways of gaining favor with Marduk. The Cult does lay claim to all of the former Uzzite territory. However, they are not as strong as they used to be as the entire nation split and descended into complete factionalism. Many Marduk worshipers joined the Marauders, thinking that plunder was the way to honor the god. The Cult is the most powerful and largest of the players in the desert and they utterly and completely despise the Fallen who deprive men their right to an honorable death in battle by resurrecting them, and often then enslaving them as thralls when they, of course, turn down the earthly life for glory in Marduk s Heavenly Arena. 5

6 THE NATION OF UZ: Perhaps news of the demise of the ancient Nation of Uz was premature? Perhaps not because those who still claim that Uz lives are located only around the city itself. The Nation is small and terribly weak. The Nation is only barely able to hold their defenses against the other factions in the region. Making things worse are those streaming northeast to join the Cult. After all, Molech seems to be failing his faithful whereas Marduk s people are doing far better. In spite of the gloomy outlook, Uz continues on trying to maintain normalcy. It is likely that they will not succeed in this. The only thing sheltering them from Mastema s Fallen is the expanse of desert between the two. However, Mastema s followers are not of the living flesh. The heat and drought of the desert may not be the barrier that the remaining Uzzites hope for. THE BORDERMEN: The Bordermen are not so much a faction as just those who occupy a region. That region is the border between Uz and Levan. It is an area of high deserts and occasional woodlands. To the north are the temperate forests of Levan. To the south is the arid and rocky desert of Uz. Bordermen include elves who have refused to turn to Allmor worship and remain in their pagan ways, various beasts including a new brooder population that has moved in, and bandits. In many ways the border region is similar to how the Riftlands once were, a miscellaneous dumping ground of undesirables. THE DESERT MARAUDERS: The Desert Marauders are exactly what one would expect: they are a band of pillaging bandits and raiders. They pride themselves on the booty they plunder and are masters of the desert stallion. 6

7 They do answer to a leader, Sargon. Sargon is the kind of human who would not be out of place among the minotaurs, he is savage, brutal, and only driven by his greed. The Marauders are one group especially hated by the Cult of Marduk. The Fallen see them as easy fodder for more Freshers. MASTEMA, FALLEN LORD: As if this fallen angel could not become more vile, Mastema has now become a vampire. He did so not for the youth, for the angels never age. He did it not for immortality, for the angels bodies never breakdown on their own. He did for no other reason than to obtain powers he did not already possess. Death is a realm that the angels do not have access to without the power of the Allmor but Mastema has found a way to get around this. Vampires have a natural connection to death. For 3 years he has been flexing his magical muscles and practicing his dark arts. In that time he has transformed his cult and strengthened it. He now turns his attention to gaining a proper homeland. Though he is loath to conquer an arid desert that offers so much sun, his minions are too few and too weak to go anywhere else. Besides that, the weak warlord kingdoms of the east make a tempting offer of more minions to control. BEL, PRIEST KING: Bel is the head of the Cult of Marduk. He runs a very loose, laissez-faire style government. Men should be free to do what is good. They are governed only by their traditions and the heroic example of Marduk. Bel himself is renowned for having personally struck down all of the Uzzite high priests in an unexpected and dramatic attack during the unrest. 7

8 Unfortunately Bel s hands-off approach has made his fledgling nation to become more of a weak confederation with almost no central authority. He does not realize just how vulnerable his people truly are. ENLIL IN FLESH: In an attempt to hold order together in the puny remnants of Uz, one man has claimed to be the god, Enlil, in person. He claims that he is possessed by the god and that his wisdom alone can restore the fallen nation to glory. Molech approves, so he claims. Those on the inside are so desperate that they believe it mindlessly. On the outside such a display only makes the Nation appear even more pathetic and puny. Raids from offended Marduk worshipers have grown more and more frequent since this Enlil as appeared. The Nation is truly a shadow of its former self. MYSTERIOUS PROPHET: FOOLS! Do you not know how to think? Have you not considered why so many great events have come to pass so quickly in succession? The end is coming! The time of Nightmare is soon to begin. The Shadowlings were NOTHING! Why do you think the Allmor dealt so directly with them? Because they were merely a glimpse into the future, a warning, a message. It may begin in a decade or a century, perhaps even two or three if we are all lucky. Pray for mercy! You will soon wish you were long dead like your ancestors so that you would not have to witness those events which are to come. The Nightmare was interwoven with the Dream during creation. The time has come for the Nightmare to reach its apex. Mithra, you coward! I know you feel it. You hide the truth, you deny your feelings. Doom is approaching but you brush it aside in fear! Mastema, you devil, repent! Cease your 8

9 evil and beg forgiveness for your crimes. You are one of the only angels left on earth. Repay your debt and help those who will soon need it. You are all like men whose eyes are clouded and blind! The end is approaching and no one is prepared! Heed my warning, prepare for the suffering, or die now and spare yourself. Beware! Beware! SARGON, HIGH WARLORD: Sargon is the leader of the Marauders. He is vicious and merciless. He lives for plunder and riches. He and his men ride around the desert, raiding villages and plundering ancient ruins. He delights in lining up all of the villagers and beheading them one by one. The heads are then placed back in the homes of the villages and left there. The bodies are stacked in the center of the town, leaving the whole place covered in flies and stinking like a festering wound. Sargon cares only for the amount of gold he can fit into his ever growing wagon trains. These bandits stand no chance against the undead. THE BATTLE OF SINKING SUMER: The conquest of the desert took longer than Mastema expected but he was nonetheless successful. In about 2 years the entire region was his. The Marauders were dispatched quickly and with complete disdain. They were all turned to thralls. Uz was a bit harder to crack. However new innovations in animal and thrall combining led to a breakthrough straight through the east wall of the town. The Uzzites almost all chose to become Freshers instead of thralls. The Bordermen will always exist but many of the more uppity exiles joined the Fallen after some marshal persuasion. That only left the Cult of Marduk, the most powerful of the warlord kingdoms. The Battle of Sinking Sumer was the Cult s last stand. Sumer was a ruin of a city so ancient that no one knows when it was actually founded or by whom. It was the capital of a former empire before 9

10 Uz. The Uzzites later controlled the city but abandoned it when it was discovered that the buildings had begun to slowly sink into the sands. The various villages under the Cult joined together for a decisive battle against the undead. Brave men from all over the eastern desert congregated under the banner of Bel who would personally lead the army. Night fell which meant the Fallen would soon strike. In an hour or two undead abominations charged the ruins. Watchers appeared from the sky and collected the blood of the humans. After the first night it seemed like the Cult were doing well. There was even talks of a counter attack against the Fallen encampment which was supposedly in a nearby cave. However this plan never came to fruition. The second night was much worse. The number of Fallen soldiers was far greater. However the brave men held. On the third night the battle ended. Mastema himself led an army accompanied by almost all of his Watchers. With vampiric magic and angelic might on their side the Cult was decisively defeated. From there it was trivial to conquer the remaining villages and cities. Mastema now had his land. It was renamed Pishon. The word is that he plans on making good use of the navy he captured from the Cult of Marduk. On top of that he has his eyes set east and west. 10