Mad Brew Labs

Empires and civilizations have waxed and waned like the tides on the world of The Dead Wastes. Most recently, if a millennium ago can be called recent, there was the Nadori Empire. An unknown catastrophic event ended the technologically advanced civilization. The remnants of their cities, roads, and monuments can still be seen lying dormant under a thousand years of growth and exposure to the elements.

Many devices that have survived the ravages of time are still in use today, often revered as artifacts bestowed by some god. These devices usually perform some sort of utility such as pumping water to a desert village or bringing gaslight to city streets at night. However, there are also more devious and destructive technologies that have been left behind by the Nadori.

The Necrotek were a cult of Tenebrous, the God of Shadows and Death. As a secret society of an empire shrouded in mystery, very little is known about these dark technomagi by Nadori historians other than they practiced the art of fusing mechanica and necromancy. The Necrotek often warped and mutilated their bodies with the unholy fusion to further their studies and to impress their god.

Some academics believe that the Necrotek may be responsible for the demise of the Nadori Empire.  Perhaps their vile experimentations and research unleashed some ghastly fate upon the people.  They all agree that the world is better off without them, but unfortunately the vestiges of the cult still remain to haunt the present.

Bloodhulks

Today, a handful of Necrotek temples have survived, but now lay buried in remote, undiscovered box canyons of the northern mountains or half-buried in the sands of the east.  The city of Stragus, formerly known as Sidarius prior to the vampiric invasion of the Long Night, was built upon a subterranean Necrotek temple.  It has been revived by the Cardinal Jandalor, the vampire High Priest of Tenebrous.

With the secrets they uncovered beneath the city, the vampire clergy has been able to revive a small number of hybrid steam hulks that are composed of mummified flesh, bone, and iron.  The true horror lies in the fact that these twisted contraptions have been baptized in the blood of infants and are powered by the blood of the enemies they slay in combat.  The vampires are hoping to recover more of these Bloodhulks for the impending war against man.

Last of the Necrotek

Of the few scholars even aware of the long dead cult, most believe that all of its members were stricken from the face of the Valtuus along with the rest of the Nadori.  However, there is at least one sage who has made a connection between a legend of the fringers who live along the edge of the Dead Wastes and what few descriptions recovered from Nadori ruins of Necrotek members.

The legend of the Iron Wraith is told to the children of fringers to elicit acceptable behavior, but much truth lies in the tales of the monstrous wraith.  It is said a man who has rusted iron armor fused to his flesh with exposed bone and shriveled entrails stalks the Dead Wastes, collecting the bodies of zombies and worse for some dreadful and unspeakable experiments.  From a distance the man appears shaded by clouds that are not existent, but upon closer inspection the gruesome visage is actually pure shadow.  Of course, no one who sees the Iron Wraith ever escapes to tale these terrifying tales either.

Listening to: Quiet Riot - Winners Take All – Metal Health

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Buried under the ruins of the world of The Dead Wastes are secrets to the manipulation of magic. Many of these are dark secrets better left undiscovered. To the uninitiated, all methods of manipulating arcane energies are commonly referred to as sorcery, but there are many paths of working magic; sorcery is but one method.

The people of Lyrdonia have a deep mistrust, fear, and sometimes hatred of the arcane.  After all, magic caused the collapse of at least one civilization and magic caused the death and destruction that still persists to this day in the Dead Wastes.  Most people feel that no good can come from performing magic and anything touched by magic is corrupt and brings evil upon those involved or even near the event.

The mistrust is well warranted as during the dark period between the fall of the Nadori and the rise of Aurincia, many sinister entities utilized magic to enslave villages and used the innocent to fuel their malicious rituals.  Many of these entities were sorcerers, calling upon the arcane energies of their nefarious heritage to give them power.   Corrupted power.

Paths of Magic

Below is a selection of known and rumored methods of manipulating magic.  There are most certainly older, forgotten sources of arcane power and no doubt new methods will be discovered in the future.

• Alchemical – The science of extracting the phenomenal properties of elements
• Divine – The miracle of channeling the will of the gods
• Eldritch – The power of places gained usually from events that has taken place there
• Psionics – The ability to effect the environment through will alone
• Resonance – Strange effects created through voice, chord, and rhythm
• Ritual – Rites of intricate and involved procedure that often take hours if not days
• Sorcery – Spellcraft gained through blood or pact
• True Name – Undeniable control over things by the knowledge of true names
• Wizardry – An almost mathematical invocation of magic using complex words and symbols
• Witchcraft – Magic gained through the consort of spirits
• Wylder – The power to manipulate the power of nature

Arcane Corruption

Performing magic is not without consequences.  Channeling arcane energies can leave lasting marks upon the user.  Some practitioners of magic assuage this corruption by passing it on to other things, such as the surrounding plantlife or even other people (the virgin sacrifice is a well known legend for a reason).  However, these defilers usually end up attracting worse things than arcane corruption.

Arcane corruption takes many forms, some spellcrafters end up acquiring strange physical features: scales, goat irises, claws, vestigial wings and tails, or even tentacles.  Not all spells cause such disfigurements, but the more potent a spell is coupled with how quickly the spellcaster wants to manifest the power increases the likelyood to accrue arcane corruption.

Listening to: Carcass – Swansong – Black Star

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The Long Night

The nearest planets to Valtuus, Kulpator and Asceros, had began a month long process of converging in an extended solar eclipse, and the twin moons of Valtuus had begun to appear during the day, and their lunar cycles were affected by strange gravitation anomalies caused by the conjunction of planets.  Doomsayers had taken to the streets of Sidarius en masse, preaching about the end-times and souls doomed to the burning conflagrations of the Infernal Dominions.

The doomsayers were not far off; the Long Night had begun and once all the planets and the moons were in conjunction, the sun was blotted out of the day sky and an unnatural night fell across the land.  But instead of fire and brimstone, the people of Sidarius were to be drowned in Darkness and Blood.  When the Darkness came, a twisting vortex of sickly green energy formed in the black skies above Sidarius, poised above the Sunstar Cathedral, as if it were going to descend to swallow the steeple whole.  And so, all the might of Aurincia that could be assembled in the hours that passed shortly after the appearance of the vortex, arrayed themselves for battle around the exterior of the cathedral.  But instead of descending to engulf the cathedral, the gaping green maw belched forth a flood of dark crimson.  The vile ichor had the copper-tinged smell of blood, yet burned flesh like acid.

Unfortunately, the Shining Host of Sidarius, as their army was called, was unprepared for such an event, expecting a horde of demons to fight in battle.  So it was that much of the Shining Host was destroyed in the tidal wave of acidic blood, as were many of the remaining clergy and even more citizens.  It was only after the corrosive rivers of blood subsided that the enemy horde the Shining Host had expected to fly through the ghastly vortex materialized.  But it was not an army of demons, it was something worse.

Dead, rotting corpses began pouring forth from vortex.  A few became impaled upon the steeple of the Sunstar Cathedral while the others began to cascade down the roof and pile up upon the ground.  Their body tossed and bounced like rag dolls.

This continued for some time, nearly burying the Sunstar Cathedral with rotting flesh.  Then they came.  The Vampiric Legion marched slowly down the hill of corpses, weapons drawn and at the ready, with the Blood Tyrant at the lead.  Everyone that survived that day would have his name burned into their memory.  Karthisis.  Karthisis was the lord of the vampires, their Blood Tyrant.

He marched his legion into the main boulevard of the city, and then called his men up short.  The ranks of the vampire host was slavering and biting at their bits to sink their teeth into the Shining.  With a blood curdling scream and a wave of his arm, his Black Calvary came in full charge through the vortex, streaking through the darkened sky upon bat winged steeds.

Then the real terror began as a pulse of eldritch energy reverberated through the city, bringing the mountain of corpses to lurching life.  And so the Shining Host nearly fled in terror, but instead gave their lives so the remaining Priests of Sidar could work their final miracle.

Just as Shambling Horde formed with deathly purpose within Sidarius, the Last Bishop of the Sunstar Cathedral gathered his priests to him to begin closing the gate that had spelled their doom, for what had crossed over was merely the vanguard of a much larger army, and they could be seen and heard marching towards the vortex.

The bishop called forth a powerful prayer with his final breath, supplementing its strength with his life, and one by one his priests dropped as they too contributed their life to the spell, and when the last fell, the bishop fell to his knees and the vortex collapsed.

The Shining Host was quickly routed with their commander now dead.  Many made their final stand in the streets, allowing some of the populace to escape.

The siege lasted for three days, as the Vampiric Legion squashed the remnants resistance, captured and executed political and religious leaders, and made their dominion over the city known.  However, the planetary convergence was beginning to end, and the vampires were running out of night.

And so Karthisis found the corrupt officials who had been promised immortal power.  The dark god, Tenebrous, had delivered on his promise, but they were eternally bound to serve the ruler of Sidarius.  He found them, deep below the city, in the Necrotek Temple they would forever call home with their new stations as the Undying Magisters.

The Blood Tyrant put the Magisters’ newfound arcane might to use.  Karthisis sent his best necromancers and sorcerers to help the Magisters work a spell that would protect the vampires in their new home.

The sorcerers conjured a monolithic obsidian obelisk in the shadow of the ruined Sunstar Cathedral, and etched dark runes upon its surface with their claws.  When the Magisters finally unleashed their spell, the obelisk bulged and crackled with black magic, and then let forth a stream of dark energy into the sky.  The energy reached its zenith about a mile above the city and began pouring down, forming a giant dome.

When the dark energy reach the ground, a shockwave of epic proportions radiating out from the city, killing every living creature in a two hundred and fifty mile radius.  Many of the slain rose as zombies or worse, and joined the discarded zombie army of the vampires in the Shambling Horde.

And so the Dead Wastes were created, and the Barrier Dome was erected, hiding the vampires from the baleful glare of the sun, yet imprisoning them within its embrace.  Sidarius was re-dedicated in blood as Stragus, the City of Eternal Night.  This was not what the Blood Tyrant had in mind when he wanted arcane protection from the sun.  And he was not happy.

Present Day

The Long Night was two hundred and twenty-five years ago.  Since that day, the exiled Sidarans founded the Sidaran Theocracy in the south, and have grown stronger than they were before the Long Night.  They wait for the sign to march to war against Stragus.

The rest of Lyrdonia waits and bides their time, waiting for the tension to break into open war.  They are debating the best course of action, remain neutral and hope the war passes them by or join the Sidaran Theocracy and make a stand.  Not a few people have considered an allegiance with Stragus.

Listening to: Stabbing Westward – Darkest Days – Haunting Me

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Fall of the Nadori Empire

Not much is known about the Nadori Empire, other than it once covered all of the continent of Lyrdonia as well as the island of Pratonan.  What is known about the Nadori is they suddenly disappeared from the face of Valtuus over a thousand years ago, leaving behind two massive ruins of cities, one of which Sidarius was eventually built upon.  The other ruined city lies overgrown in the jungles of Pratonan, near the city-state of Arcanicum.

Other Nadori ruins dot the landscape and many villages spring up around these remnants because they once provided ready made shelter or because some the technology still functioned, and proved useful.  The coastal kingdom of Stahlhelm’s city of the same name maintains a small electricity grid that powers ancient Nadori lamps in the royal palace that was built upon Nadori ruins.  Moknar, the last town before the great Sea of Silt maintains a system of running water that has allowed the town to thrive in an otherwise hot and arid environment.

The most legendary technology of the Nadori that is rumored to exist are steam powered juggernauts that were used to perform hard or dangerous labor for the Nadori.  These massive contraptions of walking metal are known as steamhulks. While most reports of these automatons are never confirmed, the stories of their brute power are of mythic proportions.

On thing is for sure, given the technology of the Nadori, if whatever visited their doom upon them were to return, the current nations of Lyrdonia would be powerless to stop them.

Age of Darkness

After the shining beacon of knowledge that was the Nadori Empire blinked out, the realm of Lyrdonia fell into an age of darkness, both intellectually and spiritually.  Survivors of the fall of the Nadori clustered in small pockets of humanity that were separated from each other by leagues of dangerous territory filled wild beasts that went unchecked, bandits, and worse.

In this time, cults of the dark god, Tenebrous, and other minor deific figures sprung up across the land.  These cults invited demons, devils, and malevolent spirits into the world of Valtuus.  Once these creatures obtained a foothold in this world, they would beckon others of their kind, and soon a plague of evil blanketed the land.  These creatures would often find a small village and dominate its inhabitants through fear and guile.

Then the glorious god, Sidar, woke from the slumber of ages and took notice of the people of Valtuus plight.  He bolstered his clergy and gave them the knowledge they needed to defeat the darkness.  Or at least that is how what the Church of Sidar claims.  Regardless, the Church of Sidar grew in power and they marched forth across Lyrdonia, exercising and censoring much of the evil from the land.

Their biggest trial was trying to send demon lord back to the diabolic depths of the Infernal Dominions.  He proved too powerful, but the Church managed, with great sacrifice, to seal him and his minions deep inside what is now known as Demondusk Valley.

Rise of Aurincia

With the rise of the Church of Sidar, the people of Lyrdonia slowly clawed its way out of the Age of Darkness and into the Golden Age of Aurincia.  The Church of Sidar founded a theocracy in the name of the priestess that sacrificed her life sealing the demon lord in Demondusk Valley.  This theocracy, Aurincia, was centered on the city of Sidarius whose first stone was built upon the site of the last major confrontation between the Church and the Cult of Tenebrous.

Aurincia spread its influence throughout the north, stopping at the goblinoid steppes in the northeast and the physical limitations of the northern mountains.  It reached east and stopped at the Feyhome Forest and made the budding Kingdom of Stahlhelm in the southwest a protectorate.

The Golden Age of Aurincia lasted for about a hundred years, and the lands were at peace and trade developed between the nations of humans.  The sciences began to advance again, as did arcane and divine studies.  Libraries were built and universities founded.

Aurincia developed an oligarchy where political power was shared between elected officials and selected members of the Church of Sidar.  This may have proved Aurincia’s undoing as it was these elected officials that eventually became corrupt and began worshiping the dark god, Tenebrous.

For the evil that still lurked beneath the city, in a ruined Necrotek Temple, began to take notice of the desires and ambitions of the elected officials.  It would sneak into their dreams and poison their thoughts, promising unlimited power.  And so the dark god, Tenebrous corrupted these officials and they began to change the political landscape.

They removed the Church’s power in matters of state, and the generals of the army of Sidarius backed these officials after being placated with gifts and wealth.  The officials bargained for more power and Tenebrous gave it, for the price of one thousand souls, they would become immortal and laden with eldritch might.  So in their greed, they signed a contract in blood.

The Church became alarmed at the spreading corruption.  Within fifty years, Sidarius had become a city stained by corruption and wild debauchery. There was a mass Church mandated exodus of the clergy of Sidar from the city they had founded.  Only a few remained behind, the corrupt and the vigilent.  For the vigilent knew that in time, they would be needed.

Then the people of Lyrdonia began to take notice of the strange behavior of night sky.  The heavenly bodies all began to fall into alignment as the Sisters, as Valtuus’ moons are known, began to blot out the sun.

Listening to: Prong – Rude Awakening – Rude Awakening

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Astronomy

It should be noted that most of Valtuus believe in a Valtuus-centric view of the heavens, and while the Nadori knew the reality of it, that knowledge did not survive the Age of Darkness.  Astronomy is not widely accepted, except maybe in Stahlhelm, as it conflicts with many of the people’s religious beliefs.  The Church of Sidar has condemned more than its share of astronomer to exile or worse.

A Binary System

Unbeknownst to the people of Valtuus, their sun is actually two suns that just happen to revolve around the center of the solar system at the same speed of revolution as Valtuus, giving the appearance of only one sun.  The discovery of two suns would be a momentous event upon Valtuus, causing the Church of Sidar to rethink many of its beliefs.

Valtuus

Valtuus is the second planet from the binary suns and is home to the Dead Wastes.  It is one planet of three known to exist, and actually one of seven, a fact still unknown to its inhabitants.  Valtuus is primarily composed of water with three major land masses that the continent Lyrdonia is only one of.

Kulpator

The planet closest to the binary suns is Kulpator.  From what astronomers can see, it is smaller planet with constant, world covering magma flows, which causes it to appear like the red marble with orange-yellow vanes that is mined from the a quarry near Stahlhelm named Kulpator.

Asceros

Asceros is the third planet from the suns, and is half again the size of Valtuus.  It is usually covered in a dense layer of white atmosphere, but the occasional green and blue can be seen, leading astronomers to believe that its composition is much like Valtuus’.  Not much thought has been put into whether or not there is intelligent life there since it not accepted to say such things around a Priest of Sidar.

Other Planets

There are at least four more planets in Valtuus’ system; however, they cannot be seen with current technology, so they have not been recorded yet in the annals of history.  Every now and again, an astronomer will see a star blink out of existence for a night, only to return the next.  This is probably one of the unknown planets.

Moons of Valtuus

The moons of Valtuus are often called the “Sisters.”  Lucretia, the farther one, is a red planetoid, with a white swirling atmosphere; it is often associated with war, rage, lust, and iron.  Luna, the closer, is scarred and broken from an impact with what many astronomers conclude was a comet.  While many stories revolve around the circumstances of the event, the truth is beyond human memory.  The event left a trail of debris floating behind her that are called Luna’s Tears.  Luna is a grey orb often associated with magic, madness, fertility and silver.

The truth behind the Tears of Luna is that the debris was actually part of Valtuus herself.  On the far side of the known world, there exists a massive crater created by an ancient and unknown entropic entity.  Large fragments of Valtuus have broken off, but remain anchored in place by some gravitational (or arcane) anomoly.  Luna actually impacted some of this debris during its orbit, and its mass has gathered some smaller fragments of Valtuss.

Dominitus

Dominitus is the name given by astronomers to a large, irregular shaped heavenly body.  This entity seems to be approaching the world of Valtuus despite it course around the sun.  Since many of the hypotheses proposed by astronomers are considered heresy against Sidar, no one has approached the Church with this information.

What the people of Valtuus will not know before it is too late is that Dominitus is really a living organism enslaved by an alien race that is on its way to Valtuus to reap its resources, which include sentient beings.

Other Dimensions

Beyond the five dimensions covered in the previous cosmology article, some scholars also think that when people dream, their conscious crosses into the Dimension of Dreams, and if the conscious drifts too far, it enters the Nightmare Realms.

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It is a difficult decision to choose between what I like more: world building or character development.  They are practically the same, if you think of the world as one giant character.  I can’t wait to start fleshing out a few important characters.  However, before I begin to define a few of the major personalities roaming the world of the Dead Wastes, I need to outline the races that inhabit Valtuus.  I do not want it to be too alien, so I am not out to create revolutionary new breeds.  I just want to reinvent a few.

Vampires, those sinister blood sucking creatures of the night are part of the mythology.  In the Dead Wastes, however, not all of them subsist only on blood.  Depending on lineage, a vampire’s may be able to substitute bone, arcane energy, intelligent thought, emotions, or even human souls as nourishment.  While vampires are the ruling class in the dark city of Stragus, their numbers are limited.  Before the vortex was closed, approximately two hundred vampires crossed over.  About a third of their number was destroyed during the siege that followed.  In-fighting, political intrigues and the rare human instigated assassination have thinned their number to a little more than one hundred vampires.

Vampires exhibit a wide range of supernatural powers ranging from super-human speed and strength to shapechanging, mesmerism, and the ability to manipulate blood and shadow.  Some vampires have even developed a taste for the infernal and have sealed pacts with devils or worse.

Humans can be turned, creating more vampires, but this would diminish the amount of human stock they have to feed from while increasing the demand on that same stock.  Besides, a freshly turned vampire is hardly more powerful than the average human and needs to consume inordinate amounts of blood as the vampirism metabolizes and transmutes the vampire’s newly dead body.  On top of that, more than half of all attempts to create new vampires end in a bloody massacre as the fledgling vampire goes insane and murders everything in sight before succumbing to a horrifying seizure and dying, permanently.

Humans are very numerous in the known world.  Their few kingdoms dot the landscape and lay claim to the majority of the territory, even if it is in name only.  Humans of the area gravitate toward pale skin, dark hair, and brown eyes.  Occasionally a red head is born, and most communities see it as a sign of prosperous times.  Humans have several gods they pray to, most of whom are related to nature and magic.  There is one god, Whirr, gaining prominence in Stahlhelm that is associated with mechanica.  Magical aptitude among humans is rare, except maybe in the island city-state of Arcanicum.  Depending on where you are, wizards and sorcerers are viewed either with respect and awe or open contempt.   Priests are generally accepted everywhere, the undead rise in increasingly large numbers these days.

A race not mentioned yet is the dhampir.  Dhampir are the misbegotten children of women ravaged by a vampire.  Not every woman heavy with child that is bitten by a vampire with produce a dhampir.  In fact the chances are more likely that the fetus will simply be aborted by the vampirism passed to its mother.  Even so, there are about twenty known dhampir, and half of them serve the Blood Tyrant Karthisis, ruler of the city of Stragus.

Dhampir are gifted with the strength and agility of their progenitors, but lack many of the weaknesses.  Many even develop some of the more specialized powers of the vampires, such as mesmerism and shape-changing.  They can even gain nourishment through drinking blood, though they can metabolize normal food as well.  Sunlight, sacred energy, and things that only affect undead leave no marks on a dhampir.  They also regenerate at accelerated levels, but are still susceptible to standard injuries just any human is (a stake through the heart or beheading still kill them!).

The ingenuity of the grimlynn has only just been recognized by surface dwellers.  This diminutive subterranean race has existed for many millennia without any human ever knowing.  Grimlynn are very short compared to humans, standing only to the middle of the thigh on average.  They have very long noses, ears, prehensile tails, and multi-jointed arms and fingers.  Grimlynn tend to have light grey, black, or dark green mottled skin.  They also have oviod lumps on their forehead that produce a greenish-yellow bioluminescent glow that allows them to work in complete darkness.  This bioluminescence can be turned on and off at will.

Grimlynn have an aptitude for technology.  Having discovered a cache of Nadori steamtech ages ago, they have been tunneling through the underworld with steam-powered mechs, known as steamhulks.  Their spidery, multi-jointed arms and legs allow them to reach inside the most complicated machinery to fix things.

Once the vampires were aware of their aptitude, the warren of grimlynn that had dug into the caverns beneath Stragus was quickly pressed into service as developers of mechanica useful to vampires.

Strange tales of other races have been heard, but are considered nothing more than fairy tales meant to keep children from wandering too far from home.

Listening to: The Kovenant – SETI - Cybertrash

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It begins and ends with the Deep Black, the Great Nothing and Everything. The Abyss. It is the Paradox, both the source of matter as well as the end of matter. The Abyss is infinite, yet is nothing, and the Gods do not dare to tread there.

Still, the Abyss contains all life. Within its dark embrace are multitudes, perhaps countless numbers, of universes; each universe having its own unique composition. Within one of these universes, there resides an inconsequential speck of dust. This fleck of dust is the world of the Dead Wastes, a decayed and broken world. In the dominant language of this world, the planet has been named Valtuus.

In the universe of Valtuus, there are several alternate realities that lay atop each other like the layers of a rotting onion. These realities are all permutations of a common reality, known as Prime. From the innermost layer, or dimension, to the outermost layer you have the Infernal Dominions, the Wyld, Prime, the Gloom, and the Celestial Domains.

The various dimensions are mutations of the Prime, and in the case of the two innermost dimensions, the Infernal Dominions and the Wyld are actually perverse reflections of the Prime. If a right-handed swordsman were to enter the Wyld, he would find himself left-handed. Each dimension twists and distorts the features and properties of the Prime in a fashion unique to that dimension.

The Infernal Dominions are home to devils, demons, and daemons. Luftdamadon, Prince of Tyranny, commands the Legions of the Damned through his Devil Lords from the Impenetrable Fortress of the Ninth Portal. He leads his armies against the demonic hordes that often rampage through his Dominion and against the Shining Host of Sidar. The demons continuously fight each other as well as the devils and any other daemons caught in their path.

The Wyld is presided over by the Seelie and Unseelie courts of the Fey. It is a kingdom illusion and lies and the casual traveler should be wary of taking anything for granted, including the seemingly unbreakable laws of physics. The Queen of Mirrors is the current ruler of the Unseelie Court and her fey hold dominance over the Seelie Court whose throne is currently vacant.

Prime is the dimension on which all others are based upon. It is often considered a commodity, and the denizens and territories of Prime on Valtuus are skirmished over by the powerful entities of the other dimensions. Luftdamadon seeks to swell his armies with the ranks of souls, Sidar claims to protect these souls, the Queen of Mirrors believes these souls will eventually destroy her kingdom, and Tenebrous seeks to fuse all the dimensions under his control and reshape them in his own image.

The Gloom came under the influence of Tenebrous long ago, after being driven from the Celestial Domains by Sidar. Within the Gloom is the Realm of the Dead, which has become corrupted by Tenebrous. Tenebrous is the Dark Lord and commands a great undead host. He sent Karthisis, the Blood Tyrant to Prime through the Gloom Vortex created during the Long Night.

The Celestial Domains are ruled by Sidar, the Sun God. The Celestial Domains are often referenced as a heavenly paradise, but this is a misnomer. While many paradises exist in the Domains, not all realms of the Domains are welcoming, and many less than pleasant gods and entities dwell here. However, Sidar and his Shining Host do a fine enough job of maintaining order that most gods with evil intentions are relegated to secret schemes.

There exists a substance that forms barriers between the dimensions. In the beginning, this substance prevented all but the tiniest or most clever entities from slipping through. This substance is Æther, and it has become weakened overtime by powerful magic, harrowing events, entropy, and by time itself. In certain areas, the Æther is worn exceptionally thin and can be easily crossed by those with the knowledge. Temporary Gates can be created to traverse the Æther, but there are few permanent ones.

Beyond these dimensions are the Elemental Planes. The Elemental Planes include the Key Elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Where these planes intersect each other are the Composite Planes of Dust (Air & Earth), Ice (Air & Water), Lightning (Air & Fire), Magma (Earth & Fire), Salt (Earth & Water), and Steam (Water, & Fire). Access to these planes is most easily obtained in the Wyld, but a significant portion of various Elemental and Composite Planes also seep through the other planes. Such as the Flaming Pits of the Infernal Realms and the Dust Fields of the Gloom.

Small pocket planes and dimensions exist, and many of them are unknown to even the most powerful entities of Valtuus. Indeed, even more powerful beings could be biding their time within some unknown dimension, waiting to unleash devastation or even peace upon the known dimensions. There are even whispers among the devils that beings older than the universe slumber within the Abyss, and when they awake, they will consume everything.

——

This is just a sampling of the Cosmology of the Dead Wastes.  I actually developed most of this before the release of 4th Edition D&D; originally being inspired by Wraith: the Oblivion and its Shadowlands, the Shroud, and Oblivion.  I was mildly surprised when I read the new 4e Cosmology, and how similar the developments were to what I had laid down.  The Elemental Planes were obviously inspired by [ripped from] Planescape and previous edition D&D Manuals of the Planes.

In the future I plan on detailing the inner and outer dimensions and perhaps some pocket planes.

Listening To:   Corrosion of Conformity – Deliverance – Clean My Wounds

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The Dead Wastes is an original setting I have been constructing, off and on, for the better part of a decade.  I have yet to use it as the backdrop of a campaign; mostly for the fear of having players welcome it with a less than thrilled reception.  That and I personally felt that it was never quite ready for release.

World building and character development is probably the most fun of any part of game design.  If I could get paid for simply putting word to paper, that is what I would do; too bad I don’t have enough time to start another career.  In my opinion, as a serious gamer, you could have the best mechanics, art, or other features, but if the story and world are boring and weak then the whole game crumbles.

The Dead Wastes

I built the world of the Dead Wastes upon layers of history.  There were definitive elements that I needed in the world, so I created reasons why they would exist which led to a detailed history.  Some of the elements were: a vampire nation, mysterious steam technology, and a barren wasteland brimming with the undead.  The following is a brief history of the world of the Dead Wastes:

Beginning with the ruins of technologically advanced Nadori Empire, which disappeared over millennia ago, the world of the Dead Wastes began to take shape. This expansive empire had covered much of the known world and some of its steamtech still survives to present day. Many cities and some villages have grown around still functioning mechanica, but are unable to comprehend the design well enough to create their own. After the demise of the Nadori, a nation led by priests of Sidar (the god of the sun), gained dominance over the northern core, Aurincia. Its capital city of Sidarius was founded upon the site of an ancient underground temple dedicated to a dark god, Tenebrous. Sinister dreams of the forgotten god crept into the minds of the overly ambitious. Soon a cult of sorcerers, and not a few priests, had rededicated the shrine to their new dark lord. As members of this cult rose in prominence in the senate, an unwholesome movement began to suppress the church of Sidar, or any other god for that matter. There was a mass of exodus of clergy, and eventually Sidar stopped answering the prayers of those who remained. This is primarily because the cultist aristocrats who now ruled Sidarius had made a bargain for power with the dark god during a cosmic even called the Long Night, the and in return offered the souls of the city as payment. The sorcerers got more than they bargained for when a massive vortex opened up above the city and bathed it in tides of acidic blood. A host of vampires with legions of undead soldiers marshaled through the vortex to take control of the city. The sorcerers were transformed into undead liches, bound in service to the city that now belonged to Tenebrous’ minions. They became known as the Undying Magisters, powerful sorcerers in eternal service the vampire host. The vampire host baptized the city in blood and renamed it Stragus, the Darkstar. Using the magical might of the Undying, the vampires consecrated the Obsidian Obelisk, a monolith charged with negative energy. This monument to their dark god powers the Barrier Dome, which kills any living thing to pass through it as well as blanketing Stragus in darkness, fending off the lethal energies of the sun. There was one horrific side effect, however. During the Dome’s creation, a shockwave of negative energy blasted the landscape for leagues around the city, destroying all signs of life and resurrecting people, animals, and even some plants as the living dead. This area teeming with the Shambling Horde (as these mindless undead are collectively known as) has become known as the Dead Wastes. These events happened over one hundred and fifty years ago.

The vampires rule over the remaining human citizens of Stragus, which has become a stylish metropolis lit by gas lamps (a technology unearthed by their grimlynn servants) and patrolled by magically animated horseless carriages.  While the humans are oppressed and yearly tributes of young men and women are enforced, strict but tolerable living conditions have been established.

About fifty years ago, the ruling vampire caste discovered an asset living deep below the surface of the city streets.  A colony of grimlynns had burrowed into the caverns where the temple of the dark god resided.  These diminutive goblin-like creatures had a knack for making the broken remnants of Nadori mechanica work.  The vampires soon asserted their dominion over the grimlynn and put their aptitude for technology to use.

Within the Dead Wastes, a few dozen ghost towns and a couple of small city ruins are populated with the living dead.  Most of the undead are the mindless rotting flesh and bone types, zombies and skeletons, but the dead have been evolving.  New sentient versions of the Shambling Horde have been reportedly organizing their mindless kin.  What is behind this horrible development is still unknown.

There are societies outside the reaches of the Dead Wastes that avoided the cataclysm that destroyed all life inside the perimeter of the Wastes.  The coastal kingdom of Stahlhelm is on the verge of an industrial revolution.  The Sidaran Theocracy maintains the lands they claimed after their exodus from Sidarius, spreading the word of their god from New Sidarius.  The secluded shores of the island city-state of Arcanicum are renowned for their abilities in the magical arts.  The tribal gundar of the eastern savannahs roam the endless fields of grass.  The frozen peaks of the southern mountains are home to bear riding brutes that mercilessly defend their borders.  The mysterious and isolationist nations of the fey and goblinoids also survive, but few who cross their borders ever return.

This is just an introduction the world, and I realize some of the races, nations, and locations have little meaning without some context.  The following post will dig deeper into the Dead Wastes and explore some of these locations and expose details about the cultures and nations.

Listening to: Megadeth – Countdown to Extiction - Symphony of Destruction

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