WHAT KIND OF ADVENTURES CAN YOU EXPECT?

Well that is upto the GM and the players. But in general characters are citizens of a war torn land going through great upheaval. The great but decadent Empire has dissolved into a continent of a 100 or more Warlords trying to hold onto their lands and power. The old Empire brought into existence the portals to the realms of chaos and darkness unleashing the Demonkin to Azer which brought about its destruction and the creation of the Corrupted Lands. While those portals have been closed, the evil that has been unleashed still roams the land, and in some cases are spreading. Your characters may be just simple folk of a Domain, survivors seeking a safe haven, or a dedicated retainer to one of the many warlords.

So without trying to limit your imagination the following types of adventures can be had and serve as a springboard for Players and GM’s alike.

Survivors – The characters are the only survivors of a Demonic attack on their domain. Now they have to flee to the wilderness to find a new safe haven. Perhaps after finding a relatively safe place, they begin the quest to retake their homeland and drive back the invaders. (The sample adventure assumes this is the case).

Explorers – The  Day of Chaos brought about many changes to Azer. While the crumbling of the cities and the Empire is one of the most noticeable, others have occurred as well, including upheaval that has revealed passageways to ancient cities long ago buried. The cities themselves often stand empty with treasures still to discover. And there is the most recent reporting of another power arriving onto Azer, one of light and order. Your characters may just be independent explorers or doing so at the behest of your Domain Lord, but whatever the reason there are quite a few unknown places of power waiting to be discovered.

War! – Even without the added burdens of the Demonkin, the land is in great upheaval. Your domain could be at War with a neighboring one. The question is why? Is it a simple territorial dispute, or something more sinister. Is your own Domain corrupted, or perhaps your enemy is the one who is corrupted. You are the citizens (either conscripted or paid retainers) for the Lord of the Domain sent on missions and quests to aid in the War Effort and secure the domination of your enemy.

Serving A Cryptic Order or Crafthall – In the days following the Day of Chaos, different groups started to form. Some based on the old scholarly or knightly orders predating the empire, while others newly birthed. These groups span different domains and have their own agenda, whether that is the Daughters of Dawn trying to vanquish the taint of the demonkin wherever it is found, or just one of the independent Crafthalls which transcend the rule of the Domain Lord and are found in various Domains but united under the rule of the Craftmasters.

Independent Merchants – Whether you swing a sword, or know the right track to follow. Now more than ever those brave souls who are willing to risk the wilderness to bring goods from one domain to another for Gathers and Markets are important and can make a fair bit of coin. Of course with the greater rewards come the greater risks.

Of course a GM may mix and match as well, but it gives you some ideas about the type of adventures that can be had. To keep everyone on the same page, it is recommended that the GM review these options with the players, and decide on some kind of model to use, to ensure that everyone makes characters consistent with the game. For example, playing a blacksmith in a game focused on Crafthalls is great, but one that is focused on War! could be boring for that player if the rest of the players are playing warriors and knights sworn to serve their lord. While in a game focused on Independent Merchants it would be great if at least one player had skills like appraisal and haggling.

PEOPLE OF AZER

The Warlord campaign setting takes place on the continent of Azer, a place roughly the size of the USA. Azer has quite a bit of climates and different cultures. The far northeast is a chilly place where the winters are long and the springs short and wet, while the southwest is a warm and mild climate with only the occasional snowfall. Three large mountain chains subdivide the continent into different regions and climates.

The people of Azer are varied as well. At one time in the far past, there were five distinctive ethnic groups of humans on the continent. But those times are gone, crushed under the heels of 2000 years of Imperial rule including forced immigration and resettlement by the empire. Now, more or less there is a uniform spreading of the peoples of Azer across the domains. Many people are actually a mix of different groups, while some managed to maintain their cultural identity even in the Empire. Broadly they could have been defined as the Val, Suun, Fellos, Ysthyn, Orie. But now most folk of Azer can only be described as a mix, and their Cultural Imperial.

Imperial

Well over 90% of the humans in Azer can only be described as Imperial. They are a mix of all of the below ethnic groups giving the players a wide variety of appearances and cultures to draw upon. Like modern day nations (like the US) based on homogenization of a wide variety of cultures, many subgroups appear based on “finding their roots”, but in reality are just drawing on folklore, pop culture, and incomplete information to form their fashion, beliefs, and in general culture. Players should do the same if they wish. Perhaps your character believes they feel more inclined towards the Ysthyn culture. They may get tattoos, try to learn the language, wear brightly colored clothes, and deny the existence of the 1000 gods, even if they live in a Domain in the Southwest.

The Val

 Originated in the Southeast of Azer. The Val are tall and thin, with fair to tan skin, and fine black straight hair usually with grey to blue eyes. They favored bright solid jewel tone colors and loose flowing clothes. Now dispersed amongst all of the continent, they were one of the first to be integrated into the empire. Val/Suun mixes are very common. The original Val culture was one based on venerable advisors elected to rule as regents to the noble blooded. The Val culture stressed learning and some believe responsible for instigating the Day of Chaos. They practiced ancestor worship, which has since been lost and incorporated into the religion of 1000 Gods of the Suun. During the latter days of the Empire, the few full blooded Val began congregating at the Captial into hedonistic cults dedicated to pleasure and magic, and which some believe instigated the days of chaos at the behest of the Emperor.

The Suun

Originated in the heartland, and the three early Suun Dukedoms is what eventually grew into the Great Empire of Azer, even though the last of the imperial line was of thoroughly mixed bloodline containing all five of the original ethnic groups. The Suun have fair skin, and usually blonde to brown hair, usually thick and curly. They are a bit shorter and stockier than the Val. Given the location of where the Suun originated, there are very few if any pure blooded Suun left. They favored utility and function over form originally, although the asethics of other cultures have crepted in. The Suun followed the religion of 1000 gods, which really meant that everything had a spirit or god in it that should be respected and venerated. This eventually grew into the Imperial Sanctioned Religion. There is very little left of the heartland as it once was after the Day of Chaos.

Fellos

The Fellos originated in the far northeast. With ruddy skin, and thick flowing black hair they roamed the cold steppes on their small sturdy ponies, herding sheep, goats, and llama. They were the least learned and most tribal of any of the groups, believing only in the spirits of the plains and were nomadic. That soon changed 1000 years ago as they were brought into the Empire forcefully. Soon after outposts, citites, roads, and citadels sprung up on the grazing lands of the Fellos, especially after silver and iron mines were discovered in the rocky outcroppings. The Fellos are the least likely to be mixed, and some of the Warlords of the Northeast are actually mobile bands of raiding nomads going back to their barbarian days even though the original tribal lines are all lost. It is not uncommon to see a “Fellos” Tribe that consists of a mixed group from the empire with a fair skinned blonde haired Warlord, wearing tribal markings that have never existed.

Ysthyn

The Ysthyn are most unlike any of the other groups. They are shorter and more petite than any of the other groups, a 5’ tall Ysthyn being considered tall. They originated in the Northwest building up the League of Common Citiestates, before being forced into the Empire by war and marriage 1500 years ago. Their language is completely unlike that of the Imperial tongue, and the only language of the original ethnic groups that was maintained and taught outside of the common tongue of the Empire (Imperium). They usually have fair to silver or gold tinged skin, with hair that ranges from white, to silver, to black, to copper red or gold with purple and green eyes being common. Of all the groups, the Empire tried hardest to break the League, requesting or forcing thousands of Ysthyn to migrate all over the Empire. Meaning that occasionally their different looks crop up in different families. Like the Val they were educated and were the first people to propose the Crafthalls and the Harper Colleges that have become more important than ever after the Day of Chaos. They have an innate understanding of magic, although they fear it, and choose usually not to learn it. They are also unique as being the only atheists in Azer. However, the Yshtyn culture is almost all lost, blended into the Empire, but a few of their teachings still continue today.  The Ysthyn favored elaborate tattoos as well as body piercing to customize their appearance.

Orie

The Orie originated in the southwest, with dark skin and bright eyes. Their hair is usually thick and full, ranging from light brown to dark brown. They are tall and broad shouldered. The Orie are competent sailors and traders, as well as farmers. They established their own tiny kingdoms in the southwest well over 3000 years ago farming wheat, rice, and other grains along with fruits and wineries. Brought into the Empire by a slow campaign of intermarriage and conflict eventually the Princedoms that ruled the southwest became intertwined into the rest of the Empire around 1300 years ago.  They favor lightweight and scant clothing for the heat of the southwest. Although now Suun/Orie or Val/Orie mixes are very common, with very few pure blooded Orie left, giving the modern people of the southwest a mocha colored skin tone. Their religion was one that worshiped their monarchs. This was considered heretical by the Empire, and stopped forcefully, although many of the 1000 gods bear Orie traditional names, probably based on actual monarchs. Many of the Domains in the southwest are based on what people there believed the princedoms were once like (although many do not really know). They are very superstitious of magic.

THE EMPIRE, DAY OF CHAOS, & AGE OF DOMAINS

Long ago (over 2000 years) the three Suun Duchies in the Heartland of Azer finally unified into a cohesive kingdom, the Grand Kingdom of Suunai. The line of Sol, the first king, ruled for many years as the kingdom grew by leaps and bounds expanding out of the heartland and slowly becoming the Empire of Azer. The Nobles of the Southeast were soon incorporated into Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Imperial Generals, and Knight-Satraps all under the political institution of the Great Emperor in the Capital of Suunai.

The Empire continued to grow, and go through various upheavals as the nobility and magistrates of the Empire flexed their muscles against the house of Sol. But after several hundred years, a seemingly unified culture and unified Azer began to form as the Empire first through a series of wars and treaties brought the Communes and City States of the Ysthyn under its control. This also resulted in the first formal Declarations of the Covenant, which was a very simple creed that formalized and explained the duties of the people of the empire to its Monarch, and became the foundation of Azer political society. Even today during the Age of Warlords, most of the Lords of Domains recognize aspects of the Covenant. During the expansion of the Empire the religion was formalized (or rather informalized) to the widely pantheistic religion of the 1000 gods. Since the nature and names of the gods varied from Domain to Domain, a powerful church was never able to take root.

With the power of the Vals, Suun, and Ysthyn it was only a matter of time before the rest of Azer came under the authority of the Empire. The first Orie were brought into the Empire by intermarriage with the House of Ellos, which had since taken over from the House of Sol. Less warlike, the House of Ellos continued to draw upon the simple Covenant and seduced and cajoled the remaining princes of the Orie into the Empire. The Imperial family itself and most of the leading lords, satraps, and magistrates could only be described as mixed by this point as there was so much movement, fostering, and intermarriage to maintain the growth of the Empire. Finally, around 1000 years ago the tribes of the Fellos in the northeast were brought into the fold of the Empire. And in an attempt to “civilize” them mass migrations and relocations were forced upon them.

So the Empire stood until 100 years ago. While there were fortresses built and disputes between neighboring princes, potentates, magistrates, and satrapies the Empire flourished. Grand Cities made of many nationalities were built, the crafthall system was strong and maintained crafthalls spread through out the empire, the College of Harpers educated the people, and it was a relative time of prosperity. But then the house of Ellos fell without an heir. There were rumors of a civil war, and people began to fortify their domains in preparation. But luckily the electors settled on a weak Emperor that all could support and the third dynasty, the House of Eothyl ruled.

The Emperor though was weak, and believed in the powers of magic, and scoured the empire for any who could “advise” him, and teach him the “arts”. Soon at court in Sunnai he was surrounded by a large group of mostly phony charlatans, and while it drained the coffers of the Empire did little harm. Until that fateful day, when one of the Charlatans actually was able to manipulate the fabric of the universe by use of words. The first true incantations were spoken and the universe breathed magic unto the continent of Azer. Soon others began to learn, that the so called phony texts that they had been pursuing for decades, some based on a writing of a culture that predated any of the known kingdoms, were real. They had just been focusing on the wrong parts. The words themselves were not what were critical, but the patterns the words formed on the page. Combined with the patterns and the pauses and rests between words and phrases they could breath magic into the world.

The court became even more hedonistic and decadent until the Day of Chaos 40 years ago, when the Society of Nul, supported by the Emperor himself accidentally called forth the black pillar of fire and rent open a gateway for the demonkin to invade. The pillar obliterated Sunnai and all those within 30 leagues of the city. Soon the demonkin had invaded the Empire of Azer, which crumbled in mere months. The local officials, magistrates, princes, potentates, and warriors soon gathered their own local power base into their strongholds creating a 100 or more independent domains fighting for their own survival. The age of unification was over, and the Age of the Warlord had begun.  The demonkin spawn merged with plants, creatures and men of the heartland corrupting them, bringing forth the legions of giants, trolls, wolfmen, and other chaotic beings. Some retained the human form, just supplementing with their own dark powers, and the Heartland of the Empire became the Corrupted Darkland, a chaotic mass of demonkin domains that slowly spread. Some even inhabited the corpses of the dead bringing forth the armies of skeletons, zombies, and deathknights from the tombs of kings long since forgotten.

It it rumored that the first Daughter of the Dawn managed to close the gateway, giving her life to do so. So that while the pillar of black fire still swirls above the wasteland that was once Sunnai, the torrent stream of demonkin spawn entering into Azer was stopped. Still though the demonkin could infect and corrupted those they encountered spreading their power through the Darklands.

For the last forty years it has been a bit of a stalemate, the Darkland domains slowly spreading each year as the stalwart domains that lie on its border try to force them back. Occasionally the Demonkin resort to more subtle tactics sneaking out into further away domains for outbreaks of corruption and infection to the domains. The domains on the farthest edges of the old empire live almost normal lives, trying to expand their domains, consolidate power, and pass on what they hold to their descendents, while the ones closer to the frontlines continue a never-ending battle against darkness.