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CLOSE LOOK AT NPCs: Tinve Aleeza'baen

Tinve Aleeza'baen.

Drow female.

b.2448 – d.2501

Tinve Aleeza'baen was born the youngest daughter of a minor house in a minor drow city. At the very bottom the pecking order, House Aleeza'baen was reduced to constant infighting with other small houses and putting together raids on the people of the Pagan Plains above. Most of her siblings were placed into the clergy or trained as warriors, but Tinve showed an early aptitude for assassination. Bloodthirsty and stealthy, Tinve's skill at murder allowed house Aleeza'baen to climb the complex hierarchy of drow society. However, it wasn't long before the upstart house stepped on the wrong toes. After the successful assassination of venerable drow matriarch, House Aleeza'baen was challenged and charged with murder beyond its bounds, a serious crime among the black elves. To appease the aggrieved house, the Matron Mother Valeni Aleeza'baen offered up Tinve as a sacrifice to Lloth. Furious at being hung out to dry like this, Tinve escaped her fate by plunging her dagger into her mother's back, and fighting her way out of the drow city.

Alone in the underdark and exiled from her home, Tinve was surely doomed to die, as so many drow renegades before her. However, her aptitude for survival beat the odds, and she slowly crept her way to the surface. But it turned out at the surface was just as hostile to a drow as the wilds of the Underdark. Following numerous attempts on her life by suspicious and nervous surface-folk, Tinve decided to travel to Khare, the home of all of Allansia's renegades and outlaws.

Khare suited Tinve just fine. Her skills were highly prized, and she soon found plenty of wet work to do in the city. The bloody path she cut across the streets of Khare was soon noticed by one of the city's crime-lords: the Evaressemmeem mage known as Forkiz Geung. It wasn't long before Tinve became his personal assassin, and with Tinve as his weapon Forkiz and his House of Pale Lanterns soon became one of the premier gangs, outstripping the violent Hanged Men, and even cowing the mysterious and powerful House of Jakob.

It was in service to Forkiz Geung where Tinve met Germane del Sesuro, a minor sneak-thief from Tethyr. They worked together on jobs, drank and fought together in taverns, and in time became lovers. Their union however was not liked within the House. Nelson, the half-orc doyen feared their collaboration, and began to distance them from Forkiz. Angered at this, Tinve and Germane planned to leave Khare, and take a sizable amount of Forkiz's gold with them. Their pockets full, they fled by night to Arventine, but were dogged by Pale Lantern men at every turn. It soon became apparent that there was only one way to get out of this: return the gold to Forkiz and bargain for their exile. Surprisingly, the usually cruel crime-lord agreed, but on the condition Tinve do one last job.

Tinve agreed, and Germane decided to go into hiding until the deal was secure. He took a boat to Port Gong, a remote pirate isle off the coast of Evaressemme, and Tinve remained to complete her last task. She was to find an elf named Orrind who had stolen from Forkiz, and bring him back to Khare. Easy, she thought. Suspiciously easy. The job went without a hitch until Tinve ran into Orrind's friends, the group who would be later known to most as the Heroes of Arventine. Fearing a double cross by Forkiz, she offered them a chance to kill Forkiz should they wish to pursue her to Arventine (Tinve had no fear they would disrupt her task here). Good to have that in the back pocket. Her fears were right. Upon returning Orrind to Forkiz, it became known to her soon after that Germane has been killed by hired mercenaries backed by Pale Lantern coin. Fearing assassination herself, she withdrew into the shadows of Khare, vowing not to leave the city until Forkiz lay dead. It was mere weeks before the chance arose.

News came that the Heroes of Arventine had arrived in Khare, so Tinve made her move. With a small band of hired blades, she crept into the city sewers, and waited. Soon the Heroes arrived, their own task of rescuing Orrind on their minds. She followed the path of destruction they left, and found the heroes facing off against Nelson and Forkiz. It was Christoph, a paladin of Melora who was quite a pleasant distraction to Tinve, who left her alone with the crime-lord.

Vengeance sated, Tinve left the House of Pale Lanterns only to see the streets of Khare awash with horror. It was known as the Eclipse of Khare, demons pouring into the city underneath a blood-red conjunction of moon and sun. The only thing on her mind was survival, so she made for the edge of town. Her path crossed with the Heroes of Arventine one last time, aiding them against a war troll. A debt paid. However, the mass of demons made escaping hard. Cornered by barlgura, she thought her time was up. At the last minute, she opened her eyes and saw not the maw of an abyssal horror, but a troupe of warriors dressed in black. Come with us, they ordered, and led Tinve out of the city. Little did Tinve know these were the Red Men of Mampang, the soldiers of the Black Mage.

There were others rescued from Khare by the Red Men. One of which was Dogbone, an ranger in the employ of the Harpers. It was only he and Tinve who agreed to become Red Men as the price of rescue. The rest were butchered. Tinve and Dogbone were stripped of their belongings, tied up and slung over horses. It seemed like an age travelling like this over mountain and plain, but in time they found themselves amidst the old trees that make up the Direwoods. Why here? They both asked. They had no answer except being forced onto slabs of stone. The leader of the Red Men, a tall thin man with black hair, steadily carved the tripod sigil of Mampang upon their flesh. What happened next is known to only a few, but soon Dogbone and Tinve were looking at ragged scars in their chests, and their hearts beating in the man's hands.

Not knowing what had happened or why, the two of them managed to steal away one night, a feat not easy even for Tinve. Shocked, confused and horrified by what had happened to them, they sought out clerics and mages to aid them. In the months that followed they learned many foul secrets of the Red Men that cannot be repeated here. One diviner took Tinve's custom repeating crossbow in payment for locating her heart. A few more seers, a handful more mages, and Tinve had access to the Unspeakable Merchantry, the planar auction house that had come into possession of her heart. With Dogbone in tow (he had fallen in love with Tinve at this point, a love that was definitely unrequited), Tinve trod the planes in search of her missing heart.

Nothing is ever easy. The Unspeakable Merchantry was closing for the astral season, and there was only one ticket left in the strange city of Linger that surrounded the auction house. Falling back on old habits, Tinve stabbed and hacked her way into the possession of the last ticket. Only one obstacle remained – Captain Dwendae, the cunning and dangerous astral pirate. Knowing Dwendae would ambush her as soon as she tried to enter the auction house, Tinve remained hidden and waited for an opportunity. This came in the strangest of coincidences.

The Heroes of Arventine, who Tinve thought had died in the Eclipse, turned up looking to buy a skiff for their own ends. Despite being fond of Balthazar, Fu, Eored and Sarah, Tinve's survival instincts took over. She manipulated them into killing Dwendae, and attempted to make for the auction house. However, she underestimated the Heroes efficiency, and they caught her skulking through the streets of Linger. Both sides knew what would happen next: One of them would have to die to use the last ticket. Throwing herself at the Heroes, thinking victory easy, she was easily beaten down. Desperately looking for a method to stay alive, she began to draw out an agreement with Balthazar. Her life possibly safe, she started to relax. However, Eored the elf had little time for her slippery ways. Tinve fell to the ground for the last time, Eored's arrow embedded in her forehead.

So passed Tinve Aleeza'baen, bounty hunter of Khare.

Legends of the Desert - The Father of Worms

On The Father of Worms

Ephrain of the Tomes, Salamonis 2256 AC

Olghoi-Kohorkhoi comes. Melora sends Him up from beneath Her dunes. The earth trembles in anticipation of His passing. The sands and the air become one, marking His coming. The Father of Worms comes. The devourer of armies, the shaker of walls, the doom of the works of men comes. He will eat you.

From The Songs of Hebet, an oral tradition amongst the desert peoples.

One of the most persistent legends of the desert is that of Olghoi-Kohorkhoi, the Father of Worms. He is said to have been created by Melora during the Dawn War as a response to the demonic Nephilim. Descriptions of him vary across different accounts, but all agree that he is an enormous worm with a chitinous shell and a circular maw filled with teeth longer than a man.

According the the stories of the desert peoples, Olghoi-Kohorkhoi sleeps beneath the sands, occasionally awakening when men become to arrogant, too assuming in their domination of nature. He is a counterpoint to them, devouring armies and smashing cities when civilizations try to tame Melora's wild desert. Some stories suggest that the Meloran priesthood has the ability to summon him to fight on their behalf in times of need.

I cannot say if the Father of Worms is real, or merely a myth. There, however many accounts across the ages, some from reliable sources, that describe him as if he is real. At the least, should you encounter a two-hundred foot long worm with a maw the size of a house whilst travelling the Desert of Skulls, you will know what to call it.

A Brief History of Carsepolis

Ephrain of the Tomes, Salamonis, 2448 AC

It is not clear precisely when the port city of Carsepolis was founded, but evidence suggests that there has been at least a settlement on the same site since prior to the fall of Arkhosia. A surviving fragment of the reports made by Arkhosian explorer Ahzad the Frequently Lost describe a small fishing town in a natural harbor on the desert coast that tallys with present-day Carsepolis.

“Some eighty flightes out of Arventus we came acrosse a small towne of men. The called themselves the Carseps and said that this was their home. It is a fine place indeed for a citye, with deepe waters surrounded by high cliffes to the north and south and shallowe beaches to the west. There is a high peninsula in the centre of the bay, connected to the shore by a small spit of lande. On the highest point of this they have built a temple, grande to them but of course smalle and crude by our standards, to the God of this place who is named by them Maradurk.

They are a rich people for the area. They have many metal swords and a number of fine boats which they use to fish and to hunt for the whale. Freshe waters flowing from the hills to the north, which they take as a blessing from Maradurk, allowe them to growe crops. They have cattle numbering fifty and an equal number of camels and sheepe.

They warned us not sail too far south, for if we did we could come to the broken landes of the Illiacs, which they say are haunted by the ape and the wraithe.”

An Arkhosian 'flight' is a measure approximate to the distance that a dragon could fly in a day (for a comprehensive, if rather dull, discussion see The Measure of a Dragonman: Weights, Volumes and Lengths in Ancient Arkhosia by Vallenger the Blue and Gray). If we take take Arventus to refer to what is now Arventine then this squarely places the settlement described by Ahzad in the location of Carsepolis. The description of the bay matches Carsepolis well. It is likely the fresh waters described refer to streams flowing from the vast freshwater lake underneath the high lands north of the city. It is of interest to note the similarity between the name of the City-God of the Carseps, Maradurk, and the ceremonial name Marduk that is taken by the Tyrant of the present-day city upon ascension to the throne. It seems reasonable to suggest that the latter is a corruption of the former, although it does not appear that the modern inhabitants of the city realise the origins of this name.

The rise of the city as a trading power came after the fall of Nerath, with the resulting vacuum creating many opportunities for the canny merchant. The first records of trade with the Empire of Everessemme are from some three-hundred years ago and this seems to be the point at which the city became rich and the merchant classes began to gain power. This money also allowed to the city to construct a powerful navy and impose some form of control on the pirate infested Illiac Archipelago, further filling their coffers as trade began to flood in from Heliopoli.

The rise of the city was not uncontested. It's enforced pacification of the land trading routes angered many of the desert-dwellers and Arventine was most displeased at the emergence of a potential competitor. All of this came to a head in 2279 AC when Lotar of the Red Sands, a powerful invoker of Melora, managed to unite many of the desert tribes in a war against Carsepolis. The city folk were shocked by the size of his army and the speed at which it came out of the desert. Caught unprepared and with only crude fortifications to defend them, the bulk of the Carsepolite army was routed and soon most of the city was in flames, with only the Old Gates district, protecting the approach to the central penninsula standing. An earlier treaty with Arventine promised military aid in the event of an invasion, but relief never game. Arventine had decided to let its rival burn. Some even suggested that Lotar himself was an Arventinian stooge. The siege persisted for months – Lotar's army was unable to take the bridges to the Old City and although the Carsepolite army was unable to retake the city, their fleet ensured that the citizenry remained fed. Still, the morale of the Carsepolites was not steady – more soldiers flocked to Lotar's army with each passing month and it was clear that they could not hold out forever. The siege was finally ended in its ninth month in a desperate act by Massinissa, an Avenger of Erathis. In the dead of night Massinissa snuck ashore in a small boat and crept through the enemy lines to Lotar's tent, where he slew him in single combat, albeit at the cost of his own life.

With Lotar dead, his army crumbled. Most soldiers who not slain by the resurgent Carsepolites simply melted back into the desert. If the invasion had been planned by Arvenine, or if their denial of relief was simply a callous act of opportunity will never be known, but Arventine's desire to curtail Carsepolis was not fulfilled. Although much of the city was in ruins, its navy, both merchant and military remained intact. With the desert tribes now utterly broken the city's dominance of the land trading routes was completely uncontested. Trade began to flood in again and the city was rebuilt quickly, complete with high walls to thwart any future invaders. None have threatened it since.

ALLANSIA LORE: Legend of the Usurpers

LEGEND OF THE USURPERS

CREATION MYTH OF THE PYROMANCERS OF HELIOPOLAI

This creation myth is pieced together from the rather secretive religious practices of the many pyromancy sects of Heliopolai. It seems to be rather negative towards the gods, but this is explained by the usual hostility shown to divine matters by wizards and sorcerors. The legitimacy of this 'eternal flame' is questionable, but it can't be denied that the fire magicks of Heliopolai are a wonder to behold.

-Vallanger the Blue and Grey, Scholar of Salamonis.

Published the History Dept., Salamonis 2469 AC

In the beginning there was just flux and matter. Fire weaved with water, air blew through stone. There were creatures in this time, elementals which danced and played within the flux. However, there was one flame, one fire thaty burnt too hot and for too long, and became aware of itself. Within this eternal flame was birthed the very substance of permanence: time, entropy and thought. Some creatures came to the fire, small beings of no consequence within the great flux. They reached into it, and burnt themselves in its crucible. They emerged anew, aware of the permanence that only the fire knew. 

 

With such power, they called themselves gods and set about their great work. They forged seas, plains and mountains, permanent things and set them on an orb apart from the flux. They grew trees, creatures, set peoples of all creeds and types upon it. They ruled it as kings.

In time they grew greedy. They wanted more material for more creations, and waged war against the flux, which in turn raised powerful beings of its own. So began the First War, or as northerners say, the Dawn War. One god known as Um to Heliopolitans, Tharizdum to the North, Manimac to old elves and Glythagul to those of the Underdark, ventured to the edge of the flux, where dark things live, and stole a piece of their power. Attempting to make the gods stronger, Um flung the darkness into the eternal flame. But it was hubris, and the darkness consumed the eternal flame. The poison flowed from the flame into the flux, and created the Abyss. The joyful elementals began the horrific demons, and the Dawn War began anew. 

 

Worlds and planes alike were ravaged, but the gods in the end where victorious, as the creatures of flux had no place within the permanence, and were banished. The gods dwelled in their world at peace. But the jealous minds of the gods soon turned on themselves, and they went to war with each other. The creatures of world, who had undertaken much sorrow on behalf of the gods, communed with deeper spirits that dwelled within rock and sea, and cast the gods into exile. 

 

But let it be known that fragments of the eternal flame still exist in the flux, despite the stupidity of the gods. It is the role of all Pyromancers to search and harness the power of this flame, to ignite it anew. The usurper gods be damned, all honour to the eternal flame.

ALLANSIA LORE: The Monomyth

  THE MONOMYTH

Note: This myth is one of the most enduring creation myths in Allansian history. It was pieced together from fragments found in Arkhosian ruins, and in turn it is believed this information was transcribed from oral traditions dating back to as yet unknown cultures. It is however one of several hundred creation myths recorded by this prestigous department.
It is also worth noting that in some of the more gnostic wizard towers of Xistomagistos there can be found shrines to "E'ell" and "Vanmut", which could well be remnants of an ancient form of creator worship.

-Vallanger the Blue and Grey, Scholar of Salamonis.

Published by the History Dept., Salamonis 2467 AC.

In the beginning there was the void, and within the void were two prime spirits; El and Vanu, each with distinct powers that began to grow within the infinite nothing of void. El would dance across the void, her divine imagination weaving shapes and matter that grew, collapsed and changed form. She was the mother of chaos, of change and mutability. She invented fire, cold and the very elemental substance of things. Vanu instead would brood and think on her own mind, dreaming up concepts and shaping the very core of thought. She was the mother of permanence, of progress and order. At first, the creations of El and Vanu did not meet, as the Void was a vast place. However, as El and Vanu's work continued, they began to meet and mingle. In one great moment, the matter of El and the thought of Vanu collided, and created worlds and permanent substance. Notions of time and linearity melted together with shifting forms, and created the passage of time, history and causality.

In this clash of power, the Prime Material Plane was created, and the many worlds that make it up, all characterised by both elemental matter, and linear time and causal laws. In this violent act, El and Vanu were destroyed. El was shattered into hundreds of entities, each as chaotic and furious as their mother. These powerful beings were too be known as the Primordial Gods, creatures of pure chaos and change. Vanu's myriad ideas all split away from each other, becoming individual personalities in themselves. These entities would be known as the Supernal Gods.

As the Primordials lashed in out in fury at what they considered to be the alien bondage of time, the supernals despised their directionless creativity and lack of rational intelligence. For an age both sides lived in tense peace, each nullifying the creative endeavours of the other. There was one Supernal who became frustrated by this, and his name is now lost. This God travelled to the edge of the void, far beyond the universe of El and Vanu, and reached into the what is known as the Far Realm, a space beyond spaces that troubled not any of creation is this age. With a fragment of this alien terror, he returned and plunged it deep into the Elemental Chaos, hoping to poison and destroy it. The plan did not work, and as a result of his folly, the God created the Abyss, and brought evil into the elementals. For his crimes he was cast into the Abyss and would be known forever as the Chained God. Primordials quickly succombed, and became what is known as the Demons. Some still live now; Demogorgon, Orcus, Lloth and the myriad Nephilim of legend amoung their number.

With evil thought in the minds of the Primordials, a war broke out, a cataclysmic conflict that is known as the Dawn War. Both Primordials and Supernals were slaughtered in vast numbers, but eventually the Supernals triumphed and cast the Primordials into bondage within the Elemental Chaos. The Supernal Gods now ruled uncontested over the Prime Material Plane, and shaped it in their image. The mirror planes of the Shadowfel and the Feywild were created to fuel their creation. Elves, Humans, giants and other creatures of the world were made, and governed. The Supernal Gods ruled over them as great lords. This began what is known as the Mythic Age.

But the varied personalities of Vanu would not hold in peace. The Supernals went to war with each other. Corellon fought Gruumsh, blood was spilt in gallons between Kord and Bane, and Asmodeus turned on his master in a dark lust for power. However, a new power had grown amidst the Dawn War. The Prime Material Plane itself, watching the conflict between Primordial and Supernal for millenia, had grown a mind of its own. This consciousness would be known as the Primal Spirits. Angered by the violence the Gods brought upon the world, it cast them from its surface, exiling the Gods to the Astral Sea – the vast ocean made from the disparate body of Vanu. Forever more, the Supernal Gods could only watch and influence the Prime by proxy. The races of world gained free will, choosing their patrons from not just the Supernals who made them, but from the Elemental Chaos, the Far Realm and even the Abyss. Thus ended the Mythic Age, and began the many different ages of the Mortal Epoch.

ALLANSIA LORE: The Founding of Gallantria

THE ORIGINS OF Gallantria lie in the final days of the Empire of Nerath. During that time, in the year of 1983 A.C., Nerath was ruled by the young Julianos IV, a vain and foolish man, infamous for the volatile blend of his short temper and limited intelligence. Against the advise of his lords, he began a campaign of rapid expansion, pushing the empire deep into Turmish. So began a summer of defeat. With the Nerathi forces spread thin and unfit for the heat of the south, the Turmishmen massacred whole armies, but Emperor Julianos in his arrogance pushed on the attack. With the coffers drained back home in the heartlands of the empire, and many provinces rebelling with little resistance, the lords of Nerath grew impatient of the Emperor's folly. While most were content to grumble in their estates, there was one lord who decided to take action. Lord Farengar Gaunt, a great fighter and close friend to Julianos' father, marched on the capital. He amassed his most loyal knights, among which were four of his fellow conspirators: Morgana Huntsilver, Rhen Tavinter, Tristen Lachance and Castegen Lhal. With little resistance they pushed their way into the throneroom of Crownkeep, the ancient high seat of Nerathi royalty, where they encountered eight members of the royal family gathered aroud the throne.

It is unknown who fired the bolt into the infant prince's forehead, but ballads claim it was either Tristen Lachance or Morgana Huntsilver who pierced the lad to the back of the great throne. With that act of bloodshed all the hells broke loose, and before long all eight members of the royal house lay massacred on the stone floors, and Farengar Gaunt took his seat as the new ruler of Nerath. In the following days they built up an army to prepare for the coming civil war, but it was not to be. News soon came to the keep that Emperor Julianos had been killed by Turmish outriders, and province by province of the Nerathi empire began to fell. Farengar used his new army to hold back a myriad of invaders from the heartlands in a nine year war that came to be known as the War of the Bloodied King. With the empire collapsed into ruin, Farengar consolidated his power by giving each of his friends a corner of the heartlands each, naming them Dukes. With the very crown of Nerath liberated from the Crownkeep throneroom, he named himself king, officially announcing the destruction of Nerath and the birth of a new kingdom within the borders of the heartlands: a kingdom he named Gallantria.

For fourteen more years King Farengar ruled, until succombing to sickness in his seventy-third year of life. His son Orthan was crowned soon after, known by history as Orthan the Builder, due to his great work constructing the city of Royal Lendle around Crownkeep. He also raised much gold and funded the building of magnificant cities for his Dukes, and Brugge, Hustings, Suzail and Gilleon were built. He also built the watchtowers of Arn Ferrig and Mac Tyr to protect the borders. His last work, well into his halycon days, was the huge castle of Nilfheim in the northeast of the kingdom.

Nilfheim was a castle to match Crownkeep itself in grandeur. Orthan's son, King Parsifal, garrisoned many troops there in order to extend Gallantria deep into the Pagan Plains. But Parsifal was doomed to follow Emperor Julianos in his folly. The Gallantrian army met a huge orc force in the Dawnforge mountains, and was routed back to Nilfheim itself. Within a week of hard siege, the orcish horde has taken the castle. To this day no Gallantrian force has ever taken back Nilfhiem, and over the decades many fell powers have made it their lair. The castle now is a deadly dungeon, a grim reminder of the horrors that lie just over the Gallantrian border.