Okay, just finished a short description of the Karnal, a traveling circus in the Badlands that I'm planning on having my players meet in an upcoming campaign. Might add a bit more to them later, as some might have noticed I'm doing things for the setting rather sporadically
The Karnal
The Black Kingdoms have become the pinnacle of necromantic lore and learning, a gathering of four city-states that possess infinite wealth and knowledge. Long ago, a gathering of Shim necromancers built an underground city beneath the plains of the Black Kingdoms, a vast metropolis called Amea. The city was destroyed in an elven crusade and its libraries were buried beneath the ground for centuries until a small cult of human necromancers traveled to the site, guided by an extra-planar entity called Finlund. When the first library of Amea was found, it proved to be a rich source of necromantic lore and the first of the four city states was established, the city of Ur, along with the Karathan University, a faculty of learning devoted to the ancient lore of Amea. The Black Kingdoms started attracting more prominent wizards and even commoners started to travel to the plains to settle under the protection of the Karathan University and the Black Army. Despite its dedication to necromancy, the Black Kingdoms needs its living population now more than ever, as undead servants possess no creativity nor spirit for some of the labor that needs to be done in the kingdoms.
The vast institutes and laboratories of the Black Kingdoms do have a negative impact on the living though, as the energies emitted from them can warp and twist a human body beyond recognition, driving the mind mad and the soul cruel. This is why the Tower Pylons were constructed, enormous structures that gather necromantic energy and channels it away from the Black Kingdoms. Across the kingdoms, you can see the Tower Pylons emitting their rays of black energy across the sky, energy that eventually lands in the badlands, a foul strip of land that surrounds the Black Kingdoms. Several hundred miles wide, the Badlands surround the entire nation, acting almost as a protective barrier.
The Badlands are not a cheerful place. Even though the land itself is tainted and nature itself has been infected by the vile energies of the kingdoms, it still attracts the attention of both the desperate and the mad. Small villages of farmers and miners have made their home in the strip of land, making a meager living out of the desolate earth. Life is tough and short in the Badlands as its inherent hostility to life eventually leads those that live there to suffer a tragic death while packs of mutated abominations hunt for flesh. Two prominent groups of undead hunters have settled in the Badlands as well, a fanatical gathering of Vanquishers from Laumakis and a whole clan of warriors from Emerik. Not even the divine power of the Vanquishers nor the fierce devotion of the Emerik warrior-clans can escape the inevitable taint of the Badlands though, and over the years the two groups have become as twisted and warped as the creatures they hunt. Now, they no longer strive to put and end to the four city-states, they instead strive to put and end to each other as both factions have become so tainted by the Badlands that they are indistinguishable from the living dead.
One would think that in the Badlands, there is no room for laughter. Yet this is not true, as the region has become home to a traveling circus, the Karnal.
Long ago, Father Savant was a powerful and influential bishop in Laumakis, diligently serving the prince of scars. His sermons attracted gatherings numbering in the thousands as he preached a message of abstinence and devotion. Not all was well though, and over the years Father Savant developed a mental illness, a mixture of schizophrenia and paranoid delusions. In his sermons, he started to talk about the words he received at night, personal messages from the prince of scars, the whispering angels that spoke to him in his dreams and how they told him about the path to glory and true devotion. He started to tell the members of his parish that the prince himself had given him power, that this power exceeded the power of the Church of Thakulion and that all those who didn't heed his words would be damned. Father Savant slowly lost his grip on reality and occasionally his acolytes would find him sleeping naked on the floor of his chamber, his walls adorned with vile and despicable paintings of carnal pleasures. In the end, the Church of Thakulion found that it had no other option but to excommunicate and expel Father Savant from Laumakis, to cast him out.
For years, Father Savant traveled across the Tamara continent, preaching his madness to anyone who would listen. Eventually, his travels led him into the Badlands where his words of madness found ears willing to listen. Even in the Badlands, only the truly depraved and demented would listen to the sermons of Father Savant. Despite the vile nature of those that came to his sermons, Father Savant soon found that he once again had the power to attract followers. He also found that the people of the Badlands had a strange fascination with the more gruesome manifestations of the warping, necromantic energy that taints their home. In a matter of years, Father Savant gathered around him the most horribly mutated and deformed creatures of the Badlands, a gathering of freaks and madmen that followed him on his crusade of enlightenment. To attract the attention of the common people of the land, Father Savant turned his small gathering into a travelling circus, the Karnal. Setting up their brightly and cheerfully colored tents wherever they go, playing their haunting tunes and gladly exhibiting their deformities, the Karnal have become legend in the Badlands. Each time the circus comes to a new town, Father Savant will herald its arrival to the townspeople as the arrival of both entertainment and redemption.
None have seen the show of the Karnal and left unmoved. Gibbering midgets run around the stage dressed as marauding barbarians, waging battle against packs of fools armed with wooden swords. A whole hour of the show consists of creatures of various races showcasing their diseases and ailments, a gift from the taint of the Badlands. Scantily clad women dance their forbidden dances while the ushers serve opium and other substances to the eager crowd. And the show always ends in the same way, when the music stops and Father Savant takes the stage and gives his sermon.
While the few of the members of the Karnal are worshipers of the prince of scars, nothing has yet broken the faith of Father Savant, only twisted it further. Not even the taint of the land has taken a complete hold of him, it has only made him stronger, allowed him to live on for four hundred years as he guides his circus to new villages in the desolate land. His circus crew has changed over the years, naturally, as his performers die to the taint or to some of the unholy beasts of the Badlands. Most of his followers pray to a mystic version of Emanuel the Whisperer, a god known to them as Brother Giggles. It is believed that Brother Giggles is constantly sending his commands to his worshipers through a number of omens and signs, omens that can only be deciphered by madmen. Supposedly, a rare few even have the gift to receive messages from Brother Giggles through mirrors and crystals, which has led the Karnal to be decorated with a myriad of reflecting objects and knick-knacks, so that Brother Giggles may send his omens.
