CREATIVE EXERCISE: Tainted Lands

[Steverooo]

this region is largely mountainous and generally cold, experiencing long frigid winters and short intense summers, with occasional pockets of hilly grasslands and temperate forests...evidence of human civilisation is found in a few prominent and established town-ships and small walled cities...

Cities? Yes, despite the difficulties, cities survive. Purify Food & Drink is a mere Orison, that any Cleric of average wisdom can learn to cast multiple times/day, and will clear all blight from one acre of topsoil. Assuming that no Blightstorms occur between the cleansing of the ground, and harvest, traditional agriculture is still possible... but the likelyhood of such a long period, free of storms, is small. Hence, traditional agriculture is always a gamble, risked only by those with no other means.

In the cities, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers work together to cleanse land and quickly Plant Growth a crop. Even if a storm occurs, Purify Food & Drink can remove the taint from the crop.

More mundane solutions are also available to the common folk, however. Plants grown indoors, behind windows, within shutters (as the Town-ships use), etc, are safe from the Blight. All peasants will have a few potted plants, windowbox gardens, etc, to sustain them. Cities can do more, erecting greenhouses, sometimes with glass magically hardened to the toughness of steel, with the long forgotten Glassteel spell, for those places with Wizards powerful enough to cast it.

Thus, most in the Aranrath manage to survive, despite the hardships. It is always more of a struggle, however.

 

[Steverooo]

Aberrations (the monster type) are not true races in this world. Rather, they are the results of the vile emanations of this particular area. The region is occasionally swept by "storms" of taint, even darker energies than normal. People caught outside without shelter in these so-called "Blightstorms" are often twisted and warped beyond all recognition. Every aberration is either the result of one of these Blightstorms, or is descended from someone who was caught in one. People exposed together often mutate in similar fashion, and may breed true; their families are the source of the aberration "races." For some reason, the presence of simple shelter--stone or wood walls, or even a thick tent--is usually enough to protect someone from the worst effects of a Blightstorm.

Among many, however, the chaos seems to hold no real purpose. They become the "Mongrelmen", of no certain shape. Even the giants of the mountains have been known to become affected (or infected!), becoming Fomorians, who are hunted and killed by their own former-kind.

 

[Steverooo]

Because of the taint and other severe dangers of this land, racial prejudices or feuds are all but nonexistent, as everyone who cares to survive must band together with their neighbors against the chill, the tainted monstrosities, the blightstorms, and tainted madmen. Human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, orc, half-elf, half-orc, planetouched, and others must all cooperate to ward off destruction, for they could not survive if they were to all fight eachother heedless of the aberrations and storms.

Humans were common, in the Aranrath, before the Blight. They are now less so. Dwarves are believed to have increased, below-ground. Elves were never common to the region, and remain uncommon, now. A few gnomes inhabit the cold hills, but since their magics hide their homes, what has become of them is unknown, to most. It is assumed that at least some survive. Halflings, as well, are rarely seen, outside the cities. Orcs, Half-Orcs, Half-Elves, and the Planetouched races are all a bit rarer, here, than outside. While Humans and Dwarves are at least uncommon, the other races are rare to very rare, at best!

 

[Steverooo]

The rise and the fall of this strange country is closely tied to the Andrith dynasty, and some turn to it also as their saviours. Rumors say the current heiress of this ancient family was seen close to storm wracked ruins recently.

Grasping at straws of hope, in this hurricane of troubles, rumours abound that the ancient ruins of Aman have been found, and that the Lady Catherine has gone there in search of the Stormglobe, and ancient artifact of the Amanii, which will allow the Blightwinds to be predicted, warded off, or shut down, forever! Desperate people are wont to believe it, and hope is doing more than glimmering, in Andrith!

A new regiment of Paladins is supposedly being trained, either for a triumphal homecoming, or to ride with the caravansery to aid Lady Catherine in her quest... No word of how long this training might take, but a brood of strapping young Paladins-to-be has shown up, ready to be trained! Rumour also has it that at least one member of each race (or sub-race) is among the two-hundred-or-so volunteers!

If true, this is indeed an odd occurrence!

 

[Steverooo]

The largest of these town-ships is simply called 'Juggernaut' and its Master the Ras Benar is investigating the dwarfen use of steam turbines to power the town-ships wheels

According to the Ras, Dwarven Cavers have completed rough tunnels, allowing them access to natural rifts which go all the way to Kalashtar, one of the former Gnome settlements. Collaboration with the Gnomes has allowed the Ras' plans to proceed apace.

Naturally, since the Ras has shown interest in this project, the leaders of the other Town-ships have sat up, and begun to take notice, as well... The race is on to have the first successful steam-powered Town-ship in Aranrath history!

 

[Sarellion]

Wasn´t there a rule of three contributions until you can do your next one?

 

[Steverooo]

Undead are unheard of in this strange land, as the lands itself sucks out the animating energies that keep the undead active.

Instead, what occurs is that the living and the dead, the animate and the inanimate, move closer together, and... intermingle... becoming an Aberration similar to a Mimmic, or a Killer Mimmic, if of greater power. As if travel in the wilds wasn't bad enough, already, now even the rocks and trees can be monsters, and attack you!

This is what becomes of those who "die" in the Aranrath, and eventually to undead which continue, here. As their negativity is sucked from them, they lose power and shape, eventually becoming something with NO true shape.

Hence Endras, the ancient Vampire Wizard, fled this land, leaving behind his tower. Rumour-mongers report that it was here, within his tower, that the Lady Catherine of Andrith found the location of the ruins of lost Aman!

 

[Steverooo]

The Elementalists of Kinza Genharabi protect their villages with bound elementals and constructs, whose origin from the land prevents their energy from draining away. However, the tainted land these elementals are formed of lends them a sinister look and renders them prone to occasional, violent straining against their eldritch bonds.

Just to the south of Rockwall, the Kinza Genharabites have aided the Dwarves, in return for their metals, and both "tribes" are doing well, because of it. The Air Elementals, working together, are able to defend Kinza Genharabi from normal Blightwinds, unless one of the greater storms comes along. Also, recent events have favoured the Kinza Genharabites, as their town lies along the tunnel route from Rockwall to Kalashtar, and even now they and the Dwarves are finishing up an adjunct tunnel, allowing them to go to either city without the need to fear Blightwinds along the way!

This new development will certainly aid all three communities. Nothing but good can come of all this, according to all Communes.

 

[Steverooo]

Planetouched folk are rare in the Tainted Lands, but for a slightly different reason than you might think - both fiends and angels bar the metaphysical gates between the worlds, fearful of the strange energies which suffuse and drain the land. Only the most powerful demons and devils enter in search of some means by which they may harness this dark power, establishing small followings of duped or desperate mortals from whom half-fiends and planetouched occasionally arise before the death or retreat of the fiend itself, while the only celestials which walk the land are those left behind after great struggles to prevent mortals from breaching the barrier between the Tainted Lands and the heavens, and rarely do they seek companionship.

Because of this, gates to the Supernal/Infernal realms will be met with, at best, heavily-armed escorts (if not worse).

 

[Steverooo]

The Ensouled Priests of Emarras are dedicated to the notion of sliding the world ever-closer to a heavenly state by the expansion and enlightenment of the human population.

One of their number seeks to become a living portal to the heavens by feeding on the souls of the young, thus creating a point of soul-density.

Recently, all communication with Emarras has ceased...