Greetings!
I thought I would provide a bit more background.
The evil kingdom of Galleran, led by the ancient Vampire Lord Mallenar, originally invaded the Vallorean Empire. The armies of the Vampire Lord occupied and terrorized an entire Vallorean province for some four years. The Valloreans adopted some interesting strategy of containment, combined with spoiling attacks to keep the forces of the Vampire Lord off balance. They proceeded with this strategy for two and a half years, before beginning a series of enormous offensives. Each offensive pinned down large numbers of enemy forces, while other, weaker areas, were then hammered and destroyed. Platoons of Witch Hunters and Inquisitors brought fire and death to the lairs of the Vampire soldiers. Wraith-knights were hunted down by savage Vallorean hunter-groups, who fearlessly charged into the ranks of the Undead, revelling in the dark energy striking them. They seemed insane, and entirely driven to annihilate the Undead.
This was an unforseen consequence. The invading evil forces, with powerful contingents of vampires and other undead, had unleashed such a ferocious assualt and slaughter upon an entire province, initiating great feeding frenzies, and enslaving the rest. There were millions of refugees, and hundreds of thousands of families who watched a mother raped and bled dry by a group of vampires, or a few teenagers who escaped a whole town being slaughtered, and so on. The survivors escaped to vow revenge.
Often, the survivors were gathered together by agents of the king, and trained and offered help. In addition, though, volunteers began forming, and the king organized them with the assistance and guidance of the Church into special sects of Witch-Hunters committed to fighting the Undead.
These particular Witch-Hunters have a long tradition, but now, with all of the volunteers, their membership has increased greatly. There are normal Witch-Hunters, and then there are the members of The Gates of Judgment--a sect of members who have foresworn all mortal life, and pledged unflinching committment and service to not only the Church, but also to crushing the forces of Undead, and Demons in particular. They have committed themselves to each other, and to live in isolated communities. Many of them are quite insane, driven mad over the years of fighting such horrific monsters and with enduring horrible slaughters and the loss of family and friends. These hardened members of the Witch Hunter Society have even gone to the point of embracing their own funeral, where they are buried alive in a special ceremony, and they are committed as dead to the world, and their life now only serves to hunt the monsters that plague the Vallorean Empire, and they are grimly, even cheerfully prepared to sacrifice their lives, as they view themselves as dead already.
It is these grim, crazed Witch Hunters that have often been specially trained, equipped, and prepared for combat with Undead and with Demons, that often spearhead assaults, or lead these hunter-killer groups that roam the dark wilderness on enchanted, ghostly horses bringing fire and death to any demon or undead they encounter!
The Vallorean armies crushed the forces that were entrenched in the fallen province. As Mallenar retreated back over the mountains into Galleran, the Valloreans chose to launch vanguards even through the winter. By the arrival of spring, as the Galleran forces attempted to rebuild, and recoordinate themselves, the Valloreans had been planning for this day.
A massive invasion, undreamed of by Mallenar, ensued. The wrath of the mightiest empire in the West was unleashed in a storm of fury that continued at a breathtaking pace. In short order, the Vallorean armies crushed over twelve large Galleran cities, each city having at least 500,000 people. Millions of people were put to the sword. The armies of Galleran continued to be relentlessly hammered, as huge columns of magically enchanted Vallorean cavalry struck deep behind Galleran lines, sowing death and confusion. Teams of elite Vallorean Rangers were airlifted behind enemy lines to build up liberation and guerrilla movements. Meanwhile, Vallorean liberators began propaganda campaigns, as well as bringing true liberation to those who desired it. Perhaps 40% of the Galleran population embraced the Valloreans as righteous liberators. 30-40% viewed them as invaders, and seethed with hatred and resentment. Some 20% or so remained somewhat indifferent, but cooperative with whoever seemed to have the most authority and power on the local level. Thus, the Occupied Territories began.
The Valloreans proceeded to fortify themselves everywhere, building great fortresses, smaller castles, as well as great temples, hospitals and schools to encourage the population to convert to the Vallorean Religion, and to embrace the Vallorean culture. Meanwhile, the Valloreans brought in some 650,000 Urrgan immigrants to settle in various areas, as well as bringing in over 450,000 Hippo-people to live in some of the southern regions where there is rivers and lakes that the Hippo-people like to live. Because of this, the Hippo-People have become Vallorean citizens, as have the Urrgan, who immigrated from the great northern forests beyond the northern frontier of the empire.
That great invasion was some eight years ago. Vallorea has been fighting *within* the land of Galleran for over eight years now, and fighting against the forces of Galleran for over twelve years straight. The Valloreans have also moved in over a million Vallorean immigrants to begin settling the areas, having come from other provinces of the empire that were being burdened by larger, growing populations. The Vallorean Emperor has decreed that Galleran has lost itself by pledging itself to Darkness. Galleran is now and forever shall be, a province of the Vallorean Empire.
The Vallorean war machine has proceeded to step up it's recruitment of wizards and clerics in order to fight in the war. In addition, there have been various gates to other planes that have been built and contained in a controlled environment, and totally within the secret, fortified areas specified for the purpose by the Emperor, in order to harvest and bring in other-worldly resources. These of course, are highly guarded secrets, but none the less serve to supply Vallorea with mountains of gold, stone, metal, mithril, gems, water, whatever kind of energy that is required. This isn't done on an enormous, dominating scale, of course, but it is done on a large enough scale to produce extra resources for the Emperor should he require it. There are various times that these gates cannot be used, so that the supply is not on a constant basis, and it is also limited to a specific set of harvest conditions. Still, it is a formidable source of extra power, wealth, and resources.
With over twelve years of fighting, the Valloreans are well-equipped and fully prepared for fighting wraiths, shadows, wights, and vampires, even down to the platoon level. Werewolves have also been fought against on a constant basis.
In the ancient thread of over a year ago, "Going Down The Road To Hell?" with over I think 200 posts, many people at that time, were advising on all of the enchanted defenses against everything that Mallenar and the evil forces of Galleran can come up with!
Still, it has been a huge scale of warfare, and the Valloreans have employed many of those suggestions for dealing with vampires, undead, and werewolves. They have worked hard to pacify the conquered cities, organize the people, and make the cities no longer friendly to vampires and such. In fact, with all of the Daylight, wards, Holy Ground, Consecrate, and on and on, it could certainly be said that the cities that the Valloreans have occupied are largely hostile and potentially very dangerous for undead forces to enter.
With the general control of the cities in the Occupied Territories, the Valloreans, along with immigrant forces, as well as indiginous recruited forces, began to form defenses and preparations to make the countryside deadly for enemy forces, particularly for vampires, undead, and werewolves.
There now.
I thought I would supply a few notes to help. I'll have a group of the epic-level characters up a bit later.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
