D&D General The dark lord is dead! What happens in his former lands?

[Sossij]

It's also important to remember that A) The rank and file people might not just be evil, and B) That doesn't mean they will be friendly to or aligned with the goals of the "good kingdoms."

Like in LOTR Sauron had a direct sort of mild mind-control that caused his troops to start losing cohesion the moment they died and Tolkien has later writings where he states that no race is inherently evil, and outside of Sauron's control, Orcs would still be basically normal people of a sort. But by the same token their cultural mores, societal goals, and perhaps remaining resentments might still leave them in opposition to everyone else to a lesser or greater degree. After all, even Tolkien had conflict between potential allies and even heroes within his stories.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Birthright had the King of the Giant Downs Adventure 1997

wherein the Orog awnshegh Ghuralli is attempting to unite the monsters clans into a new Kingdom so he can reclaim the Giant Downs and strike down the human Rjurik settlers who are also encroaching on the area.
The PCs come to lead the humans, defeat Ghuralli and claim the title of King of the Giantdowns.

And people complain that TSR never supported playing the bad guys!

 

[Desdichado]

Wasn't Mordor a crappy wasteland of poison nobody would want to live in? Even so, I could see several monster clans fighting over the nothing and scraps to see who leads over the rot.

No. Sea of Nurn and the vast farms and slaves that were freed by King Elessar following the end of the War of the Ring, for instance.

 

[Hriston]

Just like in the old(er) movie Excalibur when suddenly it was springtime and flowers blooming as hope and magic came back to the land.

Or at least the return of the natural world:

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Or at least the return of the natural world:
View attachment 441125

Just as long as everyone leaves the skull-shaped mountain alone. The dark lord worked hard on that and it's now a cultural heritage site.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I love this campaign idea. I can't believe I haven't thought of it or even heard of it before. Seems...obvious? And brilliant!

 

[Cruentus]

I’m doing this in my Greyhawk campaign set after the Greyhawk Wars. I am loosely following established timelines, but the Crook of Rao has not been discovered yet (an adventure for the party to travel to the occupied Shield Lands to find the relic is on offer. When it gets used (or they use it) it will banish all of the ‘free’ demons and devils from all the lands, but I’m extending that to Iuz as well. That will leave a vacuum that will be filled initially by a BBEG called the Ashen General, who will organize Iuz’s forces and remain a major impediment to Furyondy. Iuz’s circle - wizards, Drow, and others will either forge new alliances or split off into their own factions.

This set up will give the players more options in terms of approaching either the ongoing war with Iuz, or other quests, rather than just ‘Oh, it’s Iuz again.’

 

[David Howery]

that's a neat idea. Considering Iuz's empire at the end of the Wars (and adjusted later) included the former Horned Society and the Shield Lands, you could get a lot of people jockeying over parts of it. The exiled Shield Landers will be first in line to get their homeland back, the Rovers of the Barrens will likely surge back into their old lands. And you might have a Hierarch or two who secretly survived Iuz's original purge and will be working in the shadows to set up their network again. Or completely different groups could vie for power, particularly in Iuz's old central lands....

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Options:

1 ) “Somehow, Sauron has returned.”

2) BBEG’s underlings fill the power vacuum.

3) Nature, warped by evil, does what it can to recover, but it’s still altered. The comic book version of a Chernobyl event or atomic horror, possibly correctable with GREAT effort.

4) The area is so corrupted, it has weakened barriers between it and infernal dimensions- otherplanar incursions increase.

5) free of the BBEG’s influence, normalcy begins to return with alarming speed. This leads to discoveries that lead to land-grabs by neighboring realms. In tun, this leads to border skirmishes and rumors of war.

 

[Minion X]

Most likely, the Dark Lands of Evil are too inhospitable for anyone to want to lay more than a nominal claim on them, so the surviving orcs and monsters will hide in the deepest, darkest caves they can find and eat the weakest until the forces of light and good ride home, and then emerge and continue the cycle of evil. It is quite possible that walls and fortifications will be built to contain the evil lands, but they will soon be undermanned as the threat it contains is forgotten and the free realms resume their power games.