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

[Gus L]

Let's assume a Lord of the Rings-style "all the nations of good come together and end the dark lord's threat once and for all" scenario.

What happens in the former dark lord's lands? What would you expect things to look like a year later?

I've never created a scenario around this, but the idea appears in my settings from time to time ... though I generally see these as places where one person's "dark lord" is another persons "traditional and revered monarch" or "noble leader of the popular revolution". When any great power is defeated and torn down by its enemies generally the following things happen:

1) Occupation Forces. If part of a coalition they might start hating each other as well ... they have different goals and different values most likely ... they also have the best and biggest armies they've ever had and are likely to feel they deserve the best part of the spoils. In pre-modern times the issue is compounded by unpaid soldiers - form either side. Armies are expensive, and if you don't need them anymore just send them home ... of course a lot will stay, and likely keep their weapons... the word we have for what happens is brigandage.

2) Plunder and Cruelty. In a fantasy context, especially the traditional kind with "evil races" and a colonial underpinning I generally assume that the "last alliance of elves and men" or whatever is going to get up to some pretty serious war crimes against those populations of nasty not-people that were fighting on the other side. This of course breeds guerilla warfare etc.

3) Poverty. Both the losing country and winning ones are likely impoverished by the cost of large scale prolonged war. They may be somewhat depopulated from sending off too many able bodied folk to war to even keep up their food production. They will certainly have depleted treasuries and likely owe some debts if that's possible. This will mean raising taxes again.

4) Cursed Lands. After the First World War over 1,200 square kilometers of land along the French/Belgian border were considered too damaged to repopulate. Many of these areas are still dangerous and off-limits - filled with heavy metals, unexploded shells and of course lots of dead people. I assume in the aftermath of a magical war something similar happens - areas filled with ghosts, still boiling with horrific magic etc.

 

[kigmatzomat]

So one question: did the Dark Lord forge the normally uncivilized monstrous people into a viable army?

If so, perhaps they are now less orcs and more like Spelljammer Scro, a force that understands the power of organization.

 

[Reynard]

I'm not sure the premise of this thread is going to benefit from Good Guy Sauron style moral relativism arguments. In fantasy, it is okay for the evil powers to be capital E Evil.

Anyway, I think evil laying fallow for long enough to be forgotten is a perfectly good way to go. Then when the adventurers and settlers start into the land, they risk unwittingly waking said evil.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The guy called himself "The Dark Lord." The home base town the player characters will use (going back to town is a key part of Shadowdark) has a blacksmith with a surplus of decorative skulls and spikes she's hoping the PCs will pay to have put on their armor, which she can also blacken.

This is Capital E "Evil," although after the dark lord's fall, most of the surviving folks in the starting town are pragmatic and just looking for adventurer-based revenue to keep their ghost town afloat.

I don't dislike moral relativism in my RPGS -- my Ptolus game has a fair amount of neutral forces vs. neutral forces and good guys vs. good guys -- but that's not what I'm going for here.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

A working class party takes his place with various social reforms such as universal healthcare, childcare tax credits, an old age pension, and various enviormentsl regukations to reverse all the pollution in Mordor. Seriously, that place is a mess.

 

[kigmatzomat]

A working class party takes his place with various social reforms such as universal healthcare, childcare tax credits, an old age pension, and various enviormentsl regukations to reverse all the pollution in Mordor. Seriously, that place is a mess.

Given the societal pollution of a "dark lord", odds are that takes the form of "immigration controls", by which I mean slaves are taken from other places and are not allowed to leave.

"On retirement, every ork soldier will get 40 acres, a mule, and either 1 human or two halfling slaves. Plus a gnome in every pot."

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

Given the societal pollution of a "dark lord", odds are that takes the form of "immigration controls", by which I mean slaves are taken from other places and are not allowed to leave.

"On retirement, every ork soldier will get 40 acres, a mule, and either 1 human or two halfling slaves. Plus a gnome in every pot."

I wonder what the cuisine is like there.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I wonder what the cuisine is like there.

The Dark Lord's guide to Serving Demihumanity
(Revised edition: Includes wine pairings as well as recipes)

 

[haakon1]

If the Dark Lord were ruler of a Ravenloft domain, I like the answer in a Dungeon adventure: once the Dark Lord is destroyed, the land quickly leaves Ravenloft and returns to the world from which it came, bringing everyone and everything in it there, but the bad things that depended strictly on the Dark Lord’s evil will to exist dissipate like shadows under the summer sun.

 

[Sossij]

If the Dark Lord were ruler of a Ravenloft domain, I like the answer in a Dungeon adventure: once the Dark Lord is destroyed, the land quickly leaves Ravenloft and returns to the world from which it came, bringing everyone and everything in it there, but the bad things that depended strictly on the Dark Lord’s evil will to exist dissipate like shadows under the summer sun.

“Sorry, it turns out those were EVIL structural supports!”