The Curse of Cedrea

Cedrea was once an independent kingdom ruled by a monarchy. The god of duty, Distran, was the main deity worshipped in the kingdom. The priests in Cedrea gained much influence in the royal court and eventually the clergy ruled the kingdom in all but name. Through propaganda they convinced the people that to be faithful worshippers of Distran, they needed to do their duty to their rulers and to never question the word of the clergy. In time, even the monarchy bowed to the authority of the priests. The more political power they gained, the more power they craved from other sources. The priests would make pacts with extraplanar beings from demons to evil archfey to gain advantages over their peers. To gain the higher ranks of the priesthood of Distran in Cedrea, it was essential to accumulate as much wealth and power as possible, even at the expense of the people. Sacrifices of blood were made to the fell powers and the people suffered greatly under the iron grip of the priesthood. Not all the priests were corrupt. Many either did not know that extraplanar beings were involved and many others had grown up with the propaganda of seeing absolute loyalty to their superiors as their duty to their deity. One priest, however, saw it as his duty to put an end to the corruption and stop the blood sacrifices. A priest named Aloysius Greyhelm caught wind of a plot by several of the high priests to perform a ritual that would wipe out every living being within the borders of Cedrea, which would reshape the very land into a new hellish landscape where evil would roam freely, and the high priests would have the power of demigods to rule the new, twisted nation. Aloysius contacted the nearby Kellerian Empire. He knew that the high priests would have to be stopped and most likely killed. When that happened a power vacuum would occur, and the nation would collapse. The Empire, not wanting to be bordered by a nation of twisted evil, agreed to help. The Kellerian Empire sent an army, led by a Justicar, a champion of the god of Justice Horan to help overthrow the evil priests and then to establish order and avoid the power vacuum. As the conflict ensued between the Empire and the evil forces, it was revealed that the highest clergy members were not really worshipping Distran and had not for many years. They were really worshipping Melenot, god in injustice and corruption. The final battle ended with the priests of Melenot’s ritual going awry when priests of Horan and Distran called upon their deities’ power to counter it. The result was explosive, and all the priests involved were killed, including Aloysius. The combined powers of an evil, neutral, and good deity, all being unleashed and concentrated at once caused unforeseen consequences. The ritual was marginally successful, for the land was indeed cursed. The sun never completely signs on Cedrea. The sky is almost always overcast, the land seems sickly and dying and evil thrives there with vampires, werewolves, demons, and all many of evil, undead, and aberrant creatures making a home in this new Cedrea. The land is not completely without hope. The people of Cedrea were not killed as intended in the ritual and many were imbued with senses to detect and abilities to destroy the supernatural. Religious scholars believed Melenot’s power cursed the land, Distran’s preserved it, and Horan’s gave the people the ability and drive to see evil vanquished. Cedrea is now a province of the Kellerian Empire and the Order of St Aloysius the Diligent (though most simply call it the Order now), was founded. The Order is the Empire’s officially sanctioned arm to combat supernatural and evil threats, and members of the Order are well trained by fighting the evils within their own borders.

Type

Metaphysical, Divine