Nidal
Time scarcely seems to touch the shadow-chained nation of Nidal. Ten thousand years ago, when Earthfall cast the world into darkness, three ancient horselords of Nidal threw themselves on the mercy of Zon-Kuthon, the Midnight Lord. They pledged that if the god of shadow and pain interceded to protect them, they and all their descendants would be sworn to him eternally. Zon-Kuthon accepted their bargain, gifting the trio with cursed immortality as the Black Triune and sealing Nidal’s fate ever after. All Nidalese since then have been born into Zon-Kuthon’s faith, and from earliest childhood they are taught that pain is sacred, suffering is joy, and their holiest duty is to endlessly refine and sharpen those sensations into sacraments.
The Midnight Lord’s hand lies heavy on his land. Unnatural gloom blankets Nidal, from the shade of the enormous, black-leaved trees over languidly glittering Pangolais to the perpetual storm clouds over the port city of Nisroch. Colors seem to drain away as one moves toward the heartlands of Nidal, leaving the world tinted subtly monochrome. With the presence of Zon-Kuthon so palpable throughout the nation, Nidal has never cared overmuch about either expanding or defending its territory. Its borders are divinely drawn, and they haven’t changed since the days of the Black Triune’s pact.
The sole major interruption in Nidal’s history was its conquest by Cheliax, which ushered in a period of reform and openness unusual for the insular, theocratic nation. After Aroden’s death, however, the relationship between Nidal and Cheliax changed once more, with Nidal immediately throwing its full force behind House Thrune in the Chelish Civil War. Once House Thrune was firmly in power, the alliance between Nidal and the diabolist regime became stronger than ever, with agents of each country frequently serving in the other. Today, Nidalese clerics, shadowcallers, and advisors can be found throughout Cheliax and its holdings, wielding their influence to bolster House Thrune’s power and thus spread holy suffering across the land.
Life within Nidal, meanwhile, continues much as it always has. The Umbral Court, Nidal’s shadow-touched aristocracy, governs on behalf of the Black Triune. Shadowy agents enforce the court’s authority outside the major cities and abroad. The Umbral Court is heavily intertwined with Nidal’s other main sources of authority—Zon-Kuthon’s church, the pale druids of the Uskwood, and the specialist magical academies that train Nidalese shadowcallers and shadowbinders—but these organizations are distinct, albeit overlapping, and their goals sometimes conflict. This is particularly true of the Uskwood druids, who see little value in the Chelish alliance and would prefer to withdraw the government’s full attention back into Nidal altogether.
Farmers, fisherfolk, and artisans pay lip service to Zon-Kuthon while trying to raise their small, close-knit families in his shadow. Though many might prefer to live differently, they have been under the Midnight Lord’s yoke for so long that they can imagine no other existence—and hope is dangerous in this land, especially when a grim but assured peace is the alternative. The nation’s long stability has allowed many families to spend generations perfecting their skills, so Nidalese glass, intricately cut jewelry, and ornamental metalwork are unsurpassed in Avistan. Additionally, because Nidal is the only civilization in the Inner Sea to have survived the destruction of Earthfall intact, it is a repository for lore that exists nowhere else in the world. To this day, scholars of history and religion make pilgrimages to the dark cities of Nidal, braving the Midnight Lord’s regime in exchange for the chance to study archives unlike any other in the Inner Sea region.
Far outside the cities, on the gray-grassed Atteran plains, live a hardy, proud people who are descended from the original Nidalese horselords and still observe many of their traditions. These clans are famed for the swiftness and courage of their horses, which are prized across the Inner Sea. Their heritage and cultural links to ancient Nidal grant the modern horselords a degree of freedom that no others in their shadowbound land enjoy, but even they dare not defy the Umbral Court directly. Nevertheless, the Atteran Ranches harbor many of the devotees of Desna who call themselves Dreamers. These idealists share the secret, guarded hope that, someday, it may be possible to break Zon-Kuthon’s grip on their land.
Nidal is also home to sizable populations of caligni, kayal (also known as fetchlings), velstracs (sinister fiends from the Shadow Plane), and light-averse undead such as vampires. Caligni are children of Old Calignos, an Azlanti settlement. They have developed their own unique traditions, pieced together from accounts of ancient Azlant, within the broader auspices of Nidalese culture. Kayal, descendants of humans who were long ago stranded on the Shadow Plane and altered by its magic, prefer to blend into human society as much as possible. Velstracs and vampires in Nidal, meanwhile, flaunt their natures openly and tend to hold privileged positions, in keeping with their power and the terror they inspire in others.
The Midnight Lord’s hand lies heavy on his land. Unnatural gloom blankets Nidal, from the shade of the enormous, black-leaved trees over languidly glittering Pangolais to the perpetual storm clouds over the port city of Nisroch. Colors seem to drain away as one moves toward the heartlands of Nidal, leaving the world tinted subtly monochrome. With the presence of Zon-Kuthon so palpable throughout the nation, Nidal has never cared overmuch about either expanding or defending its territory. Its borders are divinely drawn, and they haven’t changed since the days of the Black Triune’s pact.
The sole major interruption in Nidal’s history was its conquest by Cheliax, which ushered in a period of reform and openness unusual for the insular, theocratic nation. After Aroden’s death, however, the relationship between Nidal and Cheliax changed once more, with Nidal immediately throwing its full force behind House Thrune in the Chelish Civil War. Once House Thrune was firmly in power, the alliance between Nidal and the diabolist regime became stronger than ever, with agents of each country frequently serving in the other. Today, Nidalese clerics, shadowcallers, and advisors can be found throughout Cheliax and its holdings, wielding their influence to bolster House Thrune’s power and thus spread holy suffering across the land.
Life within Nidal, meanwhile, continues much as it always has. The Umbral Court, Nidal’s shadow-touched aristocracy, governs on behalf of the Black Triune. Shadowy agents enforce the court’s authority outside the major cities and abroad. The Umbral Court is heavily intertwined with Nidal’s other main sources of authority—Zon-Kuthon’s church, the pale druids of the Uskwood, and the specialist magical academies that train Nidalese shadowcallers and shadowbinders—but these organizations are distinct, albeit overlapping, and their goals sometimes conflict. This is particularly true of the Uskwood druids, who see little value in the Chelish alliance and would prefer to withdraw the government’s full attention back into Nidal altogether.
Farmers, fisherfolk, and artisans pay lip service to Zon-Kuthon while trying to raise their small, close-knit families in his shadow. Though many might prefer to live differently, they have been under the Midnight Lord’s yoke for so long that they can imagine no other existence—and hope is dangerous in this land, especially when a grim but assured peace is the alternative. The nation’s long stability has allowed many families to spend generations perfecting their skills, so Nidalese glass, intricately cut jewelry, and ornamental metalwork are unsurpassed in Avistan. Additionally, because Nidal is the only civilization in the Inner Sea to have survived the destruction of Earthfall intact, it is a repository for lore that exists nowhere else in the world. To this day, scholars of history and religion make pilgrimages to the dark cities of Nidal, braving the Midnight Lord’s regime in exchange for the chance to study archives unlike any other in the Inner Sea region.
Far outside the cities, on the gray-grassed Atteran plains, live a hardy, proud people who are descended from the original Nidalese horselords and still observe many of their traditions. These clans are famed for the swiftness and courage of their horses, which are prized across the Inner Sea. Their heritage and cultural links to ancient Nidal grant the modern horselords a degree of freedom that no others in their shadowbound land enjoy, but even they dare not defy the Umbral Court directly. Nevertheless, the Atteran Ranches harbor many of the devotees of Desna who call themselves Dreamers. These idealists share the secret, guarded hope that, someday, it may be possible to break Zon-Kuthon’s grip on their land.
Nidal is also home to sizable populations of caligni, kayal (also known as fetchlings), velstracs (sinister fiends from the Shadow Plane), and light-averse undead such as vampires. Caligni are children of Old Calignos, an Azlanti settlement. They have developed their own unique traditions, pieced together from accounts of ancient Azlant, within the broader auspices of Nidalese culture. Kayal, descendants of humans who were long ago stranded on the Shadow Plane and altered by its magic, prefer to blend into human society as much as possible. Velstracs and vampires in Nidal, meanwhile, flaunt their natures openly and tend to hold privileged positions, in keeping with their power and the terror they inspire in others.
Founding Date
-5293
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Capital
Ruling Organization
Government System
Theocracy
Official State Religion
Location
Controlled Territories
Related Ethnicities
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