Morgau
The infamous Blood Kingdom of Morgau sits has remained a brooding, menacing presence north of the Margreve Forest and Free City of Endhome for centuries. The Greater Duchy of Morgau—to use its proper name—includes the twin Principalities of Morgau and Doresh, and a third province, Krakovar, made up of the conquered lands of the former Electoral Kingdom of Krakova to the north. A gloomy land of mist-shrouded mountains, steep gorges, and dark forests, Morgau is ruled by vampires, ghouls, and other intelligent undead. Their cold hands control a nightmare realm where peasants suffer without hope or sanctuary.
The kingdom is beset on all sides by enemies—ferocious reaver dwarves to the west (including those right on the doorstep in the Wolfmark), the Naledi Empire to the north, the Rothenian Plain to the west, the Ironcrag cantons, and Endhome to the south. The Greater Duchy’s list of enemies also includes Grandmother Baba Yaga, the Daughters of Perun, and the exiled former queen of Krakova. The vampires could deal with any one of these foes individually without too much trouble, but the combined alliances against the undead nobles lead them to take a more considered approach, holding the passes when they must and raiding the lowlands with fire and sword whenever they can. Morgau draws special hatred for its tendency to wage winter wars and to fight by night, both conditions that favor its undead soldiers and make life hard for its enemies. Those enemies return the favor in daylight hours, when vampiric officers rest and ghoulish sergeants avoid the searing sun.
For the most part, the wars remain small: holding a village for a season, despoiling a graveyard for new troops, laying waste to crops, or turning an enemy’s child into a ghoul or vampiric spawn. The Greater Duchy of Morgau does not wish to make friends, only to terrify its neighbors and dissuade them from denying its undead sovereignty. Equally as important, raids and warfare keep the kingdom’s neighbors from spreading the seeds of rebellion among the living who suffer beneath the undying gentry. The peasants of Morgau, restless and fearful, long to shake off their masters. Despite their undeniable strength of arms, the one war the undead nobles can never win is the one waged for the hearts of their people.
Most right-thinking people acknowledge that the price of civilization includes extracting taxes and enforcing laws, which makes any ruling class bloodsuckers in a sense. But living creatures outside the Blood Kingdom believe that the undead aristocracy’s demands for their subjects’ warm blood and cold corpses exceed any reasonable standard. Some citizens think their undead masters’ command of death and darkness is a glorious beginning, but most living folk realize that Morgau is a place of suffering. They obey their masters and fight in their armies out of fear rather than patriotism, since doing anything else invites reprisals against their families or forced enlistment in the “bone company.”
As a result, the army is led by its officers, and its success comes from undead troops and ghoulish darakhul mercenaries. The darakhul are the true ghouls who dwell in their own lands below the earth; they are both entirely evil and among the best troops the Greater Duchy can field. Great victories in battle, however, are secondary to the vampire nobles’ desires. They wisely join together to field the best troops whenever a real threat appears. Everything else—the raids, the constant drumbeat of war, the slave taking—serves to keep the border in flux and their neighbors off balance.
Structure
With the takeover of a third province, Lucan, the Lord of the Shroud-Eaters, has proclaimed himself king of the Greater Duchy of Morgau. His pattern of conquest and usurpation is well established. Soon after the Ruby Despotate-born Lucan arrived in the Principality of Morgau some 300 years ago, he became the right-hand man (and possibly lover) of the ruling prince. Shortly thereafter, the priests of Lada the Golden Goddess sickened and died. Then the priests of the Green Gods fled into the forests where they were hunted down, and the land’s prince disappeared. Later, many of the court nobles became nocturnal servants of their new prince. Within a year of his arrival, Lucan had utterly and completely taken control of the Principalities of Morgau and Doresh, and any who questioned the old prince’s whereabouts found themselves exiled to the least desirable fiefdoms and given the most grueling or expensive tasks.
The chains of blood and fealty in Morgau are heavy and tightly held. At the top stands King Lucan, together with various princes, princesses, dukes, and duchesses. These are Lucan’s favorites, his vampiric peers, and those he has sired directly. Below them stand the counts and countesses, primarily vampires less powerful than the rulers themselves. They hold large territories or powerful monasteries. Below them are the generals or governors, called the voivode or voivodina, commanding troops or ruling a smaller fiefdom.
Below the counts and voivodes are the lesser nobles, divided into the vor and voyra (literally “blood thieves” or “takers,” but meaning something closer to noble vampire), the barons, and gospodar and gospoda (lord and lady). While all noble and not to be trifled with, some of these nobles are darakhul or even prominent humans. Below these are positions of relative merit. A red priestess is often called a chelnik (a title that also means judge and executioner), and a young undead noble might be referred to as a stavilac (groom, squire, and cupbearer). A stavilac may also, in some cases, be an undead lover to a greater noble.
Finally, the term “sevast” simply means ancient or venerable and denotes great respect, an elevated condition of honor and worth. It is used almost exclusively by humans to refer to undead lords and nobles.
Public Agenda
In the Blood Kingdom of Morgau, vampires roam openly and rule proudly. Depravity, decadence, and the worship of dark gods abound. Here, the living are little more than property, drained and dispatched as the vampires see fit. Many living slaves long for their masters to drain them of blood, so they can escape the “tortures of the living” and gain social status as vampires. Vampire masters occasionally grant such rewards. A new vampire lives under the command of the vampire that sired it and remains enslaved until the sire’s destruction. Each enslaved vampire can sire and enslave vampires of its own, creating a pyramid of control with the free-willed master vampire at the summit, known as the Tree of Chains. A clever slave makes plans for this before he receives the death-bite, such as hiring assassins (or do-good heroes) to kill his sire afterward. This frees the slave-turned-vampire from mental enslavement on the master’s Tree.
The Blood Kingdom frequently hosts hunts in its hills and forests and stages gladiatorial fights in its cities. During these spectacles, living combatants clash and vampires cheer and salivate at the blood that sprays into the stands. This foreplay lasts for hours before culminating in a vampire’s blood drain of the winner, and that lucky winner’s rise into the ruling class.
Once a year, tradition demands that a vampire elder free the winner rather than kill him. An arcane taboo forever marks the champion and grants him perpetual freedom from all vampire predation. One of these lucky souls, a fighter named Emmon Trond, recently emigrated to the Free City of Endhome where he fights in a gladiatorial arena called the Pit of the Fierce Lynx under the Kobold Ghetto.
Assets
Wendestal Forest and the Stale Wood
Located in eastern Morgau, north of the Heartspire Road and east of the Cloudwall Mountains, Wendestal Forest is a dense greenwood composed of beech, pine, maple, and oak trees. Home to great numbers of wolves, boar, and deer, the forest provides good hunting for the local peasants and their vampire masters. The forest is under the jurisdiction of Lady Chesmaya, Voivodina of the Verdant Tower, a lich and powerful sorceress. Lady Chesmaya is a capricious ally, changing her allegiance to the other Elders almost as often as she changes her robes. It is whispered she is a daughter of Baba Yaga’s, or her apprentice, or both. Beyond the well-trodden game trails and the Verdant Tower, hidden deep in the forest, is the Stale Wood. Unlike the healthy woodland surrounding it, the Stale Wood is dense and dark—no sunlight pierces through the foliage and the air is always cold. Sinister standing stones dot the landscape, strange, sickly yellow fungi cling to the trees, and hags, cockatrices, selang, and worse lurk among the tall pines. This is the realm of the King in Rags, a bastard son of the Moonlit King of the Shadow Fey. The King in Rags is a huge satyr, over 8 feet tall with glowing red eyes, clad in a cloak of living crows and bearing a massive axe. His helmet is topped with the rack of a great stag, and he rides a giant ram known as the Bearer of Ills. His mere presence corrupts the land, causing plants to wither and foul fungi to spread. His daughters are feral drunks, quick to lash out angrily at any who rebuff their leering advances. For five generations, the King has married the firstborn daughter of the Lord Mallow of Twine on her 16th birthday, fulfilling an age-old pact. Twine is a decrepit small town in the Scolwingmire on the River Runnel; the current Lord Mallow hopes to spare his beloved daughter Celandine the same fate as her ancestors. He is not especially confident of success.Cloudwall Mountains
On the western upper reaches of Morgau lie the Cloudwall Mountains. The sharp, tall mountain peaks remain snow-covered throughout the year and their runoff gives impetus to the River Runnel. At the base of the mountains stands Cantri Abbey, home to the Blood Sisters of Marena. Overrun with Cloudwall leopards, two-headed Krakovan eagles, ogres, and yeti, the Cloudwall Mountains serve as the private hunting grounds of the King of the Blood Kingdom and his vampire coterie. Every living creature found there—including humans and smallfolk—is subject to death by a variety of blood sports, from being hunted by two-headed rocs to the night hunts of ghost knights and their vampiric masters. Criminals are sometimes sentenced to exile in the Cloudwalls. Those who survive their trip over to the Rothenian Plain are granted their lives and freedom, but few ever make it that far. Other dangers prevail in this territory as well. An ancient white female dragon known as Zrobaishalil and her yeti entourage reside on the tallest mountain and hunt the Cloudwall region. Dozens of ogre tribes war with one another and take wanderers as slaves and mates. An elder shroud-eater known only as the Dark Host or Blood Lord makes his home in the Cloudwalls. And Baba Yaga’s hut sometimes wanders the valleys below, gathering goats and boiling visitors in her cauldron.Grisal Marches
The eastern lands of the Barony of Doresh are known as the Grisal Marches, due to their proximity to the dwarven canton of that name. The Marches are dominated by the dense forest known to Doreshi as Walkers’ Wood, and to the Ironcrag dwarves as the Zombie Wood of Zwargau. Either way, the forest is aptly named: zombies and skeletons wander freely within its borders, animated by necromancers in the service of Lord Fandorin, Baron of Doresh and Fey Lord of the Grisal Marches. The forest’s western edges rise up into the hills and easternmost reaches of the mountains. These are held by the dwarves of Grisal, the Black Canton, who hate the undead and conduct frequent raids over the border to harass and destroy the Blood Kingdom’s soldiers. Baron Fandorin does his best to keep the raiders at bay, but he has too few troops to hold the mountains, and the dwarves remain too cautious to push far into the forest, lest their own fallen paladins and priests line up against them later as black-armored undead. The resulting stalemate has continued for generations, and so the Grisal Marches are constantly on a war footing. Baron Fandorin is the only vampire of non-human origin among the shroud-eaters who governs lands of the Greater Duchy in King Lucan’s name. Once a shadow fey, his face and body are so shriveled and shrunken that it is almost impossible to make out his elven origins, although he still follows the Queen of Night and Magic. Fandorin has ruled the Barony of Doresh and safeguarded its borders for three centuries, ever since Lucan disposed of Doresh’s former ruler. He divides his time between Fandorin Keep and his underground sanctum, Whispergloom, located beneath Walkers’ Wood. Here, he has enslaved a number of Grisal dwarves, forcing them to manufacture dozens of fell-forged into which the baron is intending to bind wraith-like deathwisps. With these formidable warforged warriors in his army, Fandorin is hoping to break the long-running deadlock on the western front. The necrophagi of the Ghoul Imperium are regular visitors to the baron’s dungeon lair—a secret tunnel leads directly from there to the lands of the Empire. These darakhul study the arcane knowledge gathered in Fandorin’s impressive library in exchange for their recommendations for foul new necromantic experiments.History
The recent history of Morgau revolves around Lucan’s embrace of the Red Goddess, his alliance with the darakhul, and his perhaps brilliant, perhaps foolhardy conquest of the Electoral Kingdom to the north.
An Unholy Alliance
King Lucan and Emperor Nicoforus the Pale have long maintained a pact of mutual aid between the Principalities of Morgau and Doresh and the Ghoul Imperium below the earth. Neither wishes the other to gain ascendancy, but it serves both kingdoms’ interests to stand together should an army of paladins and priests march against them. In the last few years, the alliance between the vampires and the ghouls has grown stronger, much to the chagrin of their neighbors. Duke Leander Stross, the Ghoul Imperium’s ambassador to Morgau, was a constant presence at Lucan’s court as detailed negotiations wore on, while the vampires sent the silver-tongued former Countess-in-Exile Urzana Dolingen to the City of White Bone to whisper provocatively in the emperor’s ear. Eventually a new, closer agreement was forged between the two nations. No one is sure of the exact terms of the alliance, but Guildmaster Orlando of Endhome's Arcane Collegium believes that the vampires traded ancient tomes of forbidden lore to the necrophagi of the Ghoul Imperium in exchange for military aid from elite darakhul troops against the Electoral Kingdom of Krakova. Certainly darakhul troops were involved in the siege and slaughter at each Krakovan city as it fell; those who surrendered were spared most of the looting and pillaging, but their cemeteries were despoiled.Rise of the Blood Sisters
The crimson blood has been flowing freely on Marena’s altars in Morgau for three centuries, and the Red Goddess has been most pleased. However, a few years ago her high priestess, Lileshka of the Chalice, Mother of Lust, began experiencing deeply disturbing visions in which the steady supply of fresh blood started to run dry and the Red Goddess’s power began to fade. Fearing disaster, Lileshka demanded an audience with then-Prince Lucan and told him Marena yearned for more blood. She urged the First Prince to take up arms against his enemies and conquer new territory in the name of Morgau and the Red Goddess. Now was the time to deal with the treacherous Krakovans along the Principalities’ northern border and let their blood splash onto Marena’s altars. Lucan promised the high priestess he would consider her words carefully and bid her a respectful farewell. With her visions becoming more vivid and frequent, Lileshka did not want to wait for war to start before taking action, so she summoned the Red Goddess’s other high-ranking priestesses to meet with her at the Temple of Aprostala. She ordered Blood Priestess Sonye of the Spear to ready the mayhem-loving warrior-priests of the Temple of the Scourging Goddess for battle should Prince Lucan decide to go to war. With Mother Abbess Calle she discussed a much subtler plan—members of the Blood Sisters cult would be dispatched from Cantri Abbey and the other temples to seek new converts and spread the Red Goddess’s influence throughout the region. The Blood Sisters have recently founded new secret temples under the guise of brothels in Endhome and other good-aligned cities, and successfully lured dozens of new worshippers into taking part in the cult’s orgiastic rituals.Fall of Krakova
With a military alliance secured with the Ghoul Imperium and troubled by Lileshka’s visions, Prince Lucan decided the time was right to strike against the Electoral Kingdom of Krakova and to seize its lands for the glory of Morgau and the Red Goddess. The vampires had infiltrated the “mice”—the Krakovan spy network—several months earlier, and fed them false intelligence to throw them off guard. Then, just as the Ghost Knights of Morgau, joined by Blood Priestess Sonye’s warrior-priests of Marena and Mavros, attacked Yarosbirg Castle on the border under cover of darkness, a darakhul legion emerged from a tunnel beneath Tannenbirg Castle to the west. Neither fortress could support the other; indeed, they could not defend themselves. The slaughter that followed was horrific—the ghouls poured out from below the earth in vast numbers, catching the Krakovans completely off guard and massacring them. As the darakhul fed on the dead, the Krakovan survivors fled north in terror. Yarosbirg fell the same night. Its defenders, though brave, were ill-equipped to deal with Ghostrider Templars on flying horses that could phase through castle walls. In the following weeks, the Ghost Knights pushed north to the city of Varshava, while the darakhul army marched northeast to Wallenbirg. Neither city held out for long. Then, just as King Eynryk was preparing to lead the Order of the Storm Knights from Heiderbirg Castle south to meet the invaders, he was assassinated in his throne room by a vampiric spy. Although the undead killer was swiftly slain, the king’s death was a bitter blow to Krakovan morale. Grand Marshall Jolenta Ludmiska led the army to confront the combined undead forces, but the Krakovan soldiers based on the coast were not used to facing unliving enemies, let alone at night. The armies of Morgau won a convincing victory on the battlefield, and Krakova, City of the Mermaid, surrendered a few days later to the Ghost Knights’ commander, Princess Hristina. Queen Urzula and the other surviving members of the royal family fled into exile. With the success of the invasion, the newly titled King Lucan wasted no time in declaring Krakovar the third province of the Greater Duchy of Morgau and appointing Princess Hristina as its governor—and granting her the greater title of duchess. But as the priestesses of the Red Goddess moved in to establish new centers of worship, not everything has gone as Lucan wished. Sensing an opportunity, reaver dwarves from Wolfheim sailed across the Nieder Straits and established a beachhead at Skogarholm on the northern peninsula, threatening the city of Jozht and then seizing it for themselves. So far the dwarves have successfully defended the city against all comers and are looking to expand their territory; they have no qualms about recruiting human Krakovans who wish to flee their new rulers. Meanwhile, Queen Urzula seeks to foster resistance to the undead occupation among her former subjects from her exile in Naledi.Raids into Perunalia
With the defeat of the Krakovans, the vampire nobility has grown more bold, even mounting raids beyond the Margreve Forest into distant Perunalia to carry off the beautiful amazon women of that land. One such victim, Dajana Savirne of Clarsaya, 15 years old and already an accomplished archer, has been taken to Hengksburg where she is to be presented to Rodyan, the city’s debauched Lord Mayor, who is always looking for a new wife. Furious, the paladins of the Order of the White Lions counterattacked in a raid led by Aglaii Soulay, Mistress of the Tower of Clarsaya, but with disastrous consequences. Skirting the eastern edge of the Margreve, the Perunalians marched into the Cloudwall Mountains where they first ran afoul of a hungry mated pair of two-headed rocs, before blundering into a hunt being conducted by a vampire noble and his squadron of Ghost Knights. Few of the White Lions survived, although Aglaii returned alive to Perunalia. Duchess Vasilka has ordered the border around the Margreve strengthened with additional patrols of elite archers, paladins, and priests of Perun to prevent further vampire raids.Silent War with Baba Yaga
Relationships between the vampires and Grandmother Baba Yaga have always been complex. Generally speaking they do not get along, but from time to time she has aided the shroud-eaters, although her reasons for doing so have never been clear. Thirty years ago, she warned Prince Lucan about the threat the rebellious cleric Kjord presented to his rule, prompting the prince to crush his foe and thus cement his hold on Morgau. Each year the witch is invited to celebrate the Winter Solstice in Bratislor with the Elders of Morgau and Doresh; each year she sends her apologies. Baba Yaga’s hut can sometimes be seen wandering the valleys of the Cloudwall Mountains, but by and large she prefers to stay away from the Blood Kingdom. Recent events, however, conspire to upset this fragile peace. The establishment of the Greater Duchy of Morgau has led to increased trade and a tentative alliance with the diabolic gnomes of Niemheim, hated foes of Baba Yaga. King Redbeard is looking for strong allies against the witch and is willing to trade gnomish illusion magic with the vampires. Meanwhile, Queen Urzula of Krakova and her court-in-exile are eager to align themselves with Grandmother against the undead. The queen has dispatched several of her “mice” to search for the witch’s Dancing Hut and make contact with her. So far, nearly all have returned empty-handed; one has not returned at all.Territories
The Blood Kingdom of Morgau is made up of three former kingdoms: the Duchy of Morgau, the Barony of Doresh, and the newly conquered northern province of Krakovar.
Morgau and Doresh are located on a forested highland known as the Brom Plateau which lies between the Cloudwall Mountains to the west and the Boreal Sea to the east. To the south stands the dense and ancient Margreve Forest; the vast Rothenian Plain extends beyond the Rothenian Bay to the west beyond the Cloudwalls. The fast-flowing and icy River Runnel divides Doresh on the western side of the plateau from Morgau to the east, before heading north and east into Krakovar and meeting the sea at Lodezig. Too narrow for boat traffic, the river teems with trout and perch. The lands of the Principalities are richly fertile—although the fields are small, they yield abundant crops, the vineyards produce excellent red wines, and the woods are full of deer and boar, providing plentiful hunting. Throughout both Morgau and Doresh, the misty landscape is dotted with small villages, crumbling ruins, and the keeps and manors of the vampiric nobility.
Bordered to the north by the Arbonesse, the province of Krakovar is less mountainous than Morgau and Doresh, but its central and southern parts are still hilly and rugged. The wide Yoshtula River flows through the middle of the kingdom, connecting two of its major cities—Gybick and Varshava—and meanders across the plains, before emptying into the Orclund Straits near the capital city of Krakova. The northern coast can be wild and the weather stormy, but Krakova is still the most important trading hub on the Straits, even after falling under vampire rule.
Military
The Ghost Knights of Morgau rise from interesting origins: Many of them were living creatures who chose to join the ranks of the undead as a method of advancement. The knights enter the order as living men and women, bound to the service of a vampire, darakhul necromancer, or priestess of Marena. If they provide good service for 5 or 10 years, they might be “raised up” into the ranks of the undead as foot soldiers in the Ghost Knights, roughly equivalent to a squire elsewhere.
If they provide additional good service and make the transition through ghoul fever or vampiric bite without undue madness or blood frenzy, they may slowly advance through the grades of the Order of the Red Shield. These ranks are Initiate Brother/Sister, Honest Brother/Sister, Master of Arms, Captain of Arms, General at Arms, Commander, and Grand Marshall. Ghost Knights receive excellent equipment, which typically includes a dappled gray or white warhorse, two lances, a red banner, a mace or longsword, and a tabard displaying the insignia of the order (a skull on a red background). Knights are expected to provide their own armor: leather or chain for an initiate, and a full suit of plate or better for a full knight or master.
Grand Marshall Princess Hristina oversees the order and was recently proclaimed Protector and Duchess of Krakovar, the Greater Duchy’s third province, after she seized control of the capital city of Krakova. Commander Baleneus, Hristina’s lover, oversees the vital commanderies along the Great Northern Road where tolls are collected. These include the Commanderies of Valach, Bruvik, and Engerstal, and Cantri Abbey in the Cloudwall Mountains. New commanderies are under construction in Krakovar.
Commander Orkov watches over the southeast borders near Endhome. She is responsible for the Temple of Aprostala, Commanderies of Walkers’ Wood, and Langrone. The commander wages a never‑ending war against the dwarves of Grisal and the other cantons. Her troops contain a much‑feared “dwarven company” of prisoners taken from Grisal and turned into undead.
Technological Level
Religion
Following Lucan’s usurpation, veneration of the Red Goddess Marena spread throughout the Principalities. All the nobles took up her worship, though some retained their fondness for St. Charon or the Red Goddess’s husband Mavros, the War God. In time, the common people embraced her, whether they feared her aspect as the goddess of death and respected or leered over her aspect as a goddess of lust and fertility.
The cities and villages of the Greater Duchy are now devoted to the Red Goddess, with all other deities second to her in importance. Worship is frequent and public; offerings are loud and messy. Every village of any size contains at least a small blood-stained altar stone, and her name is invoked at every birth, funeral, and battle. Marena’s main temples include the Temple of the Scourging Goddess in Vallanoria, where Marena’s cult of slaughter worships death and mayhem; Cantri Abbey in the Cloudwall Mountains, where the matronly Mother Abbess Calle protects pregnant women; and the Temple of Aprostala on the edge of the Walkers’ Wood, where the altar runs red with daily sacrifices. At these temples reside Marena’s greatest zealots, the Flagellants of the Red Goddess, also known as the Order of the Rosy Salvation.
Infrastructure
The Ghoul Imperium
Deep under the earth, stretching from below the Ironcrags, under the Margreve Forest, and as far north as southern Naledi lies a dark empire: the Ghoul Imperium, home to flesh-eating and blasphemous worshippers of the gods of death, hunger, and darkness, who come to the surface only to feed. Their empire rose more than 100 years ago with the first darakhul to answer a diabolist’s summons. Today, Emperor Nicoforus the Pale rules the lightless tunnels and vast chambers of the Ghoul Imperium from his palace in the center of Darakhan, the White City. Well hidden, the empire has bided its time, growing in strength, in knowledge, and in numbers. Speed and ferocity carried the darakhul to their first conquests. Cunning magic and ruthless rage have kept their empire together. Their emperor’s plan and his followers’ unwavering loyalty propel the empire ever forward. The ghoul reign of conquest against underground-dwelling sects of elves, smallfolk, and other races of the underworld has not been an accident. The ghouls paralyze their foes, turning enemies into food or into replacements for their losses. Their armies include crawling bone colossi, demonic rams, bat-winged devices trailing fire and smoke, burning skeletons, liquid zombies, and tunneling undead purple worms. Ghouls are inventive soldiers, and they strike quickly: the lightly armored ghoul legions march 72 miles per day in small tunnels (and don’t rest by night), while the heavily armored legions still manage 48 miles per day through difficult tunnels. They either carry their provisions or march alongside them, when the provisions take the form of zombies. In frenzies, ghouls can strip a battlefield clean, down to cracking the bones of the fallen. The only thing that had prevented the darakhul from swarming the surface world in the past was an aversion to sunlight. When Nicoforus and his Council of the Darakhul forged their alliance with Prince Lucan, such fears were set aside as the ghoulish legions marched into Krakova as part of the undead armies that laid waste to the Electoral Kingdom.Brastilor
Situated in the shadow of the towering Heartspire on the main road to the east, close to the junction with the Great Northern Road, Bratislor is the capital of both the Duchy of Morgau and the whole Blood Kingdom. Surrounded by the most fertile fields and pastures in central Morgau, the city’s coat of arms depicts a black castle atop a gold crown on a purple field, with a silver crescent moon above its battlements. Bratislor is a grim city of gray walls, dominated by the imposing edifice of Bratis Castle perched atop a crag in the center of the city. Home to King Lucan, the castle is entirely the domain of the undead; no living knights or servants are permitted within. Skeletons serve the keep and a company of darakhul and imperial ghouls guards its walls. The king holds court at the castle at the Summer and Winter Solstices and all the Elders and their spawn are expected to present themselves. On some occasions Koschei the Deathless attends, always with a different young woman on his arm. Their looks of shocked terror amuse King Lucan no end. These festivals are a time of fear for the mortals of Bratislor; each solstice 100 living citizens are invited to attend the King’s Feast. Afterward, only one “lucky” individual returns to the city’s cobbled streets, his or her eyes and tongue gouged out and mind shattered by having heard the words of the Elders and their plans for the realm for the coming season. The Duke of Morgau—Thurso Dragonson, Master of the Black Hills, Protector of the Fane of the Blood—governs one-third of the Blood Kingdom on behalf of King Lucan and lives in considerable luxury in the city’s Heartspire Palace. Nominally heir to the throne of the kingdom, Duke Thurso’s hold on power is precarious—he depends on both the support of his barons and the king’s favor. He lives in alternating fear and arrogance, depending on his degree of confidence at any given time. Five years ago, the scheming Countess Urzana Dolingen attempted to topple him in a coup, fleeing to the Ironcrags when it failed. Now back in favor with King Lucan after brokering the pact with the Ghoul Imperium, the Countess has her sights set on the Duchy again and has begun a whispering campaign against Dragonson. Duke Thurso is not one to ignore these attempts to undermine his position, and he relies on the support of his sister, Princess Hristina, at court. She has taken on the mantle of Protector of Krakovar in addition to her role as Grand Marshall of the Ghost Knights, and her star is very much in the ascendant. Some believe she wishes to claim the mantle of heir for herself, but none whisper this anywhere near Duke Thurso. Many famed poets live in the city, and bards often visit during the Poet’s Festival in the spring held at the duke’s behest. Thurso is an enthusiastic patron of the arts and has been known to shower talented artists and performers with gold and silver. A select few who particularly impressed him have even been rewarded with the gift of eternal life and subsequent entry into the vampiric ruling class. However, a grisly fate awaits those who displease the duke with crude doggerel or biting satire: impaled on stakes at Poet’s Corner, their screams often last until sunrise.Hengksburg
Hengksburg is the most stable and secure city in the Greater Duchy. It thrives on the vile trade in flesh and blood, buying captives seized in raids and selling them at its Meat Market to the dukes, barons, and other nobles who desire them. A safe distance from the conquered territories to the north and the borders with Morgau’s enemies, the main trade center of the realm is always bustling and free of major disruptions. Trade must flow, tolls must be paid, and most of that profit winds up here. Unsurprisingly, the cult of Mammon has a visible presence here, though without a temple to call its own. While the archdevil’s priests are free to walk the streets openly as long as they make their obeisance to the Lord Mayor, Hengksburg’s richest merchants, grown fat on the profits of the flesh trade, keep a low profile, disguising their wealth and eschewing ostentatious clothes for fear of the city’s remorseless tax collectors. Hengksburg is ruled by Lord Mayor Rodyan, a corpulent shroud-eater who demands a toll in blood from every visiting merchant, from each serf on his land, and even from the lesser nobles who serve him. The Glutton’s appetite for gold and blood is exceeded only by his need for sexual release. To date, Rodyan has been married more than 300 times—some of his wives lacked the constitution to survive even a single night of Rodyan’s amorous advances—and the teenaged peasantry fear little more than to be selected. For over a year, the common folk were spared Rodyan’s attention when the Mayor married Aliessa, a formidable woman who outlasted the previous hundred or so wives and was given the whispered nickname of Death’s Whore by the fearful serfs. Inevitably, Rodyan tired of her too, going through 20 wives in rapid succession after her downfall before deciding his next spouse should be one of Perun’s daughters. He eagerly awaits the delivery of his new “amazon bride.” When he’s not indulging his foul appetites for blood and sex, the Lord Mayor likes to spend time nurturing the necrotic ticks he is breeding in the laboratory beneath his mansion. He uses them to create zombies to fight in the gladiatorial arena close to the city’s central Hangman’s Square. Unconfirmed rumors state that Rodyan’s many past wives still live in the mansion’s dungeon as vampiric thralls or drooling experimental subjects; others may haunt its corridors as ghosts or specters.Vallanoria
This military city is small but well organized. The Order of Gray Knights has a great commandery here, and the Temple of the Scourging Goddess is a center of the more warlike and flagellant priestesses of the Red Goddess. Vallanoria always retained close ties to Krakova to the north, and its citizens have never been as subdued and pliant as most of the living serfs of Morgau. However, the conquest of Krakova by the undead armies of the Principalities dealt a terrible blow to those who one day hoped to be liberated from their vampiric oppressors. Several past revolts were brutally quashed and as a result no one speaks of rebellion in Vallanoria these days, except among trusted friends. The baron has spies everywhere. Some think the crows all serve as his informants; others say the standing offer of 1,000 gp for the arrest of any rebel does his work for him. The city’s ruler is Baron Urslav, the Crawling Lord of Vallanoria, the Keeper of the Red Sisters. Urslav once made the grave mistake of offending Grandmother Baba Yaga and she responded by removing all his bones with her magic. As a result he spent a few weeks crawling on the floor of his palace before the terrible curse wore off, and the nickname stuck. He hates the nickname and despises Baba Yaga, spending much of his time plotting his revenge. To that end, he has become a champion of the Red Goddess Marena, giving generous endowments to her abbeys and paying for the construction of new temples. Each year at her festivals he brings both animals and serfs to her altars as sacrifices. The beautiful palace of Vallanow serves as the venue for the Elders to celebrate Ghost Night and the start of winter in the presence of King Lucan and other dignitaries. The invitations to this debauch are highly sought after, at least by the undead. The stench of slaughter and decay brought to the palace by its guests makes the living nauseous for days. The festivities are organized and led now by Xanthus the Flenser, a high priest of Chernobog whose fondness for blood sacrifices at dawn is well known. The Ghost Night Ball is usually followed by a brutal round of executions, after the common folk attempt to rise against their masters. Each year, they would pray for a Krakovan army to arrive with the spring, but it never came. It certainly won’t now, though the most desperate still pin their hopes on a dwarven reaver army. Temple of the Scourging Goddess This formidable spike-encrusted building is part temple and part fortress. Dedicated to the Red Goddess Marena and her husband Mavros, God of War and Thunder, this is a place of iron doors and iron women. Blood Priestess Sonye of the Spear, Wife to Slaughter, serves as the temple’s high priestess and leader of the warrior-priests of both deities. Sonye is second only to Lileshka of the Chalice and considers herself the likely heir to the High Priestess’s title. Wild-eyed with flame-red hair, she is a shrewd tactician and an exceptional warrior who led her mayhem-loving flock to bloody victory in Krakova alongside the Ghost Knights of Morgau. The crows and ghouls feasted well that season. The Temple of the Scourging Goddess honors Marena’s cult as an engine of mass slaughter; the lusts of soldiers are lusts for death and mayhem. Whetstones grind edges sharp in the outer portico, spears and swords are blessed by the priests of Mavros, and practice bouts in the courtyard often spill over to involve spectators and pilgrims. Those unfortunate enough to fall in these encounters are displayed skewered on the rusty iron spikes over the main gates. Sonye believes the slow drip-drip-drip of their blood pleases the Red Goddess. She and her temple are best avoided.Castle Lengrove and the Great Necropolis
Lady Darvulia, the Voivodina of Cloudwall and Keeper of the Gate Subterranean, holds command of the mountains under authority from King Lucan. Silent and unshakeable, Lady Darvulia maintains closer ties with the Lords Subterranean of the Ghoul Imperium than any other shroud-eater. Leander Stross, the darakhul ambassador to Morgau, and Duke Drago Blackfly, ruler of the near‑surface trade town of Fretlock, are both regular visitors to her court, and she employs ghoul mercenaries against her rivals. Lady Darvulia’s fortress, Castle Lengrove, stands guard over the Great Necropolis, a sprawling series of ancient tombs built into the mountainside to house the remains of members of the noble families of Morgau in the years before the duchy fell to Lucan’s machinations. The sepulchers and vaults have long since been emptied of their original contents, but the inhabitants of the mountains still use them to inter their dead. A network of catacombs inhabited by ghouls, darakhul, and dissimortuum riddles the earth beneath the Necropolis. One of the larger tunnels serves as the main entrance to the Ghoul Imperium, leading to Fretlock. Most nights, a sinister market gathers among the tombs in which strange corpses, necromantic supplies, and rare fungal goods from the realms below are traded for blood, flesh, and slaves from the surface. Following the recent alliance between the Blood Kingdom and the ghouls, business is booming.Cantri Abbey
Resting in the foothills of the Cloudwalls, Cantri Abbey, also known as the Home Abbey of the Red Sisters, watches over pregnant women in the name of the Red Goddess Marena. Expectant mothers who are having a difficult pregnancy or are predicted to have complications with childbirth make a pilgrimage here to place themselves under the care of the Mother Abbess Calle of the Cradle, Daughter of Marena’s Brood. Calle and her priestesses look after these women in the wing of the abbey known as the Cradle, making sure no harm comes to them before, during, or after the birth. A stout, matronly figure with a forbidding stare, the Mother Abbess is invariably brusque with her underlings, but seems to enjoy making the odd quip—often somewhat unsettling in nature—to the women she looks after. Although she does her job well, Calle holds no genuine warmth toward either the mothers or their unborn babies. Instead, she sees the infants as mere consequences of lust kindled by the Red Goddess, destined to become cattle for Marena’s true chosen, the vampire lords of the Blood Kingdom. Men are forbidden from entering the walls of the Abbey, on pain of death. Trespassers are dealt with ruthlessly by the Mother Abbess—their drained corpses are hung in gibbets from the gatehouse as a warning to others. Occasionally, a vampire’s charred cadaver can be spotted in one of the cages. No men means no men. King Lucan has assigned the abbey’s protection to Commander Baleneus, a powerful leader of the Ghost Knights. The Blood Sisters have yet to call upon him for aid, however. The Mother Abbess and her priestesses are more than capable of looking after themselves.Commandery of Lost Souls
The ruins of a temple and commandery post of Khors lies at the base of the Cloudwall Mountains on the northwestern side. The Order of the Knights Incorporeal include a cavalier group of Ghost Knights among their ranks, but those bear no resemblance to the ghost knights and paladins who march out of the commandery and into the mountains on full-moon nights. No records detail what caused the commandery’s fall. Cloudwall’s residents keep a safe distance from the ruins, parts of which have remained entirely intact.Fandorin Keep
The seat of the Baron of Doresh is situated high in the foothills of the Ironcrags, overlooking the Runnel valley below, with the boundary of Walkers’ Wood visible in the distance through the omnipresent fog. The castle is a beautiful yet foreboding building, with a tall, imposing central keep and towers topped with fairy-tale spires on each corner. The northwest tower, known as the Scholar’s Tower, contains an ancient portal leading to the famous Stross Library in Castle Shadowcrag, but alas, the ritual to open it has long been lost. To enter the castle, visitors must cross a narrow, 500-foot-long stone bridge above the icy, fast-flowing river nearly 200 feet below. Baron Fandorin lives in the keep with his wife, Baroness Mihaela, also once a Scathsidhe (shadow fey). Pale and beautiful with the large ears and wide mouth of her people, she gets very bored when her husband is away working in his laboratory for days at a time. Lady Mihaela enjoys the company of strapping, red-blooded young men and likes to have a fresh one sent up to the castle from the local villages for her amusement whenever she is home alone.Temple of Aprostala
This great Temple of the Red Goddess stands on the road between Bratislor and Hengksburg. Built from blood-red stone, the shrine of Aprostala is a site of pilgrimage for Marena’s faithful, and a place of gory daily sacrifices—pure white goats or calves are favored. Here, the dead serve the living: skeletons act as temple guards and zombies drag away the corpses of the sacrificial victims and carry ceramic pots filled with blood from the altar. Those who come here to pay homage are expected to display marks of devotion—shallow wounds or scars in their hands, cheeks, or shoulders. If these wounds can be reopened while kneeling at the Red Goddess’s altar, so much the better. High Priestess Lileshka of the Chalice, Mother of Lust, is Marena’s highest-ranking priestess and runs things at Aprostala. Sometimes the Red Goddess whispers to her, ordering her to seduce one or more of the pilgrims. Those men and women who willingly submit to her overtures are rewarded with an audience afterward to petition for the aid of the Red Goddess; those who rebuff Lileshka’s advances are handed over to the fanatics of the Order of Rosy Salvation. These zealous priestesses gladly break off from self-chastisement to turn their attentions and their scourges onto the pilgrims.Blood Vaults
The Blood Vaults of Sister Alkava are located at the top of the cliffs overlooking the village of Karvolia in the Black Hills of Morgau. Known as the Sanguine Shrine until a few months ago, the village’s disused temple to Marena was recently reopened and renovated by an enthusiastic young priestess named Sister Alkava. Alkava is a necromancer who developed a new method for storing blood so it keeps fresh for longer in specially designed “blood vaults.” In the course of her work, the priestess discovered that she could siphon off power from the sacred Blood Cauldrons she uses to store the blood given by the villagers in tribute. The sister acquired a taste for this power—and the more she drew into herself, the more exhilarating it became. The Blood Vaults are a huge edifice, built into the side of the cliffs above Karvolia. Visitors enter through pair of massive stone doors decorated with a bas relief carving of the Red Goddess. Inside are a series of gruesome rooms, protected by Alkava’s living and undead minions, where the priestess collects the villagers’ blood to power her twisted necromantic experiments. In the final chamber, the Blood Cauldron Sepulcher, Sister Alkava and her fearsome blood zombies lurk amid the huge stone cauldrons overflowing with precious blood—the source of her terrifying power.
Founding Date
20801 A.E.
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Capital
Alternative Names
The Grand Duchy of Morgau, The Blood Kingdom
Demonym
Morgauni
Leader
Head of State
Government System
Despotism
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Traditional
Major Exports
Necromantic goods (ritual components, corpses, etc), requiem and other drugs, platinum, tin.
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Neighboring Nations
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