The Prezzian Boxridge Invasion

in Western Krahnis, the Cataclysmites have several spurs that reach out from the interior to the North White Sea. The Kingdom of Prezza lies between two such spurs that run to the shore. Encased on three sides, the land was known as the Boxridge long before Prezza. The shore is lined with steep cliffs and rocky shorelines. The dangerous shores and the barriers of the mountains allowed Prezzi to have a relatively conflict-free history.  The monarchy was rigid and some would say, stranglingly strict, but weighed out on the side of passive benevolence. Their prosperity was fairly contained.  


Much of the specific histories were lost, but over decades there were several happenings that were not seen as related. There were a rash of disappearances in the towns and cities near the great mountains.  The eastern lords had taken a cooler attitude towards the monarchy and grew more obsessed by greed. The poverty of the people had started to increase, but a group of knights formed monasteries in the near mountains. They offered ten years of training and education to those who would devote themselves to the crown in service. It would be difficult and their order's service required isolation, prayer and study for years without being influenced by the outside world. Such opportunities were very rare for the poor, so many a son or daughter went up to the mountains to train, despite giving up seeing their families for years at a time. During an unfortunate summer where three towns and keeps were consumed by summer fires, came the first sightings.  Fiends began attacking the towns in the east.  Scaled, horned, and with tails, they were not a recognized creature back then.  But they were recognized by their first victims. Their families could see if their horrible twisted forms the eyes of their children. They returned from the mountains as monsters. Other devils and demons began coming down out of the mountain, sieging village after village, laying waste to the countryside. The lords betrayed their people, opening up gates, ordering troops into confusion with contradictory commands. Forces were pulled away to the north gate under the lie that forces stood outside them, while the south was attacked.  The first disruption came when the fiends had made enough progress through the country that they came across one another. The blood war between them sent them against one another. But, they were already halfway to the sea, and some forces were making their way to the coastline to attack the large ports and capital.  The northern part of the country was invaded by devils, organized, militant armies, with hundreds of winged beasts attacking from the air.  They reached the capital and burned it. They did not want to invade it, only to burn it down to the ground.  They say that not a single boat or floatable raft was left along the coast as the people fled.  The fires across the country could be seen across the country and even over the mountains to their neighbors. An army of devils, with troops led by these. The truth behind the war was that it was orchestrated over decades by Yugoloths, evil creatures from the Lower Planes. The hired doppleganger mercenaries to take replace lords. Mercenaries eliminated any who questioned or learned any information. The children were imprisoned and mystic experiments eventually produced the first tieflings. They spent years making them. One race of tieflings had the blood of devils in their veins. The other, the blood of the demons. They were kept isolated at far ends of the mountains. As they were released to bring horror down upon their homes, two portals were opened. Each day bringing devils and demons in until the power gave out. The yugoloths brought these armies to destroy the lands, and eventually one another. 
Within six months the land was devastated. Some fortified towns barely survived. The greatest blessing was the devils turned to wipe out the demons.  They were obsessed and both sides were decimated. Later, we would learn of the first of the Tiefling Brigades. The Tieflings, or the "deep children" were the twisted nightmares of the children of Prezza. Most were violent, angry, and hateful.  But some had escaped and then sought to help stop the invasion. Portal to Hell and the Abyss had been opened at opposite corners of the Boxridge mountains. Neither knew about the other.  Bands of tieflings attacked the portals closing both about three months into the invasions. The Tiefling Brigade made raids but their numbers were impossibly small. But they established hidden bases and recruited from the survivors.  The land became known as the Dark Tiefdom.  Tieflings took on the role of despots and commanders of the armies. Tales say they continued to convert captured humans into new tieflings. As the decades passed the Tieflings built their own cities and fortresses. Asmodine, Abbydon, Tannaruk, Fayree amongst others rose from the poisoned landscape. Another generation and the Tieflings began to launch the ships into the sea. Raiding, pirating, invading by night. But as the great-grandchildren of the first Tieflings began to grow up, the blood in their veins burned with less malevolence. The necessary trade and agriculture as the p[opulation grew and wealth was taken, was turning the taste for war and destruction. Over the next hundred years the Tieflings would grow in number but not in appetite. Factions developed. Mass murder of the weak was ordered and the country erupted into chaos. Interestingly, even those of infernal blood had developed a taste for throwing off being ruled by others. The land was soaked again in blood, this time with the blood of tieflings.
The Dark Tiefdom is a ruinous place. Tieflings, whose hearts remained as black as the void, still rule in isolated cities. they squabble and attack each other. The land is largely a wilderness for evil to roam. The monstrosities wander through the paths carved through the mountains by the early Tieflings and terrorize neighbors who once thought themselves protected from the plight of the Dark Tiefdom. 

The tieflings that survived their slaughtering brethren made their way into the surrounding mountains. Even deeper into the Cataclysmites where they were unknown. These tieflings made a different life, but they held the weight of their birth in their hearts. They would form the Tiefling Brigade and mount assaults on the dark tiefling strongholds. They help neighboring countries fight and force the evil brigands and beast back within the confines of the Boxridge. There are quite a few bloody battle songs sung written by bards their that have made their way into taverns where no one could point out where Prezza ever was. 



The Dark Tiefdom remains a cursed land, with monstrosities running free. The people of Prezza are gone. Their culture practically eliminated from existence. It is believed that Prezzians won't admit their ethnicity, to avoid the taint of have devils and demons possibly in their families. Neither the people nor the monarchy deserved such devastation. But the nature of evil is that it does not need to be provoked.

Conflict Type

War