Malaan Ex Apotheosis.

The Apotheosis brought much change to the world and your small corner of it. The talk of gods roaming the lands, the recall of the templars and priests, the fall of the house of Ghetti, the wilding of the countryside. They were all parts of your childhood. It all seemed quite natural to you, but your parents and other adults faced these changes with a grim acknowledgement, that is those not driven insane. The births of fallen children, misshapen, or possessing strange abilities was another change. Many were killed, others were orphaned to the Circus, still others managed to eke out a living among normal folk. But the one change you were not witness to, the one change others remarked on so much, was the night sky. Once, they say, it was filled with stars. Like little moons they filled the skies your parents told you despite your incredulity. For you the night sky was either a vast blackness, or it was lit up by bright moons of the elements. At night it is best to be inside or under cover for the darkness hides such things that no mortal should see. Player Background Information.

This campaign takes place approximately twenty-five years after the Campaigner¹s game. Play begins in the woods outside Port Chayla, a city on the island realm of Enlieu, just south of Uruhr (the Low Kingdoms).

1. There are no outer planes (in the normal sense, there are pocket planes which are small extra-dimensional spaces about is big as a small city in some cases). But the effect of which is that most summoned creatures are actual things from this world.
   
   
2. The gods are now creatures of this world. These things vary in strengths and forms. They are typically either big monsters, or powerful humanoids, or secretive beings living outside the realms of man. There are some notable exceptions. Gerius, the dark beast master of the Heroic Cults rules the once populous city of Ghetti, now known as the Circus Menagerium (a zoo-like Mecca for the inhuman spawn or fallen astrals.) Also in the holy cities of the north are the Gods of the Deh¹wheri faith led by Velrey from her citadel in Merasalaam built in the ruins near ancient Valadon. There are also rumored to be gods bound by the fell magics of the dreaded Witchqueen of the great Eastern Empire of Fey Por. More pressing is the furor of the dread master of the southern wind Ymir, god of the Giants whose wrath on the kingdoms of man have wrought much woe. On one hand, this change in the heavens has caused a great weakening of the temples of Malaan. Some temples were abandoned when their priests journeyed to the Faithful Realms to join their gods. Others became suspicious and angry at the religions that failed to protect them from the darkness. Temples were sacked and burned, and many turned from the traditional churched, either away entirely, or back further to the ancient beliefs still kindled somewhere in their family traditions. While this happened other priests and pilgrims appeared peddling their strange gods and beliefs, sometimes offering succor from the ills of this new ages, sometimes offering answers. A few of these new religions gained enough supporters to attract followers to make-shift temples, or even to occupy old Deh-wheri temples in the open. But most keep quiet and mysterious. A cleric in this world is a follower of some god or religion, but more likely a sort of mystic and prophet occasionally gaining insight from the strange power of the god. (Cleric PCs are perfectly fine).
   
   
3. There have been some major political upheavals. I will provide a new map but here are the new major powers and the fates of the old ones.

   URUHR This great kingdom suffered a double crisis, First the death of King Yassir in NE236 and the battle for succession. When Duke Alestos (Kiruni) threw in with the budding 5th Empire and recognized the child bride Alys (married to Prince Al-Etz) as the true heir to the Uruhrian thrown civil war broke out. It has been going on since then, although in the last first years it has cooled somewhat. Second, the Major houses, and some minor ones, have brought their knights back home and contest for power among themselves. The Empire did not swallow Uruhr, but it did chew it up a little. The major houses still act as though they could reinstate the throne, but most realists deem that unlikely. What was once a great feudal empire is now a balkanized collections of aligned and warring castles. It has become known as the Low Kingdoms (since some of the castle lords have declared themselves erstwhile kings).
   
   FEY POR Several things conspired to bring about the prophecies of the Fugitive Prince. The Clandish Paekinor Warlord of several orcish tribes was assassinated and the orcs descended into anarchy. The mannish cities under their sway threw in with Al-Etz and helped grow the fledgling empire so that it encompassed a realm from Bachti to Merusheck to Chandra. When Kiruni threw in with the Prince, Accalaum was added. All of Fey Por except the original troll kingdom was part of the Empire. The Prince married the sixteen year old Alys, a direct descendant of Emperor Torcirun. She was already a keen practitioner of the new magics and was poised to rule. The Aged Prince, he still rejects the title Emperor, still does much and rules, but he finds it harder to resist the charms and suggestions of his bride. But under their joint rule the empire has thrived. Lenos has recovered as a great city, waymeets were constructed in the major cities to facilitate transit for the Empires armies and other forces. And most notably, gods were captured and imprisoned in the great wards below Lenos. There they toil under the bidding of the Wardens, former heroic cultists who invoke these sorry gods in spells that coax power from them, and power the magics of the Empire. The northern part of Fey Por, once known as the Mage Wastes is now mostly transformed into a mystic garden paradise known as the Homespun Realm. Home to many non-humans and humans alike this realm is deeply influenced by the Fey. They have manipulated the very laws of nature to create a world of perfect harmony. The edges of their realm are heavily guarded and cloaked in illusion. Some say the entire realm is illusion the enchants the inhabitants and makes the willing slaves to their faerie queen.
   
   THE CAPE Little has changed in the cape. It is much the same as it was before the apotheosis. The temples still stand, and their roles are much like that of before. They send their worship to the north and pray in the temples. The war with the elves ended. No one is really sure who won. When the Apotheosis severed the continent creating the Sea of Swords from the Nabos, the issue was mostly settled. The elves kept on the Eastern Continent. The Capers, to their new island. There is still much strife among the barons, perhaps more now that the threat of the elves is past. Candu faired the best, in the war, but it is believed that they conspired to betray the rest of the cape in exchange for being let go easily. So while it thrived, indeed even to the point of being recognized a great house by the Blue Blooded Uruhrians, it feels much animosity from the other baronies of the cape.

   ENDUIR (Faithful Realms/Western Theocracy) This land of religious warriors became the resting place of the Blood Key and the society able to summon their gods to them. The gods arrived in the Apotheosis and claimed their kingdom. In their honor six cities were built ­ Tielkrassis was dedicated to the Mother deep in the woods of New Garden. Merusalaam on the outskirts of Valadon on the eastern shores of the sea of swords dedicated to the Lady Velrey. Kanboru the city of Norbin is really a small college found on the grounds of the monastery of the cup and vine. Jureline is the city formerly known as Kuuz or Kutzama, now an island across treacherous shallow seas, it is dedicated to Peruul. Naru Blyne is a nomadic city traveling around the outskirts of the Faithful Realms in honor of the Hawk, Finally Dol Amarok is a city on the isle of the dead. Much of it is under the dark seas but the city is still there. Grim ferries transport the dead from the Western continent to its mysterious shores. During low tide the wet city is revealed in its full glory.

   DEICAESELDE [Everwood] The elvish empire grew considerably during the short reign of the Ultimate Ellesreld. They grew to the new edges of the continent and managed to create small ports on the new west coast, all this despite losing his battle keep Blackthorn to the destruction of the Apotheosis. They also occupied Talis and pressed the Goblins into submission. But this expansion wore out the empire and its armies dissipated after their victories. The elves, no longer interested in conquest began to move on to different things. Some of them traveled to the Homespun Realm, others entered the service of the Lady in the Faithful Realms, Still others began a peripatetic lifestyle wandering from place to place in search of what no one knows. But whatever the cause the autumn realm ended quickly and quietly. Now there is talk that the empire is run by the aged Scholarchs of the Glade. Though an empire it is no more, there are scarcely settlements in the great wood and many of the natural predators have returned to claim that realm. The Elvish woods, once dangerous to non-elves are now dangerous to all.

   AL-MAN [The Silver Theocracy] The Eastern Coast of Malaan was colonized by the Lundri, a red-skinned race of humans from across the Scattered Sea (Wendera). They are unskilled in magic but somewhat more advanced in alchemical and certain other trades. They are expert sailors and possess air-ships in addition to sea-going vessels. Having conquered Al-man they made it their capital and then began to build several small cities and keeps along the north-eastern coastline. They are monotheists who believe that their god Enaach still reigns in the heavens having kicked out all the pretenders (the variously apothian godlings loose on Malaan now).

   AELIN [pron. Aye-a-lynn] the hidden kingdom. This was a small imperial outpost a thousand years ago. Since then, it has risen to become a small power on the southeastern coast of Malaan. The major city of Amna Vel rivals many major cities throughout Malaan.