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nerath-mp · 1 year

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Lower Kingdom and the City of Chains (part 1)

This lore entry will take us from the origin of the Lower Kingdom and Djeser-al-Moqqara to the beginning of the first tier of the played campaign. Part 2 will give updates on the region after that first arc against the Hyksos Sisterhood and the beginning of the New Kingdom era.

Overview

The Lower Kingdom is one of the two largely independent and rebellious parts of Khonsuria that fell out of the control of the Pharaoh. Of the two regions, it has been the one most frequently retaken only to be lost - because of the value of the rich soil, the fading influence of the Bloodsands the further one travels west, and the more sedentary cultures in the area.

Technically Khonsuria claims only the land along the Ankhenten River from Rheksus (often the edge of the Pharaoh's authority in history) to the Warrior's Gate on the Barrier Sea, but also includes the land south of the river to the free city of Djeser-al-Moqqara.

(Credit: A place to rest by Flaviobolla on Deviantart; description: early Egyptian mud-brick building with fabric stretched to form shaded awnings with some closely packed greenery in an otherwise desert scene)

Origins

The known history of the region begins with Ioun creating the Ankhenten, reclaiming the wasteland, from these waters, the Khonsurians spread from Sarkhaen Tair to the Barrier Sea. This land had been the staging ground for the war of Arkhosia and Bael Turath, until Vor Rukoth had been consumed by the land, shattered by a flight of earthquake cataclysm dragons. As such, the Bloodsands gives way to a more conventional arid desert about 50 miles from Rheksus and the Liirean Coast was regenerated by the goddess Niet (Melora, now worshipped as Anuchet-Niet).

(Credit: photo found on Tumblr, photographer unknown; description: photo of the Nile)

Beyond Rheksus, there were a number of other larger cities, each governing a stretch of small fishing and farming villages along the river: Djet-Sut in the shadow of the Warrior's Gate was the ocean port, but there were others, the ink-making town of Rakhit, Athrib of the Azure Stones, and Pteromi. Most of these are now gone or reduced to mere small towns due to raiders and rumours of curses and hauntings from either the sick rituals of the twilight of the First Dynasty or from the battles with Khonsuria attempting to reclaim the Lower Kingdom.

(credit: Desert Ruins by Pablo Palomeque; description: ruined and abandoned city in a rocky, arid desert environment)

The City of Chains

The city of Djeser-al-Moqqara is the most important city in the region, despite its origin being Arkhosian not Khonsurian. What is now the City of Chains was once a deepwater port used by the dragonborn to unleash their legions. The Bael Turathi turned the crystal clear waters into obsidian steam with their stolen divine power. The city was re-established by the early Khonsurian explorers, meeting the gith, loxodon, and tamid for the first time. The city grew into a major trading center with the tamid in particular as these were mortals still under the rulership of the southern giants.

The city developed its current reputation for misery and slavery under the occupation of the giants from the Ordnning of Storms. It was a place from which captured "rebels" (mortals who served the astral plane's gods) would be traded for the products of the Ordnning's forges. The city became synonymous with the buying of sentient flesh for labour or food from these trades, and after the fall of the giants, it remained such with extensive entrenched power from the sentient-eating giantkin and extensive cults of Asmodeus and Torog in the cities slave pits. The refusal to accept Pharaonic rule was more an economic issue than a moral one for the merchants of the city. The foundation of the Slaver's Society begins in the era of the Second Dynasty, when those corrupted by Apophis' whispers sought to buy forbidden texts and sacrifices from Djeser-al-Moqqara markets, given the slavers nominal legitimacy.

(Credit: A Roman Slave Market, painting by Gustave Boulanger, c.1866; description: Several men, women and children with small wooden plaques hung around their neck on a small stage while the slave merchant sits on the front edge of the stage eating)

The Absence Caused by Predators

The presence of the slave trainers and those this trade attracts was responsible for while the Lower Kingdom was so underpopulated, even compared to the much harsher climes of Qaysarria. But the open desert still was inhabited by gnolls, minotaurs from the Herrennia mountains, and was criss-crossed by Open-Sand halflings. A significant faction that continues to survive here are the Baelish fanatic Solarii temple-forts from which the humans raided turathi nomads and sold them to the slavers when funds, or tribute, were required.

Kovaloi Diaspora and the Skorne Expedition

25 years ago the Court of Stars, the central authority of the Feywild eladrin, lost their minds and declared mortality to be an infection the ageless fey had contracted from their long friendship with the humans of Nerath and decided the only response was eliminating every descendant of Bael Turath. The Summer Host of the Corelleon's Last Daughter, Jalendra launched her attacks in the South striking the island empire of Koval and their colonies of Kovaloi Nova. Suffering a setback from the valiant allied navies of the city-states, the eladrin decided to simply use Dawn War-era magics to obliterate the islands and drag them - beast, spirit, humans, even other fey, deep into the Liirean Sea. The Host swept over the coastal cities with far less effort and the only survivors were those who fled into the Bloodsands in the hope of finding someone to protect them. Many fell into the clutches of slavers who immediately sold them in Djeser-al-Moqqara's markets and only sent the Bright Company to fight the eladrin forces out of economic interest.

(Credit: Elven Army by JasonTN on DeviantArt; description: mass ranks of elven armored knights with unhelmed, crowned female elven commander in foreground)

But during the war, the heroes of Nerath (my first campaign) found, among the allies they gathered to defeat Jalendra, was the fierce desert dwelling Skorne Republic - hobgoblins who survived the blasted wastelands of Xamon by collectively conquering and enslaving the giantkin that preyed upon them and turn them into sources of not only food but also sheer physical labour to search for water. The Skorne, while priding themselves on their ability to survive their environment, yearned for the experience of other parts of the world. The Xamon Wastes had proven too large for them to find anything beyond it, but not, thanks to the activation of a great teleportation gate in the hidden city of Amuria, the first expeditionary forces of the Skorne Arch-Dominus Xerxis marched to war, a new enemy never encountered by the eladrin host.

(credit: Skorne Hordes army cover art, copyright Privateer Press, artist unknown; description: army of several hobgoblin-like humanoids in heavy, predominantly red, armour, with a couple of very large tusked humanoids behind them, battering through a wall)

The downside of this event was that the Skorne found themselves years away from home by long overland travel through uncertain territory - when the rest of the wide world was as unprepared for the Skorne as the fey and the Skorne saw a paradise after paradise with one flaw - many of their allies, or those they encountered, were revolted by the horror of the Skorne views on not only slavery but on selective breeding and interfering in the development of their slaves. And so, the expeditionary force veterans were forced to either conquer allied lands to create a home for themselves, or seek out those in the world who tolerated their traditions. And upon hearing of the City of Chains, the port city sounded like the best possible place from which to settle and expand. So the Skorne joined the immoral peoples of Djeser-al-Moqqara. Even better, their scouts explored beyond the Herrenia Mountains and discovered civilizations populated by giantkin who closely resembled the ancestors of their now domesticated behemoths - giving these military hobgoblins a resource they were uniquely knowledgeable to exploit. And now the Skorne bolster the Bright Company in an uneasy comeraderie as the Slavers Society seeks to understand these foreigners and the Skorne act without concern for the motivations of those from the region.

(Credit: Dominar Raseth, artist unknown, copyright Privateer Press; description: obese hairless hobgoblin dressed in red, reclining on a palaquin carried by a trio of small grey, emaciated and mistreated humanoids)

The Taking of Rheksus

When the last Pharaoh was assassinated and the empire fell into civil strife, the Hyksos, a relatively minor group of lamia, medusae and harpies, quickly took power, assisting the bandit and slave lords to seize the city of Rheksus. The Hyksos are a monstrous sisterhood who use supernatural charms to enslave mortals but also have a keen interest in ruins, old secrets, and looting tombs and graves.

(credit: interior artwork for the Arkadia RPG Setting, artist unknown, copyright Arcana Games; description: large medusa looms but is surrounded by Hellenic spearmen)

The Hidden Masters - The Slavers Society, the Hyksos Sisterhood and the Midnight Storm

There is no open authority that claims rulership over the Lower Kingdom. Djeser-al-Moqqara is controlled by a mysterious group of wealthy merchants involved in the slave trade known as the Slavers Society. The Society are also believed to have a hand in every major criminal operation throughout the Kingdom of Khonsuria and that there isn't a coin in the kingdom that hasn't passed through their blood-stained hands.

(credit: Thieves’ Guild Enforcer by Evyn Fong for Magic: the Gathering; description: human woman dressed light silk-like cloak, arabesque-clothing and a articulated metallic prosthetic left arm cleaning a blood-stained dagger)

Enforcing their order over an otherwise lawless city of creatures that eat sentients, those seeking to forcibly breed specialized slaves, forbidden cults, and outcast criminals are the soldiers of the Bright Company, a deadly mercenary company whose reputation extends as far away as the northern kingdoms of the Nerath Commonwealth. The company has garrisoned in the city since the fall of the Mad Pharaoh and the usurpation of the now-Forgotten King - offering their martial prowess and utter fearlessness in exchange for the right to pick the most promising conscripts from the markets dealing in children.

Beyond the walls of the City of Chains there is no authority. One of the larger groups that operate throughout the region is the Hyksos Sisterhood - a monstrous cult of monster-women (lamia, harpy, siren, scorpionfolk and others) whose cults flit here and there, taking slaves for sale in the markets or for use in their quixotic hunts for buried secrets or ruins scattered throughout the region. They make use of moral and spiritual corruption, as well as mind-breaking enchantments and poisons to execute their wishes. The Sisterhood are known to have ties with certain gnoll marauders, even Solariian warrior-monks, using their fortified temples as caravanserai. The Sisterhood became more than a passing warning for lone travellers when they took an active role in governing Rheksus when it was taken by the Bright Company and the Slavers Society 20 years ago. The Sisterhood were known to covet the contents of the city's Great Library scriptoriums as well of the reliquaries of the primary Ioun temple complex. Where the Sisterhood hide their stolen treasures, if they keep them at all, is unknown, as is the nature of their leadership beyond a circle of "Mothers" who oversee both the cult and its criminal activities.

(Credit: Harpy Expedition by Gino Whitehall; Description: Harpies attacking armored soldiers from the sky, the soldiers are in riverboats with cliffs on either side, in the foreground, one harpy has been captured and entangled in rope)

Older stories talk of one monster who casts a shadow from the sea to the opening gate of the Pharaoh's own palace in Sarkhaen Tair. Seldom seen but universally feared is the winged apocalypse worshipped as a near-divine being - Nistru, the ancient blue dragon also called the Midnight Storm. The dragon's history has been part of the region since the Giantwar, where she became infamous for her challenging and defeating the strongest the titan-king of the Ordnning of Storms could pit against her in battle. Her scales, thicker than primordial adamantine, are covered in scars from weapons that mortally wounded gods in an earlier age. The dragon is believed to lair primarily at the Warrior's Gate, where she let it be known than a full third of any vessel was forfeit for passing within sight of the great monuments. Soon enough only those foolish or desperate would travel along the western coast of the Barrier Sea, and she preyed on any beast or settlement that attracted her attention. Nistru is said to be always searching for a challenge in combat - she has broken titans, humbled other great dragons, and killed enough so-called heroes that their bodies would choke all the necropoli in Khonsuria. It is said even the gods refuse to intervene in her duels, out of fear that she would decide she would test their ability to survive her assault. Stories name her as one of the brood of Tiamat and one of her many infidelities, if not a legitimate daughter of both the Thrones.

(Credit: Iymrith, Desert Doom by Antonio J. Manzanedo; Description: huge blue dragon flying over a desert ruin with a violent thunderstorm in the sky above)

#dnd campaign #nerath #lore #geography #Lower Kingdom #Hyksos #Skorne #Nistru

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