SotDL - A Land Divided.pdf

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Lands in Shadow for Shadow of the Demon Lord
A Land Divided
Lands in Shadow for Shadow of the Demon Lord
~
Robert J. Schwalb
~
Writing and Design:
Editing: Tom Cadorette
Art Direction: Kara Hamilton and Robert J. Schwalb
Proofreading: Jay Spight
Graphic Design and Layout: Kara Hamilton
Illustrations: Jack Kaiser, Britt Martin, Kim Van Deun
Cartography: Cecil Howe
A Land Divided
is ©2018 Schwalb Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.
Shadow of the Demon Lord, Lands in Shadow, A Land Divided,
Schwalb Entertainment, and their associated logos are
trademarks of Schwalb Entertainment, LLC.
S
chwalb
E
ntErtainmEnt
, llc
Credits
PO Box #12548, Murfreesboro, TN 37129
info@schwalbentertainment.com
www.schwalbentertainment.com
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Table of Contents
Conquest .............................................................................4
Spoils of War ...................................................................... 5
The Splintering ................................................................. 5
Civilization in Decline .................................................... 7
The Dark Times ................................................................ 7
Liberation and Restoration ............................................8
A Nation of Divisions ......................................................8
The Civil War.....................................................................9
Enforced Peace ................................................................10
A New Queen....................................................................11
Renunciation ....................................................................11
Lands and People............................................................ 12
Heiropha ........................................................................... 12
Melisinia ........................................................................... 16
Umess................................................................................. 21
Old Nation, New Nation ...............................................26
Drusella ............................................................................. 27
Lucian ................................................................................28
Adventures in Old Edene .............................................29
Edene Characters ...........................................................30
Heirophan Characters ....................................................31
Melisinian Characters ...................................................32
Umessi Characters ......................................................... 33
Feudal Lands .........................................................................22
The Umessi ............................................................................25
Crossroads of Old Edene .................................................... 17
The Melisinians................................................................... 20
A Sparse and Empty Land .................................................. 13
The Heirophans ................................................................... 15
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L
ong before the Empire, created by the Kalasans after they defeated the dread
Witch-King whose wicked legions had plunged the continent into darkness,
an ancient people known as the Edene ruled over the land. Like the Kalasans
so many centuries after them, the Edene were also bold conquerors who arrived
on the shores of the continent, fleeing the destruction of their homeland far across
the Auroral Ocean. They arrived in Rûl, handily defeating the First People and
their faerie allies who had called the continent home for centuries, and founded a
new civilization in the ruins of the one that came before. The Edene claimed their
empire would last a thousand years, but like so many fledgling empires since the
dawn of time who believed the same, the Edene themselves were drowned in the
ebbing and flowing tides of history, yet another civilization of grand ambition lost
and mostly forgotten.
Ruins and remnants of the ancient Edene still litter the lands of Rûl. One can
find their works across much of the Empire, from crumbling castles jutting up
from the high hills of the Holy Kingdom, to broken statues and indecipherable
cenotaphs scattered about the countryside surrounding Caecras.
A revealing glimpse into this civilization can be obtained more easily than one
might think simply by traveling east to the newly independent kingdom that calls
itself Old Edene. This entry into the
Lands of Shadow
series explores this kingdom,
built in no small part upon the values, traditions, and cultural artifacts of the
Edene civilization that once existed before it was nearly wiped out by the Witch-
King. Here you will find information about the history, peoples, and major figures
of contemporary Old Edene to help you explore these lands in your own
Shadow of
the Demon Lord
campaign.
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Conquest
Cave paintings and pottery left by the First People tell of the Edene’s arrival. From
thousands of ships loaded with the battered survivors from some distant calamity,
the Edene swarmed the shores where they made landfall, swiftly spreading inland
to carve new lives for themselves from the unspoiled landscape. At the time of their
arrival, the First People knew little of war or strife, having prospered under the faeries’
rule for centuries. But the Edene would bend no knee to the immortal monarchs who
had wrested their own kingdoms from the hated trolls an age before—and thus the
stage was set for terrible conflict. When Umessa, the God-Queen of the Edene, rode
her chariot at the head of her vast army, her soldiers armed with bronze spears and
shields marching in perfectly ordered phalanxes, the First People were completely
overwhelmed, and those who were not slain on the battlefield or did not flee for their
lives found themselves doomed to live out the rest of their lives as slaves to the Edene.
As wave after wave of Edene swept across Rûl, the First People beseeched
their gods for aid, calling upon them to bring their divine might to bear against
the invaders. But instead their gods remained silent, doing nothing to aid their
worshipers in their direst time of need. Even Titania, the Queen of Summer, stayed
her hand, seeing Umessa the God-Queen as a harbinger of death and doom for the
future of her and her peoples. The Edene invaders were beyond counting, their
ferocity unlike anything seen since the ancient times of the troll wars. Rather than
sacrifice their immortality for these short-lived humans whose souls would be re-
born, the Queen of Summer and the other gods began to quit the world, leaving their
forlorn subjects to fend for themselves.
Not all of the Summer Children were willing to go into exile, however, and one voice
rose in opposition to their queen. Ilenfar, the Summer Queen’s eldest son, had lived too
long among the mortals to abandon them so readily, and refused to allow them to be
killed or enslaved without a fight. He broke with his mother and roused the elf lords
and ladies, as well as other faeries, and fell upon the Edene, hoping to drive them back
into the sea. The Summer Queen named her son “the Betrayer,” cursing and forsaking
him and the breakaway nobility, and abandoned them to the doom they seemingly
craved. She and nearly the entire Faerie Court vanished from the world into the hidden
kingdoms where she and the other old gods remain to this day—where the name of
Ilenfar is never uttered or used, and he is forever remembered as “the Betrayer.”
Ilenfar’s first forays against the Edene offered hope to the First People, the elf
lord’s initial onslaught catching the Edene by surprise. Along with the remnants of
the First People who chose to fight by his side, Ilenfar’s armies had magic, monsters,
and more to aid them. From hulking leshies leading armies of animated trees to
the veritable menagerie of wee folk who tricked and tormented their foes, Ilenfar’s
armies raided Edene outposts and razed their settlements to the ground, and never
failed to rout the mortals whenever they met in open battle. Each fae victory came at
a steep price, though: whenever an immortal fell, they were lost forever, their essence
dissipating into the Void.
Faced with rapidly diminishing numbers, Ilenfar beseeched his mother to come
to his aid, to lend her magic to his cause. She refused to answer him, stonily resolved
to leave him to the fate he chose. His desperation grew as Umessa rallied her armies
and began the bloody work of wresting the lands back from the faeries and the First
People. Knowing he was doomed to fail, Ilenfar turned to the only god who was willing
to listen: Diabolus. Bargaining his life in exchange for Hell’s aid, Ilenfar mustered his
forces and marched out for one final battle against Umessa and her armies, relying on
the Devil to unleash the forces of Hell to help him wipe out the Edene.
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