Maldor, Seat of Destruction

Introduction
''"This package - bomb, you call it - will unseat the tyrant?" the farmer asked, his hands dirtying the paper as he carefully handled it.''

''The voice from the shadow chuckled. "It will knock him right out of his seat. If my calculations are correct, it will kill him as well. Just remember the phrase."''

"On Tax-Day, another great gift I have brought my...""

''"Don't finish that sentence. It shouldn't work, but let's not take any chances. It will go off as soon as you say that in the presence of our great liege." An odd squeak came from the darkened corner at the word.''

"And I?"

"You will die."

''The farmer sighed, wet and heavy in his lungs. "And my family?"''

"They will disappear from the land. They will be taken care of well. They are part of our... tribe now."

Filthy hands pushed the package into a knapsack, and the freedom fighter turned away, resigned.

''The shadow grew larger and fell across the farmer. "Man, you do good work for the people."''

''His face away from the shadow, the man of the dirt nodded slowly. "Freedom is the people's work," he replied as a white furred hand, fingers ending in claws, squeezed his shoulder.''

An Empire Fallen
Across the deep waters of Absolon's Way lie the ruins of Maldor, once the grandest empire Near has ever known. Before the Shadow Moon came, Maldor ruled the world, its empire spreading from the Eastern Sea to the frozen waters of the South and the Hungry River of the north. Maldor's most distinctive feature was its tremendous walled cities, giant sealed engines of industry and culture. As the empire fell and shrunk back to the center of Near, many of its cities were ruined as terror and plague eradicated their denizens. These cities, filled with secrets and danger, are a destination for especially foolish or brave adventurers.

Maldor is made up of a variety of geography, from rolling plains stretching to the ocean in the east to forest-covered hills in the west. It once was beautiful. It now looks like someone dropped a bomb on the cover of a sad-eyed-wizard fantasy novel.

A Land of Lieges
When the Sky Fire fell, Emperor Absolon passed on and Maldor passed into darkness. As people took to the land again, the country found itself shattered with local lords claiming royal blood dividing the land up like lions with a carcass: unfair and bloody. The disparity between the wealthy and poor is immense; only those families with great stone fortresses and great stores were able to emerge as anything but destitute. The lords of the land press commoners into service as infantry, farmers, smiths, or whatever suits their whims. Outright war between these lords is not uncommon as they attempt to gain dominance over each other. None have achieved their goal, however, and the country remains divided.

The Maldorites are shell-shocked, blindly attempting to follow their old ways of life in a ruined empire. The people are a mix of ethnicities, although the noble lines are all Caucasian in appearance. While family is important - the nobility treasures their blood and the peasants huddle together - they are often separated by war, hunger, and wanderlust. Filthy children run rampant; with nothing to own, people make much of their only resource.

The Remnants of Culture
Maldor is in its dark ages; art and culture take second-place to survival. Among the noble classes, art still exists in collections from before the Shadow Moon came. Tapestries, painting, and sculpture are most prized. Artists are employed by lords, but innovation is rare: the artists are called on to make knock-offs of pre-Shadow art more than anything else. Musicians and actors do well if they can find a liege, as owning the better court entertainment is a major point of pride for these cardboard nobles playing at being kings.

Other troubadours wonder the countryside, going from inn to inn to make a few pieces of gold. It is said that one enterprising merchant hired a gang of mercenaries to pillage a fallen city and is now printing books using a press they managed to liberate. From the borderlands, there are stories of commoners banding together to rebuild villages; these communes are said to sponsor community theatres of dubious quality, but high humor.

The food of Maldor is considered bland by the rest of the world, but is hearty and filling. Potatoes are served at every meal, from a commoner's feast to a noble's snack. On the other hand, Maldor's beer is the best in the world.

Let Them Eat War
The Maldor economy can be described as an ever-hungry violent monster, constantly devouring itself to live. Farmers grow grain, corn, potatoes, and other root vegetables and raise goats, sheep, and cattle for milk and food, but it never seems to be enough, especially as the lords take an obscene amount of crops and livestock in land taxes to pay for their wars. Beer and distilled potato liquor make up a large amount of their exports, especially to Goren, a frozen land to the south. Metal is found in the western hills, and what doesn't become an axe or breastplate gets sold to the iron-poor north. Most families have to supplement their income by taking up the sword. The nobles promise good pay in their armies, although plenty of idiot young people end up dying on the end of a sword before payday.

Individual lords in Maldor supplement their coffers by trading priceless artifacts and antiquities to foreigners. The Ammenite Houses are the major buyers of these objects. There is good pay in Maldor for a seasoned explorer; the ruins of many great cities are filled with arms and art, as well as fierce ratkin unlikely to appreciate pillagers.

Messiahs and Magicians
The lords of Maldor are monotheistic. Their religion centers around a variation of ancient sun god worship: they have melded the figure of the sun god and Absolon, saying that the Year of Shadow was Absolon's sacrifice as he descended into the underworld, then rose against, undefeated by Shadow. Their priests prophesy his return to Near as a king that will re-unite Maldor and make it strong again. Some philosophers might debate about when Absolon will come again, but the lords do not: there's not a one of them without the hubris to think that he is Absolon-Come-again, and that all will bow down to her. This messiah complex makes their wars all the more bloody, of course.

This monotheism trickles down to the peasants, who tend to worship the sun god in its more pagan aspect, as a giver of life and blessing. Unlike the lords, the peasants definitely argue about when Absolon will return: their dream of a better day is well-deserved, but pathetic. As Maldor was once a great multicultural cornucopia, though, religion varies widely among its lower classes, who practice animism, ancestor worship, or any variety of other religious practices in addition to sun-worship.

Rumors of a Shadow Cult abound, evildoers who would try to throw down the sun and replace it with their dark Queen of Shadow. Who exactly the Shadow Cult is is unknown. Earls and dukes tell their people that the Shadow Cult are the followers of other earls and dukes; advisors tell their lords that the Shadow Cult grows among their own people; commoners believe the Shadow Cult are the ratkin, or nasty elves, or their next-door neighbors, depending on what day of the week it is. Some elements have been assassinating self-proclaimed messiahs and blowing up castle walls without getting caught, but leave no clue as to who they are.

The Three-Corner Academy
When Maldor reigned supreme, Emperor Absolon sponsored a great academy of magic, built as a giant triangle-shaped fortress hidden in the western hills, drawing his advisors from the best of their ranks. Strangely, no one knows exactly where the academy is today: many adventurers claim to have seen it, but all directions given to it end up nowhere. Most reports of it say that strange white ratkin swarm its halls.

In its zenith, the Three-Corner Academy pressed its own philosophy of magic, based off two inter-locking triangles, the Day Triangle and Night Triangle. It trained students from all over Near within its walls, and the remnants of its learning can still be found in pockets spread over the world.

In this time, Three-Corner magic is more common in Maldor than anywhere else in Near, but any sort of magic is feared. Many nobles have court magicians that act as diviners and advisors. The combination of these powerful rulers and rumors of the Shadow Cult put fear in the hearts of superstitious commoners, who often flee from a magician's path, or in large numbers, burn the witch.

Other Species in Maldor
Maldor is a rather xenophobic land; other species do not generally find it a welcoming place. Elves are distrusted, as they disappeared during the Year of Shadow. Still, they are sometimes found in the royal courts, which does not add to their reputation among the common folk at all.

Ratkin are the least liked and most numerous. Ratkin infest the old ruined cities of Maldor, and are often the only residents there. Most lords in Maldor offer rewards for ratkin heads, and serfs desperate for money will band together into hunting parties for the sentient rodents.

Goblins get the most mixed reaction. Most are harmless, and can be found all over, from court jesters to household pets to wizards' apprentices to great warrens of them holed up in hill caves. Some of the most vile goblin experiments come from Night magicians of the Three-Corner School, however, and mothers scare their children from a young age with tales of the Hungry Ones and the Violators.

Maldorite Cultural Abilities

 * Demolition (Reason)
 * The revolutionary elements in Maldor have re-discovered the ancient knowledge of explosives, although they haven't made the discovery of firearms yet. This ability allows one to create and detonate these implements of destruction, hopefully without losing a hand.


 * Infantry (Vigor)
 * This is the use of larger swords and axes and metal armor, as well as working as part of a fielded army.


 * Scrounging (Instinct)
 * While most Maldorites are very poor, their land is covered with the riches of times past. This ability can be used to find items or materials when they should not be commonly found.

Maldorite Cultural Keys


Group::Maldor Summary::* Key XP::* Buyoff::*

Sample Maldorite Names

 * Males: Carlos, Michele, Pedro, Porfirio, Victor, Francisco, Montserrat, Tamim, Alejo, Reinaldo, Saul
 * Females: Laura, Juanita, Rosamunda, Zelda, Josefina, Cristina, Beatriz, Esther, Zoe, Ana, Isadora

Sample Maldorite Character Ideas

 * a peasant infantryman
 * a Ratkin explorer of ruined cities
 * a reclusive elven magician
 * a knight seeking to unite the Maldor people
 * a consort of lords, gaining knowledge for her own purposes