Hadaar

HADAAR

Long ago, a cataclysm of an enigmatic nature wracked the green lands that would become Hadaar. The ley lines were dragged ham-fistedly into the Shadowfell, and the land became wracked and destroyed. The bone plains, the fields of darkness, droughtsblight, all of these are names for the wastes of Hadaar.

XAL NEVAR

    The capital city of Hadaar, and the site of the Jagged Tower, the spiraling palace of black glass that Queen Xana Malhalvoc rules from. Attended by the Hierophant of the Sun, Pontifex Mathris Brightburn, her rule is growing more and more despotic as the city and palace guards, the Lightscourge Company, are being given more and more power and laws grow ever stricter. However, nearly all Xal Nevari residents would claim that this rulership is entirely better than being left to fend for themselves in the Hadaaran wastes...

THE FOUR SISTERS

    The Four Sisters are the four largest cities in Hadaar, as well as the only ones formally recognized by imperial cartographers. Fort Thormadara was the first city, constructed by Mastican colonizers along the Desolate Coast. Fort Hellmask was the second, the first inland city. Fort Blacksoot was third, built in the shadow of the Drakshadow mountains, but the name was quickly changed after Xaggaveldar’s attack and its rebuilding. Finally, Fort Phlengaros was set up near the far Easter frontier of the Hadaaran waste after Xal Nevar was established as the capital of Hadaar.

Fort Thormadara

    This port-city is perhaps the most lively city in Hadaar. Crime guilds compete under the purview of the half-elvish thief known as the Finger. The Court of Sol is the biggest collection of temples in Hadaar, drawing pilgrims every year. The bumbling and incompotent Seaspears watch over the place, helpless to stop the rampant smuggling and contraband trade. Fort Thormadara imports black glass and ships it out in exchange for vital goods unavailable in the waterless waste.

Fort Hellmask

    Fort Hellmask lives up to its infernal name. Imps cavort above the ever-burning rooftops, and conclaves of Monsterkin and Goblinfolk compete for seats at the parliamentarian Ashen Court, the only thing standing between the city and utter anarchy. The streets are practically trenches, and the residents are locked in a war for conclave supremacy. The most numerous and powerful conclaves include Kuuldak’s Travesties, the Tenebrous Mantle, the Nightmongers, the Ratcatcher’s Guild, and countless other small gangs vying for seats at the Ashen Table.

Fort Phlengaros

    Fort Phlengaros is perhaps one of the safest places you can find yourself in, as far as Hadaar goes. That is, as long as you mind the ghosts. Fort Phelngaros was built atop a hill containing the ruined rubble of some previous civilization. Unfortunately, after construction of the preliminary settlement was built, archeological digs uncovered the fact that the structure wa actually an eldritch mausoleum, and every night under the light of the moon, the withered ghosts come into focus and stalk the streets of Fort Phlengaros. They are harmless unless you make eye contact or touch any of them, in which case it flies into a rage and attacks. More archeology and study is being conducted every day to answer the countless questions concerning the Moon Ghost’s presence (do they return after being slain? Why do they persist? Can we stop them from appearing? Why was the crypt built? What civilization was here before, and why did they build this?), but answers are very few. Many suspect that they lie in the zombie-choked inner sanctums of the mausoleum, speculating of a Moon Vault that opens once every lunar year...

DRAKSHADOW MOUNTAINS

Not but 30 years ago, Xaggaveldar the Nightwing swooped down from the Drakshadow mountains, nearly destroying Fort Blacksoot in one fell swoop on a day that would later become a Hadaaran holiday known as the Day of Shadow. Since Xal Nevar and the Jagged Spire sit in the shadow of these massive black stone mountains, the city is constantly on high alert for another cataclysmic attack, and is constantly fortifying with the most advanced anti-dragon tools and weapons available.

Xaggaveldar dwells in an ancient wizard’s laboratory in the Drakshadow mountains that predates modern Hadaaran settlement called the Fane of Shadow. Inside is rumored to be a clutch of eggs and a portal to the Shadowfell, among other things. If Xaggaveldar were disposed of, many scholars speculate that the Fane of Shadows could answer why Hadaar was wracked by the shadows so long ago.

A bonus: LEADERSHIP OF THE CULT OF THE BOUND ONE

Jellicoe, the Beggar-Priest. Joined the cult after mental illness issues caused his homelessness and his partner to leave him. As an unsightly and uncharismatic fellow, the homeless community didn’t readily accept him, so his struggle was great, coupled with terrible addictions, diseases, and mental issues. This mad, toadlike man was a natural candidate for conversion to the doomsday cult, and quickly showed great devotion and bloodthirst. The world has wronged him and people like him so grievously, perhaps it’s time to start over.

The Red Hand, the Gunslinging Goblinoid. This hobgoblin’s genius made him an enemy of his people, as many hobgoblin governments tend towards facism, the natural enemy of which is intelligentsia. He attempted to integrate into human society, but they saw him as a hobgoblin and shunned him. His craft turned to war, forging weapons against those who had scourged his technical might. The cult saw this power and the potential within him, and swiftly took the egomaniacal Red Hand under their wing with placations and admissions of his boundless intellect.

Savrya, the Macabre Megalomaniac. From an early age, Savrya was obsessed with that which was twisted and dark. Her parents were rightfully concerned when she proudly showed off her collection of rodents, killed in every manner she could think of and dissected to high heaven. Since then, her psychopathic journey into that which is forbidden and vile hasn’t stopped, leading her to disfigure her face and hide it behind a metal carapice. She is by far the most magically adept of the cult, and leads it with a calculating and iron rule. The ritual is her doing...