11: The Goblin Kingdoms

The world was ruled by giants, but that was long ago.

The giants are all dead now, and we live in the ruins of their great empires. And the great empire that came after that; and the one that came after that.

Everything you see is built on the bones of what came before. Someday, someone will build an empire on top of our bones.

But we are not dead yet! And while we live, we will struggle and fight for our world.

These are the days of high adventure!

What Must Be Known

We begin in the Borderlands. In times past, this was a good and peaceful kingdom. There was a just queen on the throne. The people loved her, and were pleased, and were happy and fat.

Those times are over.

There is no single ruling power in the Borderlands now. To the east is the Middlemarsh, ruled by the Horse Lords. To the north is the untamed tundra, crawling with barbarians and dark powers. To the south is Hangtooth and the Barrow Wood, places of danger, disorder, and strife.

The Borderlands themselves are filled with petty barons, bandit lords and ladies, and an ever-present cloud cover, a chill rain that never dries. Worse – a plague has come, which some blame on devils, which some blame on the rain. Worst of all — GUNGE, the winged terror. Sometimes the dragon sleeps, sometimes it hunts. Always it listens.

There are many powers, factions, and rumors in the land. We begin outside Halried, the ruins of a town that surrounds the Dark Fort, where the King in Shadow sits in dreadful contemplation.

You are in, or near, or within sight of the PEST TENTS — what started as two tents (one for the dying, one for the dead) is now bigger than the town of Halried itself. Within the tents are those stricken by the blood-cough, or those caring for them (who will soon by stricken by the blood-cough).

Are you there to care? Are you there to scavenge? Are you there by accident?

ONE MORE THING THAT IS KNOWN

The monks of Nechrubel, a devil terrible and true, have revealed the First Psalm. They say that,

The world trembles. One can feel it in ways sharp and subtle, mysterious and clear. One by one, inevitable events demand their place.

I – And blood-cough shall spread like water across the sodden wastelands.
II -
III -
IV –
V –
VI -
VII -

The remaining psalms are written, but are yet to be revealed. When will this agony end?