Chaos In Otkorion

Chaos - being one of the main tools of the Evil Emperor - is hated with a passion by the Church and all right minded Otkorioni. However, the threat of Chaos is nowhere near as great as the Church might believe. In true Orlanthi fashion, the Church is notoriously bad at realising when they are forcing chaos back.

In brief, the only cult with any noticeable presence is Thanatar, although there are two notable enclaves of Vivamorti and Uraini worshippers. We will not bother to discuss the minute presence of other cults which are mainly present only in the limited form of a handful of broo, ogres and other unwholesome chaos who have migrated from Vustria, Lankst and Lalia, where there is a greater proportion of chaos. So while Thed, Mallia and Misarde worshippers may well be found a temple could only be a very temporary affiar.

The Thanatari

The Thanatari arrived in Otkorion circa 1200 ST when the Jorstlandi hled power over the area. They entered into the lands after a mass exodus of 250 worshippers forced from the Temple of Heads in Dorastor after an internal feud erupted into religious civil war following ther assassination of a Priest of Thanatar. The High Priest of Dark Truths refused the successor and slew him, his supporters were forced to flee and arrived in the outermost portions of the Jorstlandi kingdom. Most were human, those that were not died over the next few years - some slaughtered at the hands of the cult itself to help preserve its secrecy.

The instigation of the cult network occurred - forcing out the Krarshti infiltrating Jorstland in the area at that time, who then retreated and concentrated their goals on manipulating the politics of central Ralios. The assumption of the Grand Covence, a great holy site to Urain, occurred when the leader of the Thanatari invaded the complex and forced the Uraini out. The complex housed many Jrusteli artifacts, notably the Cadbaran Machine which guarded the Grand Covence quite effectively. This was located in the base of an invisible mountain in Surkorion and served as an excellent base of operations. It was destroyed in the Arkati purges in Queen Kristine of Fiesive's reign when a member of Arkat the Destroyer suceeded in infiltrating the cult. The mountain was sent via powerful magic to a place far away after all the members of the temple were slain.

Before this, however, was three centuries of growing power for the Thanatari who, by the time of the Inquisition, numbered several thousand. Their power was greatly accorded to the influence of the Family MacBrennan who, in the declining years of the Jorstlandi Kingdom, sought to find effective magics against their enemies and resorted to the Thanatari. The MacBrennans bribed the cult with power, money, magic and wealth, giving the Thanatari cultists positions of power and greatly increasing their influence. The Family, however, were refused the right to join the cult even after all these gifts and bribes, and were all expunged, to prevent anyone from ever discovering the bribes and, therefore, the influence the Thanatari exerted. The head of the family, Duncan MacBrennan, was even fooled into believing that the Create Head rite was the initiation ritual and his head hung from the belt of a rune lord for a long time after until his eventual release in the Purges. The MacBrennan family were all but wiped out by the time of the collapse of the Jorstlanid Kingdom, and breeding and exogany saw that they did not survive until today.

This chance to gain such a foothold of power in the politics of the region meant that the cult had a large power base throughout much of central-western Ralios. They quietly consolidated this power and remained unheard of as anything other than a mysterious chaos cult until 1456 ST. At this point came the appearance of an ambitious Sage of Lhankor Mhy called Miles Buchanan. His preachings were well known, and the "Scriptures of the Golden Wand" became famous. Miles' own sect, the aforementioned Golden Wand, were all revered members of the cult of knowledge whose motto was "Knowledge at all costs". Their warrior sages became folk heroes of the time.

Yet "Knowledge at all costs" brought the Golden Wand sect to the feet of the Thanatari. Countless worshippers joined chaos, and the Thanatari Heresy began. The Golden Wand vanished mysteriously in 1470 ST - and no records have ever been found of them since, although their involvement in the Heresy has long since been discovered. At this time, there had been instigated a new High Priest of Dark Truths who was by far more ambitious than his predecessor.

What followed was that the Seventh Slime Invasion occurred independently of other events - and provided perfect cover for a wide variety of Thanatari Chaos activities that were attributed to the Invasion. By the start of the 16th century of recorded history, the Thanatari were excessively powerful. When taxes of Fiesive were diverted from the Church to empowering the Farmer Caste, the Thanatari struck. Assassinations, embezzlements, murders and magical theft of knowledge began - the Church knew something was wrong, yet were refused funding via taxes from Fiesive, and Valantia followed suite, in order to better their economies.

The crushing blow came with the assassination of Bishop Regaron of Azilos which sparked a war in 1520 ST. An investigation followed and resulted in the discovery of the chaotic influences. Otkorion was outraged, and the king of Fiesive was forced to abdicate in shame.

What followed were years of battling the Silent Enemy. In 1536 ST, under the influence of the purges of Queen Kristine, the exact nature of the foe was identified by Arkati and their main temple, the Grand Covence, was desrtoyed. With their greatest tool - secrecy - destroyed the Thanatari were terminally weakened. The Church called a crusade upon them and Nemed Phraman instituted the Holy Inquisition, equipped with the newly found powers of the Saints, the Thanatari were crushed.

They were reduced to a small collection of shrines in the area of Valantia and eastern Surkorion. The shrines in Valantia were destroyed when one of their number caught the Plague, decimating the underground complex within hours.

The turn of power came when Naxat Kddblrg, a Bagogi, became High Priest of Dark Truths. His connections with necromancers was well known and it led to him forming relations with the vampires of Tislif. When an agreement was passed between the two, the future for chaos looked hopeful. The Thanatari bargained with the vampires and took control of a cavern complex some seventy key miles from Tislif and set up new satellite temples. Naxat eventually died of old age, a rarity amongst Thanatari.

Currently, there is a Major Temple to Thanatar in their main cavern complex. Out of mistrust for the vampires they collapsed the tunnels from Tislid to their new temple and constructed new tunnels. There is a minor temple connected to Tsilif which most people foolishly believe is the main temple. There are also temples in Broghart -a town in mid-Otkorion, the satellite temples in the mountains of Surkorion, a shrine in Valantia and two minor temples in Lalia. They are ruled by Hakis - a broo aspiring as a vampire and currently acting as a magus for the Vivamort cult. Below him are two humans, Neofar Halifar as the Rune Lord of Than and Palashee Netrise, a female from the Felster region acting as a Rune Priest of Atyar. A powerful spirit occupies the position of Doom Shaman. Below them are approxiametley thirty rune levels who are usually on cult business. Other than this, as a rule of thumb, the minor temples maintain all three rune levels whereas a shrine will maintain only one. However, there is only one High Priest of Dark Truths in the Otkorion area. There are about 1,100 worshippers of Thanatar in the area of Otkorion, about 1/3rd%of the population.

The Vivamorti Cult

The Vivamortians of the Salantia Forest have a far longer story to tell which begins in the First Age with the Vampire Kings of Tanisor. One of the lieutenants was stationed in the Salantia Forest. The Forest had, since the Godsage been corrupted by Undeath and strange Aldryami magics to protect it from spreading. The Vampire King Taalmar of Dara Happa, a Priest of Shargash and a follower of Nysalor, ordered the secrets of the Forest to be discovered. Promptly, his followers took control of the forest, and tried to discern it's secrets.

The Destroyer took control of Valantia, and lower Otkorion, and the Hrestoli began to set up the Barricade, a set of ancient fortresses removed by the Uz at the end of the First Age. The Vampires had struggled with the Salantia Spirit and captured the Secret that the Forest knew - that to save itself it must kill itself. When the Destroyer reached the Forest they were met by the Vampire Lords forces and, plagued by strange thoughts, fled the field of battle. The Salantia was, in the main, left untouched until Arkati, accompanied by some Humathi, Quested into the depths of the forest and slew over forty vampires including Taalmar himself. The remaining vampires hid away although allegedly three joined Arkats cause.

The Vampires were to remain hidden in the Salantia for a long time, even in the times of the Dark Empire they were not to be found by the odd Zorak Zorani/Storm Bull party that ventured into the dangerous depths of the forest. Most thought them gone, and soon they were forgotten.

The Jrusteli who came attempted to take control of the Salantian Spirit as the Vampire Lords had. By this time the ancient First Age vampires had fled, all but one, and the handful of their spawn who remained were not all that fearful to the great Middle Sea Empire. Rather than trying to battle the God Learners the vampires allied themselves with them in return for magics. The God Learners, whose Salantian campaign was led by a magi by the name of Shamran Negazi, thought this was an excellent idea and collaborated freely with the First Age vampire. The vampire grudgingly agreed to a fifty year scheme to subvert the Salantian spirit through the use of rites. By the end of five decades the vampires had reaffirmed their power, and at the height of the ritual to steal the forests power, the leading vampire cast Shamran to his doom and devoured the souls of the remaining God Learners. This was in 832 ST.

The God Learners outrage at this was felt by raid after raid of warriors. The vampires threw up a Barrier of Darkness and the God Learners could not penetrate it for nearly eight years before they destroyed it with some of their own arcane magic. They amassed an army and planned to engage the nemt, and were met by the vampires - here the original First Age vampire was slain and his name lost to history. Again, the God Learners were repelled and the losses were great enough for the Empire to decide they were not worth the trouble. Petty retribution forgotten, so was the Salantia Forest.

Near the end of the ninth century the God Learners built an outpost in the Salantia and named it Tislif. They were bemused and puzzled when they encountered no resistance. It took a mere two years to build Tislif. When the God Learners appointed Joerg Beodal the Count of Lankst he took Tislif as his home and added the fabled spire. Seventy years passed and the vampric infestation was again forgotten, where they had gone no-one knew. Maybe they had fled after the attempted invasion of their home? Tislif boomed, and two towns were built near the Salantia, the God Learners even thought once more about taking control of the Salantia Spirit.

But the Campires were not gone - far from it. One of the First Age Vampire's personal followers no led them, and was far more dangerous than even his master had been. The vampires had passed unnoticed in the Courts of Beodal and were stationed at key positions within it's infrastructure. They even had agents in Valantia and Galin by this time (being a separate, and much longer, story).

Near the end of the Jrusteli reign the Vivamorti struck. In the space of three nights all settlements in and around the Salantia were destroyed, starting with Tislif. While most lay dead, the royalty were all turned into undead to lead the armies of Tislif. The vampires had reclaimed the Salantia, their bastion of power, and had populated it's borders with evil undead. At this time, and for 150 years more until an Aldryami HeroQuest, a great wall of wooded plants arose around the forest to guard them.

Their leading priest became known as the Silent - and remains in Tislif even today. His protégé were likewise powerful vampires. The Salantia was their source of power - the Forest Spirit was one of their more powerful allies. That is why the Vivamorti occupied the Forest with such ferocity, for the support of the Spirit. By the beginning of the Third Age the legacy of the Tanisorian Vampire Kings has spread far - they had temples in the ancient cities of Galin and Partania as well as numerous temples elsewhere. But the source of power was the newly founded base in Tislif. The growing power of the other factors in Galin, Partania and the wastes of Ormsland, challenged that of the Silent. It was inevitable that a war would break out, and in 1174 ST, some 120 years or so after the reclamation of Tislif.

The details of the war are sparse. As vampires are unable to face each other in battle, mortal agents must be used. As it is religious heresy to allow a Vivamorti cultist to kill a vampire even on the orders of other vampires (after all it'd be awful to allow cultists to think they alone could challenge a vampire!) it meant few vampires actually died. Most were imprisoned in three major locations across Ralios in crystal sepulchres, almost forty vampires to a location. A few vampires escaped, fleeing north east, or forming small covens of non-Vivamorti worship elsewhere in Ralios.

What is known is that the group of Partanian vampires, having lost power in their struggles to reclaim the Salantia, and seeing their coming desrtuction at the hands of the Silent, allied again with the Tislifi Vivamorti against the Galini block. Once the Galini were vanquished the Silent turned upon the Partanians and quelled all other rebellion.

Until this time, for the past century, the Salantia has been a source of terror for it spewed forth undead hordes over the surrounding lands constantly. With the brief wane in power, after the Silent had lost the support of so many vampires, the Aldryami took their chance to HeroQuest against the Salantian spirit, destroying the Wood Wall.

Tislif's brief power had faded. The Silent, refusing to allow the same mistake twice, set a limit on the amount of vampires that could be maintained. Knowing that more internal strife would cause more harm than good, the Silent ordered the excess vampires (fourteen or so) and some cultists to travel to Fort Wrath to appease King Ralzakark. The Unicorn Emperor did the appropiate work for him...

The Silent then retreated to the safety of his tower in Tislif. He has never left (or has never been seen to leave) and only his aide can tell others of the orders of the Silent.

Vamprice influence was small - the Silent sought less and less to seek political influence over Otkorion and Lankst. Besides the subversion of a nearby Lalian tribe (wiped out in 1310 by immigrating Bagogi) to help serve them very little progress was made in influencing the area. The Silent set up a program of utilising the magi and adepts in fortifying Tislif. For a hundred years, the vampire community was as silent as their leader.

Near the start of the 14th century the Salantia's own undead grew restless. Invasions of ghoul spirits and kalkar (undead flying beasts of reanimated Godtime birds) plagued the area. A Necromander Aldryami who worshipped an obscure elf cult called Bloodvine was the instigator of this awfulness. The terms and treaties between the vampires and the ancient Salantia spirit demanded that they gave aid to all those who embodied the will of the Salantia Spirit - in this case the elf. However, the Aide to the Silent at that time refused to give help of any form. Doyle MacColl, one of the Vampires at that time saw how angering the Spirit would only serve to hinder the Vivamorti interests. Without the Salantia's protection to hide Tislif Humakti hordes could swamp the citadel of and when they wished. And if the Salantia decided that Tislif was a liability it would surely fall to the Undead hordes the Spirit controlled. Doyle forced the Aide to take him to the Silent - and after a battle of magics the Aide submitted.

Only Doyle left the presence of the Silent. He proclaimed that he was now the new Aide, and only he would be allowed to talk to the Silent. When asked about the previous Aide, Doyle replied that he was a coward who had purposefully disobeyed the Silent by not helping the elf in order to pursue his own, personal interests.

Doyle gave the appropiate aid to the necromancer. The necromancer suceeded in his own, relatively obscure, aims to do with procuring a Humakti artifact. In return he gave the Vivamorti cult a follower of his, Barrowfil, who lives in Tislif still today.

Under Doyle's command, Tislif's influence grew. Slowly, but surely, Vivamorti were populating society. The Vivamorti have even subverted an enture troll clan from which Mistress Bastari, an Uzuz Vampire, originated from. The clan was forced from their homelands into the Salantia and most are now dead from old age, but some still live, although not having achieved the vampric state.

Currently the cult has got control of a few neighbouring villages, has infiltrated parts of the Church and Fiesive monarchy and own a large front company, a merchant house of more than moderate size called "The MacDel Trading Emporium". The Vivamorti, like all their brethren, have but one aim - survival. Risks and conquest are not part of their plans if it means gambling with their existence. However, they are very interested in ensuring that all the renegade vampires in the area are destroyed, especially because some know of the sarcophagi of the vampire rebels of the 12th century which must be kept safe at all costs.

The Uraini

The last major Otkorioni Chaos group are the Uraini. See Lords of Terror and Book of Drastic Resolutions Issue One for more information on this cult. The Uraini appear sporadically and minor groups of the Chaos Storm worshippers are not discussed here (by minor, I mean one or two lone worshippers in a town or village). Needless to say the odd Uraini madman appear at points throughout the annals of Otkorioni history.

The Uraini existed in Otkorion since the First Age when Orlanthi populated the area. When the Storm Worshippers were forced out by in the Second Age the chaos worshippers retreated to their holy place, the Grand Covence, a huge underground temple. Their numbers were small, seventy or so, and they lived in the sprawling labyrinth beneath the Earth. The Grand Covence was formed by a Chaos Worm before the Dawn, in it was a relic of Ragnaglar, Father of Urain.

Their pitiful existence during these times was hardly a testimony to the power of Chaos. Troll incursions caused daily hazards, and in 898 ST they were all wiped out by a Galini Chaos killing warband that swept through Ralios destroying whatever chaos they found until their destruction twelve years later against the Tislifi Vampires when they were on their return journey.

In 972 ST an Orlanthi who had attended tow Jrusteli Colleges, one in Pamaltela and the other in Northern Seshnela, reinvestigated the site. His name was Sael Halaran, and was well thought of by the God Learners as a scholar and an ally. Awakening the powers within he began secret controlled experiments and reinitiated the cult. Sael collected a small group of cultists around him. With the collapse of the Jrusteli Empire Sarl hid among his cultists. He became a local cult hero for the chaos worshippers, his powers allowed him to breathe life briefly back into dead creatures. Whether he died or ascended to the HeroPlane is unknown as the invasion of the Grand Covence by Thanatari resulted in the destruction of all records that the cult had managed to keep.

Notable acts of the cult after it's diaspora by the Thanatari include the 1239 ST rebellion of an entire Family of Otkorion who turned out to be Urain worshippers. They were all hunted and slain by the Orlanthi when their castle was set alight. In 1267 ST the Uraini managed to prevent the success of all the Sacred Time HeroQuests when a cult Hero, Majiki Kelaeth, managed to simultaneously appear on all the HeroPaths by pretending to be a spirit guide. The year after he attempted to foil the HeroPaths by using a HeroQuest to summon Sofal before the Questers could get there, thus preventing the Lightbringers from doing so and getting across the ocean. Most families failed that year. The third year he was found hiding in Hell, but the Orlanthi had tricks of their own, for instance the leader of the Penhalagon Party used the Shield Trick so the Uraini could not find and defeat him and so was lost in hell. The leader of the Rolymer Party used his Listening Winds so the ambush came as no surprise and the enemy was defeated. In all ways was the Hero foiled, all his portions defeated, and he was lost forever, either dead or wandering the Other Side. He was to be the last Hero of the Uraini in this region.

1309 ST the Uraini did manage to use rites to prevent all Orlanthi initiations that year, but their lack of magical support stopped them from maintaining it, only serving to anger the Otkorioni who sought out the remaining Draugr burial mounds and destroyed them in retaliation. After this blow, the cult was never again united underneath one rule.

In modern Otkorion the cult is scattered, disorganised and usually nothing more than a refuge for the more psychotic, disreputable and unwanted members of society. Brutish, thugish blood cults are the best they can amount to, few priests remain and the last of the draugr locations have been lost. Only active shrines exist in Otkorion, nothing larger. The disorganised structure of the cult means that an individual group of worshippers can, at best, only hope for a very local influence of power.