A "Who's Who" of Trinalia

As recrorded in the annals of the Arcanist Lord Hawkwind

Who's Nice?: The Emerald Brotherhood The Royal Guard The Bloodguard The Gray Knights The Young Baronies The Varishans Lord Atira

Dorion, former Warlord-Emporer of Drakar (Deceased)

Who's Bad?: The Empire of Drakar Caernyc (Deceased) The Cult of Nocticula (or "The Witches") The Quintarium Teverri, the Vieled Hand Shiron, the Dark Lady The Cult of Ahrikhan The Shilek The Dragonlords The Semtar Kings The Dark Circle The Siblings of Blood Jahawarial The Six-blades Paralite (Deceased)

Who's Nice?:

    It is with heavy heart that I disclose to the gentle reader that the forces of good in the land of Trinalia are far outweighed by the forces of evil. The only hope that a purehearted citizen might have is that those few forces of good would overcome their differences in order to stand against those forces of evil, who I can say with a good degree of certainty will never unite.

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    I belong to this well esteemed underground brotherhood whose aim is nothing less than the altruistic defense of the people and nations of the lands of Trinalia from any threat to their lives and freedom. Its members include freedom fighters from many walks of life. Many of them are adventurers, many others are wandering minstrels, frontiersmen, priests of benign powers, and mages. All are greatly concerned that evil is overtaking the land, an analysis that I cannot dispute.

    The leader of the Emerald Brotherhood is currently the elder mage, Nala Lerhok. Nala is - or was - a human mage. I say "was" becasue of the fact that as a human, he should have died long ago. But such is the strength of his code - some might call it an obsession - against evil forces in the land that he has extended his life with mighty magics at the cost of his very humanity. While some - myself included - might question the sanity of such an act, none question that Nala is a powerful force in the cause of good.

    The Emerald Brotherhood acts covertly throughout all the nations of Trinalia, keeping a wary eye out for those who would enslave or destroy the benign races of Trinalia, and acting in whatever capacity they can to ensure that those under thier care escape the clutches of evil.

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    I am the only hero to belong to both the Emerald Brotherhood and the Royal Guard. The entity known simply as "The Royal Guard" is more properly called the "Grand Order of the Royal Guard of the Sovereign of Suertrea." It is a hand-picked unit of heroes, mainly adventurers and knights, that have sword fealty to the mighty Queen Ariel Firehawk-Suertrea. Now that the Immortal Queen has departed for other lands, we continue to defend and act on behalf of the Suertrea throne.

    The current ranks of this elite unit include Lady Lauri Platinumhair, an elven holy warrior and dragonrider from another plane of existence; Sala of the Waves, an exotic but effective warrior from a far off land who can kill as effectively with his bare hands as most do with swords; Erduel, the Silver-Elf Druidess-Maga; Thain, the Green-Knight; and myself, Hawkwind, elven Arcanist Lord.

    Queen Ariel is called the Immortal Queen by her people. She is the rightful hier to the Suertrea throne, that calling which, according to the Book of Ages, is to be the ultimate throne of the righteous in the land of Trinalia. Ariel has lived over one-thousand years. She led her people, that race known today as the Aborians, across the moonrift from an ancient land besieged by the forces of chaos. She then retreated to some mystical sanctuary to sleep the sleep of a thousand years, promising that she would return when her people needed her. She did return when the land of Trinalia - as well as other worlds - were threatened by the mad god Paralite. She then created the Royal Guard and led them into the netherworld to slay the mad god, a task at which they succeeded.

    After the quest to destroy Paralite was completed, Queen Ariel once again retreated to her otherworldly sancuary, leaving the command of the Royal Guard to her cousin and the royal regent, Robert Grayhawk. She returned briefly during the war with Drakar to banish the avatar of Idan. She has since dissapeared and passed the throne to Isiana Thindara. Whether or not she will again return in the future is a matter of debate.

---

    Before Robert Grayhawk took the regency of the throne of Athos, he was the rightful heir to the throne of Athos' nearby island kingdom neighbor, Lerendia. Merchant houses that held great power in Lerendia united and staged a bloody coup in which most of the Grayhawk family was slain. Robert and his younger sister were the sole survivors of the slaughter. It is now my belief that this coup was aranged by the Empire of Drakar as a preliminary step in thier bid to expand their evil empire from coast to coast.

    The Bloodguard is a unit responsible for the protection of the Grayhawk line and thier position on the throne. They only failed in protecting Robert's father through sheer treachery - a traitor in the ranks. The guards that watched over Robert were a little more astute, however, and weeded out the assassin sworn to slay Robert and made good his escape from Skye, capital city of Lerendia.

    Robert's Bloodguard became his personal elite guard and includes an effective spy ring called the Bloodseekers. The most notable member of the Bloodseekers is a Vale elf named Fenella Moonshadow. Vale elves are a much oppressed race of elves, the majority of which were captured and sold as slaves. Fenella is one of the few Vale elves to escape.

    Vale elves are notable for their psychic powers; these talents in Fenella have been an invaluable to the intelligence gathering efforts of the Bloodseekers.

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    The Gray Knights are a strong force in the cause of order, yet it is only with hesitiation that I include them here, for I feel that they could easily be just as oppresive a military regime as the Empire of Drakar is, if a malign member of the Order came into power. However, I think when the day of reckoning comes with Drakar, that they will stand with us.

    The Gray Knights are an ancient order of militaristic mages. They first cam into existence at the behest of the wizard-emporer Barion the Gray of the Barean empire over 300 years ago. They live by a very strict code of conduct and thrive even now, hundred of years after the empire they were born from has collapsed.

    The Gray Knights recently took control in the Lycaeum Consular. As the reader might know, the consular was the single most populated with mages of any nation of Trinalia. However, this proved more curse than boon for the consular, for the ruling council of mages got into a war with the despicable criminal mages, the Quintarium. Neither side applied too much moderation in their magical war and thousands of civilian lives were lost and vast tracts of the capital, Moonglow, were laid waste to as a result.

    The Gray Knights did what they did to maintain order and limit the collateral damage in the civil war, but with little practical effect. Then the fire in the sky came, which was soon followed by the wildstorms, swirling winds of prismatic dust that disrupts the very flow of magic. The mages of the Council and of the Quintarium could no longer rely on their magic. But they Gray Knights were not just mages. They were seasoned warriors. They took the opportunity to take contol of the Consular and place it under military rule and ousting both the Council of Mages and the Quintarium. To this day, the Lycaeum Consular remains under the rule of the appointed military governer, High Marshall Kedvar Langston.

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    A relatively new force in the cause of good, the Young Baronies more properly belongs in my treatise on the nations of Trinalia. However, their efforts for the cause of good in recent years is notable, and thus they deserve some mention here.

    The Young Baronies was originaly an outgrowth of the free cities. Feifs in the frontiers east of East Mintar were granted to some energetic individuals, most notably the members of an adventuring company entitled "The company of the Wolve's Bane." Their name is derived from the fact that their arch enemy was a despicible necromancer in the service of Drakar who calls himself Black Wolf. They also made notable efforts against the fire and frost giants in the area, as well as a vampire lord who calls himself "The Vieled Hand."

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    I hesitate to include the Varishans here, as evidence of their involvement in modern affairs is an unproven hypothesis put forth by some sages.

    The Varishans are a race of humanity that dwelled on the Trinalian continent long before any modern human civilization. They were allies to the ancient elven heroes known as the Hawklords, and like them, were benign in the extreme.

    The Varishans were a great force of good in thier day, and mighty in the arts of magic, but their race has left this land. All that is known is that one of their number turned stag and experimented with the mighty dragons. His experiments were considered repulsive by his brothers and so he was exiled. He succeeded in creating an arcane formula that binds man to dragon and enhances the might of both. He created a race that would become known as Dragonlords, and returned to initiate a final civil war with his brethern.

    The Varishans were almost eliminated; those that survived placed the remnants of their civilization (some of them powerful magical artifacts) in vaults deep beneath the earth and departed for other lands.

Some suspect that a few (or perhaps a lone) Varishan mage-lord has remained behind and is overseeing the events of the young races in the land of Trinalia. The only event that is strong evidence that a mage-lord walks the land is the timely appearance of a gate that allowed the Aborian people to migrate to Trinalia from their doomed world.

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    The single most powerful entity in the cause of good is perhaps Lord Atira, a platinum elf noble who was exiled from his otherworldly home because of some breach of the platinum elves' rigorous code of conduct, the nature of which he never speaks.

    Lord Atira himself is a bastion of virtue, and perhaps the most honorable elf I have ever met. All who visit his home have absolute security under his word of honor, which he has the power to enforce.

Lord Atria is a grim and determined foe of evil.

    Lord Atira's home on this plane is a huge, well defended castle south of Mintar West. He is not at all pleased that Drakar has a powerful presence in the free cities, and has vowed to protect the soil of his adopted home. He is an elf of immense age and a warrior and mage of great prowess.

Who's Bad?:

    As mentioned earlier in this treatise, the land of Trinalia is direly beset by forces that would enslave or destroy the enlightened races. Fortunately, in most cases, these forces are too involved with their own interests to unite in their efforts. However, I feel that in the face of the power wielded by these forces, that fact is not too comforting.

---

    I list The Empire first because I feel that they represent the single greatest threat to free men and elves throughout Trinalia at this time. Its troops include not only humans, but also giants and Bwgan warriors, a race of fierce humanoid warriors that hail from the northern reaches of the Drakarian Empire.

    It is apparent to the Emerald Brotherhood's agents that the Drakarian Empire has more than these mighty military forces at thier disposal. Their rulership seems to revere Idan, a god of rulership (and some say, tyranny.) A large number of sorcerers (or a small number of powerful sorcerers) also seems to support the Drakarian cause.

    The first Warlord-Emporer of Drakar was Darion. Since his demise, the throne has passed to his brother Fyre (also now deceased) and thence to Tellus, next in line. Members of the Brotherhood now believe the ruling family of Drakar to be lost cousins of Queen Ariel and therefore a very grave threat to the people of Trinalia, since the prophecy of ages states that the Suetrea blood shall rule the land... and if this is true, Drakar is eligible to step up to the greatest throne in the land.

    In addition to military strongarm tactics, we have discovered that Drakar coerces nobility and leadership of nations that they wish to induct via magical means. Such means inlcude powerful amulets that allow them to dominate the wearer, as well as tranforming a victim into a hideous, subservient undead parody of the person that the victim was in life.

    It appeared that until very recently, the Drakarians had taken a more peaceful stance on their border with the free cities. Unfortunately, agents from the far Drakarian frontier have recently returned with information suggesting that the Empire had merely turned its attention to the nations of the Avelan people that border Drakar on the west.

    After completing their efforts in the west, Drakar returned with a new weapon -- gunpowder. They turned their efforts back to subjugating the Free Cities, the Principality of Athos, and the Young Baronies. They claimed the kingsword in a battle with the Principality and claimed most of the territoy of the free cities. The ensuing war reclaimed the kingsword from Warlord Dorion's dead hand, as well as freeing the people of the frontier, but left large parts of the free cities devastated.

---

    Fortunately, one great evil that threatened the land has been abated. Caernyc was an Archangel that had one vice: a lust for gold. Unfortunately, this vice twisted his entire being slowly and insidiously. Eventually, he led a dozen of his comrades, lesser angels, into a trap in the depths of the netherworlds. Payment for this betrayal was made by nether denizens in gold.

    Needless to say, se was cast out of the Crystal Lands and stripped of his instruments of station. His lord, Frey Firehawk, god of prosperity and succor such that Caernyc could never touch, or even approach, gold again. Caernyc then came to this world and built a kingdom in the east, that of the Semtar Kings, making then gather the one gold treasure that the curse did not apply to: The Faegold.

    Unfortunately, the faegold holds a curse of its own, a curse of misfortune upon any who would possess it. Many years ago, that was Caernyc's undoing, as the curse took its toll when he dueled with a mortal wizard who imprisoned him in a magic circle.

    This condition existed for many centuries until an adventuring company unleashed him in recent years. He called upon the remaining Semtar dragons, took over the island city of Cymbri, and began making demands of all of the island kingdoms.

    The same adventuring company that released Caernyc teamed up with a coven of withces and an agent of Drakar, and succeeded in slaying Caernyc for all time.

---

    This is one organization for which I hold great personal resentment, for their promises of easy power lured my own beloved daughter, Tatiana, to the very damnation of her soul. I tried vehemently to turn her from the evil ways that the cult had induced in her, but alas, I had to give the order that she be slain by one of my agents, who carried that order out.

    The witches have come to embody everything that common man whispers about and fears of spellcasters. Thier powers come only at the cost of their body and soul. They cavort with demonic powers. They follow the demon queen Nocticula, patroness of witches and queen of the succubi.

    The atrocities commited by the cult of Nocticula have made them unwelcome in almost any land, but they have become masters of seduction and subterfuge, and have weathered years of harsh treatment at the hands of righteously enraged citizenry. The sorcerous powers that thier lady grants them is nothing to be trifled with.

---

    The Quintarium started out innocently enough. They started as a small coalition of mages in Moonglow who sold their magical talents for what would be considered a number of legitimate concerns, mainly performing divinations and minor enchantments for a reasonable fee. Soon, however, they found a lucrative market hiring out as mercanaries, participating in combats where they highest bidder could buy the support of a competant mage.

    The next step was to hire out as assassins, a task for which they soon developed a disturbing level of skill in.

Over the years, the Quintarium developed into a full fledged organized crime guild. While they are most infamous for their assassins, the Quintarium gets more out of their assassins than a lucrative trade. They also get the fear associated with the most effective assassination guild in the land. This lets them pursue their other criminal operations and agendas with relative impunity, for few men are willing to cross the Quintarium.

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    Teverri is a mysterious undead sorcerer who secrets himself among the people of the Old Clans, to the east of the Young Baronies. Teverri is a very dangerous opponent, for he is beleived to be what is known as a Sangrolu, or a vampric lich. The details of such beings are sketchy as they are (fortunately) rare in the extreme. What is known is that they are vampire mages that through the means of some arcane formula, suppress the weaknesses normally associated with vampires (such as sunlight and running water), and furthermore, allows them to channel arcane power from the blood of their victims into their spells.

    Teverri is not only fearsome because of his arcane powers, but his skill at manipulating people and events on a grand scale. It is quite likely that he engineered the rise of Young Baronies in order to create a buffer between his haunt in the Old Clans and the Empire of Drakar.

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    The sorceress known as Shiron the Dark Lady is an enigmatic figure that stepped foreward to take the reigns of power in the dismal city of Cymbria when that city's master, Caernyc, was slain. Some sages beleive that Shiron is some manner of extraplanar minion or undead being called forth or created by Caernyc.

    Little else is known regarding Shiron. Whatever past lies behind her, she has taken sufficient measure to hide them from all interested parties. While it is uncertain if she is truly malign, she has done little to releive the desperate conditions in Cymbria since Caernyc's downfall, and has endeavoured to re-animate Caernyc's draconic servants in undead forms.

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    The Cult of Ahriman are followers of a deranged nature god, Arhiman, otherwise known as "the beast lord." Lay followers of Ahriman are soldiers and warriors who beleive that man is a carnivore, and lusts for the spilling of blood as only a carnivore would. The priesthood consists of a twisted version of a druidic sect.

    This cult originated on the blood drenched haven for murderous warriors in the far south known as the Dragon Isles. However, they have been drawing followers in the eastern Trinalia region for some reason. It is beleived that the high priestess currently oficiating was formerly the druidess who was a member of the Company of the Wolves' Bane, who left that company after it was found she sympathized with the one of the company's more brutal enemies, the giants of the north.

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    The Shilek are a race of beings who resemble upright arachnids. They have 4 hind limbs which support their bodies, and 4 more forelimbs that they use as arms. Some members of their race have an innate arcane ability to mentally enslave any known humanoid race, and possibly other races as well. They live in scattered colonies throughout Trinalia.

    The Shilek are troubling because they are major traders in slaves, mostly humanoid slaves. While the brotehrhood finds this fact, and their domination ability, most disconcerting, the Shilek is considered a secondary threat to the freedom of the people of Trinalia. Despite the long history of slave trade among the Shilek, the small size of the Shilek colonies makes the number of slaves bonded by the Shilek small in comparison to those bonded under the Empire of Drakar.

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    As mentioned under my treatise on Varishans, a race that would become known as the Varishans were cast into decline by war with a race created by one of their brethern, a race known as the Dragonlords. The Dragonlords live in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with dragons, and the Dragonlords themselveves are said to have the blood of dragons in their veins.

    The re-appearance of these legendary villains at first startled everyone. It was thought, as is told in the legends, that Dragonlords are totally ruthless and merciless warriors. However, it appears that in the time that the race of Dragonlords spent in their otherworldly prison, they changes, for upon their return to the land of Trinalia, they aspired to quickly establish trade relations with most of the nations of Trinalia.

However, many of these nations suffered very one-sided trade deals with the Dragonlords. Their oft alluded to and rarely used power of their dragon allies meant that the Dragonlords would force almost any deal at the trading table.

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    The Semtar Kings were a kindom of plunderers and marauders that existed nearly 1000 years ago. They were some of the more warlike natives of the isle of Stygia who found the ancient artifacts of the Dragonlords and utilized their power to engage in wanton piracy and plundering of the still young colonies in the south seas. This kingdom was never stable and collapsed after less than a century.

    While it is possible that more than one Semtar King still exists, there is only one known in the land, a singular entity who rides a mighty black dragon who has been preserved since the heyday of the Semtar Kings by his undead state. He was formerly in the service of the fallen celestial steward Caernyc, but since Caernyc's demise, has been seen wandering the lands, purpose unknown.

---

    The Dark Circle is a very mysterious agency, that is apparently headed up by a circle of vaugely humanoid alien beings who are apparently at odds with their own race. Their goals are unclear, but they are very obstuctive of all other major power blocks, and seem to have great power to mentally dominate others. Their are members of other races that serve the dark circle, but it is uncertain if any of these other races serve voluntarily, or if all other races are mentally dominated.

---

    This organization has been around for some time. It has a variety of races at its helm, inluding humans, (corrupted) light elves, and dark elves. This motley crew sell their services as mercenaries, but primarily, they prey on others. They plunder any tomb or dungeon - or city, for that matter - that suits their purpose, which seems to be nothing more than to gain power.

    They do not, however, seem to want to establish any widespread influence or nation; they exist on the periphery of the existing empires in the west, in a secret and secure base of some sort. In addition to their various plundering activities, they participate in smuggling, assassination, and extortion. They are an adventuring company of the most reprehensible sort.

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    Jahawrial is a curiosity, but still very hazardous. He was consdered to be a loose cannon by the government of Tai, the city in the sword isles where he once resided.

    Jahawarial is an eccentric mage whose actions are wholly unpredictable. He was once considered beneficient, and even aided the exiled king of Lerendia, Robert Grayhawk. However, his sanity seemed to fade over the years, and he eventually tranformed into an undead state, something that could not hope to improve his mental state.

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    Another somewhat mysterious organization, the Six-blades started out as the central criminal organization in Mintar East. Over the years, they extended their influence to most of the free cities and surrounding nations. Now that the empire of Drakar has extended its influence into the free cities, the status of the Six-blades is uncertain. If they still exist, their activities have at the least become more low-key.

    The Six-blades seem to have a great degree of magical power at their disposal, the source of which is uncertain. This magical power seems to exist primarily in the area of divination, transport, and disguise.

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    One more villain that has passed but is worth mentioning is Paralite, often simply called "The Mad God." Paralite is the son of a demon lord and a dark elf maiden. He extended his power over time and gained a considerable following in the netherworld. He planned a conquest of not only Trinalia, but many lands.

It was for the defeat of Paralite that Queen Ariel pulled together her hand-picked company of elite adventurers, the Royal Guard.

    The Royal Guard quested to the ancient city of Carcosa, and with items of power gaiend therein, quested to Paralites home plane, where he was slain and cast into the vortex of eternity, the threat of his conquest forever abated.