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The Diamond Throne
Council of Magisters Soon after the defeat of the dramojh, a human magister named Thenomas Bittermere gathered a number of other powerful magisters together to trade knowledge. Soon, this council became one of the strongest and most influential (but decidedly nonpolitical) groups in the land. The Council of Magisters found itself fighting powerful magical threats, traveling to other worlds, and embarking on all Are the Dramojh Really Gone? manner of adventures. The short answer is: yes. The giants are nothing They even used spells to if not competent and thorough. To show how important oaths are to the people of the travel to far-flung locaDiamond Throne, a DM can use as an example tions on Serran, including the fact that the giants swore to rid the world of the dramojh, and they succeeded. the so-called frozen “top Yet, the dramojh left many horrible and dangerof the world.” ous legacies behind them (just as they themThe council founded selves were legacies of the dragons). Monsters like the slassans, lamias, nagas, medusas, and an academy in Deso on remain. Many dramojh fortresses still Shamod and another in stand, although most are in ruin at this point. Who knows what wonders—and what evils— Thayn. They established they may hold? and enforced magical And of course, if a DM wishes it, the dramojh policies. For example, could return: perhaps some that have become undead foes, perhaps a few that had fled to they sealed off Castle other worlds or planes, or perhaps just one that Mabb, an ancient fortress the hunting parties missed. Tread carefully here—the appearance of a dramojh would have that held the Pillars of Life a profound effect on the campaign setting as a and Death. The original whole, firing up the giants to take on a ChiJulud crusade again. DMs would have to create builders of the castle cretheir own stats for the dramojh, combining the ated these pillars, one of most potent and terrible aspects of a dragon and a demon. which tapped directly into positive energy and the other into negative energy, in order to draw on the power released in their confluence. Many died trying to access this power, and the council eventually used magic to shut the place up, decrying that the unstable energy was too dangerous for anyone to use. Likewise, they oversaw the destruction of many dramojh artifacts and began to explore and catalog the strange, otherworldly inhabitants and portals in Thartholan. However, in Common Year 1668, the council fell apart due to internal strife, the primary instigator of which was the loresong faen Jaedyn Darksight. She encouraged the council to use its power to wrest a small state from the giants and set it up as a magocracy. The council disbanded rather than risk such insurgence.
Rise of the Fallanor Empire In the Common Year 1699, the Empress Justaria became the first to sit upon the throne of the Fallanor Empire, a harsh militaristic regime lording over mostly wilderness and scattered settlements. The empire, not wishing to make enemies of the giants, paid homage to the Diamond Throne and made sure never to cross its northern border beyond the Redwood. In the Lands of the Diamond Throne, little is known about Fallanor to this day, but the empire is no friend to the verrik in Zalavat.
The Inshon Infestation of Noll In Common Year 1751, the island of Noll was all but overrun by the amphibious humanoids known as inshon. These horrible, mutated creations seemed to come with shocking suddenness. No one knows where they came from, although it became frighteningly clear how quickly they could spawn. Great armies of adventurers and mercenaries gathered in Noll to wipe out the infestation, but even today, just when it seems the creatures have all been eradicated or driven off, a new generation of them appears to plague the citizens.
Verrik History According to the verrik, the world is considerably older than the giants claim. The land of Zalavat, the vast desert kingdom of the verrik, is filled with ancient and peculiar ruins— temples, giant heads, curious metallic statues, and things no modern scholar can identify. Verrik call this ancient civilization the Vnax. The Vnaxians were verrik, ruled by a tribunal of individuals who had used their minds to transform themselves into beings of mostly energy. Their fleshy bodies would appear only occasionally, as they intersected with this plane. The rest of the time, the members of the Vnaxian Tribunal were nearly invisible shimmers of thought. The Vnaxians ruled an empire that covered most of what is now the Southern Wastes—then fertile, green fields, according to the verrik. Eventually, most Vnaxians gave up their physical forms and left their cities, temples, and other creations behind. These energy-verrik passed into another plane altogether— all of them except one. His name was Xyphon. Meanwhile, the remaining fleshy Vnaxians also left their cities, to dwell in tribes in the wilderness. These verrik worshipped Xyphon as a god-king. He appreciated their worship and watched over them as they developed into the modern verrik and formed the kingdom of Zalavat on the bones of the old Vnaxian civilization. The verrik, however, grew powerful and confident. They eventually turned on Xyphon, not just rejecting him as a deity, but seeking to banish him from Serran so they could manage their own destinies. These powerful verrik—witches of many types—succeeded in sending Xyphon away, but at a terrible price. The god-king cursed the entire race with a sign of his displeasure. The Curse of Xyphon can be seen, or rather sensed, in every verrik to this day. Most people describe it as a sense of wrongness that they cannot quite describe or pinpoint. But within Zalavat’s capital of Yrterot, the verrik hide away those afflicted most severely with the curse. This is a secret no verrik will reveal to someone of another race.
The Geography Of course nothing more clearly defines a region than its geography. The map on page 9 showcases much of the continent, with a closer look at the Lands of the Diamond Throne on page 25.
