Editing Zal'Kazzir's Stuff he knows (section)

==The Heavy Hand of the Shadow==
Erenland lies firmly under the hobnail boots of
Izrador’s orc legions and at the mercy of the dark god’s
priests, the Order of Shadow. Seemingly limitless numbers of
orcs and goblinkin have spewed forth from the frozen north
to occupy every major town and city, raping the land for the
supplies they need to continue the war against the fey.
Supporting this vast army are the traitor princes and false sussars,
petty nobles and administrators who have sold their
souls to the Shadow for privilege, as well as thousands of
human mercenaries who are willing to fight and enslave their
own people for a few scraps from the legates’ table.

===Servants of the Shadow===
====The Night Kings====
Directing the occupation are Izrador’s lieutenants, the
four dread Night Kings, immortal creatures that were once
champions in the fight against the dark god. 
=====Sword of Shadow=====
In the occupied
lands, the best known of the Night Kings is Jahzir, the Sword
of Shadow. Once the Lord General of all the armies of the
Kingdom of Erenland, Jahzir was captured and twisted by the
dark god, and now commands armies of darkness instead of
those of light. It was his knowledge and skill that allowed the
dark god’s hordes to slice through the already weakened
armies of good without breaking stride. He now commands
the loyalty of many of the largest orc tribes and has unquestioned
control of the orc legions. As the king of Erenland, he
has the authority to command the forces of the traitor princes
and can conscript troops from the enslaved population to
serve as fodder for elven arrows and dwarven axes. Militarily,
he is unchallenged by either the Order of Shadow or his fellow
Night Kings. He often rides abroad with his armies, but
also holds court from his palace in Alvedara and is known to
frequent Theros Obsidia; wherever he goes, however, he
seems to relish his control over the kingdom he helped to
destroy, and does all he can to bleed its shattered remnants to
feed his armies.
=====Sorcerer of Shadow=====
Possibly the most dangerous and least known of the
Night Kings is the Sorcerer of Shadow. 
=====Priest of Shadow=====
Controlling the dark god’s legates is the Night King
known as the Priest of Shadow. This gaunt figure, once
believed to be a Sarcosan holy man, is responsible for the sacrifice
of tens of thousands to Izrador each year. He is reviled
in the Sarcosan south for turning the once vibrant city of
Cambrial into a vast necropolis. Rumors of his creations,
including creatures built from the remains of man and beast
and legions of undead soldiers marching to war, are told in
every town and village south of the Ardune.
=====Wrath of Shadow=====
The most savage and openly destructive of the Night
Kings is the mighty dragon known as the Wrath of Shadow.
Thankfully, this creature is rarely seen outside of Highwall or
above the battle lines of Erethor. Where she goes, destruction
follows, and few live to tell of her attacks. The fey call her the
'''Scar’garath, “doom of Erethor”''' in High Elven. The dragon is
the most powerful creature on Eredane and there is no hero
left alive who could withstand its terrible power.


===The Order of Shadow===
Administering the occupation are the legates, also
known as the Voice of Izrador or the Order of Shadow. From
the dark tower of Theros Obsidia, the high priests of Izrador
issue orders to the greater legates scattered across Eredane.
These latter act as Izrador’s viceroys, spreading both his commandments
and his wrath. Each arc, the dark god demands
the sacrifice of hundreds of sentient beings, their blood and
souls flowing into the dark mirrors that reside within his temples.
It is known that these mirrors leach both the life force of
Aryth and any arcane magic that comes near them, but what
purpose these energies are bent toward has not been fathomed.
The Order has extended its tendrils to every facet of
the occupation and the ongoing war. In cities and towns
throughout Eredane the legates either rule directly or through
a closely controlled local noble or orc warlord. On a wider
scale they fight an unseen but deadly battle for control with
their supposed allies, the Night Kings and the traitor princes.
The legates’ power stems from their direct connection
to their dark god, the only deity on Aryth who still answers
his supplicants’ prayers. Only the Night Kings are more
closely connected to Izrador and as empowered to interpret
the god’s desires. Speaking with the dark god’s voice gives
the legates the authority to command his spawn, including the
orcs, oruk, and goblinkin. Izrador also grants his priests a portion
of his divinity in the form of divine spellcasting; that
tainted gift allows the legates the ability to crush spirits, break
bodies, and corrupt souls, turning the twisted remains of their
enemies to the service of the dark god. Many believe that a
legate can see into your soul in search of disloyal or treacherous
thoughts, so few are willing to meet a legate’s baleful
gaze.

===The Traitor Princes===
Completing the Shadow’s hierarchy within occupied
Eredane are the traitor princes, leaders of noble houses who
betrayed the Kingdom of Erenland and their own people for
an extended, though tainted, lifespan, as well as the power
over their fellow men that they’ve always coveted. Lesser in
stature but just as greedy and malevolent are the false sussars,
petty southern nobles and administrators of Sarcosan descent
who have become puppet rulers throughout Southern
Erenland. Both types of leaders command their own (largely
human) troops, establish their own laws, and conspire against
their peers for the Shadow’s favor. Izrador’s gift of long life
has heightened the character flaws of the traitor princes, leading
to dangerous forms of insanity and instability, while the
false sussars long for the dark gift whose cost they cannot
fathom. While the areas controlled by the traitors still retain
the veneer of civilization, they can be far more dangerous
than areas controlled by the legates or even the orcs. 

=====Steel Hill, Prince Aushav Fallon=====
In Steel Hill, Prince Aushav Fallon believes that he can ascend to the
ranks of the gods and is so murderously insane that even his
most loyal retainers fear him. 
=====Bastion, Prince Sameal=====
In Bastion, Prince Sameal is a
chameleon, changing personalities in the blink of an eye.
Orders are often countermanded when his personality shifts
and those who do not complete his original orders are punished
when that former personality returns.
=====Prince Gregor Chander===== 
Prince Gregor Chander bristles at unspoken slights and personally tortures
those who do not treat him as the great ruler he believes himself
to be. 
=====Port Esben, Vildar Esben=====
By far, the most dangerous and calculating of the
traitor princes is Vildar Esben, who delights in manipulating
his family, his clan, military leaders, the local legates, and
even the orc warbands stationed on his lands. They all battle
for influence and power by dancing to his music, whose rapid
shifts in tune and time are bewildering to all who do not have
to live in Port Esben. Those who lose in this very deadly
game adorn the gibbets outside the town, which never seem
to lack for occupants.

===Orc Warlords===
The legates and traitor princes rule in occupied territory,
generally what was once the kingdom of Erenland. Those
areas that were strongholds of the resistance or are closer to
the free realms of the fey, however, like the battle lines drawn
up against Erethor and the Kaladruns, are firmly under the
control of orc warlords. These regions are often devoid of
human settlements, and those who remain are as likely to
become food as they are to be slaves. Meanwhile, north of the
Pelluria in the decimated and thoroughly destroyed lands of
the Dorns, orc tribes have begun to migrate out of the Vale of
Tears to resettle in deserted towns and villages. Tens of thousands
of the creatures have settled in the hills around Fallport,
up and down the Ishensa River Valley, and throughout the
barren lands to the north and east of Highwall. The orcs consider
anyone in these lands to be their property to use or kill
as they see fit. If the migrations north of the Pelluria continue
apace, the orcs will soon outnumber the Dorns.
The power of the orc tribes continues to put pressure on
the traitor princes, who watch as the whispered promises of
Izrador fade away with each passing year. In the east, Gregor
Chander has been denied the rich farmlands of the lower
Ishensa River Valley that he had fought for in the Third Age.

In Bastion, Chandering, Port Esben, and Steel Hill, the
princes are forced to house orc legions that “assist” them in
maintaining security. Tension between human and orc troops
is clearly visible and more than one human or orc patrol has
gone missing in areas devoid of resistance activity. Open warfare
between orcs and traitorous men has been avoided, however,
as the punishments from Theros Obsidia and the Night
Kings for such impudence would be swift and merciless. Orc
warlords and even traitor princes can, after all, be replaced.
However, those princes that survived the fall of the Shadow
and those orcs who have clawed their way to leadership are
not fools, and know well how to disguise their blows. The
Shadow allows the weak to be culled as long as it does not
detract from the war against the fey

===Elves===
The elves are more like the elder fey than any of the
other fey races of Eredane, both physically and culturally.
They are a slight race, lithe, quick, and agile. They are all
children of nature, and even with their ancient culture and
powerful magic, they still live close to the wilds as part of the
Great Forest. They are a unified people, allied not only to
tribes or family groups but instead to a single royal line that
rules over all of Erethor. The racial devotion to their High
Queen Aradil is akin to worship, and though there is a large
and powerful Council of the Throne, it seldom opposes
Aradil’s will. Despite this greater shared history and culture,
there remain various subraces of elvenkind, each with its own
unique physical traits and ways of life.

====Caransil (Wood Elves)====
The elves of central Erethor, the Caransil or wood
elves, are the most widespread and familiar of the woodland
fey. They range from the southern Highhorns, eastward to the
Plains of Eris Aman and the Westlands, and south to the
Aruun Jungle. Their skin is the beautiful brown of ino tree
wood, and their hair tends to be long, shiny, and black. Their
eyes are large and dark, and they are the tallest of the elves.
They wear a variety of clothes, from the dark and mottled
camouflage leathers of a scout’s kit to the sunset brilliance of
a courtier’s elaborate silks.
These elves live in enormous maudrial, or homewood,
trees that have been coaxed to grow in elegant but useful
domestic shapes by age-old spells. The Caransil eat mostly
fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. They supplement their
diets with rabbits and grouse raised in family hutches and
with river fish from the Gamaril and Felthera.
The wood elves are traditionally the artists, philosophers,
and craftsmen of Erethor. They are also the lineage
from which have come the greatest sorcerers and battle
mages of recent times. Their warriors carry longbows and
longswords.

====Danisil (Jungle Elves)====
These elves of the southern reaches of Erethor, where
temperate forest gives way to tropical jungle, are small,
slight, and ebony skinned. Historians speculate that they may
be the elven line from which the halflings were born. The
uninitiated consider the Danisil “feral elves,” but their culture
is as sophisticated as that of their cousins. Many of Erethor’s
most powerful druids are of the Danisil lineage.
Their hair is dark and coarse and typically worn in short
dreadlocks. Their eyes are black and so narrow that the
whites barely show. They dress in loose shorts and brightly
painted vests, but when hunting, they wear only layers of
river mud to hide them from both sight and scent. Adults typically
adorn their faces and arms with strangely beautiful patterns
of ritualistic scarring. The scars are said to frighten
away evil spirits.
The Danisil live in boa-bil groves along the many small
rivers of the Aruun Jungle. Their druids enchant vines to form
large slings that suspend their tiny huts high in the jungle
canopy. They live off the fruits of the forest but are also cunning
hunters. They are good fishermen and use fleets of delicate
canoes to fish and hunt along their rivers.
The jungle elves have mastered the use of poison
arrows and have developed several toxic elixirs uniquely
effective against orcs. They also carry wide curved fighting
knives called sepi. Izrador’s invaders learned long ago to fear
these ugly little blades, but have little need to venture into the
dark Aruun; the fell demons of that place fight on Izrador’s
behalf without the dark god having to expend a single soldier.



====Gnomes====
The gnomes are a clever and resourceful race. Though
it is well known that they share ancient kin with the dwarves,
even the Kurgun do not like to claim responsibility for the lineage.
Gnomes are barely taller than halflings, with only a
slightly stouter build. They are bronze skinned but pale eyed,
with jet black hair that they keep short as they are constantly
in and out of the water.
Gnomish culture and history are characterized by their
adaptable nature. Their nimble outlook on life allowed them
to first move from mountain life to that of the coastal hills of
the Ebon Sea, and from there to become adroit seafarers and
river runners. Though forced to flee before the onslaught of
the Dornish invasions, their solicitous demeanors and mercenary
hearts allowed them to return to their conquerors bearing
little ill will and offering their services as merchants and
guides. The gnomes even welcomed the Sarcosans, knowing
that they could stand to make a profit as the newcomers’
liaisons to the fey.
Through all these years and new trading partners, the
gnomes always knew that their conquerors longed only for
land and goods. With the coming of Izrador, this is not the
case. They cannot fool themselves into believing that the orcs
and their dark god will be content to let the survivors of the
wars live their lives in peace; whatever the eventual goals of
the Shadow, the gnomes know that Eredane cannot survive
the heavy-plated burden of his orcs and the dark mantle of his
legates. But the river fey’s strength was not in war. So, as
always, they bowed before their new masters and offered to
serve.
Or so it seemed.
Though the race has been subjugated along with the
halflings, gnomes continue to enjoy a sort of freedom. Even
the forces of the Shadow need to transport cargo and soldiers,
and the river barges of the gnomes suit this purpose well. The
orcs and legates suffer the existence of the gnome barges so
long as they move only cargoes in Izrador’s name, while the
traitor princes and the false sussars give them free reign so
long as they receive the first pick of choice goods from afar.
Most other races see the cost of this semi-freedom as
the worst kind of enemy collaboration. What few realize is
that the gnomes fight the dark god in their own way: as consummate
spies and smugglers. It is their secret trade that
keeps weapons, magic, and information flowing among the
free races of Eredane.
Gnomes wear loose pants and garish vests marked with
the trader seal of their family. Rafters carry sharp daggers
hidden in their belts and use small crossbows to spear pike or to protect their crews from hungry river eels. When they get
the odd chance to turn their crossbows on the occasional orc,
the weapons prove both stealthy and lethal.


====Halflings====
Halflings are a race of tiny folk that some believe
descended from the Danisil lineage of southern elvenkind.
They call themselves the Dunni, or “the people” in their own
tongue. They are almost as dark skinned as the Danisil, with
the same coarse hair worn in small, intricate braids that mark
their tribal membership. Their eyes range from common
black to dark brown and green.
Where still free-living, the nomadic tribes dwell on the
open plains in large hide tents they share with their extended
families. The farming families have almost been wiped out by
the advance of the Shadow, but a few groups still remain
along the southeastern margins of Erethor. They dwell in
cozy sod villages kept alive through their exceptional horticultural
skills and the watchful presence of their wogren
companions.
Halflings wear durable clothes of leather and fine, intricately
woven wool. Sadly, most halflings now live in slavery,
captured and forced to work in the occupied cites or military
camps of Izrador’s armies. The free-living feed on their livestock
and crops, while the enthralled survive off what scraps
they can scrounge, beg, or steal. The halfling weapon of
choice is the spear, with which they protect their flocks, hunt
wild boar, and skewer the occasional orc.

====Orcs====
The '''odrendor''', or orcs as the men and fey of Aryth call
them, are an abominable race created by the black will of
Izrador. Though scholars only suspect it and every dwarf
would savagely deny it, orcs and the dwarves share a common
elder fey lineage. In the prehistory of the Kaladrun
Mountains, a large clan of the elthedar was exiled by their kin
and found succor in the embrace of the Shadow in the North.
In the eons that followed, they were corrupted to Izrador’s
cause and transformed into the foul beings they have become.
Orcs are huge creatures, sometimes twice the size of
their dwarf ancestors and bigger even than the Dorns. They
are heavily muscled, with broad builds and powerful limbs.
Their thick hides are tough and range from light stony gray to
coal black. Their hair is tawny and manelike, growing over
their heads, along their spines, and down their chests to their
groins. Their large black eyes are hooded and protected by
thick, bony brows. Their jaws are large and strong, with tusklike
lower canines. Orcs are impressive creatures and even
beautiful in a way that only fearsome predators can be.
In the lands of the far north, orcs still live in deep
mountain caves and rough-hewn, underground warrens.
There they are directed by and pay homage to orc priestesses,
the kurasatch udareen, “the mother-wives of Izrador.” They
consume anything edible, including their own dead, but get
most of their food from hunting the surface lands at night or
by raiding their enemies. Immune to all but the coldest
weather, orcs seldom wear more than weapon belts and
armor. In conquered Erenland, orcs have taken over human
cities, turning large buildings into meeting halls, communal
barracks, and storage depots. They feed and resupply from
the tribute they demand of their human subjects and relish the
occasional meal of human or halfling flesh.
Orc forces are garrisoned in cites throughout Erenland,
and orc armies war with the elves in the west and the dwarves
in the east. Large orc patrols range across the heartland, subjugating
their human thralls and hunting spies, smugglers,
and insurgents. In short, they are the enemies of all other people
of Eredane.
Occasionally, as rare an event as an eclipse or a comet,
an orc’s mind will expand enough to present a glimmer of an
idea: that there are other options. No one knows what allows
an orc to move past his base instincts to slaughter and serve.
Some may feel a particular hatred toward their oruk captains
or the legates they must serve. Others are shocked and confused
upon witnessing acts of kindness by other races. Some
are simply desperate criminals among their own people. In
any case, these orcs most often have little choice but to obey
their masters or suffer the same fate as those of the other races
who resist Izrador’s will. On some occasions, however, these
orcs find themselves in the position to escape the army and to
try to make a new life elsewhere. Such orcs are often turned
in by citizens bent on revenge for the mistreatment of their
people, but sometimes these refugees are welcomed not only
for the muscle they provide but also for their skills in dealing
with others of their kind.
Orc warriors, whether servants of the Shadow or hunted
by their own kind, take great pride in their fighting
prowess. They make cuts along their arms for each foe they
kill in battle, with different shapes for the race of each victim.
The arms of warchiefs are usually covered in such marks
from hand to shoulder, and at least half the marks are for
killing other orcs. Orcs favor large spears they can both throw
and use as thrusting weapons. They also carry heavy iron
swords with blunt but serrated edges called vardatches. These
weapons are slow but brutal and so heavy that the smaller fey
races can hardly lift them.