Kingdoms: The Hell Legion

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Dreamform: The Hell Legion

From across the realms the souls of sinners flow to hell...

This is a land where suffering defines existence - damned souls scream in agony in lakes of everburning fire, and the legions of devils war with each other under the command of demon princes who battle for no other reason than their own amusement. This is a land filled with the pain of a thousand nightmares, and the insanity of unfettered chaos. Over this tortured domain one man rules. Indeed, the realm is this way only because of his broken mind and the warping of the dark Glamour that passes through him - he is the King of Hell, and you will suffer for his pleasure.

The Dominant Actors of the Court

KING: The King of Hell

The Black Prince was insane - haunted by nightmares that thanks to his powerful Dreaming broke from his sleep and troubled him in daylight. Faced with the constant abuses of his own imagination, he opted to protect himself by becoming the nightmare.

The Black King is not insane. He is chaotic, he is cruel and he is formless, but his mind is quite complete. Though his physical form alters and changes by the moment, it now does so at his own command, rather than at the mercies of his subconscious. He has gone through the gates of suffering and madness, and he has emerged stronger. This is the gift that he would give Arcadia... From madness, purity. From suffering, strength.

• Suggested Boons: Empowered Dreaming;
• Suggested Drawbacks: Bloodthirsty Kingdom;
• Suggested Traits: Mercurial;

KNIGHT: The Everburning Fire

The charnel pits of hell have burned countless souls, and from that pain and suffering was born a demon of fire and anguish. A seething mass of flame, ash and charred remnants, the Everburning Fire is a force of unbridled destruction. Though its own flames cause itself terrible anguish, it embraces this pain and turns it into its strength.

• Suggested Boons: Destroyer; Hard Quarry;
• Suggested Drawbacks: Reduced versatility (no Plunder or Rescue); Fuelled;
• Suggested Traits: One Man Army;

BISHOP: The Mortifier of Flesh

He was once a damned soul, being flayed endlessy by demons for his sins in life. But after a few millennia he begain to enjoy the pain, and to master it. He now appears as a cloud of faces that both scream and smile. He sees into the hearts of sinners, and he teaches them to love their punishments.

• Suggested Boons: Master Kidnapper;
• Suggested Drawbacks: Fuelled;
• Suggested Traits: None;

ROOK: The Hiveswarm

The myriad beetles that scuttle through hell collecting the corpse debris of broken souls are not natural creatures, but rather extensions of the Hiveswarm's demonic consciousness. The Hiveswarm itself is a black crystal obelisk, crafted by the King, and through this monolith the insects of hell serve as surely and loyally as the soldiers of hell.

• Suggested Boons: Castellan;
• Suggested Drawbacks: Guileless;
• Suggested Traits: None;

The Shadow Actors of the Court

QUEEN: Persephone/Angelica, the Ghost

"You seem troubled. Let me help you."

Those seven words were what saved Angelica from the same fate as every other damned soul. Those seven words she spoke when faced with the shifting and insanity-inducing form of the Black King, when he addressed her and told her that she was in Hell, as he has told every damned soul since time immemoriam.

Angelica recalls that she was a London-born nurse in WW2, who died when a field hospital in France was attacked with artillery. She is sure that she is not from the dreaming at all, but rather from the real world... an idea that most other denizens of Arcadia find laughable and impossible. She is not sure how she sinned in life to be sent to hell, but the horrors of war had prepared her for the horrors of hell. When faced by madness and chaos in the Black King's form, she did not flinch, but instead showed compassion. In that moment the secrets of healing magic were realised to her, and she immediately used that gift to alleviate his mental suffering a little.

The Black King was reminded of humanity, and realised that he had found his queen.

Since coming to Hell, Angelica has tried to persuade its demonic denizens that they must take a single form rather than being endlessly changeable - a human form. In some cases she has succeeded - the Shadow Court of Hell all wear human forms, and to Angelica's credit her theory that human forms encourage human behaviour seems to have worked, to a degree. Her other project is to have the demons take names - a pointless conceit from the demonic point of view, but an essentially anchor for sanity from the human viewpoint.

In the King, she has so far convinced him to wear human form when around her (the form he has picked, frighteningly and strangely, has been that of her still living fiancee, an English soldier), though he still reverts to chaos when she is not there. She calls him Lord Hades, and though he does not think it his name, he still responds. She asks him to call her Persephone - her own little joke, born of her classical education.

Queen Persephone still uses her healing magics when she can, and though she does not approve of Hell, she still finds herself using her skills to aid Hell's victory. Perhaps Hell is changing her as well...

• Suggested Boons: Innocence; Pillar of Strength;
• Suggested Drawbacks: Helpless; Untrained in War;
• Suggested Traits: Sorcery Style (Healing Magic);

KNIGHT: Tomas, The Manyfaced Duke

Once one war-demon amongst many, the Duke was one of the first that Persephone convinced to take a name. Though he wears vaguely human form (a knight in a suit of black platemail) he has yet to find a face. Instead, each time he kills an enemy he steals their face, and wears it for a while.

The secret truth is that Tomas is madly in love with Persephone, but he doesn't really have the sort of mind that can express such things. He hopes that one day he will find a face that she will fall in love with...

• Suggested Boons: None;
• Suggested Drawbacks: None;
• Suggested Traits: None;

BISHOP: Andre, The Smiling Child

Persephone connvinced a psi-demon to take a form and a name, and eager to please his Queen he searched in her mind to see what form she would feel closest to. He found the image of a young French boy, who Angelica once tended in his dying days. He recreated that image, complete with beatific smile and crippled legs. Andre still can't understand why the Queen shudders to see him...

• Suggested Boons: None;
• Suggested Drawbacks: None;
• Suggested Traits: None;

ROOK: The Hellkeep Castellan

The dog-demon-beast at the gates of hell took a human form as the Queen demanded, but admittedly is still a demon inside. He is no less effective as a guardian in his new form (indeed, his human form seems to have given him a greater appreciation for defensive tactics), but he still feeds on the flesh of his enemies, still is palpably insane and still cannot grasp the idea of taking a name.

• Suggested Boons: Castellan;
• Suggested Drawbacks: Guileless;
• Suggested Traits: None;

The Eight Armies

• The Tide of Teeth - A swarm of continuously mutating predator beasts. Their only stable characteristics are their razor teeth, and their lust for flesh. (Attacker; Hungry)
• The Reflected - A conglomeration of demonic forces that takes the form of whatever army opposes it in battle. (Unique Boon: Copies descriptors one enemy Army in same battle; Fuelled;)
• The Ashes of the Dead - An everblowing wind carrying bitter ashes, and broken damned souls that claw and bite at enemies as they pass. (Indestructible; Low Quality;)
• The Queensguard Knights - A dozen demons who have names and appear as black knights, they have substituted the strength of chaos for the strength of martial prowess and honour. (Royal Troops; Commander's Household: Persephone;)
• The Shadows - A conglomeration of demonic forces that takes the form of whatever other army accompanies it in battle, but which is powerless on its own. (Unique Boon: Copies descriptors of one allied Army in same battle; Dependent)
• The Fear - A conglomeration of demonic forces that takes the form of whatever the enemy fears most, and which is weaker against the courageous. (Quality Troops; Fuelled;)
• The Discordant Choir - Screaming voices that fill the air, but which have no physical form. (Indestructible; Low Quality;)
• The Gestalt - A heaving mess of flesh, appearing to be a single entity but composed of myriad suffering minds.(Attrition-based Warfare; Ineffective Defenders;)

Italic text above represents suggested Descriptors.