Mythic Vistas: SpirosBlaak - Property Is Theft!

The story of the seled lands of the Archduchy of SpirosBlaak
begins in the untamed vastness of the wilderness, where all
such nations take their first steps. Yet this is not simple story of
exploration and colonization. It is instead one where life met near
certain doom and survived, where gods toppled from the heavens
to wage their wars in the mortal world, where prejudice, bigotry,
and intolerance form the foundation of the modern era. This is
SpirosBlaak.
Descending upon the mortal world was an event called Gods’
Fall, also known also as the Great Madness. Heaven expelled
its own. The stewards of Heaven, cast down from their exalted
thrones, brought ruin to the mortal world, and confined to mortal
form, each, hoping to rule the realm of their exile, wrought brutal
war upon the others. To aid their efforts, they bred with the
mortals, spawning powerful heroes and terrible villains – allies
and weapons with which to fight their bales.
Such godly contests reshaped the lands, political boundaries,
and the people themselves, and the gods eventually turned their
bloody efforts on the savage region known as the Wildlands, the
land that became the Archduchy of SpirosBlaak. What would one
day become the Archduchy of SpirosBlaak was a vast and untamed
stretch of land, formerly inhabited by a feral race of human
shapeshiers, lycanthropes called the kav. Virtually untouched
for centuries, it became the site of a bloody killing ground aer
wave aer wave of humanoid refugees spilled into this territory
following the collapse of ancient empires
Although the conflict between the gods offered mankind
and many of the other prosperous races, such as the elves, kav,
and dwarves, a reason to take interest in the Wildlands, it was
ultimately the god Spiros’ pursuit of the communal deity, the
Horde, that planted the foundations for the nation that would
follow.
Kingdoms are part and parcel of fantasy campaigns, and this
book details one such kingdom: the Archduchy of SpirosBlaak. As
this is a Mythic Vistas seing, however, we have also provided
a rich, detailed history for use in building the kingdom and
the mentioned surrounding areas into a world. Our provided
worldview involves fallen gods, black powder weapons, and lands
filled with lycanthropes called kav.
With a lile alteration, the seing can become a drop-in
kingdom in your ongoing campaign, for, as with all gaming
supplements, GMs should use whatever facets suit their campaigns
and discard the ones that don’t. For instance, if you don’t like the
idea of fallen gods, then assume the baling deities mentioned
in the Archduchy’s history were avatars; alternately, you could
replace them with long-lived epic NPCs and ignore the Gi of
Divine Heritage feats in Chapter Ten: Skills & Feats. You don’t
want black powder weapons in your game? Then disregard that
section of the book; no problem.
How to Use This Book
In these powerful struggles, alliances formed: Sallous Yar, the
lord of the undead, allied with the Horde, while Spiros, the god
of justice, joined with Arkanocles, the Maker. The wars spanned
many years (and, in fact, continue to this day by proxy through
each god’s followers) and saw the rise of such horrific minions as
the Witch Lords and necrozen, while also precipitating the creation
of the honorable lavayne race, a divine amalgamation formed from
humans, elves, and dwarves.
Many of the region’s burgeoning cities weathered the storm of
these conflicts, but others fell to sword and flame. So terrible were
these wars, even the holy city of Vas was nearly destroyed, and
SpirosBlaak itself assaulted. In the end, it took the retreat of Sallous
Yar’s undead forces into the Swamp of Woe and the disappearance
of mighty Spiros to restore some sense of stability to this land.
But no tale of the Archduchy’s maturation would be complete
without addressing the turmoil afflicting the area’s more numerous
natives: the kav. Humanity’s struggle against the Wildlands’
lycanthrope population came close to consuming both the
naturally born and cursed kav populations on many occasions.
Truly, to this day, many citizens of the Archduchy still seek kav
genocide, while the kav seek to do likewise against the human
invaders who stole their lands.
And yet, despite all this conflict—the innumerable deaths,
double-dealings, and coups, both political and military—the
various duchies of the Wildlands joined in alliance to form the
Archduchy of SpirosBlaak. Heralded as a time of enlightenment
and renewal, the age of the Archduchy may actually be the age of
downfall and destruction.
Only time, and perhaps a bit of mortal and divine intervention,
will tell.
It’s your book now; use what you like. We think there are
interesting ideas within to add to any campaign. We hope you
agree.
D20 Connections
and Recommendations
D20 has grown considerably since its debut, and useful products
abound. We’d like to bring your aention to some books that can
add depth to a SpirosBlaak campaign, many of which Green Ronin
produced.
Green Ronin Books
GMs using Freeport: City of Adventure can use that seing as a
city within the Midwyn Pirate realms. The Freeporters thus
become Midwyns. Making this minor change, any of the Freeport