Campaign Setting - Vaults of Pandius

History
Mogreth was founded, long before the rise of
Blackmoor, by a powerful Carnifex sorcerer
named Akhor and his followers – the sole
survivors of a fallen Carnifex colony on southern
Brun. At that time, Mogreth was located near the
North Pole, but Carnifex magics created a
temperate refuge. Contact with other peoples was
infrequent, but hostile. Conflicts increased during
the Beastman Crusades, and local conditions
forced the remaining Carnifex to withdraw, but
not before handing over control to their lizard
man servants, marking the beginning of the
Second Empire. The most powerful lizard men
became the first sorcerer kings.
The planetary shift following the Great Rain of
Fire brought Mogreth into a temperate zone,
allowing the inhabitants to conquer neighboring
lands. Contact was made with the dwarves of the
Shimmering Lands, and a partnership was
formed. Elsewhere, however, the lizard men saw
nothing but savages who needed to be made to
serve the empire. By BC 2700, large swaths in the
interior had been annexed by Mogreth, and
thousands of humans were enslaved. A more
recent campaign against the indigenous humans
began in BC 2500, and the border has crept
westwards over the decades. At the same time,
conflicts with neighboring Taymora increased,
and the entire southeastern coast of Brun – the
Frontier – has been a giant battleground ever
since.
Peoples
Troglodytes and lizard men are the most
numerous races in Mogreth, and the former are
the backbone of society. These two races are
found in all castes (although troglodytes are more
concentrated at the lower levels), and performing
almost every profession. Of the two, lizard men
tend to be more outgoing and social, and are more
similar to humans in terms of behavior. Most
Mogrethians encountered abroad are lizard men.
Troglodytes tend to be more taciturn – but this is
also a reflection of their preference for
communicating through scent.
Frogfolk are the most uncommon inhabitants of
Mogreth, and they consider themselves to be in
many ways superior to their saurial neighbors.
They claim descent from an empire that predated
Mogreth by millennia, and maintain their own
institutions, language, and traditions in their
villages on the swampy Issus River Delta.
Despite their strongly isolationist tendencies, the
frogfolk are tolerated by the lizard men because
they tend to be competent, loyal administrators,
and their spiritual inclinations have led many into
clerical professions.
Outside the recognized “true peoples” of
Mogreth, there are thousands of slaves. The vast
majority are human, but there are also significant
numbers of beastmen, giants, and even elves.
Also living on the margins of Mogrethian society
are the human inhabitants of the semiindependent
city-states of Tarad, Itpalam, and
Marasco. Although not technically slaves, they
have no official status within the empire, and are
often viewed by society as little more than
domesticated animals.
Settlements of Note
Isshum (pop. 590,000): Isshum is the oldest city
in Mogreth, and quite possibly in the Known
World. It sits in the great Issus River delta, and is
a web of winding streets and low stone buildings,
but the older part of the city belies its Carnifex
origins. There, the streets are broader, the
buildings far larger, and there is a sense of
something ancient slumbering underfoot. All of
Mogreth’s peoples may be found here in large
numbers, as well as a considerable number of
foreign merchants, who keep to the Foreign
Quarter.
Ssugath (pop. 65,000): Ssugath was founded not
long after Isshum, but it never attained anything
close to the glory of its sister city. Instead, it is
infamous as a den of vice and a centre of
forbidden learning. Only the protection afforded
by the sorcerer king’s status, as well as his wellknown
streak of paranoia, have prevented the
authorities from cleaning up Ssugath. Traders
stop here only if they cannot dock at Isshum or
Theliir.
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