Drouchont

Bordering the "Forest of getting Lost" and the Lumberlings live a people called the **Drouchont**. These people are almost completely herbivorous and live off the surrounding forest. The Drouchont live in total harmony and respect the boundaries of the Lumberlings.

They perform ritual orgies and sacrificies to honor the vengeful spirits to the north who they worship as gods, more out of fear more than anything.

## History

The region now known as the Land of the Drouchont is an extensive area that mixes green prairies with forested spots. From ancient times, these lands have been used by shepherds to feed their charges, travelling around in search for green pastures and for the many fruits the forest produced. The first major colonization of the region was done by the Khenomeric Empire, who began tilling the fields and building cities. This was not accepted by the local population, who tended to live more harmonic lives with nature, but in general, the locals kept their distance from the new settlers. Over time, however, the two groups began growing closer, and the locals were absorbed into khenomeric society, though they never really adopted an urban way of life, preferring staying as nomadic herders. In particular, the drouchont were very eager in learning the mysteries of magic, developing many ties with the School of Green Plant Magic, very in tune with their shamanistic and animistic beliefs.

The arrival of the magoclergy and its rule over the Khenomeric Empire began a major change in the course of the history of the region. Unlike most other provinces in the empire, the population here wholeheartedly accepted the rule of the magoclergy. It is not really known the exact reasons the leaders of the region had to support the magoclergy, but nevertheless, it created a major split between them and the rest of the population. The magoclergy rewarded the loyalty of the region by teaching them darker and more obscure forms of magic, which they then mixed with their druidic knowledge to form a strange strain of natural magic. The rest of the empire began seeing the region with more and more distrust, especially since the magoclergy began developing some of their more forbidden experiments in the area.

The eventual fall of the magoclergy and the prohibition of magic was a hard blow by the drouchont, being seen by the rest of the empire as collaborators, and many punishments were dealt against them. However, unbeknownst to most of them, the drouchont dark druids hadn’t stopped practicing their rituals, they couldn’t. With the fall of the magoclergy, some of their more dangerous experiments and creations threatened to escape their confines, with the best known case being the Sealed Grove. The Facedancers, evil shapeshifters created as spies and assassins for the magoclergy, weren’t successful in the eyes of the regime, and thus had been sealed in a portion of the forest north of Drouchont. With the disappearance of the magoclergy, the only ones who knew the dangers the facedancers posed and had the tools to keep them in place were the drouchont, and it thus became a secret from the rest of the empire. The Drouchont also dedicated themselves to hunt down facedancers who had somehow escaped the sealed groves they resided in. However, the dangers to the east were more severe. The lands of Dia’ul had been used to summon malignant entities not from this world, and the land had become corrupted, a twisted parody of the gentle woods in the region, and the drouchont began pushing back against the entities that wanted to expand from there. The expansion of the Forest of Getting Lost was a stroke of luck to the drouchont, since the panic and confusion it caused distracted everyone from the dark deeds the drouchont had to do to contain the monsters of Dia’ul. Many refugees and astray people fleeing the regions eaten by the forest fell into the hands of the drouchont, who used them as fuel for the rituals needed to close down the potential rift in reality that would be born the monsters of Dia’ul were creating with their mere existence.

The lands of the Drouchont were a rather uncomfortable spot for the politics of the Northern Khenomeric Empire. The highest authorities knew the about the potential risks that were being contained by the dark druids of Drouchont, but they also knew that the discovery of magical arts of that kind to the population would cause severe problems in the region, something they could ill afford. The Northern Khenomeric Empire was already being torn by the seems due to the debate about magic, and shinning a light to the nefarious ways of the drouchont, ways needed to stop even worse things, was not going to improve matters. For as long as it lasted, the Northern Khenomeric Empire sent slaves and prisoners to the dark druids to keep the sacrifices going, allowing them to push back against the demonic monstrosities of Dia’ul. Even after the disappearance of the Northern Khenomeric Empire, the drouchont still search for sacrifices, now having become as much a part of their religion as a way to fight back against the darkness from the east.

## Society and culture

From the outside, the drouchont culture is rather idyllic. The population live in the forest and meadows, caring for their herds and gathering whatever nature produces. Many of the cities and towns founded by the khenomeric were abandoned over time, and they are only used now as a place for trade and to celebrate festivities. The drouchont groups live in small groups, with patriarchs taking care of the entire group, deciding where to go and what to do over the seasons. Many drouchont do not even seem to carry weapons, with only bows and arrows needed in case they need to hunt some game in the forest.

In reality, the lives of the drouchont are much darker than what outsiders generally assume. Dark magic runs through the people of the Land of Drouchont, after many centuries of rituals, sacrifices and secret pacts with otherworldly beings. This allows them powerful magical abilities, but shortens their lifespans considerably without the proper ritual sacrifices. If one were to dig up an area where a drouchont familiar group settled for months at a time, it would be very possible to find the bones of their latest victims, sacrificed in secret to power up their dark magic as well as to honor their ancestor gods. Under the visage of peaceful nomads, they travel throughout their lands, seeking either victims for their ceremonies or monsters that cross into their domain. Due to them being so steeped in dark energies, they cannot use other drouchont for the rituals, and thus they always need to search for other sacrifices. The corruption within their souls is such that even gnoll sacrifices are more effective than killing their own. In cases of emergency, they could take one of their charges to fuel the rites, but it will never be as powerful or as effective as the death of a sentient being. As such, they will take travelers, merchant, explorers and general passersby and offer to travel with them. They will charm them, showing them the pastoral and bucolic life outsiders believe the drouchont enjoy. Once they are sure to be alone and far from the view of any other, they will then immobilize their victims, and then subject them to horrific rituals, meant to power their magical powers or to strengthen the seals blocking some of the region’s darkest dangers.

Travelling alone, the **dark druids** are the defenders of the drouchont. They keep an eye on the most dangerous places in the woods, fighting the horrors within and sealing those that cannot be destroyed. These individuals have broken, through many unspeakable trials and tribulations, the curse of short life that consumes the drouchont, gaining enormous powers. This has been done in exchange for their souls, consumed in their quest for power. Many drouchont doubt if the dark druids are even alive, or if their bodies are just husks, animated by the dark powers they let in. The Drouchont worship the dark druids, believing their spirits can travel outside of their bodies and watch over them, punishing them for any weakness with horrors unimaginable. The dark druids contact the nomad drouchont groups from time to time, demanding their cooperation to fight against a particularly dangerous monster or demonic entity. They will also gather sacrifices for particularly powerful rituals, getting many drouchont groups together to catch as many victims as possible. To keep up with the demand of bodies, many dark druids travel to foreign lands, selling their dark arts in exchange for slaves that will be brought to the region. They can also raid undefended and isolated populations as well, having a lot of care never to reveal their true origin and purpose as a dark druid of the Drouchont.

There is a reason the drouchont are always seemingly unarmed. The entities that the drouchont fight cannot be harmed by regular weapons, and having cursed or otherwise enchanted weaponry would make outsiders weary of them. As such, the drouchont have developed a complex form of martial art that uses their dark powers to fuel both their reflexes and their strength. The only weapon they seemingly utilize is the bow and arrow, due to sometimes needing to keep a good distance between them and their target. They also use slings and throwing knives, hidden as mere cutlery. The drouchont are proficient in the use of cursed silver, extremely effective against spirits, demons and magical monsters, hiding its true nature in such a way that even expert wizards cannot tell what the blades are truly made out of.

## Foreign Relations

The drouchont have to play a two faced game at all times. On the one hand, they need to keep a bucolic and idyllic appearance, helping travelers and being generally friendly. On the other hand, they absolutely need to hide their true nature, least there be retribution from the outside for their dark deeds. The dark druids know that, while they are powerful, a full on invasion would be too much to handle, and considering the amount of blood staining the land, there would definitely be voices claiming for vengeance. As such, they have been educated to be highly charismatic and easy going, and also being able to read people with ease, knowing just what buttons to push to make them do what the drouchont want. Many drouchont also travel to other nations from time to time to sell their charges in foreign markets, always making sure to talk about their beautiful and fruitful lands before going back.

Out of the many dangers lurking in the Land of the Drouchont, two particular places need special attention. The first one is the Sealed Grove to the north. The area was used long ago for the creation of the Facedancers, which the khenomeric magoclergy considered too dangerous to let live, but never really destroyed, leaving isolated and trapped in the Sealed Grove. The dark druids keep the ancient spells stopping the facedancers from exiting the region, however they had a critical design flaw: they stop facedancers from exiting, but they do nothing if someone else wants to move in and out. The facedancers use their shapeshifting abilities to camouflage themselves from the magical binds of the grove, exiting to cause untold damage wherever they go. The dark druids also monitor anyone who goes near the region, to prevent this exact situation. They also hunt down the facedancers, but since the dark druids cannot go far away, once a facedancer escapes the area, it is much harder to pursue and dispose of.

The other particularly dangerous place is the Realm of Dia’ul. The region was used by the Magoclergy for particularly dangerous and heretical magical experiments and summonings. The land has become twisted, with trees growing in impossible ways, looking withered and sickly, with moving shadows that do not match with their shape. The drouchont have had to sacrifice more to contain the dangers from Dia’ul than for any other of the menaces from their lands. Many dark druids have died fighting whatever entity escapes its confines from time to time. Fortunately for the drouchont, the horrors from Dia’ul cannot spew to many other areas. The horrors from within cannot move northwards, where the powers of the Goddess of Harmony are able to dispel their energies and shapes. They cannot move southwards, since the powers of the Forest of Getting Lost affect even the creatures from Dia’ul. And if not, the lumberlings will finish them off. And the human baronies from the Seven Castles frequently fight the creatures with surprising effectiveness (many humans over there believe the inhabitants from Dia’ul are not monsters, but corrupt fey, and the drouchont are happy to keep them in the dark). This means that the horrors from Dia’ul will try to push back towards the west most of the time, which helps the drouchont gathering their numbers to push them back in turn.

The constant requirement of sacrifices has pushed the dark druids more and more into the slave market. In particular, the dark druids have many contacts with the Cloaked Kingdom’s murder cults. The cults will provide the bodies and the dark druids will teach them forbidden spells and invocations. They will also team up together to hunt down in the lands of the Kayakker Dwarves, launching hit and run tactics to hunt down as many slaves as possible. They will also get slaves and prisoners from some of the nations that used to be part of the Northern Khenomeric Empire, with many of their leaders knowing the need for lives of the drouchont, and the many risks for the land if they do not get them.