Diocese of Baneshire

**Ruler**
 **Ruling House**
 **Seat**
 **Settlements**
 **Beliefs**

The Diocese Baneshire is a small, squalid region named after the village it represents. Situated on the northeastern most edges of the Red Reach, its inhabitants struggle day-to-day between all manner of monsters, but most dreadful of all are demonic stragglers.

Despite their issues, or perhaps because of them, its inhabitants are particularly devout. Travellers describe the meagre holding as a de-facto theocracy, on account of its lack of a proper ruling lord. They are suspicious and wary of travelers, whom they are ever concerned are possessed by the demons beyond.

## History

Baneshire was founded as the result of a Lord Pettigon's attempts to secure additional land for himself and his family. The colony was founded during the era of peace after the Second War, but those who followed him quickly realized that the peace did not extend unto them.

For much of Baneshire's early history, it looked to the protection of Blessed Rock, a keep named because it was built around allegedly the only green to be found at the time. Woe unto the villagers, however, when the keep's gates shut once and for all, never to re-open. Lord Pettigon was not seen since, and the few who have managed to sneak into the castle claim that it is a den of horrible villainy and sin, all humanity lost and replaced by demons.

With this bastion of evil lurking over them, and pleas the capital unanswered, the villagers naturally gravitated to faith. The priests became not just counselors, but administrators and war leaders as well. Indeed, the priests were extraordinarily well trained in the ways of exorcism, and thus the village itself was often a place of safety against the inhuman menace.

For much of its history it has been scarcely a footnote in history, its people slowly becoming more, and more distant from the greater crownlands culture as the hellish environment forced them to adapt. Those few to leave the village are often regarded strangely; while the culture of the wider kingdoms has progressed throughout the decades, isolation and paranoia have set the denizens of Baneshire in the past. Only the priests are truly knowledgable about the wider world, overseeing matters of trade. It was during these first trade excursions that the would-be Barony of Baneshire was changed to a Diocese to reflect the land's new masters.

## Culture

The denizens of Baneshire are fiercely devout, arguably to the point of extremism. With few other options, they have found safety and succor in the Light, ostensibly nurtured by the priestly caste that guides and commands them. While the wider community has progressed to greater tolerance to the likes of Death Knights and Warlocks, this village has hardly aged at all, and travelers who consort with the darker powers are often advised to avoid this town.

Yet, their isolation has also birthed a myriad of superstitions and deviations from the wider Church. Though to what extent these are enabled is a hotly-contested topic amongst the priesthood, no small number of clerics partake in rituals and sky-watching, if only to provide comfort and answers to the stressed populace. Altogether, the populace has adjusted to life without noble lords, and some are particularly resentful, predominantly for reasons concerning the first Lord Pettigon. The clerics hold absolute control and are held in even higher regard than much of the rest of the kingdom.

Inhabitants of Baneshire are rough and grim, despite their faith, and are well-versed in a myriad of skills that are required for survival.

## Settlements

### Baneshire

Baneshire is a village in the scarcest definition of the term. The largest building is a stone church, housing the members of the clergy both within and around it, and behind the church lays an impressively vast graveyard, regularly tended to. The Church itself is said to have been infused with blessings upon its construction, so it provides a place of shelter in case of attack from demons. It rests atop a crimson rock overlooking the rest of the hovels.

The rest of the town's buildings are constantly in limbo of disrepair, with a handful of buildings making a circle in which basic town functions, from gatherings to exorcisms, are conducted. The most valuable of all structures here is the village well, which is fiercely guarded day and night. From here, scattered houses are spread across the red rock, typically hosting small farms of corn. Sometimes, these buildings are abandoned for various reasons, from the family no longer feeling safe there to the inhabitants simply going missing.

Circling around the village proper are various bulwarks and palisades. Despite the Church's blessings, more conventional defenses are required to combat the occasional murloc raid.

### Blessed Rock

Blessed Rock is the name of the Keep that rests on the highest point of Baneshire. It is said that at its sight, a patch of green grass was miraculously discovered, and it would have filled out the courtyard as a sign of the lord's divine right. More tower than fortress, it stands as a constant reminder of the troubles of the Blasted Lands, and the price of arrogance.

The once-white stone has turned a wretched black, and those who venture too near feel a sense of paranoia and unease. Few venture here for this reason alone, but ever since its solid-truesilver gates slammed shut, other terrors keep the denizens away. Lord Pettigon has not been seen since, nor has his knights or his castle guard, leaving some to believe they had all perished. A few brave souls have ventured to the Keep, and some even claim to have found ways into the keep proper. Those that return insist that it the interior of the keep is the stuff of nightmares. No human no longer walks its halls, so they say, but the unmistakable cackling of demons echo its halls. Many more do not return.

When the news of this keep made its rounds through the wider kingdom, adventurers after the Third War occasionally made their way here, with intent to conquer the keep and its riches. Though these adventurers were viewed with suspicion in Baneshire, they were treated decently well on account of their quest. Not a single party has ever made it back, and soon adventurers stopped coming altogether.