Marmo

**The Dark Isle of Marmo**, situated to the southeast of the main island of Lodoss, is said to be the resting place of Kardis, the goddess of destruction. It is believed that the goddess’s corpse still sleeps and that is why the island is cursed. Blessings of nature are scarce, and many evil creatures and beasts live there, it is a tough place to survive. Due to these circumstances, criminals from the Kingdom of Alania and the Kingdom of Kanon, were exiled to the dark isle. The residents of Marmo follow the philosophy of the dark god: "The strong are those who live and thrive, and the dead are the only losers." This doctrine is spread by the cult of Falaris, who most of the inhabitant’s worship. Besides humans, dark sprites have a strong presence. In particular, the Dark Elves always occupy important positions among the forces of Marmo.

**Marmo Army**

Both the Dark Isle of Marmo and the kingdom of Kanon are governed by Marmo's social system. Those who live on Marmo Island say, "Those that live are the winners, the dead are the only losers." In order to survive amongst the dangerous Demon Beasts in the dreaded island, the inhabitants have to do whatever it takes, there is no room to be considerate to others. Brunei and Beld, the two men who had once unified Marmo, both subscribed to this mindset, as rulers of the Dark Isle.

Under Beld’s rule a terrifying empire that killed mercilessly reminiscent of the demons was created. Family, status, gender, and race have no bearing on the hierarchy of the empire. Everything is evaluated on ability. And those who have made a single mistake are punished severely. For this reason, the Dark Knights of the Marmo Empire have more females than the orders of knights of other countries. In the Kingdom of Kanon ruled by the Mamo Empire, most of the people occupying the region are humans, but there are also Dark Elves, as well as goblins and other lower ranking evil creatures.

**History of the founding of the Marmo Empire**

A tribe of barbarians founded a great temple to Kardis, Goddess of Destruction, on Marmo around the same time as the collapse of the Ancient Kingdom of Kastuul. Although the group did not achieve the unification of Marmo, they constructed a fortress above the subterranean temple, where Kardis’s body slept, to prevent invasion, called Persei Fortress. The chieftain of the tribe was Naneel, the Queen of the Dead. After establishing a foothold in Marmo, Naneel carried out the teachings of the destruction of Kardis in the land of Alania. Ignoring any plan of unification, Naneel was only interested in sabotaging the land of Alania by unleashing evil creatures and monsters into the land and corrupting the kingdom’s residence with the religion of Kardis.

According to the myths, Alania was the final resting place of Marfa, the Goddess of Creation. Therefore, the Marfa sect were the sworn enemies of the cult of Kardis. However, despite Naneel’s bests efforts, she was defeated and sealed by Kadomos, the founding king of the Kingdom of Alania in the 101st year of the New Kingdom Calendar. The power of the tribes that worshipped Kardis and their forces were suddenly weakened considerably, and the barbarians were driven into the forest by Kadomos and his expedition force.

The first unification of the dark isle was achieved after the collapse of the ancient kingdom. It was accomplished by a man named Brunei, who was originally a nobleman of the Kingdom of Kanon. Brunei, who entered the island of Marmo in the 263rd year of the New Kingdom Calendar, unified the residence of the island, partly through force and partly through stratagem; he forged a kingdom on Marmo through fear. It was said that Brunei had a long-cherished wish of making Marmo a rich land like Kanon. And in the 284th year of the New Kingdom Calendar, the Kingdom of Brunei was founded. In addition, two years later, a castle was constructed, using the Persei Fortress, which was built by the cult of Kardis, as a foundation. The fort was drastically remodelled and expanded to become fit to be the royal castle. This castle was named Castle Conquera.

However, King Brunei’s great ambition was not to be. In the 295th year of the New Kingdom Calendar, the captain of the Knights, Aresuta led a revolt and seized the throne. Yet his three sons-in-law, who married his daughters, abandoned him, and Brunei died, debilitating slowly in a hidden room in Castle Conquera. This inevitably led to a power struggle for the Kingdom of Brunei. The fate of the kingdom was sealed in the 306th year of the New Kingdom Calendar, when it was destroyed by the barbarians and Dark Elves of Darkwood, who took advantage of Brunei’s weakened state.

The second unification of Marmo occurred when one of the "Six Heroes", "The Red-haired Mercenary", Beld arrived on the dark isle. Beld was famous in Lodoss for defeating the Demon King in the "Deepest Labyrinth" and claiming the demon’s cursed sword, "Soul Crusher". Beld had returned to his hometown in Darkwood in the 494th year of the New Kingdom Calendar. And within three years he had united the barbarian tribes and the Dark Elves under his banner and was calling himself "The Dark Emperor". The full unification of the dark isle was completed after another three years. Thus, in the 500th year of the New Kingdom Calendar, the Marmo Empire was founded.

**The Marmo Empire in the year 473 New Kingdom Calendar**

The Dark Isle wasn’t spared from the demon outbreak that dominated the rest of Lodoss. The barbarians and dark sprites only coexisted in Marmo as there was no commander to unite them. They were too preoccupied with their tribal conflicts, fighting for supremacy. However, while the demons were centred on battling the Dark Elves, they were also having a hard time against the hordes of goblins, wood ogres and other evil creatures of Darkwood. The demons on the dark island, in anticipation of such a situation, didn't attack the inhabitants of Marmo as much as the Demons on the main island of Lodoss did. Even if one could dominate Marmo, like Flaim, it would be a harder obstacle to conquer.

**The Marmo Empire in the year 510 New Kingdom Calendar**

In the 510th year of the New Kingdom calendar, ten years after the unification, Emperor Beld launched an invasion on the Kingdom of Kanon, as part of his plan towards the unification of Lodoss. As a result, a conflict that was later called the "War of Heroes" commenced. However, Beld was defeated in a decisive battle on the outskirts of Roid. Defeated by Flaim's mercenary king Kashue, the Dark Emperor of Marmo lost his life, and his ambition was crushed. After the "War of Heroes", the Marmo Empire, who lost their emperor, chose for influential figures to govern the council. These figures were the "General in Black" Ashram, "Black Wizard" Wagnard, "Supreme Priest" Shoder and "Dark Elf Chieftain" Luseb,

**The Marmo Empire in the years 512-515 New Kingdom Calendar**

There was little progress for the empire for the five years succeeding the death of the emperor, and the war remained stagnant. Ashram set out to gain ultimate rulership of Lodoss via a magical treasure said to be guarded by one of the Five-Chromatic Dragons that the Last Governor of Lodoss, from the ancient kingdom, had cursed. However, the quest for the "Sceptre of Domination" ended in failure, and Ashram disappeared. Meanwhile in Kanon, the commoners of Marmo were flooding the land to make new lives for themselves. Temples of Falaris were erected and the Dark Elves had cleared Kanon’s forests of Common Elves and taken up residence there. The Free Army of Kanon was forming underground to rebel against the Marmo oppression. And the empires were making ties with the current regent of Alania.

**The Marmo Empire in the year 525 New Kingdom Calendar**

The Marmo Empire still occupied the Kingdom of Kanon twenty five years after their initial invasion. Living conditions had only just started to improve under the governance of Ashram. However, this was against the will of the Marmo Council, who demanded for Ashram to return to Marmo and be stripped of his position, due to his failure at Adan. Despite this he defied their will and continued to govern Kanon. However, that same year, Kanon was finally released from their oppression by the combined forces of Valis, Flaim and the Free Army of Kanon led by Reona. Not only that but the united armies sailed to Marmo where they were joined with the Dragon Knights of Moss. Together these forces purged the evil forces of the dark isle of Marmo. The result was that Marmo would become a duchy of the Kingdom of Flaim and the capital was renamed Windis.

Location: Persei/Darktown , Salbad/City of Shadows , Darkwood , Windis , River of Mourning