Land of the Lord descended from the sky

At the furthest point of the Peacock Ogre habitat lies the **Land of the** ***Lord who had Cometh from the Sky***. In the twilight, less than four decades ago a grand knocking echoed trough the east.

A knocking seemingly coming from everywhere all at once, causing many to go deaf, then it stopped. Only the people of the peninsula know what happened for the Lord had cometh, shards of reality itself had reigned onto the ground and out of a great hole in the sky He merely star[t?]ed at them.

He was appeased by sacrifice and if pleased sufficiently he'd knock more chunks of reality out giving them as gifts to the local to fashion glass-looking weapons and armor out of.

No one knows what will happen once the Lord finally chooses to descend onto the mortal plain, but a grand staircase is being built so that if he one day chooses to do so He may do so comfortably and hopefully spares His devoted servants.

## History

The lands on the south of the Pinewood Peninsula have been populated by a multitude of small towns for millennia. Much less bellicose than their neighbors in the north, they dedicated their energies in agriculture and husbandry. The Khenomeric Empire’s control of the lands to the north managed to influence part of these territories, but the land was simply too far away from any relevant resource, and thus their influence over it was nominal. The khenomeri presented themselves as protectors, keeping the city-states to the north in check, in exchange for good trade conditions. The locals traded with the khenomeri for the interesting products coming from the empire, but overall, the region was too poor and backwards to participate in deeper trade. The gradual loss of power of the Khenomeric Empire left the populations of the south of the Pinewood Peninsula without a trading partner, and the area became quite isolated, since the populations never really developed a decent trading fleet. The seas were frequently visited by pirates and by warships from Voita and Malagsh pushing against piracy, but mostly to fight each other.

Southern Pinewood soon became embroiled in the eternal war between the Kingdom of Voita and the Empire of Malagsh. The hundreds of towns of the region were pressured to support one side or another, or to give away their produce to feed the foreign armies. This generated a lot of tension in the area, with many attempts to fend off the invaders. However, the northern nations were much more bellicose, and had developed a great navy, which they used to pressure the few coastal towns to move further inland, simply because any town at the shores would be ransacked by the navies of Voita and Malagsh. Their respite would come with the curse of the Forest of Bloody Vengeance. While the unnatural forest grew over quite a portion of territories in the south, its expansion focused against Voita and Malagsh, slowly crippling their ability to pressure the towns to the south. The arrival of the drunig colonists also helped immensely. The Kingdom of Drunigzar, in the search of land to colonize, arrived to the south of Pinewood and found a fertile land inhabited by welcoming populations. Many of these towns saw them as providers, not only due to the presents they brought to allow the colonies to be set up, but because drunig trade was quite profitable, their economy always hungry for foodstuffs. This saw a great deal of cooperation between local towns and the new settlers, and the drunig authorities began the planning for many more colonies alongside the coast.

The good relation between the two would take a drastic turn in the year 3.122 ABE. The fall of a meteorite at the southern edge of the Forest of Bloody Vengeance would change the history of the land dramatically. This was not just a celestial phenomenon, its fall would turn out to be much more sinister. The fall of the comet would be followed by a rain of a strange material, which would later be called “reality”. The effects of this substance were noticed quickly by the drunig colonists, whose distance from the impact had shielded them from the worst of the blast. The “reality”, in small quantities and under prolonged contact, caused loss of conscience and maddened rambling, with peaks of violence if exposed long enough. The drunig authorities quickly ordered the disposal of the substance. The local towns, much closer to the comet’s fall and without access to wizards or proper medical personnel to study the effects of “reality”, were much more vulnerable, and slowly but surely, the local population fell under its spell.

From this point on, the only chronicles we have available are the testimonies of the drunig survivors, which makes trying to know what exactly happened a difficult task. But we can piece together that the effects of the “reality”, in closer proximity and for prolonged periods, changed the people of the region. The dark entity powering the strange substance took control of the population, forcing those unwilling to submit to be either brainwashed through “reality” or killed in extremely gruesome ways. The local population, almost in its entirety, both the human and the peacock ogre tribes living in the area, fell under the spell of the so called “Lord Descended”. This led to a massive war between the now cultists and the colonies of Drunigzar, in a conflict that is now known as the War of the Lord Descended. The war was short, but brutal. The cultists threw themselves almost completely against the settlers, in human waves, barely armed and armored, against the drunig colonists and later the Drunig Expeditionary Force. There was barely any strategy, only charging again and again at the enemy. The drunig forces, though surprised and caught off guard, were able to push back the seemingly endless numbers through well planned defenses, though their casualties were also great, including the destruction of the colony of Bibiferno, still abandoned to this day.

After the discovery and the destruction of the Blue Stairs, the unholy icon of the cultists, they scattered across the region. The drunig forces were able to destroy near all remaining cultist activity, and after five years without attacks, they declared the war done. Nowadays, these lands are nearly empty of population, with any cultist population hidden from the drunig patrols, always on guard in case of another cultist attack against the colonies. The land is still contaminated by “reality”, and all who dare enter the region are thoroughly warned about its insidious effects.

## The desert of “Reality”

Since the War of the Lord Descended, the lands south of the Pinewood Peninsula are a demographic desert. The massive losses the locals suffered during the war were crippling, especially considering that the madness of “Reality” affected men, women and children. Thus, the once densely populated region is now practically empty. The few locals who managed to escape from the effects of the cursed material were inside the drunig colonies at the time, and are now part of the colonial life, having been absorbed into their society entirely. Many are horrified about what happened to their people, and prefer living without their neighbors knowing their origins, to avoid potential exclusion or discrimination.

The lives of the cultists nowadays are poorly documented. The few surviving cultists live hidden from the drunig patrols, attacking unsuspecting farmers and herders outside of the walls of the colonies and going back to the shadows before the authorities can react. We do not know how their society or economy works, since the effect of the “reality” is still present in them, even after all these years, and will attack outsiders on sight. There has been sightings of cultists too young to have been born before the war, which tells us that the cultists are still converting their descendants into the madness of “reality”. Effects that seem to be irreversible. The few captured cultists have been brought to many doctors, wizards and alchemists, and not even one of them has been able to break the spell the unnatural substance has over them. However, extensive studies have shown the drunig ways to block the effects of “reality”, which amount to heavy, isolating clothes bathed in certain alchemical substances and protected with magical runes. These vests are used to clean up pieces of discovered “reality”, transporting them safely to dumping zones, encasing them in volcanic cement (always reinforced with magical runes for further protection) and then throw them into deep crevices or in the deepest areas of the ocean. They are not perfect, however, and they have to be discarded after certain period of use.

The land is still covered in bits and pieces of “reality”. The drunig authorities know about its malignant effects, and they forbade its use or possession under penalty of death. Many cultists have been detected accumulating pieces of “reality”, to be used for their malignant rituals or to create tools imbued with the substance. There have been discoveries of totemic creations in the shape of turtles, which seems to be a sacred icon for the cultists. The remnants of the Blue Stairs, while having lost some of its more dangerous effects, it still concentrates too much “reality” to be safely disposed of, even with the latest protective suits. This means that the area has to be watched over constantly, to keep the cultists from rebuilding the monstrous construction. The Fortress of Corpses still watches over the land, and a great wall has been built around the area, big enough to keep a safe distance from the remains of the stairs. The area is, even now, approached by cultists, and the drunig have to always stay on guard to avoid cultists from entering the ring.