Haimabelos

Haimabelos, also balled the Bloody Sphere, is a sphere engulfed in near endless fighting. The Oecumene uses the world to punish criminals and hardened warriors. There is little order on the sphere outside the Bleeding Priests and those dangerous enough to carve out a kingdom of their own.

## History

A sphere born in the Golden Age and was once an ideal paradise like the others. However in the First Flood the fiends of the Antithesis came to this sphere and ceaselessly fought the Celestials for eons and eons. The blood of countless numbers soaked into the soil and populated the lakes turning it red. The Blackened Butcher was drawn to the sphere to hunt and slaughter his enemy, making it his hunting ground. When the Butcher joined the forces of Creation he was gifted the sphere.

In the Silver Age the children of the Butcher build great fortresses of black stone from which they fought eternal wars for the enjoyment of their father. The children of the Bucher became the greatest warriors in all of creation. When the forces of Antithesis launched their second invasion and the Consumer convinced the Butcher to side with them Haimabelos became a bastion of evil in Creation. The forces of Creation launched a series of invasions that all broke against the black stone fortresses of the children of the butcher. When mortality infected Creation the sphere become coated in the soulfog from the countless dead, which turned the tide of battle when even the defenders were overran from the souls of dead. When the Shepherd of Dead was born one of his first was to gather the soulfog from Haimabelos. As the fog recede the arms of creation struck at the beleaguered defenders and broke their mighty bastions. Lel-Wani defeated the Blacked Butcher, for death cannot truly be beaten with violence, the new god held the Butcher as the ruins of the black stone fortresses were used to build the Kennel.

Since the Bronze Age the Oecumene have used the sphere as a prison and training ground sending criminals and hopefuls to fight in the eternal war that rages across it, Many Orc and Hobgoblin tribes come to the sphere to relish in battle, many of the greatest warrior of these species will become warriors in the elite units of the Oecumene. Additionally mercenary companies come to the world to recruit strong warriors. The Gnoll survivors from the Second Flood would found numerous clans who wander the sphere attacking all they come across, they still worship their imprinted father and are among the greatest dangers on the sphere.

## Locations

**Kennel:** The Kennel is a city sized fortress guarded by the Bleeding Priests. Deep below the Kennel the Blackened Butcher remains chained with the greatest chains forged by Dza-baa-baa. The many Corpse Collectors bring the dead of Haimabelos to the Kennel throwing the dead into the Butcher's Cage to feat the traitor. While the gathered weapons and armor are forged into bolts that are fired into the Butcher to keep it in pain forever. The Bleeding Priests channel the fury of their own prisoners to keep him forever bound.

**Field of Broken Banners:** Surrounding the Kennel for miles are a field of ceaseless banners of long forgotten factions, tribes and companies. The Corpse Collectors plant collected banners into the field each time they pass. Many Domain of War clerics comes to worship here and see it as a great altar to the gods of war and battle.

**Mercenaries' Hold:** A permeant settlement defended behind great walls where a strict peace is enforced by the Black Banner Battalion. Within the hold mercenaries can come to the do business with one another or clients with a certainty that there will not be attempted betrayal. The hold is watched over by the Ebon Margrave who leads Black Banner Battalion.

**City of Skins:** The City of Skins is the nomadic tent city of flayed skin tents that acts as the capital of the Gnolls. The Gnolls seek to be close to their ancestor the Blackened Butcher, imprisoned in the Kennel, and so flocked to Haimabelos in the wake of the Second Flood. The city moves as the Gnolls slaughter their way across Haimabelos. Outsiders are rarely welcomed but with a decree from a Packlord they can move between the flayed skin tents flapping in the winds in peace.

**Ebonhaust:** The monks of Ebonhaust founded their monastery among the blackened stone ruins of a broken fortress. The monastery defenders refuse to take a life and will only defend themselves when attacked, however those inside often practice pacifism making Ebonhaust a single peaceful place in a tumult of violence. Many pacifists will make the Pilgrimage to Ebonhaust to show they're defiance to the otherwise violent sphere.