Visalaire, Domain of Dread

Visalaire (pronounced: *vis-a-LER*) is a Domain of Dread; one of the many dreaded demiplanes located in remote corners of the Shadow Plane. It was spawned by the Dark Powers in order to torment the narcissist and former knight Judith Erinea D’alrose, the domain’s darklord who is missing her head. The Powers use the Mists surrounding the domain of dread to bring people in, sometimes randomly and sometimes intentionally. The Mists of Visalaire can appear anywhere around the multiverse, and trap people in the domain. They most frequently appear on Aldmeer though, the home world of Judith.

## The Curse of Visalaire

Visalaire contains numerous machinations designed to bring despair to its darklord. It has things such as horrifying trees called Death’s Head Trees, from which heads dangle like foul fruit. Judith is cursed, and sees in some of the heads of the trees her own head. In reality it is an illusion viewable only by her, despite her truesight. Of course such trees further reflect the torment of the darklord and give dread to any unfortunate soul trapped in Visalaire.

Judith, the darklord, is also cursed to always see the heads of humanoids looking like her own head; driven for eternity to seek the one who truly has her actual head. When she claims a head she severs, she truly believes that the head is her own, until it starts looking less and less like hers and then falls off of her after a short while at which point she will realize it’s not her head. She then starts her search again, taking to the lands around Visalaire and sending her undead riders and Vargouilles to find her head. Of course no matter what Judith does she will never find her true head, and the more she realizes that the heads she claims are not her head the more she is convinced that she is closing in finding it, unreasonably thinking that next time will be different. The lands around her castle are filled with dozens upon dozens of discarded heads; many of them are Death’s Heads loitering around, serving the will of the darklord and attacking any trespassers on sight, as she believes that none is worthy of approaching her castle without an invitation. The curse of Visalaire can sometimes transform such a discarded head into a Vargouille. Judith uses these Vargouilles as scouts and servants, ever on the lookout for her true head.

The castle seated upon a plateau in the center of Visalaire is dubbed by the trapped villagers of this domain as Castle Guillotine because anyone that enters it risks decapitation. This is reinforced by the fact that the only map for the domain also calls it Castle Guillotine. However, its ''official'' name given to it by the darklord is Castle D’alrose. The Castle is the lair of Judith Erinea D’alrose, and any skeletal rider and Vargouille comes from there and the lands around it.

Visalaire also contains various medium-sized walking statues of finely sculpted marble, depicting a warrior woman’s body complete with a marble likeness of Judith’s head. These roaming marble constructs are spawned from the darklord’s sheer vanity and their mere existence torments her; another way that the Dark Powers torture her. Of course at the same time Judith cannot bring herself to destroy said statues, as destroying her perfect visage would be nothing short of a sacrilege. These walking statues are harmless most of the time but they will voicelessly attack anyone that comes close to 5 feet of them or anyone that threatens them in any way, while retaining their unchanging grimace.

This cursed land is also home to various horrors besides the servants of Judith, and the Death’s Head trees along with their foul ''fruit''. Horrors like the boneless which are created when a skeleton rises from a corpse that Judith has slain leaving behind a husk of skin and meat that slithers and flops. Ghosts, banshees, wraiths and other apparitions that rise from the tormented spirits trapped in this domain that are unable to find rest also roam around; these are just some of the horrors and dangers Visalaire harbors. Some twisted creatures from other realms are also drawn here like some hags and their creations.

In some especially cursed places, the land itself shifts and grows flesh that takes the form of the lost face of Judith. Such places can be as small as tiny in size or huge. They don’t speak and instead only growl, yell and laugh, and sometimes try to eat creatures that stand on them. There can and have been times when the land suddenly changed form, grew meat and a face in the span of seconds and swallowed the creatures that stood in place and then changed back to how the land was originally. Judith herself hates these occurrences as she finds that they are tasteless and stain her perfect visage by being loud, disgusting piles of stray meat that disgustingly eat creatures in a very non-elegant way. They also remind her of her living moments when she was less than the perfect person she said she was; the instances when her striving perfection showed flaws.

The Mists enclose the borders of Visalaire which Judith almost always keeps closed. When the borders are closed the Mists grow thicker and screams can be heard inside them, belonging to those that Judith killed in life. Spectral heads eerily reminiscent of Judith's missing head fly around, tormenting anyone that treads. The inside also smells of burning and smoke even though fire is nowhere to be seen, and the sound of crackling wood and of falling debris fill the area where someone walks after a time. No matter how far someone manages to travel within the Mists when the borders are closed, they get turned around and eventually end up where they started, often exhausted.

## Communities in Visalaire

Trapped people in this domain of dread have formed various communities such as villages. Such places are temporary respites from the land's horrors. Of course, only a fool would let their guard down in Visalaire, even in such villages as most things hide something wicked in this land. However, even in these areas, one can sometimes see a Vargouille flying overhead, or see a skeletal rider in the horizon. Of course there are natives to this domain as well. Be that as it may, everyone knows about the domain's ruler, as well as the Mists in the edges of Visalaire. People avoid the Mists like they avoid the darklord's forces when they have nothing to offer them. To them, the Mists are unknown and dangerous as there have been instances where people go in and are never heard from again. From time to time someone brave or foolish enough will risk going into the Mists in order to try to leave the domain; most of the time they return from where they started but sometimes they disappear forever; their fate unknown.

The denizens and villagers that are trapped and live in Visalaire know that it isn't a good omen when the Mists grow thicker. They know that seeing a Vargouille is never a good omen as well, and also know to hide whenever they hear bones rumbling, or galloping accompanied with the wail and screams of a woman in the night. They refer to Judith as the Headless Lady, although they all know or learn her real name at some point.

The villagers of Visalaire are tormented by continuous patrols of skeletal riders and fiendish flying heads that are the Vargouilles; ever sleeping with the fear that at any moment their village can be selected for a raid by these monsters while they are searching for heads to bring their dark mistress.

Villages have come to the conclusion that if they find the so-called Headless Lady a head, they will be spared by the raids and searches of her forces, at least for a time. As such, they are always in the search of strangers to behead. A band of adventurers stumbling upon such a village can find the villagers being these sympathetic civilians that in time will kindly ask and plead to be allowed to kill a number of said band in order to send the deceased’s heads to the darklord. If refusal is expressed they will tend to get more insistent to the point of force. The only exception to this is Noringbloom, a certain village that refuses to kill and risks assaults by Judith’s forces in order to punish them. Noringbloom also abstains from taking part in the Headless Lady’s grim contests, refusing to serve her dark mind and play at her twisted games. By doing so, Noringbloom is risking the wrath of the Headless Lady even more. There have been a number of raids in the village in the past and it always ends when one or more villagers are taken as potential candidates.

Villagers typically avoid travelling as the land is deadly, but those who do have to be extra careful because each village might kill not only someone from the outside world but also someone from other villages.

The following villages are such communities as described above.

### Ylefer

This village in the foothills of a mountain is the most decided to find heads for Judith. The villagers attack unsuspecting strangers on sight with no questions asked; the only exceptions are the Vistani caravans that rarely pass through. The villagers have hidden crypts under the village in case they need to hide from powerful enemies or Judith herself. It is said that the crypts were built by a vampire, however no proof of that has ever been found. In rare instances, hunted people find these crypts and hide there from the villagers only to discover that they are run by the villagers.

### Fouldew

This settlement produces a red, honey-like substance from some of this land's weird plants which is called fouldew. The village took its name from the product. While this substance is somehow nutritious if a bit bitter, there is a chance that it inflicts the consumer with hallucinations. As such, people from Fouldew are always under one hallucination or another. Some are harmless and some are not.

### Grivanna

Grivanna is a settlement that is ruled by the night hag called Auntie Eyebags. Various hagspawn also live here, children of the hag. Other humanoids that live here are afraid of the hag but are powerless against her and her children. Some of the villagers say that she brought prosperity to the hamlet with her concoctions and spells though, and are glad she came to the village. Like the people from other villages, most Grivanna locals will behead strangers to please Judith. After Auntie Eyebags gives the heads to Judith, she uses the rest of the remains for various purposes and experiments. The hag was seen by Judith when she arrived and made a deal with the darklord; as long as the hag serves Judith she will be not only be left alone, but also given ingredients such as entrails and brains or other detritus that Judith does not need after the contests. However, there are some people that even the hag does not want or deems useless even by her standards. Hagspawn that disappointed her in some way or villagers that disobeyed her are exiled to the Woods of the Unwanted near the village. There, their fate is sealed.

### Sjadroth

This swamp village located in the Quagmires is home to a community of lizardfolk and it means ''hunting ground'' in draconic. These lizardfolk appear polite and accommodating much like most villagers of other settlements and want to kill and behead visitors as is common. However, after they kill outsiders they also eat them leaving only the head intact. Lizardfolk from Sjadroth are more vicious than the rest of their kind; Visalaire somehow changed them and caused them to become much paler and to develop sharper talons and teeth for their hunts. They have become so precise and voracious that they will instantly devour any humanoid they render unconscious killing them instantly.

### Castrele

Another village who is afraid and is desperate to bring Judith heads. Its mayor weeps every time they kill someone but he perseveres for the sake of his village.

### Sprigfair

This friendly looking village always welcomes strangers in its Red Carpet Inn. However, as soon as visitors step inside the inn the floor gives way and they fall in a deep spiked pit. Those corpses with their heads intact are taken and beheaded while the others are moved to the caverns next to the village and given to the chained Hydra for food.

### Muer

This village looks seemingly more or less the same as other villages. However, every building and object there is in fact a mimic. Muer is a mimic colony hailing from Aseldis in Aldmeer. The mimics have cooperated with people who had nowhere to go and made a village for the betterment of the lives for both the villagers and the mimics. The deal was that anything the villagers hunted they would also give to the mimics, plus any body waste was also given to the mimics for nourishment. Life was good for this community until an outlaw came running and yelling that eerie mists were haunting him. When he arrived and spent a night in the colony, the whole village was enveloped in the Mists and appeared in Visalaire. Now trapped in the domain of dread, the villagers and the mimics do all they can to survive, including killing strangers and offering their heads to Judith. Anywhere in Muer is potentially a deathtrap as everywhere and everything has its eyes out for the perfect moment to kill.

### Noringbloom

A village that tries to resist Judith and refrains from killing people for their heads and its villagers do not participate in Judith's contests. It has paid dearly countless times for this, but Judith always leaves it standing on purpose. It was founded by Lucien Noringbloom, the person who was the first to accurately map Visalaire. Copies of his map exist in every village; not that they actually see much use though.

## Escape

The Mists trap anyone who enters Visalaire as the Dark Powers make sure that their grip is tight. No one can leave once entering as Judith almost always keeps Visalaire's borders closed in order to keep potential candidates that carry her ''true head'' inside. There are only two ways to leave this cursed land; kill the darklord or give her a chopped-off head that she wants. When Judith has a head she will open the borders, but will close them soon enough upon the realization that it is not her true head once it falls off her; that usually happens around 30 days. In the event Judith is killed, anyone in Visalaire is free to leave through the mists posthaste before she returns. The Dark Powers always bring Judith back to life typically after 6 to 12 days.