The Faith The Evil About Algandy Places People Legal System

THE FAITH (The Lady)

The Golden Empire worshipped a varied and constantly expanding pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, including the cult of the Emperor Deified. With the coming of the barbarians all but one of the religions collapsed, and that religion was wounded and changed. Initially know as the Twins, the sister of Light and the sister of Darkness was a religion emphasising balance, stability and learning. When the Emperor was murdered this single act was considered to be vile enough to unbalance the world and topple the Empire, so momentous was the act that the sister of Light was slain. As the barbarians swept across the empire the sister of Darkness went mad with sorrow, temple altars cracked, priests killed themselves and the end was upon the world.

Gradually the Goddess came back to her senses, and with fury sent storms to blight the barbarians meanwhile inspiring the leaders of the few remaining legions to great acts. The barbarians were halted at four great battles, each a desperate struggle for the survival of civilisation, the League was born and with it a new faith.

The sister of Darkness tried to compensate for the loss of balance caused by the death of her sibling became the Grey Lady, also known as the Maiden of Sorrows (for the tears she shed for men and Gods) or simply the Lady. The tenets of the faith were simple and for everyone, it was the duty of all to protect civilisation from the forces of barbarism, and as the barbarians had been inspired by the Evil then the Evil was the ultimate enemy and must be fought wherever it was found. In the early years the Faith was instrumental in brokering the alliance that became the League, later military religious orders were formed to expand the Leagues boundaries and to bring war unto the servants of Evil. On occasions when the barbarians have risen up again to attack the League the Faith has declared crusades and sent tens of thousands of men-at-arms southwards and eastwards.

In the modern day the Churches new enemy is spiritual complacency in the populace and the progress of science. In the heartland of the League the barbarian frontier is a long way away, there has been no invasion or crusade for centuries, the military orders have become moneylenders and political brokers, even some priest no longer believe in Evil as a physical thing. New technology, particularly the printing press is frowned upon, now books of magic can be mass-produced and spread, encouraging more servants of Evil whom would never have been able to find someone to teach them the rituals. The world is changing rapidly and the church is losing it control over the souls of the people.

(With thanks to Mark Matthews who gave me the idea)

THE EVIL

From its location beyond the lands of men its sends out waves of corrupting energy, invisible to the eye that fuel magic. Anyone can tap into this flow of energy, anywhere within the League, as long as they know the correct incantation and are desperate enough to carry out the ritual. Power comes swiftly to the magician, the ability to curse his enemies, to tip the odds of fate in his favour, leads to wealth and influence, but as in all things there is a price. Each time magic is used there is a chance that it will twist its user, the more frequently magic is used the more likely it is that the practitioner will be affected. Mutations caused by magic could be as minor as a squint or paleness of the skin through to horns, a multiple extra eyes, or a complete change of shape. Horrifying as physical mutation can be they are as nothing compared to the mutations of the mind, madness, phobias, strange urges and compulsions, are but some of the possible effects.

Eventually all traces of humanity are gone and the former magician runs off into the woods and mountains as a creature of evil, a beastman. Often these find each other and band together as packs of monstrosities attacking and killing whenever they can, most over time start to drift eastwards as if summoned by their master.

Not only magicians are affected by the Evil, people of weak will or simple mind often are snared as are those whose hearts are truly black with evil deed. Then there are pagans, hidden deep in the quiet places of the League, in the forests and mountains, and deep within caves. They practice the old ways as they were before the coming of faith, often degenerate and inbred they are willing servants of the Evil in the false belief that it is one of their Gods or spirits.

Closer to the Evil, along the barbarian border of Algandy and in the barbarians lands themselves the power of magic is stronger. There the dead do not rest easy in the ground, but rise and walk again seeking to destroy the living and serve the Evil. The time it takes a body to rise depends upon the state of the deceased's conscious and how close to the evil they are. In Algandy it takes around seven days to rise, and only then if the person was already tainted, for some of the barbarians the dead can be up again within hours. No matter what condition the body is in or whether it rose naturally or at the command of necromancy, they are known universally as the Lost.

The Lost are not the only creatures of the Evil, other things exist in legend, cockatrices and jack-in-the-greens, hydras and dragons, all originally natural creatures warped by magic.

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