Ruladniir, Home of The Portal

"In days of old, when life was young.

When chaos was unheard of and peace was the sole essence of
the world.
When guards were unneeded and ‘criminal’ wasn’t a word.
There resided one who believed that it couldn’t last forever and
that chaos would ring out.
Training where other refused to, he prepared, became the
greatest there was, the one who was ready for the inevitable.
After fulfilling his duty and staving the chaos until others were
prepared, the hero became corrupt.
To this day none know his name or what trade he trained in, they
only know that upon his death a portal appeared in his death
place.
Building a city around this rift in space, the people called their
city Ruladniir after what most remember, vaguely that is, the
hero’s name to be and practically worshipped the portal.
People have tried to enter the portal and after so many attempts
the departed either were never seen again or were indeed seen,
but only as a dead husk of what used to be a person.
If I have any advice for you, it’s to stay away from that city if you
have half a brain…unless you think you can handle whatever is
on the other side of that portal, that is, and trust me, you don’t
want to see what’s beyond that portal, it’ll scar you for life I tell
ya."
-Taburan Raizen, Former Sage of Ruladniir, Only known survivor of
the portal. Said to one who was about to enter the portal but was
convinced otherwise. This was the last anybody heard from
Taburan.

The Story of Drableces Veay

Long ago, in the fortress of the Fiend lords, a pact was being
settled between the demons and devils, this was the pact that
would choose the fate of the planes, leaving them subject to the
will of the fiends…there was one poor soul who willed this pact
not to come into existence…One poor soul who thought he had a
chance…One poor soul who goes by the name of Drableces Veay.
A great and wonderful paladin, Drableces had slain many an evil
dragon and all too many town-ravaging beasts. Given the
blessing of the angel prince, Yaralon, and the gift of the satyr king
Ophenai, Drableces was a charming hero, known across the land
for his heroic deeds and wondrous abilities. Many know him for
preventing the slaadi invasion on the material plane…but such
things don’t come at no cost. The casualties he had seen that day
were many, healing the wounded and burying the dead,
Drableces had neglected to mend his own wounds, the one that
rent so deep into his side, yet left no pain…only the pain many
years later of finding the slaad lord, Ashanegal, invading his
mind. His attempts to find a healer for his mind, body, and soul
were pointless as the paladin found no healers for the deepest
cut. After finding an old witch he asked her what could heal him
and the only response that escaped the old lady’s lips was “Bring
me devil blood.” After searching for many months he found a seer
able to tell him where he could find a devil with a surefire chance.
Along with telling him about the fiends gathering in a hellish
fortress, she also told him of their plan…to seal a treaty of peace
between the two fiendish races and to invade the planes,
wreaking havoc and mayhem across the worlds.
After hearing of the fiends’ plans from the seer, Drableces asked
the seer to take him to the fortress, so he could attempt to stop
the fiendish invasion.
Standing at the gates of the fortress made the noble, prideful
paladin begin to reconsider the attack, but he had to, for the sake
of the planes and himself, for the sanity of his own being and for
the life of all the innocents who would be mercilessly and
torturously killed. Saying a quick prayer to the gods to grant him
the strength and willpower to slay the fiend lords, Drableces
approached the gates and used a charm one of the seers gave
him to bore a whole through the black iron gates, disintegrating
that part of the gates completely.
Walking the halls of this foul place, Drableces began to lose his
sanity, hearing the whispers of Ashanegal along with the
whispers of all the poor souls who had been tortured and killed in
those bloodstained halls of bone.
After much time, Drableces had found the door to the war room,
the room that would be purified by this paladin and never used
again to plot the death of the innocent. Opening the door, the
holy one walked in, facing down the fiends, hefting up his shield,
and drawing his mighty mace from his side.
After an epic battle between the most holy of paladins and the 8
most powerful fiends of the planes, Drableces stood up on top,
nearly a lifeless heap of flesh. But instead, fate had shone for him
that glorious day…that day, known so much as the start of the
blood war…the day that the fiend armies found their generals
slaughtered and themselves arguing amongst themselves about
who had done it, eventually coming to a conclusion that is was
the fault of the other side, starting in a dispute that ended up in
the commencing of bloodshed and brawling…all the ‘cause of the
paladin who’s holy aspect was hidden from the fiends by the evil
slaadi enchanter within him, creating a fiendish visage of evil…
this was Drableces the holy…This, is the story of the first warlock.
***
Now, you are probably wondering what I'm getting at with this…
well, take some time, sit on back, and listen to the tale, of one
man, who found salvation, in damnation…
***
After becoming the most foul being to walk the planes, Drableces
Veay, the first warlock, sought freedom from the multiple
personalities within him: Ashanegal, the slaad lord; Yaralon the
angel prince; Ophenai, the Satyr King of the woods; Graegnore,
the head of the Demons that he had slain that fateful day; and
Taleniphore, the head of the slain devils…as you can tell,
Drableces was torn to pieces from each individual lord of power
residing within his mind. Finding the witch that told him to bring
the devil blood, Drableces commanded her to tell him how to
remove these personalities haunting his mind. Pulling a knife
from the folds of her blouse, the witch walked up to the one man
who had saved the world so many times and asked a simple
question “Do you truly wish to release your soul?” Asked the
witch, holding the knife at her side. “The voices haunt me day
and night, I can’t sleep, I can’t move without them arguing over
where I should go, I can’t do anything without one of them
objecting…please, release me.” Explained the once-glorious
paladin. Pulling the knife up to her stomach, the witch began to
chant in a strange language unknown to Drableces. As she
chanted in the guttural language the dagger began to glow,
runes dancing across the blade. Brighter and brighter the blade
glowed, eventually into a solid blade of energy, a swirl of five
different colors composed the knife: The blue aspect of the knife
would hunt down and slay the spirit of Ashanegal; White to hunt
the spirit of Yaralon; Ophenai’s spirit would be hunted by the
green aspect of the knife; a glowing black part of the dagger
would hunt the spirit of Taleniphore; and the red would slay the
spirit of Garaegnore, leaving Drableces free of the different lords
that have been haunting him. But there was a cost…Abruptly the
witch stopped chanting and released the dagger, leaving it
floating in midair. Leaving the tent, the witch left him wondering,
wondering what the dagger was going to do, why she left the
tent…he shortly found out what the dagger was for. As the Ex-
Paladin stood in the middle of the tent the dagger began to orbit
him, circling his head, whizzing past his face, close enough to
slice his nose off if he even breathed to heavily. Drableces
watched the knife as it flew and flew and flew, faster and faster,
getting further and further from being able to cut him open. After
about five minutes the dagger flew away from him, slicing
through the thick canvas of the tent, flying away from the still
curious paladin. Hours past and the Ex-Paladin had seen no sign
of the witch or the multi-colored dagger.. it was night by this
time, and the demonic natures of the man were starting to take
over, he was groggy, about to sleep on a moments notice, but he
didn’t, his demonic nature didn’t let him…instead, he left the
tent, in search of blood to satisfy his evil intentions…upon leaving
the tent he saw none other than the witch standing vigilantly
outside the tent, being the judge and jury of this man’s fate…
Speaking a single word in the guttural language that she had
been speaking before, summoning the executioner of the first
warlock in existence. The dagger had apparently left the tent and
began orbiting it from the outside, waiting for the time the
warlock came out, only then did the dagger act, soaring at the
fully aware warlock, who had held up the very shield that assisted
him in slaying the fiendish generals, this time though, the shield
had taken upon it the aspects of it’s owner, depicting the face of
a vile demon upon the surface, which was soon sundered by the
soaring dagger, plunging deep into the heart of the man, all the
swirling colors had disappeared from the dagger, seeming to soak
into the man. His body turned into five different colored glowing
orbs of pure energy, each on had the corresponding lord’s face
visible within…and Drableces was free…
***
Each of the five orbs floated up into the sky, reaching a certain
height and parting ways, each one of them flying off, each in a
different direction, seeking out entirely different corners of the
earth: The blue spirit of Ashenegal had found a deserted island
and had manifested from the ocean around it as a man with the
aspects of a serpent, living in the sea and on the island,
destroying the ships of any unfortunate enough to float through
the great sea-serpents territory, the great serpent is known for
having a pair of gauntlets that are said to grant control of the
waves and the storms, these gauntlets were use by Drableces to
travel over seas with great speed; The white spirit of Yaralon
found a grand castle, manifesting as a charming man, willing to
do anything for those in need the man is said to have the very
shield of Drableces himself, yes that shield that saved a hero
from being ripped limb from limb…but couldn’t protect his soul
from the corruption of the fiendish blood; Ophenai’s green spirit
found a peaceful glade to manifest as a beautiful Eladrin, who
would later protect the forest with the very boots that allowed
Drableces to move at great speeds, helping him travel from
desert to forest to mountain with divine speed; The black spirit of
Taleniphore had found a murky swamp and had manifested itself
as a lizard folk bearing the mace of Drableces that had been used
to slay so many innocent villagers, stained with the blood of all
the foes it had smashed. Staying in the swamp, wrecking havoc
on any who dared invade his territory; Finally, the red spirit of
Garaegnore had found a volcano, manifesting as a fit human
woman wearing robes weaved from the essence of the many
villages that Drableces had burnt down.

The City of Ruladniir

Upon his death, Drableces' body wasn't totally gone. What was
left turned into pure energy and created a rift in reality that lead
to someplace that the people of Ruladniir didn't know of, one that
had either kept their citizens as guests or food. Either way, the
people of Ruladniir still worship it as the greatest source of magic
on Krag-Negall, the source from which all the magic in their
magnificent city comes from.

Magic in Ruladniir
Magic is highly common in Ruladniir, some are even born with
minor abilities. Magic in Ruladniir is drawn from the portal in the
heart of the city.

Ruladniir’s Society
Society in Ruladniir is very peaceful, people don't even know
when the last crime in Ruladniir was committed. People in
Ruladniir are, more often than not, learned in the arcane arts,
rarely training in the martial ways or drawing from divine power,
seeing as most people in Ruladniir worship the portal to Kangoria,
even though they don't know what's on the other side.

Races of Ruladniir
The most common race in Ruladniir is the Portalborn (Genasi),
given their name for being believed to have come from the
residual magic after Drableces' death. Other than that Humans
are the second most common races, followed by Tieflings and
Dragonborn in a close second and Eladrin in a closer fourth. Other
than that, Elves and Half-Elves are unheard of in Ruladniir,
commonly being known as the "Hero-Killers", given their names
from the blurry legend that the seer who killed "Ruladniir" was an
elf, and being executed upon arrival in Ruladniir.

Religion in Ruladniir
Religion in Ruladniir is one of the most touchy subjects you could
talk about. Seeing as the majority of Ruladniirians worship The
Portal, you wont be able to find many/any temples to any gods at
all, let alone be seen preaching of those gods teachings without
being executed.
Executions in Ruladniir
When hundreds of Ruladniir‘s citizens die every year from going
into the portal you think that the people of Ruladniir would think
to throw those to be executed into the portal. But it‘s a very
different situation, the people of Ruladniir think it a sacred right
to be permitted to enter the portal and face the test of the hero.
Executions instead are handled using the power granted by the
portal to drain the life force from the “Offender“ and to sacrifice
the body to the portal by throwing it in.

Possible Campaign Hooks

• Train for the Test of The Hero
• Help someone Train for the Test of The Hero
• Find the Key to The Portal
• Find a way to Kangoria other than through the portal
• Convert Ruladniir from their strange ways and bring them to
light
• Save an elf who stumbled into Ruladniir from the horrible
fate that awaits them
• Find Taburan Raizen

The Test of The Hero

The people of Ruladniir believe that only the reincarnation of the
hero who's body the portal was made from can pass through the
portal into the city. So at the beginning of every year many
gather round from all reaches of the massive city to test
themselves and enter the portal. Many enter but none come back
alive...some don't even come back at all.

Kangoria, Island of The Hero

In the middle of the ocean lies an archipelago of islands that can
only be reached through the portal that lies at the heart of
Ruladniir, this archipelago is the residence of the five aspects of
Drableces Veay. Many try to come to these islands by sea but are
squelched by Zzazz and never return to the mainland to tell of
their experience. Those who do end up on the island are there
because they have dared to enter the portal.

Test of Kangoria
Upon entering the portal at the very center of Ruladniir, one is
sent to a random place in Kangoria, where they will have to fend
for themselves and attempt to live. Most have found themselves
in a more opportune spot than others but otherwise they all end
up dying. The day somebody survives successfully on the island
will be the very day that Drableces Veay is revived and brought
back to his former glory and becomes again known across the
land of Krag-Negall. But at this rate, with Hunter Quartet guarding
the archipelago and only Karl to help the people who come to the
islands that won't be happening very soon.

The Hunter Quartet

The Hunter Quartet is a band of four of the most determined
people on Krag-Negall. The Hunter Quartet individually roam
Kangoria in seek of their own individual goals but ultimately
follow the word of Geynal, the lord of Kangoria who has lived on
"The Archipelago Of Death" before Drableces' death even created
the portal.

Zzazz, Reincarnation of Ashanegal, The Slaad Lord

Zzazz is the guardian of Kangoria, he patrols the ocean around
the islands and utterly destroys those who would dare try and
invade without using the portal. Zzazz's ultimate reason for doing
what Geynal says is that he's in it for the treasure, keeping a
stash of all the magic items he loots from ships in a sea cave
underneath the archipelago.
Xhandor, Reincarnation of Taleniphore, The Devil King
Xhandor is the guardian of the island that houses “The Ivory
Hold“, defending the swamps around “The Ivory Hold“ with all his
dedication, making sure Karl can‘t muster up an army as big as
Geynal‘s. The only reason Xhandor isn't because he's an
authority figure but the taste of the flesh of those he gets to hunt.

Kri Macoilette, Reincarnation of Graegnore, The Demon

King
Kri Macoilette is the guardian of Geynal's palace, which resides in
the volcano at the center of Kangoria. Kri doesn't find serving
Geynal enjoyable in the slightest but finds that it's the fastest
way to gain power, her only true obsession.

Geynal, Lord of Kangoria

Geynal is probably the most honorable hunter in Kangoria,
sometimes capturing people and bringing them to "The Obsidian
Hold" only to equip them with artifacts of the world and send
them on their way so he can hunt them down again. When he
isn't hunting those foolish enough to enter the portal, Geynal is
usually living a fairly normal life in his castle known as "The
Obsidian Hold" and when he isn't doing that he's training his
beloved pet Angorinad. Whenever he finds a particularly
formidable opponent, Geynal converts them to his cause,
bringing them back to “The Obsidian Hold“ and training them to
be with the rest of his army.

Karl, Reincarnation of Yaralon, The Angel Prince

Karl is the only shred of good in Kangoria, wandering the isles
protecting the quarries of The Hunter Quartet and taking them
back to his palace "The Ivory Hold" to train them and build up his
army to take down the
Hunter Quartet.

Echelor, Reincarnation of Ophenai, The Satyr King

Echelor cares not for what the Hunter Quartet or Karl do, neither
does he care for what goes on with the portal. Echelor is the
epitome of unalignment in Kangoria and realizes that he is the
only thing keeping balance in the nature of Kangoria.

Kreshno, Key to The Portal

At the exact moment Drableces Veay was killed, a prophecy was
made that in five centuries one would be born into the world and
be destined to close the portal when Geynal is dead. Kreshno was
born on the day of the prophecy and, therefore, bestowed the
destiny of closing the portal upon the death of all of Drableces'
reincarnations and Geynal. This, of course, is fairly hard seeing as
he is only a fledgling adventurer.

Taburan Raizen, Former Sage of Ruladniir, Only known

survivor of the portal
Taburan is known as “The Survivor“ to many of Ruladniir. Taburan
is the only one to ever enter the portal and return with his sanity
and life intact…at least for a little bit that is. After a bit, Taburan
lost most of his sanity and left Ruladniir and was never seen
again. Most of the people of Ruladniir wish to find him to learn
more of what is on the other side of the portal but none have
succeeded.