This is the first part of a series about The Dead Queens of Morvena, an upcoming Nevermet Press adventure setting slated for release in January. For background on the Kingdom of Morvena and clarification of some of the terms referenced in this post, please see Jonathan Jacobs’ original document The Dead Queens of Morvena, freely available as a .pdf file and accessible by visiting http://www.thecoremechanic.com/2008/09/dead-queens-of-morvena-summary-pdf.html
Introduction to Cosmology
The Cosmologists of Haberdim describe the World as a series of Planes. According to their system, the Four Major Planes are as follows:
- The Beyond: A Plane of Aether and Fire generally conceptualized as a vacuum or formless space and associated with the sky.
- The First Hell: The origin of Incabeh and all monsters, the First Hell is Plane of Earth and Fire which is conceptualized as a wilderland underneath the Middle Realm. Alternatively, it is seen as a separate Plane, unattached to the Middle Realm, but reached through portals found in subterranean places.
- The Second Hell: A place of fear and dread, The Second Hell is empty of all living things, populated only by disembodied Spirits and tenacious Undead that crave and detest life. Another, lesser held view is that the Second Hell is the place where the dead go to rest and await new life.
- The Middle Realm: This is the location of mundane, material existence. The Fetherruin and surrounding kingdoms are located on this Plane.
Focus: The Middle Realm
The Middle Realm is the tangible world where humans are dominant. Above it hangs the Beyond, and below it, passages and portals lead to the Two Hells.
New Morvena is a frontier community of less than 1,000 people, located off Merchants Road in Fetherruin. It is the boon of travelers through Fetherruin, as it provides relative safety inside an otherwise dreadful wilderland. The town is protected by stone walls, the Church of Morvena, and an armed and tough citizenry as well as a Reeve.
Church of Morvena
The citizens of New Morvena are aware of the terrible fate that befell the Lathnerians of the original Morvena, and have produced a religion that pays tribute to those first human pioneers in the wilderland of Fetherruin while, at the same time, paying a wary respect to Incabus and the strange beings of his domain. The cult is eclectic, featuring a sort of “predecessor worship” that sanctifies the family Dismas; elements of the Occultism of the Kingdom of Drimsy; and strong currents of life-affirming rituals aimed at cleansing the tainted souls of the Ruined and keeping at bay the terrible Undead, Spirits, and Incabeh of the wilderland that surrounds them on all sides. It has become commonplace for merchants and other travelers through Fetherruin to seek the blessing of the Church before resuming their journey.
The Kingdom of Drimsy is not a true monarchy. The hereditary king consults closely with, and often defers to, the learned scholars of the Halls of Knowledge when making decisions. With many departments advising the king in this way, the government functions as a bureaucracy. Before the Rise of King Drim I, the land that is now the Kingdom was part of Hallowmere, Theocracy of Lathner.
Geography and Cities
Merchants Road, which runs through Fetherruin, begins at the northern edge of the Forest Drim, the hunting grounds of the king and nobles of Drimsy. Southeast of the forest are the Darksand Hills, which are split from the Eastern Blight of Fetherruin by the Mad River Rithell. From the Eastern Blight, Border Wights push into Drimsy, and are held back by the Guardians of the Borders all along the Darksand Hills. The port city of Blasenmor marks the beginning of Merchants Road on the northern edge of the Forest Drim and the southern shore of the Mad River Rithell.
Some miles southeast of Port Blasenmor is Haberdim, the capital of the Kingdom of Drimsy. The King’s Citadel stands on a stepped pyramid in the center of the city. Situated around it are military barracks and the Halls of Knowledge. There, in the Hall of Taxonomy, scholars catalog and categorize the Incabeh of Fetherruin. The Kingdom pays well for new specimens from the Fetherruin. Other Halls include Agriculture, Alchemy, Astrology, Cosmology, Forestry, Mathematics, Medicine, Occultism, and Philosophy.
Culture
The nobles and upper classes are refined and leisurely. Intellectual achievements are much esteemed, and education highly valued. Although some Drimsyns are Lathnerians still, many have abandoned the state religion of Hallowmere and turned to Occultism, which is described as the “Science of Spirits, Planes, and Magical Phenomena”. Among Occultists, there is much interest in the Fetherruin, for its profusion of both Spirits and Incabeh. Undead, however, are loathed even by Occultists. Taxonomists, too, take much interest in the Fetherruin: the variety of odd creatures that occur nowhere else in nature but the Fetherruin drives the classification and dissection work of many Taxonomists in Haberdim.
