Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 5

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 5

Czylle commands the elements. Lightning dances at her willl. She would be a leader in any other land but the Nyma Urd have no leader. She goes gloved and cloaked in grey and her eyes burn with an inner fire. She looks far beyond this plane into worlds beyond and one day she will step beyond this Oerth and perhaps not return.

Next among the Nyma Urd is the Red Witch. She travels the borders of Blackmoor alone though she is protected by golems of her own creation and terrible para-elementals. She practices a form of magic unknown in the Flanaess but it is said to have links to the ancient Olman rites of their priest/magicians and some Hepmonaland shamans are said to have similar powers and rituals. The Red Witch practices Blood Magic, summons para-elementals of blood, constructs golems of blood. She can cause blood to boil or to become Blood Worms that eat their way out of the skin. Her magic is terrible and powerful. Her interests are in Blackmoor though she is said to welcome young women from anywhere who wish to learn her brand of witchcraft and become apprentices.

Last among the three of the Nyma Urd who are known is Tyyne, Daughter of the Moon. It is said that she has been to the City of the Gods and has brought the magic of Celene with her and her power is great. Something of the God Waymoinen is about her for she can craft marvelous things. She can surround herself with a cloud of butterflys formed of steel whose wings are razors. Woe betide any who would seek to harm her.

These are the three that are known of the Nyma Urd.

Among the rest of the Sisterhood all are equal in their ranks once they have begun the first mastery of their art till they take their last breath on this Oerth.

Nation - Mulwar - Mulwarian Warriors Ranber and Veerz

Nation - Mulwarian Warriors Ranber and Veerz

Only the most adventurous and far sailing explorers from Zeif have reached the distant land of Mulwar and returned. The last expedition by the Necromancer/Warrior Akl, captain of the ezma-barque Ancient Dawn, brought with him two warriors of that far off land, Ranber and Veerz.

Mulwar is a land of exotic spices and clothes, strange magic and Gods, unknown animals and monsters unheard of, but for the most part it is a land of war. It is a conquered land where the Changol Empire rules over a divided Mulwar and the Nation-States of Jahind seek to aid the exiled Mulwar Royality and stop the advance of the Changol legions.

Ranber and Veerz are Mulwar rebels and escaped the port-city of Zhinged aboard the Ancient Dawn with the Changol Imperials hard on their heels.

Ranber and Veerz are both former members of the Mulwar Royal Guard and their armor is a vestige of their former position. Both have retained the helm-masks that knights of Mulwar always adorned with Ranber still retaining the chain-cloth that would obscure the lower portion. This chain is enchanted to provide protection from smoke and fire, even allowing breathing underwater or in an airless room.

Both knights carry spiked  war shields that are both weapon and defense. These shields are also enchanted to provide protection from normal missile weapons such as arrows, knives and darts.

Ranber is a middle-aged but highly skilled knight while Veerz is a warrior priest of the Goddess Yalaz, she of love and death.

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 4

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 4

The Gods still dwell in their city near the cursed Plateau of Leng and from the southern lands have come the Oerthly Gods and from the east, the Deities of the northern people such as Fray and Votan and Vili and Ve. The people of Blackmoor respect all Gods but their hearts turn always to their own who took this land from the Ancient Things and drove Iggwilv from the Cold Marshes. The Gods who have always aided them in their people and aid them today against the terror from the north.

Matar the Mother
Celene the Moon
Mikko the Father
Leng of Nightmares and Despair
Waymoinen the Smith
Ykko the Oldest
Ilmar the Builder
Ukkounian the Songmaster
Rainbow Maiden


Dark and terrible creatures have come to plague the lands of Blackmoor but the power of the Gods and the Sisterhood have driven them back to the foothills of Leng and crossed the borders of this world to fight The Grey in its own demise.

The Sisterhood and The Grey

Ancient Things skulk in the Ruins of the city, Old Blackmoor as it is called. By the people. Bestmo fights with the Manor-Lords from his town of Dantredun, but his edicts go no further than the nearby farms and many Manor-Lords possess greater numbers of warriors than the aging Baron. Monsters slither through the cold marshes and stalk the Burneal Forest. Nomads raid from the west, south and east. There are threats aplenty throughout the land, but the real danger wafts down from the north and the real power in the land is the Sisterhood.

Blackmoor is a land of mystery to outsiders. There are tales of its past with tragedies and catastrophes, heroes and common folk, great evil and great good to combat it, but still a place distant and removed from the normal commerce and happenings of the Flanaess.

Blackmoor was never a truly peaceful land. Trapped between the terrible Land of Black Ice and the nomad hordes the people of Blackmoor have always fended for themselves. But today beneath the surface and around the borders a cold grey presence can always be felt. It is a lifestealing hand that takes the sick and preys upon the newborn. Those who first took up the fight against this presence were the witches. In Blackmoor the witches healed the sick, assisted the clerics of their own Gods as well as Beory, Telchur, Velnius and Zodal, acted as mid-wives, cared for injured animals, and served as judges. They were soothsayers and diviners of fate. All of Blackmoor from the baron to the smallest village’s Elder had a witch to advise and heal. Among the Council of Women they were predominantly leaders and were the teachers of the young girls, administering the test and right of passage from girl to woman.

With the coming of the Grey, as they called the lifestealing presence, they became those who fought. Swords and spears were ineffective against the creatures of fog and mist which began to appear. Magicians were rare, clerics and priests were few, but the witches were many. Every girl who showed signs of power and ability were mentored and encouraged to pursue the arduous path of witchery. And as the Grey strengthened, the Sisterhood was formed.

The Sisterhood, in some nascent form, had existed in Blackmoor for centuries. Never had it needed the strength, discipline and organization that the fight against the Grey demanded.

Nine witches form the Nyma Urd who guide the Sisterhood. They are the most powerful witches, not necessarily the oldest. Once a year they may be challenged for their position on the Nyma Urd. There are thought to be a thousand witches in the Sisterhood, but that number has been growing. Certain events have set back the Grey and expeditions into the Land of Black Ice and beyond the very boundary of the Planes of Existence have rewarded the Sisterhood with both artifacts of power and also victories against The Grey on its own plane, that of Fog and Mist.

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 3

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 3

Waymoinen and the magic of Oerth

The loss of Leng awakened some nightmarish terror atop the Plateau which now bore his name. To this day even the Gods do not venture onto the Plateau of Leng. Waymoinen turned toward the more fertile lands south which were once the domain of the Ancient Things. Here he found the Mother of Witches, Iggwilv, and was first of the Gods to learn the magic of Oerth.

Iggwilv dwelt in what is today called the Cold Marshes but she had servents and spies who saw things and reported these things back to her from across the lands. It was Iggwilv who first saw Mikko the Father in the darkness and betrayed him to the Ancient Things and she saw the coming of Matar in the summer light and the destruction of the city of the Ancient Things which is the ruined city of Blackmoor.

One of the most fearsome of Iggwilv’s servents were the creatures she made from the wings of hornets. She could shape them to any form and she would steal the essence of life from creatures newborn to make her creations move but they were not alive and those who lived in what is now the land of Blackmoor named them Husks for that is what they were. It was a Husk shaped like that of great bear which haunted the northern edge of the Burneal Forest who first saw Waymoinen and his companion Ukkounian the Songmaster wandering the plains north of the forest and so let its mistress Iggwilv know what it had seen.
Iggwilv saw with through the places where the Husk should have eyes and watched the pair move across the land. She knew that such a pair were Gods and that Waymoinen must be a powerful God though she did not know at first that he was the child of Mikko whom she betrayed and Matar whom she feared. Now at this time Iggwilv had a beautiful daughter named the Rainbow Maiden whose voice could enchant any living thing and she sent her to enchant Waymoinen thinking to bring him under her power.
From the edge of the Burneal Forest Rainbow Maiden began to sing and while Waymoinen heard her song first it was Ukkounian who became ensnared. The pair began a great chase through first the forest and then into the Cold Marshes and into the lair of Iggwilv.

Iggwilv’s home appeared as a large but plain farm and Iggwilv herself as the aging mother of Rainbow Maiden. Her disappointment was great to find that her daughter’s song had charmed only the lesser of these two Gods, and she desired some way to harvest the strength she saw in Waymionen. At first she thought to pitch the two Gods against each other and ordered Rainbow Maiden to cast her eyes only upon Waymoinen, but then Ukkonian began to sing and among all the Gods there were none greater at song than he. In this way Ukkonian won the heart of Rainbow Maiden and she disobeyed her mother and warned the Gods of Iggwilv’s power and her plans.


Ukkonian fled with Rainbow Maiden back to the City of the Gods and there she taught them of the magic of Oerth and their children and children’s children became the great mages such as Kempelen the legendary crafter and Mordenkainen of much reknown. Waymoinen stayed and held back Iggwilv. Her magic of the Oerth wounded Waymoinen but his magic of the moon, Celene, proved greater and he bound her in cage of bars of black metal which ate the light. Here it was that Iggwilv traded her great knowledge of Oerth magic for her freedom and Waymoinen released her. Iggwilv fled the north and did not return, though Rainbow Maiden taught the daughters of oerth the way of Witchery which has not been forgotten by the women of today.

Such is known to the people of Blackmoor.

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 2

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 2

Waymoinen and the Plateau  of Leng

The City of the Gods was a wondrous place, but it was of the moon Celene and not of Oerth and the ways of Oerthly magic were as of yet unknown among most Gods.  Mikko had learned of this magic in the darkness when captured by the Ancient Things in their citadel which became the city of Blackmoor, and Matar learned of this strange magic in the light of summer when she rescued him and broke the walls and towers and drove the Ancient Things beneath the foundation stones of the citadel and out beyond the edges of the light and the real. They gave Waymoinen a hunger for the knowledge of this new magic.

In the Land of Black Ice creatures lived, but many were strange and many were evil and many were not of this oerth. The new magic was strong in this desolate land but in no place was it stronger than the terrible Plateau which was all too close to the City.  The God Leng was an explorer and despite the evil which flowed down from the Plateau as if it was a colorless smoke that brought nightmares and panic and terror without reason he longed to set forth and place his feet atop the cliffs which were higher than the clouds. 

Now the Plateau was shrouded by clouds, and though the Gods had eyes that could see through stone, they could not see through these clouds and what was beyond them was a mystery. Waymoinen hungered for Oerthly magic and as of yet he knew no fear. When Leng set off to explore the Plateau many lesser Gods accompanied him but Matar and Mikko refused to let Waymoinen go. 

Among the lesser  Gods who served Ykko the Oldest was Ilmar the Builder. Ilmar was a great friend of Waymoinen and at first a teacher, though Waymoinen soon surpassed him in skill. Together they devised a plan for Waymoinen to leave the City of the Gods undetected and be carried with the servants of Leng on this great and dangerous expedition.  

It is said that if Waymoinen lost an arm another could be made, even if he lost his head, another could be found, and that only the Heart of Waymoinen could not be replaced. In this way Waymoinen and Ilmar planned for him to leave with Leng and yet stay within the City. Ilmar crafted Waymoinen an eye that was not an eye for him to wear in his head and took from Waymoinen his true eye that he might see. This they hid within the helm of a servant of Leng. The eye that was not an eye would see what the True Eye of Waymoinen saw even though far away.

Leng left the City of the Gods on a chariot that flew and sailed through the clouds to reach the Plateau. As he approached the clouds became as black as the ice and the chariot bucked and twisted in the sky. Great cracks appeared in the Chariot of Leng and terror assailed them. Lesser  Gods shriveled and died in this struggle and Waymoinen saw through the clouds. 

Leng did not return, his chariot was swallowed the black clouds, and Waymoinen tore the eye that was not an eye from his face and smashed it beneath his heel. What he saw he would never say, no not even to Matar and Mikko, but no God or mortal was allowed to approach the Plateau of Leng again.

Such is known to the people of Blackmoor.

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 1

Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches

Player’s Background

In Blackmoor the sun hides during the winter but stays out during the summer making the nights bright as day. Half the year is filled with snow and frost but the people endure and celebrate the days of light.

These celebrations feature Matar, the Mother who flew to oerth from the moon Celene when the land was ruled by the Ancient Things. Matar is said to have followed in search of Mikko the Father who also flew from Celene but in the darkness in search of some great and powerful element to aid Celene who was wounded and dying. Matar brought with her many followers and came to rest first in the terrible land of Black Ice near to the Plateau of Leng, a vast and horror filled area which is higher than the clouds (Leng the brother of Mikko, lost in his exploration of the Plateau which bears his name). Here she built the City of the Gods and fought the Ancient Things till she had wrested the land of Blackmoor from their grasp and rescued Mikko from their dungeons beneath what is now the ruined city of Old Blackmoor.

Matar rules the Summer and is worshipped in the light, while Mikko walks during the dark and still seeks that which will aid the dying moon Celene. 

The Birth of Waymoinen the Smith

While dwelling in the City of the Gods Matar and Mikko rejoiced and Matar  bore a son, Waymoinen. He was not born as a mortal would be but instead stepped from the EGG fully formed and hungry for knowledge. Matar taught him of nature, the life and death of mortal things, how they grew, how to heal, and how to bend nature to the will of the Gods. From Mikko he learned the ways of war, the many ways of fighting and the weapons of mortals and those of the Gods. From Leng he learned how to learn and the magic brought down from Celene, not the magic in the oerth, for as yet the Gods did not possess such magic, only that which animated the City of the Gods. From Ykko the Oldest he learned the making and shaping of things and at this Waymoinen excelled. 

Such is known to the people of Blackmoor.