Acharistos

Acharistos is a homebrewed Domain in the Demiplane of Dread, first introduced in the thread "Who's the Darklord? [3]" (https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10903).

Location

It is currently not known whether Acharistos is connected to any other Domain, nor whether it is connected to other points in the Demiplane by means of a reliable Mistway.

Geography

Few features of the land are known, but it is fairly large. There is sufficient farmland to allow numerous villages to if not thrive, then at least survive, in spite of the armies rampaging throughout the land. A capitol city has been mentioned, but no other cities of note. The Far Forest is located at the far side of the Domain opposite the capitol city and its royal palace, and is home both to the worst monsters in the Domain and to princess Kaina Lukanos.

Magic

While arcane magic is a known quantity in Acharistos, it is not in common use. At the time of Oubold Lukanos' rule, there was only a handful of wizards in the land, all of them men of high esteem and almost entirely self-taught. There is no mention of sorcerers or bards having made any great names for themselves in the land.

Religion

The Church of Ezra traditionally anoints and crowns the High King or High Queen of Acharistos, but the Church of the Lawgiver and the Church of the Wolf God are also known there. There is a tradition for corpses to be wrapped in unrelieved black cloth, and for mourners to wear the same.

History

Acharistos is a nation with a legacy of kings and queens, who have ruled the nation with a hard hand, adhering to a philosophy of "the law of the jungle". In this philosophy, the ruling monarch is the apex predator in the political jungle; strong, fearless and manipulative, the ruling monarch must make the decisions necessary to:

• A) Remain in supreme power;
• B) Maintain order and prosperity in the kingdom;
• C) Ensure continuity of rule, so that strong rulers are succeeded by strong heirs.

Traditionally, the ruling king or queen is anointed and crowned by the Church of Ezra, suggesting that Ezra is the nation's divine patron. (The possibility exists, of course, that this is a figment of false history, and some other deity was once the patron of the royal line and the nation.

Currently, Acharistos is in a state of anarchy and civil war, as the noble families are actively trying to exterminate each other and in so doing achieve political and military supremacy, allowing them to succeed the throne. The common people huddle fearfully in villages and towns, around which they have built walls. Nobles who claim command over specific villages frequently tax them, not in the form of money, but in food, finished goods, and strong villagers to serve as replacement troops. The walls serve not only to protect the people from brigands and monsters, but also from the troops of rival nobles.

While the rightful King, Oubold Lukanos, is still alive, he is commonly denounced as the Failed Man and Kinslayer by his people, and his line is thought to be extinct with the death of his grandchildren. King Oubold firmly adhered to the law of the jungle, and made sure to not only sire a great many potential heirs, but to test them and forge them until he could winnow out the most promising candidate. His favoured tactic was to launch sly attacks against one child and to leave clues that another was responsible, thus pitting his sons and daughters against each other. One of the royal princes, fifth born to the king's fifth concubine, proved to possess a kind and diplomatic nature and tried to forge bonds and alliances with his siblings. Seeing this as weakness, King Oubold punished his fifth son repeatedly, until the young man fled the royal court rather than continue to be subject to his father's rule. While the king saw his runaway son only as a disappointment and a failure, his other children were of a different opinion. To the king's confusion, his other children were inspired by their runaway brother and rejected the notion of succeeding the throne en masse. Each tried to forge lives of their own, which would take them away from the palace and their demanding father. While the king seemed to allow them their freedom, withdrawing his tests and tutelage... this lasted only until his children had themselves become parents.

On a holy night of the faith of Ezra, King Oubold had all his grandchildren abducted from their homes - even the fifth-born daughter and sole surviving child of the fifth son who was first to flee him - and brought to his castle. He intended to teach, test and winnow this new generation to create his heir, having concluded that he had simply started too late with his own children. In order to ensure that his children would not interfere with his plans, he had them all murdered. The king repeated his program of having his offspring taught, trained and tested, in an effort to toughen them, educate them, and find the optimal scion to become his heir. The fifth-born child of his fifth son by his fifth concubine, Princess Kaina Lukanos, was one of the children so tested; she was poisoned and nearly died. Upon recovering, she proved intelligent enough to see through the clues her grandfather had left, which had been meant to drive her into conflict with one of her cousins. While her keenness of mind pleased the king, he was nonplussed by Kaina's reaction; the young child drove her maids from her presence, as she (correctly) suspected them of having slipped her the poison; she rejected the lavish luxuries of the palace by stripping her chambers bare of all finery; she rejected her own noble status by divesting herself of jewels and fine clothes, wearing only unrelieved black; she showed nothing but distrust for her relatives, refusing to attend family gatherings and lessons unless forced to, eating and drinking only what she could steal or scrounge for herself. Kaina spent as much time in her own company as she could, studying in the palace's great library.

King Oubold felt the first inklings of guilt and doubt when he saw how fiercely unhappy his grandchild was, but tried to make amends by offering the girl gifts - which she venomously rejected. When even maids experienced in dealing with 'difficult' children fled the princess's presence and refused to return, one of them whispered a warning to the king that princess Kaina had driven the maids away using arcane magic; Kaina had, through her solitary studies, become a self-taught Wizard. Initially, King Oubold was elated, and considered his granddaughter might make a fine Wizard-Queen. When he tried to talk to Kaina about this, however, he discovered that all she wanted was to return home to her parents. She had come to completely reject the royal court and all its fineries, considering both the king and his nobles to be enemies intent on turning her and her cousins against each other and killing them off. Kaina's comments caused the king to discover some of his nobles had, indeed, been meddling in his educational program for his grandchildren. The net result was that King Oubold felt compelled to have several of his most cunning nobles executed -- as well as the children they had been influencing.

Left now with only a handful of potential heirs, the king finally selected his grandson Rozen as his heir. However, Rozen was the youngest remaining scion of the line and would need help. King Oubold offered Kaina a deal, based on a lie; that if she would study and act the role of a proper princess and help Rozen ascend the throne, he would release her to go home to her parents. While he still felt unaccustomed pangs of guilt, the king did not tell his granddaughter that her parents were already dead, their bodies buried in a shallow grave near their shack in the Far Forest. Although Kaina accepted the bargain, consenting to wear the dresses and eat the foods she was entitled to by rank, her quarters once again fit for royalty, the king soon came to regret his bargain. Kaina kept to the letter of the deal, but had no regard for its spirit. When the Wizard mentor the king found for Kaina suggested they should flee to another nation where she could ascend to the rank of Archmage, Kaina killed him in a sorcerous duel that blasted a significant part of the royal palace. When a cousin tried to make her dependent on a narcotic substance, so as to gain power over Rozen, Kaina murdered him in the castle courtyard, "causing him to scream his way to death". Rather than a trusted guardian and subordinate, prince Rozen came to see his Wizard cousin as a boogeyman and a threat constantly looming over his head. The other remaining cousins regarded her with knee-knocking dread.

Matters came to such a head that Prince Rozen broke under the strain and tried to flee the palace, as his uncle had done so long ago. The instant he left the palace's grounds, the boy fell deathly ill and had to be carried back into the castle. After hovering between life and death in the grip of a vile fever, the young prince finally recovered, but he was forever marked by fear. King Oubol discovered to his horror that Rozen's unnaturally sudden illness was the effect of a curse that Kaina had placed on her young cousin. When he questioned her as to her reasons, Kaina replied simply that their deal relied on Rozen reaching the throne. To this end, she would kill anyone who threatened to interfere with the bargain - and she would prevent Rozen from escaping the destiny his grandfather had planned for him.

When King Oubold came to realize that Kaina held zero empathy or regard for any member of her family outside of her parents, and that she would never truly be part of his vision for the future, he resolved to have her assassinated. He sent the one maid who had come to hold - and continued to hold - a motherly affection for his granddaughter, with the same poison he had used once before. The exact sequence of events is currently unknown, but Kaina was informed that her parents were dead. She proceeded to kill the maid who had been sent to poison her, then launched a destructive rampage throughout the royal palace. In her rage, she killed her last remaining cousins and most of the palace staff, before being confronted by King Oubold. Accusing her grandfather of the murder of her beloved parents, Kaina proceeded to blast the king with a spell at the same time that he stabbed her with a sword.

This, it can be agreed, was the seminal event upon which Acharistos became part of the Demiplane of Dread: with Oubold Lukanos finally crossing the line between causing the deaths of his descendants indirectly, to directly assaulting one whose life he had twisted so.

Darklord: King Oubold Lukanos

The general consensus of "Who's the Darklord [3]" is that King Oubold Lukanos is the Darklord of Acharistos. While the king survived his injuries, he is old now, his body too weak for him to wield his sword. Although he frequently wishes for death, he is unaging. His old influence and power are lost, as the nobles believe he has no remaining heirs, and everyone in the kingdom knows that this is his own doing.

Called the Failed Man and Kinslayer, the king still possesses massive wealth, but his castle is largely ruined. Kaina stripped it of all of its luxuries as she departed, and none of the available craftsfolk is willing to waste time on restoring the royal palace when there are weapons and armour to forge or farms and homes to shore up and improve. Knights and soldiers refuse to work for the king because he is seen as a spent force, just waiting for whoever wins the civil war to step over his corpse and claim the throne. A skeleton staff of frightened - but loyal - servants struggles to keep the palace going; they are the few who did not flee Kaina's wrath or were at least not too frightened to return after she had left.

In truth, the king exerts considerable influence through his wealth. He uses thieves, spies and assassins, spreading rumours and lies, offering bribes, and doing everything he can to keep the nobles at each other's throats and away from his own. He is himself disgusted by the methods he has been forced to resort to, and longs keenly for the days of luxury and power he once enjoyed.

The king is aware that Kaina has survived. While he has not seen his granddaughter since Acharistos was drawn into the Mists, the way she lives and her frequent rampages fill his withered heart with a mixture of hatred, remorse, frustration and confusion. Even now, the king cannot understand why Kaina turned out the way she did, even if a repressed part of him acknowledges that he himself is to blame.

Closing the Borders

When King Oubold wishes to close the borders of Acharistos - a rare event, as he far prefers troublemakers and enemies to leave his troubled lands over keeping them trapped with him in his own cage - a mirror-like membrane rises at the borders. Those who approach the border and see their own reflection, will soon find that the reflection steps out of the membrane, becoming flesh and blood (or whatever the ones trying to escape are made of).

Bearing the same equipment and possessing the same class levels as their original, these mirror-creatures will assault their original with all the force they can muster. They are soulless copies, who will fade from existence if their original is slain, yet still fixate on killing them. It is not impossible for someone to defeat their mirror opposite, and thus gain egress from Acharistos. Moreover, given that each mirror opposite focuses solely on their original, a party of people working together can usually make short work of their mirror opposites.

Blind and naturally sightless beings, as well as creatures without a reflection like vampires, can cross the closed border of Acharistos with impunity, as the border effect does not trigger for them at all.

Princess Kaina Lukanos

Although injured by her grandfather's sword, Kaina also survived. She scoured the royal palace of all the finery her grandfather prized so, then returned to the humble shack where she was born: in the Far Forest. The princess, sole surviving member of the Lukanos royal line who is theoretically capable of having children and continuing the family, lives in bitter solitude. She does what work is needed to stay alive and moderately comfortable, studies her books of arcane lore, and grieves over what mementos of her parents remain to her. While Kaina has no desire to return to the capitol city (the very thought makes her skin crawl) and is unaware of her grandfather's survival, she holds a potential for monstrous violence. Every time people have wandered into Kaina's territory, regardless whether their intentions were benign, neutral or malicious, the Wizard has erupted in a terrible fury that scoured the area a mile around the Far Forest of all intelligent life. The repeated slaughter has made the whole Far Forest into a Rank 2 Sinkhole of Evil with a taint of Wrath. Evil creatures lurk on the fringe of the forest, attracted to Kaina's madness and grief, but too wise to disturb her. Instead, they frequently attack the closest towns and villages, adding to the commoners' misery.

Diplomacy

There is mention of allied nations in Acharistos' (false) history, but it is currently not known whether there are other Domains with which is can have any kind of relationship at all.

Local Horrors

Werewolves exist in Acharistos, as evidenced by local acknowledgment of the Wolf God. The border regions of the Far Forest are frequently haunted by Wrathspawn-type Sinspawn (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/sinspawn), which rise from the unholy alchemy of Kaina's magical might, madness and anger.

Dread Possibilities

The Forgotten Prince

Prince Rozen Lukanos was once a clever, ambitious and energetic child. Even when his grandfather had him abducted from his home, Rozen remained in high spirits; it was not that he did not love his parents, but he did not suspect he would never see them again. Even when he was subjected to the same hell of demanding training and threats against his life that gradually blackened his cousin Kaina's heart, Rozen remained strong and steadfast. He could see King Oubol was ... not right, but he felt he could become a better High King in his stead. The old man could not live forever, after all.

It was only when Rozen's grandfather made the mistake of appointing Kaina to become his guard that the young prince lost hope. Constantly watched over by a cousin who had once simply been cold and disinterested, but had now become an obsessive and uncaring murderer, Rozen felt the grip of the Reaper around his throat during every waking moment. When he finally broke under the strain and tried to run away, he discovered Kaina had already made him a prisoner of the palace.

In the end, Rozen lost his life, shattered like a doll by Kaina's magic. His torment did not end there; whether it is because of the anguish Rozen felt in the weeks and months leading up to his death, or because Kaina's curse still lingers, but the young prince rose as a Rank 1 ghost on the first night of the full moon after his death. Rozen is largely content to haunt the ruined portions of the palace, where he relives the happier moments of his short life unless he is disturbed. On the few occasions that palace staff came upon the prince's spirit while trying to make repairs, it was a toss-up whether the servant or the ghost was quicker to flee the other's presence. If someone with greater courage were to seek out Rozen's ghost, however, they might find him a font of knowledge: not only can the prince recite all of Oubold's crimes which have lead to the fall of Acharistos and describe what he knows of Kaina's magic, but the ghost has valuable current knowledge as well, obtained from lurking in the walls and listening in on his grandfather when he meets with his assassins, thieves and spies.

The Mark of Five times Five times Five

An offshoot of les Échansons operates in Acharistos. Believing that the blood of Ezra courses through the Lukanos bloodline, these secretive heretics see great significance in the existence of Princess Kaina Lukanos:

• Oubold Lukanos begat five sons upon his fifth concubine.
• The fifth son of Oubold Lukanos's fifth concubine begat five children upon his common wife.
• Four of the fifth son's children were still-born, but the fifth one lived; and that fifth child is Kaina Lukanos.

As Kaina is the fifth daughter of a fifth son with the bloodline of Ezra, who was himself born of a fifth wife, les Échansons believe that Kaina is a blessed child of the bloodline - but not yet as blessed as her own offspring might be.

Les Échansons believe that Kaina represents a numerological factor of 5 x 5 x 5 = 125 = 1 + 2 + 5 = 8, which is a completed feminine number, implying that Kaina is a woman of great power. Even if the concubine is discarded from the equation, Kaina represents 5 x 5 = 25 = 2 + 5 = 7, a mystical number of both eternity and madness. Les Échansons believe that if the numerical value of Kaina's eventual, hypothetical offspring can be brought to equal five, the child born will be the vessel of Ezra's rebirth in the Demiplane of Dread.

Caring nothing for Acharistos and caring all for reviving the power of their goddess, les Échansons of Acharistos lurk among the accepted clergy of Ezra. Alignment-wise, most are either True Neutral or Lawful Evil in outlook, but even those whose alignment strays from the majority are dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to make Kaina Lukanos bear children and restore the goddess. They spend a great deal of time in study and careful plotting, but also tend to nudge events so that men they consider good candidates to father the next generation in the Lukanos bloodline will travel to the Far Forest. In their desire to beget the rebirth of Ezra, les Échansons have done nothing but repeatedly arouse Kaina's wrath and scouring of the land around the Far Forest. And in spite of many setbacks, they show no sign of stopping their plans to breed their goddess back into corporeal life...