Acharistos

Acharistos
[[Image:{{{picture}}}|350px]]
Culture Level	5: Medieval
Ecology	Full
Climate & Terrain	Temperate forest and plains
Year Formed	770 BC
Population
Races (%)	Humans, Vixens, Werewolves, Wolfweres
Languages	Achartan.
Religions	Ezra*, the Lawgiver, Mytteri, the Wolf God
Government	Monarchy
Ruler(s)	King Oubold Lukanos
Darklord(s)	Oubold Lukanos
Nationality	Achartan
Analog	Medieval Europe
Related Categories
Locations in Acharistos
Transportation in Acharistos
Inhabitants of Acharistos
Former Inhabitants of Acharistos
Flora of Acharistos
Fauna of Acharistos
Native Monsters of 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

Acharistos is part of an as yet unnamed Cluster with Anaides, located to the south beyond the Sea of Troubles. 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 Cults of the Wolf God and Mytteri 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 Oubold 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.

Game statistics

(PF 1E): LE old male human Aristocrat 6 / Courtier 7

Significant class abilities: Glib lie, Good name, Poison use, Terse threats, Undetectable

Special qualities: Unaging, Disease immunity and Poison immunity. No matter how old and withered Oubold Lukanos now looks, no matter how weary he feels, his health is actually inhumanly strong, and he will not physically age even a day no matter how many years pass. Unless someone actively kills him or he commits suicide, the king will not die.

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.

Game Statistics

(PF 1E) CE young female human Aristocrat 1 / Cleric 3 / Wizard (Universalist) 3 / Mystic Theurge 4

Patron: Mytteri; Domains: Destruction, Magic

Arcane bond: Amulet. This takes the form of a silver locket containing hand-drawn pictures of Kaina's parents.

Special qualities: the Dark Powers have cursed Kaina with the Unaging quality. No matter how much she might wish to slip into the embrace of death, to either find oblivion or be reunited with her parents, she remains young, healthy and beautiful.

Diplomacy

There is mention of allied nations in Acharistos' (false) history, and there used to be trade across the Sea of Troubles with Anaides to the south before the current state of civil war erupted, but it is currently not known whether there are other Domains with which it can have any kind of relationship at all.

Local Horrors

• Werewolves exist in Acharistos, as evidenced by local acknowledgment of the Wolf God. Most of these lycanthropes dwell in the unsettled parts of the Domain, preferring to keep away from the raging civil war.
• 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.
• Wolfweres and Vixens tend to lurk closer to civilization, both infiltrating and feeding on the human population.

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 Oubold 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.

Neither Mother nor Maid

Primula was once a maid, serving in the royal palace of Acharistos before the whole land was drawn into the Mists. She was generally a kind, well-intentioned woman and a highly competent maid, whose only regret was that she had never married and had the children she longed for. When King Oubold Lukanos assigned her to take care of his granddaughter, Princess Kaina, Primula went to attend the child without hesitation. The first time she laid eyes on the little princess, Primula fell in love. Not romantic love, but maternal love; Kaina seemed so small, so vulnerable and afraid. Primula resolved to help the little princess and guard her safety with all her might, as though she were her own child. The fact that the servants were aware that the king had ordered his children executed so they could not interfere with his grandchildren's education was a contributing factor; adoration combined with pity in Primula's heart whenever she looked on Kaina.

For a time, the maid and the princess got along decently with each other. Kaina made it clear that she already had a mother and Primula would never take her place, but she accepted her as something like an aunt or a close friend. For her part, Primula was happy with anything she could get, and overjoyed to see her little princess adapt to the ways of the court - in no small part because Primula herself had been instructing her.

Then the order came down for Kaina's first serious test, and Primula was assigned to administer the poison. While she wrestled with her conscience and her love for her little princess, Primula did in the end poison her young charge. She rationalized this, considering that the court was ruled by the Lukanos version of the rule of the jungle, and every scion must be strengthened and taught to prepare for hostility. (In addition, Primula had secretly diluted the poison just a little, hoping to give Kaina a better chance of survival.) Seeing the child she loved like a daughter hover between life and death nearly undid Primula. Although she did everything in her power to help Kaina pull through, she could not forgive herself for putting the child in this wretched state in the first place. When Kaina did recover, Primula was more relieved than anyone else; she resolved never again to harm her little princess, and to confess everything to her as soon as she could.

The maid never got the chance to confess. As soon as Kaina was well enough to speak and understand again, her first act was to order her maids out of her quarters, and she refused to let them back in. This is not to say that the servants did not creep back into her quarters whenever the little princess was out, so they might clean and do the laundry. The fact of the matter was, however, that there was little service to be provided - other than clearing debris. To Primula's horror, the princess stripped a suite that had been all pastel colours and dust of gold and silks down to the brickwork, tossed priceless jewelry, a small icon of Ezra and pretty toys out into the hallway like trash. She also bullied the seamstresses until they made her clothes more appropriate to a mourner or a corpse, rather than a princess of the Lukanos bloodline!

Seeing how pale and thin Kaina grew day after day - always from a distance, as the little princess would not allow any servant close enough for an actual conversation - tore Primula apart inside. King Oubold Lukanos was not the only to try and send Kaina gifts to make her happier. Primula also left hot meals in her princess's rooms, and soft toys, and warm blankets, and letters full of encouragement and love. All were thrown out into the hallway; crumpled up, shattered, trod upon and disdained. Even as she watched the child she loved like a daughter grow more unhappy by the day, Primula tore herself up inside in equal measure. What had she done? How could she have obeyed an order to poison her adored princess, law of the jungle or no? Why hadn't she warned her adored princess instead, told her the truth, smuggled her out of this hateful palace?

Then came the fateful bargain between the king and the princess, and Primula and other maids were allowed back into the princess's quarters! Decorators were allowed to restore them, the seamstresses to sew gowns that flattered her, and the girl - now a young woman in the making - fleshed out as she ate properly once more. Primula was almost deliriously happy, even if her relationship with the princess had changed fundamentally. Kaina was cold and distant, though she adhered to strict forms of good manners. The maid did not care; she could see her princess grow healthier by the day, knew that she was doing some great service for the king, and believed - or at least wanted to believe - that all would be well.

When Kaina killed her Wizard mentor in a magical duel, Primula could not believe it. She had a front-row seat to watching her slaughter the cousin who had tried to turn her into a hopeless addict, and still she could not believe it. The Kaina she had come to know and adore was quiet, and shy, and yearned for nothing as much as to return to her parents. How could the girl she loved so much, the daughter she had never managed to bear, have turned into a person who would kill a member of her own family without turning a hair? When King Oubold called for Primula and ordered her to once again poison her charge, her first impulse was to refuse. But the king talked to the maid at length, explaining how Kaina had gone completely off the rails, how she was now a danger to the Lukanos family and the kingdom at large - not to mention herself. Could Primula not see, so asked the king, that Kaina had not really gotten better at all? Could she not see that she was desperately unhappy, unhinged in mind and soul? Could she not see that life itself had become a burden for her little princess?

The king was the king, and he was persuasive. Although tears were streaming down her cheeks, Primula once again accepted the poison from his hand and made her way to her princess's quarters. There, she found Kaina in an unusually talkative mood; the Wizard-child reminisced about her parents, longing in her voice, and spoke to Primula of how much she wanted to leave the palace... and about the bargain she had made with the king.

"I can trust you with this, can I not?" Kaina asked of Primula, a longing in her eyes that Primula had not seen there for years. "I hate it here so much. What I've done... I'm so sick of it. But it's almost over. Once the king's brat grandson is on the throne, I can go home. That's all I ever wanted; to go home and see my parents again. You should get out of here, too, Primula. You've been nothing but kind to me, and this place is a snake-pit."

Guilt smote Primula's heart and she fell to her knees, letting the poison fall to the carpet. While Kaina looked at her in confusion, the maid confessed everything: How she had poisoned her adored princess before; how she had been sent to poison her again; how her beloved parents had been murdered in the dark on the very night she was abducted to the palace; how much Primula loved her and genuinely only wished for her wellbeing. "You should run," Primula started to say - but then she saw the darkness and the madness welling up in Kaina's eyes, and her voice caught in her throat. The last thing she heard in life was the princess's howl of unhinged rage, followed by the crunch of her own spinal cord being severed into pieces.

Primula rose on the next dark of the moon as a rank 1 ghost. She dwells in the ruined section of the palace that once held Kaina's quarters. When the moon is dark, Primula wails her unending sorrow, driving away all living beings that have strayed near. On other nights, she scrabbles at the debris cluttering the rooms where her adored princess once lived, still trying to clean and restore them to this day. While usually caught up in the tragedy of her life and her guilt, Primula is not malicious and avoids conflict. If approached peacefully, she could offer a wealth of information about Acharistos as it was before its fall into the Demiplane of Dread, not to mention personal information about Princess Kaina Lukanos.

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...