IC - Horror themed 5e dnd game.
This serves, so far, as the game’s intro.
The Empire of Zahar - One of the largest realms among the Beautiful Lands, it stretches from the Gravestone mountains in the north, to the Brightwater coast in the south. From the jungles of Angh in the east, to the Dream Isles in the West. Born on the back of the ruins of ancient civilizations lost to the age of legend it was once ruled by the Zaharian Emperors from the capitol of Zahren.
Founded by a unified people with a sense of divine right to rule, the empire spread quickly across the continent, absorbing smaller realms, tribes and kingdoms as it moved, a few by diplomacy, but most by military force.
This expansion however had slowed to a crawl over time. As the empire grew and grew, creaking under its own weight and becoming more and more unwieldy, requiring more and more resources to maintain and expand, the emperors were forced to find such resources wherever they could. During the Empire's war with the Mage Clans to the north, the emperor Klavin the Third eventually found himself without the means to pay his armies and continue the fight and was forced to sign a peacetreaty with the barbarians to save face.
Though this unfavourable end to the conflict was the first hit against the country, it was far from the last. Unsatisfied with what they saw as a weak emperor, several noble families revolted, citing the emperors lack of military succes as a sign of the gods' displeasure. Taking a large part of the military with them, the result was the beginning of a destructive civil war, with both sides claiming to have the true right to the throne.
Battles rage back and forth, sometimes dying away to nothing but small skirmishes, only to flare up again as both sides sought whatever advantage they can. As war continues, the general order of the Empire suffers, as many crops and other foodstuffs are either put to the torch or confiscated to fuel the armies that march across the land. Hunger and lawlessness quickly followed, along with other more sinister things, as armed gangs of deserters and bandits roam roads and dark, savage creatures, normally kept at bay by the emperor's men are once again free to creep back to reclaim their old haunts and expand their territories. Villages and towns suddenly find themselves left largely undefended, starving and with no end in sight. These are dark times, and many citizens quietly believe that the empire, or indeed the world, is living through the End of Days.
