Progeny of Gabin Kûn

Gabin Kûn

The story of Orcus got really good in 3rd Edition.  Not gonna go into that, since it has already been told.   What I'm gonna tell you here is how Orcus came about.  In the Dawn Era, one of the top dogs of the primordials was one named Piranoth.  He created planes and worlds, and the giants, and created a progeny of children.  These were not created in the normal ways that we think of, because he created things out of the elemental energies of the Elemental Chaos.  He made sure that those that he created, did not have the same power of creation, so his progeny, in most cases, went about the same ways of bearing children as others.  One of those that came about from his creative endeavors was a giant abomination named Gabin Kûn.  This son was hideous to behold, ill-tempered, spiteful, vindictive, and all-around bad to be around. 

Another of Piranoth's gifts was his future sense.  He saw a future with Gabin Kûn as one bearing seeds of a great uprising.  Piranoth was against infanticide, not on moral grounds, but on the possible outcomes of changing the future based on what he foresees, so he instead sent Gabin Kûn to Thantaos where all the other psychopaths were being herded.  On Thantaos, Gabin Kûn was tasked with building a great forge to fabricate armaments for what his father said was a great conflict to come.  The forge area that Gabin Kûn and his crazed minions built came to be called Naratyr. 

Gabin Kûn was like his father in two ways.  He fathered many progeny from a harem said to number in the thousands.  He guise is often depicted as unwholesome, though it was only one that he could take, to court, seduce, or charm others, he could be as comely as the most beautiful half-elf.  Many of those born of Gabin Kûn's seed were abominations.   These things beat with life, yet were devoid of emotion, were unmoving, and seemingly in a catatonic state.  Like his father Piranoth, Gabin Kûn could not dispatch of his progeny, so he sent them off to be hidden about the many layers of Piranoth's Steps. 

When the Dawn War ended, the primordials were defeated, driven from the Prime Material Plane and back into the bowels of the Elemental Chaos.  In a fit of spite, and to make matters worse for the angels and gods, Piranoth abandoned his 666 layers of Piranoth's Steps.   Late in the Dawn War, Piranoth's Steps was an area no longer under control by the primordials.  It had been overrun by chaotic and evil beasts called demons.  The demons were contained by the primordials during the latter years of the Dawn War.  When that war ended, the primordials left the demons unguarded.   For Gabin Kûn and his people, they were mostly wiped out for not even the primordials could muster the forces required to enter a plane besieged by hordes of demons.

A legendary battle was fought between father and son for rule of Naratyr.  In this epic fight, Gabin Kûn battled his son Orcus.  The son nearly perished, surviving only because of his father's mercy.  Orcus took quick advantage of this and immediately struck down his father, quipping:


I'll record this as zero for infanticide, and one for regicide.  
- Orcus, on the death of his father, "Gloating over Gabin Kûn"

With the death of Gabin Kûn, Orcus became master of Naratyr and the plane Thanatos.  The only thing left of Gabin Kûn is part of his spine, which serves as the handle of the Wand of Orcus.  After the demons took layer after layer of Piranoth's Steps, the realm came to be called the Abyss.

Order 3C

When the tragarans arrived in Brucrumus they knew nothing of the interior.  In time, they got reports of ancient ruins in nearly every direction, and of places with old empires dating as far back as the Horgon Era.    One of the more intriguing empires they learned of was Garmomuk.   

Widow of Modrerthim

Ermikel the Balance went and lived at Broken Teeth for a little more than a year. At this capital city of the gnolls, he  gathered history of the region's civilizations.  When he returned to the distance shores of Hells Womb, he began writing the history.  Some, not knowing his credibility, laughed at his talk of a civilization of gnolls.   As a result, he waited ten years to submit this history to the public, because by that time adventurers and explorers were returning from the Northern Hordelands with tales of great monuments and a sophistication among the gnolls they thought was impossible.

A period of enlightenment was started in this wild region with the Drugnod family.  This family did not get lucky and sire a line of great leaders that led the Drugnod Empire to greatness, no they were helped by someone very cunning and with the patience of centuries for plan to reach fruition.   The Drugnods, led by their venerated shamans were enticed to enter into a dark pact with the abyssal lord Demogorgon.  This  deal was the Drugnod Pact.  It required a certain sacrifice, that wasn't to be felt for several centuries.

The Drugnod Pact led to a dynastic line of rulers.  The male emperor, usually chosen for obedience or influence was married to a Drugnod daughter - one "blessed" by the unholy pact with Demogorgon.  Behind close doors, the emperor was referred to derogatorily as a "breeder", because the real power behind the throne was the Drugnod Empress.

One of the greatest policies of the Drugnod was Order 3C.  This mandated an end to the nomadic ways of the region's tribes.  As a result of this government policy the people experienced stability, population growth,  and the beginning of an allegiance to something bigger than the tribe and thoughts on when they were leaving for the next hunting ground.

The Drugnod Empire began to wane when the cities grew distant from the affairs of the countryside.  This led to the Hlothangi Insurgency.  During this civil war, Demogorgon returned to collect his end of the Drugnod Pact.  The Drugnods and many other elites of society ended up being charmed, abducted, or dispatched  by vampire cultists of the Widows of Modrerthim.

The gnoll period of civilization did not end with the Drugnod.  A half year after their fall, the territorial councilors that had once served their Empress went on to form the republic of Yagamph.

Netheram

Netheram is an enigmatic beholder variant inhabiting the Valefor Deathworks.  Before he became a forge master. he cruised the depths of the Green Nebulous.  As an eye of the deep, he had no interest in the land except for the potential prey that came too close to the water's edge.

Eye of the Deep

One day, he was captured by the apex predators of the Green Nebulous.  The aboleth that captured Netheram decided not to kill him but to punish him for not bending a knee (or flipper, pincer, fin) to them, so they put him in a specially designed tank and sold him off to illithid merchants.  He was then carried north for ten leagues in a glass-steel tank of water.  Drow merchants then purchased him and took him to Valefor where Underdark oddities were highly sought after.

Netheram ended up in a glass covered pool.  This pool was glass covered because above it was the palace chamber for meeting important dignitaries.   This pool awed many who came before whatever hobgoblin satrap held sway over Valefor.  It also led to embarrassing situations when Netheram, in a fit of rage, would spring from the pools murky depths and clatter his pincers on the glass.

Netheram became a forge master by necessity.  He was saved from death after Valefor fell, operated on by duergar dissector/necromancer, implanted with a Tiwa'erra Void Sphere, turned into a death tyrant, modified to have a forge hammer and tongs instead of pincers, and left to figure out what to do with these implements.  Probably, the worst of Netheram's suffering was that he now functioned better hovering about the ground, rather than cruising underwater.  This last condition was said to be a directive from none other than the master of pain and suffering - the god Torog.

Hoof of Gluttony

When raiding barrows, tombs, and crypts it is sometimes good to know what was buried there.

When Morbakh raided the Barrow of Agdúm, all he knew was that the barrow's dead Ogre Lord once

King of Taln'nazân

had a prized weapon of great power.  Unbeknownst to many, the history of that weapon and what happens to those who come to own it is obscure and dark.

Morbakh raided the Barrow of Agdúm, losing most of his soldiers and personnel guard to a powerful ghost.  This ghost was the ward of the barrow and cursed to give watch over the place.   One of her most dangerous powers is the ability to infuse another with the dark gift of Rioch Tetrax.  This comes in the form of them becoming an extremely powerful form of undead called a King of Taln'nazân.  Morbakh succeeded in gaining his much sought after prize, the Hoof of Gluttony.  He yanked what looked like a skeletal horse leg from the resting place of Agdúm and turned to meet the ghost.

Perhaps Morbakh put up a good fight, yet he still died.  His death while wielding the Hoof of Gluttony is probably how he came to be a type of undead called a famine spirit.  This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that he was also infused with fell energies from the barrow's ghost.  He became a Taln'nazân Famine Spirit-King, which is possibly the most powerful form for a King of Taln'nazân.

Brightstar 1507

Ogre Lord Morbakh

It is obvious what these advisers are doing, their masters back at Drakhôr hope to destabilize the empire and wishfully see us waste boots and resources in a drawn-out war. What they and others continue to forget, is that high blood orcs don't fight because they have to, but because they want to.
 
- Blac'drugulois, excerpt from his personal diaries, "Brightstar 1507"

This is one of the observances made by the former emperor of the Orchish Empire.  He made this during the First Ogre War.  This war ended in a stalemate, at least according to the records of the Fograth.  To other powers, it was viewed as a defeat, with the Toomrur and their much revered Ogre Lords now seen as a regional power.

Sweat of Danzar-Khâl

What happened after the Black Tide was defeated and sent fleeing back to Necrocrypt? 

Katrana and friends

That story is still unfolding, but here is a nugget of holy crusaders storming the palace of the Lich Empress - does she perish?  Well sort of, but a super bad ass does not take a dirt nap so easily, for in the end, all are just pawns of even greater powers.

One of the things that helped bring her down for a time is a magical pool called the Sweat of Danzar-Khâl.  This pool of holy water is sited in the area of the Monument of Šadullu.  The Last Saints of Gûn, former high dwarven priests of Maharâg, and the soldiers accompanying them coated their weapons with this stuff and then reapplied it many times, striking Katrana Dumu-loc 99 times.  The number of hits against her is testament of an extremely powerful foe.

The Sweat of Danzar-Khâl acted as a holy curse on Katrana, causing her evil essence to wander lost for almost a century.  The final outcome of what happened to her when she finally found her phylactery is covered in the Monument of Šadullu.

Clouds of the Broken Continent

An entire continent nearly swallowed by the Nine Tongued Worm.  Šadullu was ripped from the mantle of Bal-Kriav and drifted towards the churning rift of a primordial dreadnought.  The Nine

Monument of Šadullu

Tongued Worm had already destroyed one world, and now Bal-Kriav was on the menu.  Fortunately for those that call this world home, the gods arrived and drove the Nine Tongued Worm back to the Elemental Chaos.

Šadullu is often referred to as the Clouds of the Broken Continent.  This is because that is what it looks like from the sea or the air - an entire continent sheared from the surface, broken, and then scattered over a vast area, from a mile or so above the ocean to near airless heights into the clouds.

One of the peoples that dwell among the shattered continent is the Laupha. These storm archons once served the durkoth at the Spire of Rioch Tetrax.  When the durkoth grew flippers and gills, and crawled into the sea, the Laupha were the first to fly to freedom.  They went en-masse to Šadullu and now dwell there in the tens of thousands.