Dujhon
From Black Country Role Playing Society
Contents |
Dujhon is the setting for the Iron Heroes Campaign To Duel with Dragons
Iron Heroes Characters
The Past
The histories that remain tell that humanity, and many other creatures, were created by the Masters for slaves and servants. The Masters called themselves the Axora; they were an ancient and powerful race of magical beings, so long lived as to be immortal. They mastered magic to unimaginable heights, to the point of absolute power. Cities the size of mountains floated in the skies, cities were built on the ocean floors, and creatures were made to transport people between them. Mega cities covered entire continents.
The Axora lived according to the Code of Rule, which clearly delineated society into a strict hierarchy, as well as setting out the harsh and cruel punishments for any transgressions of the code.
The Masters also modified humans, improving body and mind so as to create servants at least approaching their arcane and intellectual power. Some became masters of magic, others mighty warriors and generals of vast armies. These were known as the First, as they were the First in the human hierarchy.
The war started over a power struggle, or a disagreement over territory, or an imagined slight; many legends exist as to the cause.
The weapons used were deadly, magic so powerful time and history itself stopped, continents were destroyed, and cities fell from the sky, or were ripped into other planes.
Then, in the midst of the worst destruction, the Axora disappeared. The war ended, and soon it became clear that the masters were gone. Some think a weapon was developed so powerful they all fled in terror, or the weapon succeeded, or that they realized the folly of war and departed for another reality to start again.
In the aftermath nothing was certain, the sages found whole eras of history missing, the scrolls and books empty. The vast armies were left with their First generals, in the midst of battle or conquest.
The First that had survived were left in a vacuum, some took their own lives when they realised their masters had gone, others continued the war as best they could with the power and armies of their masters but there were desertions and they did not have the power to control such huge armies.
The remainder of the First scattered and fought amongst themselves, dwindling armies against dwindling armies. The fighting eventually petered out and, with so much changed in the world, the factions retrenched and the survivors set to rebuilding.
Dujhon
Najimator Dujhon lead 3 families of the First and their human armies from the horrors of war onto the peninsular once known as Isren, and into the remains of the destroyed Mega city Isrenar. The last battle of Isrenar took a year; they were the last remnants of the Najimator’s enemies and eventually took refuge in the only sizable structure left intact in the huge mega city of Isrenar, the Axora Citadel. The Citadel was the size of a city itself and, though damaged, easy to defend. It was eventually stormed and Najimator Dujhon was fatally wounded during the battle.
Isrenar was renamed New Dujhon in the Najimator’s honour, the defenders were flayed and dismembered to the last man, woman and child; such were the ways of the Axora code of rule.
The three First Families created a triumvirate council to rule New Dujhon, with representatives from each family; it was named the Suulaa, after the Axora word for ruler. The Suulaa claimed territory from the southern coast to the Wall, and from the Sheers to the River Isreni; an area proclaimed as Greater Dujhon.
The First Command was formed, a cadre of First warriors, leaders of the armies of Dujhon. The armies were formed into three legions, one for each First Family. They each patrol the green, the wall and the river.
Under the Suulaa are the Guilds, each with a hierarchy of their own, each responsible for their members. Everyone is a member of at least one guild or waiting for their 15th birthday to join one.
This was a model based on the Axora code of rule.
The three families were; Oseena, Savimora and Drex
New Dujhon – facts and rumours
The city of New Dujhon is in the ruins of the citadel of the mega city Isrenar.
People live in the various sections of the Axora Citadel originally built from the rubble of its previous structure, over 300 years of repairs and development means it is well established in most areas.
The 3 families occupy the Citadel Tower, still standing nearly half a mile high, its construction originally using parts of other planes to keep it upright and the air breathable.
The First have dwindled in number a little each generation and ordinary humans are gradually becoming part of the hierarchy. This is seen by some as abandoning the Axora code of rule.
There are now many hundreds of Guilds in New Dujhon, some established over three hundred years ago, soon after the Battle of Isrenar, some less than a decade old. They represent the interests of all strata of human society
The city and beyond are protected by the First Commanders and First Legion (Oseena), Second Legion (Savimora) and Third Legion (Drex).
Castle Yot is the foremost weapons guild, training the famous Yot weapon masters, who train from childhood, leave the castle and then return to challenge their masters to the death.
The Guild of Twilight for assassins, the Guild of the Velvet Glove for poisoners.
Tweakers Guild for footpads and pickpockets.
The Church of Axora awaits the return of the Axora, when they return they will only save and modify the followers who waited for them and helped to facilitate their return. They will become the Firsts. The church is tolerated by the First families.
The Master’s Return are a more clandestine group trying to discover where they went and how to bring them back, a more proactive sect of The Church of Axora.
Greater Dujhon
Areas are The Maze, The Docks, The Green, and The Wall
From the docks in the south to the wall in the north is c500 miles, from the Sheers in the east to the River in the west c 300 miles.
The river Isreni runs through New Dujhon, the sea is dangerous and avoided, ships full of dead or worse sometimes arrive.
The Green
Was a vast park in the original Mega city, home to the villages and farms that feed Dujhon.
There is a network of underground canals that irrigate and promote excellent harvests. Some areas near the Wall nothing will grow. There are occasional intersections where a well-head protrudes above the ground, growth is better around these and villages have grown up around them. The wells are impossibly deep; nobody was got to the bottom of one.
The Wall
A vast wall that runs hundreds of miles along the north of what was the Mega city, now facing the ruins of a vast city that must have fallen from the sky during the war. It has created a new mountain range of rubble.
The wall is built of vast blocks of stone as hard as iron, the wall is untouched to just east of the river gate, where part of the falling city smashed the blocks into ruin. Between them, the wall and the fallen city block the northern border of the peninsular.
The Wild
East of the river settlements peter out and the wilds begin. The Wild is infested with tribes of bestial humans, monsters spawned during the war and now evolved into something different and often nastier. Ruins of the Mega city dot this area, now choked with undergrowth or buried in rubble. Mad prophets live there, searching for lost truths of the Araxa in horror strewn ruins or leading their rag-tag followers to some lost temple of the Gods.
Settlements near the Wild are fortified and protected by divisions of the 3 Legions. Occasional incursions of bestial humans, tentacled horrors and other monsters keep this the most disliked duty in the legions.
Magic
This is the stuff of legend, the First have the knowledge it is said but none have seen them use it. There are users of magic but they are feared. Magic is dangerous and unpredictable; the war has turned it into a dangerous and unpredictable force.
The Guild of Sages is respected and feared, as well as secretive.
Outside of the city the world is a dangerous place, even inside New Dujhon there are areas where creatures from under the city venture looking for food or worse. History is almost forgotten, the Axora mostly a legend.
Some whisper the abilities of the First are not always passed on to their offspring and, although long-lived, they are not immortal and so there are less of the First as the generations pass.
More and more of the Axora code of rule is lost or ignored with each generation, some reactionary First are planning a painful reestablishment and punishment.
There is a secret Church of the Man, this believes the Axora did not create man but man accidentally summoned them from another plane and humanity should guard against them returning. They watch for the return, and prepare for it. Declared illegal and under sentence of death by the Suulaa 245 years ago.
Dujhon can be a dangerous place, the old citadel is built over ancient cities, and things live there. Creatures created during the Master’s war still make an appearance now and again. The sea delivers up ships full of murderous corpses and worse, the crashed city beyond the wall attracts artefact hunters and the Guild of Knowledge delvers.
The Green is the food bowl of the peninsular, but people vanish from villages, noises come from the wells.
Around every corner there is something….
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