Lore Drop: The Difficult Case Of Kuriale

Campaign: Ionian Shadowfell, across the Ocean Styx
When: as Styx is flooded in direct parallel to the Material Plane being flooded, we must be somewhere in the 4th Age Of Shar.

The Ionian Shadowfell

In Dungeons & Dragons's legacy, the Shadowfell is a bleak, desolate place full of decay and death.  A dark reflection of the Material Plane, like a mourning echo, it is said to pull color and vitality away from those that pass into it, like color itself were bleached from its lands.  As a mirror to the Material world, its geography is similar, but not identical, and because it passes into the prime world much the same way the Ethereal Plane would, skilled arcanists and cosmologists can use the Shadowfell as a means to travel great distances across the known world.
  But to LIVE in the Shadowfell is very different.  Adventurers of any merit would have been unheard of, as it is assumed that creatures who reside here are so devoid of hope and purpose that they would never amount to more than a pile of sad, broken bits of useless flesh and bone...  

But that's boring and stupid sad.  
  So in Ionian Lore, there came a moment in cosmological history called The Sewing.  As the Astral Seas churned, the Material Plane found its seasons in the Elemental Chaos, its laws and legends by the positive and negative planes beyond, and its magic from the influences of the multiverse.  And the days and nights...from the Feywild and Shadowfell.  
  At the close of the 3rd Age of Io, when an Ancient called The Riftskin tore open the Plane Of Water and the battlefields of Acheron, a flood of magic and mayhem spilled across the Material Plane.  However, its echoes - the Feywild and the Shadowfell, so too mirrored this cataclysm, and what they tore open...was each other.
  Influences of the Fey seeped into the lands of Shadow, while dark beings wormed their way into the lands of fairies beyond.  The Darklands gained surges of color and inspiration, and the Torchwick gained its first true form of depression and malice.  Tears and veils between both worlds; pockets and portals shifting with the tides.  These connections - new threads of travel and magic - would help maintain the vitality of both planes.  At least, for now...

And with this, a surge of vitality.  Inspiration, heroism, and creatures who come from dark beginnings fighting for purpose and perhaps a small measure of good, whilst surrounded by vampire lords, devilish valkyries, and a flooded ocean of the dead.

The War Of Dominion (Shar 146-195)

As the pirate lords of The Ashen Horn and Scarborough battled for dominance over the new world in the Material Plane, their parallels did the same, carving out new territory across the Ocean Styx and claiming dominion over the ruined and dissonant nations still scrambling to survive.  
  During this time, five cities arose to seize power. 

The Valkurym Of The Evernight - the Honor Guard of the Shadowfell's Capitol
The Thuulian Imperium - a motivated sect of Mindflayer engineers and alchemists.
The Brakenork of Krakenspire - The Orks of the Blake - an orc-like civilization that values strength and renown.
The Factories Of Kennrock - Eldritch machines and industrial weaponry.
The Gladiators Of Jotunheim - a city of many races, battle, and coin.

The next 50 years would cut a bloody swath across the dark sea, where no nation was safe and no action disavowed.  In the chaos, the Valkurym, with their dread wings and fallen celestial tactics, easily seized control of the skies.  After only 10 years in the fray, they rained fire upon Jotunheim and Kennrock, reducing the proud cities nearly to rubble.  Each swore allegiance to the Evernight, if only to cease the heavenly onslaught.  
  Meanwhile, the seas churned with cannon fire, blood, and steel.  Dennisen Thuul, Lord King Corsair of the Mindscythe, was busy.  The Mindscythe is a ship of legend; living and breathing and slicing through the black sea, it sails as if to drink the ocean dry.  Flanked by his vicious Echo Fleet, Dennisen, in the name of the Imperium, continued to stake and stretch the borders on his massive nation.  Only the proud barbarian Orks of the Blake were able to push Dennisen back from their waters, but only just.  And as the Mindflayer nation continued to sink its tendrils into the fallen ruins and outposts deep beneath the Styx, a sixth nation chose neutrality in the conflict.

These would be the Artisans of the Kuriale.

A nation of twin cities, Onyxheart and Undraaken, Kuriale was tasked with protecting the ancient relics drudged up from the flooded ruins beneath the Ocean Styx.  They are a mixed people of elven tribes; beliefs in high art, study, and creative expression rule their ideals, laws, and exports.  In fact, marked at the edge of the Azraelian Kretch, they are the region's main source of magical weapons, items, potions, scrolls, and magical services.  
  Though news of the War reached their shores quickly, the people of Kuriale decided against entering the conflict.  In fact, when Jotunheim and Krakenspire each approached the Artisan Guilds for aid, the Drow council of Onyxheart emphatically refused.  Even the sister city of Undraaken, and their Council of Seven, spoke no ill will of the visiting nations, but declared themselves neutral ground to any side.  No trade, however, was to be given to participants in the conflict.

And though Kuriale remained neutral in this conflict for its total 54 years of bloodshed, this choice painted them as cowards on every side.  Their kindness was exploited, and their artisan work raided and plundered by every city.  Though they remain nearly pacifists, the backlash following the Dominion War has forced the city to raise its own elemental protections.

The Plight Of The Drow

Under the Evernight Vale (the region where our main campaign began) Drow women are not treated particularly badly, but they tend to be pushed toward lower class work and servanthood.  However, the males of the species, are treated more like cattle.  Creatures to be herded, expendable, and worthless; a leftover stigma from the soldiers of Lolth.  
  This belief, especially the latter, has informed an extra layer of prejudice toward the Kuriale, especially their "princes."  The Vampire Lords, their Courts, and others with cruel, long memory enjoy dominating these Drow; crushing their will and expression, as a last insult to their neutrality.  Even the White Court, the most empathetic of the Vampire Lords, deem these creatures "mongrels," as they chose indecision over carving their own destiny...so they must deserve to be forever used and manipulated.  Many Lords will take these Drow and use them as humiliating labor, then toss them to the hounds, or sell them to another Lord as a joke.  But those that have been around long enough realize the value a Kuriale can have, even as a bargaining chip, and will risk renown and rebuke to protect all those that cross their threshold, even if they dominate them first to steal claim from another more vicious lord.

The Difficulty Of Prejudice and Racism

Though these elements exist in the world, none of them are painted in a positive light.  When they have shown up, the players are distinctly uncomfortable or frustrated, and will find ways to either divert attention away, cause a disturbance, or even try to undermine the system from within.  They know it's wrong, and though they don't have a lot of power yet, they're planning to fix it.  No matter our setting, the players nor the DM are siding with these manipulative Lords and Ladies; it's definitely NOT a good thing.
  But it IS the Shadowfell, and I am honored to share a table with people mature enough to tackle these painful challenges and seek the light on the other side.  
No matter what realm we share, it's worth it to fight for one another.

See you at the table.
​-Adamus