Internal threats

Introduction

These are enemies that exist within the borders of the Empire. Some of these groups are closely tied to one or more nations (for example, the Feni are mostly active in the Marches) but they are intended to be used as threats to any nation - the Feni have effected the Brass Coast already, and it is easy to see how they might cause trouble in Wintermark, for the Navarr, or in Dawn.

Bandits

Large parts of the empire are barely civilized - away from Anvil and the cities of the League there are bandits and bands of orcs that survive by robbery and raiding. Human bandits will usually be small bands of local malcontents and criminals, but almost any permutation is conceivable. A band might be led by a powerful sorceror, a religious fanatic who has been declared a heretic or the mad servant of an Eternal. Bandits in Empire fill the normal LRP trope for bandits they are a simple resource for plot writers who need to give a plot some muscle for any reason.

Orc bandits may be more complex, they could be renegades who refused the offer of the Imperial Orc egregore to join the Empire, they could be warriors who fought their way out of slavery decades ago and still harbour a hatred for their former masters. They could be raiding parties from Jotun, Druj or the Thule. They could be an independent tribe of barbarian orcs who have no other way to survive. They could be receiving aid from enemies of the Empire, foreign powers, Eternals, secret societies. Like human bandits there are many different wants for writers to use them - and like human bandits you can justify their presence virtually anywhere in the Empire that you need them to be.

Sovereigns

Sovereigns are a peculiarly Varushkan threat - they are extremely powerful - but their influence and focus is highly localized - usually to a single Varushkan vale - or a few vales or region at most. Although we don't have Vampires in Empire, the classic concept of Dracula in his castle, ruling over the valley is the iconic image of a Varushkan sovereign.

A sovereign is a great antagonist for any plot that is set in Varushka. They don't work well in other contexts because they are largely indifferent to anything that takes place outside their domain, but they are perfect for any plot that needs a powerful local threat anywhere in Varushka.

Volodny

The Volodny are another Varushkan based enemy, but unlike the Sovereigns they view the entire Empire as their enemy and respond accordingly. The Volodny are powerful ritual magicians and should be portrayed as intelligent, cunning and utterly ruthless. They are driven by a desire to destroy Varushka and the Empire, but most of them are not fanatics.

There are only a handful of true Volodny, so they are likely to use other groups to fight for them, bandits, barbarians, and any Varushkan or Imperial citizen with an axe to grind. The Volodny are a great resource to use for any Empire spanning conspiracy, where a powerful individual is working behind the scenes to do the Empire harm.

Feni

The Feni are human barbarians most commonly encountered in wild places of the Marches and occasionally other parts of the north-western Empire. They lived in much of the area that is now the Marches since before the first Marchers arrived in those lands and drove the orcs out. History suggests that some of the Feni tribes were once the subject people of the orcs who occupied this area. They seem to have a clannish structure, with individual groups of Feni being geographically and socially separated from others.

The Feni are largely inspired by picts, they have clan structures and occupy the wild spaces in the Marches but will raid Wintermark, the League and the Brass Coast given half a chance. They have an abundance of herbs but a chronic shortage of metal weapons and armour. The Feni can fill some of the same roles as bandits and barbarian orc groups but albeit with a narrower geographical focus. At present the players have little information about the Feni, so it is possible for plot writers to develop them further.

Trolls

Trolls are an ancient race of creatures that inhabited the lands before the humans appeared. They are undying creatures, they do not die of age or disease, but they can be slain with violence. Trolls feature in numerous legends throughout Wintermark, but trolls might theoretically be found in the Dawn, the Marches, Varushka, Wintermark, Temeschwar or the north of Highguard. They fit less well, conceptually with the more urban, civilized nature of the Brass Coast, Urizen and the southern League.

Trolls fill many of the conceptual roles of the classic fantasy trope of a fore-runner race. They were once powerful, the runes and much of the basis for making magical items was created by them, some of their magic is difficult to impossible to reproduce today, they have been reduced to a shadow of their former glory and they are a dying race afflicted by a powerful sense of inevitable doom. For inspiration for the trolls, look at Tolkien's Noldor, the dwarves in the original Norse legends and in the Ring Cycle.

Our trolls are not combat threats, if writers want to include a big powerful monster to threaten players then they should use an ogre instead. Trolls are extremely intelligent, shrewd, and cautious - they should be an awesome roleplaying encounter, not something that takes thirty hits and does strikedown.

Trolls are afflicted by a powerful curse that affects them - when they attempt something it will usually ultimately rebound to their own ruin. Legends and tales that feature trolls should play up this motif - if a troll gives a hero a great weapon to slay a dragon - the hero will end up using the weapon to kill the troll, or his offspring, or his whole family. If the troll refuses to give the hero the weapon, the hero will be killed by the dragon, and his family will take revenge killing the troll, or his offspring, or his whole family. Trolls believe they are doomed not because they are miserablists, but because fate actually is out to get them. An Imperial mage can use Day or night magic to physically detect this curse - it is a racial curse and present on all of them.

Trolls have little or no experience with spell casting or ritual magic - but they are pre-eminent crafters of magical items. They make artoks and other animated statues to fight and work for them. They can craft powerful items for players, but convincing them to help is always hard because the troll doom makes them instinctively wary of action. They enjoy riddles, value metals and resources and prize illium above all other materials.

Vallorn

The Vallorn is an ancient danger that infests the great wild forests of the Empire. The Vallorn is the result of a Spring magic disaster that destroyed Terunael, the human empire that preceded the current Empire. The Urizen and Navarr are the only people that survived from that time and the Navarr in particular define themselves by their determination to destroy the Vallorn.

In effect the Vallorn is a infestation of magical fertility run amok. The area teams with life, but the growth is completely out-of-control. Giant insects, mutated animals and the air near the heart is poisonous to humans. The Vallorn is definitively not sentient, it is a primeval horror, aware but not articulate, it responds with overwhelming violence to any intrusion perceived as a threat.

The Vallorn is of particular interest to the Navarr and they can be expected to jump on any plot that involves it pretty quickly. For this reason it is positively beneficial to target other nations with Vallorn plot - to make clear this menace threatens the entire Empire. The Vallorn hearts are located in the Navarr territories, but these are spread around the Empire so any nation can be impacted by the Vallorn.

Vallorn plot may involve wizards who wish to meddle with the ancient power of the vallorn, they could concern lost Terunael treasures found in the ancient cities ruined by the Vallorn outbreak. Quests may involve the mutated creatures that the Vallorn produces; although the Vallorn is not a guiding intelligence that lays plans, these creatures are used by the Vallorn as part of its defences the way a body use white blood cells to fight infection.