What is Cursed Lands: Morgulia? by HorizonPointShawn on DeviantArt (original) (raw)
Cursed Lands is both a tabletop miniature skirmish game and a world setting. This setting occurs in its own timeline a short time after a catastrophic event in which a strange black comet passed near the world; so close, in fact, that it skimmed the outer atmosphere. The twilit sky turned a blood red while it passed and black stars seemed to bleed from it to the cursed world below, natural disasters occurred in many places and the lands became unstable where they previously had not been, multitudes went mad and committed unspeakable atrocities across the world, and things long thought to be myths began to walk the world once more as the bounds of reality thinned.
Morgulia itself is a name of dread given to a land of black peaks, precipitous valleys, and dark forests where the shadows seem to grasp for the traveler. A land where cruel Boyars rule with unchecked authority over a gloomy and superstitious peasantry and brutal Bogatir tread, owning no law but their own obscure oaths. A land where fearful tales for children have become a terrifying reality as ancient and forgotten lords have returned to terrorize the night...
Morgulia has been shaped by a long and bloody history that disappears into the myths and legends of a time from before recorded history. Tales tell that it was once the home and hunting ground of a savage and carnivorous people that worshipped strange beings that blasphemed to them from the darkness and demanded sacrifice. It is said that, at the coming of the first true humans to the land, these beings, later called Wampir, were defeated and enslaved by fell magics and forced to build grand cities and serve as fodder and enforcers.
Then, something changed. Some claim that the Wampir learned their master's dark sorcery. Others say that the dark beings whispered words of power to their former servants. Whatever the case, the stories say that the Wampir were forever altered, becoming terribly potent, but trapped between life and death and eternally hungering for the breath of the truly living. The living Wampir, it is said, became Vampir, the lords and ladies of the night, and the Wampir that died during that dark time became the hungering dead to forever curse the living. The tales tell how, in blood and darkness, these new beings slaughtered the first true humans and eradicated or built over their mighty works, and enslaved the few that they found amusing, as they had once been enslaved.
Over the eons and into recorded history, the land that came to be called Morgulia suffered many wars, both due to betrayal and civil strife and outside attempts at invasion, most notably by the cursed Tanizi, or so the tales claim. In time, the Vampir of successive strains grew weary of the incessant civil wars and the need to administrate their human cattle and withdrew, leaving matters in the hands of their underlings, the Boyars. It is said that some withdrew to hidden caverns or towers to contemplate profane mysteries, that some set their sites on the outside world and preventing any future invasions, while others fell into unending decadence and debauchery. Whatever the truth, the Boyars have ruled without challenge for nearly a millennia and the Vampir were all but forgotten, only spoken of by the most learned of scholars and whispered of by old crones as a warning to unruly children.
This was all to change... In a single night of terror, a black comet trailed across the night sky, strangely turning the dusk the color of freshly spilt blood, and trailing dead starlights that fell into the darkness. Many went mad, raving about "the truth" and Zibaba, and committing atrocities unspeakable even in dread Morgulia. By the time this "Black Star" had finally passed completely from the sky, and most of the lunatics had been put to the sword, Morgulia was in flames and awash with the blood of the guilty and innocent alike...
No sooner had one terror ended and the dead begun to be mourned, than whispers began to spread of more ancient horrors stalking the lands once more; lords and ladies, regal and terrible, with fury and hate in their cold eyes, who thirsted for blood... Other tales told of hidden doors opening in lonely hills from which hollow voices could be heard speaking in an unknown tongue that froze the soul, and of the spirits of the dead stalking the traveler as they went along the lonely paths. These and other terrors both new and ancient now beset Morgulia and all vie for the power to rise and claim the land as their own...