The county of Amaans claims all but the chilling heights of the Hungry Mountains. There, amid the spires’ jagged crowns, treacherous goat paths, and lashing winds poises the citadel-county of Ulcazar, an impregnable natural fortress where brutish elements viciously strive to assure that the realm’s secrets remain unknown.
Ulcazar was fashioned as a prison, a county in name only, with little arable land and few resources worth exploiting—a doom of seclusion and poverty for those condemned to its rule. The prisoner for which it was designed was none other than Nuilivisso Ulca, second-cousin and field commander of Soividia Ustav, infamous for betraying the first king of Ustalav to the armies of the Kellid chief Thornbrow—though none could prove his treachery after the barbarian lord’s defeat. It’s said Ulca starved in his estate upon the slopes of Mount Laophis, though his line continued on until the rise of the Whispering Tyrant. With the arch-lich’s coming, Ulcazar saw little change, its lands presenting no targets to the undead legions. Without support from the surrounding nation, most of those who lived in Ulcazar perished, though a few pockets of desperation held out amid valleys and caves for decades into the Tyrant’s rule. None survived to see the tyranny’s end, however. Centuries after the conclusion of the lich’s rule, a new corruption came to Ulcazar. What began as a simple refuge for monastic scholars in the service of the Lady of Graves transformed through tragedy and revenge into the throne of a deadly silence. The Monastery of the Veil broods amid the mountain slopes, a cloister judicious antiquarians claim houses one of the oldest and greatest libraries in modern Avistan, as well as a brotherhood of attendant chroniclers. In truth, the Pharasmin order that founded the monastery as a sanctuary from which to take account of the passing eons suffered and died centuries ago. In their place grew a cult of secrets, the Anaphexia, which has grown to be the true masters of Ulcazar and casts a veil of nameless dread over all who dare to dwell within their shadowed land.
Little lives among the heights of Ulcazar. Aside from raptors scavenging for the land’s timid voles and the carrion of particularly sure-footed mountain rams, few creatures dare the lightning-scoured skies, and even fewer the fragile paths and quick-to-collapse slopes. With scant level ground or soft earth to take root in, what little vegetation manages to find purchase among the mountains typically takes the form of scrubby trees, thorny brush, grasping ivies, or various molds and lichens hiding in stony hollows and often serving to make the sheer slopes even more treacherous.
Although no communities in Ulcazar even reach sizes large enough to be considered villages, a half-dozen or so scattered hamlets and communes find shelter enough to eke out poor existences amid the unforgiving peaks. Those who choose to live in the county number among either its handful of pathetic nobles and their attendants, its religious anchorites seeking enlightenment amid the austere stones, or joyless peasants living in poverty, fear, secrecy, exile, or a combination thereof. Many in Ulcazar go mad by degrees, smothered by the weight of the unsympathetic land or their own pasts. Whatever the case, the county’s few residents warn one another of the “stone sick,” where people become as rocks, growing silent, detached, and eventually cracking. The roots of the mountains also harbor all manner of peculiar fears, as myriad crevices and caves delve into the county’s desolate veins. Those daring enough to delve into these recesses tell of eerie songs echoing in the dark, stone grown into vast chapels over lightless ages, barricades bearing ancient Kellid runes, and evidence of more than bones left by the land’s past masters. That is, if such explorers ever escape at all.
Noteworthy Locations
Despite its seclusion, Ulcazar is hardly abandoned.
Castle Penatha: Built on a slope in the Qadiran arm of the Worlds Edge Mountain’s, Castle Penathra disappeared from its foundations, along with its wealth of tapestries, lavish furnishings, and other treasures sometime approximately 20 years ago. Only recently was it rediscovered near the summit of Mount Rectzaid in Ulcazar. The castle is largely inhabited, except for a single golden cupulaed turret, maintained as the luxurious home of the purple-cloaked Isla Bellsan, the self-proclaimed greatest thief in Avistan.
Ghash: The valley known as Ghash lies within the mountain of the same name, the tiny wooded vale wholly surrounded by a spire, split as if by Gorum’s blade. The Sisters of Ghash rule this tiny vale, a coven of far-seeing witches including the green hag Librikes, who sold her nose for a staff of living roots; Soathmoa the annis hag, legendary mother of a litter of ghosts; and Hipethia, a beauteous human witch with a soul darker than her monstrous sisters.
The Monastery of the Veil: Rumored in scholarly circles to be a trove of endless secrets and wonders, the cloister possesses a much more sinister reputation within the borders of its home county. The Monastery of the Veil is detailed more fully later.
Wait’s Span: No more than two dozen hunters and peddlers lived around the wooden bridge called Wait’s Span, a gloomy parish only a half-dozen miles east of the Monastery of the Veil. While Bishop Senir claims a fire sparked by lightning consumed the hamlet, few who consider the ruined buildings and unscarred covered bridge can imagine a mere storm consuming the community so thoroughly. Rumors pose all manner of other sinister alternatives, the most popular being that someone in Wait’s Span journeyed too near the dark monastery or saw something they shouldn’t have, and the whole community paid the price.
Bishop Yasmardin Senir
The third son of a third son, Yasmardin Senir was not destined for power. Rather, in following with Ustalavic custom, his fate was to serve—the third-born son of any noble family being tradition-bound to take oaths of devotion to Pharasma. While the death of an uncle had kept his father from ever taking priestly vows, Yasmardin would be the first Senir in generations not just to follow the path of Pharasma, but to actually live in the land the Senirs held lordship over. Departing the Senir family holdings in Ardis, the estate of Lowmoun, the spoiled young Yasmardin begrudgingly traveled into the cold harshness of Ulcazar, plotting naive schemes of eluding fat monks and returning home within a week.
Yet what Senir found at the Monastery of the Veil proved more shocking than a quiet religious order. Bristling at the interruptions but forced to admit the count’s coach—as to block its entry would seem suspicious—Bishop Rithwayn intended to great the lord, pay him due hospitality, and see to his speedy departure. Finding the count’s young son instead of the count himself, however, proved the height of annoyance. Yet in the count’s letter of introduction, addressing his intention to have his son join the monks, Rithwayn saw the deceptive blessing of his dark god. As the count’s coach departed and the monastery’s ancient iron gates swung soundlessly closed, Yasmardin unknowingly found himself prisoner of the assassins known as the Anaphexia.
Bishop Rithwayn wasted no time in revealing the monastery’s secret patron, dragging the boy into the cloister’s depthless library-catacombs and locking him within the sanctuary of Norgorber. Yasmardin’s screams would be his first offering to the Reaper of Reputation. For nearly a month, Bishop Rithwayn tortured and starved the boy, visiting every midnight to ask if the Reaper had spoken to him. Despite the boy’s pleas, curses, and promises, the lord of the Anaphexia had no mercy. Finally, on the night of the new moon, a voice spoke from the shadows, and motes of ruby light dripped like blood from the blades of Norgorber’s effigy. Yasmardin would be the hand to shelter and guide the god’s blades, and work to steal and safeguard the secrets of an age of fools in preparation for a future fit for their exploitation. In return, he would be a lord like none in his family ever were, with wealth, power, and cunning beyond the petty concerns of mortal nobility. Though terrified, the youth exalted in the promise of freedom and life, and swore allegiance to the dark god. That night, when Bishop Rithwayn came to the boy, Yasmardin did not cry, but drew a blade across his body in offering.
In the years that followed, Yasmardin grew in power, just as the dark god promised. By his own devices he cut down Bishop Rithwayn, slowly killing the assassin lord with daily poison. As bishop of the Monastery of the Veil, his blade struck out against his own family, slaying his brothers so that the mantle of lordship came to rest with him. Today, for the first time in centuries, the count of Ulcazar reigns from within his realm. Maintaining his guise as a stern bishop of Pharasma, Bishop Senir holds both political and sectarian inf luence, exploiting members of the court through political guile, manipulations of faith, and “visions from the goddess”—the findings of his brotherhood of assassins and spies. Through the years, several have stumbled upon the truth of the bishop’s faith, but none have survived to spread the secret of the Anaphexia.
Notable Personages
None contend with Bishop Senir for influence within Ulcazar, but others possess a measure of prestige.
Healer Taeb: Hermit amd wise man, it’s said the ancient Taeb was once a great healer in Geb, but foes drove him from his undead homeland. After fleeing assassins for years, he now hides his wondrous hovel beneath a shadowed cliff called Vulturefang. Locals claim he can still create poultices to cure ailments, heal broken bones, and supposedly even bring back the dead, but as he grows older, his talents sometimes fail disastrously.