The Crusader's Oath/ Fall of Terendelev

The Crusader’s Oath
“I do so swear under the Light, by the Sword and Scales of Truth and all the fires of heaven, to undertake this holy Crusade. I pledge to guard heart, spirit, body, and mind from the corruption of this Wound upon the World. I furthermore promise and declare that I shall wage relentless war against the Spawn of the Pit and their manifold legions, as directed by those with charge of this Crusade and whenever opportunity presents, to extirpate and annihilate their execrable race and any who serve them.” Each crusader is supposed to swear this oath, his left hand on a copy of the Acts of Iomedae, every year on 7 Arodus, the day the First Crusade was declared. In practice, this rarely occurs except among the very devout. Most commonly, a single officer in each unit takes the oath on behalf of all crusaders under his or her command.

The Fall of Terendelev

Armasse officially began at noon, with the blessing of the festival by Lord Hulrun himself, ruler of Kenabres. The crowd gathered in Clydwell Plaza quieted as the aged inquisitor took the stage, clad in shining, resplendent armor. He cleared his throat, but just as he was about to speak, a bright light shone from the west, as if the sun were rising from the wrong direction. Hulrun’s shadow fell huge and distorted across the cathedral’s facade. A moment later, the sound of a thunderous explosion ripped through the air and earth, along with a violent tremor.

To the west, the fortress known as the Kite—the location of Kenabres’s wardstone—had vanished. In its place, a brilliant plume of red fire, lightning, and smoke erupted into the heavens. A moment later, a powerful roar accompanied a welcome sight rising from the crowd—Kenabres’s greatest guardian, the ancient silver dragon Terendelev, who had until that moment been attending the opening ceremony disguised as a human. Above, another form appeared, as nightmarish as the dragon was breathtaking. A humanoid shape three times the size of any man, with skin coated in fire and lightning, gripped a flaming sword and whip. The creature’s identity was immediately obvious: Khorramzadeh, the Storm King of the Worldwound, had come to Kenabres!

As the ground continued to shake and disgorge demons into the streets, the dragon and the balor lord clashed above. The fight was over in a few harrowing moments, as the balor cut deep into Terendelev’s body, swooping down to strike the dragon and arresting her charge. A few more blows, and the titanic duo spiraled downward toward the crowd.  Cathedral of St. Clydwell is one no witness would ever forget. At that moment, a titanic demon erupted at the far end of the plaza, reducing several buildings to ruins as it smashed into this world. The rift it created shot across the plaza, and this time there was no escape—it opened below your feet, angling away into darkness.

Even as you fell, the dragon noticed your plight. Though she saw death standing over her, she seized this final chance to save a few more souls. After she uttered a few arcane words and stretched out a bleeding talon, you felt her magic take hold of you, slowing your plummet into the darkness as if you were feathers falling into a pit. Yet the fall remained as inexorable, and as you drifted downward into the depths, the last thing you saw was the Storm King standing before the ancient silver dragon, his sword lashing out and cleaving full through her neck. As her severed head fell, the rift above you slammed shut, and the light of the world above was gone.

Mendev-Crusader Theocracy

Alignment: LG     Capital: Nerosyan (64,700)
Notable Settlements: Egede (39,410), Kenabres (12,330)
Ruler: The Crusader Queen Galfrey, Sword of Iomedae
Government: Monarchy  Languages: Common, Hallit    Religion: Iomedae, Aroden

Queen Galfrey

Mendev is a land of duality, a shining bastion of law and goodness hard up against the Worldwound, a burgeoning sinkhole of evil that threatens all of creation. It is a land of pilgrims, crusaders, opportunistic rogues, and a simmering clash of cultures from south and north. Descended from Iobarian exiles and ne’er-do-wells, Mendev of old was home to more than a few Issian pirates. Friend and ally to lost Sarkoris, it was otherwise seen as a small and inconsequential
kingdom. Everything changed with the death of Aroden, when tales of demonic monstrosities spewing from the distant north spread throughout Avistan in the beginning of the last century. The “Song of Sarkoris” related the fall of a wicked barbarian kingdom to cosmic horrors from the Great Beyond. “The Ballad of Prince Zhakar” told of the brave march into a chaos-warped land by a band of Mendevian heroes who died one by one fighting their way to the center of the blight, which they called a “wound in the world.”


Government: The noble Queen Galfrey wields considerable power in Nerosyan, but further from the capital her influence dwindles. Individual crusader commanders vary in their loyalty and how many liberties they take on their own authority, and there is often tension between the religious and military leaders of the crusade over priorities. Looming over all are the overzealous inquisitors—Hulrun of Kenabres is the most inf luential but he has many sympathizers across Mendev. Meanwhile, the Crusade Heralds attempt to mediate and satisfy all groups in the best interests of the crusade. The queen and her councilors know the quality of the crusaders f locking to Mendev has become highly questionable, and yet they are desperate for troops and loath to turn away anyone. Still, they hear the cries of persecuted native Mendevians at the hands of inquisitors and thuggish “low templars” alike. With resources stretched to the breaking point and division within the crusade even in the face of the dire threat of the Worldwound, there are few to spare to quell these internal problems.

The Fourth Crusade (4692 ar–4707 ar)

Fourth Crusade (4692 ar–4707 ar): After decades of Abyssal rule, a dangerous new addition to the demon armies arrived in the form of Khorramzadeh the Storm King. Scholars of the war are divided as to whether or not the Storm King had been ruling from Iz all along, or if he was but the latest arrival in the region. Regardless, the Storm King’s f irst assault on the border resulted in no less catastrophic an event than the cracking of the Kenabres wardstone. The ferocity of this attack caught the crusaders off guard, but in the end the wardstone held. In response, the church of Iomedae called for the Fourth Crusade. This crusade proved to be the longest and most grueling of the crusades yet, lasting 15 years and ending more as a result of wartime exhaustion than anything else. The demons lost very little, and in the years since this crusade’s whimpering conclusion, morale along the Worldwound’s borders has reached an all-time low.

Khorramzadeh the Storm King

Wardstone

The Third Crusade (4665 ar–4668 ar)

Third Crusade (4665 ar–4668 ar): Now contained within Sarkoris by a combination of the wardstones, increased pressure from the Mammoth Lords, and the distraction of an entire nation to plunder, the demons continued to press against the borders but seemed largely content to revel in their captured realm. Meanwhile, as the years passed, the Mendevian crusaders grew more and more corrupt—in part due to the subtle machinations of the cult of Baphomet, which had successfully infiltrated numerous companies and faiths throughout Mendev, but also because the resource-strained church of Iomedae had increasingly accepted less trustworthy members into its war effort. The church launched the Third Crusade primarily as an attempt to galvanize the crusaders, but as its focus increasingly turned toward self-destructive witch hunts and internal squabbling, the crusade collapsed under its own corrupt weight. Ultimately, the Third Crusade accomplished very little within the Worldwound—apart from delighting and entertaining Sarkoris’s demonic masters.

The Second Crusade (4638 ar–4645 ar)

Second Crusade (4638 ar–4645 ar): When a second wave of demons erupted from the Worldwound in 4636 ar, the crusaders had settled into their new homes in Mendev. They again took up arms against the demons, expecting a short series of f ights and boasting that this time they would drive the host back to the very edges of the Worldwound itself. But their expectations did not come to fruition. This time, the demons pouring from the Worldwound were not only more numerous—they were better prepared. Rather than the haphazard, chaotic, self-indulgent mob the crusaders previously encountered, the marauding demons were now legions driven by powerful commanders. Under
their commanders’ direction, the demons orchestrated strike forces, teleported behind enemy lines, drove their enemies toward their advancing ranks, and then crushed their opponents between them. The armies of the marilith Aponavicius captured the crusader city of Drezen using such tactics, forcing the church of Iomedae to f inally call for the Second Crusade. Even with the inf lux of troops from the Second Crusade, however, it quickly became apparent the demons were going to win. Fortunately for Mendev, the demons aimed the bulk of their devastating attack westward and
southward. The impending loss prompted the leaders of the Mendevian Crusaders to make a fateful decision— they pulled their support from Sarkoris, allowing the demon army to descend on what remained of that land, and instead concentrated their efforts on erecting wardstones along the West Sellen and Moutray rivers. The price of their actions proved steep, but, as the wardstones f lared to life, the menhirs contained the demons within lost Sarkoris and saved tens of thousands from grisly
deaths. Yet despite this success, the near- total loss of Sarkoris is generally regarded as the final capstone on a disastrous crusade.

The First Crusade (4622 ar–4630 ar)

A Brief History of the Crusades
To date, four crusades have been launched against the demons of the Worldwound, and while all four have had varying degrees of success and failure, none have yet driven the armies of Deskari, Lord of the Locust Host, from Golarion. A brief history of the war follows.

First Crusade (4622 ar–4630 ar): Although a fair number of holy warriors came to Sarkoris’s aid in the first several years after the Worldwound opened, the church of Iomedae did not declare the First Crusade until 4622 ar, as the repercussions of Aroden’s death significantly delayed the church’s ability to respond to the growing crisis. By the time the First Crusade reached Mendev, the demons had long since seized control of central Sarkoris, and had claimed significant portions of Mendev as well.

The First Crusade bolstered the defenders of Sarkoris and Mendev, boosting both their numbers and morale, and the sudden increase in the enemy’s strength caught the demonic horde unprepared, causing them to retreat back to the Northmounds. With Mendev and southern Sarkoris thus liberated, the crusaders remained in the region to help rebuild—an offer Mendev welcomed gratefully, but one that the disparate and proud clans of Sarkoris accepted more reluctantly. In any event, for the next few years the demons seemed content to focus their wrath upon Sarkoris’s Northmounds, battling primarily with the surviving Sarkorian clans desperately attempting to reclaim their family lands, while Mendev remained relatively unmolested.