Raids
Older than the kingdoms, five powers sleep in five corners of the world. Each is bound to its own ground and wakes only there, in that region's deepest county, and only one is ever awake at a time: while one stirs or stands, the others sleep on. No one hunts them alone. The Raids tab under War shows where each of them stands today.
How a raid works
A power wakes in three steps. Something happens in the world that disturbs it, and its omen opens, which the whole world reads in the chronicle. The omen stays open for 7 world days. While it is open, a rite performed in the power's own region calls it up. If the omen fades unanswered, that power cannot stir again for 7 days. What disturbs each one, and what rite calls it, is part of its story below.
Once risen, it is fought as a monster is, from inside its region once its county is in reach, and a blow deals what it would deal to a monster. But only someone of level 40 or higher may strike one, and it strikes back: a blow costs 40 health whatever your level, and each has a 5% chance to leave you wounded. Their pools are vast, 160,000 at level 100 and 352,500 at level 150, and a power that is not slain within 30 world days leaves on its own, paying no one.
When one falls, its hoard is shared among everyone who struck it, by damage. The 3 living characters who dealt it the most are named its slayers and carry its deed for the rest of their lives (see what you carry). The first of them brings its trophy home to their household's manor, if they have one (see the trophy hall). Who struck the last blow does not matter. While it stands, the country that holds its region pays a share of its sales tax into the monster chest, so a waking power is a burden on more than those who fight it. Slain or departed, it rests for one great year before it can stir again.
The five
Vauldris, the Pallid Regent
Sleeps in Motragon, in the old court of Arados
Long before the crowns of Arados were cast, Motragon had a court, and the court had a regent no one remembers crowning. He ruled in the name of a king who never came of age, then of a king who never came at all, and when the last of his household was buried he was still sitting beside the empty throne. His brocade has rotted to rags and his fingers have grown into fangs. Whatever kept him alive so long kept him hungry.
He did not keep everything he owned. His signet ring was taken from his hand, and it has passed from one hiding place to the next ever since, the way any relic does. Those who carry it far enough say it grows colder the nearer it comes to home.
When the bearer of that ring, of level 40 or higher, stands in Motragon, candles are lit again in the old court. The doors open for the price the regent has always asked: the bearer offers 50 health in blood, all at once, and he comes to collect what is his. Those who strike him down are named regicides.
Vharok, the Exiled Sovereign
Imprisoned beneath the last arena of Utokuzter
Vharok came into the world through a gate of black glass, a king of somewhere else in armour of tarnished gold, and the orcs who met him on the sands of Utokuzter fought him for three days before they drove him back through it. Where the gate closed they built the last arena. Every duel fought there since has been fought on the roof of his prison.
An exiled king keeps count of what he is owed, and Vharok was owed tribute of arms. Anyone standing in Utokuzter may lay weapons in the arena's sand, whatever their level; each counts for its quality, from one to five, and when 1,000 has been laid the air over the arena cracks open.
The gate opens only to a challenger worth answering. One of the 5 most prestigious people alive, of level 40 or higher, must stand in Utokuzter and issue the challenge before the omen fades. If no one does, half the tribute is lost to the sand. His slayers are named sunsetters.
Ilyrath, the Broken Covenant
Keeps Nai'ur, the capital of Sun cashai
The elves of Sun cashai built a guardian for Nai'ur and bound into it the souls of their protectors, one generation after another, until it held more of their dead than any tomb. It was ivory and gold once, and it answered to a crown of seven fragments. The crown broke. What is left is made of shadow, and it no longer tells a friend from an intruder.
It wakes when an army camps at its gates. When the owner of a warband, of level 40 or higher, plants the warband's camp in Nai'ur, the seal begins to break and the guardian waits to see how many have come.
If 10 of that warband's members of level 40 or higher stand in Nai'ur when a day turns, it rises to drive them out. A warband that means to wake it gathers its strength first, and anyone may join it for the occasion. Its slayers are named covenant-breakers.
Mordraven, the King Beyond the Map
Waits past the northern point of Bor Lamur
Every map of the world ends at Bor Lamur, at the point where the ents' oldest trees stand in the ice. Mordraven comes from what lies past it: the king of a people no chronicle names, buried under a glacier in armour no smith of this world would know. The frost has never left him, and the light in his helm is the last warm thing about him.
He comes with the worst of winter. On a day when snow falls on Bor Lamur for 12 hours or more, frost creeps past the point and his omen opens.
Only someone who has walked the whole map can find the way off its edge. A wayfarer of level 40 or higher, one who has stood in every region, must venture beyond the point from Bor Lamur. It spends that day's expedition and finds the way one time in five, so a company that means to meet him brings more than one wayfarer. His slayers are named kingsbane.
Aulrath, the First Mountain
Sleeps beneath Joalkfell, where the river rises
The dwarves of Buldihndan say the mountains grew around Aulrath while he slept, and that the river at Joalkfell rises warm because it springs from his flank. Peoples older than any kingdom worshipped him and hung their offerings of bronze on his horns. The dwarves dug into him for ore and never knew what they were digging.
Nothing the living do will wake him. He waits for the world to prove itself: only once Vauldris, Vharok, Ilyrath and Mordraven have each been slain since he last rose does the mountain begin to tremble.
Then those who slew them must come to him. When a regicide, a sunsetter, a covenant-breaker and a kingsbane, each of level 40 or higher, stand together in Joalkfell as a day turns, his omen opens, and 3 days later he rises on his own. Each time he rises, the other four must fall again before he can return. His slayers are named mountainbreakers.