Murandir

The original homeland of many of the Valley peoples is a kingdom named Rol-Farantir within the vast plane of Murandir.  Memories live on and people still resent their traumatic exodus from these lands at the hands of the Senatus Empire 20 years ago.

But finally - after years of exile from Murandir - on the last Crusade, Praetor Amadeus of the Senatus Empire named Sir Paullandiss as King of Rol-Farantir.  Since this time, quite a number of Valley members have sworn their personal fealty to the new King.  Some of these individuals seek to return to their original home on Rol-Farantir - where 30 years has passed since the Valley peoples left, as time moves faster there.  There are people, who remained on Murandir, who are also bitter about the past and the subjugation they endured under the Empire rule.

The Return of the King

As Paullandiss seeks to return to the lands where he has been named King, the Alliance removed some of the local Empire forces from the area (achieved mainly by slaying them).  Forces of foreigners from the lands of Axos (known as Axians) had been garrisoned in Murandir to support the Empire, but they have since returned to their home plane.

The Valley have now established a base known as 'Kingsfort' which is being used as a trading post in the area.  A number of trade contracts were negotiated last year under the supervision of Paladin Verrick.

For Paullandiss to be recognised as rightful King by the Empire at large, he needs to obtain the support of all the local factions in Rol-Farantir, including the lizardmen, goblinoids, underground races (drow and duergar), deep wood elves and the commoner humans, as well as the Kern Valley Alliance.

To date this has only been partially successful, with for example the presently-missing Goblin King appearing to be rallying the many loyal goblin and half-orc followers to his own banner somewhere in the woods of Murandir.

In Paullandiss's favour, the drow and duergar races have reluctantly sworn to acknowledge his Kingship.  This was achieved following a binding wager between King Paullandiss and Lord Nightspawn (the Drow King) on the outcome of "The Immortal Game".  This ancient Immortal Game is modelled on the game of 'chess', where on this occasion the White pieces defeated the Black side.

As part of this agreement, Darketh Nightspawn has also handed responsibility for the guardianship of the powerful Chaos Vortex to the King.  The key to this Vortex currently lies with the Alliance drow in House Drannath.

To help his political position with the Empire and to obtain an heir, King Paullandiss recently married a widowed bride of high birth within the Empire.  However, scandal ensued as it became clear at the wedding that the young bride was heavily pregnant by her late husband.  This means that the King's heir is entirely of Empire blood - some people feel angry at what they see as further trickery by the Empire.

Politics, treachery and bloodshed have all played a part in the King's return - who can say what will happen next?