Mendev

The nation of Mendev (pronounced MEN-dev) in northeastern Avistan was a land long defined by its conflict with the Abyssal forces of the Worldwound. For over a century, people from all over the Inner Sea region came here to support the native Mendevians in their crusades to drive back the demons to the west. The fortunes of the crusaders rose and fell until a seeming miracle occurred: a small group of heroes completed a ritual to close the portal to the Abyss. With their reinforcements cut off and the demon lord Deskari slain, the demons retreated. The crusaders pressed their advantage and brought a successful end to the Fifth Mendevian Crusade in 4713 AR. With the end of the war, Queen Galfrey stepped down and appointed Chancellor Irahai, a civilian, to rule Mendev. The nation is now dealing with the aftermath of the war, defeating the remaining demons of the Sarkoris Scar, reclaiming the corrupted lands they left behind, and managing its own internal struggles with its few, war-depleted resources.

History

Tales of demonic monstrosities spewing from the distant north spread swiftly throughout Avistan at the dawn of the Age of Lost Omens. The “Song of Sarkoris” related the fall of a wicked barbarian kingdom to 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, a “wound in the world.” Ministers of congregations shaken by the death of Aroden seized upon songs like these and reports of vile creatures from the north, whipping their followers into a frenzy of religious fervor. A crusade surged north to Mendev to combat the demon-plague of the Worldwound, but in their fervor to save the world, these self-same crusaders may well destroy the nation of Mendev in the process.

Before the crusades, most northerners knew nothing of Mendev, a proud kingdom descended from Iobarian exiles and ne’er-do-wells. As related in the tale that still fuels new recruits to the crusade, Mendev’s last prince died in the ruins of Sarkoris, near the rupture in reality known as the Worldwound. During the first few years of the Age of Lost Omens, the Worldwound’s growth stood unopposed—yet as word spread of the demonic incursion, crusaders took up the call to defend the land. The clergy of Iomedae led the way, stepping out from the shadows of their bewildered masters in the faltering church of Aroden. Nobles in Cheliax, Isger, and Andoran, fearing growing domestic discontent fueled by dispossessed nobles and idle mercenaries roaming their countrysides, joined with the Iomedaean church to sponsor the first Mendevian Crusade in 4622 ar. Thousands of pilgrims soon made their way up the River Road from Cassomir to Chesed and across the Lake of Mists and Veils to Mendev, where they joined battle and the demonic hordes were checked and even pushed back. The crusaders fortif ied their gains’ and for almost a generation the frontier was quiet. The crusade was deemed a rousing success.

Talk of an easy victory was silenced, however, when the demons, having assembled a massive force, renewed their onslaught. The crusaders suffered horrifying defeats as the land itself seemed to shift and change beneath them, and the demons rode a wave of chaos into and through their lines. This disastrous invasion, including the total loss of the northern fortress-city of Drezen in 4638, triggered a Second Crusade. The crusaders once more threw back the demonic onslaught, and with the demons pushed back, the crusaders devised a new stratagem. A string of rune-encrusted menhirs known as wardstones was constructed to keep the worst of the demonic land’s inhabitants and influence from spreading. The stones must be maintained with careful prayer and ritual, and remain constant points of attack by demons and their servants.

With their armies temporarily contained, the clever demons changed tactics yet again, and through a campaign of careful infiltration, seduction, and betrayal they began to undermine the fragile alliances that held together the crusade. This more subtle campaign produced several crusader defeats, but more importantly it succeeded in inf laming suspicion and paranoia in Mendev. The uneasiness is worst in the border town of Kenabres, where the aging prophet Hulrun leads a zealous pogrom against demon worshipers, and his passion for inquisition remains undimmed by the passing years. In truth, much of the Third Crusade seemed nearly as concerned with purifying the citizenry and the hinterlands of Mendev as with matters on the front lines. As far back as the First Crusade, many immigrating crusaders suspected the native Iobarian culture and its druidic faith of being demon-tainted. Hundreds of indigenous Mendevians and pilgrims have been burned at the stake in Kenabres alone since these trials began. Crusader leaders in the past turned a blind eye to this cruelty, preferring to focus on military matters, but the Order of Heralds instituted with the Fourth Crusade has made considerable strides in curbing the inquisition. Even in Kenabres, the ardor of the inquisition has dimmed somewhat, and many hope it will be utterly extinguished with the death of the aged prelate—but quietly here and there throughout Mendev, the screaming flames still echo the passion of her most fervent zealots.

Today, 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. Foreigners engaged in the holy wars against the blight of the Worldwound now outnumber the native people of Mendev, who have been pushed aside and treated as an underclass by the nation’s new inhabitants. Queen Galfrey inspires hope that the Fourth Crusade will return attention to the true enemy and the ideals of the crusade— and rid the north of the taint of otherworldly evil. Throughout Avistan and beyond, men and women of strong character and boundless ambition still look to the north with purpose and determination, and in their mouths the Acts of Iomedae are no mere words or stories, but a holy calling. Still, stability is fragile in Mendev, and a real brutality and lawlessness lurks just below the surface. All the while, slowly but surely, the reality-bending chaos of the Worldwound consumes more of the world, spreading its malign influence ever southward. Sooner or later, the wardstones will fail. Unless something changes soon, the Worldwound could eventually encompass all of Avistan