Ustalav (OO-stah-lahv)
The Immortal Principality of Ustalav is a fog-shrouded nation of countless horrors, and a once-proud realm that suffered under the clawed hands of the Whispering Tyrant for centuries.
It can be said that the earliest inhabitants that we know of were the ancient Kellids. They were a superstitious lot who worshiped things far older than our present pantheon. For untold years, they lay claim to these lands, still evidenced by their ancient runes and standing stones. All things pass, and the Kellid tribes’ dominion over the area was no different.
Over 7 millenia ago, the legendary hero Soivida Ustav drove the Kellid tribes from the region. Though possessed of strange powers bestowed by their inhuman deities, the Kellids stood no chance against the forged steel and formulated spell-power of Ustav’s company. Victorious, he claimed and divided the country amongst his allies and lieutenants, and their descendants in turn. This created the foundations of the country of Ustalav, a loosely knit union of supporters who eventually forgot the reason for their purpose of unity. 500 years of tentative peace passed, but with more Varisians moving into the country, disputes flared over familial rights. Rather than face civil war, Princess Carmina Ustav divided the country into sixteen regions, each controlled by the most influential families. Peace and prosperity followed but again, all things pass.
3203 AR
The necromancer, Tar-Baphon, destroyed all of that in 3203. Thought slain by Aroden two thousand years earlier, he had somehow made the transition between life and death, reappearing as the most powerful Lich Golarion has ever known. Some say that after his defeat and during his long absence, it was the Whispering Way, a cabal of Necromancers, that taught him the deepest secrets of necromancy and how to pass between the threshold of life and death. Whatever the case, his power was greater than any spell caster the world has seen. He united all of the constantly warring orc tribes into one force, and summoned forth legions of ancient dead to join with and lead his orcish horde against Ustalav. The Tyrant began his assault with the siege of the Grodlych, an Ustalavic county now part of the nation of Lastwall. He then spread eastward, quickly taking the land of Virlych by treachery. Its Count sold his very people to the Tyrant for wealth and freedom but whose name is stricken from all records for his black deed. Dozens of great heroes perished as they tried to wrest the Lich’s control of the land from him, including the loss of the heir to the throne, Prince Ardurras Virholt II. The Prince rode forth to confront the Lich Lord with his undead-destroying blade, Corpselight, only to be felled by the Lich’s powerful magic and reanimated as an undead blasphemy. The entire nation, at the backing of the church of Pharasma, led a crusade to destroy the Lich King. The crusade comprised of holy warriors and crusaders were lead by Pharasma’s High Arch-Bishop, Prince Adamondais Virholt, wielder of the holy artifact Raven’s Head. Even with this divine relic and their strength of purpose, the crusade was completely destroyed during their march on Gallowspire, the Tyrant’s seat of power. Beset from treachery within and from armies without, the fractured counties of Ustalav crumbled to the assaults of the monstrous hordes . A final stand was made at the Battle of Dawnmarsh by the last King of Ustalav, King Ardruras Virholt. It was another massacre where all were slain to the last man. The fallen king, reanimated as an abomination called the Shrieking Sovereign, led the Tyrant’s legions to the capital city of Ardis where he crushed all hope by hanging himself from the Palace Tower.3206 AR
With the destruction of its noble line, the annihilation of the country’s armies, and the eradication of the church, The Whispering Tyrant conquered Ustalav by 3206, and for centuries he ruled the land in fear, uncontested. Again, all things pass, and even the mightiest wizards can fall when they have enough enemies. Two elements contested the Tyrant’s rule from within the country’s borders, two supernatural elements that had long resided within the nation, Ustalav’s vampires and werewolves. The nation’s vampires, long established within its cities, found themselves at odds with the purposes of The Whispering Way and its most powerful member, for a world devoid of life was a world devoid of blood. The loyalist vampire lord, Malyas, led a purge of disloyal vampires, and further schismed the vampires into warring factions. A number of them escaped to other countries where they spent centuries rousing forces against the Lich King. How much of the vampires’ influence might be responsible for the campaign launched against him centuries later is unknown, but the absence of vampires amongst his forces during the final years of his rule suggests that most vampires eventually withdrew their support from the Tyrant. Even years after the Lich’s near total control of Ustalav, the then vast Shudderwood was never truly be considered to be under his rule. The nation’s werewolves, believed to be the descendents of Kellid tribes who were never fully driven from the region, hid amongst its unassailable depths. These Kellid survivors had integrated themselves and their customs amongst the Ustalav populace, and among those of their ancient line, the curse of Lycanthropy is seen as a hereditary blessing, one passed on by the blood of their ancestors. Indeed, what few accounts of the werewolves of the Shudderwood exist depict re-enactments of old Kellid rituals and gatherings around their old standing stones. When the Tyrant invaded and killed the heirs of King Ardurras, his bastard Prince Andriadus Virholt was made the next heir of the crown. Rather than leading what little forces were left on a suicide mission against The Tyrant, he retreated to the Shudderwood, where he went about a campaign of recruiting the lycanthropic Sczani in a shadow war against the Lich. The werewolves became the fiercest enemies of the Whispering Tyrant and his forces. Again none know how long this resistance would have survived without another timely change – the start of the drawn out conflict that became known as the Shining Crusade.3754 AR
In 3754 Taldor sought to oust the Whispering Tyrant. The forces of Taldor were aided by the dwarven kingdom of Kraggodan (in modern day Nirmathas), and the Knights of Ozrem. At last, after years of horror piled upon horror, the people of Avistan also began to resist the Tyrant, unable to endure further atrocities. For twenty six years the crusade fought a long and bloody path to the heart of Ustalav, and before the Lich’s stronghold of Gallowspire. the Taldan leader of the Crusade, General Arnisant sacrificed his life to finally defeat the Lich – destroying The Tyrant and himself in a final epic battle. Yet despite his bodily destruction, it was made known to the Crusaders that Tar-Baphon’s spirit would remain intact. Given enough time, the Lich would rebuild his body and begin his conquest of terror anew. Rather than face their foe again with a less certain outcome, they used their most potent magics to fashion a prison for the Tyrant. Even to this day, the now prison of Gallowspire still supposedly contains the spectre of Tar-Baphon within it, left to plot his revenge against the world of the living… and the new nation of Lastwall founded by the survivors of the Crusade to ensure that the Whispering Tyrant would never escape his eternal prison. Ustalav reestablished itself after the Whispering Tyrant’s defeat and was renamed the Immortal Principality of Ustalav, but the kingdom could not recapture its former glory. The royal line of Soividia Ustav had died out during the country’s long dark age, and the few surviving nobles who now clamored for the throne only had tenuous ties to the former ruling family. The crown was eventually given to House Ardeav. This contributed to greater infighting among the nobility, and slowed the country’s already stuttering recovery. Ustalav now finds itself a strongly divided country, struggling to reclaim a semblance of its former greatness and burdened with a history of darkness few nations can equal. As for the Prince, it is said this his blood mingled with that of the ancient shapeshifters, and that even now, some Lycanthropes can trace their blood back to the first king of the realm. Even to this day, few tread into the deeper parts of the Shudderwood for fear of what ancient things lay undisturbed.Government
Loose confederacy of countries
Maps
-
Ustalav
Alternative Name(s)
The Immortal Principality of Ustalav
The Nation That Was
The Nation That Was
Inhabitant Demonym
Ustalavic
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler