Rhulad Sengar and the Empire of Lether

Far to the northwest of Rothenia lies the distant mainland of the Empire of Lether. But Lether’s easternmost territory, the Isle of Tuatha, is within just 40 leagues (approx. 120 miles) of the Longreach. A few farmsteads and military outposts guard its borders, but Centaurs of the Rothenian plains are no conquerors, and Rothenia has more to fear from Lether than Lether does from it. Tuatha’s wild headland is cloaked in thick forest, and dread wights, called Draugr by the neighbouring Ulfheimers of Huldegard, are said to haunt the barrows of its bleak, cold moors.
Lether borders Nystera closely at the icebound Jokul Straits. Pirates abound in the Lether Sea between the Empire and Amarthaur, where the peninsulas of Vasilea and Koralev keep vigilant watch. To Lether’s west are the lands of Shuay, decadent Thassil, and Silonos.
Lether itself is a vast area, comprising the majority of the continent north of the Sinhar Gulf. Over the centuries the Empire has absorbed countless indigenous cultures, often appropriating their own gods and customs into its own culture. In exchange for lands and tithes, it offers protection, prosperity and peace. But to those that resist, it is quick to war. Its armies are disciplined and innumerable. Letherites are not renowned for their creativity or invention, but they are skilled at appropriating the ideas and strengths of others.
For more than two centuries, Lether has had one Emperor: Rhulad Sengar. He is a slight man, rumoured to have been weak and spoilt in his youth. His father, Tomad, was King of the rugged grey-skinned Edur of the north, said to be related to the Shadow Elves, but with the lifespan of mortal men. Tomad was a vassal to the Emperor, and he was ashamed of his unbloodied son. Determined to prove his worth to his father and his people, Rhulad set out on a Spirit Quest and returned bearing a beautiful, curved sabre that was inlaid with gold and engraved with strange runes. He said he claimed it from a spirit trapped in the ice, but would not elaborate further.
When his village was attacked on his return by Hobgoblins, he slew the invaders but fell to a vicious Troll. When his body was recovered, it was found that the sword could not be removed from his hand. According to Edur custom, his body was prepared for royal burial by pressing hot coins into his flesh and encasing him in wax. But, apparently resurrected by some spirit or god, Rhulad rose from the embalming table and overthrew his father, before leading his people in uprising against the Emperor. The Emperor had his eyes to the south, and was unprepared for this unfounded rebellion. The Edur overran the capital, Letheras, executed the Emperor and replaced him with their own Rhulad Sengar. Never once did the sword leave Rhulad’s hand. Not then, nor since.
It is said Rhulad rules Lether with an iron fist, and he grows increasingly paranoid and warlike. The Edur rule Lether with entitlement and decadence, reliant on Sengar’s fearsome reputation and doubtless cunning. He put his own brothers to death in a fit of paranoia, and sees betrayers everywhere he looks. He has already sent war parties into Silonos, and there have been sightings of military fleets on the Lether Sea. None has landed on the coasts of Amarthaur… yet.
Some of his own people have attempted to assassinate him. Some have even succeeded, but every time he is killed, he is reborn, his soul darkened by death and his pain at the coins burnt into his flesh an ever-present torture. It is widely believed that the sword is the source of his rebirth, and also the source of his increasing insanity. Some think he has even taken his own life many times, but each time he returns, at the will of some deity or demon.