Legion of the Fallen

In the southernmost reaches of Selejia, one can find a nation dominated by the living masters of death. Most might come to expect such a place to be hell on earth, but those who visit the lands of the Legion of the Fallen will find themselves amidst a unique culture, where the dead walk again under the power of Anushamatra, the breath of creation. All the while, both the living and unliving inhabitants of Belyos prepare for a new age of the world, when they reach beyond their borders and rescue all from the disease known as death.

The Legion can trace its origins to Ptan-Ravalum, the first queen-priestess of the Anush-Vah. The epic of Ptan-Ravalum tells of an age when the Everlasting still walked the mortal realm, guiding the people to perform great deeds in their name. In time, the people of the world grew more and more powerful, using their knowledge to advance beyond what the Everlasting had thought possible. The peoples of the world were capable of learning, through their own efforts, things their Gods would rather keep for themselves. When their creations showed such promise, the Everlasting grew fearful and jealous. That’s when they devised the curse of death.

The Everlasting, in their misplaced wrath, cursed their creations, making them vulnerable to the passage of time, so that they would never grow beyond the power of their creators. Seeing this as a grave injustice, Ptan-Ravalum, once a loyal servant of the Gods, stole from them the Anushamatra, the breath of creation, and gave it to her people. This is the power the Legion still wields, but they do not know all of its secrets. As such, it can be used to curse their enemies or raise the dead to do their bidding, but one day they hope to use this power to rid the world of death. They follow the Anush-Vah, the teachings of the Ptan-Ravalum to achieve this goal and are staunch opponents of those who worship the Everlasting, seeing them as ignorant fools who have not yet realized the Gods’ betrayal. 

Ever since revealing themselves to the rest of the continent, centuries after the Fall, the Legion has made every effort to spread its philosophy to all those who would have it. Understandably, they have been met with trepidation by the city-states and the great nations. Since they have not yet achieved their goal of defeating death, they use their powers to reanimate corpses to their service, to perform all manner of tasks. Some of them are more skilled than others, but almost all of them are subservient to the necromancers who raised them. When considering just the living, the Legion may be the least populous nation of the continent, but if you count those they have raised over the centuries, their numbers swell so they become the most populous. Fortunately, most of the dead cannot leave the southern reaches of Belyos, where their nation lies, for they quickly decay without the support of their Everlasting Relic, the Amatrix. 

The last gift of Ptan-Ravalum to her people was a piece of her own soul, the Amatrix. It would choose among her followers one worthy of leading the Legion, be they living or not. Each of these people, chosen from the aristocracy, would become the King or Queen of the Dead, for a time. Each of them would be consumed by the Relic and be replaced by another, all of them giving of themselves so that the Legion may thrive. 

Each member of the Legion knows that their time will come, but each is still able to live life to the fullest. They feel safe in the knowledge that their victory is inevitable, for with each death their power grows.