Page 10 - Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting

tal’dorei campaign guide

the shadows to uncover their weaknesses, determining the
best point of attack and how best to destroy the morale of
any obstinate insurgents. With the groundwork complete,
one of Drassig’s generals would strike at the weakened
masses with swiftness and savagery. Drassig’s shadow
tactics were uncouth, but while viewed as highly irregular
and dishonorable, proved extremely effective in preventing
widespread uprising.
Cities crumbled beneath of the shadow of Drassig’s
rule. The lights within settlements of humans and wood
elves alike were snuffed out, and this creeping brutal-
ity lasted more than nine years. King Warren Drassig
eventually sent his troops to what was believed to be the
nearly abandoned village of Torthil, rumored to be a
haven for refugees. Warren led his men throughout the
ghost town, and they scattered about to look for sur-
vivors. As they regrouped in the town square, Warren
delivered an inspiring speech on the utility of fear and
shadow in worthwhile victory. It was at the height of his
arrogance that the first arrow struck, followed shortly by
a volley that clouded the sky. It appeared that after nine
years of darkness and slaughter, Yenlara’s wood elves and
the rebellious humans of the scattered colonies joined
forces and formed an alliance on their own accord, out-
side the need for civil agreements or political treaties.
After Warren Drassig fell, his first successor and son,
Neminar Dressig rose to power. Neminar shunned the
brutal methods of his father, instead finding his interests
in more sinister powers. He became known as “Neminar
the Black Fingered”, as his dabbling in necromancy left
one arm withered and useless. However, his militarizing
infernal magics and forbidden rites elevated the threat of
Drassig’s war machine. Neminar led his army back to the
town of Torthil where his father was executed, to exact his
hideous vengeance. In the town square, he piled high the
corpses of the elven and human traitors to make pyres that
lit the night. Torthil was burned to ash.
By far, the darkest days of the Scattered War were
during Neminar’s rule. He introduced tactics and magics
to fuel his soldiers beyond human limits, leaving their
bodies altered and mutated by foul, dark, necromantic
magics. Their minds became warped and twisted to favor
mindless bloodshed and domination. Drassig’s forces
became the perfect weapons of war, their ranks blessed
by the unholy touch of the Betrayer God known as the
Strife Emperor.
In the face of such terrible power and willful tyranny,
the rebellion of men and elves continued to bolster their
ranks with vengeful orphans and eager heroes. One such
hero who came to be instrumental in the coming con-
flict was called Zan Tal’Dorei. A human who rose from
the harried streets of Syngorn during such dark times,
Zan quickly proved to be both a mighty warrior and an
inspirational leader. Rallying the broken ranks of the
resistance, Zan lured Neminar and his vanguard into the
mysterious brush of the Verdant Expanse, a realm where
fey magic was to work in Syngorn’s favor.
Having unleashed their forces upon what they thought
was the Syngornian outpost known as the Shifting Keep,

chapter 1: campaigns in tal'dorei 9