Page 11 - Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting

tal’dorei campaign guide

the illusionary magic of the locale left the army without a singular leader, a king. The council nominated the war
target, and vulnerable to ambush. The retribution of the hero Zan Tal’Dorei to take the seat, and she humbly
forest merged with the weapons of Zan’s warriors, striking accepted, but rejected the title of King or Queen, instead
with enough ferocity that Neminar and his blighted sol- wishing to be addressed as Sovereign if a title was
diers were crushed, signaling a shift in the tides of war. As required.
word of Neminar’s defeat and death spread, hope grew for Despite Zan’s protests, the council unanimously agreed
all the oppressed peoples of the realm. the realm should be renamed “Tal’Dorei.” With power
Even so, the last years of fighting were still ahead of them, divided amongst the Sovereign and the council, Emon’s
for Warren’s youngest son stood to take power, and was leaders cleared their realm of most corruption and brutal-
sworn to avenge his family and protect their seat of rule. ity. The leading clans of Kraghammer claimed they had
been manipulated, and spent many years making amends,
battle of the umbra hills but the trust between the kingdoms was long to heal.
King Trist Drassig, second-born son of the despotic the icelost years
Warren Drassig, took the throne, envisioning the end of
the Scattered War, and tasting victory on his lips. Trist was Not two years into Sovereign Zan’s reign, a cataclysm
neither as brilliant nor as charismatic as his grandfather; struck, testing the limits of the new council. An agent
his armies were stretched thin and his people rose up. The from the Frostfell, the elemental plane of ice, slipped
rebels, led by the young warrior Zan Tal’Dorei, found through a secret tear between the worlds housed in the
themselves winning one minor victory after another. Soon, forested region now known as the Frostweald. This
King Trist’s army had its back to the imposing base of the unknown agent watched as the realm was torn and dis-
Cliffkeep Mountains north of Westruun. tracted by the aftermath of war. Knowing the weakened
Riding the tide of certain victory, Zan and her rebels, state of the denizens, this agent returned to the Frost-
allied with the Elves of Syngorn, pursued Drassig to a fell to inform its master, a cruel elemental behemoth of
valley in the Umbra Hills, but fiends fought in the ranks incredible power called Errevon the Rimelord. A short
of their enemy. The spawn of the Betrayers had returned time later during a celestial solstice, the peace was sud-
to the world from beyond the mountains and spilled into denly sundered by a rift that opened deep within that
the battlefield like a river of nightmares. The surround- same forest, blanketing much of the surrounding land in
ing hills ran dark with blood and ichor, and the bodies a terrible winter of ice and snow. An army of frost giants
of humans and demons alike littered the battlefield. Yet, marched through the chasm, accompanied by sentient
against all odds, the hero Zan ended the Drassig blood- blizzards led by the Rimelord himself, conquering all the
line, and with it, the infernal pact it had made. The grass land they could cover in snow and death.
and flowers of the now-named Umbra Hills grow black Many brave warriors fell beneath the weapons of the
and burnt as an echo of this battle, their sap coursing with invading force, unprepared for such an onslaught so
the searing blood of the demons that was spilled that day. soon after a protracted war. The storm of ice widened
over the course of a few years, consuming most of the
the rise of tal’dorei mid-continent as Errevon claimed as his own all lands
that fell beneath the ice. It built a great fortress of frost
Society had all but collapsed during the war. The leaders
north of the rift and forced conquered folk to swear
of the Verdant Expanse assembled a council of trusted
fealty in exchange for warmth and unfrozen water. This
and proven minds, but the people were accustomed to a

“A king should not stand apart from the people. A ruler should know sacrifice, for how else is he to know those who harvest
our grains and wheat, who tend to the cattle, and who raise our children? A ruler should know pain and sorrow, for war is
bloody and cruel, and for a ruler to ask the people to fight, is to ask them to die for the kingdom. A ruler should know justice,
but also reason, for not all crimes are committed with ill intent or malice, but rather with grieving and shame. I am no ruler
of this land. I am the peasant in the fields. I am the painter at his easel. I am the young soldier donned in rusted armor. You
will not find me sitting upon a gemmed throne answering the questions of those in need with disdain, but working beside
your mothers and fathers, fighting beside your soldiers, and aiding those wounded in the name of this kingdom.
“Tal’Dorei is not just a name; it is a principle. Tal’Dorei is a principle that stands for honor, an everlasting honor that
binds its people. A principle that is a beacon for the lost, the helpless, and the forgotten. Tal’Dorei is a principle that you
should be proud of, a principle that you stand side-by-side with as the people of Tal’Dorei stand beside you. Tal’Dorei
is not a name, it is to be proud, it is to have honor, it is to be loyal, and loving, and kind. Tal’Dorei is not a name; it is a
people. And you are the people of Tal’Dorei! I wish not to be your King, but a Sovereign for the people, and if you let me, if
you accept me as such, the Sovereign of Tal’Dorei! For the Honor of Tal’Dorei!”
—Acceptance speech of Sovereign Zan Tal’Dorei to her people