. Vallorian Society and Culture

Part III of a series, "The Vallorian," by Mike Mearls

First introduced in Malhavoc Press's hit monster compendium Legacy of the Dragons, the Vallorians are a malevolent race that lurks within forgotten caves and ancient caverns deep beneath the world of Arcana Unearthed. This article, the third in a series of three, introduces you to the society and traditions of this growing threat. Whether you use the Vallorians in Arcana Unearthed or your d20 campaign, this article serves as a starting point for learning how these vicious enemies of good organize themselves.

The first three sections of this article reprint material from Legacy of the Dragons to give you the essential background on these fiends. The "Cities" and "Vallorians in the Campaign" sections are wholly new material.

For more on Vallorian characters, see part one and part two of this article.

Overview
Vallorians are a degenerate, malicious subrace of humanity. These creatures have small, slender, frames, pale skin, snow-white hair, and large, black eyes. Many males and females shave their heads bald, while others style their hair in strange, elaborate patterns. From deep within their subterranean realms, Vallorians plot to invade the surface using their bizarre and deadly living weapons.

In the ancient days, an entire kingdom of humanity disappeared shortly before the rise of the dramojh. A mighty human king named Vallor led his people beneath the earth rather than face possible defeat at the hands of the dramojh. Legends tell that this king and his followers had the power to win the struggle but were too self-centered to consider sacrificing any of their number for the good of all -- and thus the Vallorians descended into the depths of the earth. For untold generations they lived within the deepest caves. Inbreeding, magical experimentation, and natural adaptation transformed them into a degenerate race of subterranean creatures. Over the centuries, their legends have changed to include tales that blame the other human factions for turning against them and working with the dramojh to force them beneath the earth. Now, they plot and wait for an opportunity to take what they see as rightfully theirs.

The Vallorians have learned to manipulate living creatures to create a wide variety of items. A Vallorian sword is a specialized creature crafted from an undulating vat of proto-flesh. It has a hard, sharp-edged carapace and can smell blood and lunge at an opponent as its Vallorian master wields it. Vallorians' armor is made of living creatures that cloak them in protective shells and heal them of their wounds.

The Vallorians gained this knowledge by forging a pact with a being of pure malevolence, a dark god known as Harzahk, who gave them the secrets of proto-life and fleshcrafting in return for their obedience. Since that time, the Vallorians have followed the dictates of Harzahk's priests. They offer living sacrifices, preferably intelligent humanoids, to the writhing, tentacled pools of proto-flesh from which they craft their strange weapons and armor. During times of famine, when the fungus crops bear little edible food and the great hordes of underworld herd lizards and beetles dwindle, this sickening mass of pulpy flesh also serves the Vallorians as an emergency food source.

Vallorian Society
Within their underworld settlements, the Vallorians have built a highly stratified society in which an individual's clan dictates much of his lot in life. The nobles that led the Vallorians into their self-imposed exile founded a society based on inheritance and social position. Each clan has a specific task charged to it, and its members are expected to perform that task to the best of their ability. For example, the Stonehammer clan specializes in masonry and construction, while the Swiftblades are soldiers and war leaders. Only Vallorians who display exceptional skill with magic or weaponry can rise above their clan's station. Such individuals are placed into elite training cadres at a young age. If they develop their talents, they are allowed to take as a surname the name of one of the five royal houses: Tyrgar, Philomon, Ulthar, Grevin, or Cyrthrik. Otherwise, trainees remain without a surname, placing them above the other clans but still below the five royal ones.

The royal clans rule by means of clever politicking and their influence in the religious hierarchy. They have divided the caverns their race controls into five roughly equal portions and rule as oligarchs, with the patriarchs and matriarchs of each clan serving on a ruling council. Infighting plagues this arrangement, with the lower clans continually putting their support behind different royal clans. Since each of the lower clans controls one industry, the five ruling ones need to maintain at least passable relations with all of them, all while competing among themselves for power.

This balancing act would have long ago collapsed into anarchy without the power of the Harzahkite priests. Each of the ruling houses contributes its most skilled and brightest children to the priesthood, where they are trained in the art of magic while maintaining their familial ties. Thus, the priests' control over the proto-flesh vats keeps the lower houses in line, but those lesser families' numbers and skill in a wide variety of crafts allow them to remain independent.

Compared to surface folk, the average Vallorian has a relatively secure, safe, and prosperous life. Unfortunately for those surface folk, the Vallorians blame them for their banishment. With the Harzahkite priests fanning the flames of hatred, the Vallorians capture explorers and travelers who venture into the earth and cast them into the proto-flesh as sacrifices.

Vallorians dream of conquering and enslaving the world above, but their numbers are too few for a direct invasion to have any chance of success. They prefer indirect actions, such as hiring blade trolls (see Legacy of the Dragons) and other monsters to raid towns for sacrificial victims and loot. As the Vallorian population continues to grow slowly, the caverns they inhabit will eventually be too small to house and feed them all. In time, Harzahk's divine vision of a Vallorian conquest of the upper realms may come to pass.

Vallorian Realms
The original Vallorian settlements grew up in massive caverns deep within the earth. The settlers survived by cultivating mushrooms and hunting a species of small, subterranean pig known as vraka. These creatures feed on bugs and small insects and have proven relatively easy to breed in captivity. In addition, the Vallorians hunt large beetles and keep small herds of giant crickets and other bugs. Their cities are protected by stone walls, with a cathedral to Harzahk and a pool of proto-flesh positioned in the center of each city. When a settlement needs more room, the Vallorians build downward, with many of their dwellings featuring multiple floors carved from the rock and earth. Wells dug into the rock provide water.

Cities
Vallorian cities resemble armed camps. Teams of warriors lead the tartharyls -- walking, fleshy bags of acid that scuttle on thin, bony legs -- to sear any natural plants or fungus from the regions beyond the city's walls. In this manner, no foe can approach a settlement without being spotted. Teams of workers drag away boulders or smooth down any ridges, while observation posts carved high up on the cavern's walls provide sentinels with a perfect view of the region.

The Vallorians use a sculpted race of bat-winged homunculi to communicate between watch posts. These creatures are smart enough to memorize messages of up to several hundred words. Usually they swoop from a watch post to guard towers below to spread news. In an emergency, a single watch post can dispatch dozens of these creatures to spread word of coming danger. The Vallorians in the city below know that a battle is at hand when dark clouds of tiny homunculi burst from the posts above them.

Each watch post is manned by a pair of Vallorian sentinels, warriors who have bathed in the vats of proto-flesh, allowing the slimy organic material to bore into their bodies. Under the careful ministrations of the fleshsmiths, a Vallorian sentinel gains enormous eyes, almost comically large ears, and an elongated nose (which grants the sentinel the scent ability plus a +2 bonus to Listen, Search, and Spot checks). The newly modified Vallorian is then sealed within one of the watch posts, with only one other sentinel (who has the opposite sleep shift) and the homunculi to accompany him. Provisions are sent to the sentinels magically. Family clans that present volunteers for this process win tremendous prestige. Vallorians who fail in revolts, power struggles, or who simply suffer overwhelming unpopularity with their families are prime candidates for this fate.

The city below is always organized into concentric circles of defensive walls. The cyclopean temples of Harzahk dominate the innermost circle, along with the pools of proto-flesh. The innermost walls are studded with dozens of watchtowers and siege engines, but their greatest defense lies hidden within the walls. Caustic proto-flesh slime dwells within the rock. Any army foolish enough to breach the inner walls faces an onrushing wave of devouring flesh. The Vallorians are loath to unleash this measure, as it drains their vats and leaves them unable to produce new weapons and armor, but as a weapon of last resort it has turned the tide of many battles. Triumphant foes have dispatched messengers to gather wagons, carts, and engineers to aid in the sack of a Vallorian city, only for the messengers to return to an endless plain of bones, skulls, and shattered weapons stretching out from the Vallorians' final outpost.

The outer precincts of a Vallorian city are strictly separated along clan lines. The mightiest families control an entire ring within the city's successive layers of walls, while lesser clans may divide a single ring into several walled compounds. Usually, a wide area of animal pens, fields of mushrooms and the few plants that grow in the subterranean world, and other foodstuffs are used as a buffer between the outlying poorer and less prestigious urban areas and the inner rings of the wealthiest and most prosperous clans.

Vallorian noble houses literally fight for their position within a city, with open warfare flaring up as one house attempts to seize living space from another. Such combats are highly ritualized and focus on assassination and skirmishes. If a Vallorian family can slay the eldest three members of a rival family and defeat at least 50 of its warriors in the space of five cycles of sleep and waking, it gains control of the loser's territory. In this case, the two families swap their living space. The artisans in the family often resist such challenges, as they can prove bad for business and trade. Thus, fighting may occur once per decade. The outright murder of skilled workers and targets aside from a house's eldest members and warriors is punishable with execution, fines, and even an overturned victory. During times of crisis, warfare is considered treason, and the city as a whole may rise up and annihilate a house foolish enough to initiate it.

Non-Vallorians are arrested on sight within a city unless accompanied by a sponsor. This sponsor is held responsible for his charges' actions. If they face charges for any crimes, he must face them too. Vallorian cities lack any sort of visitor's quarters, and inns are utterly unknown. Even Vallorians from other cities are expected to have an invitation and lodging arranged through one of the resident families. When the Vallorians deal with blade trolls and other mercenaries, they meet with them outside the city walls.

There are a few market and general social areas within Vallorian cities, but these places are all located within the precincts controlled by the families who specialize in such activities. The Cointakers might rent space to the other families in a large, open area they built within their territory, allowing trade and political discussions to take place on neutral ground. One clan may specialize in cuisine, creating a row of restaurants and pubs in its territory where Vallorians from all the clans gather to socialize, enjoy fine food, and gossip.

Above all else, Vallorian society is orderly. The clans pride themselves on maintaining beautiful, clean precincts. Owing to their small population, the Vallorians have plenty of work to go around for everyone. Their excellent wares and high level of civilization allow them to trade mundane weapons, tools, and art objects with other races of the underworld. In turn, they can hire mercenaries to defend their lands and defeat their enemies. In many ways, the Vallorians' power can be traced to their economic might rather than their living weapons.

Vallorians in the Campaign
Many evil races fall prey to infighting. The evil armies may be on the verge of victory, when suddenly dissension tears through the ranks as warlords battle for the ultimate fruits of victory. Such attitudes are antithetical to the Vallorian way. Unified in their hatred against the surface folk, driven into strictly regimented life by the priests of Harzahk, and pounded into a complex political, economic, and social web that makes even the smallest clan an important player, the Vallorians are a seemingly monolithic force. In truth, they do suffer from internal struggles and the occasional blood feud, but overall they are so dangerous precisely because they are organized, focused, and relentless. A Vallorian lord is likely to put aside his feuds and rivalries in the face of an enemy. A Vallorian found to work with surface worlders may face execution.

Yet, despite their harsh nature the Vallorians have a stable, relatively comfortable society. They may be depraved, ambitious, and murderous, but among their own kind most Vallorians live as simple artisans, traders, and laborers. The priests of Harzahk and the histories that speak of great betrayals and wrongs committed by humanity create a hatred that burns within them, but they project their anger and evil outward. Unlike the stereotypical evil society, the Vallorians do not casually engage in murder and repression of their own kind. Their arrogance drives them to inflict such evils on others, but it also gives them a strong sense of unity. They see themselves as the one truly civilized race in the world. Surrounded by foes and forced to endure terrible conditions, they dream of conquering and subjugating others. Even the fiercest Vallorian rivals respect each other's basic rights and dignity. Their society has existed in a tenuous state too long for them to casually set aside their fellows.

As enemies, the Vallorians present an interesting dilemma. Black-hearted and incapable of seeing other races as more than playthings and potential victims, they remain patient, smart, and unified in the face of an opponent. They truly believe they are on the right side of any conflict and never think of themselves as evil or debased. Instead, they view other races as mere animals. Raiding a human settlement creates the same moral and philosophical dilemma as burning out a colony of wasps that nests too close to a barn door.

Also see: Vallorian Living Weapons and Armor and Playing Vallorians

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