Maj Space: Lleu

LLEU


*History*

Lleu is largest of Gwydion's moons, with a diameter 45% that of Selene.
Lleu is a world of storm clouds and storm-tossed seas broken by three large,
mountainous islands: Blodeuwedd, Goronwy and Dylan.

For many hundreds of years, all of Lleu was ruled by the cruel, decadent
medusa Empire of the Silver Wheel, under the Arianrhod dynasty of sorcerer
medusas.  Only the great eagles of Lleu resisted their rule, and they were
relegated to the high mountains and rocky islands far out to sea.

Blodeuwedd was the medusas' homeland, where they built their great cities.
Goronwy was riddled with great mines and caverns, where the medusas' human
and goblin slaves (perhaps obtained from Maj by sorcery) dug for precious
metal and gems.  Dylan was the empire's breadbasket, where more slaves grew
hardy ice apples and storm wheat.  Above each island hovered a huge ball of
white fire, like a tiny sun, that provided light and heat.  These balls of
fire had been created in the distant past by same unknown ancient race that
created the great tunnels.

Fifty years ago, when spelljamming contact was first made with Maj Space, an
alliance of mind flayers negotiated with the Empire of the Silver Wheel for
a base on Lleu.  They were attracted by the already built tunnel complexes
on Goronwy (particularly as they connected at some points to the mysterious
great tunnels in the depths of Lleu that connected all three islands), and
the ready supply of humanoid slaves the medusas were prepared to sell them.

However, the medusas were arrogant and careless: they let their slaves learn
what they planned too soon.  Slaving for the medusas was bad enough, but
being sold to mind flayers so your brains could be eaten was just too much.
There were massive slave revolts on all three islands, aided by the great
eagles.  The medusas triumphed on Blodeuwedd and were winning on Goronwy
when the mind flayers decided to take advantage of the chaos to renegotiate
the deal: they turned on the medusas and invaded Goronwy.  The resulting
three-way battle was vicious, but the mind flayers' triumph was assured
after they extinguished Goronwy's sun. The surviving free rebels fled
through the great tunnel to Dylan, and collapsed it behind them as best they
could with the aid of a rrakkma (mind flayer hunting band) of githzerai who
had been stalking the mind flayers.

When the dust settled, the medusas controlled Blodeuwedd, the mind flayers
controlled Goronwy, and the eagles and human and goblin ex-slaves controlled
Dylan.  This situation has endured since, but it is hardly stable, as all
three groups intend to rule all of Lleu themselves.

 

*Blodeuwedd*

Blodeuwedd is still ruled by the sorcerers of the Arianrhod dynasty,
although their hold on power is a bit shaky these days.  However, with the
external threats of the mind flayers on Goronwy and the eagles, humans and
goblins on Dylan, and the danger of further slave revolts, none of the
potential usurpers has yet dared to make a move.  The current queen, Echidna
V, feels her rivals breathing down her neck, and plans reconquest of the
lost territories for the sake of her own survival and her people's.  Her
greatest fear is that the mind flayers will extinguish Blodeuwedd's sun like
they did Goronwy's, and she plans to strike first; but against whom is
unclear.  The medusas have been building a fleet to transport their armies,
but they have few experienced sailors.

Blodeuwedd has three great medusa cities: Enyo, Stheno, and Euryale.
Euryale is the largest and the capital.  They are all beautiful cities full
of graceful white, pink and blue stone buildings.  However, examined closely
they begin look less pleasant.  The streets are lined with thousands upon
thousands of statues.  These statues are of humans, goblins, eagles, mind
flayers and other races.  And each and every one of the statues is at least
partially headless.

Neither are the slave pens very nice places, either.  Since the medusas lack
the ability to control minds directly like some slave-keeping species, they
rule through terror and fear of sudden death.  The slave quarters are always
quite clean, and are decorated with even more headless statues than the
streets of the city.

In the aftermath of the loss of Dylan's farmlands, the medusas have had to
place as much of Blodeuwedd's land surface under cultivation as possible.
They have also built many small fishing ships and sent slaves who had family
members that could be held hostage out to sea to gather what they could from
the storm-tossed waters.  

However, since the revolts and the wars, the medusas are terribly short of
slaves.  They have made some use of undead, but undead are stupid, require
supervision and are needed to fight the mind flayers.  The medusas have
tried to make good the shortfall by creating a new type of construct, the
flower folk.

Created by sorcery from the flowers of a tree native to Lleu, a flower man
(or woman, they are made in both sexes even though they can not breed) looks
like a human with pale ivory skin, white hair and white irises.  They are
beautifully proportioned.


Flower Folk


Hit Dice: 2d10 (11 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 40 ft.
AC: 13 (+1 Dex, +2 natural)
Attacks: By weapon
Damage: As weapon
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Qualities: Construct, Darkvision 60'
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +0
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 12, Con 0, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 10

Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: -

Flower men and woman are heartless creatures with no real sense of right or
wrong.   Because they are beautiful, sometimes a human will fall in love
with one.  It never ends well.  The flower folk are loyal to their creators
(because they have no choice).  They are proficient with light armor and
simple weapons, but they were not built for warfare.  Being constructs, they
are immune to petrifaction, making them ideal as body servants for medusas.

Because the flower folk can not breed, but must be manufactured by
sorcerers, there are never enough of them, forcing the medusas to continue
to depend on unreliable goblin and human slaves for most work.

The medusas are believed to have captured at least two helms in their
fighting with the mind flayers, and they would certainly be able to put them
to use.  However, no medusa spelljammers have been spotted yet in the Maj
system.

 

*Goronwy*

The mind flayers put themselves in something of a bind by extinguishing
Goronwy's sun, since it killed off most of the new slaves' food sources.
This forced them to ship in grain by spelljammer in the short term.  As a
long term solution they fetched themo fungus from Anput to warm their
caverns and to supply energy to grow edible fungi of various sorts.  They
have also needed to send their slaves out to fish, but losses tend to be
high due to the dark and the storm.

The mind flayers have imported large numbers of grimlock slaves to use as
troops against the medusas, as well as other blind monsters such as
destrachans and yrthaks.  They have also stocked the lower levels of the
mines and the great tunnels beneath with all sorts of aberrations, since
those beasts are little danger to them, but make it difficult for any of
their enemies to use the great tunnels.



The mind flayers, with their superior spelljamming forces, have firm control
of space around Gwydion.  However, the mind flayers have lost several
spelljamming craft to Lleu's storms and the eagles' attacks, and now are
very reluctant to use them offensively within Lleu's atmosphere.  The major
advantage they gain from their fleet is the ability to bring in supplies and
mercenaries to bolster their position.

It is clear that in the long term the mind flayers mean to conquer all of
Lleu, but characteristic of their species they are being patent and building
up their forces.  Eventually they will suddenly erupt and attack one or the
other of their enemies with overwhelming force, but no one can predict
which.

The mind flayers have built a spelljamming port in the central mountains of
Goronwy, by the shores of an alpine lake and in the depths of the mountains
surrounding the lake.  The chief elder brain of Lleu lives deep below one of
those mountains, but mind flayers of course keeps its location a secret.

 

*Dylan*

The population of Dylan is about 40% human, 40% goblin, 5% eagle and 5%
assorted other humanoid races, such as halflings, hobgoblins and gnomes.
The primary factors that have shaped society on Dylan are the need to defend
against the medusas and mind flayers, the great eagles, and the githzerai.  

The need to defend for the peoples of Dylan to defend themselves is clear:
the medusas badly want to reconquer Dylan and the mind flayers intend to
conquer it as well.  This has resulted in a militarized society.  Martial,
arcane and mystical orders abound, all dedicated to the destruction of the
medusas, the mind flayers or both.  Practically every inhabitant of Dylan is
in an order or associated with an order in some way.  They are the primary
social and political organizations in Dylan's societies.  Even peasent
farmers will either be part-time members of an order or hold their lands
from an order or trade a portion of their harvest to an order in return for
protection and education for their children.

Most of the orders contain members of any race that meets the order's
standards.  This has resulted in a society with very little racial
prejudice.  However, while relationships between races are generally good,
relationships between orders is not always so good.  While many of the
orders view their roles as service, holding themselves in wait for the
inevitable battle for the future of Lleu, other orders see themselves in
competition for members, property and leadership roles.  Clashes between
various orders fill the streets of Dylan's five cities -- Harmony, Strength,
Vigilance, Wisdom and Skill -- on a daily basis.

Still, so far the orders have managed to unite under the overall leadership
of the great eagles whenever there is a threat of an invasion.

The great eagles have enormous moral and political influence on Dylan
society, since without them the revolt would have not succeeded in freeing
Dylan from the medusas.  They are also felt to be essential to Dylan's
continued freedom, since they are the first line of defense of Dylan's sky
and sun from mind flayer spelljammers, as well as watching the seas for
invading fleets.

The great eagles of Dylan follow the description of the Giant Eagles from
the Monster Manual, but they are more intelligent (+2 to Int), and high
percentage of them grow to huge size.  Many of the elder eagles have levels
in wizard or cleric or both.  These eagles make awesome spelljammer
helmsmen, with a +4 racial bonus to any maneuver checks.

A few of the eldest, largest and wisest of the eagles are Storm Masters,
able to predict and control Lleu's violent weather.  These are particular
threat to mind flayer spelljammers and thus particular targets of mind
flayer malice.

The eagles are the origin of many of militant and arcane orders on Dylan,
and the grandfather of them all is the Nestguard.  The Nestguard is an order
of humanoid warriors and wizards (and, if psionics are present, psions)
whose sacred task is guard the nests and young of the great eagles against
all harm.  Since the mind flayers particularly hate and fear the eagles,
they have targeted them repeatedly with mind-controlled agents and paid
assassins.  The Nestguard's sacred duty is make sure that every eagle egg
hatches and every fledgling survives to adulthood.

Another eagle-derived order are the Winged Knights, who fly primitive hang
gliders in Lleu's stormy skies on patrol for invaders by sky or sea.  Higher
level winged knights gain wings of their own, and the highest-level Winged
Knights gain a mystical ability to shape change into giant eagles
themselves.  (A Winged Knight PrC should be written up for this.)

The rest of the orders on Dylan, particularly the mystical ones, were the
responsibility of the githzerai.  The githzerai rrakkma fought alongside the
rearguard of rebel slaves during the great retreat.  This was a series of
desperate last stands, ambushes and suicide attacks against the advancing
mind flayers and the remains of the defeated medusas, fought along the
length of the great tunnel connecting Goronwy to Dylan.  The githzerai were
moderately impressed, by the rebels, and they stayed a while to teach them
how to fight "properly" and the ways of the fist (and to kill the occasional
mind flayer attempting to make their way through the remnants of the great
tunnel).  Since then, wandering parties of githzerai have made their way to
Dylan from time to time, using it as a base from which to raid the mind
flayers of Goronwy, and making sure that their students stay true to their
teachings.

Dylan has by far the most efficient fishing fleet on Lleu, using relatively
large, well-built crew-owned vessels.  Many of these fishing ships are large
enough to double as warships, and they almost always include enough order
members in their crews to make them formidable in a fight.  This fishing
fleet, combined with the eagle's and the Winged Knight's patrols, makes it
nearly impossible for an enemy fleet to approach Dylan unseen unless it used
the most potent magic to shield itself.

Like the medusas, the people of Dylan salvaged a few mind flayer helms from
wrecked spelljammers in the aftermath of the invasion.  These have been put
to two uses: three or four of them have been built into fast, maneuverable
craft (such as viperships) and used as blockade runners to bring experts,
mercenaries and magical supplies needed to help fend off Dylan's enemies.
The rest of been used to build armored rams, crewed by mages and monks (and
psionic classes if in use), intended to attack and board any mind flayer
ships that attempt to approach Dylan's sun or cities.

 

*The Great Tunnels*

There are six segments of the great tunnel, connecting to each other each of
the three major islands on Lleu and a mysterious fourth spot near a
scattering of rocky islands.  The great tunnels are not single tunnels, but
bundles of interconnected tunnels of various sizes that twist around each
other like individual fibers in a rope.  Additionally, there are also
connected caverns, and side tunnels of various lengths, some connecting
other caverns, and some simply dead ends.

The tunnels are clearly artificial, but exact method used to make them is
unclear -- the rock appears to have been melted or simply removed as
necessary.  In places pillars where either left behind or built afterwards
in order to provide support for the roof.  In other places ramps, bridges or
causeways of stone were created in order to make travel easier.  Despite the
fact that the tunnels are all below Lleu's sea and are ancient to boot,
there is no sign that ocean has leaked in anywhere.  This is believed to be
due to spells of great power, but no direct sign of the spells can be found.

The tunnels connect to the surface in multiple places on each island.  The
fourth location, where there is no large island, has connections to several
tiny rock islets.  These islets have vague remnants of ancient foundations.
The seabed between the islets is ragged and broken, as if a large island was
pulled off the planet's surface by some unimaginable force.

When the medusas first came to Lleu from Maj, the tunnels contained nothing
but fungus and a large variety of insects and other arthropods, including
giant sized ones.  However, once the medusas had obtained human and goblin
slaves from Maj, escaped slaved began to make their way into the tunnels,
particularly the goblins.  The medusas didn't peruse them very vigorously --
after all, there wasn't anything to eat down there but mushrooms and bugs.

However, some escaped goblin slaves stumbled upon a secret.  A few of the
caverns in the tunnel system had runes carved into the walls in certain
places.  A mage who placed their hand on one of those runes would cause the
ceiling of cavern to light up with artificial daylight.  The caverns with
light also had plentiful water and soil.  Soon escaped goblins were raising
food in those caverns.

Escaped goblin slaves and a few escaped humans began forming vest-pocket
kingdoms in caverns up and down the great tunnel.  The medusas, being lazy,
raided these regularly for slaves and to make sure that they didn't get too
strong.  The deeper caverns and those under the missing island were pretty
much never bothered.

All this changed with the coming of the mind flayers.  First, the retreat
from Goronwy to Dylan forced all the inhabitants of that leg of great tunnel
to flee for their lives.  Then, the mind flayers started systematically
raiding the underground kingdoms, forcing more of them to flee to Dylan.
Then the mind flayers seeded the tunnels with all various sorts of
aberrations (such as Otyughs, Gricks, Gibbering Mouthers, Chokers, and
various types of Illithidae), in order to make them dangerous for their
enemies to traverse.  This has made life very difficult for the few
remaining underground kingdoms.

The sections of tunnel underlying Dylan were collapsed during the great
retreat, but since the great tunnels are actually bundles of interconnected
tunnels, the tunnels were not completely sealed off.  There remain a few,
well guarded paths from Dylan to the tunnels, and perhaps there are other
paths not yet detected by Dylan's inhabitants.

 

*The Seas of Lleu*

The seas of Lleu are cold and rough, resembling the North Atlantic in fall
and winter.  However, they are rich in food fish and other life.  The top
predators are Orcas, Dire Sharks and Giant Octopi.  There are no known
intelligent sea-dwelling life forms unless the mind flayers have imported
some for some inscrutable reason.

 

*The Old Ones*

There are a lot of speculations about what race might have built the great
tunnels and the little suns.  While their handiwork is easy to find, it
provides remarkably little solid evidence one way or another.   The popular
belief on Dylan is that the tunnels and suns were created by Radiant
Dragons, and that someday they'll notice that one of their suns have been
extinguished and return to Lleu to punish the mind flayers.  This theory
appears to be primarily wishful thinking.  No mortal creature currently in
Maj space could create the suns, leading to the other leading theory, that
the gods made it all.  This does not explain the great tunnels, which would
seem to be an odd thing for gods to have created.  Scholars from the Maj and
the Great Lunar University regular take the risk of travel to Lleu in order
to examine the suns and tunnels themselves.  There is a small industry grown
up around escorting them safely into the tunnels and back again.