Delvarn¶
"No fighting. No stealing. No religion. Obey the Dead." — the Four Laws of the Necromancer (S153)
Delvarn is "The Lands of the Necromancer", a country of the Riven Kingdoms "noted for its undead armies and their fearsome reputation. There seems to be little central government and each area of towns and villages are nearly autonomous, living under the protection of the necromancer and his armies based in the necromancer's citadel" (S319). Its ruler is the arch-lich Rodrizhal, "known only as the Necromancer", whose dominion over the living and the dead is a Factions page: the Dominion of the Necromancer.
The land¶
"Undead patrols roam the land. Normally led by a wight" (S153). The wights "despise the living but are bound not to attack" unless the living fight, harm undead or other humanoids, or go armed: "Any living person holding or carrying a weapon larger than a knife will be attacked. They can be transported in carts, etc just fine. Smiths have to operate in undead free areas" (S153). Demons and magic-users the wights may attack freely. The country is divided into about eleven provinces, each governed by a Crypt Sovereign lich from a Basalt Crypt, "Large Tower that emerges from a mound of basalt" (S153); the wights "form a mesh network while within range of a basalt crypts" (S153). The Necromancer "has marked boundaries (usually skulls on sticks), which if approached trigger an assault by a horde of undead" (S326). The Necromancer's citadel is "a large tiered citadel where it is believed he resides" (S153).
Redesian¶
Redesian, "Redez-ean", is the only port city in Delvarn, with a Basalt Crypt of its own. "It was a city of 25,000. Current pop 5,000 or less" (S176). It is "inhabited ruins. Clumsily patched buildings and parts of the city are uninhabited. Located in Broken Hills with some grass a few scattered trees. The harbor is shut down except to fishermen (by Sancturi blockade much further down the bay .. 30 miles)" (S176). The city "is ruled by a tribal council from the 4 clans that live here": the Becto, "good hunters, traders, weavers"; the Veneda, "traders, miners, craftsmen"; the Litanuk, "fishermen, farmers"; and the Cartiro, of whom nothing is said (S176). Beneath the city lie a buried city, catacombs, a monastery and the citadel with walls 120 feet high (S176). The party's contacts there were Dobos the bronzeworker, "taken by the Necromancer", the broken lich Ix'ghol, "can talk, but just skeleton", and a Becto guide, Rojo (S176).
Esgarlan¶
A town with a Captain Bengaus and a middle-aged Magistrate Yulisor, where "low-grade Hollowing" was found and a human torso (S176). The session places it after the party's road out of Redesian.
Gap
S176 does not say that Esgarlan is in Delvarn; the plan sets it here for want of any other kingdom named for it.
War with the Imperium¶
The Griffon Legions' Faragond Campaign "ran afoul of the enigmatic Necromancer in 698 SM." Believing "a strike at the heart could deal with the threat", they "drove deeply into the Necromancer's territory in 700 SM with the intention of cutting off the head of the snake. Instead, the legions disappeared and not a single soldier returned" (S326). "The Sancturi advance in Faragond has been all but halted", and the legions are only now "nearly full strength" (S319, S326). The Necromancer's Reapers, "part incorporeal undead and part physical", with metal claws, are "used heavily against the Sancturi and rebel villages/towns" (S153). See Faragond and the Sancturi Campaigns.
In Play¶
The Sancturi Campaign came to Redesian for Dobos and left with the lich Ix'ghol restored at the cost of a sick man's life (S176). Rodrizhal's own aims, "to become a creator and permanently conquer death" and "to create a godless society of living and dead, where the gods are not relevant" (S153), are his page's.
Gap
The sources place Delvarn only by its war with Sancturi Faragond and its bay; they give no capital's name, no date for the Necromancer's rise, and no account of the living population beyond Redesian.