The Great Crestmaster

The demi-humans have always existed at the edges of the world and faraway from any civilized society.

Their numbers were low and their intelligence was even lower, true savages. They were considered no different than monsters, but they made for good slaves and laborers.

And so that was what they were until the age of dread came to be, when the majority of humans fled to the subterranean realm, the slaves were picked up by the Dreadlords.

It was three of the thirteen Dreadlords who took special attention to the demi-humans, first was Orcalacth, the forefather of all orcs know as the lord of savagery and bloodshed.

Second was the Abhorrent beast, the lord of the hunt, and lastly, the three headed wolf of nightmares.

Once the demi-humans submitted to the various Dreadlords, somehow the three lords influenced the demi-humans with their foul powers and changed them to increase their intelligence and their numbers flourished like never before.

They joined in the Dreadlords in their rampage since then becoming faithful slaves to their new masters. Their intelligence did not increase by much but it was enough for them to start using their powers efficiently.

Some of them who performed merit in battle were granted great powers equivalent to Crestmasters by the Dreadlords. And there are special ones who gained significant power and infamy enough to distinguish themselves.

Naturally after the age of Dread ended and the Dreadlords dead, sealed or in hiding, the demi-humans faced the wrath of the newly returned humans, dwarfs, elves and halflings.

However the Empire was weak and still recovering from the liberation war, that was when the Dominion was first established and intervened.

The Dominion was primarily made up of the humans who went to the subterranean realm in the northeast of the continent, however when they returned they were not the same, not in mind nor body.

They had dug in too deep into the subterranean realm in the northeast, much deeper than anyone else, and they encountered 'something' unknown. When they came back they were a new races calling themselves the Vendari and Orvikar.

And they did not have the same loyalty that other places had to the Empire, they especially did not appreciate being abandoned and forced to go under ground.

Perhaps to most people a fast death was better than generations of unending struggles just to survive within a completely new environment. Not seeing the sun for generations was bad enough.

So even after being saved by Indorias III they no longer wanted to rejoin the Empire and instead established the Dominion after absorbing the demi-humans.

Indorias III did not want to resort to violence against those who didn't want to join back willingly so he left them as is and hoped that one day their grievances would wane with time.

Of course the story with the Republic was different to say the least.

However if Indorias III knew of the consequences of leaving the Dominion alone to later generations he might have made a different decision at that time.

Of course the peace was broken during the reclamation war, and the war of crusades in which the three powers clashed in earnest, with the Empire emerging victorious in both wars.

Anyhow the Dominion has expanded throughout the years to the become the third superpower of the continent today. And demi-humans are still a major faction.

The Dominion has faced destruction when they failed to take over the world in the reclamation wars buy it was reformed by a faction of the Vendari calling themselves the Ascendancy that has a very transparent anti-human agenda.

The old Dominion had all sorts of shiny slogans like equality between all races in the Dominion and lofty ideals like spiritual examination following the teachings of Radnor.

,m But the new Dominion created by the Vendari was different, it had twisted the teachings of Radnor into radical statements and rewrote the scrolls and book left behind by the old scholars.

The new interpretation stated that there was a strict racial bias and order, at the top of it was of course, the Vendari, then the Orvikar and elves and finally the demi-humans.

And it also pointed out the reason behind the various cataclysms, three in the know history, they claimed that it was because of the humans. And newer and greater cataclysms will follow.

The Ascendancy called for all the other races to join them to overthrow the Empire. Their main claim was that continues disasters will befall the world unless the humans are deposed from their dominance over the world.

These days the relationship between the Empire and the Dominion was tenuous to say the least, while the Empire did not pay them much attention before the new Dominion because in the past, despite their numbers they weren't organized.

It also helped that they did not challenge the Empire's interests and beliefs, however the new Dominion was different. It was organized and the Vendari high elders used ruthless but effective methods to reunite the factions of the old Dominion.

Although much could be criticized about them, the results spoke for themselves, the rule of the Ascendancy added a sharp flare and a focused edge to the Dominion.

****

Which is why it was weird hearing about demi-humans in Vorian, not so much in Izzram or Norfgar but here? That was unexpected, especially since the False Saint's war.

This troubled Aldrich, if there were many of them then this quest couldn't be completed.

'Ugh! Another complication! Or is this just how quest normally are? Am I supposed to just prepare myself for a completely different mission?'

"How many are there? What do they want with you bandits?" Aldrich asked Bodger.

"Ah, I don't know! I swear! Don't hurt me! I don't know, they barely talk to us, they only want beautiful women. They talk to us only when a prey comes by to tell us about their numbers and direction."

"How many?" Aldrich asked again, because he was aware that Bodger was flustered.

"Three, as far as I know there's three of them. But the boss mostly deals with one of them."