Notes for further use for my Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting:
To the east, along the
northern side of the Inland Sea, lies the Kingdom of Zantium. It is
made up predominantly of orcs, hobgoblins, men, and half-orcs, with a
smattering of other races. Its mountains are full of Duergar and
goblins, and its trees are full of savage wood elves. The peoples ride
on horses and and travel in moving cities, the better to conduct raids on
nearby lands.
Zantium has been ruled for
nearly 300 years by Belbog, who, though he appears to be human man,
is actually a Black Dragon. This fact is widely known. In fact, he is
called the Dragon King. He wrestled control of Zantium from a human
king all those years ago after assembling an army of mercenaries while
posing in human form. Upon his conquering of the land, he revealed his
true nature, and set about building a court to fit his character. He
built a palace over the entrance of what was later revealed to be his lair, and
so the area surrounding his palace is subject to his magical will.
His
court includes the 15 half-dragon children who have been born to him
and not died in battle or old age, although three of them have not yet
come of age. Having seen his first consort die of old age, as well as
some of his older children, his present consort is the wood elf princess Elana, and he has a half-orc consort as well. There is also a coterie of
vampires and their vampire spawn who serve him as courtiers, scribes,
and advisors, as well as a number of spellcasters of various races, including at least one Oni.
One of Belbogs most common punishments for transgressions is to turn a
person over to the vampires to use as they see fit, or to give one's children to the Oni.
Belbog
was ancient before he conquered Zantium, and while he appears at times
in his Garantuan Black Dragon form for battle purposes, it seems as if
Belbog actually enjoys the pleasures of human culture, and delights in
leading men and making war, and crushing his enemies as a man.
Belbog
appears as a pale skinned human male of seven feet in height, with a
warrior's build. He wears jet black hair down to his waist, though it
is often braided, and tends to favor black silk robes that he
accentuates with a rotating sampling of his massive collection of
jewelry. Despite his fondness for war on other nations, he has little
interest in fomenting alliances with fiends and other evil beings. Drow
are looked down upon within Zantium for their worship of Lolth, as the
only evil diety Belbog respects is Tiamat. The mountain inhabitants can
always count on his aid should the drow begin to encroach upon their
territory. He may look the other way when it comes to his vampire
servants worshiping infernal beings, but conduct with actual demons and
devils from the lower planes is strictly prohibited.
