Ravenhold
Government: Stratocracy
Capitol: Daemon's Fall
Deity: No formal religion, but holds "The First Raven" as a deific figure
Millennia ago when a powerful demon master managed to enter the realm by possessing a young ambitious yet naive wizard a group of adventurers banded together against it led by the young wizard’s elder brother, forming the first “Raven Guard”. These adventurer’s tracked down the demon master, and while they were unable to destroy it completely, they were able to banish it back to it’s realm at the unfortunate cost of the young wizard and his elder brother’s life. While the brother’s true name has been lost to history he has become exalted as an almost deity-like figure known as The First Raven.
After the defeat of the demon master the corpse of it’s vessel was purified, covered with protective wards, and buried on consecrated land. After this the first Raven Guard split up. Some returned to their home’s intent on putting the horrors they had seen behind them. Other’s went on to form another more permanent organization, an Inquisitorium, with the goal of monitoring the world for signs of evil be it in the form of dark magic users, undead, or demons, and sending out warriors to eliminate it. When the forces of evil became too great they would initiate new Raven Guard’s to stand against them.
Two members of the first Raven Guard, a powerful mage and zealous cleric, chose to stay behind, to forego their former lives in order to guard the burial site of the demon master’s vessel, as well as the fragments of the weapon that was used to banish it. Over time the small hovels they built themselves were replaced with large houses. As the mage and cleric took on students that were drawn in by the forces emanating from the area more houses were built. Eventually a small collection of houses surrounding a simple but incredibly warded mausoleum grew into a bustling village. The true nature of this village however was kept secret to all but it’s rulers, a line directly leading back to the original two founders, with it’s existence being forgotten even within the wall’s of the Inquisitorium.
With the re-emergence of a powerful Demon into the realm the leaders of the village, now known as Daemon’s Fall, awaited the reformation of a Ravenguard to stand against it. While they waited they worked to reforge and improve the weapon used to defeat it, hoping it could destroy the demon permanently.
When the armies of the realm took sanctuary within the village, it’s leaders began to lose faith in the Inquisitorium and its Raven Guards. Not long after villagers were kidnapped by the the demon’s human followers, with many of them being sacrificed due to the negligence and/or lack of concern of the rest of the realm. The leaders of Daemon’s Fall were unsure what to do until the mysterious return of Nalek Magne. Upon his arrival at the village and the leaderships recognition of him as a member of Raven Guard they turned over control of the village and its surrounding holdings.
Nalek, upon being apprised of what happened in the realm since his kidnappings, hearing about the ignored villagers and the declarations of war and hostility despite the much larger concern of demonic incursion, decided that he would no longer move forward as the Inquisitorium has so far. He would not merely remove the threat and hand the lands back over just to be lost and corrupted again. He would no longer just react to evil threats as they came up. He would be proactive, he would hold the lands and protect them so that evil can never rise there to begin with. With the support and backing of the village leaders and his compatriots he created Ravenhold.