Let’s learn all about the organization known as Graullen’s Fist in DireLands. Join Adam as he explores his DireLands fantasy campaign setting. You can learn more about DireLands here: https://reverendcampbell.com/direlands/
About DireLands Fantasy Campaign Setting
DireLands is a system agnostic, dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying campaign setting. It was created by Adam P. Campbell in 2024. DireLands is set in a land that is in the final century of an ice age that saw the rise of the Witch-Queen who subjugated the three realms’ populations and cast out the demi-human races. The Triumvirate rose in the last century and liberated two of the three nations, but after their victory, they have become corrupt themselves.
Transcript
Cold Open
This all-male magical fraternity was outlawed when the Witch-Queen came into power.
Intro
Welcome to this continuation of my DireLands system agnostic, dark fantasy campaign setting! My name is Adam and in this episode I will be discussing the secret organization known as Graullen’s Fist in DireLands. If you appreciate the development of this campaign setting, or the features of other games on this channel, I would like to invite you to consider becoming a patron on Patreon. You can even purchase tabletop roleplaying games or get $10 by signing up to StartPlaying.Games using my affiliate links in the description below.
Details
Graullen’s Fist began as a reaction to the dramatic climate change experienced in what is now known as 902 A.M., or ‘After Men Arrived from the West’. The glaciers that were known to exist in the northern reaches of the North Praulix Sea and Grounich Ocean began to grow at such an exponential rate, that the people of northern Faulest were seeing increased winters which decimated their already narrow growing seasons, forcing mass migrations south. Graullen’s Fist began as Graullen Laur’ex’s astrological society. The orc tribes of the north had long studied the natural world, and knew of celestial processions long before the Beàrrta (bee-och-te), or Men from the West arrived.
Graullen believed there was a natural explanation to the glacier’s growth and set about discovering it. What he learned was that there were exclusive female fraternity known as Xalsion (zal-shun) tampering with the cosmic bodies outside of Ciar-mhonadh (kierd-vonnig), and decided to form an all-male secret society to not only learn about their practices, but to balance the use of cosmic power. This notion of balance was more of an act of self aggrandizement as Graullen was a known chauvinist, rejecting the path many of the orc tribes had taken in antiquity of allowing women to take the reigns of their tribal cultures. Through his studying of the sky and his research into Xalsion, he stumbled upon a cosmic legacy of magic. There was a source he found in the far north, whose name did not survive history, which he learned the secrets of cosmic ritual from. Through these sacred rites, he divined the Xalshion and their cosmic travel, and chose to leverage this power not as a means to elevate one’s consciousness or knowledge of the universe, but to rather reclaim control of his culture’s masculine future.
This drove him to form Graullen’s Fist. This secret group would use magic to subvert the matriarchal power and ended in the great Vessel Extinction of 895 A.M. The vessel is what Graullen referred to as the feminine aspects of life, and the fist represented the masculine or power, appropriating this notion from the hero Saa’vis. Men were drawn to his teaching of self empowerment, and went along with the chauvinist rhetoric and it eventually developed into a feature rather than a trait of the group. These males of the northern orc tribes worked at capitalizing on the economic and environmental devastation and directed it toward subtle propaganda which led to the Vessel Extinction.
In one night, nearly all the matriarchs of the northern clans were infected with a terrible disease, one unknowingly drawn from cosmic origin by Graullen’s Fist, that ended in an agonizing death to those infected. In the wake of the extinction, patriarch representatives were presented as the rightful heirs of the matriarch collapse, blaming the females for the global destabilization and the closing off of positions of power to them. With their secret war a success, men reclaimed their tribal control, even though the quality of life of the northern people would continuously degenerate for centuries as the Witch-Queen rose.
Perhaps it was the memory of better days centuries before, when the orcs were ruled by women which predisposed the northern tribes to accept the Witch-Queen, or perhaps it was just the years of open conflict between the now Locaston Nation and Bressus which spurred the adoption of her rhetoric. In either case, once the Witch-Queen took power, she quickly shut down the use of males from using magic, and when caught would make examples of them, gelding them and displaying their severed heads on spikes with their mouths filled by their masculinity. This reinforced the need for secrecy for the descendant members of Graullen’s Fist. Though they continued to watch and wait and in 640 A.M., they returned to the north of Locaston to find the origin of Graullen’s teachings.
What they found was more terrifying than they could have imagined. In the centuries since the Ice Age took over the north, Dòiche (do-chye) has been delivering a cosmic aberrant army of horrors to Ciar-mhonadh. Graullen’s Fist was trapped by this new threat, though in their attempts at evading them, they discovered, miles under the ice, the origin of Graullen’s knowledge. An ancient, now frozen citadel led to a dungeon connecting to an underground Wildland. Whomever created these ruins originally had an intimate knowledge of cosmic power and the fey realm. Now, finally able to grow their knowledge of this ancient power, they have to reckon with the consequence of its discovery. They are trapped.
Surrounding them in the vast caverns of the glaciers overhead are nameless horrors. Their male only secret society prevents them from growing their numbers, and the bitter irony of their origins have come full circle. Yes, the magic keeps them alive, but their chauvinistic origins prevent them from growing their society, dooming them to an isolated death if they cannot find a way past this new threat. Will Graullen’s Fist find a way out of their confinement? Will the access to the Wildlands allow them to grow their order? And finally, can any secret society exist when it limits its growth over centuries? Only your home campaign can answer these questions, as the future of these DireLands are in your hands.
Outro
Thank you for watching today’s DireLands Fantasy Campaign Setting episode. Please consider subscribing to this YouTube channel, liking and commenting on this video. And if you enjoyed this episode, consider becoming a patron on Patreon.
Thank you Creator Patron Aaron Hardy and Developer Patrons Chris Androu & Sam Ruiz!
Always remember that evil spelled backwards is live, so get out there and be evil!