Nightmaria

Nightmaria was a mountainous, isolationist and xenophobic Empire that shared a border with the Kingdom of Farrog.^[1] The borders of Nightmaria were heavily guarded - not only in the area around the seven trade posts which were located at each of the seven high-roads where they crossed the borders, but also the lands on either side of these high-roads. These lands were a "maze of gorges, sheer cliffs, sink-holes and crevices" which were patrolled by ever-watchful wardens. As a result, no "hardy adventurer or spy" had ever managed to reach the inner high plateaus where the Nightmarian cities "thrived" in their "splendid isolation". Any contact with foreigners was limited to the border trade posts and so, as a result, very little was actually known about Nightmaria and its inhabitants in the outside world. Nightmaria had but a single Embassy and only one ambassador - Ophal D'Neeth Flatroq - who was Ambassador to the Kingdom of Farrog.^[2]

In fact, the Empire had intentionally been named "Nightmaria" because it was felt that such a dire-sounding name would go far in making the realm sound particularly uninviting and so would tend to dissuade unwanted outlanders from even wanting to enter Nightmarian territory. Due to a variety of factors - including sheer lack of knowledge combined with unfortunate misunderstandings/misinformation - foreigners, especially the people of Farrog, widely believed that the Nightmarians called themselves "Fiends" and that they were hideous unhuman lizard-people.^[3]

In The Fiends of NightmariaEdit

The King of Farrog had been - in Ambassador Ophal's opinion - the "excruciating useless" N'Gorm the Lesser.^[4] Because King N'Gorm had been extremely intimidated by the Nightmarians, his policies with regard to Nightmaria were basically those of appeasement, which led to the great enrichment of Nightmaria to the detriment of the coffers of Farrog. This, relatively non-aggressive, status quo between the two adjoining countries ended abruptly when the necromancers, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, arrived in Farrog. The consequent usurpation and beheading of King N'Gorm by Bauchelain led to a change in policy which resulted in the attacking of Nightmarian trade, trade posts and traders by the Royal Farrogal Army of 4000 soldiers led by Grand General Pin Dollop.^[5][6]

This outbreak of hostilities against Nightmarian interests - which had been initiated by the Farrogese - resulted in Ambassador Ophal delivering the Nightmarian Emperor's "Proclamation of War" to the new King, Bauchelain the First. Because of this, Farrog faced being catastrophically invaded by Nightmaria's approximately 150,000-strong Southern Imperial Army.^[7][8]

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