Lore
A common misconception amongst modern historians and their students is that the title of Dominion refers to the Dominion of Man. It most certainly does not. The original inhabitants referred instead to the Dominion of Hazlia, the Pantokrator, God of Mankind. And with his Fall the Dominion ended – but did not die.
Far to the east of the Hundred Kingdoms, past the Claustrine Mountains and the desert wasteland beyond it, lie the heartlands of the old Dominion. Once a continent-spanning power, the legions of the old Dominion were powerful enough to threaten even the elder races of the Dweghom and the Spires into acquiescence, or at least a semblance of it.
Past the once teeming valleys and fertile plains of the Heartlands lie the river valleys upon which Capitas, the greatest city of humanity ever built, was founded. And it is here, amongst the ruins of the holiest of cities of man, that the remnants of Hazlia fell.
Wounded unto death, but immortal and driven to a towering rage by the betrayal of his subjects, Hazlia was pushed beyond the limits of despair and rage. In his hubris he sought to end the Old Dominion but was foiled by the sacrifice of another member of the Pantheon: Ninuah, the Mother.
How they Play
Denied, broken, and driven well past the edge of madness, Hazlia reached out to whatever power could answer his desperate need to avenge himself and punish his betrayal… and one answered. Death, the third Incarnate Soul of Destruction, had been bound beyond the reach of any being, living or dead, but Hazlia now stood on the threshold of both and could hear his call. Bending all his divine might, Hazlia was able to carve his way into Death’s prison as he Fell. Upon a skeletal steed rides a Mounted Strategos, commanding the unliving with battlefield acumen and experience honed over ages. With spear and shield the Legionnaires form the main battleline, while the fearsome axes of the Varangian Guard split and sunder the foe. Zealous Cultists hurl unholy elixirs upon their enemies, as the ruined marble form of a Karyatid deals death from afar; imbued with the profane power of Hazlia.
