Valazdal the Undying
(Oct. 2, 2004)

The king of Valazdal — himself named Valazdal — is termed the Undying, because it is his blessing and his curse that death cannot hold him, and he is invariably reborn and rejuvenated following his bodily death. Unfortunately, his rejuvenation is not as simple as the resurrections spoken of in the codices. Instead, he rises from death as a revenant, a bloodthirsty undead fiend, and must be sated with great quantities of blood and flesh before he sleeps again and arises a second time as a living, youthful man.

For this reason, a death sentence in Valazdal is not as in other cities. The condemned are put to work, awaiting the day that the king dies. Some men, guilty of heinous crimes, have lived out their lives as slaves, waiting upon the king’s mortality. When the king dies, the condemned are trussed and left in the king’s sepulchre. When he arises, they become his food.  When the dead king’s hunger is sufficiently mild to spare some of the condemned, the reborn king commutes their sentence. When there are too few condemned to sate the king’s fury . . . it is an unsafe time to be a vagrant or a foreigner in Valazdal.

Valazdal itself has died from time to time, cast down by conquest or catastrophe. In these
times, the king’s wraith stalks the ruined streets, frustrating settlers and colonists until their blood restores him to life and health. Afterwards, he rebuilds, and Valazdal lives again.