Honor and Shadow - Dornish Resistance in the Northlands

The Dorns have always born the brunt of the Shadow's wrath, from the time before the Fortress Wall to the Last Age. Their lands are beyond conquered: the dark god's forces turn to the other races of Eredane for less troublesome slaves, more easily bought mercenaries, more capable traitor princes. In the black eyes of the orcs and legates, the Dorns are good for nothing but extermination.

The Northmen are shamed by their failure and by the betrayal of so many of their lords, but in that shame lies strength. Weapons unseen for a thousand years are pulled from moldy scabards, and battle cries unheard for generations ring out from desperate throats. Starving children resolve to avenge the crimes of the past, and crippled warriors sacrifice themselves to protect the secret hopes of the future.

In a cold realm of empty halls and pillaged lands, civilization has been reduced to stony keeps ruled by corrupted tyrants. These traitor princes have gained long physical life, but at the cost of letting their souls be slowly devoured. Outside of their grim fortresses, the land lies fallow and at the mercy of orcs, breeding like maggots in the dusty earth. Even they, the Shadow's chosen, must face the depredations of roaming Shadowspawn, fell, and spirits.

If a final battle for freedom comes, it will not be in this forsaken place. If a people is to survive and live on in the next age, it will not be the Dorns. Like the doomed dwarves in their mountains, like the all-but-exterminated halflings of the plains, their tale nears its end. But the ancestors of these proud warriors have awakened from their sleep among the eternal spirits of Aryth; the royal bloodlines of some clans are yet untainted; and the dark god's forces spiral ever closer to a state of constant infighting, paranoia, and self-destruction. Yes, the time of the Dorns may be coming to an end, but it will be such an end! An end that will be told in tales, sung in songs, and lived in dreams for the rest of time.

Honor and Shadow includes:
• A gazetteer of the Northlands of Erenland
• A history of the clans and the ends of their bloodlines, noble and ignoble alike
• New rules for the positive and negative effects of states of deprivation such as disease and starvation
• New spirits of the Northlands, both benign and malevolent