Lands of Mirhne: The Fiends of Mirhne

 There are various mythologies in our world which are replete with monsters of a particular nature: creatures which are akin to ogres or demons, monsters of myth and legend which yet appear to be creatures of flesh and blood. They are monsters, yes, bogeymen in the dark. However they are not abstract evil spirits born of nothing but rather descend from cursed humans or others of their kind. Even more troubling is that there are sometime stories where they have interbred with gods and/or mortals. Creatures such as the Fomorian or the Rakshasa come to mind.

Mirhne has its own breed of monsters of myth and legend, dreadful and unholy creatures which legendary heroes and villain either claim to have defeated or to descend from or, in some cases, may even have taken as brides. They are the inhuman monsters which walk a fine line between eldritch terror and all too human, what with their hubris and greed. They are the disowned children of the Gods, some claim, while others say they are the fallen races of men predating the Men of Mirhne. The Fiends of Mirhne fit a campaign role similar to the concept of Snake-Men in other Sword & Sorcery settings. They are the intelligent and decadent pre-human race with twisted sorcery whose wickedness was bred into a subset of humanity. They can also fill a niche similar to both the Mi-Go and the Deep Ones.

The Fiends of Mirhne are one of the few aspect of its lore which can be spoken of in more certain terms rather than vague rumours, as their existence is functionally optional to a Mirhne campaign beyond a few odd scattered ruins which exist as dungeons full of monsters, abandoned thralls and traps and all that with rewards which may very well be cursed. The full presence of a living, breathing Fiend able to interact with the player characters would be a major game-changer and signal a fundamental change to the Lands of Mirhne.

The Fiends of Mirhne

Art by Antonio J. Manzanedo

The true origins of the Fiends of Mirhne are lost to history, with only incoherent or conflicting mythology. What a surprise that is. Some of the southern folks of Mirhne speak of the Fiends as emerging from now sunken islands, underground tunnels or the swaps to reign for a few centuries before god-kings of old displaced them. Others claim they were the twisted, monstrous sons of kings of old who consorted with dark spirits and became monsters in flesh and mind. The Fiends are all over Mirhnian mythology but very little can be established with any coherency beyond the following: they are flesh and blood, they bred true with humans, their minds were human-like with a great ego and finally their form was monstrous beyond belief. They are driven by hunger, greed and lust and they supposedly left behind great tombs, dungeons and more where their cursed treasures lay.

Of course, no one today can claim to have seen a Fiend of Mirhne. They are the monsters of legend, from beasts which prey upon humans akin to Grendel to great demon lords who kidnap beautiful princess, either to keep as bride or to violently abuse depending how the story is told, as generally the version told to children is somewhat lower on the lurid details. Now how exactly that would work with Fiendish anatomy is up to the imagination. Perhaps it is better to not imagine, however, as Fiends are often described as having monstrous faces riddled with layers of teeth and tusks, multiple eyes and arms and flaccid skin in between layers or spiky chitin and bony outgrowths. Others are described as having the lower half of a beast, somewhere 'between a snake and a centipede' while others are described as corpulent and shapeless. Some had the limbs and pedipalps of arthropods erupting in odd places on their bodies while others were said to be truly shapeless but able to reform their bodies in a variety of useful shapes.

Despite their monstrous forms, many stories describe them as having a gilded panoply and magic weapons. Of course, no one has seen any of these in the current age and while some kings of Mirhne claim to have the weapons some great hero took from the corpse of a Fiend, most of these stories are fabrications. Perhaps it is that the real weapon has been destroyed or hidden due to its potentially corrupting nature and those which remain await some foolish mortal who would dare to claim it as its user. Should, somehow, someone find a weapon or armor built for the Fiends they would discover some truly baffling things, such as weapons of gold and silver which seemingly flow and reshape or ugly things made of twisted bone and metal with snapping tentacles digging down into their flesh to use with it. There are even stranger weapons still, such as something which someone from Earth would describe as a cross between an automatic weapon and an animal, its mouth opening to reveal complex organ structures shooting out thorns and bones.

Return of the Fiends?

Art by Veli Nyström

The Fiends have long left Mirhne, it seems. They have slithered back deep underground, under the sea or fallen through the cracks of the world into alien worlds under the beating heart of dead suns. Whatever dominion they might have had over Mirhne has faded away, leaving only some extremely rare and just as dangerous ruins and, perhaps, some leftover lineages of slave-hybrids who are compelled by their dark passions to continue the abandoned agenda of their masters. Their blood is thin, however and most are simply mad wretches.

The return of the Fiends, even of just a few individuals and their minions would be a catastrophic campaign-altering event. Much of their nature is unknown and shrouded in Mirhnian superstition. It could be that they are not magical beings but, rather, failed posthuman monsters and their 'magic' may simply be advanced super science. Perhaps their form is only alien to Mirhne's earthly environment and their monstrous form is simply the result of being reshaped for another form of environment: certainly, serpentine and/or crustacean forms are well suited to underground or aquatic environments. It is also possible they have never truly left and simply felt it better suited to build their civilization under the deep, back sea, away from the prying eyes of primitive apes which can only breathe air. Under this interpretation, the Fiends are ruled by the wicked Sea Witch, who has collected generations upon generations of drowned, deformed orphans. Perhaps these children were returned to life through her ancient magic/science and raised to despise the surface world which abandoned them. No one knows for certain.