Land of Frostblooded Fury and Unforgiving North
Name and Placement
The Bleakhand Union lies in the frigid northeastern reaches of Ooloo, where the permafrost never fully thaws and the land is marked by jagged cliffs, icy plateaus, and wind-scoured tundra. It stretches from the eastern curve of the Hooklock Mountains to the icy bays of Iniquity and Scavenger’s Hold, with Sentential and Mount Desolation forming the treacherous southern border. It is flanked by the Dismal Straits to the north and northeast, a cruel and restless sea that isolates it from the rest of Mernac. To the west lies the Auliaan frontier, a land that the Bleakhand Union increasingly raids.
Though technically referred to as a kingdom, the Union is no kingdom in the traditional sense. It is a violent confederation of tribes and factions held together by custom, conquest, and brutal necessity. The largest and most feared of these are the Azeman Clans, immense fur-covered humanoids resembling beasts more than men. The Azemen, alongside lesser Trolls and scattered Snow Giants, dominate the frozen landscape, establishing strongholds carved into the ice and stone.
The region’s name derives from the frostbite-blackened hands worn as trophies by its warlords, symbols of endurance, savagery, and eternal winter.
Geography and Environment
The Bleakhand Union is among the harshest environments in all of Mernac. Much of the land is locked in permanent frost. The Hooklock Mountains tower over the western edge, casting long shadows over the blizzard-swept fields of ice and scree. Rivers run sluggishly under crusts of cracked ice, and trees are stunted or altogether absent. Snowdrifts swallow entire structures, and whiteouts are frequent enough to erase entire caravans.
Scattered across this expanse are dozens of caves, natural hot springs, and labyrinthine tunnels carved by ancient glacial movement. These are where the Azemen and their kin dwell — subterranean fortresses built into cliffsides, volcano-heated warrens, or cave-temples carved with crude depictions of their Patron Father, Tul, the Father of Anger. However, among more devout clans, it is Linthur, the Father of Revenge, who is whispered to rule from beneath the frost.
The settlement of Scavenger’s Hold serves as a chaotic port and slave market where warbands return from plundering for trade and drink. Meanwhile, Iniquity, perched atop a coastal plateau, acts as a crude capital, if such a word can apply to a place where law is forged by blood and loyalty shifts with the wind.
Inhabitants and Racial Distribution
The Azemen are the undisputed dominant race of the Bleakhand Union. Towering at three paces tall and covered in thick white or gray fur, these brute-like humanoids are infamous across Mernac for their physical power, savage traditions, and utter disregard for other civilizations. Though not wholly lacking intelligence, Azemen value action over thought, loyalty over law, and blood over diplomacy.
There are two major Azeman castes: the Ironfists, who dwell in mountainous strongholds and are known for their resilience and combat ferocity; and the Ravenbloods, who roam the snowy plains in war-hordes, riding monstrous three-tusk mammoths and practicing brutal raiding rituals. Both revere the darker gods, primarily Tul and Linthur, through rites of pain, sacrifice, and conquest.
Alongside the Azemen are scattered enclaves of Fur outcasts, minor tribes of Cave Trolls, and a rare few Snow Giants who have made ancient pacts to remain neutral in their mountain sanctuaries. Occasionally, displaced Patchfurs from the Auliaan frontier end up enslaved, conscripted, or killed.
Small groups of all the races of the dark can be found drawn by the lawless and brutal culture the Azemen are known for, and the riches from the frequent raids in the central and western portions of Ooloo.
Government and Power Structure
The Bleakhand Union has no true monarchy or centralized rule. Power rests with the Thirteen Warlords of Frost, each representing a dominant Azeman clan or military faction. The Warlords meet once every twenty moons at the Stones of Bleeding Silence, an ancient ice-ring where disputes are settled with duels or blood oaths.
The most powerful of these warlords is currently Vaak the Pale-Maw, a battle-scarred Ironfist who claims lineage from the original Azeman champion said to have devoured a Dwarven king whole. Under his influence, the warbands have grown more coordinated and aggressive, especially in their recent incursions into Auliaan territory.
Though the Thirteen Warlords may compete and even wage war amongst themselves, all will unite under a single banner when threatened by an outside force or offered sufficient opportunity for plunder.
Culture and Beliefs
The culture of the Bleakhand Union is rooted in vengeance, strength, and survival. Worship of the Fathers, particularly Tul, Linthur, and occasionally Werk, defines their morality. Mercy is weakness. Honor is found in domination. Life is fleeting, but bloodlines endure through conquest.
The Azemen do not farm, rarely build above ground, and scorn written knowledge. Their oral traditions and battle songs serve as living history, passed from war-singer to war-singer, often performed around bonfires stoked with the bones of their enemies. Runes are carved into flesh more than stone, and prophecy is drawn from the patterns of blood spilled in snow.
Slavery is common, particularly of outsiders. Females of other races are highly sought after as breeders, field-workers, and servants. Slaves are marked by frostbite brands and traded at Scavenger’s Hold or gifted in ritual offerings to the gods.
Their rituals are brutal: Ear-chains are worn by those who’ve killed in battle, each ear representing a fallen foe. Blades of Reclaiming are used in blood feuds, and the Bone Crown is granted to warlords who have conquered three tribes.
Military and Warfare
The Bleakhand Union is almost entirely structured around war. Every Azeman child is trained to wield a weapon by the time they can walk. Their military is not formal but rather comprised of mobile warbands led by clan-chiefs or frost-generals, ranging in size from a dozen to over a thousand warriors. These groups form and disband often, driven by raiding cycles, blood feuds, or the shifting alliances of the Thirteen Warlords.
The front lines of battle are dominated by the Ironbound, elite Azeman berserkers clad in patchwork armor and wielding massive axes or bladed chains. Behind them charge Ravagers, mounted Azemen astride monstrous three-tusk mammoths, whose very steps shatter fortifications. Their siege weapons are crude but effective, usually built from the bones and iron of conquered settlements.
In recent seasons, the Union has begun to employ a tri-front assault doctrine, striking at multiple points simultaneously to break up enemy coordination. This strategy has been devastating against the more peace-focused defenders of the Auliaan Movement, and increasingly, the raids extend southward toward isolated mining outposts near Mount Desolation.
Their biggest military weakness is internal rivalry — the warbands often refuse to coordinate unless directly ordered by a powerful warlord. Many battles are lost not to strategy but to ego.
Magic and Mysticism
Magic among the Bleakhand is primitive and brutal, often focused on blood rituals, elemental cold, and divine wrath. Cave-tongues, the mystic class of smaller Azemen and Cave Trolls, function as both priests and spellcasters. They draw upon the frozen bones of ancestors and the howls of the Dismal Straits to channel arcane fury.
Some mystics are known as Painseers, capable of entering trances through self-mutilation to predict bloodshed, victory, or betrayal. Others specialize in Curseblood Alchemy, brewing tonics from venom, ash, and glacial mold to strengthen warriors or infect enemies with disease.
It is said that the greatest of their seers can speak directly to Linthur, and in times of war, many warriors carve his name into their skin to become vessels of revenge. Unlike the magic of the Elves or Faeries, Bleakhand magic is chaotic and often dangerous to its user, but in a land where life is already painful and short, few care about such risks.
External Relations
The Bleakhand Union is reviled and feared by most other kingdoms of Mernac. Its raids into central Ooloo have destabilized trade routes and forced neighboring territories to militarize or form temporary alliances. The Union is in direct conflict with the Auliaan Movement, whose resistance efforts have stalled Bleakhand expansion along the southern slopes of the Hooklock Mountains and the Valley of the Gentle Ones.
These raids have intensified in recent seasons as Vaak the Pale-Maw pushes harder into contested territory. The Auliaan Movement now finds itself caught between the slow, corrupting crawl of Kanaha in the west and the merciless, ice-carved blades of the Bleakhand in the east. It is a war on two fronts, with pacifist Solidfurs increasingly forced into uneasy reliance on their more aggressive Patchfur cousins.
Despite their brutality, the Bleakhand Union occasionally trades with fringe smugglers or the lawless harbors of Port Helious and Stormhaven, exchanging slaves, beast pelts, and cursed relics for alcohol, forged steel, or enchanted fetishes.
The is also unofficial trade with most of the Kingdom of the continents of Cathall, typically agreeing to take the most egregious criminals, malcontents, or those some noble simply wants to disappear. These criminals,s on landing in bleakhold lands, face off with an Azeman champion in a first blood battle. If they draw blood first, they are allowed to give a blood oath of loyalty and join the clan as free men. If the champion draws first blood, their fate is to join chain gangs as slaves digging under the ground to expand Azement cities. Most, however, die in the battle.
Relevance
The Bleakhand Union remains one of the greatest existential threats to peace in Ooloo. While they do not seek conquest in the traditional sense, their ever-growing population and cultural imperative for warfare ensure that conflict is inevitable. Their presence has driven major political shifts across the region and brought temporary unity to otherwise divided peoples simply through the necessity of survival.
With recent signs of unity among the Thirteen Warlords and a surge in slave-taking expeditions, whispers have begun to circulate in Faithmore and Port Helios: could the Bleakhand Union ever set its eyes beyond central Ooloo and the Furs? Could the Azemen have their eyes on the profitable Manta Sap trade in the west?
Though no clear leader has claimed supremacy over all Bleakhand clans, the rise of Vaak the Pale-Maw, and the spreading influence of Linthur’s flame of revenge suggest that Ooloo’s north may soon grow colder for everyone.
Quotable Lore
“When the wind howls louder than a troll’s rage, and the stars vanish beneath the veil of snow, that is when the Bleakhand come. Not for conquest. Not for glory. Only to punish the living for daring to be warm.”
— Old Faerie proverb, origin uncertain
“One Azeman is a nuisance. A dozen, a massacre. A hundred, and even the mountains start to shiver.”
— Boota, Fur Warchief of the Eastern Auliaan Reaches
“They don’t build cities. They don’t farm. They don’t record history. They only leave behind screams, and the silence that follows.”
— Testimony of a Solaris scout, recovered near Scavenger’s Hold