Hello everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent.
Mixing it up a bit.
Instead of geography or a Forgotten Realms civilization I’d like to talk about a villian.
Larloch the Shadow King.
Larloch was… is... a Lich from the time of the Netheril.
He was a human male and former Sorcerer-King of a Netherese enclave called Jiksidur Jikseedur?
Something like that.
For those of you new to the channel the Netherese were an ancient human magical society that
fell do to an event known as Karsus’ Folly.
More info on that can be found in two of my videos, links in the doobly do.
Larloch escaped the fall of the Netherese empire that occured.
Although his enclave of Jiksidur was destroyed Larloch lived on.
Well lived is a relative term, he unlived by becoming a Lich at some point in his early
history and is considered today one of the oldest non-draconic beings in Faerun.
He is also one of the most powerful mages within the Forgotten Realms.
Larloch is heavily tied to an ancient artifact known as the Death Moon Orb.
The Death Moon Orb has great power to charm and mentally control others.
It was created by Larloch as a device to control members of his court, and to spy on his enemies
as it acted like a crystal ball with powers of ESP and clairvoyance.
This artifact worked, Larloch ruled for many years gaining power and influence over his
subjects and enemies.
With the Orb, he was also able to summon fiends and devils to do his bidding for specific
tasks once every 10 day.
Larloch is considered to be nearly 2000 years old, most believe him to be born around -628DR
but nobody is 100% certain.
It was after creating the Death Moon Orb that he started to undergo the magical transformation
into a lich.
Using a contingency spell he was able to warn himself of the impending doom Known as Karsus' Folly.
Karsus’ Folly was imminent but Larloch foresaw this event just briefly and fled his floating
enclave on a dragon.
Soon after all magic failed and the Netherse floating cities fell from the sky destroying
their empire of magic.
This occured in -339 and Jiksidur fell into the region of the Narfell.
Ancient people from Narfell raided the ruins of the enclave seeking out magical items.
The remains of Jiksidur became known as the mountain of Hark’s Finger.
Somehow the Red Wizard Zulkir, Szass Tam obtained an amount of these artifacts from Larloch’s
floating enclave.
He would frequently talk with Larloch and trade these relics for information and other
favors.
It was after the fall of the Netheril that Larloch discovered the ruins of Orbedal, which
was a Low Netheril city.
He took this location for his own and it became known as Larloch’s Crypt.
This location name became corrupted through conversation and people started referring
to it as Warlock’s Crypt.
It is here the mighty lich Larloch lives with his hoard of undead.
Many adventurers have assaulted the Crypt and some even claimed to have destroyed Larloch.
But Larloch always seems to reappear within his city of wraiths, wrights, liches, vampires,
and lesser undead.
It is said that the Red Wizards of Thay, sixteen of them specifically, went into Larloch’s
Crypt to destroy him and steal some of his magical power.
All failed, and the only one to ever survive was Szass Tam.
The location is also known as the Shadow Ring because of the architecture.
It’s a series of wizards towers standing in a circular walled garden.
The towers stand on the banks of a small spring that rises in the cellars of the highest tower
(which is Larloch’s own tower).
The walled gardens are surrounded by gloomy network of twisting streets and abandoned
houses, it is here that lesser undead shuffle about attempting to follow whatever orders
Larloch has given.
Larloch hates being called “The Warlock” or “The Warlock King” through a misinterpretation
of his name.
He is a powerful arcanist and Lich; those who speak of him should fear and respect him.
Larloch has a collection of Liches that follow and serve him.
Rhaugilaith the Ageless was one such lich-arcanist that inhabited Warlock’s
Crypt back when it was still known as Orbedal.
Larloch and him fought when Larloch came into the city and took it as his own.
Larloch won and Rhaugilaith was reduced to eternal servitude under his new master.
He collected other liches to his side and various other forms of undead creatures.
I believe the Death Moon Orb went with Szass Tam, either he collected it from the ruins
of Larloch’s fallen enclave or it was traded to him by Larloch.
I’m not sure which but Larloch and Szass have an understanding, or an alliance of sorts.
Larloch gave Szass several powerful magical items and artifacts, granting him the ability
to control Thay and the demon Eltab.
In exchange Szass has given Larloch several treasures from former Netherese enclaves.
Larloch gained the title Shadow King around the Sword Coast.
He has an array of magic wards and defenses including a bestow curse effect if he is ever
touched.
This materializes as a green energy that moves around his body.
Being so old his body is mostly gone and he is essentially a walking skeleton at this
point.
He has at least two dozen ioun stones that are floating around his head.
He is an incredible genius but over the years became mad, his mind being affected by his
extreme age.
During the spellplague he attempted to create Blueflame magic items, which had spirits trapped
within them.
Part of the goddess Mystra’s power was bound to these items and it was believed that Larloch
may have aided the return of Mystra by preserving her through these blueflame items.
Larloch can be found in the novel the Herald starring Elminster and crew, so if you’re
interested in him check out that novel.
Larloch is your epic mega villain.
He could be pulling the strings on smaller enemies until your PCs are ready to fight
such a powerful Lich.
Perhaps you want to run an evil campaign where you work for Larloch, fetching him Blue Flame
magic items in a campaign set during the spellplague.
There’s a list of known blue flame magic items but I think it would be more clever
to craft some sentient weapons and artifacts for your PCs to use in battle.
Thanks for watching everyone, special thanks to my patrons on patreon that keep these videos
going.
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Thanks for sharing these videos with your gaming group, for liking and subscribing.
I’ll see you all in the next video.