Nalbin

The Old Kingdom of Nalbin can trace its history back to the time before the spirits. Though it is nominally part of the Dominion, it is the most independent of its parts. The people of Nalbin have a completely unique belief system because of this separation, though it has been fundamentally changed by integration into the Dominion.

When the First Faloran Empire encountered Nalbin, it found a race of unstoppable warrior-folk opposing it on the plains and in the mountains. While Faloran magic could lay waste to Nalbinian cities, the Nalbinian people could not be rooted out or converted, and they would strike back with unearthly vengeance.

Over time it became clear that the source of the Nalbinians' strength was their own brand of heathen magic and relationship to the world of spirits. While the discovery of Pacting magic in Bhakhtar shocked the Falorans, the primitive magic of the Nalbinians was more like that of other native peoples encountered and conquered, in that it relied on Sparking.

However, Nalbinian spirits were those of memory - reflecting the ancestor worship of their culture. A Nalbinian spirit was one who was seen as a connection to the afterlife, and a Spark was a Spark of Memory. This meant that having a Spark bestowed some of the memories of a skilled past member of the community onto a recipient, allowing them to gain that level of proficiency in a shorter time. They were a perfect, but forever primitive, society.

When the Dominion was established, the policy of aggression towards the Nalbinians was replaced by a ruthless and cunning plan to destroy their belief system. Knowledge of Pacting was offered to them, giving them the ability to create new spirits. But by doing so, they stumbled across a new way of looking at their world. The spirits of the Dominion were no longer seen as demons, but rather as the same sort of being that their ancestral spirits were.

The destruction of their belief system and change of world view made their ancestral spirits unable to carry on their function and duty as before, and Nalbin grudgingly joined the Dominion. They accepted an Archon, the Lady.

Yet as the Lady learned the Nalbinian way, she also claimed to have learned the flaws in the Faloran Doctrine - and that neither the old Nalbinian way or the Faloran way was objectively correct. Attempting to propose a new way of life to the Dominion saw her shunned and labelled a heretic, and the Lady vanished - some way imprisoned, others say killed. The Godslayers believe she went into exile, and vow to continue her legacy.