The 377th layer of the Abyss was once home to ancient cities ruled by the god-kings of the varrangoin. A millennium of intercene warfare weakened them, leaving their city-states open to invasion. With the fall of their divine leaders, the varrangoin were dispersed into small, disjointed flocks. Hunted for food and sport, the varrangoin were forced into a war of survival against their tanar’ri enemies. Today, the ancestral lands of the varrangoin are known as the Plains of Gallenshu, a realm of choking dust controlled by warring herds of armanites.
While most of the scattered varrangoin stayed in Gallenshu, a sizable minority found there way to Torremor. These exiles flourished, and many of their descendants gladly returned to their ravaged home to wage war against the armanites. Driven by stories of their lost empires and the glory of their fallen rulers, varrangoin warleaders have tried for eons to unite their brethren and reclaim what was taken from them. Until the coming of Vis Nirrin Vis, none had ever come close.
Vis Nirrin Vis, Varrangoin Warleader
Born a Torremor exile, Vis Nirrin Vis grew up hearing the legends of the abyssal bats. The strongest of his clutch, he quickly dominated his peers and started building the power base that would be needed to rule the varrangoin. Each year, warbands flooded the Plains of Gallenshu – only to be driven back, decimated. His followers yearned to join the fray, but Vis held them in check. While he also wanted to see varrangoin hegemony established in Gallenshu, Vis wanted something more. He didn’t just want to rule a kingdom, but a race. Vis Nirrin Vis wanted to be a god.
Instead of entering Gallenshu, Vis took his clutch into other realms seeking the key to the divinity he yearned for. For seven decades he wandered the planes, slowly growing in power. On the Material Plane, he allied with Iuz, whom he aided until the cambion was banished. Thus, varrangoin sentinels began guarding the eternal gloom of Dorakaa’s skies and patrolling the hinterland around the City of Skulls.
When his quest was over, Vis Nirrin Vis came to Gallenshu. His power was such that he was able to do something no other warleader had been able to do since the fall of the ancient varrangoin kingdoms – unite the warbands under one banner.
The varrangoin of Gallenshu had been on the decline for centuries. Their tanar’ri enemies were hunting them to extinction. When Vis’s horde descended upon the cities of the Plains, most could not resist. Amber, Jade, Ochre, and Steelshank fell with barely a fight. Blackmane was utterly destroyed, its stones ground into the dust of the Plains.
Tags: planescape, rpg, varrangoin