A Land Divided by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is part of the Lands in Shadow series which further detail the official Urth setting.
This is a 36 page PDF that is available from RPGNow for $4.99, as a print on demand softcover for $11.99 or both PDF and softcover for $12.99. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the front matter and one page is an ad for other supplements.
The supplement starts with several introductory paragraphs about the Edene, and how the kingdom that calls itself Old Edene can provide information on this former civilisation which once dominated the continent and whose legacy and ruins can be found across it.
Conquest explains how the Edene landed on the eastern coast of Rûl and conquered the First People and how the majority of their faerie allies withdrew from the world.
Spoils of War describes how the God-Queen, Umessa (who may or may not have been a god according to a sidebar) dividing the conquered lands amongst her followers. As time passed, Umessa’s grip (by this time, probably a different Umessa) on the different lands weakened and war broke out as states attempted to split from Edene. The most loyal state was the Duchy of Tarra, later the Kingdom of God, but when it finally had enough of Umessa and rebelled, the Tarrans were exterminated by her armies. The Edene civilisation declined until the Witch-King’s armies conquered what remained.
Following this, a century later, the Kalasans also landed on the eastern coast of the continent and defeated the Witch-King. In order to provide a link between the Kalasans’ Empire and Edene, a new realm, Old Edene, was created from separate kingdoms. This kingdom was never that stable and, when civil war broke out, the Empire despatched an orc legion to crush it and restore peace. Only a couple of years prior to the orc rebellion, a new queen took the throne of Old Edene. After the rebellion, she declared the kingdom independent from Caecras.
Lands and People has a map of Old Edene and describes the three lands which it is comprised of; Heiropha, Melisinia and Umess. Each land has some major points of interest mentioned and the different people who inhabit the places, and each land has a different character to it. Heiropha is a rebellious and mountainous mining area, Melisinia is the more cosmopolitan heartland and home to the capital and Umess is the poor, backward coastal region that suffers a lot from plagues and lizardmen variants (Fever Dreams and Foulest Reptiles are referenced). There are problems with unrest in the nation, in the lands that make it up and between individual baronies of Umess.
Old Nation, New Nation considers what Old Edene is going to do now that it has split from the Empire. The country has alliances with the Kingdom of Sails and the Freeholds of Nar, as well as long standing relationships with the city-states of the Confederacy of Nine Cities and is looking to an alliance with the Kingdom of God. Some of the citizens feel that the country should make overtures to Caecras again to rejoin the Empire. There are details on the queen, Drusella, who never wanted to be one, and of an outside threat, Lucian, who is preparing to invade. Stats are given on Lucian.
Adventures in Old Edene gives a number of adventure hooks, as the turmoil both within and without the kingdom gives plenty of opportunities for adventure.
Finally, Edene Characters has character options and background tables for characters from the three realms of Old Edene: Heiropha, Melisinia and Umess.
A Land Divided in Review
The PDF is bookmarked but the bookmarks are not in the correct order, which makes them less useful than they could be, and there is no table of contents. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column full colour format (unusual; most of the Shadow of the Demon Lord supplements follow a two column format; in fact, the entire layout of this supplement is different from the others in the Lands in Shadow series, probably because it is also available in print on demand) and has a number of illustrations. Some of the illustrations are in colour, and these all appear to be custom, but a couple are black and white and look as if they may be stock.
As with other supplements in the Lands in Shadow series, this supplement covers an area from the core rulebook in a greater level of detail, although there is still plenty of further detail that could be added by a GM, for no location in the kingdom is covered in a high level of detail. The regions and areas are given overviews and the only true game stats are for one of the NPCs. Old Edene itself is a land filled with potential adventure hooks. Potential war with King Drudge, alliances with other countries, smuggling, interior turmoil, abandoned towns and mining operations and more; these all provide plenty of things for characters to get involved with. A Land Divided provides an interesting expansion of a former land of the Empire, one with links to the past, and it can be found by clicking here.
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