Torrezon

Torrezon
Information
Plane	Ixalan

Torrezon is the eastern continent of Ixalan.

Description

Ruled by an alliance between a powerful church and an iron-fisted monarch. Vampires dominate the continent after a series of wars with other realms. Refugees and exiles from the defeated nations fled to the sea and established the Brazen Coalition. Its citizens are called Torrezonés.

Eight centuries ago, the continent of Torrezon was populated with a diverse assembly of kingdoms and independent city-states enjoying a renaissance of scientific progress, artistic flourishing, and vibrant trade: Alta Torrezon at this time was a small, prosperous city-state tucked into the mountains in the far northeast of the continent. Occupied at times with mercenary-led wars, these myriad polities nevertheless largely existed in a state of peace. Contemporary texts speak of this era as a golden age for the continent; from the glittering Free Coast in the west to the wide banks of the Deoro river in the east — a mighty river that bisects the continent — Torrezon was prosperous and her people happy. This age ended in apocalyptic bloodshed and war.

Alta Torrezon now rules triumphant over a conquered continent. Vampirism is venerated among the human masses of Torrezon. Owing to centuries of evangelizing, to become a vampire is to accept the ultimate gift of grace from the church; a vampire is not simply an undead monster but has been granted the gift of everlasting life, shedding their mortal humanity to be closer to divinity.

Alta Torrezon

Alta Torrezon is the seat of the monarchy in the Legion of Dusk, deep in Torrezon's interior.

The Apostasine Wars

Before the united Legion of Dusk crossed the Deoro and began its conquest of the continent, Alta Torrezon underwent centuries of dramatic upheaval, civil war, and searing religious struggle.

In 803 Before Dawn (BD), Alta Torrezon was a solitary, deeply religious city-state in the mountainous east of the continent, not yet the realm of vampires. For centuries, Alta Torrezon had served as the divine heart of the continent, dispatching missions across the continent and to lands even farther beyond. At some point in ancient history, faith and territorial interests severed that religious capital from the rest of the continent. Alta Torrezon and its people were content to concern themselves only with the affairs of the realm east of the Deoro; the church in Alta Torrezon sent out ministers and missionaries, but by contemporary accounts, the monarchy of Alta Torrezon faded into self-imposed isolation, leaving the rest of the continent to their golden age.

However, being content to concern themselves with the affairs of their own state did not mean that the people of Alta Torrezon were at peace. In contrast to the rest of the continent's peaceful golden age, by eight hundred years ago Alta Torrezon was a nation in crisis: its venerable monarch had just died without naming a clear successor and, per the crown's laws of succession, each of the monarch's three children inherited titles and lands, splitting the kingdom into three parts. The monarch's daughter, the eldest of the three children, inherited the capital territory of Alta Torrezon. Jealous of their sister's take, the monarch's middle and youngest children — two brothers who had themselves served on the monarch's council and inherited counties and duchies of their own—called their lords to war. Against the wishes of the church, these brothers demanded their sister divide her inheritance between the two of them—she refused, and Alta Torrezon exploded into civil war.

This war would not only tear the nation apart, but it would fracture the church as well. Content to stay out of the profane affairs of warring lords and nobles before the civil war, the church was the spiritual and economic reserve for Alta Torrezon. With the brothers' attempt to usurp their sister, however, the church was forced to act. Quickly, most of the church's leadership declared the brothers to be heretics, apostates who had turned from the divine plan to glorify themselves. The brothers, meanwhile, with backing from the lay preachers and more radical elements of the institutional church, declared their sister and the leaders of the faith to have turned from the missionary spirit of the faith. The church and the crown were sclerotic, calcified, corrupt institutions, the brothers said. It was their duty to tear down the cardinals and bishops, to melt down the queen's crown and the pontifex's golden miter and give them to the people. In triumph, they declared themselves to be the apostasine princes, and the civil war began.

The civil war raged on for two hundred and fifty years, with the children of all three rulers carrying on the conflict. The sheer brutality of the high war periods ruined the population of Alta Torrezon, spoiling the land as almost every inch of it was fought over. In quieter periods, the war was fought by small bands in low-grade, simmering conflict. The nobility was diminished, knights and small lords thinned, masses of peasants slaughtered in miserable battle, but neither side was willing to admit defeat; instead, a mutual cessation of hostilities was agreed upon. A tense peace reigned. This interregnum would last for fifty years before the war began anew.

The Gift

In 495 BD, the civil war picked up once more. On the offensive, the apostasine armies enjoyed a series of victories, and soon they came within sight of the spires of Alta Torrezon. The remnants of the combined forces of the monarch and the church formed up to meet the overwhelming invading army. Just as defeat seemed certain, a stranger emerged: wreathed in rippling black vapor, this rider charged into the honor guard of the apostasine princes, slaughtering all in her path. The enemy army broke ranks and retreated, routing before the singular attack. The combined forces of the crown and church rallied, finishing the apostasine princes' forces and settling the matter.

The stranger introduced herself as Elenda, custodian of the Immortal Sun, who had returned to Alta Torrezon after centuries of wandering on Ixalan. Elenda had been searching for an artifact called the Immortal Sun, stolen centuries prior from Alta Torrezon by the sphinx Azor. The monarch and pontifex of the church were incredulous of such a claim; that event was all but ancient history, having occurred centuries prior to her return to Torrezon. Elenda confessed to the monarch that she had taken on the blessing of vampirism to continue her search for the Immortal Sun on Ixalan and had returned to Torrezon to give this gift to her own people so that they could aid her in her search. The pontifex interpreted Elenda's revelation as a selfless act of sacrifice. With the church's blessing, loyalist nobility partook of Elenda's gift. This ritualistic blessing of the chosen with vampirism became known as the Rite of Redemption.

The conquest of Torrezon

Strengthened to supernatural might by Elenda's vampiric gift, the crown and church quickly secured victory over the apostasine princes and reunited Alta Torrezon. However, even united, the rulers of Alta Torrezon were not content with their ancient borders. Bolstered with vampiric strength and appetite, they began a campaign of conquest across the continent. Combining centuries of battlefield experience with the superhuman gifts of vampirism, Alta Torrezon's knights become the deadliest army on the continent. Over the course of four more centuries, the armies of Alta Torrezon inexorably swallowed up kingdom after kingdom, expanding outward from their mountainous home, driving waves of refugees toward the free cities on the coast. In the final century of Alta Torrezon's expansion, the few remaining independent city-states would fall to the Legion's armies, sending those briefly settled refugees fleeing once more—this time across the seas to Ixalan and other lands beyond. Five years ago, the Dusk Legion itself set out across the sea to reclaim the Immortal Sun. Thus began Alta Torrezon's dominion over the continent of Torrezon.

First expedition to Ixalan

Alta Torrezon's appetite for power, gold, land, and blood could not be satiated, so the church and crown looked over the seas, toward lands of legend yet unexplored by their agents. In time, their ships brought back news of the distant continent that Elenda, the first venerable saint, had claimed to have visited: Ixalan, the home of Orazca and the Immortal Sun, the birthplace of Aclazotz, and the land where Saint Elenda had discovered the Rite of Redemption. The Legion of Dusk's first expedition to Ixalan would end in disaster: a humiliation at Orazca, the second loss of the Immortal Sun, and Elenda's chastising of the Legion upon her return to Alta Torrezon.

The Phyrexian invasion

The continent of Torrezon was not spared when the Phyrexians invaded. The former free cities along Torrezon's western coast — the continent's largest human population centers, essentially the breadbasket of Alta Torrezon — were the hardest hit in the invasion. Though the Phyrexians did not manage to cross the Deoro river or breach the mountains of Alta Torrezon, the struggle to liberate these cities churned the west to muddy ruin and left tens of thousands of paladins dead, hundreds of thousands of human levies slain, cities burned, cathedrals toppled, and countless revered artifacts lost.

Aftermath of the invasion

Rebuilding is slow and fitful. Alta Torrezon aches with the invasion's aftermath. Noble families petition the crown daily for restitution and repayment of their war debt. Human claimants seek guidance and assurances. Apocalyptic fervor animates the more hagiographic elements of the church, who demand action from their new pontifex, Mavren Fein. Adding to it all is a wave of famine that grips both the human and vampire populations of the continent. Alta Torrezon's vampires — those without ties to the Legion of Dusk — struggle to find sources of food that fit within the church's narrow allowance: heretics, lawbreakers, prisoners of war, and other sanctioned donors who have not been touched either by Phyrexian oil or the lingering effects of exposure to Halo. Discontent and hunger simmer across Torrezon. Starvation-induced Blood Fasts and reports of gristly feedings come daily now to the courts of the crown and church, and though the crown and mainstream church demand an end to these heretical practices, radical bishops and cardinals call for an even greater bloodletting. Torrezon may have thrown off the Phyrexian invaders, but Queen Miralda struggles to keep order.

The crisis of faith

The arrival of the Phyrexians and the ensuing war of the invasion has convinced many of the faithful that the end times are upon them. Coupled with Queen Miralda's post-war austerity regime, the great famine, and time to reconcile the horrors they have all lived through, much of Torrezon's population simmers with discontent. Old institutions seem unable to respond to the scale of devastation around them, and those outside of Alta Torrezon look to the capital with jealousy. The old capital was spared the brutality of the invasion and now says to the rest of the realm that they cannot feed. A change is necessary, and the moment is ripe: a new world is about to be born.

In the church, eschatological excitement clashes with staid orthodoxy. Bishops and cardinals murmur declarations of heresy at each other under the vaulted ceilings of grand cathedrals. Gold-draped priests in the capital contend with ragged, charismatic street preachers in the capital, while outside of Alta Torrezon sanctioned pastors buttress their lonely parishes and humble flocks against great penitent marches. In matters of faith, for the Church of Dusk there can be no more important question than the direction of doctrine: the first cracks of a schism have spidered across its ancient edifice, and the only question now is will it be shattered by a blow or cemented closed by a steady hand?

Though not formally divided, the factions developing among the faithful are clear. The church orthodoxy is directed by Pontifex Mavren Fein, the pious. The radicals — heretics, according to the orthodoxy — look to Vona de Iedo for guidance. This division has found its way to the profane politics of the crown and realm: Queen Miralda is de facto aligned with the pontifex and the church orthodoxy. Aligned against her rule are myriad separatists organized under Vona, the antifex.

Notable locations

• Garrano, birthplace of Elenda.
• Iedo, birthplace of Vona de Iedo
• Lujio, birthplace of Adrian Adanto.
• The Deoro, a vast mountain range looming behind a continent-bisecting river between the Free Cities and Alta Torrezon.
• The Free Cities, on the west coast and the plains. Occupied by humans.
  • Magan, a walled village massacred during the Apostasine War.
• The Sens, a small scattering of islands off the western coast of Torrezon. Home to the Orcs.
  • Sen Gael, the main island.