Drokkas is the master of Unaagh. Before the fall of the ancient kingdom of Sulm, he was already a lich and the primary rival of Shattados, the land's king. Presumedly that means he was of royal blood, perhaps even Shattados' brother or uncle or the scion of another noble house. For whatever reason he had a credible claim to the throne.
Another prominent NPC in that place and era was Kyuss. He was placed in Sulm originally by Denis Tetreault because Rary the Traitor mentioned sons of Kyuss in Unaagh, seemingly tied to that city's curse and therefore there before Shattados used the Scorpion Crown. But even if Kyuss created them initially, Drokkas commands them now. So what's the relationship between Kyuss and Drokkas?
Kyuss was a high priest (as mentioned in the original Fiend Folio) in Sulm, and doubtless a very influential one, as he brought hundreds of followers with him when he was exiled (according to the Age of Worms path). He was significant enough to have been the tutor and/or ally of the "prince" Drokkas. He might also have been simply a name that Drokkas discovered in records that were already centuries old when the prince was ascending into lichdom.
Denis suggested that Kyuss was exiled for corrupting the necropolis of Unaagh, which was created as a peaceful graveyard for nobles and sorcerers, turning into a warren of undead. And yet, the presence of the lich prince Drokkas there seems to suggest that a powerful figure in Sulm was content with the necropolis's existence as a place of dark magic. One possibility is that Kyuss was exiled not for creating undead, but for supporting Drokkas's claim to the throne. By eliminating the powerful religious figure who had lent Drokkas his endorsement, Drokkas's claim became much weaker, and perhaps the curse that prevents undead creatures from leaving the confines of the necropolis was placed by Shattados himself. Shattados may have been unable to best Drokkas in combat, or unable politically or perhaps even morally to kill his kinsman, but he was able to bind him in Unaagh for all eternity and cut him off from his powerful ally.
As an aside, this conjures up the image of a religious struggle in Sulm between Shattados, whose patron was Tharizdun, and Drokkas, allied with the high priest of Nerull. Perhaps Nerull was the traditional faith of Sulm and Shattados threatened the power of the priesthood when he adopted a new patron, causing the high priest Kyuss to ally himself with a rival to the throne.
A possible problem with this scenario is that Age of Worms mentions that Kyuss was imprisoned for fifteen hundred years and I think Sulm only fell about thirteen hundred years ago. Drokkas, as a lich, may have been very old at the time of the cataclysm but I'm not sure how long Shattados may have been able to live, with all his power. Perhaps the curse was placed on Unaagh by an ancestor of Shattados, and Drokkas continued to rage against his confines for centuries, trying to wrest control of the kingdom through proxies even up to Shattados's time. That said, I'm not sure how fixed or definite any of these dates are. Age of Worms and Rary the Traitor both seem pretty vague from what I can see, and the Living Greyhawk Journal #3 said that Kyuss fled Sulm shortly before its downfall.
Another problem, of a different sort, is that Age of Worms said that Kyuss didn't learn the secret of creating his sons until his time in the Amedio Jungle, when the first of the Kyuss worms was given to him by the spell weaver lich known as the Harbinger. If that's true, then Kyuss might be responsible for the other undead in Unaagh, but he could not possibly have put the sons of Kyuss there himself, because he never returned to Sulm. If Drokkas was a student of Kyuss, he might have communicated with other acolytes of Kyuss such as Dragotha and created the sons himself, or other Kyuss cultists might have treated Unaagh, the city from which the priest hailed, as a holy pilgrimage site and brought the Kyuss worms to the city independently.
So this leaves us with several possibilities:
1. Drokkas was a student or ally of Kyuss. Kyuss created the undead of the city and possibly transformed Drokkas into a lich.
2. Drokkas knew of Kyuss, but never interacted with him directly, learning from dusty writings the priest left behind in the undead-haunted city the priest had been exiled from and eventually being forced to stay there permanently either thanks to a curse from Shattados or a pre-existent curse designed to keep the undead from expanding beyond Unaagh.
3. Drokkas never knew or interacted with Kyuss in any way that mattered. He created all the undead of Unaagh himself except the sons, which were added by Kyuss's cultists independently of Drokkas.
4. Drokkas was the one who exiled Kyuss, a more "traditional" necromancer who went to Unaagh in order to drive the priest out and became trapped there by Kyuss's own curse.
Wow Rasgon, quite a thorough examination. I'm not sure I can add anything insightful to the data except commentary. You said Kyuss never returned to Sulm and now having played AoW myself, that astonishes me that the plot of that AP never dealt with his original home in any way. The Amedio-Wormcrawl Fissure settings were cool and all but I wonder if the Sulm stuff was never touched on as to not rub elbows with LG's Bright Sands setting. I know Erik and co. know their Greylore so I can't assume they didn't take Kyuss' Sulm background into account but yeah some of it don't line up right. But Drokkas is highly obscure and without the wiki I had forgot about him completely. So, I think the Sulm background was factored in by paizo's AP, but the Drokkas connection was probably overlooked/missed. Your analysis does start to bring it together though. Kudos.
Is it possible that Drokkas entreated Kyuss while he was imprisoned in order to create the Sons? Or if any cultists of Kyuss remained in Sulm maybe they 'naturally' became Sons after their internment in the Necrpolis?
2. Drokkas knew of Kyuss, but never interacted with him directly, learning from dusty writings the priest left behind in the undead-haunted city the priest had been exiled from and eventually being forced to stay there permanently either thanks to a curse from Shattados or a pre-existent curse designed to keep the undead from expanding beyond Unaagh.
I also like number two. I assumed that Kyuss preceded Drokkas in the faith of Nerull in Sulm, that they were not contemporaries. Instead, I figured that Drokkas furthered Kyuss's earlier necromantic and Nerullian work and efforts a couple of centuries after Kyuss' expulsion.
The king of Sulm was able to expel Kyuss many decades ago. But in Drokkas' time, Shattados was only able to contain the new Drokkas, the new Nerullian threat, in Unaagh. Shattados was content to let Drokkas languish in an isolated (and much corrupted by Kyuss in earlier times) Unaagh, intent on destroying him completely after donning the scorpion crown.
I'd also assumed that the curse of Unaagh was a result of Drokkas' descent into lichdom. I also believed his transformation into a lich was furthered by relics, magic and other knowledge left by Kyuss. But, Unaagh had already been transformed from respected cemetery to ghoul haunt by Kyuss' tampering and experiments. Drokkas just made it abundantly worse.
"That said, I'm not sure how fixed or definite any of these dates are. Age of Worms and Rary the Traitor both seem pretty vague from what I can see, and the Living Greyhawk Journal #3 said that Kyuss fled Sulm shortly before its downfall."
Any other options? Anyone have any preferences?[/quote]
There is also a LG Year 6 Adventure called "Cloud of Darkness" which features Drokkas. There is an extensive background text of Unaagh and Drokkas.
@Rasgon
If you donīt have the adventure pm me for more info.
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