Lord

A rendition of Voblat the Rotten, one of the Lords.

The Lords of Norn, or simply the Lords, are nineteen extremely powerful creatures that warred over the Isle of Norn until the year 0 AL, when the humanoids of Seyv, Briskain, and Commoil invaded. Thirteen of these creatures were killed by these humanoids, one (Soz'kir the All-Scorcher) was killed by Xarzad the Damned six months before the invasion, and the remaining five retreated somehow, possibly moving to extraplanar locations.

When a Lord is killed by a humanoid, a vestige of the Lord's power takes root in the consciousness of the one who dealt the killing blow to it. One who possesses this vestige of power is called a Champion, and the power of a Champion is also transferable between humanoids.

While there were nineteen Lords, the existence of only thirteen of these Lords are known to the general populace of humanoids.

List of Lords

There are nineteen Lords, each one corresponding to a creature type and plane. Since only 13 Lords are well-known in Norn, there are 13 months in the Nornian calendar, each named after a Lord.

Table of Lords

Creature Type	Name	Month	Gender Approximation	Plane	Status
Demon	Xarzad the Damned	Xar	Masculine	Abyss	Dead
Celestial	Koweiki the Wise	Kow	Feminine	Koweiki	Dead
Ooze	Posenquath the Caustic	Pos	Indeterminate	Pandemonium (dubious)	Dead
Monstrosity	Bakh the Vicious	Bak	Ungendered	Arcadia	Dead
Plant	Aolcedae the Jagged	Aol	Indeterminate	Arborea	Dead
Beast	Egraki the Mad	Egr	Masculine	Beastlands	Dead
Dragon	Grulzrarrenth the Incandescent	Gru	Masculine	Gehenna	Dead
Giant	Jamrog the Massive	Jam	Masculine	Ysgard	Dead
Aberration	Iaz'odr'vhe the Hungry	Iaz	Indeterminate	Limbo	Dead
Construct	Temetul the Inconstant	Tem	Multiple	Mechanus	Dead
Elemental	Giomu the Frenzied	Gio	Multiple	Elemental Planes	Dead
Fey	Brunheilda the Sly	Bru	Feminine	Feywild	Dead
Undead	Voblat the Rotten	Vob	Masculine	Hades	Dead
Devil	Soz'kir the All-Scorcher	N/A	Feminine	Nine Hells	Dead
Shadow	Unknown	N/A	Unknown	Shadowfell	Unknown
Unknown	Unknown	N/A	Unknown	Carceri	Unknown
Unknown	Unknown	N/A	Unknown	Bytopia	Unknown
Unknown	Hynchus the Covetous	N/A	Feminine	Acheron	Unknown
Unknown	Unknown	N/A	Unknown	Elysium	Unknown

History

When humanoids first arrived on Norn, the Lords were already present. Historians have attempted to determine the exact date that the Lords arrived on Norn through interviews with the consciousnesses present in Champions, although results remain inconclusive.

Six months before the humanoid invasion, Xarzad the Damned invaded the territory of Soz'kir the All-Scorcher, disguising himself as one of Soz'kir's lieutenants. He killed Soz'kir, making it so that her consciousness could not root itself in a humanoid.

In the year 0 AL, the humanoids of Commoil, Seyv, and Briskain stormed the western shores of Norn with the goal of eliminating all the Lords, thus beginning the war against the Lords. Kellen Felbrigg, the first person to slay a Lord, dealt the killing blow to Grulzrarrenth the Incandescent and is said to have belched fire atop the glimmering corpse of the dragon. He was the first Champion.

Theories regarding origin

There are several theories regarding the origin of the Lords and the reason they all gathered on Norn. The most common theory among scholars posits that each Lord was a sort of naturally occurring 'apex' of each respective type of creature, although this does not necessarily explain why the Lords gathered on Norn specifically.

Another theory is that the Lords are extraplanar in origin and merely arrived on the Material Plane in Norn for some reason. Some scholars believe the Lords were artificially created by some other entity, although this raises additional questions regarding who the hypothetical "Lord-creator" is and where they are now. The so-called "megafauna" explanation theorizes that at some point in the distant past all creatures were similar to the creatures we call Lords, but only the strongest single specimens survived to the present-day as Lords.

Other scholars believe that no one theory can explain the origins of all the Lords -- the constructed existence of Temetul the Inconstant, for example, implies that something created the first beetle, but Egraki the Mad could be reasoned to be the result of an extremely long evolutionary period in the harsh environment of Norn.

Lords in popular culture

The imagery and history of the Lords have become deeply embedded in Nornian popular culture, partially due to the influence of the Champion Challenge as mass media. Merchandise featuring Lords is readily available, although the popularity of each lord has varied over time, and it is sometimes debated whether the practice of selling Lord-themed merchandise is disrespectful of the tragedy of the war against the Lords.

Some examples of the Lords in popular culture include:

• The Lord War 13 animated television series
• Voblat the Rotten skull statues available in many Mas'o Leem souvenir shoppes

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