The Kingdom of Gogoth was a human-led kingdom south of the Yagash mountains, once the rival of the Republic of Earendam and the strongest power of the human north. In 17 BCC its last king, Rasadal VII, anchored the Gamaloth verge to its lands in pursuit of immortality, and the kingdom was overrun by its own dead. What remains is the Gamalean Verge, a land no living thing can inhabit.
Geography
Gogoth ruled the Plains of Shargob, a plateau beyond the southern slopes of the Yagash. Its capital, the City of Gogoth, was laid out along the Grand Boulevard, with Castle Gogoth, the Helashian Court and the Temple of Conquest at its heart, and the kingdom worked the Mines of Gogoth.
The plains are now a reeking muck in which twitching, burnt-red trees grow from the remains of the dead. The rot does not stay within the old borders. Nordath, in the lands of Gaald, has fallen to it; the ethron of Qilarn stand watch against incursions from the south; and a font of holy water at the source of the Dantaron, made with the Chalice of Jolinn, keeps the corruption from crossing the river.
History
Gogoth descends from the early humans of the Earendam river valley, who learned fire magic from the srryn and later divided into the peoples of Earendam, Gogoth and Caal. Their faith was devoted to Dolgrael, the forge and conquest, and fire was its instrument. During the War of Fire, the Gogothi and the Sythteans offered fire scholars to Bayyal's cause in exchange for the Bayyali cutting their path through Caal instead. Gogoth's magical culture refined the sphere considerably, and developed arts of fire-based travel that were lost when the kingdom fell.
Gogoth took up the philosophy of Marlax, "Law through Strength", and made it the creed of its conquests. Its greatest commander, Felsa the Mad General, led a battalion across the Crimson Sands and sacked Ashta Harrud, the only force ever to cross the wastes and take the city. Harrud drove the Gogothi out again, and they razed its lands with fire as they went. Felsa's statue was raised on the Grand Boulevard, pointing south toward his greatest conquest.
Gogoth fell from within. King Rasadal VII sought immortality through the Void. With the void liturgy of his royal priest Ksathan, he cut out the heart of his daughter, the princess Bhara, to anchor the verge of Gamaloth, the Tree-that-is-not planted by Tzakmeqiel the Desecrator, one of the Profane Saints of the Void, to the plateau. In 17 BCC the kingdom was overrun by undead and collapsed. Its fall stripped the human north of its strongest kingdom and sent refugees streaming toward the river valley, and it was the chief cause of the Republic's collapse in the years that followed.
The Gamalean Verge
The ruins are still peopled by Gogoth's dead. Calcified citizens move on joints hinged with rust-red roots, undead soldiers salute in the temple entry, and the dead of the Helashian Court still lift their hands as if to plead before the magistrate. Rasadal persists as a mummified puppet bound by an iron collar, a thrall of Gamaloth, and Bhara as the Lich Princess. Felsa's statue lies broken and headless in the muck, its right hand still pointing south.
The verge draws the essence of those who enter it into the Void until they crumble into black dust. Followers of Lielqan are among the few who stand against it: Her touch spares Her marked from the penalties of Gamaloth's domain, and a gold aura serves Her faithful well against its undead.