Thirty-three years ago, the Divine Imperial province of Harmonias was struck by a sudden invasion of humanoid armies emerging from the Underdark. The Divine Empire committed every available resource to containing and repelling the attacks, deploying the Divine Legions alongside provincial forces in a desperate struggle to hold the frontier. It was during this crisis that the True Kaegorian Empire chose to strike. The island province of Ipranius was both the most isolated territory of the Divine Empire and the closest to the lands of the Old Empire. Situated in the eastern Indertsa Sea, it lay separated from the nearest friendly ports by the long Aelf Peninsula. Though vulnerable, the island had enjoyed centuries of peace and prosperity. Ipranius had once been home to the Sea Elves, but they abandoned the island during the turmoil of Kaegor's Rebellion. In the centuries that followed, it became one of the jewels of the Divine Empire. The island was renowned for its vineyards, prosperous ports, and magnificent Temple of Rao, dedicated to the god of Peace, Reason, and Serenity. Its rulers were widely regarded as enlightened and benevolent, and during the civil wars of the Empire they had supported Emperor Innocence against the tyrannical Kaegor XIII.
The changing political landscape of the eastern provinces gradually left Ipranius isolated, but the island endured as the eastern bastion of the Divine Empire for more than a century. With the Empire distracted by the war in Harmonas, however, its fortunes were about to change.The True Kaegorian Empire launched a surprise invasion, seizing the port of Pontae and establishing a foothold on the island. Through this gateway poured the Empire's finest warriors. Within months most of Ipranius had fallen. The Temple of Rao was sacked, towns were burned, and much of the population was enslaved. Only the northern tip of the island remained unconquered, where the provincial capital and its great fortress held out against siege. The Divine Empire was slow to respond, and for many observers this was the first sign that all was not well within the court of Emperor Innocence. Eventually a great armada was assembled and dispatched across the sea. The smaller Kaegorian fleet was swept aside and the invaders suddenly found themselves trapped. The besiegers became the besieged as Imperial reinforcements landed and the reconquest of the island began. Facing defeat, the Kaegorian general turned to the priests of Hextor who accompanied his army. They answered by raising legions of undead from the thousands already slain in the fighting. In response, the clerics of the Divine Empire called upon celestial powers to aid them. The priests of Hextor retaliated in turn by summoning demonic allies from beyond the mortal world.
Within a short time the once-beautiful island had become a nightmare. Celestials, demons, undead, and mortal armies fought across every corner of Ipranius. Cities were reduced to ruins, fields became battlefields, and the dead soon outnumbered the living. Neither side was able to maintain control of the chaos they had unleashed. Exhausted and devastated, both armies eventually withdrew, leaving the island to its fate. What remained was no longer fair Ipranius. Today the land is known only as the Isle of Hate. The island is home to vast hordes of undead and other horrors born from the cataclysm. So many attempts have been made to turn and destroy these creatures that many now display an unnatural resistance to divine magic. Ruined towns, shattered temples, and abandoned fortresses still litter the landscape, filled with the treasures and terrors of a lost age. The Isle of Hate is shunned by almost all sane travellers. Only the most foolhardy adventurers, desperate treasure hunters, and scholars seeking forbidden knowledge willingly set foot upon its cursed shores.
The Isle of Hate Today
More than three decades have passed since the last Imperial ships abandoned Ipranius, yet the island has never recovered from the catastrophe that consumed it. Much of the countryside remains recognisably that of the old province. Imperial roads still wind between ruined settlements, milestones continue to mark distances to towns that no longer exist, and abandoned villas stand amongst fields long since reclaimed by wilderness. In places, household possessions, rusting wagons and the remains of those who attempted to flee can still be found where they were abandoned during the final days. This is perhaps what makes the Isle of Hate so disturbing. It is not some ancient land whose civilisation has faded into legend. There are still men and women elsewhere in the Divine Empire who were born upon Ipranius and remember its towns, vineyards and beaches. Veterans of the campaign still recall fighting upon its fields, while descendants of refugees continue to claim ownership of estates now inhabited only by the dead.
Pontae, The Broken Gateway
The port of Pontae was where the armies of the True Kaegorian Empire first landed upon Ipranius. Taken during the opening stages of the invasion, the town became the principal Kaegorian supply base and the gateway through which troops, weapons and supplies poured onto the island. Pontae suffered terribly during the war. It was first captured and sacked by the Kaegorians and later fought over again when the Divine Imperial armada returned. Today its harbour is choked with the remains of burned and sunken vessels, while ruined warehouses, military storehouses and shattered fortifications line the waterfront. The ruins are believed to contain considerable wealth. Kaegorian military stores, Imperial merchandise and the possessions of the former inhabitants remain buried beneath collapsed buildings and forgotten cellars. Treasure hunters occasionally attempt to reach Pontae by sea, although relatively few return. Sailors passing the island at night sometimes report seeing lights moving amongst the ruined quays.
The Fields of Rao
The fertile heartland of Ipranius was once famous throughout the eastern Empire for its vineyards. The rolling countryside surrounding the great Temple of Rao produced some of the finest wines in Warlderia and supported numerous prosperous estates and villages. Strangely, the vines survived the destruction of the province. Without farmers to tend them they have spread across much of the countryside, swallowing walls, houses and even entire abandoned villages beneath tangled vegetation. The grapes they produce are unusually dark and bitter, and few who know their origin would willingly drink wine made from them. Far more valuable are bottles produced before the fall. Surviving vintages of Ipranian wine command extraordinary prices amongst collectors and wealthy nobles. Particularly prized is Rao's Peace, once produced by estates belonging to the great temple itself. An intact bottle can now be worth a small fortune. More than one expedition to the Isle of Hate has begun with the seemingly simple intention of recovering wine from an abandoned cellar.
The Great Temple of Rao
Before the destruction of Ipranius, the Great Temple of Rao was amongst the most important religious sites in the eastern Divine Empire. Built largely from pale stone and white marble, the sprawling temple complex was dedicated to Rao, god of Peace, Reason and Serenity. Its destruction became one of the great symbols of the Kaegorian invasion. The temple was looted, its clergy slaughtered or driven away and many of its treasures carried back to Pontae. Yet the inner sanctuary was never completely destroyed, and something of its former holiness appears to remain. Undead creatures will not willingly enter the innermost precincts of the temple. Even powerful undead have been observed approaching the shattered bronze doors only to stop and withdraw. Whether this is the lingering protection of Rao, some ancient ward placed upon the sanctuary or something stranger remains unknown. For those few adventurers who have discovered it, the sanctuary may therefore be the closest thing to a safe refuge anywhere upon the Isle of Hate. Reaching it is another matter entirely.
The Plain of Lamentation
The place now called the Plain of Lamentation was the scene of the final and most terrible stage of the war. Here the retreating Kaegorian army was confronted by the advancing forces of the Divine Empire. Thousands had already died during the campaign, and the priests of Hextor accompanying the Kaegorian army began raising the fallen to reinforce their dwindling forces. The Divine clerics responded by calling celestial beings to their aid. The Hextorites answered by summoning demons. What followed ceased to resemble any ordinary battle. Mortal soldiers fought alongside creatures from beyond the world while the dead rose repeatedly around them. Divine and arcane magic devastated the countryside, and neither army was ultimately capable of controlling what had been unleashed. Something about the Plain remains profoundly wrong.
The influence of divine magic is strangely distorted there, and the undead found upon the Plain are amongst the most difficult on the island to turn or destroy. Some scholars believe that the enormous concentration of death, planar magic and divine intervention somehow damaged the boundary between the mortal world and the planes beyond. At the centre of the battlefield stands a solitary standard, now known simply as the Black Standard. Nobody knows with certainty which army it once belonged to. Its cloth is blackened and tattered, yet it has never completely decayed. Even upon perfectly still days it can be seen moving as though caught by a wind. Few who have approached it have returned.
Old Ipranius
Long before Ipranius became an Imperial province, the island belonged to the Sea Elves. They abandoned their settlements during the upheavals surrounding Kaegor's Rebellion, leaving behind ruins which were gradually buried beneath later human towns and estates. The destruction of the island has exposed many of these ancient places once more. Sea caves lead to forgotten halls beneath the cliffs, while ruined observatories and shrines can still be found in remote parts of the interior. Other structures lie beneath later Imperial settlements or have partially disappeared beneath the sea. Curiously, the corruption which afflicts the rest of Ipranius appears weaker within some of these ancient sites. Certain undead seem unwilling or unable to enter them, suggesting that the old Sea-Elven wards continue to function centuries after their creators departed. There are persistent rumours that somewhere beneath the island lies an intact Sea-Elven waygate, once used to travel between Ipranius and other settlements of their people. If such a gateway survives, nobody now knows where it leads.
Iprana, The Last City
At the northernmost end of the island stands Iprana, the former provincial capital. When the Kaegorian invasion swept across the island, thousands of refugees fled northwards until the population of the city swelled far beyond anything its walls had been designed to support. The surviving provincial forces withdrew with them and prepared to make their final stand. Above Iprana stood the mighty Citadel of Asterion, one of the strongest fortresses in the eastern Empire. Asterion never fell.
The Kaegorians surrounded Iprana and subjected the city to a prolonged siege, but its defenders continued to hold when the Divine Imperial fleet finally arrived. Ironically, the city which survived the invasion was ultimately destroyed during the chaos of the attempted liberation. When the Divine forces eventually abandoned Ipranius, thousands of surviving civilians were evacuated aboard Imperial ships. Others were left behind. What happened to them remains unknown. Today Iprana appears to be a dead city. Its streets are silent, its harbour abandoned and much of its outer districts lie in ruins. Yet the Citadel of Asterion still stands.
Its great gates remain closed. Faded Imperial banners hang from its towers, and figures have occasionally been observed moving along the battlements. Those who have seen them claim that they wear the armour and colours of the old Ipranian Provincial Guard. Strangely, the figures appear to take little interest in the undead which wander below the walls. Nor have they responded to travellers approaching the fortress. Most unsettling of all, every evening as the sun disappears beneath the Indertsa Sea, the great bell of Asterion can still be heard ringing across the ruined city. No living visitor is known to have passed through its gates and returned. Whether the citadel is inhabited by undead soldiers still carrying out their final orders, survivors protected by some forgotten magic, or something stranger altogether remains one of the greatest mysteries of the Isle of Hate.
A Lost Province
The Divine Empire has never formally relinquished its claim to Ipranius. Old Imperial maps still mark the island as a province, and descendants of its refugees retain titles and claims to lands which their families have not seen for more than thirty years. In practical terms, however, the Empire exercises no authority there. Occasional proposals have been made to reclaim the island, particularly by descendants of the Ipranian nobility and clergy. None have gained serious support. The cost of mounting such an expedition would be enormous, and nobody knows whether the corruption which afflicts the island can ever truly be removed. For now, Ipranius remains what the sailors of the Indertsa Sea have called it for a generation: The Isle of Hate.
