Worldbuilding: Ke'Sik, the Red Faithful (Part 1)

Players adventuring in Ke'sik will find a cold and silent place. A valley full of grey trees and masked men in red. The jarls of the North all agreed to not attempt to conquer the valley, lest provoke the strange people who live within. Some jarls secretly wish to despite the warnings, the people of Ke'sik once conquered the whole of the North and hold old treasure presumed lost forever.

Source

The origins of Ke'Sik began with some dope art from Josh Corpuz. Their face was hidden, their weapons glow and their theming was top notch. Ke'sik as an adventuring location emerged from my need to give them a home that could culturally explain looking like a badass in red.

Prehistory

 Ke'sik started as an unheard of northern tribe. The first people of Ke'sik dyed their clothes red with the sap of a dark grey tree and wore simple masks that obscured the face. Riding upon their great tusked beasts of war they made many neighboring tribes bend the knee. They would raze enemy settlements to the ground and on each slain foe they planted a seed of the dark grey tree with red sap. Before long they had conquered a whole valley and were constrained only by the mountains that surrounded them.

Source

Dawning Age

While other places on the continent were still discovering the secrets of metal and magic, the first people of Ke'sik were learning more about their great ritual tree. By now the whole valley was filled with them. and some had grown alcoves that shone a dull red. The shaman of the first people heard the signs. Their forest could grow beyond the mountains if but a few were given to the trees. "The bark would be their mother and the sap would be their milk. Give your children to the trees. May their bellies be full of the vigor of youth." The first people obeyed her edict and placed the children in the dull red alcoves. Creatures began to emerge from the forests, they paced and moved like powerful predators crafted from red tree bark. They lacked heads at first but over time the people saw their children emerge from the monstrous torso. The red worshipped their children for the forest had made them beautiful and strong. The shaman commanded these children of the forest to gather to her, for conquest was at hand. She named them "The Raudr."

Source

The Raudr are still around today in the North. There exist pockets of the dark grey trees that weren't torched by great armies and people who cling to the old monstrous faith. The type of Raudr depends on the birth order of the child sacrificed to the dark grey tree. All are by the usual estimation centaur-like with the bestial part being made of dark red bark and the human part being covered intermittently by this bark. All Raudr are born with a mask of silvery metal covering their face. All Raudr are violent and hungry. When they die a dark grey tree grows from their corpse after 7 days unless immolated.

1. A First Born creates the Raudr Gungir. It has the lower body of a dragon and the human elements of an old wizened man. It speaks in murmuring warnings about the future and can manipulate the bones of the living and dead.
2. A Second Born creates the Raudr Gram. It has the lower body of a many-legged wyrm and the torso and the human elements of an elderly woman. Its breath creates connected portals and its voice sounds like gravel being sifted.
3. A Third Born creates the Raudr Tyrfing. It has the lower body of a stag and the human elements of a young woman with silver hair. It can boil the blood of men and beast alike. To allies this is a boon, to enemies it drives them mad. It makes a faint sobbing sound rather than speak.
4. A Fourth/Fifth/Sixth Born creates a Raudr Forseti. It has the lower body of a muscular drake and the human elements of a young man/woman with short blond hair. It is natural skilled at weapons of war and has a voice like a bellowing horn.
5. A Seventh Born creates a Raudr Hrotti. It has the lower body of a fat toad and the upper body of a beautiful young man. It sounds like sweet dreams and spider silk and can steal shadows.
6. A Child beyond the Seventh creates a Raudr Stillborn. It has the body of a lithe drake and has only the atrophied face of an angelic babe as its human element. It has no voice and creates an aura of silence in its wake.