12.3.3 Mhaldor, the City of Evil

Far to the west, over the Vashnar Mountains, beyond the Gruu'n chasm, lies a
blasted, blighted isle. A poisonous red haze swirls over barren rock, bubbling
tar pits, and skeletal trees. Tortured abominations and carnivorous lycopods
roam, seeking the flesh of the unwary. At the end of a road lined with gibbets
and impaled corpses, Mhaldor, the City of Evil, looms above the murk. Through
the fortified gates, a horrific medley assaults the senses. As eldritch
chitterings fill the air amidst screams and lashes from the slave pens, foul
daemons and uncanny creatures stalk the streets. The clank of knightly armour
mixes with the rising chants of daemonic ritualists. The roiling of retorts and
the scratching of quills surround scholars at their work, delving deeply into
the mysteries of the lower planes and the quintessential secrets of alchemy.
Assassins lurk in the shadows, their whispering presences as quiet and
pervasive as smoke.

As Mhaldor rises triumphantly over the blasted shore, so too does Baelgrim
Fortress tower over the city itself. The many-spired fastness, steeped in
malignity, is harbour and headquarters to all who would do Evil. Within its
imposing confines lurks the mysterious lair of the Insidium, the bearers of
Mhaldor's unspeakable rites and ancient traditions, whose wire-sharp webs
stretch their threads everywhere. Atop the Baelgrim battlements blaze the
banners of the Dread Legates, they of bold voices and bolder blades, ever
ready to deliver the merciless will of Evil to all existence.

A theocratic dictatorship, Mhaldor exists solely to advance evil in all its
forms. The city's rigid hierarchy is ruled by the iron fist of the Tyrannus,
rejecting democracy, compassion, freedom, and other manifestations of mortal
weakness as beneath Evil's servants. "What is called evil is simply the drive
for advancement, for greatness. We seek, through discipline and pain, to spur
the advancement of nothing less than sentient life." -- The First Truth of Evil