Ladneg is named for what is scattered across this great wetland. The fact that it is a swamp never played much into someone naming this place. Across this wetland are massive pieces of what was once a colossal structure, all of which are alien in nature. The rock and iron of these junks were once part of a unthinkably large egg-like device used in ages past. It was apparently destroyed and ended up scattered across the vast expanse of a swamp.
In the Demon Spawn War(8972 GE - 9493 GE), the Covenant battled hordes of demons spewing forth from the Abyss. One of the magical items of this war was a ten-mile diameter egg, a structure of strange stone, great arcing beams of iron, a war engine found adrift in the Sea of Entropy. Powered by entropic energy, it was the toy of an upstart, yet brilliant, demon commander named Demogorgon. Its purpose was to move an entire army between worlds.
The egg-shaped war chariot was named Ladneg, for no other reason than a mane was hobbling by and Demogorgon asked its name. The pitiful creature said its name, "Ladneg", at which point Demogorgon crushed the sub-demon, saying "No it's not." He then looked at me and said, pointing in the direction of the smoky war chariot, "That is Ladneg", at which point I recorded it as such.
the mane Ladneg
My master then had hundreds of artisans spend a year stamping the name across the circumference of it. They engraved "Ladneg" everywhere they could. After some convincing, and a whole lot of "convincer" deaths, all vainly trying to get him to re-focus on the war and not artisan work, Demogorgon finally ended the engraving work and set Ladneg on the path of war. The main power of this great device was that it allowed one demon to be summoned from the other side, and the device would then form a chain with all those inside of it. One demon through a summoning, and an entire army is dragged through with him. Demogorgon rode in the heart of the device, surrounded by four legions. He opened a channel between Abyssm and the world Bal-Kriav. It was here we would go and break past the lines of the Covenant's famed champion, the archangel Asmodeus.
We were betrayed. They were waiting for us, closing the rift as we came through. It split the thing in two, what happened on the other side is unknown, but probably shattered into a million pieces as it fell from the sky and hit Bal-Kriav's surface. The half on our side was still there, and could still be entered, but inside it opened into nothingness, the void. As for my lord, who was inside when Ladneg was severed in two, he was struck by the closing gateway and nearly had his head ripped apart. Only his great might and the chaotic energy that burned for release inside of him, saved him that day.
My lord ignored the loses, "So we lost ten thousand soldiers, but do you see me? I now live with two brains, I was terrible to be reckoned with before the accident, but now I'm twice as brilliant. All in the Abyss and beyond will come to know and fear my name."
- Lugúrz Lak Múl, personal historian to Demogorgon, from the book - "Ladneg Division"
Today, the remains of this relic of the Lost Ages, are scattered across a wetland. Some of the chunks are enormous, half-submerged in sticky mud, and a wetland haven strange creatures. The jumble of rusting beams poke out from piles of rubble or stand as spears in fetid pools. All of the alien rubble and debris have Abyssal engravings on them, the more intact read "Ladneg".
As a whole the swamp is inhabited by normal creatures and monsters of this realm. There are some though that are born with demon traits and a few are born as half-demons.
A stag is normally shy and elusive, but a demon-tainted stag is aggressive and cunning, they hunt to kill, mostly not to eat, just to kill whatever they come across. Some act normal, then one day they go dark and feral. If it survives the things it battles, it may, for a time, turn back to acting like a normal stag. Chaos burns the blood of these creatures, when it cooks their brain enough, they again go wicked and predatory. As for the more intelligent creatures born in Ladneg, like some monsters and humanoids, well they are just evil. Few of them play nice, though I have heard in my travels of some half-demons that have come out of Ladneg and lived semi-righteous lives, but they are few and far between.
My brother and sister Protectorates, I warn you that in Ladneg, don't assume that you are the supposed hunter.
