Visalaire, Domain of Dread

Visalaire (pronounced: vis-a-LER) is a domain of dread; one of the many dreaded demiplanes located in remote corners of the Shadow Plane. It was spawned by the Dark Powers in order to torment Judith Erinea D’alrose, the domain’s darklord who is missing her head. The powers use the Mists surrounding the domain of dread to bring people in, sometimes randomly and sometimes intentionally. The Mists can appear anywhere around the multiverse, and trap people in the domain. They most frequently appear on Aldmeer though, the home world of Judith.

The Curse of Visalaire
Visalaire contains numerous machinations designed to bring despair to its darklord. It has things such as horrifying trees called Death’s Head Trees, from which heads dangle like foul fruit. Judith is cursed, and sees in some of the heads of the trees her own head. In reality it is an illusion viewable only by her, despite her truesight. Of course such trees further reflect the torment of the darklord and give dread to any unfortunate soul trapped in Visalaire.

Judith, the darklord, is also cursed to always see the heads of humanoids looking like her own head; driven for eternity to seek the one who truly has her actual head. When she claims a head she severs, she truly believes that the head is her own, until it starts looking less and less like hers and then falls off after a short while at which point she will realize it’s not her head. She then starts her search again, taking to the lands around Visalaire and sending her undead riders and Vargouilles to find her head. Of course no matter what Judith does she will never find her true head, and the more she realizes that the heads she claims are not her head the more she is convinced that she is closing in finding it, unreasonably thinking that next time will be different. The lands around her castle are filled with dozens upon dozens of discarded heads; many of them are Death’s Heads loitering around, serving the will of the darklord and attacking any trespassers on sight, as she does not think that anyone is worthy of approaching her castle without an invitation. The curse of Visalaire can sometimes transform such a discarded head into a Vargouille. Judith uses these Vargouilles as scouts and servants, ever on the lookout for her true head.

The castle seated upon a plateau in the center of Visalaire is dubbed by the trapped villagers of this domain as Castle Guillotine because anyone that enters it risks decapitation. However, its official name given to it by the darklord is Castle D’alrose. Castle D’alrose is the lair of Judith Erinea D’alrose, and any skeletal rider and Vargouille comes from there and the lands around it.

Visalaire also contains various medium-sized walking statues of finely sculpted marble, depicting a warrior woman’s body complete with a marble likeness of Judith’s head. These roaming marble constructs are spawned from the darklord’s sheer vanity and their mere existence torments her; another way that the Dark Powers torture her. Of course at the same time Judith cannot bring herself to destroy said statues, as destroying her perfect visage would be nothing short of a sacrilege. These walking statues are harmless most of the time but they will voicelessly attack anyone that comes close to 5 feet of them or anyone that threatens them in any way, while retaining their unchanging grimace.

This cursed land is also home to various horrors besides the servants of Judith, and the Death’s Head trees along with their foul fruit. Horrors like the boneless which are created when a skeleton rises from a corpse that Judith has slain leaving behind a husk of skin and meat that slithers and flops. Ghosts, banshees, wraiths and other apparitions that rise from the tormented spirits trapped in this domain that are unable to find rest also roam around; these are just some of the horrors and dangers Visalaire harbors. Some twisted creatures from other realms are also drawn here like some hags and their creations.

In some especially cursed places, the land itself shifts and grows flesh that takes the form of the lost face of Judith. Such places can be as small as tiny in size or huge. They don’t speak and instead only growl, yell and laugh, and sometimes try to eat creatures that stand on them. There can and have been times when the land suddenly changed form, grew meat and a face in the span of seconds and swallowed the creatures that stood in place and then changed back to how the land was originally. Judith herself hates these occurrences as she finds that they are tasteless and stain her perfect visage by being loud, disgusting piles of stray meat that disgustingly eat creatures in a very non-elegant way. They also remind her of her living moments when she was less than the perfect person she said she was; the instances when her striving perfection showed flaws.

Communities in Visalaire
Trapped people in this domain of dread have formed various communities such as villages. Such places are temporary respites from the land's horrors. Of course, only a fool would let their guard down in Visalaire, even in such villages as most things hide something wicked in this land. However, even in these areas, one can sometimes see a Vargouille flying overhead, or see a skeletal rider in the horizon.

The denizens and villagers that are trapped and live in Visalaire know that seeing a Vargouille is never a good omen, and also know to hide whenever they hear bones rumbling, or galloping accompanied with the wail and screams of a woman in the night. They call the darklord of the domain the Headless Lady, although they all know or learn her real name at some point.

The villagers of Visalaire are tormented by continuous patrols of skeletal riders and fiendish flying heads that are the Vargouilles; ever sleeping with the fear that at any moment their village can be selected for a raid by these monsters while they are searching for heads to bring their dark mistress.

Villages have come to the conclusion that if they find the so-called Headless Lady a head, they will be spared by the raids and searches of her forces. As such, they are always in the search of strangers to behead. A band of adventurers stumbling upon such a village can find the villagers being these sympathetic civilians that in time will kindly ask and plead to be allowed to kill a number of said band in order to send the deceased’s heads to the darklord. If refusal is expressed they will tend to get more insistent to the point of force. The only exception to this is Nanra, a certain village that refuses to do that and risks assaults by Judith’s forces in order to punish them. Nanra also abstains from taking part in the Headless Lady’s grim contests, refusing to serve her dark mind and play at her twisted games. By doing so, Nanra is risking the wrath of the Headless Lady even more. There have been a number of raids in the village in the past and it always ends when one or more villagers are taken as potential candidates.

Villagers typically avoid travelling as the land is deadly, but those who do have to be extra careful because each village might kill not only someone from the outside world but also someone from other villages.

The following villages are such communities as described above.

Ilefer
This village is the most decided to find heads for Judith. The villagers attack unsuspecting strangers on sight; the only exception is the Vistani caravans. The villagers have hidden crypts under the village in case they need to hide from powerful enemies or Judith herself.

Fouldew
This settlement produces a red, honey-like substance from this land's weird plants which is called fouldew. The village took its name from the product. While this substance is somehow nutritious if a bit bitter, there is a chance that it inflicts the consumer with hallucinations. As such, people from Fouldew are always under one hallucination or another. Some are harmless and some are not.

Grivanna
Grivanna is a settlement that is ruled by the night hag called Auntie Eyebags. Various hagspawn live here, children of the hag. Other humanoids that live here are afraid of the hag but are powerless against her and her children. Some of the villagers say that she brought prosperity to the hamlet with her concoctions and spells though, and are glad she came to the village. Like the other villages Grivanna will behead strangers to please Judith. After Auntie Eyebags gives the heads to Judith, she uses the rest of the remains for various purposes. The hag was seen by Judith when she arrived and made a deal with the darklord; as long as the hag serves Judith she will be not only be left alone, but also given ingredients such as entrails and brains or other detritus that Judith does not need after the contests.

Quagmire
This swamp village located in the Grim Marshes is home to a community of lizardfolk. These lizardfolk appear polite and accommodating much like most villagers of other settlements and want to kill and behead visitors as is common. However, after they kill outsiders they also eat them leaving only the head intact. Lizardfolk from Quagmire are more vicious than the rest of their kind, having developed sharper talons for their hunts, and they will eat any humanoid they render unconscious killing them instantly.

Castrele
Another village who is afraid and is desperate to bring Judith heads. Its mayor weeps every time they kill someone but he perseveres for the sake of his village.

Sprigfair
This friendly looking village always welcomes strangers in its Red Carpet Inn. However, as soon as visitors step inside the inn the floor gives way and they fall in a deep spiked pit. Those corpses with their heads intact are taken and beheaded while the others are moved to the caverns next to the village and given to the chained Hydra for food.

Muer
This village looks seemingly more or less the same as other villages. However, every building and object there is in fact a mimic. Muer is a mimic colony hailing from Aseldis in Aldmeer. The mimics have cooperated with people who had nowhere to go and made a village for the betterment of the lives for both the villagers and the mimics. The deal was that anything the villagers hunted they would also give to the mimics, plus any body waste was also given to the mimics for nourishment. Life was good for this community until an outlaw came running and yelling that eerie mists were haunting him. When he arrived and spent a night in the colony, the whole village was enveloped in the Mists and appeared in Visalaire. Now trapped in the domain of dread, the villagers and the mimics do all they can to survive, including killing strangers and offering their heads to Judith. Anywhere in Muer is potentially a deathtrap as everywhere and everything has its eyes out for the perfect moment to kill.

Nanra
A village that tries to resist Judith and refrains from killing people for their heads and its villagers do not participate in Judith's contests. It has paid dearly countless times for this, but Judith always leaves it standing in purpose.

Escape
The Mists trap anyone who enters Visalaire as the Dark Powers makes sure that their grip is tight. No one can leave once entering. After all they do not want Judith to lose potential candidates that carry her  true head  as each one can bring her a new torment. There is only one way to leave this cursed land; kill the darklord. In the event Judith is killed, anyone in Visalaire is free to leave from the mists and return to where they were taken from or where they entered. The Dark Powers always bring Judith back to life typically after 2 to 12 days; if anyone wants to leave the domain it should be done posthaste before she returns.