Intro
A Grimdark Fantasy Skirmish Game in a Cursed Land
What Is Noctvale?
Noctvale is a grimdark tabletop skirmish miniatures game where small retinues clash across cursed lands in search of powerful Relics. Combat is lethal, retinues grow through campaign play, and Survival Rolls carry both rewards and danger.
The Backstory
The Fall of the Realm
Long before the wars, the lands now called Noctvale were united beneath a single crown. The realm prospered under the rule of Aurelian Eiradan Valecor, First of His Name, High King of Valecoria, a wise and ambitious ruler who forged alliances between distant kingdoms, built roads across wild lands, and expanded the borders of the realm farther than any ruler before him. Trade flourished, cities grew rich, and the people believed they were living in the dawn of a golden age.
In those years the High King was advised by scholars of what would later become the Arcane Conclave, protected by the holy warriors who would one day be known as the Phoenix Guard, and served by provincial governors who enforced the law throughout the realm. For a generation the people believed Valecoria would stand forever.
But power attracts darkness.
During Valecoria's greatest expansion, the High King encountered a mysterious noblewoman from an isolated elven settlement on the far marches of the realm. She called herself Lady Aelthir, claiming descent from an ancient royal lineage long thought lost.
She was beautiful, brilliant, and impossibly persuasive. Within a few short years she rose within the high court, becoming the High King's closest advisor and eventually his consort.
None realized then that she was something far older than any mortal queen.
Lady Aelthir was one of the cursed sanguine predators rumored to stalk the wilds beyond the valley. She had watched Valecoria grow from the shadows and saw in the High King the perfect vessel through which she could reclaim dominion over the realm.
Over time she whispered to him of power, immortality, and the frailty of mortal rule. Eventually, the High King accepted her gift. When the transformation was complete, the empire had already begun to change.
The Shattering
The High King did not die.
The court realized the truth too late. Loyal nobles disappeared in the night. Entire noble houses were replaced by pale-faced courtiers who no longer walked in the daylight. Provinces fell under the rule of the High King's new aristocracy.
Word spread quickly across Valecoria. The High King was no more, something darker had taken his place.
Rebellion erupted across the realm. Dukes declared independence. Cities raised militias. Religious orders called for holy war. Witch hunters burned suspected collaborators. In the chaos, ancient creatures long driven into hiding began to emerge from forests, mountains, and forgotten places.
Thus began the conflict remembered as The War of the Shattered Crown, a brutal century-long struggle that would tear the realm apart.
The Hundred Years of War
For a hundred years the land burned.
The High King's court transformed itself into a new aristocracy of immortal predators. Noble houses were turned into bloodlines of vampires loyal only to the throne.
Against them rose countless factions born from desperation and war.
The Radiant Crusade swore sacred vows to destroy the undead king and his court. The Inquisition declared all magic a corruption that had doomed the kingdom. The Silver Hunt tracked the monstrous beasts that spread through the wild lands. The Arcane Conclave withdrew behind the walls of its tower-city, hoarding magic and forbidden learning while desperate refugees were left outside its gates. And villages, scattered across the lands, formed watches to protect their homes from all the horrors that roam the land.
Meanwhile darker powers took root in the shadows.
Witches were forced to band together in secret covens to protect themselves from those who believed that all magic — and all who were different — were evil and deserved to be purged.
The Infernal Pact formed secret brotherhoods devoted to demonic powers, performing dark rights under moonless skies. The Grave Wardens learned to command the restless dead rising from endless battlefields, turning the power of death to their own ends. In the cities, rumors spread of things slinking through drains and forgotten underways: knives in the dark, chittering voices behind brick, and a hidden force moving beneath the streets.
The war became more than rebellion. It became a struggle for the soul of the world.
The Fall of the Vampire King
After a century of devastation, the High King's reign finally ended.
A coalition led by the Phoenix Guard, decendants of his very own personal guard, breached the royal capital in the final years of the war. There, beneath burning skies and collapsing towers, the vampire king was finally destroyed.
But victory came far too late.
The kingdom had already collapsed. Cities lay in ruins. Provinces had become isolated territories ruled by warlords, cults, or monsters.
Worse still, the High King's queen had vanished before the capital fell.
The Age of Noctvale
The kingdom no longer exists. The land is now known simply as The Noctvale.
The ancient aristocracy of vampires survives as The Nobility, scattered across ruined estates and dark fortresses. They no longer attempt to rule the realm as kings. Instead they indulge in endless decadence. Bands of vampire nobles roam the countryside in lavish revelries and endless hunting parties, treating the shattered lands as their private playground. Villages are raided for sport. Travelers vanish along lonely roads. Entire regions live in fear of the next wandering courtly procession. To The Nobility, the world belongs to them.
The rest of the realm is left to fend for itself.
In the absence of the kingdom's authority, those who once enforced the law took power for themselves, but power without restraint soon corrupted them, and they now rule through fear and chains.
Across Noctvale, the factions born during the long war still struggle for power, survival, and vengeance.
Some fight to restore order. Some seek forbidden knowledge. Some serve darker masters, and some simply fight to survive another night.