I'Cath

I'Cath was formerly a province somewhere in Kara-Tur, before it became one of the Domains of Dread, under its darklord, Tsien Chiang.

History
Part of one of the empires of Kara-Tur, the province of I'Cath was reigned over by a local prince. He thought women were only good for making children and so forbade his daughter, Tsien Chiang, from receiving a high education. Nevertheless, she secretly learned the military arts, magic, and poisoncraft. At this time, she became fascinated by the number four, and its mystical relationship with death. Yet still her father belittled her ambitions, and her indignation soon turned to an intense hatred of first her father and then of all men.

Tsien eventually murdered her father with poison, and then used her magic to turn her mother and three brothers into imbeciles. Thus, Tsien Chiang was acclaimed the ruler of I'Cath by the local elders, who would rather see her as lord than one of her feebleminded family members. She soon ruled that province as a notorious and utterly inflexible tyrant. Many suitors came seeking marriage to the beautiful and powerful lord, but Tsien had many of the samurai fight to the death and soon killed the four husbands she did take, keeping four daughters. She also gathered the finest sages from all over Kara-Tur to help her uncover the secrets of the number four but, unsatisfied, she had most of them them slowly tortured to death. Very few sages visited I'Cath after that, and fewer still ever returned.

In time, Tsien Chiang was the most dreaded, distrusted, and despised individual in all of Kara-Tur. As a tactical genius and powerful wizard, she handily defeated the neighboring princes who allied against her and attempted to overthrow her evil rule, taking their lands as her own and making her one of the most powerful persons in Kara-Tur too. Those who didn't attack her, the emperor, local princes, and rulers of other lands, were compelled to pay homage to appease her, but those lords too were often murdered. Because of binding oaths of loyalty from her clan to the emperor that she did not dare break and was begrudgingly forced to uphold, Tsien spared the emperor, but she was feared even by him. She demanded from the emperor four bells, the biggest in the empire and all sacred relics housed in great shrines. He granted them to her, despite the angry protests and curses of the priests and his people. Tsien corrupted them to hold her and her daughters' spirits and ensure they never again aged a day.

Even the gods despised Tsien—for her lack of faith, her desecration of their shrines, and the beatings she gave her good daughter Nightingale, whose voice they loved. They plagued I'Cath with storms whenever Nightingale was beaten for questioning her. But prideful Tsien disdained and hated the gods, believing they were deliberately withholding the truth of the number four from her. Finally, when Tsien intended to finally beat her daughter to death, thick fog enveloped the bone palace. Certain the gods were working to cast her down to the Nine Hells, Tsien blasphemed and denied them. When the emperor finally plucked up the courage to intervene, she laughed and killed him, thereby breaking her sacred oaths of loyalty. With these four ultimate sins, the fog that had engulfed her palace tore the land of I'Cath out of Kara-Tur and carried it into the Demiplane of Dread in the year 732 BC. The dark powers of that place made it a domain there, with Tsien Chiang as its darklord. No one else lived there except her, her daughters, and their remaining victims.

Notable Locations
Over many years, Tsien used the remains of her daughters' suitors to build herself the ghastly Palace of Bones: the structure made from their bones, the walls painted with their blood, the carpets weaved from their hair, and the clothing from their skin and flesh. The floors cried in madness and pain when stepped on. A giant-sized backgammon board had dice and pieces made from fingernails and skulls. Even the broken promises of men, "the one substance that the world has in limitless abundance", she used to erect the Tower of Broken Promises. Spread around them were the Four Groves of corrupted trees that cursed and killed all who came near, and the four Shrines of the Four Bells, which held Tsien's and her four daughers' spirits.

Background
Being created for the Ravenloft campaign setting with largely unconnected lore, it is unknown where in Kara-Tur I'Cath originated, or even when in Kara-Tur's history it existed. There is no I'Cath province, no characters named Tsien, and no clans named Chiang in the setting lore. The comparatively recent date in Ravenloft's timeline suggests a recent, mid-1300s DR origin on Toril, but correspondence between the setting timelines is unknown and ambiguous. The slain emperor is unnamed, and none of the modern emperors of the major powers died a violent death by the Kara-Tur setting date of 1357 DR. In contrast, the Tree of Venom grove is said to be centuries old. It is possible these events occurred after 1357 DR, though later history is thin. T'u Lung is known to have lost two emperors in the following 18 years, so it seems a candidate. Otherwise, I'Cath may originate in one of the other smaller, undetailed nations of Kara-Tur, such as the Warring States.

A wholly new I'Cath was created for 5-edition's Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, but this has no Realms or Kara-Tur relations and thus is not considered canon to this wiki. Only the original 2-edition version is presented above.