The Plane of War & the Zek Brothers

Tallon and Vallon

They were mortal war heroes once. Tallon and Vallon led Rallos Zek’s second invasion of the Plane of Earth, and when the gods’ curse came for them, the Warlord pulled them into his plane and gave them the essence of war he had torn from his own son.

Now Tallon Zek, the Beholder of Battle, is a tall, older, wise-looking orc-like figure in steel plate with no helm, carrying a famed obsidian war bow. Vallon Zek, the Governor of War, is a muscular, regal general in blackened chain beneath an emerald and black cloak, with a silver sabre he is said to wave while explaining tactics. Each is called the other’s alter ego.

Drunder, Fortress of Zek

Their home is Drunder, the Plane of Tactics, a vast stone stronghold towering over the Field of Blood. Each brother has a tower of war chambers. Below lie an arena, cave pens of war boars bred for bloodlust, barracks, an armoury, the magical war forge where the army’s weapons and armour are made, and a dining hall that Rallos and his generals regard as an inconvenient necessity. Upstairs is the War Room of Zek, where every plan is played out before the Warlord, its balconies looking down on the arena.

The Diaku

Drunder’s upper halls are held by the Diaku, the elite of the Warlord’s army, in three companies: the Gindan archers under Tallon, the Hendin assassins under Vallon, and the Decorus under Rallos Zek himself, great-axe warriors called the most brutal and deadly that existence has known.

Their master’s temper sets the tone. In one scene Rallos Zek broods over his war maps, lifts a messenger by the throat over late weapons, smashes the map table with his flaming axe, and then leaps from his balcony into the arena to cut through everything that moves.

The Zekarian

Beneath Drunder lies the battlefield called the Zekarian, split from east to west by the Wall of Rallos. East of the wall is the Field of Blood, with the rubble of an ancient lost city and a hill and graveyard to the north. West is the Field of Strife, between the castles of Rulnavis and Tamrel, each held by one of the two Zeks, where the greatest fighters of the primal worlds train and fight to prove themselves. Rallos chooses the strongest of them to serve him at Drunder, and inside, Vallon and Tallon play an endless game of chess to keep their strategy sharp.

Narikor, the Halls of Shame

Fighters who fall short are taken by war wraiths into exile in Narikor, the Halls of Shame. There they labour as slaves, mining and processing ore for Drunder’s great war forge and dreaming of earning their way back to the battle above. Some do, by rising successfully against their Diaku overseers.

Gorynn and Woomp’s vision

The arena has its own champion. Gorynn, the Champion of Zek, belongs to a tall, four-armed race native to the plane; a former general, he became champion of the grand arena and has beaten thousands of challengers, and Rallos lets him build one arena on every world the god of war touches. Mortals have glimpsed the Warlord’s dreams as well. The ogre shaman Woomp, as adventurers neared the Plane of War, saw a vision of an uncursed, intelligent ogre army attacking Cazic-Thule’s temple, before a green mist killed every soldier but him.

The zone that wasn’t

Players know one more story about this plane. The Plane of War was built for the Planes of Power but scrapped before launch, reportedly because its intended war mechanics could not be finished in time, and its files sat in the game for years. It was finally completed, and became end-game group content, in The Darkened Sea.