NOTE: The presented material is tailored for the Revised Third Edition (3.5e), but it can serve as a source of lore and inspiration for any edition or system.

Outside Kurn’s Great Library, few living people have ever heard of Thorlo. The city destroyed itself in a civil war over 3500 years ago, at the dawn of the Cleansing Wars. The remaining residents of Thorlo, now all undead, still consider their city the greatest of the region, but its ruination and subsequent burial for King’s Ages has caused the city’s reputation to suffer amongst the living.

More information on Thorlo and its residents can be found in Lost Cities of the Trembling Plains. Stats for other NPCs found in and around the Trembling Plains, as well as other relevant rules (feats, magic items, adventure hooks, etc) can be found in newly released Faces of the Forgotten North.

King Burdinas I

LE Male Human Meorty Aristocrat 2 / Psion (Shaper) 17

The last king of Thorlo before the giant mamluks rebelled, Burdinas I submitted to becoming a meorty - an undying guardian sworn to watch over a city and its laws. The undead former king still lurks within the palace’s catacombs, waiting until his descendants need him again and guarding the city’s treasures in the basement of the Telibandrum. After the giants seized power in Thorlo (by holding the royal family hostage, but never actually injuring them), Burdinas surprised them by successfully resisting their efforts to rebuild the palace’s foundations. The giants wisely chose to leave the meorty and his catacombs alone.

Banshee Dwarven Defenders

LE Male Dwarven Banshee Fighter 7 / Dwarven Defender 6

These faithful dwarven bodyguards committed ritual suicide in order to follow Burdinas into undeath, their foci compelling them to continue serving him. If someone manages to destroy King Burdinas I, these banshees will dissipate and find their rest, their ancient focus negated.

Togovas

LE Male Human Raaig Cleric (Magma) 9

Togovas, the Fire priest who led the war against the giants, has become a raaig, and inhabits the city’s grand old Water temple, which he desecrated and converted into a Fire temple after conquering the city. Togovas tends the Brazier of Everburning Flame and dreams of how Thorlo could have prospered under his leadership, had the people only accepted Fire instead of rejecting it. Still intent on obtaining converts, Togovas will make overtures to anyone that enters his temple. Remembering his own past as a Rain cleric, he will first attempt to convert elemental priests and druids, then others. He does not fully understand templars, but will treat them as lesser clerics. Togovas will become enraged if his offers are refused.

Pterran Fire Acolytes

LE Male Pterran Thinking Zombie Cleric (Magma) 1

Sentient zombies under Togovas’ command, these pterrans continue to perform services in the temple, such as hunting the ruins for flammable materials (or creatures) to sacrifice in the Brazier of Everburning Flame. If the subject of trade comes up, the pterrans are desperate to purchase lamp oil. They have no cash or goods on hand, but over a few days will be able to obtain 50 silver pieces worth of precious metals, which they will exchange for lamp oil at up to 20 times its normal price.

Subpriest Triltlac

LE Male Pterran Thinking Zombie Cleric (Magma) 5

Another thinking zombie under Togovas’ command, Triltlac leads his fellow pterran priests, directing them to recover flammable items to feed into the Brazier of Everburning Flame during various rituals and ordering them into battle when necessary.

Igreeso

CE Male Kuman Fire Krag

Igreeso, a Water priest who fought to defend his temple when Togovas and his Fire-worshipping pterrans conquered Thorlo, was killed in a spell duel with the former Rain priest and now continues to exist as a fire krag. Igreeso despises his role as Togovas’ most potent thrall, but is completely under his control. Igreeso in turn commands several dozen kraglings, his sevants in the temple.

Fire Kraglings

These undead are undead slaves of Igreeso, created from various creatures that wandered into Thorlo and were killed by Igreeso since he became a Krag.

Ussroas

NE Male Human Raaig Cleric (Rain) 7

The former High Diviner of Thorlo’s Water Temple, Ussroas was the one who kept the Water priests from joining the so-called “Spellcasters Rebellion” to oust the giants from the city, dooming the insurgency. Ussroas has served as the main opposition to Togovas and his Fire theocracy in Thorlo for millennia now. Ussroas, like his archrival, leads a small army of undead, constantly attempting to gain control of the ruins in the name of a faith that he no longer actually serves.

The Apostate Raaig

CN Female Human Raaig Cleric (Rain) 6

This raaig, a former water priestess that secretly apostatized to Rain when the Water priesthood became corrupt, was delighted when the recent Tyr-storm removed the hateful dust from above her temple. She is currently praying for another such storm, and will exchange goods, services, and knowledge for anything that visitors can tell her about the storm, where it came from, or even what it was called.

Mummified Sharks

NE Mummified (from Savage Species) Shark; Base Land Speed 20

The Apostate Raaig commands a pack of mummified Athasian sharks, once the temple’s guardians, now long since mummified. The undead sharks squirm across the floor, moving much faster than one might expect.

Incorporeal Puddingfish

NE Spectral (from Savage Species) Puddingfish

This fearsome creature lairs in Thorlo’s former psionics academy, still covered by sand and silt. It occasionally roams the streets of Thorlo at night, but always returns to its lair before dawn.

Undead Giant Mamluks

NE Male & Female Desert Giant Thinking Zombie Warrior 4

The undead remnants of the army of giant slave-soldiers that ruled Thorlo for a time, several thinking zombie mamluks still haunt the Giant Barracks, holding it against the city’s other undead.

Avaz Fireface

LN Male Desert Giant Thinking Zombie Fighter 5

One of Ussroas’s more dependable allies in the ongoing struggle in Thorlo is a giant thinking zombie named Avaz. The giant was killed in the final street fighting that accompanied Togovas’ conquest, and he looks much as he did when he died protecting the mamluk leader’s retreat – crisped stubble on a blackened skull, peeled skin, cooked flesh, and a wretched stink of burning, hence his moniker “Fireface.” Avaz fights alongside Ussroas’s forces sometimes, but they refuse him entry into the Palladian Basilica itself because he reeks of fire. He instead dwells in a giant-sized home near the Basilica.

Dűgur the Distended

CE Male Desert Giant Fael Barbarian 5

Besides Avaz, at least one other notable undead giant still walks in the ruins of Thorlo - Dűgur the Distended. Dűgur was a particularly hated slavedriver who was slain during Togovas’ siege by a mob of enraged human slaves. He returned from undeath as a fael, hunting down the humans who had killed him and literally eating them alive to assuage his ravenous hunger. Dűgur has wasted considerably in the King’s Ages since Thorlo was abandoned, but he still roams the ruins looking for living flesh to consume, living or undead. Anything he finds he attacks on sight, be it living or (un)dead, tracking any prey he locates by smell.

Nabru the Immured

LG Male Human Venger Aristocrat 12

Ussroas has another ally in the struggle against Togovas, albeit one he does not know of. Nabru was a noble in Thorlo before the giants came, and he maintained his family’s proud tradition of service and support to the faith of Water even as a servant to the giant’s regime. In the wake of Togovas’ victory, Nabru and his entire family were murdered during the brutal proscriptions. Nabru came back as a venger, and actually got into the old Water temple and attacked Togovas before the acolytes caught him and walled him up in a monk’s cell in the temple. He is still there, though his clawing hands have nearly dug him free of the tufa walls that imprison him, and he will stop at nothing to complete his revenge.

Te’elaes, Thorlo’s Last Elf

CE Male Elf Dunerunner Barbarian 2 / Psychic Warrior 2

Alone among the undead of Thorlo is an elvish dune runner named Te’elaes. Te’elaes seems to neither comprehend nor recognize other beings, living or undead. Te’elaes belonged to the now vanished Wind Chasers tribe, and died after the Cleansing Wars had ended, but before Thorlo became buried by the encroaching Sea of Silt. e and his tribemates were set upon by undead pterrans while attempting to loot the ruins, and Te’elaes was sent to warn the other groups of looters about the attack. However, Te’elaes was cut down in the streets before he made it more than a few blocks, and without his warning, his brethren were slaughtered.

Today, Te’elaes’ streaking form appears infrequently along the buried streets of Thorlo, running right over the blown-in silt and sand that fill the ruined city. The only way to get him to pause in his eternal circuit around the city would be to shout or flash a well-known elven tribal signal as the dune runner approaches. Te’elaes is unlikely to recognize the particular gesture, but might realize it was an elven tribal sign and pause to speak to the signaler. Though he never acknowledges the other residents of Thorlo, Te’elaes actually knows much of the lore of the city, including all the major buildings that are still standing, the major undead residents, and a good deal of the city’s history. He would impart any of this knowledge freely, if asked the right questions and given corresponding knowledge of the wider world in return.

The Lighthouse Keeper

LN Male Dwarf Thinking Zombie Commoner 8

Bound to what remains of Thorlo’s lighthouse, this undead dwarf sometimes comes down to comb the ruins for flammable materials to keep the lighthouse’s fires burning. Unlike many of the other undead in the city, the Lighthouse Keeper was not purposefully raised, but instead spontaneously reanimated after his death because of his dedication to keeping the lighthouse lit at night. Anyone who blocks his path or otherwise impedes him from gathering combustibles for his nightly fires is an enemy, as far as he is concerned. The Lighthouse Keeper was completely oblivious to the politics of his time, and remains indifferent to any struggles for control of the ruined city to this day; his job was to keep the lighthouse lit, and that continues to be his only concern. If questioned by visitors, he only mutters: “I need fuel, there must be firelight.” The only way to get him to converse at greater length is to to offer him lamp oil or similar combustibles. The lighthouse keeper would be willing to spend time searching for tradable goods in order to obtain a regular supply of lamp oil.

Lore regarding Thorlo

Hardly anyone in the Forgotten North knows about Thorlo, but characters with ranks in Knowledge (Trembling Plains) or Knowledge (Ancient History) might know the following relevant information:
Knowledge (local [Trembling Plains]) or Knowledge (Ancient History)