I'm thinking it may be time, to return to Lux Tenebris.

Atela: Places of Interest

The Last Kingdom has many places of interest. 

Alda.

The capital of Atela is Alda. Alda is the only city in the land. It is the home of the Kingpriest, the House of Lords and the Council of Bishops.  The Kingpriest's palace rises above the rest of the city; this is the residence of the Kingpriest, his wife, his concubines and various trusted courtiers. There is a heavy military presence in the city, and you can't throw a stone without hitting a priest. However, Alda is infamous for its taverns, whorehouses and theaters.

The Barrow Way

Between the Blessed River and the Guardian River is a stretch of land dotted with stone cairns and lumpish hills. These hills are barrows, mass graves of soldiers who fell during the Giants' War and the Lords' Rebellion.  Although safe to travel by day, once the sun sets this area is plagued by restless spirits and, even worse, barrow weights.  Attempts by the Church and Crown to pacify the region have been largely ineffective and most humans avoid the area whenever possible.

St. Ida's Wood

Atela has a long list of saints, but few are as venerated as Saint Ida. There is some confusion as to whether Ida was a man or a woman. The Church teaches that Ida was a man, but among the common folk of the region it is widely believed Ida was a woman who posed as a man.  As such Ida is seen as a patron saint of men and women. Regardless of Ida's gender, he was a fierce warrior, a paladin in life who fought the enemies of man and eventually paid with her life. The Shrine to St. Ida is a popular pilgrimage site, especially for paladins and young priests.

St. Claena's Wood

St. Claena was a peasant woman who was pursued by a besotten elf-warrior, Claena fled and praid to God to save her virtue.  Her prayer was heard and answered; God transformed the peasant woman into a mighty tree. Today, St. Claena's Wood offers a refuge from elves; no elf can enter those woods and survive.  The wood from the trees is said to be blessed, capable of inflicting killing wounds to any fae creature.

The Lonely Wood

On the southern coast of Atela is a small forest, surrounded by grasslands. This foresst, known as the Lonely Wood, is a strange and haunted place. There are no human settlements or habitations within the Lonely Wood, but travelers tell stories of a mysterious house that appears and disappears on the edge of the wood. The house is the home of a powerful witch known as the Witch of the Lonely Wood. According to legend, she is very beautiful and uses her beauty to lead men into lives of sin and depravity.  Occasionally a paladin will enter the Lonely Wood, to seek out this foul sorceress and end her machinations. To date, none have ever returned.

Hardhearth

The eastern grasslands of Atela, between the Guardian River and the River Fren, is scarcely populated. Hardhearth is the largest settlement in the region, a fortified garrison manned by veteran soldiers of the King's Army.  Hardhearth has been besieged by giants on three seperate occasions and never fallen. The town has an almost mythic reputation among the locals.  There are stories of divine relics burried beneath the town that are responsible for its safety. The Church denies these stories, but there is an unusually large number of priests who call Hardhearth home.

Imbir's Cove

Imbir's Cove is a fishing village on the Cold Coast. A centure ago it was a bustling trade port, but as the winters grew longer and colder, foreign trade diminished and eventually stopped. Today, Imbir's Cove is a miserable village of half-starved peasants who eek out a miserable existence from a combination of fishing and farming.  The beaches around Imbir's Cove are dotted with the bleached wooden remains of old ships. On some nights, bonfires burn on the sands, and the locals tell tales of sirens and sea-monsters coming ashore to plot mischief and murder around those same baleful fires.

Atela: The Devil & The Queen of Shadows

There are two Big Bads in the Last Kingdom: the Devil and the Queen of Shadows.

The Devil is the ruler of Hell a.k.a. the Underworld. According to the Church, the Devil was created by God to test humanity by tempting them.  However, as the Devil spent more time with humans and saw how easily they were corrupted, he himself became corrupt. God saw the Devil's failings and exiled him from the Heavenly Realm. Furious, the Devil retreated to the Underworld, where the souls of sinners languished. There, the Devil declared himself the nemesis of God's plans. He still corrupted humans, by seducing them away from God with promises of power or wealth or pleasure, but now he did it to expand his own power. So great was the Devil's corrupting aura that other angels refuted God, abandoning the Heavenly Realm and joining the Devil in Hell. These angels became devils and, over time, some of them became so debased that they 'devolved' into demons.

The Queen of Shadows is one of the Devil's consorts. Church doctrine is hazy on her origins. Some say she was an angel who followed the Devil into exile. However, others claim that she was born a mortal woman, who gave up her soul for immortality.  She is, literally, the Mother of the Elves, and that soulless race lives in abject fear and awe of her. According to lore, the Queen appealed to the Devil for aid when men turned on her soulless spawn. He agreed to help her for her eternal loyalty to him and she accepted his offer. The Devil gave the Queen of Shadows the Feywold, the unchanging realm where the elves live to this day. 

Where the Devil sees humanity as a resource to be used, or a tool to be wielded against God, the Queen of Shadows views them as nothing less than her most hated enemy. It is her hatred of them that infuses her children and compels them to wage war upon mankind.

PCs probably shouldn't meet either the Devil or the Queen of Shadows. Both characters are ferociously powerful, and should decimate any mortal that dares attack them. If the PCs do encounter either of these figures, their best bet to overcome them is through a battle of wits.  If the PCs can extract a promise from either villain, they will be compelled to obey their promise. However, neither figure should make promises lightly.

Atela: Notes on Religion

The Last Kingdom is dominated by a monotheistic, sun-based religion known simply as the Church.
The Church has existed for centuries and there are numerous records of angelic messengers communicating God's will with the Kingpriest.
This hasn't happened in a long while.
The religion is akin to the real world's Christian Old Testament. In Atela, God does not forgive or forget. This is a God that punishes those who break his commandments.
The religious commandments are pretty simple:

1) You shall not worship false gods. This is the literal truth in this setting. The God of the Atelan Church is the one true God; all other gods are pretenders or worse.

2) You shall not murder. Basically, it's okay to kill in self-defense or during war, but coldblooded murder is a sin.

3) You shall not steal. Pretty self-explanatory.

4) Husbands honor they wives.  The phrasing on this and references in the Holy Texts seems to indicate that God is fine with polygamous marriages. Or at least, that's how it's been interpreted by certain individuals. Legally, in Atela, a man can have a wife and concubines. 

5) Wives honor they husbands. Again, the phrasing on this has led to interesting theological discussions and arguments. On the Cold Coast, some women have more than one husband since sailors and seamen die so often.

6) Children honor they parents. This is one of the foundation-stones of Atelan society as children are expected to respect and care for their parents. A child who abandons or mistreats an elderly parent will be looked down upon by everyone and may be called before a Church court.

7) You shall not lie. Yes, this is a Divine Commandment and the reason parents punish their children severely when they lie.  It's not uncommon for witnesses who purger themselves in secular and Church courts to have their tongues cut out.

God is never depicted as human in religious artwork, but as a sun or solar disc.  Halos adorning the heads of saints and paladins are representation of God channeling his divine power through them.  The symbol of God is a stylized sun and the image is prevalent in church artwork and design. Religious services are always held during the day.  Heretics and diabolists are burned at night for a reason.

Although it hasn't been explicitly stated, most Atelans, including the clergy, believe that the reason the world is getting so cold is because God has turned his face from the world.  (This is actually true. God has turned away from the world to work on other projects, but no one in the Church knows this.)  It is widely believed that if all the people adhere to the Commandments then God will look favorably upon the world again and the long winters will stop.