Nizrekh has become more and more part of the Three Realms+; where it was originally just a reference, it's now a probable destination in two of the 5x5 Fronts; Curse of the Corsair Coast and Terror in Timischburg both, and the Mind-Wizards—especially Gothan, the Mind-Wizard, one of the Heresiarchs, is meant specifically to be an ancient Atlantean. Although I don't know that Gothan is the Mind-wizard of Mind-Wizards of the Daemon Wastes, but if he is, then heck; they could go to Nizrekh in that one too. That said, my old capsule review is woefully out of date. I don't necessarily mean to expand on it, but I do want to at least update it. The expansion can come later.
What is Nizrekh? In short, it's a part of the Old Night setting that is an island nation off the coast (to the south and a bit to the west) of Timischburg itself. An archipelago nation, Nizrekh was once a much larger island nearly the size of Greenland, and the very first High Civilization of Mankind lived on it. Atlantis, it was called, and they ruled with an iron fist over the continent that is now the Three Realms, although they were little interested in the people there except to take them occasionally as slaves, or to exploit the natural resources of their lands. Mighty in technology and in magic, the Atlanteans were unchallenged for centuries. When their Doom came, it came because of the curse that befell one of their own.
A princess of Atlantis named Medusa brought a curse down on the people for reasons that are now forgotten. The ancient, heathen chthonic entities that the Atlanteans worshipped turned her into a horrifying monster for her crimes, her body below the waist transformed into that of the thick snake, her hair turned into a nest of vipers, and her malicious gaze would turn those who beheld her to stone. Full of hatred and bitterness for what happened to her she took her revenge on her people, and waged war against them. Although it's not clear how this happened, she did in fact bear children after her transformation, and these are called the lesser medusae, or sometimes the gorgons. Their own petrification abilities were similar to that of their monstrous mother, although less potent, and those of sufficiently strong will could resist it. Medusa herself was finally killed by the Atlanteans, but her vile progeny, which now included even more debased warlike serpent men continued a bitter war of attrition.
Disgusted with the behavior of the Atlanteans in the wake of this chaos, who had fallen into bitter rejection of their gods, a massive sea monster known as Megaketos destroyed their island, killing most Atlanteans and snake-men both. There are disturbing rumors that Megaketos was not related to Ketos, but was rather Cthulhu itself, awakened for a short time by the gods. If so, the devastation to Atlantis makes more sense; the majority of the land was sunk and only the current sun-bleached archipelago as fragments of it remain. A single structure, the great pyramid of Halkatash is the only vestige of ancient Atlantean culture that is widely recognized and which somehow remains relatively undamaged and above sea level on the archipelago.
New peoples came to these islands many generations later. These were mostly simple fishermen and other coastal types, but they grew in power and influence as well, becoming wealthy traders and sailors. Occasionally, they would find nests of snake-men still lingering in the islands, but mostly the survivors of that Pyrrhic war had fled for foreign parts. But at the height of their power, they discovered that not all of the Atlanteans were dead. Some of the wisest and most powerful (and the most blasphemous and corrupt) knew that their destruction was imminent. Sacrificing many of their lesser brethren's lives and souls in foul rituals, they turned themselves into the so-called Mind-Wizards—arch undead that combine the strengths of both vampires and liches with few of their weaknesses—and sealed themselves in thick sarcophagi that would be able to survive the sinking of their land, slumbering for centuries or even millennia on the bottom of the sea.
Nobody knows how many of these there are, but at least one, Gothan, returned to his former lands (or what was left of them) and quickly conquered it with his foul and powerful magic, establishing himself as a new undead Pharaoh over the Nizrekhs who lived here now. He has been content to rule openly yet quietly. The world is not as primitive as it was in his time, and much of the old Atlantean science (if not their magic) was lost in the destruction of their world, so Gothan bides his time, attempting to locate and raise the rest of his lost brethren and fortify his power base with them before they make any attempt to expand their influence through conquest yet again.
Today, his foul influence has warped even the Nizrekhs who rebel against his rule. He maintains one city-state on the island, a strange place where necromantic magic rules and Immortal soldiers (mummies) patrol the streets. But along the coasts are lawless communities of savage cannibals; and the Nizrekhs have gradually been corrupted and transformed into Tcho-tcho. Few foreigners visit these anarchic, violent tribes and fewer still leave them, but they are even less welcome in the urban centers ruled by the Heresiarchs. In addition to these savage natives who occasionally raid coastlines nearby in their war outrigger pirogues, other tribes of natives who live in rebellion against Gothan wander the plains and other inland rural areas of the islands. For some reason they are tolerated, to a point, probably because they cause very little actual harm. However, unknown (presumably, at least) to Gothan, these nomadic rebels have made contact with a cell of medusae and their snake-men soldiers, and may have found a means to wage a more successful rebellion—even if the cost is what little is left of their own humanity, ultimately.
Anyway; that's Nizrekh in a nutshell. The advent of Gothan spawned a new "Golden Age" of necromancy among the people, and a recognition of the Atlanteans' past dealings with the snake-men has also spawned numerous odd details, including the worship of many snakes and snake-like entities, even as actual snake-men and their medusae rulers gather to threaten them yet again.
Some Nizrekh have ethnic enclaves in some other cities, especially on the west coast of the Three Realms+, like Grozavest, Port Liure (and all of the Corsair city-states of Baix Pallar), etc. These expat Tcho-tcho belong to equally vile cults of Shugoran, Rhan-Tegoth and others, and see humans as—at best—prey to be subject to their cannibal feasts. Although they are mostly unfriendly to Gothan, his spies are certainly among them. The Nizrekh Tcho-tcho are sufficiently repugnant on their own right whether part of Gothan's contingent or someone else's.
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