Nations and Regions of the Realms - East

A Whirlwind Tour of the Realms - part 1, The East and Southeast

Alsberg - The Kingdom of Alsberg is a hereditary monarchy. It is one of the recently established nations, and currently represents the northernmost boundary of exploration and resettlement of the Northlands. It is a realm of law, with a well-liked and benevolent king whose goal is the well being and safety of his kingdom. Power in Alsberg is strongly centralized in the hand of the king.

Rimini - The Grand Duchy of Rimini is a small frontier nation centered on the important trade city of Rimini. Rimini is at the western end of the Stillwater Reach, and is where the Great North Road coming from the west meets the Coast Road coming from the north and south.

The Northlands

Mercia - The Kingdom of Mercia is another hereditary monarchy on the eastern coast. One hundred years ago, it was the northern frontier of civilization, when Rimini and Alsberg were much smaller collections of scattered frontier villages. Mercia expanded northward 18 years ago, and is still assimilating the new territory; thus it is somewhat inwardly focused at this time. Mercia is divided into a number of Dukedoms, each of whom have a significant amount of power and authority in their respective holdings.

Romney - Ruled by King Aldir the Stout, Romney is a small nation based on the capital city of Dambrusk, a coastal fortress that managed to survive the Years of Darkness. The people of Romney are proud to make the claim, however tenuous, that they are one of the nations of the Old North. This isn't really true, as Romney wasn't a kingdom in the olden days, and Dambrusk was just one of many independent cities and towns. Romney used to be a critical link on the Coast Road, but as the borders of civilization have expanded, trade caravans and merchants no longer need to cling so closely to the coast, and inland trade routes have been taking business away from Romney. Romney does have a naval presence, and is working towards a time when more travel can safely pass by sea. It is rumored that some of the merchant captains of Romney are in league with the pirates of the Oranthian Isles, who wreak havoc on shipping up and down the coast.

Tiencin - Tiencin is a small city-state of tradesmen and craftsmen, widely regarded for the quality of their products. Tiencin is not a large or powerful nation, but does sit astride the coast road, and is the only real trading partner for the elves of Liriana. Half-elves in substantial numbers call Tiencin home, as do a large community of gnomes.

Liriana - The peninsula containing the Forest of Liriana has an elven realm of the same name. As are most elven realms in the north these days, Liriana is secretive and standoffish, but they do trade with Tiencin. These high elves are known to be seafarers, as highly decorated and brightly colored elven longships have been known to put into ports around the realms from time to time.

Oranthian Isles - The Oranthian Isles are a large chain of islands off the coast of Romney and Mercia. They are rugged, wild territory, and are home to a number of seafaring warrior tribes collectively known as the Sea Wolves of Oranthia. The Sea Wolves are a barbarian people who do not trade with the Northlands (with the possible exception of Romney).

Saradel - Saradel is a land of contrasts. It has a number of cities along the coast whose inhabitants make their living from trade, crafts and manufacturing, including some of the North's largest cities. The inland half of the country is covered with many thousands of square miles of verdant grasslands and plains. Many of the inland peoples are herders and ranchers, with some groups still pursuing a more tribal and nomadic way of life. The government of the country, based on a Council of Elders from the different cities, towns and regions, is descended from the days long ago when what is now Saradel was nothing more than a collection of loosely related tribes, each ruled by its own chief.

Kalembar Federation - The Kalembar Federation is a loose collection of cities and towns, banded together for defense and mutual benefit under the League of Merchants, a large and unwieldy body of elected officials representing the different factions. These factions can be cities, important towns, large merchant houses, magical colleges, large temples and all manner of other entities. As a result, Kalembar rarely acts as a coherent political entity (as far as the outside world is concerned). The leaders of Kalembar are focused on trade and the pursuit of wealth, and in maximizing their position as one of the lands in the transitional area between north and south. Cities of the Kalembar Federation have an opulence not often found elsewhere in the North.

Longwood Vale - North of the Kalembar Federation lies an independent region known as Longwood Vale. The Vale is located between the Umbral Mountains to the west, the Tellarn Mountains to the east, and the High Plateau to the north. The great Longwood Forest covers the western half of the Vale, and is known to have a substantial wood elf realm. It is a region of fertile land and scattered frontier farmsteads through which the High River runs. The High River forms the upper part of the Kalem River watershed. The High River descends from the High Plateau, is joined by the River Terche at the city of Woodshade, and continues on to meet the Pesh River near the city of Peshtar and the Kalembar border. The Pesh River and the High River combine to form the mighty Kalem River, which runs through the heart of Kalembar. The southern end of the Vale descends to the border of the Kalembar Federation. The northern end of the Vale climbs steeply over many miles, eventually reaching the region called the High Plateau.

The High Plateau - The High Plateau is a sparsely settled region of alpine meadows nestled between the upper reaches of the Umbral Mountains to the west and the Tellarn Mountains to the east. It is a high elevation area of cool summers and very cold snowy winters. The land slopes away substantially both to the south (into Longwood Vale) and north (down into the Greenreach Woods). There is a trade road connecting Kalembar and the Great North Road that passes through Longwood Vale and the High Plateau, but it is a difficult road that cannot be used year round.

To be continued in part 2, the West and Far South...

Design Notes - A Sense of Place

Of Castles and Kings...

As I have worked my way through the tentative stumbling design of my little world, I have tried to keep a few guiding thoughts in my head, thoughts that have shaped where I have chosen to invest those hours that I have been able to dedicate to this project. If I were a player in my own world, what would I think was important? What would I like to see? I think most of the answer boils down to a sense of place.

In an earlier "design notes" post on traditional medieval-fantasy worlds and population statistics, I referenced the idea of creating a sense that players would feel they were small parts of a larger whole. I think that idea summarizes where I have chosen to invest my time. If the players are to feel they are indeed small parts of a larger whole, there first needs to be that "larger whole". By that, I mean a geography that has some reasonableness to it, some sense of history (why things are the way they are), and a framework of that living breathing thing that is "today" (what is going on right now, regardless of what the players are doing).

With this in mind I have sketched out a piece of a world that seems reasonable to me from the perspective of geography, geology, size and scope. To which I have added (in my head) a framework of history that provides at least a very basic backstory. And finally, I have posted a number of entries here describing parts of the Realms that will be important early in our intended (or hoped-for) campaign.

The final piece of the puzzle is those kinds of posts that I would say fall into the category of "legends and lore". These are the very specific detailed bits that begin to breathe life into the framework that has been envisioned.

The human mind is an amazingly creative and adaptive thing. As historical miniatures gamers, model railroaders, artists, the theater, movie makers, and any number of other creative types of people know...begin to create an illusion of reality for an audience and the audience will willingly, unknowingly, create the rest for you. A suspension of disbelief. But also a filling in of gaps and a smoothing of rough edges. You just have to give them a gentle nudge in the right direction.

So the ultimate goal here, I guess, is to create those seeds that opens the door for the minds of the players to do the rest of the heavy lifting. To give that gentle nudge. To that end, posts on this blog will be focused on describing the "now", fitting that "now" into a framework of a "past", and sprinkling in some detailed bits. The very specific detailed bits are the seeds. The history and context are the soil. The audience will do the rest.

As an aside...where do the hours I can dedicate to this project come from? Basically, over the past month or two, they come from the car. More specifically, they come from the 8-10 hours per week I spend in the car commuting to and from my job. This is often dead time, spent listening to sports talk radio, classic rock, jazz on CDs, thinking about work, or whatever else strikes my fancy. Recently, whatever strikes my fancy has been the Myaran Realms. I have spent many of those recent hours in the car thinking and writing, editing, thinking, and re-writing, so that by the time I sit down in front of the computer after the kids have gone to bed, or on the weekend, I just need to type out what is already in my head and hit the "post" button. As for those hours in the car...these days this beats re-hashing an ugly Phillies season...

Smokehole Caverns and the Sunrise Guardian

Smokehole Caverns
One of the most famous dungeon locations in the Realms is Smokehole Caverns, or simply Smokehole. Smokehole is a huge complex of caves and crevasses located at the top of Sunrise Gap, the only pass through the central Tellarn Mountains. Sunrise Gap is traversed by a rugged, seldom used road that connects the High Plateau above Jasla with the kingdom of Mercia. The road would likely be a substantial trade route if it weren't for the presence of Smokehole, which dominates the road at the top of the pass.

One of Smokehole's many entrances

Smokehole gets its name from the wisps and billows of smoke and steam that routinely come venting up out of the many cave entrances and fissures in the ground, some within sight of the road. It gets its reputation from the multitude of monsters and fiends that have called the caverns home over the years. Only the strongest, and perhaps most foolhardy, caravans and travelers attempt to use the road through the pass, and many of those that do regret the decision.

The many entrances to the subterranean caverns are said to lead to hundreds of caves, caverns, chambers and even tombs stretching over miles of maze-like passages. Adventurers (those that are still alive) claim that the denizens of this underground realm include all manner of goblinoid tribes, oozes, slimes, jellies, demons, fire monsters, and a host of evil corruptions that have no name. In addition to the monstrous inhabitants, tales tell of legendary treasures to be found deep in the mountains.

Smokehole - Deep underground

Some say that the smoke and steam come from underground forges of cities of duergar and drow (dark dwarves and dark elves), while others swear that there is a river of lava that flows through the heart of the mountains deep beneath the pass. Some say both are true. Whatever the truth may be, only the bravest tempt fate by seeking to plunder the depths of Smokehole.

Over the years there have been many raids by the monsters of Smokehole, sometimes ranging as far as the borders of Mercia, almost 60 miles to the east. In return, forces from the surrounding lands have periodically been dispatched to the area in hopes of clearing the caverns, but such expeditions have been unable to achieve any lasting success. For now both the road and the surrounding area remain extremely hazardous.

The Legend of the Sunrise Guardian
In the taverns and inns of Mercia and throughout the Northlands, stories of Smokehole often go hand in hand with tales of the Sunrise Guardian. Dating back twenty years or more, there are stories of travelers in or near Sunrise Gap, beset by monsters, who unexpectedly receive the aid of a solitary hooded and cloaked figure wielding fearsome magics. This mysterious person has become known as the Sunrise Guardian, and is described as a tall figure wearing flowing dark clothes and wielding a simple carved wooden staff. Nobody has ever gotten a good look at the Guardian, who vanishes without a word after these encounters. Tavern talk speculates as to whether the Guardian is male or female, wizard or sorcerer or druid, human, elf, or some other kind of creature. Tales of the Guardian's exploits are legendary, and speak of fire and ice raining from the sky, the earth opening and crumbling from beneath the feet of pursuing monsters, and other spells of staggering power. A story currently circulating is of a trader from Jasla, last survivor of his party, who was being pursued by a giant. The trader says that a hooded and cloaked figure appeared in his path as he ran, pointed its staff at the pursuing giant, and in a commanding voice spoke a single word. He claims the giant stumbled and collapsed to the ground, untouched, dead as a stone.

The Ancients

In scattered locations throughout the Northlands, there are traces of a race that existed long before the time of the Elder Nations. These people are referred to simply as "the Ancients." Large sites are rare, but smaller ones are fairly common, and are treated with great reverence (and superstition) by the common people, some of whom regard these ancient people as some sort of mythical ancestor race.

Ancient Standing Stones

What little is left of these sites is very different in character from the remnants of the Elder nations (which is not unlike modern construction), and generally takes the form of megalithic stone structures or ruins. Typical types include standing stone formations, monolithic carved stone figures and traces of construction made of very large stone blocks. Such sites have been found throughout the Northlands, but are more common in the areas between the mountains and the eastern coast (Alsberg down through Romney).

Powerful mages who have studied these sites believe that they radiate faint traces of some sort of primal nature magic. It is said that druids are especially protective of these ancient locations, and some sages even go so far as to speculate that druidic magic as it is known in the Realms today might be related in some way to that ancient magic.

The Elder Nations

A whirlwind tour... [edited 1/7/15]

The Land of Myrveen

Onoria, greatest of the Elder nations, occupied the land roughly bordered by the Iron Spire Mountains in the east, the upper reaches of the Umbral Mountains in the south, and the Craghorn Peaks in the north. It was bordered on the west by Ithilkar. The Great North Road of today runs through the southern portion of old Onoria.

Ithilkar, Onoria's biggest rival, occupied a great swath of land west of Onoria, east of the Dragonbane Mountains, south into the lands between the Umbral Mountains and Blood Peaks, and extending far north into what is now known as the Rivenrock Wastes.

Tirask, a smaller land, was a nation a seafarers, and occupied what is now Mercia, Rimini, Alsberg and territory stretching into the High Plateau area north of the current day Kalembar Federation.

Gorlavar, a nation of savage warriors, occupied the land west of the Dragonbane Mountains and around the northern shores of the Frostreach Sea. Mirraddi now exists in what was the southeastern part of Gorlavar.

Somewhere north of Onoria and Tirask, beyond the Craghorn Peaks, was the land of the elves of Myrveen. Another elven realm, Kyrellia, existed near the Dragonbane Mountains.

The dwarven kingdom of Barak Brannar (commonly known as Aravesk), was deep within the Craghorn Peaks northeast of Onoria.

The lands between the Elder Nations and the southern kingdoms (current day Romney, Saradel, Kalembar, Varlune and Darlish) were a largely unsettled wilderness area between the two great areas of civilization. These lands began to be settled by humans, mainly along the southern coast, when the remnants of the Elder nations were driven south during the Elder Wars.

Design Notes - How Big is Big?

Something that has taken up some stray thought when building this world is the basic question of "how big should this place be?"

I would like to say that I had done most of that thinking before sitting down and scribbling drafts of maps, throwing things together in Hexographer, etc, but that's not true. As is often the case with any creative endeavor like this, I sit and scribble. Revise and scribble some more. I generally start very small and then work my way out from the middle. And things go where they go. That's pretty much what happened here. First there was the little area where I envisioned the characters starting, and a basic storyline. Then this was fit into a regional view of a basic conception of the larger picture. And finally an idea of how this region fit into the much larger world. Ideally perhaps, this creative process would work the other way around - from the outside in. Have a master plan at the highest level and work down into greater levels of detail as needed. I don't seem to think that way; I start with a seed and things grow where they grow, and go where they go.

Designing Inside-out

My "seed" area was no more than about 50 miles on a side (The Shearingvale). Then the "middle" layer was a region that grew to perhaps 750 miles wide and 1,000 miles from north to south (and is now maybe 1,200 miles on a side - The Northlands). Extensions of the outlines of the continent(s) beyond that have been sketched out, and vague ideas of what is "out there" are rattling around in my head - rattling around enough that a pretty good idea of the setting for this campaign has solidified in my mind.

Which brings me back to the question of how big this place should be. Or given the above, the more specific question I have been asking myself is "is this place big enough?"

I think the answer is "yes".  The initial anchor of this campaign is the Alsberg/Rimini/Mercia area and the Great North Road heading west through the Elder land of Onoria. Water is east, land is in the other three directions. [Odd, having been born and raised in the Philadelphia area, that the maps started at an east coast city...]. Anyway, if we take as an example a Philadelphia central point, and compare to the real world to see what those kind of distances mean, you get the following: A span of 1,200 miles from north to south goes from approximately Toronto Canada to Miami, Florida. Heading west, 500 miles gets you to Cincinnati, 800 miles gets you to St Louis, and 1350 miles gets you to Denver. So is a moderately well thought-out region that stretches from here to Toronto, to Miami, to Maine, and to St Louis enough space to play with? I think so.

And if not, there is always all that white space on the map beyond that.

Languages - The Tempest Coast

Shearingvale and the Silver Hills

There are a number of languages spoken by the human peoples of the Tempest Coast. These languages fall into three main groupings, each based on one of the older tongues spoken in centuries past. Or so say the sages.

Old Onorian was the language of the Elder nations of Onoria and Ithilkar. Salric, or Northern Common, the most widely used language in the Tempest Coast lands, is descended from Old Onorian. It is the primary language of the lands from Saradel to Alsberg and up the Greve River valley to the Shearingvale and Turil. It is a secondary language throughout the rest of the North.

Old Onorian is also the ancestor of Kalemite, the language of the Kalembar Federation, Rulia, the Longwood Vale and the High Plateau.  Kalemite is also a widely spoken second language in Saradel and Burgaresh.

Old Tirian is the ancestor of Oranthian, the primary language of the Oranthian Isles, and a secondary language in Romney and Tiencin.

The other lost Elder tongue is Old Gorlavan, the language of Gorlavar. Westreth, the language of Mirraddi and nations even further to the west, is derived from Old Gorlavan. Darlishite is also dervied from Old Gorlavan, and the sages say that there are influences of Infernal (the language of demon-kin) to be found in Darlishite. Westreth and Darlishite are close enough to allow very basic communication.

Florian, one of the ancient Inland Sea languages still in use, is the primary language of the Florian Empire (and primary and secondary in other lands), and is the ancestor of Varlan. Varlan, spoken only in the small nation of Varlune, is a dialect of Florian with Old Gorlavan influences, and is readily understandable to Florian speakers.

Sages and learned men speculate that the older tongues were already dissolving into different dialects at the time of the Elder Wars, and that the fragmentation and isolation of the survivors of the Elder nations hastened this process.

[edited 2/9/18]