Capital:
Varrthane
Population: 343,520 (41% human, 35% hobgoblin, 10% goblin, 7% Halfling, 5 % Half-Elf,
2%
Elf)
Government: Anarchy (War-time)
Religions: Gods of the Chalice, Gods of Woe, Anntaeus
Imports: Metalwork goods, glass, textiles
Exports: Grain, livestock, lumber, copper
Updated Through: 2806
In the upland moors that lay east of the river Selduin, lies
the quiet, ordered realm of Annvar. The land consists of small
towns and villages spread out across the hills and vales, engaged
largely in the raising of sheep and cattle.
For many centuries, Annvar was prostrate
under the iron rule of the priesthood of a god named Anntaeus.
The extremely rigid and spartan priesthood of Magistrates
answered to the high lawgiver known as the Consul, who was
replaced every seven years. However, the god and his priests
were a sham. They did not exist.
In the year 2798, a group of adventurers
named the Company of the Lance revealed that the priesthood
of Anntaeus was a lie created by a secretive race known as the illithids,
or mind-flayers. These foul creatures live on a diet of the
brains of humanoids. A city of illithids below the mountains
of eastern Annvar had created the sham religion as a means to
control the surface population and provide a steady supply of
slaves. With some small aid from the Elven Court of Celendor, the
Company of the Lance led a rebellion against the illithids in
their capitol of Ulairus.
Though the priesthood of Anntaeus is largely
gone, and the illthids are now no more than one power among many,
the war rages on. Individual cities vie for supremacy, and
several hobgoblin warlords from Carhallas have brought their
warbands into the area.
The Sunstones
The wealth of Annvar is not only in its highly-prized cattle,
but in its mines, from which are taken silver, iron, and the
golden-hued semi-precious gems known as sunstones. Sunstones are
very popular throughout Vatheria as both jewelry and currency, and
the trade in them has made the merchants of Annvar wealthy and
welcome in many lands. The Consul was said to carry a sunstone the
size of a human fist as his badge of office.
HISTORY
Annvar is a relatively new nation, having emerged from a
collection of scattered cities and towns just over one hundred
years ago. The region was a sparsely-settled part of the Conorrian
Empire until the arrival of the Vaul tribes in the 23rd century.
The weakened empire was forced to accept the Vaul as an allied
client state, rather than as the refugees they truly were, and the
plain of Annvar was never again wholly under Conorrian control.
The Vaul became farmers in the Conorrian vein, and soon assumed
most of the cultural identity of the Conorrians, except for their
own notions of rulership, which came not from tradition and law,
but from power and strength. They believed that the strongest
should lead, and that others should follow or die. Thus the Vaul
tribes who were to become the Annvarians subjected themselves to
centuries of internecine struggle for control, while their best
and most ambitious left to become generals and even emperors in
Conorria.
By the 27th century, the Vaul had blended with
lesser tribes and with the native Conorrians of the region to
become the Annvarians. Their constant struggle against the
goblinoid tribes of the Tarrakas mountains to the east and the
ancient power of the Celendor elves to the west made them a
strong, vigorous people in war, but divided and slowly dying. Into
this chaos came Ecthevorn, self-proclaimed prophet of a new god,
Anntaeus. Ecthevorn’s philosopy appealed to the strength-loving
Vaul, and they soon rallied to this new religion and nation. Their
farmer-armies, lead by priests of Anntaeus, drove out the
marauding bands of orcs and hobgoblins, and established a new
border with the proud elves through astute diplomacy. Ecthevorn
became the first consul, and ruled for twenty-one years. After his
death, it was decided that all future consuls would reign for only
seven years.
In 2726, Annvar went to war for only the second time, this time
against the nation of Pelendur, where it was badly defeated at the
battle of the Harrow Pass. After the war, there was a brief
uprising by Annvarians living along the Pelendur border, but these
were put down by the Magistrates and the leaders severely
punished.
In 2798, The Company of the Lance proved
that Anntaeus was a mere lie, a tool of the secretive illithids
who plotted under the fortress of Ulairus.
MAJOR POPULATION CENTERS
Varthane (Small city; population
44,000). A once neat and
orderly collection of modest buildings on the shores of Lake
Linnon, Varthane is perhaps was best known for its safety and
cleanliness. The population has swelled during the war, and many
of its inhabitants now live in squalid conditions along the
lakeshore.
Bellias (Large town; population 9,500) Bellias is a
border town, and receives most of the trade passing between Annvar
and the Empire. It is more colorful than most Annvar towns, but is
still dreary by Conorrian standards. The town holds a garrison of
three hundred soldiers whose job is mostly to keep the peace among
foreign traders new to Annvar. Most travelers stay at the Iron
Boar, a large inn, tavern and general store run by an enterprising
family of halfling merchants.
Ulairus (Illithid city; population
12,000) Once the seat of the worship of Anntaeus, Ulairus is now
revealed as merely the surface level of a city of illithids.
It is powerfully built,
capable of holding off an army with a very small force.
IMPORTANT LOCAL SITES
The Niharn Arch - One of the best-known Iridian relics,
this seventy-foot tall, forty-foot wide arch of black basalt rises
on the fertile Mardan plain, a monument to greatness past. The
arch is considered sacred by the priests of Annvar, and fierce
temple warriors keep all but the priests at bay.
The Plain of Bones - In the southwestern marches of
Annvar there is a stark, dry plain where once two mighty armies
met. Orcs and goblins filled the ranks of one, elves and men the
other. The armies battled for seven days on this remote corner of
the world, and the battle left so few alive that there were none
to bury the dead. And so one still finds, mile after mile, the
long-dead remains of those ancient warriors slowly being ground to
white dust by the winds and passage of time. Occasionally, some
object of interest or danger can be found amid the bones. On
moonlit nights, the untended souls of the dead wander this region,
and so the living avoid it. |
