LORDS OF THE EARTH CAMPAIGN 54
"LORDS OF THEEURTH"

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I am driven by my longing,
And my understanding urges
That I should commence my singing,
And begin my recitation.
I will sing the people's legends,
And the ballads of the nation.
To my mouth the words are flowing,
And the words are gently falling,
Quickly as my tongue can shape them,
And between my teeth emerging....

Let us clasp our hands together,
Let us interlock our fingers;
Let us sing a cheerful measure,
Let us use our best endeavors,
While our dear ones hearken to us,
And our loved ones are instructed,
While the young ones are standing round us,
Of the rising generation,
Let them learn the words of magic,
And recall our songs and legends,
Of the belt of Väinämöinen,
Of the forge of Ilmarinen,
And of Kaukomieli's swordpoint,
And of Joukahainen's crossbow:
Of the utmost bounds of Pohja,
And of Kalevala's wide heathlands.

The Kalevala 1:110, 2136

1) Almost certainly, you will see a big jump in the number of Wizard units in your capital.  This is intentional.  The GM has finally gotten a handle on how such QR's are costed.

2) The theoretical maximum you can slave raid from a 1 GPv uncultivated area with 0 public works is 0.2.  That rounds down to zero.  Every time. Raids are for rich regions.  Otherwise, they cost you far more money than you make.

3) READ THIS! As the past newfaxes have demonstrated, the High Forest is simply a place of death to armies.  It will eat any army you send in, no roll.  Don't go there, as I won't save any more armies from themselves. The same is true of the Aldwood  near the Skane Jarldoms.

4) THIS TOO! From now on, a spell will NOT be cast unless you list the school and rank of the spell with the order.  I've spent -way- too much time searching for this information turn after turn. 

MEDARHOS -

North-Western Medarhos -

The Skane Jarldoms -  Ruler - King Bjarnalf Capital - Vanaheim Dominant Race - Human

The Kingdom of Tirgonia -
Ruler - King Gareth
Capital - Tirgon
Dominant Race - Human
Diplomacy - Deleos [NT]

The heroes of Tirgonia turned their tired feet towards home.  Daerond, their most ancient and dire foe, lay in smoking ruins.  The well-deserved fate of an evil people, ruled by despicable tyrants. Settlers were moving into the Greenwood and into the empty fields of Nivaan. Villages founded by retiring soldiers were popping up all along the via brythnia. King Gareth and his army prepared to return to Tirgon. In Nivaan,an arrow in the dark caught General Maxim in cheek, shattering the bones of his face.  The assassin was not found, and the general was carried, alive but in terrible pain, in a carriage as the army returned to the north.  Lord Trevor was left behind to guard the new settlements in Nivaan with a thousand men. Before he left Nivaan, Gareth was found

dazed and addled in his tent.  An examination by the court wizards showed that an evil spell had been cast at the king, but the wizard pronounced that the spell had failed and that the king would be fine in a few hours.  And so he was.

Prince Marcus and the wounded Maxim stopped their march at Duncrannoch,where Marcus took command of five thousand troops to guard the via brythnia and the invasion routes from the south.  Prince Canoarch died of a sudden heart attack during the long march home.  King Gareth and the rest of his army moved on to Tirgon, where the stately parade planned in his honor quickly devolved into a wild celebration in the streets.

Amidst all this revelry, Lord Parcilus departed quietly on a small ship for the Mahadran Islands. In Deleos he used the shattering victory over the Daerons (who unbeknownst to all, it now appeared, had ruled Deleos in secret for some years) to cement an agreement to recognize the King in Tirgon as their overlord.

It was while the attention of the Tirgonians was turned to all these many things that their true danger approached, unlooked-for, from the east. In the summer of 2847,a large army spilled down out of the Edgemoor mountains and into the Purple Hills.  Thousands of orcs from the Edgemoor tribes marched into the hills and began a systematic slaughter The Edgemoor army swept the halfling defenders of the Purple Hills before them, capturing many as slaves and seizing gold, women and livestock.

Realizing that his five thousand men stood no chance against such a force, Prince Marcus remained at Duncrannoch and decided to guard the via Brythnia, supporting his liege if possible.  After subduing the halflings, the allies simply ignored them and marched across the river into Aré, determined to fight the Tirgonian army.  Aré soon fell to their total control.

THE TIRGONIAN WAR
(2847-2850)

Tirgonian King Gareth could afford to ignore barbarians in the Purple Hills, but in the breadbasket of Aré.  His army of nearly thirteen thousand soldiers, including six thousand heavy cavalry, marched south in the summer of 2848. Confident in the invincibility of his troops, King Gareth marched them into Aré.  In the broad plains north of the river, the Tirgonians could use their cavalry to far greater effect than in the narrow, twisting valleys of the Purple Hills.  What a disaster that would have been!

What Gareth and his knights found in Aré was not entirely what their scouts had reported, however.  The two armies met in a patchwork of fields forty miles northwest of the city of Sirion. The menacing orcish armies were as expected, eleven thousand infantry and goblin archers arrayed in bristling masses of serrated metal and yellowed tusks.  But beside them stood another, unlooked-for army, made up of thousands of dismal, gaunt creatures, the hollow-eyed animate corpses of former soldiers from a dozen nations and eras. Behind them, in rank upon rank of glittering, bejeweled armor marched the army of Ascarlon. The orcs had brought allies, and between them they numbered nearly nineteen thousand. The Edgemoor/Ascarlon allies, though they had heavy cavalry of their own, were largely comprised of infantry and light infantry, including four thousand Ascar elite troops and

another two thousand utterly fearless shambling dead.  The allies had some weaknesses: fractiousness in the ranks between the two armies, two distinct languages hampering the flow of intelligence and orders, and the long Ascar supply train.  But what the allies did have was a true galaxy of heroic leaders.  The great military genius and sorcerer Baron Gauros the Arisen was, ironically, the least of the allied generals.  Kron the Brilliant was no idle boaster - he was simply the greatest orc general in generations.  Both generals paled besides the insight, creativity and sheer luck of the joint commander, Cambyses.  The Tirgonian king was a solid tactician, but he was far outclassed by each of the three allied generals.

Once had absorbed the shock of being outnumbered, King Gareth rallied his men.  He had, after all, nearly a three to one advantage in cavalry.  These he now threw forward to break the Orcish/Ascar lines.  The awesome charge of the massed Tirgonian knights swept through the allies like a spearpoint.  But though the goblin archers routed, the allied infantry held their ground, and the shambling dead clung to the horses even in after being cut in half by cavalry sabers.

For a clash of such large numbers, the battle was distressingly short.  With the charge of the Tirgonians blunted, the fighting soon degenerated into a general melee with no quarter asked nor given. In the end, the superior numbers and generalship of the allies won out and the Tirgonians broke and ran for the Crown Lands.  King Gareth was forced to flee with his men.  After four months of regrouping in his homeland, he was able to salvage just over six thousand soldiers from the debacle. The allied victory was great, but not without significant cost.  More than three thousand orcs and Ascars lay dead upon the field. Eager to be about their planned destruction, the allies did not deign to spend months regrouping.  The had taken a few thousand Tirgonian soldiers as slaves.

It was then that the true terror began for Tirgonia.  Having defeated the Tirgonian army, the allies began to dismantle the apparatus that fed the Tirgonian people.  The Ascars remained in Aré; the faster orcs marched on into Bekanor, where they soon pacified the small peasant resistance there. Then the allied armies did the unthinkable.  They proceeded to slash and burn the vast farms whose abundant produce fed the teeming millions of the Tirgonian cities.  What wealth they could carry away, they took and the rest they ground into the billowing dust.  They even tore up the new Tirgonian royal roads. Finished with sparse Bekanor, the orcs marched into The Crown Lands, which King Gareth had now fortified in defense.  The Ascars instead proceeded to enslave the population of Aré.

Without their Ascar allies, the orcs were a less formidable foe, or so it seemed.  Now numbering some nine thousand, they still outnumbered the Tirgonians, but had none of Ascarlon's magic or cavalry.  Determined not to allow his homeland to be destroyed as Aré and Bekanor had been, King Gareth stood and fought.  And fought.  In an epic series of clashes across the breadth of the Crown Lands, the two armies grappled and slashed at each other, neither able to destroy the other.  The brilliant tactics of Kron proved his name to be no mere affectation, but they only just managed to keep his outclassed troops in the fight.  Nonetheless, the morale of both armies was very high, and neither could break the other over the course of two months.  Despite his greater troop strength, Gareth at last realized that Kron could afford to lose his whole army, whereas he, Gareth, was not willing to suffer the same losses.  Reluctantly, he retreated his army to the safety of Tirgon's walls and regrouped his losses.  By the end of 2850, his army numbered some five thousand troops.  With no time left in the season to scorch the earth of the Crown Lands, Kron instead regrouped his forces and waited.

In the last months of 2850, the Ascars marched to the Crown Lands to reinforce their orcish allies, with thousands of Tirgonians slaves in tow.

Nor was this the full extent of the doleful fate of Tirgonia, for while these great events unfolded, another, smaller orcish force under Krag the Handsome was raiding the Tirgonian hinterlands.  Over the course of three years, Krag and his six hundred goblins raided Tigelion, Aonach, Sothwall, Sothwood, Estwilde and the Ormswood.  Only at Sothwall was he prevented from successfully carrying away a great store of goods, because of the many field forts in the region.

As a final injury, assassins broke into the villa of the recovering General Maxim at Duncrannoch in 2849 and murdered the recovering conqueror in his sickbed. For good measure, they slew his family, servants and livestock as well.

The Harkorian League -
Ruler - General Alexeos
Capital - Cadares
Dominant Race - Human

propose to them.  Not yet satisfied, the First Citizen promulgated a list of prominent (or sometimes merely wealthy) citizens, ordering that they be arrested and their homes, estates, jewels and holdings be confiscated in the name of the state. A few of these were exiled to Vaanes or Naxarius, but a great many were publicly executed for various crimes, most often "Heresy", "Collusion with Enemy" and "Conspiracy against the League".  By 2850, the Council was packed wholly with Alexeos' clients and friends and the Harkorian League had become a very dangerous place in which to express a political opinion.

Life for Alexeos himself was quite happy, as might be expected.  His villa on the cliffs above the Ghostwash became the de facto  capital, and was adorned with gifts from across the League.  The First Citizen had his choice of noblewomen, and married a healthy, sharp-witted woman from an impeccable family.  She dutifully provided the great man with a pair of sons.

Alexeos asked Councillor Joris to govern the capital for him, and the preening young man took to the office with great relish.  Joris regarded the office more as a license to tax foreign merchants and develop his own patronage to the point that even the frightened citizens of Cadares began to speak out in the Grand Plaza.  Alexeos, still the hero of Landegol and favorite of the mob, could not stand by forever while his protege angered that very mob.  Thus in 2848, the First Citizen very publicly castigated Joris and stripped him of his rank and numerous valuable offices.  Furious, Joris left the city vowing revenge.

Councillor Lysandros of Maxis died in 2846 during a training accident in the lists.

The Edgemoor Orcs -
Ruler - Corash the Brave
Capital - Zaramaka
Dominant Race - Orcs

South-Western Medarhos -

The Brythnian Confederation -  Ruler - Queen Rhea Capital - Carrenthium Dominant Race - Taurid

Queen Rhea took a consort from a good family and soon foaled two sons and a daughter.  As dissatisfaction over religious controversy swept through taurid society, two normally opposing forces combined to have the same effect.  On the one hand, most of the Brythnian nobility were staunch supporters of the old religion and moved to strengthen its institutions with draconian local laws.  This miscalculation led to a strong backlash as the common taurids began to identify the spirit idols and shrines with oppressive rule.  A wave of anti-religious sentiment gripped the Brythnian people. At the same time, the Grail Primacy and Conorrian Empire sent scholars, preachers and doctors of the Church into the tribes, where they began to question the very philosophical underpinnings of the Spirit Cults.  These two forces combined to drastically reduce the religious fervor of the taurids for the ancient religion. As the cultivation of the Great Meadow slowly approached its end, it seemed that this wealthy Grail-worshiping region would soon become a land of settled farms and agriculture, and its people sent an emissary to the Bishop of Carrenthium, demanding that he dispatch to them priests who would set up churches in their new hamlets. Meanwhile, Lady Megeira marched east across the Lyodan river to Itherias, where she and her five thousand troops (mixed centaurs and minotaurs) patrolled the hills until the orcish raids.

In late 2847, the Worldspine Orcs thundered into the Dacian Hills.  Megeira and queen Rhea allowed them to rampage for several months while the two taurid armies met up at Tathlann and then drove into the hills to confront the orcs (See The Worldspine Orcs, below). After the orcish battle, Megeira went back to Itherias until 2850, when her army retired to the Brythnian side of the Lyodan river.

Aelissia - Ruler - King Kendall Lowtide Capital - The Great Delve Dominant Race - Halfling

deliver fresh drinking water from to the city direct from Lake Limnea, over twenty miles away.

In 2850, King Marvin Fatfish died at the age of fifty-one.  There was very little doubt about whom the Moot would appoint to succeed him, and in due course Kendall Lowtide was crowned king of Aelissia.

Corland - Ruler - King Tancred Capital - Khairais Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Lilloger [FA], Derandime [FA], The Cavadhe [T}

The Kingdom of Corland, once driven nearly to destruction by the har'keen of H'rethek, continued to rally and rebuild their lands.  Colonists surged into Serry and Votois, taking up ownership of the fields and farms that had lain fallow for so long. Rangers and frontiersmen began to set up camps and tiny hamlets within the woods of Andelais along the post road to Rhavais. King Tancred called eight hundred heavy cavalry to his service in Khairais, where he also named his brother Bohemund as his heir and successor in an elaborate ceremony, complete with parade and large fair where knights jousted in a tourney for prizes and glory. Thereafter, Bohemund governed the capital while the king ruled the kingdom. Three powerful Corish lords spread out across the land on diplomatic missions.

In Lilloger and Derandime, Lords Balgar and Phillip cajoled the old loyalties back into life by offering to marry the lords' daughters to Tancred and Bohemund.  The lords of those regions accepted and swore feudal oaths of fealty to the king.  The third expedition was somewhat stranger.  Lord Roger traveled into the trackless mires of the Cavadhe to create an alliance with the sauruses who dwelt within the dismal swamp.  He was astonished to find that they were not savages, but were in fact devout worshipers of the Lords of the Grail (albeit in nearly unrecognizable guises and forms) and indeed could communicate in thickly-accented Corish. The king of all the Cavadhe tribes agreed to pay a tribute to the King of Corland.

In 2849, Gwendolyn of Tullieres, mother of Tancred, Bohemund and Fredemund, wife of old king Armand, died at the age of sixty-two.

 

The Sea Empire of Lorraine - Ruler - Emperor Mordred Capital - Armorica Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Sadok [FA]

The terrible Dinan War begun five years ago exploded into an incredible orgy of violence and destruction. Old King Artorius (now eighty-one years old!) rode out of Armorica at the head of a mighty army to do battle with the fell orcs of Dines. Forty-four thousand men and elves marched behind the king, flying the banners of Lorraine, Neldorea, the Llyran Republic and the Great Church. They included some six thousand mercenaries, two thousand Paladins of the Grail, two thousand Lorraine Marines, six Llyran skyships and eight Llyran Skyskiffs. and eight thousand Elite Elven Archers. Pausing only long enough for the Elven general and sorceress Senelra to cloak her elves in runes of power, Artorius marched north into Howel. However, such a glorious host was not fated to be.  On the second night of the march, the Lady Senelra was found missing and her bodyguards slain.  Their bodies were torn to pieces, riven by some unknown force. Lacking any other leader, the Neldorean elves refused to serve further and marched south, ending their march in Malidisant, outside of Cassivelaunus, waiting for elven ships to come.

Still determined to mete out punishment for the raids of his lands, King Artorious soldiered on without his elvish allies.  His overconfidence was his undoing.  Equally eager to avenge the deaths of their brethren, fifty thousand orcs marched swiftly south behind their general, Zazog. The two armies met in the woods of Howel and without ceremony, flung themselves at each other in mutual hatred and fury. The allies had every advantage but numbers. Fine leaders, powerful sorcerers, and elite units, but they sorely missed the power of Neldorea's seventeen thousand elves. Despite those advantages, Artorius blundered, allowing the orcish host to take his marching army in the flanks. The orcish heavy infantry charged screaming out of the trees as the light infantry rained darts down on the humans. The Llyran airships were badly encumbered by the presence of the trees. A counter-charge by the brave paladins blunted the orcish advance, but only long enough to allow Artorius to shore up his crumbling lines. The king ordered the most difficult of all military maneuvers, a fighting withdrawal. The allies did manage to pull back from the orcs and retreat

towards Andred, but only at terrible cost. Three months later, when the scattered allied soldiers had at last regrouped near the capital, they numbered only twelve thousand.

Zazog and his orcs were not willing that the humans who had refused their demands of tribute should get away so lightly.  So, in the fall of 2846, forty-two thousand orcs came streaming into the fair green fields of Andred, burning, raping and looting as they came. They destroyed  several small forts until the human army met them at the field of Landric Mews. This battle was not nearly as close-fought as had been the melee in Howel.  Although the Lorrainers were fightingstubbornly for their farms and homeland, the numbers of the orcs proved too telling. The Llyran airships harried the orcish flanks while the orcs hurled themselves forward in terrifying waves of blood-crazed warriors. Myrddin drew upon the power of the land to confound the attackers, and the king was everywhere, inspiring on the defenders with The Red Mace. 

This was when Zazog himself appeared, surrounded by his personal bodyguard. Cut off from aid, the old white-haired king roared his challenge and swung the Red Mace around him, felling orcs like wheat while his lieutenants tried to rescue him. Though the two kings, man and orc, met in battle, it was a black-shafted arrow that killed Artorius, catching him in the throat and carrying him beyond the reach of Zazog's vengeance. With the king dead, the men of Lorraine broke and ran, followed by the dismayed Grail troops and mercenaries. Artorius's body was lost, as was the Red Mace. No man saw the fate of Myrddin, but the legendary wizard never returned to the knowledge of men. The orcs pursued their quarry, cutting them off from retreat into the city of Armorica, hounding the survivors and felling them in large groups and small, in field, farm and streambed.  The human armies were crushed and scattered. Prince Mordred survived the battle by hiding in a swampy bog.  Sir John of Lothian and Lord Moorg of Persant both fell in battle.  Bishop Constantikos of the Grail was wounded in the thigh and cheek.  Constans Marova of the Llyran Republic died as his burning flagship crashed into a copse of trees. As his rightful due, Zazog took the folk of Andred into slavery and burned the fields and towns of the region.  From just beyond bowshot of the walls of Armorica, he demanded tribute or promised to return in four years and level the city and other soft lands of men.

When reinforcements from the Grail Patriarch arrived in 2848, all they could do was survey the destruction with dismay from within the walls of Armorica.

Inheritor of a wounded kingdom, Prince Mordred was crowned king of Lorraine. This was done in the Cathedral of Armorica in a ceremony presided over by Bishop Constantikos (whom some called the rightful Emperor of Conorria). Mordred was not to hold his kingdom in peace, however. Sir Morgan accused him of cowardice, claiming that when his father was surrounded at Dines, Mordred had refused to go to his aid. The country rose in rebellion against the new king. Lothian, Launds, Nabon, Persant and Malidisant all forswore Mordred's rule. Sir Morgan tried to rally the tiny city garrisons against the king, but Mordred, ever the astute student of power, seized Morgan's wife and family, holding them hostage against Morgan's good behavior. The cities backed Mordred and Morgan was forced to sue for pardon. Most observers were astonished when Mordred granted Morgan that pardon.

Almost unnoticed in all of this was the expedition of Dalarose of the Lonely Tower to the land of Sadok, where the great orator cajoled the orcs into not only repudiating Zazog's regime, but into swearing fealty to the king in Armorica.

Now head of a troubled realm, Mordred announced that Lorraine was no longer merely a kingdom. It was an empire...the Sea Empire of Lorraine.
 

The Neldorean Wood - Ruler - Queen Nereil Capital - Elenuil Dominant Race - Elf

Queen Nereil drafts six thousand elven archers into her army and makes sure that the soldiers are seen conspicuously about the city of Elenuil, removing any doubt as to their existence. Lord Taralom, after a fruitless attempt to purchase maritime charts in Ilduskan, returned to Elenuil to take up command of the archers and marched them to the Leosse Glades. Lady Senelra and her seventeen thousand elvish warriors set out to cover themselves in blood and glory in the campaign against the orcs of Dines in alliance with the Kingdom of Lorraine and the Grail Primacy. It was not to be. (See The Sea Empire of Lorraine, above.) Lord Demaroth traveled south in a tiny two-boat fleet of small ships betters suited to the quiet waters of the Lyodan than the storm-tossed coast of Vales.  Yet through luck and perseverance, he was able to chart the coast far to the south and put into the exotic port of Aqam in Sishtret, where the natives were as much astonished by the ships as by the presence on them of non-humans.

Queen Nereil

The Exarchate of the Great Crusade - Ruler - Exarch Candos Capital - Pontezium Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - South Akasia [F], The Black Fields [C]

Candos the Exarch felt the weight of his age. Although not an old man, his entire life had been spent in camp, in the saddle or in battle.  Now with one wife dead and no children, he took thought for the continuance of his line and stayed at home with his second wife.  She proved quite fertile despite her years (she was in her forties) and gave him two daughters and a son. In addition to the growth of villages across Saxetus, Querenia and South Akasia, the city of Pontezium continued to expand.  It spread out beyond its old walls established decades earlier, and eventually the locals were using stone from the walls to build new tenements along the Lyodan river.  Thousands more citizens of the Exarchate traveled south to the Salt Shore, where they began to cultivate the black soil of the windy hills. Sir Bradley traveled to the Black Fields and the rude thatched halls of the hillmen.  He spoke to them of the wealth that might be theirs once trade began to run between Conorria and the West.  Unmoved, the hill chieftains adorned themselves with Bradley's trinkets and drank his wine, but made no commitments. Bradley nonetheless read out a proclamation claiming the territory. Sir Finton had a more receptive audience in the rolling farmland of South Akasia.  The Exarchate's investments in the region had made the once-poor dirt farmers into prosperous landowners and merchants.  They eagerly accepted the offer to become full citizens of the Exarchate.

Exarchate merchants, desperate for the goods of the Conorrian Empire, attempted to establish a trade route between Rantes and Benemartius, only to discover that the troubled Empire no longer extended that far south. This caused grumbling concern among the nobility.  The Crusader States were, after all, an Exarchate of the Conorrian Empire.  Men may acknowledge the Exarch as their temporal lord, but they saw the Emperor as the gods' vice-regent on Theeurth.  If the Emperor's power no longer ran to the Exarchate's borders, was this a sign of the gods' disfavor? 

Other voices pointed out that the Thariyyan Exarchate had thrown off the yoke of the Empire decades before.  And had the gods not protected them from harm?  "So far," came the reply.  "So far."

The Holy Order of the Dawn - Ruler - Grand Master Lactantius Capital - The Akasian Hills Dominant Race - Human Order Sites - Lenicum [-], Adoria [-]

Eventually, Osulia's ravings and threats caused several of the senior knights to arrest him and deliver him to the new Grand Master. Unfortunately, the damage was done.  Sites in Anicium, Lauriacum, Mauredoc, Saxetus, Valdori, Echoriath and Callistus all rebelled against the Order.

In 2850, Daresia attempted to found an Order Houses near Fortress Hell's Gate, but spent only a few months at the effort, which proved fruitless.

Rhanalor -

The Worldspine Orcs -
Ruler - King Azog
Capital - Mount Kauroth
Dominant Race - Orc

Chief Joktar Manskinner set out from Mount Kauroth with an army of four thousand goblin raiders.  He brought with him young king Azog "to get some blooding".  Slipping through unknown routes in 2846 and 2847, they arrived out of the Cendarinne Mountains to strike into the Dacian Hills of  Brythnia.  There, they met and defeated eight hundred minotaurs under the local command of Palamon.  Joktar himself slew Palamon as the orcs overran the defenders.  After looting the hills, the orcs sent out raids into Orosel and the Brythnian Hills.  Before they could continue their ravagments, however, the combined Brythnian army arrived, ready for blood.  Queen Rhea rode at the head of eight thousand centaurs and two thousand minotaurs.  The Brythnians knew the terrain intimately, and used their huge strength to surround the orcs, driving them into a smaller and smaller perimeter, in the fashion of plains hunters pursuing elk.  Nothing orcish survived that day, with the sole exception of wily Azog, who hid under the corpses of his fellows and escaped on foot by night. Joktar was killed when a nameless minotaur berserker struck his head from his shoulders.

By the time that Azog returned to Mount Kauroth, the regent Jortak Bloodhelm was dead at the age of forty-five.  Grimly, Azog assumed the governance of his fractious people.

The Emperor Maugroth named his brother, Kargauth, a prince of the realm and his own son, also called Maugroth, to the position of heir and successor. Emperor Maugroth dug in to defend Lederata against any Conorrian attacks, building an impressive line of defenses between Colanum and Mount Cornus.  His army prepared to hold Lederata with a series of mutually-supporting fortifications and plentiful scouts. Lord Gauroth brought up fifteen hundred more reinforcements from the north, but died en route while battling a bout of dysentery.  The troops finished the march to the Emperor on their own. Meanwhile, the various feudal vassals met with their armies at Elsend, defending against any possible elvish attack from the east.  The hobgoblins were disappointed all around when neither human nor elf dared to attack the mighty Carhallas legions.

At Mount Cornus in Lederata, a hobgoblin shaman appeared holding The Staff of Fire Summoning, performing miracles and sacrificing prisoners to the fires of the mountain.

Back in Carcaroth and Khutor, the population grew restive in absence of the legions, and bread riots erupted in the Slave Quarter.  These were savagely put down, but many saw this as a mere symptom of a larger problem: a general malaise among the populace reflecting a lack of direction in hobgoblin society.  Inured to hardship and deprivation, the hobgoblins nevertheless demanded to know why the Emperor had left for foreign lands.

In 2846, Conorrian spies were caught trying to poison the Emperor's wine.  These hobgoblins had taken bribes in Conorrian gold and were given over to the priests of the Dark Court who sacrificed them on the altar of Malbor at Mount Cornus.  In the same year, the weapons of the army began to rust with an obviously arcane rapidity.  No amount of wax or polish could keep the weapons in good repair, much to the anger of the obsessively thorough Carhallas centurions.

In 2848, Carhallan troops, angry at being stationed so far from home with little opportunity for plunder and wealth, refused to follow the Emperor and staged a strike.  They remained in their camps and barracks for three days and called for the election of a new Emperor who would lead them either to glory or back to Carcaroth.  Faced with the most serious mutiny in Carhallas ranks in more than a century, Maugroth, not normally a noted speaker, made a direct appeal to the troops, riding among them without a bodyguard and appealing to their sense of honor, of order.  In an impassioned speech, the Emperor reminded them of their oaths and renewed his promise to them of blood and plunder.  Maugroth was able to control the impassioned soldiers, who renewed their oaths of loyalty, but the Emperor knew that it had been a very close call.

The Great Kingdom of Annvar - Ruler - First Councillor Voriax Capital - Varthane Dominant Race - Human

The Standard of Annvar

their homeland.  The fight was protracted and bloody, lasting for two days as the grim foresters stood off several waves of attacks by Voriax's cavalry.  The battle was not even over with the defeat of the forest warriors because when Voriax announced his intention to take their families as slaves, the ordinary folk of Aclad rose up in defiance of their oppressors.  It was several months before Voriax had quelled the uprising and rounded up the woodsmen for transport to the slave pens of Varthane.

When he returned across the Wolf, Voriax found that First Councillor Laskal was dead, having passed away after a particularly bitter winter.  Councillor Gudge was intriguing in the Council to place his own faction in command, but Voriax arrival as conquering hero put an end to that. The only obstacle to Voriax's dominance was Councillor Maras, governor of Coinde.  By a curious coincidence, word arrived at precisely that moment that Maras was in ill health and not expected to survive.  Voriax assumed the powers of First Councillor.

Celendor -
Ruler - King Elorian Mistmantle
Capital - Ennilas
Dominant Race - Elf

The Forest Realm of Meledrian -
Ruler - King Eldareth Hammerhand
Capital - Laurelindë
Dominant Race - Elf
Diplomacy - Dalariadh [F]

King Eldareth Hammerhand

Desiring more leaders through whom to wreak his will, proud king Eldareth spent a fortune in gold and manpower to improve Meledrian's already impressive bureaucracy.  The staggering expenditures did not reveal immediate benefits. The King also hired the human adventurer Nishraan the Clever to serve him. As it had for decades, the Circle of Dusk reached out with arcane tendrils to infuse the land with the fecundity of Evaless, bringing forth dark and heady fruits to feed the teeming masses of elves. Missionaries sent to preach the word of the Dark Court among the humans of the Wolf River delta were mercilessly slain by the fierce Serriku cultists. King Eldareth decided to start a new dynasty for Meledrian, and summoned his allies to him at Dalariadh, where they wooed the heads of the chief families by day and the daughters of those same families by night.  Finally, Eldareth married a raven-haired beauty of the Vaelam clan, most powerful family in Dalariadh.  With her father's weight behind the king, the city declared its full allegiance to Eldareth and Laurelindë. Prince Namardil governed the capital, while Lords Balan and Cerelindas governed in Dalariadh and Narbyndahl, respectively.  Namardil continued to distinguish himself as an outstanding administrator, as the city continued to grow in wealth and majesty. Like the hobgoblins of Carhallas, the elves of Meledrian seemed to suffer from a .

sort of cultural malaise, indulging themselves in dark and forbidden pleasures, but taking little interest in productive work, philosophy or sorcery.

The Conorrian Heartland -

The Conorrian Empire - Ruler - Emperor Saxonius I Capital - Echoriath Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Conorr [-], Mynos [-], Isurium [C], Flavium[-], Eatris [C]

Meanwhile, Kaius took command of the army at Ganthus Longa and retreated southwards down the via esharium to Borophoros and the city of Adamos. Here, met by Senator Cyril, four thousand new cavalry and four thousand mercenaries hired by the Great Church, Kaius formed a defensive line looking northwards. They were joined by Llyran bishop Renzukki and a powerful contingent of a dozen Llyran skyships and four Llyran Skyskiffs.

In the west, Prince Saromanios traveled to Conorr in order to convince the residents of the Holy City to return to the Empire. At the same time, the Patriarch gave Saromanios the loan of the holy relic known as The Gold Coin of Ulon. Saromanios, however, was to establish a pattern of Conorrian diplomacy that was to bedevil the empire across its length.  Hurried, and evidently eager to be on to his next post, the Prince did not at all impress the Conorrians, and they refused further entanglements with the empire that bore their name. Saromanios died in Mynos in 2848. This same hasty and unsuccessful pattern was repeated by Senator Basilikos at Sexaginta and by Bishop Delos at Isurium and Flavium. The mercenary Melial represented the Empire in the province of Eatris, but was not truly able to engage the Eatrids (who desired more money, or at least a royal marriage).

The mercenary leader Angamon disappeared from his villa at Anicium one night.  A report from the army vigiles indicates that Angamon had received foreign visitors a few days before, and that he had left with all his possessions and a covered wagon.

In 2847, the imprisoned former Empress Anna Comnena escaped from captivity in the Maiden's Tower.  Divinations have revealed that she fled south with her liberators.

In that same year, a few crops suddenly wilted in Adoria, but nothing major.

In 2848, a new and unexpected enemy poured across the Esharias river.  The nine-thousand man army of Accolon, with Warlock Emperor Jozan in command, ferried across the river just above the delta and seized control of Autricum, destroying the many field forts that dotted the landscape. Almost immediately, Senators Kaius and Cyril turned their army, twice the size of the Accolon force, south to intercept.

The two forces met in the now-charred fields outside of Adamos.  Twenty thousand Conorrians and mercenaries against nine thousand Accolon soldiers.  The Conorrians enjoyed a clear majority not only in numbers, but in numbers of cavalry.  The Accolonids enjoyed several advantages, however.  They were laden over with a great number of spells, making their leader's voice easily heard across the battlefield and their steel weapons incredibly sharp. More than half of their army was elite, and the Warlock named Khatib called upon the spirits of earth and water to hamper the enemy at every turn. 

But it was the betrayal of the mercenaries that truly turned the tides of battle.  Just as the Senators were about to give the signal to attack, they were startled to hear the alarums upon their flank.  Their own mercenaries were attacking the Conorrians! Quick to follow up this  stroke of perfidy, the Accolonids charged the milling Conorrians and began to slaughter them in their own camp.  The Conorrian army broke and ran, routing across field and forest with the mercenaries and Accolonids hot on their heels. Eleven thousand Conorrians returned to their camp in Borophoros.

Emperor Jozan restrained his army from pursuing the larger Conorrian force beyond the borders of rich Autricum.  Instead, he ordered his men to strip everything of worth from the province and burn the fields, the Grail Abbey and the Order House of the Order of the Dawn.  This they did, then retreated back across the Esharias, heading south with eight thousand soldiers, a thousand slaves and many  boxes of loot. 

The Great Church of the Lords of the Grail - Ruler - Patriarch Calidonus Holy City - Conorr Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Phalces [MN], Dhûnazhar [MN], Jaelitus [CH]

The Patriarch's Standard

Patriarch Calidonus traveled to Dhûnazhar to retrieve the four thousand Grail troops there and deliver them to Khedem-Var at Adoria.  He then returned to Conorr, where he used the Church's enormous prestige to demand a tithe from the war-ravaged nation of Tirgonia (that nation, however, was far beyond the Great Church's effective reach. He loaned The Gold Coin of Ulon, a holy relic, to Conorrian Prince Saromanios at Mynos.  Saromanios died shortly thereafter, leaving the Coin among his possessions.

Bishop Telerus remained in Phalces in the Valesian Empire and founded a powerful monastery there. Bishop Tantalus expired at the age of seventy-four while attempting to establish a church in Khafour. Bishop Agathon sailed around the eastern Valesian Sea, acquiring transport ships, then delivered three thousand reinforcements to Prince Constantikos in Lorraine.  He took command of Constantikos's naval force and returned to Conorr. Bishop Kadmus traveled to Dhûnazhar, where he blessed an monastery deep under the mountains, lit by clever light shafts and mirrors and dominated by a sect devoted to Calandra.

Prince Constantikos joined Artorius of Lorraine and Senelra of Neldorea in opposition to the Dines Orc Horde (See The Sea Empire of Lorraine, above).

Mercenary captains Khedem-Var and Angamon commanded the Grail and Conorrian garrisons at Adoria.  Angamon slipped away with his pay early in 2846, apparently bribed by another nation. 

The Great Church of the Grail had been enthusiastic in its establishment of sites far beyond its actual ability to control.  These now began to break away or fade in power. The Monasteries in Carrenthium and Khelem Vala degraded to Abbeys, while the churches in Morthales, Tathlann, The Great Meadow, Mauredoc, Saxetus, Querenia, The Akasian Hills, the Salt Shore, Phaedon, Annathel, Lethinan and Veromito all faded completely from the power of the Great Church.

The Dwarven Realm of Dhûnazhar - 
Ruler - King Valand Dragonsbane
Capital - Khelem Vala
Dominant Race - Dwarf
Diplomacy - Jaelitus [F], Khuruk Tor [T]

worshiping human tribes, and tried to spread the love of the Lords of the Grail.  But the Adumites viewed the stocky evangelists with humorous contempt, and jeered them as weaklings, hiding behind the skirts of soft goddesses. 

Prince Thorin, heir to the throne, governed the city of Khelem Vala, but the youth dreamed of war, not administration, and paid little heed to his office, instead engaging in titanic bouts of drinking, wrestling and whoring. His sister Thorinna, along with lords Balin and Fundin, traveled to Khuruk Tor to reestablish old ties with the northern clans.  Those clans welcomed the king's representatives and agreed to pay an annual tribute for the common defense, and gifted the emissaries with glittering axes and clothes woven of cloth-of-gold.

Moragh, lord of Dianoxis (a Dhûnazhar ally) traveled to Adoria with a tiny four-hundred dwarf army to aid the defense.

King Gregor founded a number of villages in the fair fields of Naugrias, granting the residents the right to elect mayors (though these were subsidiary to the king's reeves). The villages were centers of trade for the outlying farms, much of whose produce eventually made its way to the markets of Eidolon. The King and his court then embarked on an unfortunate cycle of "Conorrian Diplomacy".  That is, breezing through a region or city with hasty diplomatic overtures and then moving on to the next, leaving the disgruntled inhabitants feeling something rather less than respected.  The king did manage to exact a treaty of tribute from the elves of Draconium, but the Luecomagus hill tribes rescinded their agreement to allow the passage of trade.  Lord Forrester's swift passage through Iaurinum had the same result, and in Vindobala, his arrogant manner so offended the woodsmen, that they threatened his life should he return.  Graceful and diplomatic, Lady Chanrey's hurried diplomacy nonetheless left the Othonans cold.  She did manage to negotiate a feudal agreement with Magrod, however.

VALES -

North-Western Vales -

The Llyran Republic -
Ruler - Constans Hermione
Capital - Tarrentica
Dominant Race - Human
Diplomacy - Halianis [A]

The Holy Matriarchy of Ahuran -  Ruler - Queen Rhia Moonshadow Capital - Sedeskan Dominant Race - Human
Despite her war with the dragon Sirrush, Queen Rhia ordered that the hills of Rarram be cleared for cultivation.  Uncertainly, thousands of sturdy peasants made their way from outlying provinces into the region to begin felling trees and laying out the outlines of future farms. Agents sent out to find the dragon came back with a startling report - he could not be found.  The caverns once suspected as his lair were bare and empty (though evil-smelling). Lady Dawn Wolfkin led an expedition to find the great beast, but reported back to the queen after more than a year that Sendorin seemed to be an abandoned waste. The Queen ruled Ahuran from her throne in mist-shadowed Sedeskan, and bore two sons and a daughter.  The birth of her daughter in 2848 was both difficult and dangerous, leaving the queen bed-ridden for more than a month.  Her doctors warned her not to have another.

Lucille, Landress of Haalthor, continued her war against the Fleshweaver cult, locating and eradicating a cultic lodge in Lann.  The cultists were brought to trial in Mahaaran, and the leaders were beheaded.  The rest were sold into slavery in Lann's vast farms. Lucille was captured and nearly executed during the raid, but was retrieved by the daring of her troops.

Har'akir - Ruler - Sultan Shazanon Alouda Capital - Mar Awas Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Husen [EA], Dikhil [A]

This was a period of building for Har'akir.  Building of colonies and building of alliances. Sultan Shazanon ruled from the throne in Mar Awas, reorganizing the merchant shipping of the nation, although he remained frustrated at the continued lack of trade with the Conorrian Empire and fretted that the long interruption meant that the renewed trade, when it finally came, would be far less robust than before. Under Shazanon's direction, Har'akiran settlers also moved into the Adramagdus mountains and the towering peaks of the Kedit Wall. Prince Abu Bahar journeyed from Damo to the elvish lands of Husen, and convinced the elf-prince of Husen to sign a treaty of economic alliance with Mar Awas. Prince Schariar traveled through Luxur by barge up the mighty Artaxes River, dodging Luxurite patrols to arrive at Patu on the Lethes river, where he tried to deliver a large chest to servants of the King of Drormt.  Instead, those servants captured Schariar and held him prisoner in a mud-covered pit for two years until he was seized by the army of Luxur which captured the city in 2848. Lord Nooldor sailed out from Agazier to the forests of Dikhil on the Crimson Coast and negotiated a treaty of alliance with the forest-men there.

In 2848, Favoud, grandmother of Shazanon, died in her sleep.  An impressive state funeral dominated the life of the capital for a week, and all the city's many balconies and spires were draped in black.

The Valesian Empire - Ruler - Primarch Centorius II, Euristis Capital - Centauris Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Thymene [A]
The Primarch recruited two thousand elite Valesian Hoplites and transferred the command to his brother Achmaenus.  Achmaenus promptly died of heat stroke on the drill field, leaving the recruits as part of the Ventas garrison. The Primarch granted his nephew Prince Diomedes the rank of heir and successor, ignoring his own sons Cassius and Benevento.  At this, Benevento rebelled, declaring himself the rightful heir.  When Centorius's soldiers came to Benevento's villa to arrest him, he fled by night and his whereabouts are unknown. The ttangled woods of Thymene were tamed at last, and the entire region fell under cultivation.  The halflings of Pylus sent a delegation to Centorius, respectfully asking

 him to help them cultivate their own province.

Lord Ajax traveled to the villages and hamlets of Thymene, speaking at fairs and waymeets, arguing the benefits that Valesian citizenship brought.  The prince of Thymene did not yet agree to such a plan, but did become close with Ajax, and signed a treaty of alliance with the Empire.

Meanwhile, Davion of Euristi died in 2848, leaving the entirety of his realm to the Emperor.

Luxur -
Ruler - General Lyansys
Capital - Thedelos
Dominant Race - Sathla

The Holy See of Udjo - Ruler - Arch Priest Pysus Holy City - Merwal Dominant Race - Sathla Diplomacy - Habu [CH], Badar [-]

The Iron Scale Temple of Habu, before its destruction

The Arch Priest worked to re-establish a church in Habu after the ravages of the Drormt invasion.  He also blessed the Luxurite armies going to punish that atrocity.  In the warm blessing of Udjo, the soldiers found their swords to be sharp and their hearts filled with bravery. Lord Diviagri marched with the Luxurite armies, equipped with a large iron chest borne by six silent brothers of the Holy See.  (See The Steaming Kingdom of Drormt, below).  After his death, he was replaced in the hierarchy by Zurzthes-Li, the Holy Girl who years before had declared her vision of Udjo and so enthralled the crowds of Thedelos.

The Serpentine of Mykele -
Ruler - Sauressh Markessh
Capital - Oroyon
Dominant Race - Sathla

diplomat and ex-adventurer, struck up a friendship with the new sauressh and agreed to work for Mykele.

North-Eastern Vales -

The Kingdom of Thariyya - Ruler - King Mogrihan Vahdin Capital - Uls Fakhar Dominant Race - Halfling Diplomacy - Naushqa [C]

The kingdom completed the population of Vahdin, where fig and apple orchards and stands of cedar stretched for mile after mile.  Nestled in between were the domed burrows of the Small Folk, content in their prosperous isolation. Cautious...almost paranoid, the halflings watched the borders and protected their leaders.  Many thought that the Airnim were poised to strike at the peninsular kingdom, but emissaries to the Horse Lords found that they had decamped from Naushqa and Habel. Whither they had gone, no man could say. Old Sezir Vahdin, who discovered this fact, died of shock and joy in 2846. King Mogrihan and his brother Zarahan remained in Uls Fakhar, seeing carefully to the kingdom's business.

Beneasis Al-Oghram, the Admiral of the Thariyyan navy, died at sea in 2848.  His body was returned to Uls Fakhar for a full state funeral and ceremonial burial, with honor guards. Relequa Vahdin, aided by the Heir, Azek, traveled to Naushqa to try to establish relations.  Jarred by the recent barbarian invasion, the halflings of the steppe were unimpressed with Relequa's offers of alliance. 

In 2846, the allied Fezhir of Abin died childless during a plague of sand fleas, leaving his entire estate to King Mogrihan. The Fezhirs of Bari and Meheskar also died during the same plague, their bodies covered with tiny red welts.

The Warlocks of Accolon - Ruler - Emperor Elijah Cuu Capital - Dammarask Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Dursarc [FA], Carru [T}

The Shadowed Primacy of the Dark Court -   Ruler - High Priest Gezz Half-Shadow Holy City - Dammarask Dominant Race - Human

Gezz welcomed a new High Priestess of the Cult of Evaless, Sialesse, daughter of Voidan Makkure of Kerendis.  In a foul and sensual ritual, the princess became the voice of her goddess on Theeurth. Agents of the Dark Primacy went among the people of Kerendis and Hecadia, attempting to strengthen the faith of the worshipers of the Dark Court.  Though they were well-received in Kerendis, the Hecadians had no use for the black-robed priests of the Dark Court. Lord Ezhak spoke of the the glories of Malbor and the might of Caravok to the people of the Valraj.  His orations brought huge crowds, eager to hear of these powerful northern gods and invoke their dark blessings. Ezhak died in 2849, and was given a hero's funeral in Shenthelass. Mobs of the urban poor from Dammarask, Agharra and Unaagh began to protest their idleness and hunger, demanding that the High Priest send them bread and jobs. The Dark Primacy's overstretched web began to fray around the edges.  The monastery at Arbath and the Abbey at Eumana all faded in power. The churches at Bisruki, Kibe, Nisvet and Methedras all faded entirely from the Primacy's power.

The Shadowguard of Marador -  
Ruler - Queen Madariel Shadowfoot
Capital - Lantar
Dominant Race - Elf

 which might betray the presence of the dread Shadowmasters. Lords Alvar Brookseeker and Ebabarear Darkblow aided the queen in administering her realm.

South-Western Vales -

The Steaming Kingdom of Drormt -
Ruler - Queen Xochilti
Capital - Drormt
Dominant Race - Saurus

King Braa'k Tlazoceolt bid for the services of the Valesian Spirit Cult mercenaries and the Autumna mercenaries.  These latter refused to oppose the Holy See of Udjo and refused the King's gold.  The king then divided his forces in three, sending one force into Ezkita, one into Erlet and led the main force into Patu himself. In 2846, Prince Schariar of Har'akir arrived with a bag of gold, attempting to entice the saurus merchants into trading with the human realm.  Tlazoceotl had him intercepted and thrown into a muddy jail in Breeka. In 2847, thirteen thousand sathla warriors under the command of Luxurite general Lyansys and three thousand commanded by Lord Ssssam of Mykele crashed into the fens of Patu and demonstrated what happens when a small and backward nation challenges one of most powerful and advanced nations of Theeurth.  Tlazoceolt and his saurek elites were peerless warriors within the swamp, but they could not stand before three times their number in sathla warriors, better trained, better led and overlaced with spells. This is not to say thy didn't try.  The Saurek warriors lurked beneath the water and pulled their enemies under.  They fired poisoned darts from the moss-draped semi-dark of the fetid swamps.  But it was all in vain. In a few violent hours, Tlazoceolt's entire army was scattered or drowned, and the king himself was a sathla prisoner.  There were many who lamented the king's choice to divide his forces. Hearing of the king's defeat, Lord Zee'kor hastened from Ezkita across the Ulailai river with his three thousand mercenaries to enter the new mud walls of Breeka and join up with Lord Gu'lomp's forces.  All told, the army equaled three thousand soldiers and four thousand mercenaries.  When the Luxurite army arrived, so did messenger pigeons who sought out the mercenary leaders.  Within a few days, the entire corps of Valesian Spirit Cult mercenaries had abandoned Breeka and its few defenders to their fate.  As General Lyansys set about pacifying Ululor, missionaries from the Holy See of Udjo and from Luxur combined their efforts to convert the peasants of the region to Autumna. By the summer of 2848, Lyansys and his army laid siege to Breeka, pounding the walls with catapults and mangonels.  In Cleon 2848, Zee'kor was killed defending the walls.  Gu'lomp,

never a warrior and reduced to eating mud-slugs, capitulated, opening the gates of the city to the sathla.

With the capital and homeland occupied, many outlying regions repudiated Drormt's control, including Egu, Itura, Narvan and Oiohutu.  But the core of the great swamp remained loyal, and Tlazoceolt's daughter Xochilti was crowned by the priests in Drormt at her father's stone.

Sendahl - Ruler - King Zordes Capital - Nyange Dominant Race - Human

crown Lord Syph*ax his heir and make him wear a crown of seaweed.  The nobles of the land made it quite clear to Syph*ax that they did not recognize the legitimacy of such a move by the mad king.

Syph*ax prudently absented himself from Nyange for several years, trying to cajole the tribes of Mbarre into a closer alliance with Nyange.  But the tribes still viewed the men of Nyange as soft city-dwellers and refused to do more than honor their feudal obligations.

Meanwhile, off in the north, Sendahlese settlers founded a small village in Durudin, about twenty miles east of the ruins of Ser Medhele.  Little more than a trading post for the homesteaders further out, its inhabitants nonetheless had dreams of making it as glorious as the sathla city it was intended to replace.

Queen Gezress died of grief in 2850.  Lord Lizard's Claw of Syniken died in the same year, of a snakebite.

Mekebele - Ruler - Emperor W'tanabe Capital - Awayal Dominant Race - Human

Refusing to believe that the sparse jungles around him were not somehow teeming with potential slaves, Emperor Gwarkem assembled fifteen thousand soldiers and plunged into the jungles of Idri, Darbizu, Itubarratu and Eusobre, rounding up a few forlorn jungle tribesmen as slaves.  Most of the men of the jungle were easily able to hide from his troops. The sorcerer named Feardancer Nightwing died of yellow fever in 2847.  Gwarkem himself fell ill with the disease, but lingered until 2849.  He was able to name his young son W'tanabe as his heir before finally succumbing to the illness.  The troops must have brought back a virulent strain of the disease, because thousands of Mekebelans died, including five of Mekebele's six leaders.  Nun-bene of Menrat and Xhoka of Prorte died in 2849.  Warleader Esani was the last to perish in the epidemic, passing away in a raging fever in 2850. Before his death, he presided over something of a golden age of building in Kaznuma, adding paved streets and a real sewer system to the port town.

South-Eastern Vales -

The Dwarven Realm of Aurdrukar - Ruler - King Norrim Forgemaster Capital - The Brass Tower Dominant Race - Dwarf Diplomacy - Unukuro [-]

Banner of Aurdrukar

Banner of Khor-Naland

This was a time of great building in Aurdrukar.  Largely, of breweries and the industries to support them!  Barley farms in Ulhiya, goat ranches in Onu, timber mills in Hru'maru, hops farms in Amura, cattle ranches in Gimmrid, mushroom farms in the caverns under Hu'el and the building of the Golden hammer brewery in Khor-Naland and the Brass Monkey brewery in the Brass Tower.  In addition, work began on a new royal road from Gimridd to Onu.  Just begun, the work so far has consisted of levering enormous boulders off the shoulders of mountains in Gimridd to clear the proposed path of the road. The Emperor released both Onu and Zhevis from their feudal obligations, making their only duty to admit the passage of Aurdrukar merchants and armies. Many merchants protested that this was a waste, having just sunk a fortune into goat ranches in Onu. Emperor Norrim then spent several years training cadres of infantry to the standards of the Burundur Guards and other, lighter troops in elite tactics and morale.  His son Belak ruled from the Brass Tower and tried to father children,

but children are rare and precious in dwarven society, and none came to Belak and his wife, Dura.

Lord Thulnor prowled the northern reaches of the Empire, looking for trouble, but alas, found none.  Equally dull were the travels of Lord Voinar of Qiya, who traveled among the humans of Chumku and the dwarves of Purga.

did plant the flag far to the south in Sola, but could not convince the Solee to recognize the claim.  Princess Shariel was conducting diplomacy in Sorion when the men of Kerendis stormed ashore, taking all the elves (including the princess) as slaves.  She was packed off in the hold of a slave ship, just another little elf girl gone to the markets of Orbelain (See The Kingdom of Kerendis, below).

The Kingdom of Weshtayo - Ruler - King Magarrome, Red-Feathered Lord Capital - Khulank Dominant Race - Human

The Imperial Realm of Zikuyu -
Ruler - Emperor Bhekizizwe
Capital - Ivallkyu
Dominant Race - Human

The Valraj -
Ruler - Sultan Khalood
Capital - Muddakir
Dominant Race - Human
Diplomacy - Kadja [FA], Durjas [-]

Less successful was the expedition of Lord Fakhr to Durjas.  The woodsmen there had heard disturbing things about the religious practices now in vogue in Muddakir, and refused to have anything to do with the southerners.

Speaking of which, Bishop Ezhak of the Dark Primacy spoke in Muddakir and from the slopes of Mount Sarai, drawing immense crowds to hear him preach about the power, nobility and freedom of the gods of the Dark Court.  Impotent to stop this newcomer, the shamans and priests of the Old Gods cursed him from their mostly-empty temples.

The Grand Duchy of Meneen -
Ruler - Grand Duke Salene
Capital - Yaz Meneen
Dominant Race - Elf
Diplomacy - Khovas [FA], Zevan [-]

The Grand Duke garrisoned his capital with a thousand elvish archers, and erected elegant forts in Urvupal and Dreta.  He then traveled to Khovas where, with grace and skill, he arranged to marry the daughter of the prince of that region and to claim the feudal overlordship of the Khovas elves. There was merrymaking in the Khovas woods for a month. Lord Feantë, meanwhile, set sail for the northern outpost of Olonár, which he garrisoned with several hundred infantry.  The great admiral then traveled south to the forests of Zevan, where he brusquely demanded the fealty of the island tribes.  Angered by the affront, the Zevanese drove Feante out of their lands at spear point warning him never to return.

The Kingdom of Ukanve -
Ruler - Queen Eamata
Capital - Ukanve
Dominant Race - Human
Diplomacy - Olvia [C]

King Valoss the Just ruled from Ukanve, sending merchants, gold and priests to help improve the new city named after him in Shoggen.  He died of a fever in 2847 at the age of fifty-eight.  He was succeeded by his heir, Irithul. Irithul was away in Olvia at the time, accompanied by Lord Cerrick, convincing the elves to join the kingdom despite their differences in race and language.  The elves made no particular commitment to do so, but left open the possibility that they might in the future.  Irithul returned home to Ukanve in 2850, just in time to expire from an infection he'd picked up in the jungle. Princess Eamata, governor of Valoss City, was crowned queen later that same year.

The Shanatar Empire -
Ruler - God-Emperor Uruk
Capital - Feroe
Dominant Race - Human
Diplomacy - Afarees [FA]

The new God-Emperor moved swiftly to cement his hold on power.  First and foremost, he had the three young sons of Nivarnaan strangled in their beds, lest they grow up to oppose him.  Second, he spent lavishly on infrastructure so as to control his far-flung empire.  Third, he conducted a new census of his people. Fourth, he dispatched his best diplomats to secure the allegiance of the critical region of Afarees, at the junction of the postal roads.  Fifth, he channeled huge quantities of gold and tens of thousands of colonists to Leilan to continue its cultivation, and sent more colonists (albeit without much gold) to begin breaking ground for cultivation in Malil.  Uruk then ruled from Feroe while channeling his divine power to summon water spirits that irrigated tracts of Chamir, thus proving beyond a doubt his right to hold the throne. He fathered two daughters.  The Empress died in 2849 giving birth to the second. Lords Ferroi and Tunnivarran journeyed to Afarees and with friendly words and open purses convinced the steppe nomads to return to the fold, once again swearing oaths of fealty to the God-Emperor in Feroe. Priests of the God-Emperor sought to extend his power into the far northern province of Eumela, but the adherents of the Dark Court spurned their mortal god, remaining loyal to Malbor, Caravok, Drauluin and Evaless. Lord Yulleraan governed the city of Feroe with skill and energy, directing the various guilds and great families with the deftness of an artist.  New public baths were erected throughout many quarters of the city, despite the necessity to tear down older buildings each time.

The Farmuz Emirates - Ruler - Sultan Javir al Azhkatûm Capital - Azhkatûm Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy - Oras [F]

While the sultan ruled from Azhkatûm, the emirs reorganized their armies, transferring control of all standing armies to the sultan. Imad al Azhkatûm, heir to the throne, conducted a census of the Farmuzi peoples, and then spent many years in quiet contemplation and study, questioning visitors and sailors from the east. His good friend Mustafa ben Shiraz traveled to the island of Oras and arranged a marriage between Imad and the daughter of Oras's emir.  Granted lands and titles by the sultan, the emir agreed to full Farmuzi citizenship.

Emir Sioun al Amakhar governed the city of Azhkatûm with energy and dedication.  He founded a school for shipwrights on the long mole that enclosed the great harbor.  Perhaps more significantly, he founded the Gurek of the Red Stone, an Adventurer's Hall.  "Gurek" is a Shanatarian word meaning "band who gathers at a night fire" a time of contemplation.

Emir Tariq al Carrez died during a duel over an obscure point of tribal honor in 2847.

 

The Kingdom of Vaudan - Ruler - King Vachim Capital - Chegamum Dominant Race - Human Diplomacy -

King Vachim took part in a blood ritual of fertility. First, a huge feast was given to the King. It was made with food gathered from the four corners of the kingdom. Rice and beans from the fields of Jadh, roasted lamb from the hills of Yezdarna, apples and walnuts from the forests of Vaklatos.  Then Vachim had a ritual cleansing in a bath filled with water from the three rivers: The Kheleni, the Gardagos and the Chamir. Once cleansed, he readied himself for the final step. Using cut crystal from the Ul'Il mines, pointed pine branches from eastern Ramchir, and stalks of thorngrass from the steppes of Anoush, the Wizard-Priests of Orithia cut and pierced the King's flesh. His blood, nourished by the land and taken by the land, was collected into three vials. Finally, these vials were used in Tokumande, Noor’Im and Jadh, the blood spilled onto the ground itself in hopes of strengthening the productivity of the soil. Then, the King went about his more temporal business.  The first matter was to relinquish much of his own control over the kingdom.  Mehrans was reduced to a feudal ally.  Anoush, Iqaara, Maaldus, Ramchir, Saaef, Samil and Vaklitos were reduced to non-paying tributary states.  The demon-worshiping hill tribes of Pouriya, Rsang and Voer were let go altogether.

Three squadrons of Vaudan Doombats were recruited in the hills of Ul'il and Yezdarna, and placed into the regional garrisons.

King Vachim founded a new adventuring company, The Doomriders of Ul'il, in Chegamum.  He conducted a census of the Vaudan peoples. Not satisfied, the powerful dictator laid out the foundations for his own grandiose tomb, an elaborate edifice appointed with many faceted, polished Ul'il crystal named The Crystal Ziggurat. His son, Prince Eldred, ruled in his father's name and, once married to an elvish noblewoman from Amoka, fathered a pair of twin boys.

Lord Mehrvand and Zadfar traveled down the mighty Chamir river to Amoka, opposite from Feroe.  This land was a feudal ally of the Sylvan Realm of Hecadia*.  Nonetheless, Mehrvand and Zadfar met with the province's elvish leaders and arranged a marriage with Prince Eldred.  Though they did not renounce Hecadia, the elves cease sending their feudal levies, content to let the two nations struggle for their loyalties.

* = The shield wasn't on the map.  Sorry!

The Kingdom of Nikitya -
Ruler - King Ivan
Capital - Vikitana
Dominant Race - Human

King Emelya had big plans for the years 2846-2850, but nearly none of them ended up in the manner he had envisioned. Emelya dispatched his son Ivan and vassals Ilya and Solovey to seize and secure the region of Tuanani.  His lieutenant Morozko he dispatched to Uttaini to establish a treaty with the woodsmen. The king remained in Vikitana, working with his advisors on a census of the pirate nation.  This he accomplished, but all the while his health declined and on a wintry afternoon in early 2847 he slipped quietly out of the world. That was the only thing about Emelya's death that was quiet.  With every important nobleman out of the country, the local knights and landholders immediately rose up in revolt against the rule of Emelya's greedy chancellor

and his harsh tax collectors.  The northwoods regions of Kachka and Syikit burned their Nikityan charters and declared their independence.  Lord Morozko declared himself the rightful king of Nikitya by an obscure descent from a king deceased for a century.

Marching with Ivan, Lord Ilya of Chakkikta assured the heir of his loyalty and the two abandoned their eastward adventure to march rapidly towards Vikitana.  By the time they arrived, Morozko's own troops had executed him and sent his head to Vikitana as evidence of their loyalty. Ivan and Ilya returned to Vikitana and re-established control of the government and the city.

Ilya remained Ivan's close friend for the brief remainder of his life.  When the Chakkiktan ally died childless in 2850, he left his forested region to Ilya outright with a request that Ivan care for Ilya's wife and sisters.

The Kolyut Isthmus -

A STRANGE PHENOMENON - For several years, the nations of the Kolyut Isthmus region suffer from a decreased magical flow, reducing the power and range of all their spells.

The Sylvan Realm of Hecadia -
Ruler - Emperor Vataun of the Eight Ports
Capital - Belgramma
Dominant Race - Human

The Emperor continued to invest heavily in his bureaucracy and infrastructure, but few could discern any appreciable change as a result. Many resented the large sums spent on scribes, schools and post inns, but the Emperor would brook no delays. A creature of consistent habit, the Emperor also continued to establish strong garrisons throughout Hecadia.  This time it was the halfling forests of Siot that were reinforced with hill forts and heavy infantry. Sleek new warships hove at anchor in the harbors of Salman, ready to repel the unwanted attentions of neighbors. Lord Renser governed the eastern city of Tetomo, and built himself an impressive palace and seraglio, filled with slave girls from across the Ymarian Sea and beyond. Lord Ashrak of Salman governed his city with the sure hand of a man whose family has ruled the city for ten generations.

Lord Kolb of Ateside died on a stormy morning in 2848, coughing up black bile.  His sons renewed their oaths of fealty to the Emperor, but were not the great friends to Vataun that Kolb had been.

Emissaries from the upstream nation of Vaudan arrived at Amoka and wooed away the chieftain's daughter with promises of marriage to Vaudan's heir. Willing to play the two off each other, the Lord of Amoka ceased to fulfill his feudal duties to Hecadia.

The Kingdom of Kerendis - Ruler - King Jorald Makkure Capital - Orbelain Dominant Race - Human

Emperor Jorald married the daughter of a noble Orbelain family and fathered two sons.  He also spent years rearranging the Empire's merchant shipping routes to suite his liking.  The emperor concentrated on foreign trade over domestic and inter-city trade. He adopted his nephew Jalak and attempted to name him heir to the throne, but the nobles of Kerendis wouldn't stand for this, each seeing an opportunity for his own advancement. Jorald quietly rescinded the proclamation. In 2846, Jorald dispatched his sister Sialesse to the Dark Primacy where in a nauseating orgy of sex and blood performed right in Orbelain's Cathedral of the Great Mother, she became the High Priestess of Evaless, Mother of Monsters. Lord Karlos traveled to Methedras and governed there for several years. Likewise Lord Sembis continued as governor of Orbelain, and was accounted a strong leader. Bishop Dargune Southhammer assembled a force of two thousand troops, twenty Kerend Battle Galleys, and fifteen other warships and headed to sea across the Ymarian Sea to the Shadow Coast.  There, his troops stormed ashore at Sorion, slaughtering the elvish guardians of the dusky, ancient forest, and seizing the population of elves as slaves. Southhammer returned to Orbelain in triumph with very few losses.

It was not until the fleet returned in triumph to Orbelain that Dargune's brutal slavemasters realized that among the thousands of elvish slaves taken was one very important prisoner. Shariel, princess royal of Sengkar had been conducting diplomacy in Sorion when Dargune's thugs slew her counterparts and took the very young princess as just one more slave girl.

The Kingdom of Threns -
Ruler - Queen Gathael
Capital - Vaayil
Dominant Race - Human
Diplomacy - Madarah [-], Artisva [-Hs]

Queen Gathael gathered together her great lords and her army, strengthened by the addition of two thousand elite Karoon Lancers. With a rousing speech to her men, she then marched at the head of seven thousand troops to the easternmost Threnish region of Nasatsu and prepared to meet any advancing hobgoblins.  None came, much to the relief of her nervous army. Lord Ovios rode on horseback to the silver-rich region of Madarah in order to negotiate with the miners for the protection of Threns.  But his brief stay did not allow the locals to really trust the Threnish stranger and so they refused to be swayed by his arguments.  Worse luck still in Artisva, where Ovios was barely present long enough to lay out a plan for Threnish hegemony.  So incensed were the locals at his arrogant demands that during one harangue of a crowd of foresters, he was shot through the throat and left to die.

The Kolyut Hegemony -
Ruler - Hegemon Balegard Tenhands
Capital - Ketanid
Dominant Race - Hobgoblin
Diplomacy - Aya [-C]

The Hegemon, Balegard Tenhands, ordered that the narrow track between Ketanid and Komirut be expanded, at considerable expense, to a broad road capable of quickly carrying troops. He also dispatched several ships and men to his ally, Haggar of Nishta.  Balegard went on to rule from Ketanid and father a son and a daughter. His son, Jortak the Destroyer, governed the city of Komirut. Jortak's energetic style served both to improve the city and to alienate many of its more powerful families and merchants. Igrist of the Nine Temples traveled to Nishta, transferring troops and ships to allied control, and then marched into the southern hills, garrisoning three thousand infantry in Berjawltu.

He then traveled back to Aya with the intention of conducting diplomacy.  But his hideous manners and aggressive personality made him an abyssmal diplomat.  That, and the attempt to rush what should be a slow and measured process, assured the anger of the Ayans.  When Ilgrist slapped the face of an elderly and powerful clan chief, the Ayans had had enough.  They seized the impudent leader and cast him into a lightless hole at the bottom of Aya's most secure dungeon.  They then sent word to the Hegemon that any attempt to free the hated Ilgrist would result in war.

Meanwhile, Vor the Merciless raided the northern steppes of Inemper and Kodalcan.  The lightly populated steppes provided little resistance and even less loot.  So it was also with Zokar the Blind, allied lord of Kajivas, who raided the forests of Phinmai and Ramdegu. The human forest-folk fled from the hobgoblin raiders, but left behind only the most paltry of wealth.  Both expeditions cost the Hegemony more to mount than they gained.

Most disastrous, however, was the attack by the Nishtans upon the hobgoblins of Mei. The Mei defenders were stronger than expected and killed many Nishtans before those allies of the Hegemony conquered their island province.  Then, inexplicably, the Nishtans left, leaving behind no garrison to hold the region.  The Meians immediately revolted and crucified the Nishtan governor.

The Delves of Ahum - Ruler - Queen Dahlia Capital - Saumya Dominant Race - Halfling Diplomacy - Vishadi [NT]

Queen Dahlia engaged in a crash program of southern defense designed to stop any Rajahdan invasions at the border.  Thousands of engineers descended on the jungles of Amovish, equipping them with castles, walls, redoubts and forts. Her son, Crane, was sent to Amovish with eight thousand troops, including three thousand elite Ahum Rangers, where they dug in and prepared to fight should the need arise. Lord Halldred traveled to Amovish to speak with the local sathla nobles about the beauty and power of the Nuree religion. Augustus, Sheriff of Sukurem, did the same in Sauryas. Further north, wealthy farmers founded the trading town of Marabin in Satulki.  Its advantageous position halfway between Saumya and Nikitr assured that a great deal of crops, raw materials and gold would pass through the town. The Queen married a nobleman from Saumya and gave birth to a baby boy a year later. Lord Cedric traveled north to the elvish forests of Vishadi and concluded a bargain whereby the elves would allow Ahum merchants to traverse their land.  By this means Cedric established a land route to Ruanach.

The Orcish Raj of Virityal -
Ruler - Raj Algoz
Capital - Chharit
Dominant Race - Orc

Raj Algoz summoned to him all the chiefs of the Virit tribes and demanded an accounting of their lands.  The Raj needed money, and it needed it right away. He recruited fifteen hundred elite Maghada Lancers and put them under the command of General Gordash. He also sent an army of slave laborers to work the fields of Randar. Gordash took his army south to guard the Rajahdan approaches.

The Empire of Rajahdan-
Ruler - Emperor Vaasthek Blood Arrows
Capital - Jalahl
Dominant Race - Sathla
Diplomacy - Hadeerem [F]

The Empire embarked on a radical project for change.  It gave the regions of Sajeep, Sudevar and Nachika their independence in order to concentrate on a more efficient government.  Emperor Vaasthek founded a small but immediately-bustling new shipping port at the village of Tanjahd in Sugrand on the Rajad Sea.  Sathla ships spread out from this port to trade with Ukanve and the Valraj. An army of abject slaves (sathla, elf, halfling and orc) labored on an ambitious series of road projects. They improved the roads between Palavan and Rajahdan and created a royal road between Balrava and the Rajahdan homeland. No longer merely dirt tracks, Rajahdan's royal road system uses an ancient system of raised earthen berms, crushed stone wide, flat stones that easily shed water and hold up under the tramp of armies. After a reorganization of the army, the aging Emperor declared his trusted lieutenant Loqgoq to be his heir and successor.  There was muffled protest from among the twenty-three great houses, but none spoke openly against the appointment. Lord Ulgrent spent his time exploring the Rendej Sound, creating detailed charts for the use of the many sathla mariners who would now ply these waters. Newly elevated to the status of heir, Lord Loqgoq traveled to the coastal city of Hadeerem and offered the city fathers full integration into the Empire, which they gratefully accepted.  Loqgoq aided the Emperor in his redistribution of troops and then settled in to learn the ropes of government.  His mate delivered him two children, a son and a daughter.

The Emerald Realm of Lekandi -
Ruler - King Galens Eagleheart
Capital - Suwelho
Dominant Race - Elf

King Galens continued to secure his realm.  He ordered new forts to be built in Akufiki while new villages sprang up in Kiandelez and Lekandi. General Bloodspear watched the borders and trysted with his lady wife, but in the usual way of the immortal elves, no children were born of the union. Lord Juelans continued his governorship of Suwelho, and continued to prefer hunting and hawking to anything resembling real work. On the whole, Lekandi remained peaceful, prosperous and completely outside of the life of Theeurth, as timeless as only an elven realm can be.

In the Seven Kingdoms, Ahandu and Suhanir have gone to war over the wealthy region of Heblam.

Sages say that a wizard of Munh in Choran has found a to spin flax into gold!

Each turn, I will use this space to present a useful rules hint.  Eventually, all of you will know what LOTE GM's and experienced players know.

INCREASING RATINGS -

I have been asked to explain the process of increasing ratings in Bureaucracy, Infrastructure and Quality Ratings.  Here 'tis.

Each turn the system checks each Rating (Army Quality Ratings, BL, Infra, Intel, Religious, Renaissance) that has an investment
of at least 1 GP, to see if it increases. Each increase is handled by a calculated percentage and the roll of 1d100 against that
percentage. If the roll is less than the percentage, the rating increases by one.

When this happens, the built-up investment is zeroed and the player gets to start all over…

Increasing Bureaucratic Level

The chance to increase one BL point is:

i% = (ci/(bl+s)) +u

i% is the percentage chance to increase the rating.
CI is the current Investment in BL.
BL is the current Bureaucratic Level.
S is the current Imperial Size.
U is the current University Level for this nation.

Increasing Infrastructure
The chance to increase one Infra point is:

i% = (ci/il) +u

I% is the percentage chance to increase the rating.
CI is the current Investment in Infrastructure.
IL is the current Infrastructure Level.
U is the current University Level for this nation.
Note: If IL is equal to zero, the program handles this as if the Nation had an IL = 1.

Other Ratings
The other ratings (Army Quality, Intel, Religious and Magic) are handled by a common formula:

i% = (ci/r) xt

I% is the percentage chance to increase the rating.
CI is the current Investment in the rating.
R is the current Rating, whatever it might be.
T is the Turn Modifier, which is equal to (Turn Length In Years / 5)(this equals 1 in Lords of Theeurth).
Note: If R (the rating) is equal to zero, the program handles this as if the Nation had R = 1.

Page Completed 17 February 2007