LORDS OF THE EARTH CAMPAIGN 54
“LORDS OF THEEURTH”
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Turn Five Newsfax
(A.C. 2801-2805)
| uch have I traveled in the realms of gold And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet never did I breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific – and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise – Silent, upon a peak in Darien. John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer |
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GM’S NOTES
1.READ THIS!I will NOT move fleets, armies or leaders if the player has not listed EVERY intervening sea zone and region through which they must pass. “Region X to Region Y, 3 AP” will FAIL, no matter how obvious the move is, or how critical to your plans. Every region on a separate line, please.
2. Don’t mix in movement AP with the AP for the next order. Put movement on one or more lines (one line for each region or sea zone) and the eventual order (combat, diplomacy, whatever) on a separate line. Otherwise, you won’t move, even if it made sense to you
3. The Base Rules say that if an Allied Leader successfully uses Diplomacy, the region or city gains its new status in relationship to the ally, not in relationship to your county. There is just no way I’m going to keep track of that! So in L54, Allies cannot conduct (or aid) diplomacy, period.
4. The Have Children order can be given without costing AP any time the King, Queen or Heir is in the capital (not the homeland) and issuing the following orders: Rule, Administer, Defend, React or Govern.
5. See the FAQ for some important tips on how armies react to danger and invasions.
6. Leaders can cast (or assist) only ONE spell per turn.
MEDARHOS
North-Western Medarhos
| The Skane Jarldoms– Ruler – Prince Varguth Capital – Vanaheim Dominant Race – Human |
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King Otho, who had studied in Tirgon, turned his attention the establishment of learning in Vanaheim, donating large sums for the foundation of a new university and library. He likewise gave much time to the continuance of his line, and in the winter of 2801-02, his wife Anja gave birth to a healthy boy named Bjarnalf. Otho was pleased with his newborn son, but three months later succumbed to a heavy round of drinking and feasting. He died three days later wracked with terrible pain.
One might have expected immediate violence from the barbaric Skane, but Otho’s brother, Prince Varguth spoke movingly before the chiefs assembled for their lord’s funeral, and all conceded the right of the infant, Bjarnalf to the throne, and approved Varguth as his regent until the boy should come of age. Meanwhile, the jarls of Foldbjerg and Suomar carefully watched the marches for intruders. |
The Kingdom of Tirgonia –
Ruler – King Aramayne
Capital – Tirgon
Dominant Race – Human
Diplomacy – Antiphia [F], Estwilde [A]
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Though aged, King Aramayne seemed as vigorous to his subjects as when he was a famous knight at the lists. He expanded his capital at Tirgon, which spread west and south from the Brandel stream and sprawled about the base of the Necromancer’s Tower. Serfs and villeins were summoned to do years of work in the fields and leas of the Crown Lands, expanding and enriching the fertile farmlands there and in the even richer fields of Aré. In Tirgon, he finished raising the great school of magic known as The Arcaneum and laid down the foundations for a trading house known informally as “The Magpie’s Hall.”
Then the king traveled with his cousin Duke Farionh of Alqualondë to visit his old friend and ally Duke Marcos Alphendri of Antiphia. Still childless, the king offered to adopt Alphendri and make him heir to the throne. The Duke accepted and was formally adopted in the Iron Hall of Antiphia. Quinn Michelmas, Duke of Sirion, traveled to Estwilde and there strengthened the ties of that sparsely-populated region to the throne. Ancient Graalman the archmage traveled to the Blood Mire near Ascarlon, following up rumors that the king’s lost daughter, Princess Artemes, had last been seen there. He was pursuing the trail of Otto van Ewart, a former Tirgonian knight and adventurer, only known survivor of the once-famed Black Dragons, a band of heroes from Antiphia. Now said to be a powerful and bitter enemy of the kingdom, Graalman had discovered the knight’s ties to a mysterious group of worshipers of “The Lord of the Ice” and “The King at the top of the World”. Now at last, after decades of searching, he found his quarry. Though the archmage had aged considerably, the knight in black armor had aged not a day since the two had |
last seen each other more than twenty years before. They faced each other in a tall tower in the mire, surrounded by Otto’s ogrish minions. “You seek in vain, old man. She is lost to you, and to your king.”
“He is your king too, traitor!” replied the mage. “Is she dead?”
“Not my king. My king is eternal and does not die. He is the Ice. No, she is not dead. She reigns as his queen and priestess. She will reign over Tirgonia one day soon, if that is comfort to you.”
The old man shifted on his staff. “It isn’t. What happened to you, Sir Otto? To your companions?”
Fury crossed the handsome face, twisting it into something less than human. “Happened? We went to our deaths! A hundredth time for a scrap of flag and for gods who never noticed! What happened, you pompous fool? We died!”
“Demon,” said the mage coldly, “I abjure thee! By the Seven Seals of Rhynos, leave him!” The staff thundered down on the flagstones, cracking them and rending the floor as in an earthquake. The knight convulsed in agony. The ogres shrank in fear. Then Otto stood up and visibly shook off the pain which wracked him. “Your power is weak here, old man. Time to die.” In a rush, Sir Otto drew his long blade of Iridian steel, overlaid with charms older than any living empire of man, and rushed the archmage. His blade bit through only smoke. Graalman was gone.
| The Iron Empire of Daerond – Ruler –Bishop Morbanes Capital – Aicherai Dominant Race – Human Diplomacy – Nivaan [A], Ghedrosia [-] |
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Bishop Morbanes continued to enjoy the hospitality of Vantos Elerek, the Black Duke of Nivaan, lending the younger man counsel and aid in the expansion of his newly-cultivated demesne. Elerek enjoyed the old man’s company and became an ally of the Empire. From this informal nerve center of the realm, the Bishop has assisted with the planning of slave farms, advised on deforestation projects, and, it is rumored, helped orchestrate several entertainments that have brought the carnal pleasures of Aicherai to this corner of the realm. In addition, a constant stream of couriers and church servitors have traveled the Archons Road from Evrinai to Aicherai, keeping the Bishop in touch with his spiritual estate and business affairs of the Temple of Malbor, as well as business of the Archons Council.
Lately, however, church spokesmen have admitted publicly that the Bishops health is not well. He has taken a catarrh that confines him to his bed, and mitigates against long-distance travel. For now, the fact that messengers tie Morbanes to the nerve-center of the capital has caused a series of post-houses and lodging places to spring up along the Nivaan-Great Rift road. They are well used by the couriers who continue to visit Evrinai daily, and by the steady trickle of civil staff and clergy that migrate on a one-way trip to Evrinai where they can support the Bishop in his continuing labors first-hand. In Lycia, the Danaur fortress begun years before is expanded and strengthened, and the modest riverine fleet based there is modestly reinforced. A few sailors are on hand to snicker behind their beards as Lord Danaur refers to his four ships as “a mighty fleet.” |
Black Duke Gerdt-Evert von Taurek continues to hold the land of Ghedrosia and treat rather unsuccessfully with the local orc chieftains, who regard his inability to take the great city of Vanuma as proof of the foreigner’s weakness and lack of leadership. Nonetheless, von Taurek organized vast labor battalions to begin cutting a road from the via brythnia in Hinnom towards the Ghedrosia border. This mighty effort costs the live of many hundreds of slaves, both because of the difficult, high-altitude terrain and because of the depredations of the wild orcs all around. The road slowly wends its way towards the border anyway. Von Taurek’s family forced him into a marriage in the spring of 2802, announcing the marriage from Landegol in a move that seemed as surprising to the Black Duke as to anyone else. Narissa von Bedim, youngest daughter of a powerful and wealthy chieftain of Hastaalm, was brought to his camp in Ghedrosia and the two were wed by priestesses of the Great Mother in sight of the walls of Vanuma. Ever the picture of proper courtesy, von Taurek made no public comment upon the presence of his new wife and her family in his surrounded camp.
Von Taurek was joined in Ghedrosia that same year by the new Black Duke of the Hills of Terror. Thin, painfully correct, and utterly dedicated to the mysteries of the Dark Court, Kethys Estechon, known as “the Aesthete”, lead a force of veteran cavalry into the mountain camp, declaring his intention to “strike a blow for the cause.” The following year, Daesh Long-Arm, warlord of Hinnom, fell ill from a festering rat bite in Ghedrosia and died of a violent fever. His lieutenants conversed and quit the field, taking their thousand spearmen with them as they returned to the homeland to swear fealty to a new Duke.
The Harkorian League –
Ruler –First Councillor Clytheus
Capital – Cadares
Dominant Race – Human
| It was a period of great tribulation in the Free Cities. The new First Councillor, Clytheus, was a frugal man, and imposed his frugality upon the Council, making few investments. He did, however, order an expansion of the capital in an attempt to woo the fickle populace of Cadares. The Cadarites were more concerned with the fact that the city was now without effective defenses. Clytheus also sent away the well-respected Gadaxes, ordering him to “continue his great work for the nation” by appointing him governor of Morthales, well out of the political hustle at Cadares. In this job, Gadaxes excelled as before, building both a large lighthouse and a series of small public baths.
Tragedy struck the League in 2803, when a plague of locusts descended on the nation and consumed nearly all of the year’s crop. But this was not to be the worst disaster to befall Harkoria. In 2804, a great fire raged through the Scriptorium, the center of civil service in the nation. Doors were mysteriously blocked and more than one hundred and fifty scribes, tax collectors and post riders died horribly. Witnesses saw no one set the fire, but upon investigation it became clear that this was deliberate arson. Foreign merchants were subsequently molested by armed mobs in the city and were lucky to escape alive. Clytheus called for calm and mandated a two-day curfew until tempers cooled. |
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The Edgemoor Orcs –
Ruler –Graulor Ten Arrows
Capital – Zaramaka
Dominant Race – Orcs
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King Graulor Ten Arrows was nothing if not persistent. After founding a small village in Haggsh, he rounded up garrisons from Angrod and Dakhash, and with the melodiously-named Boneslicer the Ugly, returned to Viodun at the head of seven thousand orcs and ogres.
The wild bands of orcs who met to oppose him were fierce, but numbered less than a third of his own. With a blasphemous oath to Caravok the Destroyer, Graulor charged into their ranks, followed by his whole army. As the crows wheeled and screeched, the two armies collided on the heather-covered hills and in moments the whole was a confused mass of struggling, screaming orcs slashing out with axes, wickedly curved polearms and with long tribal knives. When it was over, the enemy was slaughtered or in chains, and the Edgemoor orcs set about enslaving their kin and looting their fields and farms. Viodun was left an empty, howling wilderness. Alas, Boneslicer died on the return trip. An arrow wound he had received had been coated in offal, and the resulting chills and fever had driven him into deliriousness and death. |
South-Western Medarhos
| The Brythnian Confederation– Ruler – Queen Nyssa Capital – Carrenthium Dominant Race – Taurid |
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The Curse of Artanis
A violent and doleful series of events burst onto the Brythnian stage, unprecedented in in the Confederation’s long history since the fall of the Miletian Empire six centuries ago. In 2801, Queen Elianna dismissed the unstable and possibly mad Lord Artanis from her service. Artanis, being unstable and possibly mad, immediately swore to avenge himself on Elianna for her disloyalty and “repeated attempts on his life”. The farsighted Elianna had foreseen just such an outcome, however, and had sent her spymistress Nyssa the Black to quash any uprising. They needn’t have bothered. In the first place, Artanis was neither popular nor convincing, and few taurids followed him into revolt. More to the point, Artanis suffered a nervous stroke in the summer of 2802 and never recovered, lingering only a few months before expiring. Before he did so, however, he is rumored to have laid a terrible curse on the queen’s house, sworn “by the lord of the demon isle”. Events proved this to be a potent curse indeed. Elianna herself outlived Artanis by only a few weeks, dying during an agonizing stillbirth and leaving no children. She was survived by her twin eleven-year-old half-brothers Seregon and Lolindr. Brythnian tradition demands that the monarch be a queen, but permits male rule where there is no living woman of the royal house. Seregon was crowned king in Carrenthium, with his father Falassion named regent. But the Curse of Artanis, as it would come to be called, rolled on. In 2801 Prince Coromedrus, Elianna’s consort, rode to Hailh Endhor with one thousand centaurs under a flag of truth to demand that the Airnim Horde depart Brythnia. He found the Airnim camp cold and deserted, with tracks leading away south. Coromedrus died in 2803 of a strange apoplexy which caused extended fits of coughing. In 2804, Falassion died of a parasite contracted from a spring in Tathlann. |
So, by the winter of 2804/2805, no adult member of Elianna’s house remained alive. Nyssa the Black was appointed regent for King Seregon. But Artanis’s mad curse had not yet run its course. Seregon and Lolindr were both found dead one winter morning. The Coroner Royal announced that both had died of a blood ailment and the bodies were interred immediately. Nyssa the Black, a distant cousin of Elianna’s, took power the same day, replacing the royal court with her hand-picked advisors, claiming she did so for the security of the Confederation. Camthalion the Bold, centaur lord of Cerintum, openly declared his hostility to Nyssa’s rule, claiming that she had murdered Seregon and Lolindr, and probably organized the deaths of their family as well. No other lord was willing to support Camthalion or oppose Nyssa. Brythnia and Cerintum are now at war.
If there was any good news at all, it was the return in 2804 of the Brave Companions, who had been hired in 2801 to investigate Artanis’s mad ramblings. By the fall of that year, tales had spread across the Successor States of how the adventuring company had overthrown an evil conjurer and his summoned demons in the Firefall woods and come back to Carrenthium laden with treasure.
| Aelissia – Ruler –King Otho Longacre Capital – The Great Delve Dominant Race – Halfling Diplomacy – Deepwood [F] |
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Bugs, it seemed, dominated Aelissia’s fate. Three years ago it had been locusts. Now it was the har’keen. The H’rethek were coming.
And why shouldn’t they? They had shattered the Allied army sent against them and Aelissia was defenseless. Aelissia, with some of the richest lands in all the Successor States. King Otho (so recently a gentleman farmer and now a reluctant monarch) raised eighteen hundred elite Aelissian slingers and took the army, some four thousand strong, into the Deepwood to prepare a defense among the great gnarled oaks and mossy elms. He brought with him Maia Brandobaris, daughter of his deceased friend, the former king. Strange times force strange choices, and the Moot had asked the King to offer Maia’s hand in marriage to Glen Steelplow, lord of the Deepwood. Steelplow, aware of the H’rethek threat, nonetheless bravely joined his fates to Aelissia’s and agreed to the marriage. Steelplow died in 2803 of pneumonia, contracted during extensive time at the defenses. Elsewhere, brave Harcourt Blackgirdle led the few survivors of the battle of Ehkek 7 back to Quesante, there to join the Corish army in a suicidal defense of the capital. (See The H’rethek War, below). General Blackgirdle died of the gout in 2804. In Great Lirien and Dhalken, Jarvis Kegbelly and Alabaster Purpleleaf both hunkered down to defend their homes against the invasion. Purpleleaf passed away suddenly in 2803 and his son refused to send aid to Aelissia, though he did send taxes. |
Brandon Longhandle governed the Great Delve during King Otho’s absence. His energy and dedication won him the admiration of the people as he managed to repair several older bridges and expand the great temple.
| Corland – Ruler –King Armand Capital – Khairais Dominant Race – Human |
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Like their Aelissian neighbors, the Corish fell back to a desperate defense of their homes. King Armand, son of the hero-queen Armallia, raised hundred of troops (mostly siege experts) and vowed to defend Quesante to the death. Joined by many allies and mercenaries hired by the Great Church, he dug in and began an anxious wait. (See The H’rethek War, below).
In 2804, there was much activity at the Tower of the Four Winds, home of the Corish mage Beldaric. Rumors spread through the capital that Beldaric had forced a giant to build a wall around his tower overnight.
| Lorraine – Ruler –King Artorius Capital – Armorica Dominant Race – Human |
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Bold King Artorius and his famed wizard Myrrdin led the allied host out of the Dura, through the Shadowwood and into H’rethek. (See The H’rethek War, below)
Duke Morgan brought up reinforcements across the Corish strait after spending 2801 as governor of Armorica. During that time, he conscientiously labored to pave a few of the city’s main thoroughfares.
The Whisper Wood –
Ruler –Queen Elevuil
Capital – Menelcandara
Dominant Race – Elf
Diplomacy – Brandian [A], Huareth [T], Valdori [F]
| Queen Elevuil put all her power into centralizing the government of the Whisper Wood under her direct authority. She herself remained with her army in Brandian, hunting, hawking and dazzling the lords of that region into an alliance.
Her son, Prince Fealurë had less success with the men of Huareth, but convinced them at least of the wisdom of sending tribute to the dreaded Witch Queen of the Silent Wood (as Elevuil was known by the superstitious Huarethans). This they did with ill grace and half-heard curses, for they had no love of the elves and their heathen gods. Prince Talorn, Elevuil’s cousin, was well-loved in Valdori, for he was both a fleet runner (the Valdori prize foot races as blessed of Danai) and a powerful sorcerer. His easy, open charm and love of song and wine made him one of the most recognizable figures in Valdori, and it was not long before the prince of that land agreed to swear fealty to the queen in Menelcandara. Meanwhile, the prophetess Vaire continued to counsel the lords of the Sunglades against the “heresy of the Swords”. Some heard her words, but many more rejected them as the Way of the Sword continued to consume the imagination of the younger warriors. Vaire had to go about guarded by two sharp-eyed bodyguards when she went abroad. Finally, the Queen called upon her house’s ancient oaths of alliance with the spirits of land and wood to turn Brandian into a wilderness of living, squirming defenses that disturbed even the hardiest elven woodsmen but deterred no invaders – for none appeared. |
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The Neldorean Wood –
| Ruler –Queen Nereil Capital – Elenuil Dominant Race – Elf |
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| While the queen ruled from Elenuil and the drake Urugall slept in Neldorea, Lady Senelra and ten thousand elves marched north from Dura with the Southern Allied Army to invade the lands of the har’keen (See The H’rethek War, below).
A large shipment of gold arrived from the Great Church, and a sizeable shipment of gold and foodstuffs arrived from the Valesian City-States. Meanwhile, the heroine Valessia of Celendor accepted the queen’s commission to travel to the Great Library at Sengkar. Unfortunately, no one told the Tome Guardians who zealously protect the Great Library. Arriving there in the spring of 2803, Valessia found herself politely but firmly refused admission, which could only be obtained by permission of the Emperor of Sengkar. |
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| The Airnim Horde – Ruler – Tarl Wolf’s Paw Capital – Hailh Endhor Dominant Race – Human |
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Tarl looked about him and decided that enough of his people’s blood and time had been spent ridding the world of evils. Now it was time to find them a home. The lands he had taken from the Ascar and Maekrans was rich, but the seemingly immortal leader had traveled long in civilized lands and knew his people need trade and access to the sea. The south was a veritable lake of Grail worshipers. Attacking one of them seemed suicidal, even for so great a force as the Airnim Horde. Then letters came to the Khan in Hailh Endhor from the great Conorrian Emperor Arcalas, from the Grail Patriarch Flavius Mentaurus and even from faraway Thariyya. Tarl turned his eyes on the one non-Grail kingdom on the north shore of the Valesian Sea – The Empire of Ianthe. Sunjidama, high priestess of the Spirit Cult, blessed Tarl and his generals, washing them in the blood of an aurochs to make them pleasing to the spirits.
Moving in night marches, evading patrols, the thirty thousand mounted warriors of the Horde decamped from Hailh Endhor and traveled south through the Fey Hunt, Maenadia, Ferrense and Huareth, and entered the Stoneheart mountains near the base of Mons Pilarum. In Huareth, their outriders saw a strange army marching the other way – an inhuman mass of enormous insectile beings who seemed as keen to avoid the Horde as the Airnim were to be avoided. The two armies passed in silence, not troubling each other. |
n Mons Pilarum, the horde encountered giants who hurled boulders down upon them from the heights, but who never sought direct battle. Tarl’s attempts to reason with the huge masters of the mountains were to no avail, for no emissary returned once he left the army. Slightly worse for wear, Tarl and the Airnim rode out onto the fertile plains of the Riftmarch in Erdhonis, 2803. (See The Horde War, below).
The Holy Empire of Ianthe –
Ruler –Chief Archon Ulolis
Capital – Narranthus
Dominant Race – Human
| The Archons were distinctly nervous. The great horde of the north had moved to Brythnia. Around them stood the united kingdoms of the pagan but powerful Grail worshipers. Ianthe, light of the world, true home of Aeolan, stood alone. Ulolis pessimistically concluded that the horde would come, possibly even aided by those who until recently had pledged their support and alliance. He ordered that the defenses of the outer regions be stripped, even those of the wealthy Riftmarch, and that the armies of the Empire prepare to meet the horde at the Empire’s heart – Ianthis.
A thousand Crystal Knights were hurriedly raised and trained. The army was put under the command of General Athushan, one of the most able of the Archons. Under his command ten thousand Ianthan warriors waited anxiously for the hammer blow they prayed would not fall. (See The Horde War, below). |
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THE HORDE WARS
Tarl’s Airnim Horde burst onto the Riftmarch as the winter snows of 2803 still gripped the plains and their shaggy ponies shivered after a winter in the forbidding Mons Pilarum. But the soft and civilized men of Ianthe would not bestir themselves from their great camp at Ianthis for months, and so the Horde came into a rich and nearly undefended land. The sole obstacles to their conquest were the many castles and fortifications of the Riftmarch and the walled city of Haelopolis. Tarl’s plan was simple. He would scour the defenses from the Riftmarch and ignore the city. His men and horses needed fodder, not soft beds. The conquest was particularly easy and the men of the Horde felt cheated of battle – the thousand or so riders the conquest had cost them were barely noticed.
Athushan had received word of the attack in Agaleon. He immediately sent word to the High Archon that he intended to disregard his orders to engage the enemy where they were. Instead, instinct and skill combined to urge him to create a defense where he was – the Airnim could not conquer Ianthe without Ianthis and Narranthus. And so, sheltering below the castles and keeps of Ianthis, his men dug in and waited. They were not kept waiting long.
Having conquered the Riftmarch, Tarl garrisoned the region with three thousand riders and then split his forces. He would lead the main force of twenty thousand against Ianthis, while the mercenary captain Thendros of Cruachan would lead six thousand riders south into the Crystal Shore.
The First Battle of Ianthis
Twenty thousand riders and the main Airnim camp followed Tarl into Ianthis in the midsummer of 2803. These magnificent horsemen on their small, sturdy horses were, bar none, the most proficient cavalry in all of Vatheria and had never been beaten or even seriously challenged in battle. Equally deadly with lance, scimitar or bow, they were honed to a razor sharpness of efficiency. They were unstoppable and they knew it.
Athushan’s army was mostly infantry, with a small smattering of cavalry, normally used to harass the enemy or pursue fleeing foes. Both were well-trained and disciplined. Most feared of all were the Crystal Knights, elite infantry famed for their iron will and their strange armor made of aeolan crystals. They were fighting for their lives, their homes and their families. There was no retreat and they knew it.
There were many who speculated that Prince Sindamon, an ambitious and capable soldier, would refuse to follow Athushan’s command and seek to seize the command himself. But the Prince confounded those who thought him a fool and wisely recognized Athushan’s superior experience and talent on the battlefield. As things would fall out, Sindamon distinguished himself on the battlefield as a cavalry commander.
The battle began on a cool, rainy day when the fields and forests seemed to hold an extra deep hue of green, and when the blossoms had just fallen from the trees to create a blanket of pink and white along the byways. The horde (so large that it must advance in several columns or deplete its own food supply) streamed into the Ianthan heartland expecting a token resistance. What they got was the fight of their lives. Athushan’s defenses were organized and overlapping, designed to draw the mobile Airnim army into narrow meadows and upland vales where their maneuverability would count for less. The Ianthans drew up on a ridge overlooking the main road to Narranthus, daring the nomads to come up and get them. Too smart for such an obvious trap, Tarl sent his main force under Krukbari around the lee of the hill…and ran them right into the waiting defenders.
The narrow cleft at the rear of the chosen hill channeled the riders into a box canyon which had no outlet. Smoky fires were lit in unseen pots along the entrance, and as more cavalry poured into the limited space, archers on the hillsides began to pour arrows into the milling riders. Within minutes the riders knew they were trapped, and Krukbari rose up in his seat to shout the order to retreat. That was when the arrow took him under the arm and lifted him clear out of the saddle. He would outlive the day, but his effective command was ended. The panicking riders streamed out of the box canyon under a heavy hail of stones and arrows (one of horde seized up Krukbari and threw him over the horn of his own saddle, slapping the beast on the rear as he jumped off, sending his general to safety and dooming himself). Seeing the retreat, and determined to prevent a rout, Tarl rode to intercept the riders and lead them back away from the battle. The Ianthans had won the day! Athushan, however, bitterly bemoaned the fact that he had not enough cavalry to harass the Horde, which had thrown up a cavalry screen behind it. He knew that the opportunity to pursue a retreating army would have made his victory far more complete.
The horde would later number its losses at forty-five hundred. But the defenders had suffered too. The barrage of arrows from Tarl’s force had taken its toll, killing or wounding nearly three thousand. These were losses they could ill-afford. Great a victory as it was, the Ianthans could afford few such victories.
The Battle of The Crystal Shore
Thendros of Cruachan had led many armies in his day, and won nearly as many battles. But never had his entire force consisted of cavalry. Also, despite the Horde’s superb command structure, their commander shared a language in common with only a handful of senior officers. He reflected in black humor on the path that had led him to aid the destruction of a civilized society by a throng of smelly barbarians. With a shrug, he dismissed the thought. Few soldiers smelled good, and very few indeed could withstand the deadly power of the horde. Things could be far, far worse.
To Thendros’s surprise, there was no organized defense set to meet him. No fortresses, no castles and no troops. Little more than a motley band of retired soldiers leading a far more motley army of peasants armed with pitchforks, clubs and javelins. How had the elves or the Llyrans failed to seize this place long ago? Perhaps it was that they did not have a huge cavalry army pinning down the Archons in Ianthis. Regardless, this was one of the easiest contracts Thendros had ever served, as the six thousand cavalry of the Horde detachment rolled over the twenty-six hundred defenders of the Crystal Shore with sublime ease, routing them and hunting the survivors like game across the fields and meadows. Fewer than sixty riders were even wounded.
The Second Battle of Ianthis
The Horde rested and regrouped during the late summer of 2803 and returned to Ianthis in Northhale, bloodthirsty for revenge. Again, they were met by a spirited an determined foe. This time, trickery mattered less and the hardy defenses thrown up around Ianthis mattered more. The horde thundered into view on a hot and dusty day just before noon and charged the defenders, unloosing arrows in waves and galloping away again. But the arrows were less effective against entrenched defenders than they might have been and Tarl committed his men to an enveloping assault on Athushan’s flanks. The swords of Ianthe flashed with a magical light. The die cast, the two armies grappled in in bloody melee on the slopes of grassy hill overlooking trampled fields of untended beans. For the second time, the vaunted cavalry of the Horde was thrown back, and Tarl sounded a general retreat. The slaughter had been fierce on both sides, with the Horde taking the worst of it. Still, the horde outnumbered the defenders and would be back.
The Third Battle of Ianthis
As the leaves of autumn turned rich golds and reds, the Horde regrouped in the Riftmarch, tending its wounded and gathering its scattered strength. Pleased to hear of Thendros’s victory at the Crystal Shore, Tarl determined not to let winter set in without complete victory in Ianthis. As the leaves began to fall, he returned for what he hoped would be the final battle. It was not to be. Athushan’s strangely powerful luck held and his tired Ianthans fended off another mighty Horde attack. By now, however, the Ianthans had lost nearly half their strength, while the Horde retained nearly two-thirds of its enormous size.
The Fourth Battle of Ianthis
It was Spring 2804 and Tarl Wolf’s Paw was furious. His men had wintered over in the Riftmarch and their King had fumed over Athushan’s repeated victories. There were even rumors among the Airnim that the strange god Aeolan fought for the defenders, while Tarl’s Wolf had forsaken him. Tarl ordered Sunjidama to create a prayer for the entire army, a ritual that would combat the fierce god of the Empire. This ritual was ready by the time the snows began to melt in the hills, and every warrior and woman of the Airnim nation took part, cleansing themselves and beseeching the spirits to heed their valor in battle, giving them either victory or glorious death. As it happened, the spirits at last heard their cries.
When the Airnim rode into Ianthis, the civilized men of the nation were not at their defenses, not having dreamed the nomads would be on them so early in the year (and indeed, many had dared to dream that having learned their lesson three times over, the Airnim would depart for easier pickings). Leaping the defenses in waves, the Airnim were almost into the Ianthan camp before the alarm sounded, and the defenders barely had time to seize up their arms before the tide of battle swept upon them like an avenging flood. The Ianthan infantry performed superbly, rallying to Athushan’s banner and fighting off two waves of Airnim cavalry. But this time the gods favored the nomads, and there was no doubt as to the final outcome of the matter. Unlike the Ianthan victories, when the Ianthan lines broke, the Airnim had plenty of cavalry to pursue the fleeing soldiers and cut them down from behind. Tarl’s victory was total…just a year late.
In the summer of 2805, Krukbari died of a fever. The witch-women said that he had never fully recovered from his wound in the first battle.
| The Exarchate of the Great Crusade – Ruler –King Bleobaris Capital – Pontezium Dominant Race – Human |
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Fearing a Horde invasion while his forces were gone at Elenuil, Bleobaris demanded that Galahant return the fleet and army at once to Pontezium. They arrived by the fall of 2801. All of the Crusader States forces then prepared for the defense of Querenia against an enemy that never came.
In the fall of 2801, Bleobaris named his eldest daughter, Princess Ava, to be his heir, much to the consternation of his nameless five-year-old son. Maradoc the wizard summoned spirits of earth and water to irrigate Querenia, then aided his king in the defense of the homeland. |
The Holy Order of the Dawn –
Ruler –Grand Master Marcus Sagitus
Capital – The Akasian Hills
Dominant Race – Human
Diplomacy – Autricum – [OH]
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Like most of the other powers west of the Phaedon, the Order prepared for the possibility of an Airnim invasion. Grand Master Sagitus had the Order Fortress built into a true fortress, a behemoth that dominates the dour heights of the Akasian Hills. At the same time, he raised defensive troops for the region, a mixture of men-at-arms and siege engineers. He himself left his knights and infantry in Quesante under the command of Master Brutus and marched with all haste back to the Akasian Hills to assume command of defenses there.
The severing of the Andelais road prevented timely trade or orders arriving at Quesante, and the Order’s possessions in Khairais and Quesante quietly withered and reverted to local control. Master Brutus Arillius took overall command of the shattered remnants of the Northern Allied army in K’chak and marched them back to Quesante, there to await the coming of the H’rethek army. Though the nearest order estates were in far-off Mauredoc, the loyal Brutus remained true to his Order and kept good discipline in the army. Finally, Master Tiberius traveled north towards Toruk Khend, but never arrived, for he died in the winter of 2801 when his horse stumbled and threw him. His quest to defeat the dragon came to an untimely end. |
THE H’RETHEK WAR
As the pitiful few survivors of the Northern Task Force fled across the Saronne to make a last stand at Quesante. They were joined there by six thousand mercenary troops hired by the Great Church. Meanwhil, the twenty-five thousand soldiers of the Southern Task Force, men and elves from Lorraine, Neldorea, the Order of the Dawn, the Great Church and Har’akir marched bravely north out from the mountains of Dura. They went forth protected by the blessings of the Great Church, for many chaplains and martial priests went among them, blessing weapons, armor and soldiers. From Dura, they marched into the Shadow Wood. Many among the Neldorean elves thought this a fool’s plan, since Urugall the dragon was overlord of the Shadow Wood as well as of Neldorea, but no retribution came, and the army passed peacefully into the fertile lands of Dal*kor.
What they found there was simply shocking. The har’keen were completely gone. Pickets sent into Ehkek 7 reported that the plains around Kal Primus were littered with the broken bodies of tens of thousands of their compatriots, left to rot and wither in the heat and cold of two years and picked clean by a vast armada of crows. But the har’keen themselves were simply…gone. The allied commanders sent out scouts to seek for sign of the har’keen army, but they found only tracks leading into Nnn*ta and disappearing into the wilds of the Northern Stonehearts. The entire nation of H’rethek had simply decamped, slaves and all. The fields were untended and growing wild, and the weird, fluted cities of mud and crystal were slowly crumbling into dust and blowing away on the wind. As suddenly as it had begun, the war was over.
Rhanalor
The Shadowed Realm of Ascarlon –
Ruler –Baron Gauros the Arisen
Capital – Denavine
Dominant Race – Human
Diplomacy – Galati [F], Mahant [NT], Dhurkun[NT]
| With the departure of the mighty horde, Baron Gauros was quick to reassert his control. He summoned thousands of Ascar peasants to re-colonize Orodea, many of them cashiered soldiers he could no longer afford to pay. Even so, the debts of Ascarlon were astounding. In addition to loans extorted from local bankers and nobility, Gauros knew that new blood was required to reinvigorate the Ascar economy. And so he set out with his reduced army to subdue the hobgoblin tribes of Feghruu and wealthy Ilkmaor.
The Baron summoned the unquiet dead from the thousands slain by the Horde, and the rotting bodies of his people shambled forth to do his stern bidding, even beyond death. With nearly five thousand soldiers, living and dead, he marched into both hobgoblin regions and did battle, subduing the terrified hobgoblins and returning them to Orodea to work the newly-rebuilt farms. Vilkhar the Hammer rode forth from Orodea to the land of Galati. His voice resonate with a glamour cast on him by the baron, Vilkhar spoke movingly of the ancient Ascar heritage and of how the eye of Malbor was upon them. The danger past, the lords of Galati gladly rejoined the Shadowed Realm. Lord Vachik also set forth, this time to woo the orcs of Maekras. The orcs were less impressed than had been the humans of Galati, but both Mahant and Dhurkun agreed to respect the rights of Ascarlon. |
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The Worldspine Orcs –
Ruler –Vaurog Breakspear
Capital – Mount Kauroth
Dominant Race – Orc
Vaurog Breakspear raided the dwarven lands of Phaedon, using his great spear Harrowheart. Despite the presence of a dwarven army there, he was able to move in, raid and slip away again before the dwarves really knew he was there.
| The Empire of Carhallas – Ruler –Emperor Maugrath Capital – Carcaroth Dominant Race – Hobgoblin Diplomacy – Gromon [F] |
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It was a time of contrasts for the Empire. Carhallas’s peaceful pursuits prospered, while its military exploits were disastrous. The Emperor funded the Eastern Post Road through to Zhagon, and workers began to clear the roadbed all the way to Gothmaur in Elsend. Colonists sent to Daul returned to Carcaroth and reported that Daul was populated by unfriendly tribes. They begged the emperor to send in troops if he wished them to colonize the region.
Cultivation began in Gromon, on the east side of the Manndaran river, and Lord Garandal traveled to that region to offer the hand of the Emperor’s sister in marriage in exchange for the hand of the sister of Khazal, Duke of Gromon. The match was made and Khazal became a Prince of the realm. Duke Zdrach headed across the Manndaran and through Borokoth to the region of Ruathkel, accompanied by the Duke of Mendhaur and at the head of thirty-five hundred troops. In an easy and lop-sided battle, Zdrach conquered the region and put its army to flight. When he looted the few valuables (amounting to a few cattle and some shiny stones), none of the Ruathkeli opposed him. Taking them all into slavery was just as easy. But then, Zdrach’s fate turned against him. He drove his army and captives into Uroketh, and met a different sort of resistance altogether. First, Zdrach’s small army was nearly all infantry, ill-suited to combat on the wide plains. Second, The Urokethi challenged him with nearly all cavalry, and in nearly even numbers. The greater Urokethi mobility was decisive, as they first broke the Carhallas line and then pursued the fleeing infantry across the plains. Zdrach managed to keep his army together, retreating rather than routing, and fell back with the survivors to Ghadaril. The tale was little different in the east. There, the Dukes of Cavakal, Jezuul, Golod, Pukel, Zhagon and Adhrak, all feudal vassals of the Empire, massed their forces (amounting to some four thosuand soldiers, mostly infantry) and attacked |
Valam. Their defeat at the hands of the smaller Valamite force (mostly cavalry) was total. The Duke of Cavakal found himself hampered by the obnoxious and suicidally brave Dukes of Pukel and Adhrak, who constantly charged the Valamite forces when they rode within view. This tactic cost the Duke of Pukel an arrow through the thigh, which he survived, much to the disappointment of his troops. The Valamites put the Carhallas feudal forces to flight, and pursued them across the plains, slaughtering them nearly to a man.
Duke Sharvlork, who had done little for the Empire in years, died after a massive feast in the spring of 2805.
The Great Kingdom of Annvar –
Ruler –King Udoin IV
Capital – Varthane
Dominant Race – Human
Diplomacy –Kilgis [-], Gelio [-], Aclad [-]
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The Great Kingdom was at peace for the first time in a very long time. Alas, peace did not suit it. King Udoin spent five years hearing the scribes list the features and treasures of his nation, and created a census. He also ordered that Varthane be expanded and new walls be built around it to fortify it, though many noted that the new walls were neither so high nor so wide as those they replaced.
Prince Poddicar pottered around the region at loose ends, unsure of what to do in peacetime. He fathered a son in the summer of 2805. Lord Marvaith governed Coinde from 2801-2803, and built a small arena for beast fights on the field formerly used for pauper’s graves. He then traveled to the nearby region of Kilgis to woo the Kilgisi to the Great Kingdom’s side, but the lords of Kilgis were unimpressed with Marvaith’s hurried style and politely sent him home with no commitments to bring before the king. Likewise the whirlwind diplomacy of Lord Tellenor in Gelio and Aclad, two regions that share neither a common language nor a common religion with Annvar. A steady hand was needed in such negotiations, and much flattery, but Tellenor gave neither and was sent packing by angry natives. A trading embassy down the Wolf river to Celendor was turned back at the borders of Linhirin by stern faced elven archers. His Majesty had no intention, they told the emissaries, of either giving or receiving trade with short-lived worshipers of the damned. |
The Conorrian Heartland –
The Conorrian Empire –
| Ruler –Emperor Constantikos III Capital – Echoriath Dominant Race – Human |
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| Like nearly every other government along the north shore of the Valesian Sea, the Conorrian Empire prepared for a possible Airnim invasion. Emperor Arcalas ordered a vast investment in castles and forts along the western approaches in Calodunum and built a massive fortress (named “Keloicrator” after his father) built in Faloricum. Eight thousand equites scutarii (cavalry) and two thousand siege engineers were raised in and around the capital. Conorrian wizards summoned spirits of the air and sent torrential rains into Lauriacum to slow down any invasion by the horde and allow for Conorrian troops to respond, but the downpour proved unneccessary. Even with all this, the Empire was able to muster ten thousand serfs to till the land in Adoria.
As usual, a wagon train of foodstuffs was sent from Echoriath to Khelem Vala in Dhûnazhar, and a train of gold and silver flowed in the opposite direction. The royal adventuring company known as the Imperator Aquilae ventured into the Shattered Lands and came back with treasure. The bards sing of how they defeated an evil and despotic giant. |
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Concerned about her willful manipulation of politics, Aracalas sent Heccus, the fifty-two year-old widow of the Emperor Varantius II into exile as a nun in a remote abbey in Autricum. She died there of a broken heart in 2802. Arcalas himself died of consumption in 2804 and was replaced by his son and heir, the twenty-one year-old Constantikos. Luckily, the young emperor proved as good an administrator as his predecessors and the transition was orderly. Despite this, rumors flew about the capital and the empire that this or that general would revolt and refuse to obey the stripling emperor. It was at least a year before such rumors died back to the usual level of Conorrian backbiting and gossip.
Constantikos proved more fertile than his forebears and fathered five children, three girls and two twin boys.
Admiral Pederastes led his fleet on a raid of Dal*kor, only to find that everything of value had been taken when the har’keen fled. He returned to Echoriath with his fleet to support the emperor, but died of pneumonia aboard his flagship in 2803. Senator Flavius Sextus, Magister Equituum per occidentum, died in 2802 when thrown by his horse. Senator Gaius Calos spent two years each as governor of Echoriath and Eleucris. Few noticed much improvement in Echoriath, but he did add several small temples to the high street in Eleucris.
The Great Church of the Lords of the Grail –
| Ruler –Patriarch Flavius Vares Mentaurus Holy City – Conorr Dominant Race – Human Diplomacy – Har Mekelle [CH], Oiothon, [CH], Tullieres [CH], Armorica [AB] |
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The Patriarch’s Standard |
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The vast wealth of the Great Church continued to flow. In addition to a large investment in local churches and schools, the church spent enormous sums to hire warships, transports and six thousand mercenary soldiers for the defense of Quesante and Corland. The famed mercenary leader Thendros of Cruachan was hired, fresh from his victory over the Ianthans at the Crystal Shore, to aid the Church in Quesante in years to come. Wagon loads of cash were sent to the Order of the Dawn, to Corland, Lorraine and Neldorea. Shiploads of grain and foodstuffs were sent to Corland, which passed it on to Aelissia to relieve the famine and drought there.
Missionaries were sent to Carrandis to chide the heretics and shepherd them back to the true faith. The Patriarch, along with four thousand Church troops went with the Southern Allied Force into Dal*kor and Kz’zk from Dura, and Church priests and chaplains summoned the blessings of the gods for the men and elves in that formidable allied army. |
| Bishop Iscandus saw to the administration of the Primacy from Mynos and raised four thousand siege engineers to hold the holy city.
Bishop Aetrius took ship with the mercenary fleet (and the chests of gold bound for western nations), and met with the huge Valesian fleet in the Bardol Sea. From there, after dropping off treasure at Elenuil and Cassivelaunus, he sailed to Dal*kor and marched inland to Kz’zk, where he joined up with the Patriarch’s force. Bishop Palladius established a church at Oiothon, joined Aetrius’s fleet and sailed to Corland, where he established a church at Tullieres and took command of the Church forces in Quesante. Bishop Alecius followed the Patriarch as far as Dal*kor, then crossed the Corish Strait and established an abbey in Armorica, then finally returned to Quesante. By the end of 2805, after the mercenary contracts had ended, the total Church forces in Corland and H’rethek amounted to nearly eight thousand men and a dozen ships. |
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The Dwarven Realm of Dhûnazhar–
Ruler – King Valand Dragonsbane
Capital – Khelem Vala
Dominant Race – Dwarf
Diplomacy – Azhan Madhor [FA]
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The Kingdom Under the Mountain was still recovering from its brief civil war, so its actions and economy were modest. Nonetheless, in true dwarven style, many fortifications were built in Dhûnazhar and in Phaedon. A new temple to Mordhal was built in Kiril Zelen.
While King Valand Dragonsbane ruled from Khelem Vala, Lord Roin journeyed to the mead-halls of Azhan Madhor. The great good sense of this sturdy dwarf convinced the lords of that region to renew their ancient oaths to the Kingdom. Lord Moragh and two thousand dwarves guarded the western approaches to Endorwaith while Lord Dalian guarded Phaedon with a similar number. Neither was able to stop the orcish raids that entered Phaedon so successfully. |
VALES –
North-Western Vales –
The Llyran Republic –
Ruler –Constans Harko Marova
Capital – Tarrentica
Dominant Race – Human
The Llyrans engaged in feats of strength and the airing of grievances.
| The Holy Matriarchy of Ahuran– Ruler –Queen Jerzuul Moonshadow Capital – Sedeskan Dominant Race – Human |
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Terrible storms at sea wiped out a merchant fleet headed for the Llyran Republic.
Jana Steelwarden and Landress Lucinde of Naidhan both passed away. The reasons were not reported. |
| Har’akir – Ruler –Sultan Socacia Alouda Capital – Mar Awas Dominant Race – Human Diplomacy – Socphares [NT], Entelle [F] |
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The formidable Sultana ordered that the port of Agazier be enlarged, and men rushed to do so. More than a thousand cavalry were made ready for the army away in the north. The Sultana ruled with an iron fist until her grandson’s seventeenth birthday, when she turned over the reigns of government to him. She remained a force in the palace, however, and was widely seen as the power behind the throne. Her last act before giving up power was to marry her granddaughter Azmeralda (Socacia’s older sister) to Edelmo, Emir of Entelle, thus securing the allegiance of that prince and his region.
Emir Nuldor, after ferrying ships and men around the kingdom, traveled to Socphares and in the name of the Sultana, promised the hand of the young king in marriage to Aoula, daughter of the Socphares chieftain. Still stinging over their exile |
from the Adramagdus mountains, the folk of Socphares made only vague promises of future tribute.
The great general Feldar accompanied the Southern Allied Force into H’rethek, leading nearly six thousand infantry and cavalry. He was joined in Dal*kor by Edelmo, and when Feldar died in 2805 at the age of fifty-eight (he broke his leg exploring an abandoned har’keen mound and the wound became gangrenous), Edelmo took over command of the Har’akir forces.
In 2805 there came the shocking news of orc raids in the Marrakhan Hills – where no orcs had been reported in generations. Scholars theorize that they may have emerged from far below the earth, while others theorize that vile sorcery may be at work.
The Marrakhan Horde –
Ruler –Voraun Shatterhand
Capital – None
Dominant Race – Orc
The Horde quickly seized control of the East Marrakhan hills. Their numbers were reported to be in the tens of thousands.
The Valesian City-States –
Ruler –Primarch Centorius I
Capital – Orcholus
Dominant Race – Human
Diplomacy – Hypylus [EA], Thuces [C], Vales [F]
| The Primarch ordered the continued development of Ventas. Large communal silos were created, along with a fleet of poled barges to bring produce from Ventas’s many artificial islands to the markets in Orcholus. Centorius ordered that the priests of the City States should seek to increase the religious fervor of the people with tales of wonders and of the evils of Accolon, but the Valesians, ever a fractious people, took a dim view of the preaching and stayed away from the temples in numbers greater than ever.
In Hyplus, the Primarch continued to wheedle and cajole the farmers and woodsmen of the region, and managed to secure a treaty of economic cooperation. Grand Admiral Anaxes and the Trierach Antigonus set sail with fifty warships and escorted the Primacy’s fleet to Elenuil, Cassivelaunus, Dal*kor and back home to Conorr. Archon Meikos journeyed to the halfling hills of Thuces, where the gentle and bemused natives allowed him to claim that they were part of his nation. At least until they grew bored with the idea. Meikos traveled on to the city of Vales and easily convinced the free men of that city that they should throw their lot in wholly with the nation named after them! |
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Luxur –
Ruler –General Zsalvi
Capital – Thedelos
Dominant Race – Sathla
Diplomacy – Merwal in Habu [H]
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Generl Zsalvi sent thousands of sathla colonists into the fertile (and now conveniently empty) region of Keferis with orders to make the place ready for more waves of colonists to come. He also ordered an expansion of the port and farming facilities of Badar. Then, determined to see the holy city fall returned to the sathla during his lifetime, the aging Zsalvi traveled to Merwal and, with the city surrounded by tens of thousands of sathla besiegers, offered to parlay with the city’s human defenders. The defenders listened to the arrogant dictator with ill humor and barely disguised fear, but they sent him packing with no promises.
And so the job of seizing Merwal fell to General Kaltass and his army of seven thousand, assisted by the Autumna Primacy’s Bishop Slaasthess, his two thousand archers and three thousand mercenaries. These set a siege around the great city, numbering between them just barely enough to contain it. Once the siege was set, it was only a matter of time. The largest city in Vales, Merwal had not had food shipments in years and hunger set in almost immediately. Nonetheless, through iron will and bitter hardship, the people of the city withstood the siege for seven long months, hoping against hope that help would arrive from their relatives in Valesia. When it became clear that no hoplite army was on the way, the men of Merwal, last bastion of the Keferis Crusade, struck their flag and sued for terms from General Kaltass, who entered the metropolis in triumph. |
The Autumna Primacy
Ruler –Grand Priest Kyassthi
Great Cathedral – Thedelos
Dominant Race – Sathla
Grand Priest Kyassthi preached a series of powerful sermons in and around Pyrayus, denouncing foreign gods and foreign ideas. Only the sathla are pure enough for the regard and admiration of Udjo the Maker. The gods of other races are mere demons, eager to seize the glory of Udjo for themselves. The sermons were very popular, and thousands rallied to see the pontiff and hear him speak. A wave of religious fervor spread throughout the Artaxes River valley.
Just upstream, Bishop Slassthess and his troops were helping General Kaltass lay siege to the holy city of Merwal. When the city fell in the spring of 2802, Slassthess was one of the first to visit the ancient shrines, including the vast Temple of the Gold Scale.
Mykele –
Ruler –Sauressh Sishtreth I
Capital – Oroyon (?)
Dominant Race – Sathla
Diplomacy – Naszgiri [-]
| The Sauressh had such grand plans, and saw them come to ruin so quickly. More than three thousand sathla infantry were recruited in Sia and handed over to the command of General Lisal’assh. The slaves of Mudeaga were set to work in the sweltering plantations of Sia. Sishtreth, now armed with much scholarly knowledge of the customs and personages of Gigalgudar, set off to that jungle region to once again woo the truculent natives to his cause.
Unfortunately, Lisal’assh planned to march on the lonely jungles of Kilni, and his line of march took him straight through already hostile Gigalgudar, where he planned to collect the garrison and march on. Regardless of his peaceful (at least as regards Gigalgudar) motives, the natives were in a fury at the effrontery of the march. By the thousands they assembled in villages and hidden groves and sharpened their fathers’ weapons to a gleaming sharpness and descended on Lisal’assh’s army in screaming packs. The number of the insurgents was difficult to know in the dense foliage, but the general’s staff put them at four thousand. Luckily, Lisal’assh’s army was not only six thousand strong, but commanded by one of the most cunning and devious military minds of his age. Well-paid native spies had warned the general of the uprising and he lay in wait for them. The attacks came just where he expected them and, by appearing to flee into the jungle, he was able to draw in his attackers, surround them and destroy them. Thousands lay dead and his army lost only a few hundred. |
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But the cold fury of their kind was upon the army, and in no one did it burn more fiercely than in their commander. He abandoned his orders to enslave the people of Kilni and instead lead the Mykele army in the enslavement of Gigalgudar, traditional rival of Sia. Small battles were waged around the province as the army mopped up resisters and burned villages to the ground. When the Sauressh arrived, it was to find the chiefs dead whose families he had studied and their children being led away in chains to till the fields of Sia. Sishtreth had a tense confrontation with Lisal’assh in his tent, but bowed to the demands of the army and allowed the captives to be taken away.
Hashtreth, the allied leader of Vaaltoth, followed orders to loot and enslave Mudeaga, but arrived to find that the Mykele army had already enslaved the region five years earlier.
Jual’Teth, cousin of the Sauressh, traveled to Naszgiri to renew diplomatic talks, but died of a strange fever in 2803 and never completed his mission.
However, the most significant event in Myekele was not the sacking of Gigalgudar. It was the Crafter’s Uprising of 2802. Certain guilds in the city of Oroyon had been protesting heavy imposts for many years with little to show for their pains. The city practically ran on the income generated by the combination of the craft guilds and the port, and the port’s merchant houses were only lightly taxed by ancient agreement. This uneven situation boiled to a head on a dazzlingly hot day in 2802 when two wedding parties, one of port merchants and one of guild workers both claimed the same public square for their festivities. There was angry pushing and shoving and then, suddenly, the crafter bridegroom had been stabbed and a general riot broke out. By nightfall the rioting had spread across the city and within three days the docks were ablaze. By midsummer, the Craft Guilds, ever numerous, had demanded and failed to receive any support from the Sauressh (who was off in Gigalgudar) and they instituted their own ruling Guilds Council, whose first act was to seize the property of the merchants. Their second act was to declare their independence from Myekele. In this they were joined by the Mykele naval garrison, mostly the sons of crafters who despised the merchants. Oroyon had become a fortified free city.
North-Eastern Vales –
| The Kingdom of Thariyya – Ruler –King Al-Kadem Vahdin Capital – Uls Fakhar Dominant Race – Halfling Diplomacy – Hassar [+10 Yfc] |
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Considerable investments in Thariyyan infrastructure resulted in an easing of the kingdom’s economic woes, as there were now enough sheriffs and tax collectors to effectively cover the nation’s undeveloped hinterlands. Thariyya’s navy also was improved with two new squadrons of warships, including the Patriot, a heavy Conorrian-style dromond. King Al-Kadem was rarely seen by his people, for he was said to be deep in study, having developed a fascination with an ancient Thariyyan text dating back to the “golden age of Thariyya” before the ascension of the God-King Natun in Shanatar. |
Meanwhile, the Thariyyan navy under dashing young Admiral Kaedir patrolled the Gulf of Thariyya. There was an incident in 2805 when the entire Valesian fleet (much larger than Thariyya’s) entered the Gulf. Kaedir wisely remained close to shore and did not confront the Valesian galleys.
| Accolon – Ruler –Warlock Jordanes the Transmuter Capital – Dammarask Dominant Race – Human |
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The news in 2801 was all about the expedition to subdue Nuradeem and once and for all put an end to the monstrous heresy that had consumed so much of Accolon’s time. A thousand of Caravok’s Chosen (elite heavy infantry) were raised, along with several hundred siege engineers and nearly two thousand mercenaries. Much of Accolon’s army was consolidated under the command of the Warlock Nightshade, who relieved Jordanes of command in Eumana in the Spring of 2803. This, as will be seen below, was to Jordanes’s great good fortune, for he now returned home to Dammarask.
Nightshade’s army was ten thousand strong by the time it arrived below the walls of Nuradeem and wasted no time setting about erecting ditches, fortifications and siege towers. By the time the dry season was picking up speed, the bombardment of the city had begun, along with sappers who dug galleries below the city’s walls. The southwestern wall around the Skarn gate collapsed in early Daarlem when miners fired the supports of the gallery they had dug beneath it. The army rushed in, unstoppable, and a several wild days of looting, orgy and chaos ensued during which time the besiegers took their vengeance upon the city for their humiliation four years earlier. Nuradeem was once again in Accolon hands, and Eumana was no more. In 2803, Vardan the necromancer died, leaving a power vacuum. Just before he died, he named Epiphetes the Diviner as his choice to succeed him. The senior warlocks in Nuradeem, while seeming to mourn their fallen leader and gather for his state funeral, began and deadly series of contests, back-room deals and back-alley murders to contest the rulership of the unstable state. By fall it became clear that Jordanes the Transmuter had the backing of the army and many of the warlocks. Shortly thereafter, Epiphetes failed to attend at the Council meetings and the rest of the warlocks fell in line. Jordanes was confirmed as the new head of the council. Finally, in 2805, the skarn of the Naran desert, a race of powerful but primitive scorpion-centaurs, annexed the region of Carru, sitting athwart the Ashen Way (Accolon’s road to Nuradeem and the riches of the Ymarian Sea trade). These creatures stubbornly refuse to give way, claiming that the land is theirs by ancient right. Lord Ryld the Fair of Carru has ridden to Dammarask to demand action. |
The Shadowed Primacy of the Dark Court –
Ruler –High Priest Gezz Half-Shadow
Holy City – Dammarask
Dominant Race – Human
| The Shadowed Primacy sent aid and succor to Accolon in several ways. First, a sizeable amount of Church tithes and revenue were turned over to the use of the Warlocks for their war against the heretics in Eumana. Second, the war effort was directly aided by Gezz Half-Shadow, who commanded an army of undead at the taking of the heretic city, and who cast dark blessings over the whole army. Third, the High Priest used necromancy and the rack to ferret out heretic sympathizers, returning Eumana and Nuradeem to the true faith of the Dark Court. |
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The Divine Theocracy of Eumana –
| Ruler –Theocrat Kandoz Capital – Nuradeem Dominant Race – Human |
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ELIMINATED.
The Shadowguard of Marador –
Ruler –Queen Madariel Shadowfoot
Capital – Lantar
Dominant Race – Elf
Diplomacy – Khithi [T]
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All eyes in Marador gazed with horror and fascination at the rise of the orcish horde to the west. Queen Madariel ordered that all city garrisons be strengthened, adding several hundred elves to each city’s watch. She sent her son Ilwendil to Oromardi with an army to watch the western marches and the approaches over the Mulgaunt. Glorfindel of Beduina she sent to Tintillo, where he assumed command of the watch and also put forth the power of an elven lord to make the neighboring region of Indoglaurë become an impassible morass of writhing vegetation sure to harass the horde, should it come that way.
Fair Vaeril Fallingwater traveled to Khithi to mend the rift with that forested region. Though the proud lords of Khithi were angry and unreceptive, Vaeril’s great personal charm (and the hard work of the bards who had compiled so many facts and family trees for her) melted their hearts. By 2805, they agreed to Madariel’s stewardship, and sent back the first of many promised tributes to Lantar. |
The Yurahtam Nomads
Ruler –Quor of the Seven Skulls
Capital – Yurahtam
Dominant Race – Orc
Quor recruited for the horde in the mountains around Yuratahm, swelling his immense evil army to more than twenty thousand orcs and ogres.
South-Western Vales –
The Steaming Kingdom of Drormt –
Ruler –Regent Y’grak
Capital – Breeka
Dominant Race – Saurus
| They were the years the scarlet plague hit Drormt, leaving many weakened and covered with reddish sores that faded slowly, if ever. The plague was not particularly deadly, killing only a few of its victims, but it did seem to have a terrible penchant for saurus nobility, for it felled nearly all the leaders of Drormt in those years.
Aorshk was the first to go, dropping dead in front of his troops before the disease was truly understood. A year later, Riursh of Erlet died a lingering, wasting death while his family remained almost untouched by the plague. King Zhee’ka himself succumbed in 2803 during the height of the plague and and his cousin and confident Cuaq’lar died in the city of Breeka in 2805, long after the plague was thought to have run its course. Since he had named no heirs, Zhee’ka’s death might have caused great difficulties for the kingdom had there been any leaders left capable of challenging others for his crown. As it was, Zhee’ka’s mate Y’grak asserted the rights to the throne of her infant son, Braa’k and there were none to gainsay her. She took control as regent in 2804. |
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During all the excitement, it was almost forgotten that Zhee’ka had continued improving his beloved Drormt, building many flat mounds to be used in conjunction with spiritual meditation and also allowing access to better basking in the sun between religious services.
Sendahl –
Ruler –King T*ko
Capital – Nyange
Dominant Race – Human
| King T*ko set out with his army to visit Ser Medhele and continue to smooth relations with that conquered sathla city. His original plan had been to take a noblewoman of Ser Medhele as a wife in order to cement the local loyalties, but he hastily shelved that plan upon learning that all the noble “women” in Ser Medhele were sathla – serpent women.
At home, his lieutenant Os’Elm was bored, sitting as judge for yet another tribal dispute, when a thought struck him about the tactical use of massed horse archers. This train of thought consumed him for the rest of the day and he quickly forgot about the petty case over which he sat…he was on to something! By the time T*ko returned from the north, Os’Elm had put together a demonstration of his new tactic. The King immediately saw the flexibility this would give him in battle, not only improving his use of horse archers but freeing up his heavier cavalry for use as shock troops. By the end of the year, T*ko had officially adopted Os’Elm and named him as his heir. Elsewhere, Lye’osi, lord of Dhetnik, took his thousand kanka riders on a pair of raids into the |
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jungles of Ibkuri and Galzus, sweeping up whatever meager wealth was stored in the sathla villages. This, along with much of the wealth of Sendahl, went into the continued effort to cultivate the homeland.
Mekebele –
Ruler –Emperor Mufun
Capital – Awayal
Dominant Race – Human
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Emperor F’denge died without an heir in 2804, leaving only his young daughter, Nyese. As there was no clear line of succession, the ancient council of chiefs met in the caves of Jokari and debated for many months. Eventually it was decided that Mufun should lead the tribes. Mufun was forced to divorce his wife and marry the six-year-old Nyese, thus becoming part of the royal line, but this was a small enough price to pay. Warleader Boru’fan looked on in stony silence as the council of chiefs knelt in homage to the younger man, but raised no protest, despite his own popularity with the army. In fact, he continued his stint as royal governor of Awayal and built the beautiful Maiden Gardens for the young royal bride.
Large sums of money and thousands of men worked to expand the arable land in Ola. The wizard Nightdancer of Eura danced the ritual of plenty, causing trade and commerce to flourish. |
South-Eastern Vales –
| The Dwarven Realm of Aurdrukar – Ruler –King Norrim Forgemaster Capital – The Brass Tower Dominant Race – Dwarf Diplomacy – Hruma’ru [F], Kamandi [-] |
 Banner of Aurdrukar |
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 Concerned about the orcish horde to the west, the industrious dwarves turned themselves to matters of defense. In particular, the winding and treacherous track which traditionally had connected The Brass Tower with the great fortess-city of Khor-Naland was graded, leveled and widened, requiring many a mountainside to be cunningly cut away and many a treacherous crevasse bridged or filled in. But at last a proper road connected Ulhiya to Mikoru.
Attendant upon these changes was a hefty investment in the number of scribes and scholar-priests employed by the Forgemaster, though few could see any immediate improvements. While the Forgemaster stood ready in Ulhiya with the dwarven host about him, his heir Belak betook himself to Qiya and Dürn to reinforce their garrisons, then to Hruma’ru, where with gifts of fine gold and with clever words he wooed the prince of that region to allegiance with the Empire. The Dwarf-lord Balkin tried similar blandishments with the lords of Kamandi, but while they remained staunch allies, they refused to bend the knee to Norrim. |
The Elven Empire of Sengkar –
Ruler –Emperor Valoril Greenshield
Capital – Ezrand
Dominant Race – Elf
Diplomacy – Radhrost [A], Kibeyes [-], Ozhayar [-]
| Though farther removed from the Yurahtam Horde, the elves of Sengkar were no less mindful of peril than their neighbors and so Emperor Valoril ordered up a thousand fine coursers and a thousand fine riders to add to his Imperial Guard at Ezrand. Meanwhile, the farmlands around Ezrand continued to expand in beauty and fertility with the addition of five lovely new springs which fed the soil and golden stalks of grain.
While Valoril ruled from Ezrand, his son and heir Prince Namaril the Hunter traveled with the main Sengkar army to Radhrost, where he overawed the Green-Elves of the river into declaring an alliance with the Empire. His cousin Princess Gahaliel and the elf-lord Talan of Mita were neither of them gifted speakers and their presences (aloof and arrogant, respectively) only irritated their hosts in Kibeyes and Ozhayar. Janriel, Princess of Kyelepe put forth her power to summon the Green actively into the plants and gardens of her home region, increasing its meager yield significantly. |
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The Valraj –
Ruler –Sultan Valoon of the White Knives
Capital – Muddakir
Dominant Race – Human
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Sultan Valoon recruited six hundred elite ghandoori footguards to defend Muddakir, and from the hills around the city carefully watched the approaches with suspicion. His son Jameel continued to live a life of excess, entertaining nobility foreign and domestic at lavish parties in the capital.
The rice fields of Luud were enhanced with handsome silos and an efficient system of terraces, dikes and pools. Valoon’s great friend Fayed, the Emir of Tanoxus, joined him in a careful watch on the borders. |
The Kingdom of Weshtayo –
| Ruler –King Nokrome, Red-Feathered Lord Capital – Khulank Dominant Race – Human |
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| King Nokrome ruled his hot jungle lands from within the cool recesses of the ancient palace at Khulank. He demanded that more trade be sent along the coast to the dwarven outpost at Dürn. The deft metalwork and exquisite jewelry produced by the stocky traders was currently in very high demand among the tall and regal ladies of the Wesht court.
Black-Feathered Lord Ahkeena assembled a force of three thousand warriors and marched north through Tresalet to invade Osaru. The Osaru tribes met Ahkeena in open battle with a force roughly half the size of his, but with a far greater knowledge of the terrain and with support of the local people. Ahkeena’s force was beaten in two straight battles over the course of ten days and was forced to fall back before the angry spears of Osaru, returning to Tresalet and leaving nearly a thousand men on the field. In an unsual move, Black-Feathered Lord Lanza was given the governorship of both Khulank and Rendulha. He managed to do a little good in each city, assembling an efficient market in the capital and organizing a popular public festival in Rendulha. |
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The Imperial Realm of Zikuyu –
Ruler –Emrpess Neela
Capital – Ivallkyu
Dominant Race – Human
Diplomacy – Chru [-], Hriteke [EA]
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Queen Huwarra the Resplendent spent lavishly on the beauty and health of Qash and Zalu, summoning the finest architects and craftsmen to ensure the royal lands were not only fertile but picturesque as well. Then she traveled to Chru, hoping to bind that region more closely to her rule. It was in Chru in 2802 that she received the word that her favorite lover and the titular father of her children, Prince-Consort Seeyala had died in Ivallkyu of a raging fever. The lovely queen went into a mourning from which she would never emerge, for she herself fell ill the following spring and was dead within months. Her mission to Chru went unfulfilled.
Huwarra’s sixteen-year-old daughter Neela succeeded her in a lavish pageant, but most whispered that while the daughter possessed much of her mother’s beauty, she lacked the charm that had made Huwarra nearly a living goddess among her people. Since all Zikuyu queens need a titular consort, Neela married her thirteen-year-old brother Zanwee at the same time. |
Lord Qeemoy, now a comparatively old man at twenty-nine, traveled to Hriteke and convinced the lords of that region to enter into profitable economic agreements with the Empire.
The allied lord of Urrides died childless in 2801. The chiefs of Urrides argued for months before replacing him with a young and fiery successor who was much cooler toward the alliance that his predecessor, though he stopped short of repudiating his feudal obligations to his Empress.
The Kingdom of Tas Dar –
Ruler –King Adier
Capital – Darious
Dominant Race – Human
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King Miakil and his cousin Adier rode out from Darious to visit Sendor, prince of Lhoren Dar. Miakil proposed to marry Narouda, Sendor’s daughter, thus making Sendor royalty and cementing the loyalties of his house to that of Miakil. The marriage was performed in the great temple of Lhoren Dar in 2803.
Alas, Miakil ate far too many of Lhoren Dar’s famous oysters and died of a sweating fever that very night. There were immediate cries of poison and treason, but Sendor denied any motivation to kill his new liege and took an oath of fealty to Adier. Together, the two returned to Darious to press Adier’s claim to the throne and the royal guard recognized Adier as King in 2804. |
The Despotism of Torquas –
Ruler –Despot Maugh the Wise
Capital – None
Dominant Race – Orc
Torquan Soldier |
Maugh’s plan was simple – overrun the enemy and take his stuff. Funny thing about plans… (See The Torquas War, below) |
The Kingdom of Ukanve –
Ruler –King Damwen
Capital – Ukanve
Dominant Race – Human
Damwen’s plan was, if possible, simpler than Maugh’s: Build a big fortified camp and fight for his nation’s life. While he fought there, his allies in Hyrdrsha were raided by Meneen.
(See The Torquas War, below)
The Torquas War
Maugh and his Torquan orcs hired one thousand orcish mercenary cavalry, bringing their army to five thousand (not counting eight thousand slaves and four thousand non-combatant Torquans). Damwen likewise hired human mercenaries. Only he hired two thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry, bringing his army to seven thousand. Likewise, many field forts were built to slow the Torquan advance. The orcs had more cavalry, more light troops and more elite troops, but the humans had better and more generals and were able to count on the support of the local peasants. It was enough.
The two armies met in a corn field later called the Field of Vantek. Maugh was astonished at the human’s numbers – he had understood this to be a small and defenseless collection of hovels, yet the king’s army nearly outnumbered the Torquan nation. The clash occurred on a frigid and soggy day in early spring and lasted all day. But by the time the sun set, the orcish army had broken into full-out flight and their many slaves were in full escape (though the attacking humans hardly distinguished between orcish warrior and orcish slave.
Months later, Maugh was able to reassemble a ghost of his former army in the jungles of Nyelru, but the assault on Ukanve was over.
The Grand Duchy of Meneen –
Ruler –Grand Duke Salene
Capital – Yaz Meneen
Dominant Race – Elf
Diplomacy – Uthor Gil [FA]
The Grand Duke oversaw plans to build a fleet of new heavy transports at Yaz Meneen, then departed for Ayma Vas, where he summoned the spirits of plant and earth to slow down any possible invasion through the woodlands of Olvia. Then, he hied himself off to Uthor Gil for several years of hunting and hawking in the mountain vales, where he became close to the lord of that region.
Duke Feantë set to sea with a fleet of forty sleek swanships. He and his crew raided the lands around the Rendej sound, including Kim Taba, Hyrdrsha and Tercre. King Damwen of Ukanve sent a note of protest to Yaz Meneen over the raid in Hyrdrsha which was blithely ignored by the Grand Duke.
UKELE –
The Emerald Realm of Lekandi –
Ruler – King Galens Eagleheart
Capital – Suwelho
Dominant Race – Elf
Diplomacy – Gyanlay [-], Akufiki [-]
Fortifications were built in Lekandi, along with the planting of several of the moako’, or hearttrees to watch over the health of the crops. King Galen recruited a thousand ghostdancers, silent archers famous for their skill in the jungle. He cast a mighty enchantment on Fikosha (See The Restored Empire of Fikosha, below). He then spent the balance of the years struggling to create a census of his people’s wealth while his son Messans suspicioulsy watched the western borders.
Prince Juelans traveled to Akufiki and the city of Gyanlay in order to convince the lords of those realms to swear fealty to Galens, but his offhand and overhasty approach impressed no one, and no change was wrought in the political situation.
Prince Frikki was given the governorship of the capital, but he proved to be a venal and selfish elf with little interest in public service beyond the opportunity to line his own pockets with the national treasure.
The Restored Empire of Fikosha –
Ruler – Slaartor the Golden
Capital – Upashan
Dominant Race – Sathla
Diplomacy – Mitjurraw [A]
Emperor Slaartor released his vast hoard of jewels to pay for the greening of Fikosha. Silos, barns and many new plantations were built across the region, attracting many settlers, workers and soldiers to his cause.
His cousins Flurg and Hisstor traveled to Mitjurraw and there spoke with great energy to the chiefs of the region. Hisstor also prospered from a mystic glamour he wore that gave his words greater weight and importance. In the end, the sathla of Mitjurraw swore an oath of close friendship with the Empire.
All other Fikoshan leaders carefully watched the eastern border. Almost, they went precipitously to war when the plants, trees and the very earth of Fikosha erupted in a riot of writhing, snatching, heaving life, making farming difficult and travel onerous. Everyone knew this was the work of the evil king of the elves, lurking in his eastern caves and always plotting malice against the honest sathla. Slaartor’s generals called for war, but the wise Emperor restrained them. It wasn’t time…yet.
Rumors from Elsewhere –
The elves of Celendor defeated a vast horde of horsemen in the Lower Wolf River Valley.
Rumors have emerged from Threns of a strange engine unearthed in the hills of Madarah that seems to contain unearthly energies. It is said to be protected by four dragons made of lightning.
GM’s Tip #5 –
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.
AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS WITH EFFECTIVE INFILTRATION!
Infiltration of the enemy. It is one of the most powerful and little-used tools in the game. A thorough infiltration can work as a “force multiplier”, making other Intel and Assassin ops more effective against that enemy. Just as importantly, it can provide invaluable insight into what the enemy (or an uncertain ally) is doing behind closed doors (or along your borders).
Requirements – The most important requirement to even have a chance of infiltrating the enemy is that the capital of the target nation must be within your Action Range. See your turnsheet for your Action Range (AR). The capital can be no more Action Points (AP) away from a region or city you control than that in order to effectively infiltrate. It is therefore impossible to infiltrate distant enemies.
Levels of Infiltration – Each successful attempt to infiltrate an enemy sector will result in some increased level of Infiltration. A level of 10 is a thorough penetration of that sector. High levels give bonuses to further Intel and Assassin ops appropriate to that sector. At level 10, you receive a portion of the enemy stat sheet.
Types of Inflitration – You can infiltrate any one of five different enemy sectors (Population, Government, Military, Royal Family, Intelligence).
Population – The easiest sector to infiltrate. It does not provide any stat sheet information, but does give bonuses to Cause Unrest, Incite Rebellion and Religious Conversion attempts.
Government – Intermediate difficulty to infiltrate. Provides the whole stat sheet. Gives bonuses to Assault Organization.
Military – Intermediate difficulty to infiltrate. Provides only the Armies and regions list. Gives bonuses to Cause Mutiny.
Royal Family – Difficult to infiltrate. Provides the whole stat sheet. Gives bonuses to Subvert Leader, Kidnap leader, Kill Leader (not king).
Intelligence –Difficult to infiltrate. Provides the whole stat sheet. Gives bonuses to Counter Intel and Destroy Intel Base.
Factors Affecting the Success of an Infiltration:
Positive Modifiers include:
- Enemy is lower Tech than you
- Additional AP spent.
- Additional GP spent.
- Intel Ops bonuses spent.
Negative Modifiers include:
- Counter Ops performed by enemy
- Enemy is a different race
- Enemy is a different religion
- Enemy speaks a different language
- Enemy is higher tech level than you
Maintain Infiltration – Infiltrations are not eternal. They must be maintained or they wither and fail. Therefore, the number of Intel actions a nation can perform places a limit on the number of infiltrations it can maintain. Ignore maintenance at your peril – your spies may turn on you!
Counter Infiltration – This action seeks to protect your nation against infiltrations against you that occur that turn. It does not discover infiltrations already in existence.
Purge Infiltration – This is a violent means to end enemy infiltrations of your own nation. It will usually result in harm to yourself, whether or not it successfully purges the infiltration.
Subvert Infiltration – If you have identified an enemy infiltration of one of your own sectors (via the Reveal Fact order or by accident), you may attempt to turn the infiltration to your own advantage by turning the same spies against your enemy. Very nasty, if it works!
Page Completed 4 May 2006