Kiern Vale Handbook
Chapter 1: Introduction and History
of Melestra
Prologue | The History of Melestra
|Kiern Vale and its
surroundings |Timeline
|
Kiern Vale and its Surroundings at the start of the
campaign This
section describes the situation in the recommended zone for starting players
and the lands surrounding it in year 598 to the En’mirian
Calander (EC), 50 years after the great shattering, which is considered “the
present” in the game and world guides. Til’mirlen harbor and its surroundings (the province of Til’maris) Remnants
of the once great harbor city, with many of its ruins still submerged in the
sea. The city now serves as the stronghold of the regent of the Grey Rose,
Lady Los’erlin, who is raising and training the
Grey Rose’s son. The regent lady strives to stabilze
and enforce order on the western part of Tilmarn
peninsula, fixing the old trade roads and paving new ones. After some years
of struggle, she is now enforcing order in nearly the whole of the Til’maris province. However,
Til’maris is yet full of problems and dangers. The
great shattering laid waste to its once fertile farmlands, leaving them
wind-swept badlands; some forests, swamps and chasms are still crawling with
monsters and hostile men, and the regent lady’s forces are smaller than
needed, and her former successes fall short of her desires – especially since
she started to glance east, to the neighboring Kiern Vale. Moreover,
internal disputes within the Grey Rose forces and the departure of some of
her best troops, not only impacted the regent lady’s plans, but also herself
in person. Still,
the regent lady is determined to expand her influence eastwards, and to
achieve this, she plans to embark a journey to Kiern Vale, bringing the young
heir with her, to persuade the Vale’s nobles to swear allegiance to him. The Kingdome of Orm’theril
(“The Grey Principality”) This
ancient kingdom, sprawling far to the north-east of Kiern Vale, on the other
side of the vast Karansil mountains, was the center
of a unique culture and fascinating legends long before the En’mirian occupation. Under the empire’s rule, Orm’theril was reduced to a vassal kingdom, governed
through collaboration between the ancient house of high princes, the local
nobility and the priestesses of the Grey Reflection. The land was renowned
for its amazing landscape and the exceptional horses bred there. Following
the Great Shattering with its imperial overlord entering terminal decline,
the Kingdom was left adrift to go its own way. Three decades ago - two
decades after the Great Shattering, , a brutal internal conflict erupted,
stemming from a growing feud between the high prince and the ancient noble
houses of the mountainous region called Upper Theril.
This war, called “The second Therilin Rebellion”
was won by the prince's loyalists only after a merciless intervention of two
former En’mirian legions that were still stationed
near the edge of the kingdom. During
this war and its aftermath, a disaster befell the land itself. A malignancy
contaminated large swaths of the once fertile lands in Central Orm’theril,
turning them into a cracked rocky wasteland, in which only strange mushrooms
and toxic lichens thrived, leading many of the magnificent horse herds to
perish. The skeletal remains of the once proud creatures are still scattered
near the remains of the abandoned, fungus crawling farms and villages. Now,
the nobles, grand merchants and the high prince's court contend for the
remaining fertile lands, while armed convoys struggle through the dead plains
towards the vanquished lands of upper Theril and
other strongholds on the kingdom’s borders.
In
recent years, a peculiar scholar named Tirenfel has
gained great influence. In the eyes of many, the newly appointed “High
Scholar” has turned the young high prince into a puppet, spreading a strange
belief in the high court and beyond it. This new belief, called “The great
dogma” revolves around a wholly imaginary abominable race of ancient ape-men
called “Gabutu”: those supposed beings seemingly
infiltrated the race of men in ancient times, tainting the blood of most
humans. Be it from this reason or other, Orm’theril
and its high prince are now engaged in a decisive struggle against the Regent
of the Grey Rose and the peace treaty between her and the servants of the
Blue Reflection in Karansil ridge, seeing the
latter as cowards and betrayers. Vartharon (“The yellow forest”) This
large region to the south of Kiern Vale and Karansil
mountains, sometimes also called “The whipped woods”, is a large forest, with
most of its parts dominated by strange thorny trees called “Spear trees”. In
its southern border, the forest wanes and cascade into an exposed, wind
struck and monster infested steppe. This barren land sprawls south, until it
falls in a series of formidable cliffs into a toxic dead coast, where the
once great harbor city of Rorfoll was struck with
poisonous Tsunami in the Great Shattering. Many of the former people of this
city had since risen as horrifying undead, covered with toxic algae and
radiating venomous fumes. The
Forest itself is a wild, perilous land, rife with dangers old and new, in
addition to internal tensions. In addition to the undead threat from the
south and the local monsters which became bolder since the Great Shattering, tensions have risen between local forces (some of them
using criminals to extend their power) and the remnants of the Third Golden
Legion. In
addition, another deadly threat has descended upon the area: The residents of
the once magnificent city of Winter Gate on the mountains overlooking the
forests from the north-east, were massacred by a merciless druidic cult
called “The red snow cult”. Members of this cult were capable of changing
their shape into fierce wild animals, and wield powerful spells. This was the
start of a ruthless war that raged all over the Vartharon
forest, until a temporary alliance between the third golden legion and local
forces defeated the red snow cult in the great battle of Kutrakin.
The remnants of the cult retreated into the cursed ruins of Winter Gate,
where they turned upon each other – though other remnants of the red snow
still haunt different parts of Vartharon. Today,
Tensions are still high in Varthron Forest. The
Third Golden Legion, still led by its elderly ruthless pre-shattering
war-lady commander, wage war not only against invading undead from the south
and the remnants of the red snow cult, but also against the looming threat of
the Grey Rose extremists dwelling in Nol-Darath to the south east. Karansil Ridge Karansil
is the mountainous region rising to the east of Kiern Vale, covering much of
the central parts of the Tilmarn peninsula. It
contains deep and rich mines, including rare gemstone veins which were of
great importance to the En’mirian empire. Over the
mountain paths, fortresses and Temples can be found, serving as bases for the
loyalists of the Blue Reflection, including the order of the frost knights –
the Karansiri – the same order that repelled the
forces of the Grey Rose in the battle of Lin Morlith,
dealing them their first true defeat. Decades
later, the grand master of the same order and the elder blue priestess of Karansil, signed the controversial peace treaty with the
regent lady of the Grey Rose. It is rumored that they had motivations other
than the obvious to undertake this step. Danger lurks deep beneath the
mountains, posing a growing threat to the mines and the Blue Reflection’s
loyalists under intensifying threat. The Rocklings – savage humanoid who were
the foes of the local humans since ancient times, multiply in the dark caverns
and press the Frost knights and the blue priestesses harder and harder as the
years pass; and rumors now speak about other, even darker foes. To
make matters worse, a rift had grown in recent years between the Blue
Reflection loyalists and their former ally – the kingdom of Orm’theril. The knights and priestess of Karansil make no efforts to conceal their belief that
entire grey principality has gone stark raving mad,
and has wholly embraced delusional stories about the impure blood of monkeys,
rather than facing up to real threats and doing their part to deal with them.
In the eyes of the newfound order of scholars which dominate Orm’theril and many nobles and others which follow them,
the dwellers of Karansil became traitors the moment
they signed peace with the heir of Grey Rose and thus “allowed this lowly Gabutu-blood bred by the great rebel to exist”. Kiern Vale (Recommended starting zone) A
Fertile valley stretching from the western foothills the Karansil
mountains to the rocky ridge which separates it from the plains surrounding
the port of Til’mirlen to the west. Despite its
central location, the vale was almost untouched the Great Shattering itself,
and was isolated and mostly forgotten by the outside world for decades,
except for occasional trade caravans. The
initial years after the Great Shattering were times of chaos, mainly caused
by waves of refugees fleeing from Til’maris in the
west, and the vast Urgaka region (which rapidly
twisted into marshlands, later becoming dominated by fierce tribes of Ogres,
led by a deadly sorcer-prince) in the north. The
last imperial prefect of Kiern Vale struggled to address the various
conflicts, but several of his actions were unpopular, and some of the great
failures of the time were – rightly or wrongly – attributed to him. About
five years after the Great Shattering, the prefect and his entire family were
brutally murdered by assassins, whose identity has never been revealed. Since
then, the remnants of the imperial administration collapsed, leaving the vale without central rule. The only
‘ruler’ left is a loose council, whose members include the four major local
nobles, the commander of the legion which defends the mountain passes leading
to the Urgaka marshlands, one blue priestess with
fading powers, and a stubborn chieftain of an ancient shepherd tribe. Two
generations have passed, and Kiern Vale has become accustomed to life without
any strong central administration. Tension rose from time to times between
the rival En’mirians and Far’lil
human races, though most people lived in a relative peace. The refugees from
outside the vale slowly and painfully integrated with the local population,
accepting a reduction of status and life as lower caste laborers and
peasants. However,
after nearly four relatively quiet decades, the outside world is beginning to
“awaken” and spread its influence into Kiern Vale. It’s not only the
increasing tension on the borders, including ongoing conflicts and growing
threats from the Ogres of Urgaka to the north, and
their humanoids subject races. Political
debates and tensions, long dormant, were stirred following the peace treaty
between the Blue Reflection loyalists and the Grey Rose regent lady. The
ongoing effort of the regent lady to directly influence the potentially annex
Kiern Vale had raised dire concerns (and hopes in the hearts of others).
While some of the locals welcome such a change, especially given the looming
threats which intensified over recent years, others vehemently oppose it. And
the local council now, for the first time since its founding, stands on the
verge of collapsing in acrimony.
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Kiern Vale guide
Created and edited by Gideon Orbach (2017) © All rights
reserved. Commercial use and/or any profit-making purpose is strictly
prohibited without explicit permission from the creator, in writing and in
advance. Noncommercial/personal use with no profit aim is allowed (and even
recommended!)