Berastus, The Land Time Scours Away
Introduction
Welcome, friends, to the continent of Berastus; a worn and weary land. Time runs like a river, laying down the site of empires long past across its banks. The recent peoples of this land have just barely recovered petty but devastating conflicts. Long gone are the days of the legendary heroes: The Five, powerful individuals from the time of your grandfather’s grandfather’s; those folk that put a halt to the TREMORS.
That time, some say, was caused by the Giants awakening from their slumber, driven to reclaim their empire whose bones still lay around us. Other’s claimed the gods themselves were angered, driven by mortal sin to drive the land into the Earth beneath them.
Whatever it was, five legendary heroes from different cultures and backgrounds embarked on a quest into the unknown; that eastern region of Berastus known as The Frontier. The continent is split you see; a mighty mountain range runs from north to south. The western wilderness, known, The Frontier, remains, even now, an untamed land; filled with arcane ruins, strange peoples, and horrifying monsters. It was into those lands that The Five traveled.
None know what they encountered there, for they would not speak of it upon their return. Rumors whispered that they found terrible magicks to stop the calamity. They didn't stay long either, spending mere months at the longest before parting ways. Years later, some returned to gather more followers and resources. But within a decade, they had disappeared for good. Leaving behind all they knew and traveling once more into The Frontier. They are now venerated as near demi-gods across the lands.
Generations passed, and the unity and cooperation fostered during that time gave way to resentments. The grand-sons and grand-daughters of the original hero's generation succumbed to the fires of youth, igniting petty conflicts that soon spiraled out of control.
For five long years war raged across the west until all factions involved were driven to exhaustion, forced to stop the fighting and rebuild; cowering in their own territories as the wilds around them pressed against their drained strength, the west is only less dangerous in contrast to the east you see, and the peoples of this time were almost snuffed out in the rising tide of internal threats.
And now, here we are, amidst a generation raised on stories of valor and martial exploit, but also burdened by the scars and grievances from that terrible conflict. Moreover, the ground has begun to shake, an ominous sign known only to the oldest greybeards. Ignored by those in power, for now, as mere happenstance or imagination, none seem to realize what lies ahead.
Yet, destiny begins to weave its threads once more, and some people have found their purpose, although they might not know it yet.
Individuals, desperate or seeking self-discovery, find themselves drawn to the borders of The Frontier. Some arrive, hoping to forget themselves, some wish to hide, while others still seek to discover their potential.
We begin on a road, a dirt path really, outside of a small farming hamlet; Milik's Hill, the farthest east holding of The Kingdom of Ja'ccent and forgotten backwater on the edge of The Frontier. Here several individuals have chosen to take a walk in search of fine timber to fell for a personal project...
Those that Came Before:
The current age of history has lasted just over a century-and-a-half. However, this period of time, extended by the efforts of THE FIVE, does not represent the totality of the history that has been written across Berastus. The current political forces have arisen upon a strata of previous kingdoms and peoples that themselves rose and fall in their own time.
As far as the learned folk of the continent have been able to tell from delving into ruins and talking with those survivors that are still around the previous ages consisted of:
- The eldest folk were the Giants, it is said that at the dawn of history they fought against the dragons and the elemental lords for rulership of the continent. Their enormous ruins still tower over the works of the peoples that came after. Their kingdom reined from around 1,000 years in the past to around 700 years ago (for around 320 years or there about) and spread across all across the lands.
- Following the giants, in the catastrophically dangerous lands that followed, the next peoples to gain hold were the elven kingdoms. Beginning in the cover of the deep forests several different courts of elves slowly began to push back the chaos. For four hundred years these courts spun webs across the continent slowly pulling their sight and efforts inward into political struggle instead of pushing back the dark, until the wolves at the gates proved to strong and their power was broken. (Elves → Forest ~ 400 years)
- That is not to say that there were not other people in the land during the elves time. There were many small communities spread across those places of safety that could be dug out. Embers in the dark that were too often snuffed out. Following the breaking of the elven courts power, to the west, a collection of towns and cities banded together for common protection and interest. Mostly human and halflings they built a kingdoms, smaller in size but a tough nut to crack that stood for 80 years.
- Humans & Dwarves → prior to the five kingdoms there was an alliance of Humans and Dwarves. They built strongholds in the mountain that run down the center of Berastus supported by villages and farming communities on the plains below. This alliance seems to have lasted, again, for 80 years.
- Mixed Peoples → The Kingdoms of the West, these are the people of the current era that ear has lasted for that last 160 years, or so.
The Western Kingdoms
There are currently, on the continent, five major organizations of geo-political power. Although the details differ between these groups - wildly; for the purpose of the following text the word "Kingdom" will be used as a catch-all term for these groups and structures.
The general tech level of this continent is somewhere around mid-late 14th century western Europe.
- Gambeson / Padded Jacks
- Brigandine
- Jack of Plates
- Coat of Plates
- Mail / Hauberk
- Full Plate ( Rare and expensive)
The Kingdom of Ja'ccent
The South-East Kingdom: "A Feudal Land"
The southern portion of the continent is the most fair when it comes to the weather and also the richest when it comes to flora, fauna, and natural resources. There are, however, many dangers that come along with this. It is indeed incorrect to think of the The Kingdom of Ja'ccent in terms of an un-broken area of land, enclosed by the boarders they claim and draw on their maps.
It is instead a series of islands, a string of small pockets of safety in a dangerous world, outside of the 'civilization' or the kingdom monsters and other threat are constant dangers. There are nations within nations inside the kingdom's boarders; be they orc war-bands or kobold nests or many other such sentient peoples fighting for their own sovereignty.
Much of the land itself is unexplored, the safer routes between cities and towns are know but, there are countless remnants and ruins of those that came before, calling out to brave adventurers to strike out and find them.
The kingdom is deeply feudal, the King granting land to his nobles: Dukes, Counts, Barons and Knights in a web of martial obligation that has served to keep the folk safe from the dangers that lurk all around them, as well as advance the kingdoms interest on foreign soil.
The usable and safer land is surveyed and measured in terms of a number of "Knight’s Fees"; that is the number of fully combat capable knights that it can support, usually along with a half-score of foot soldiers (archers, spear people or sometimes cavalry folk) and the resources to support that trope on campaign.
Originally, the entire nobility took to the field in the capacity of their oath, but as the power of the core of the kingdom crystallized more and more of this military duty is being hired out to underlings or mercenaries, the oath do not specify that a noble must serve themselves, just furnish the appropriate solidary when called by their liege.
A finally note, a "Knight" need not referee directly to plate armored fighter, indeed often there is many a tale of "Knights" calling forth the arcane magics or the powers of their god to serve the kingdom; it is a title not a prescription of one’s fighting style.
The City of Lillendale
To the south-east of The Kingdom of Ja'ccent lies the city of Lillendale. Although not the seat of the Ja'ccent crown, it it one of the most powerful cities in the kingdom.
As a coastal city, Lillendale has access to rich sources of fish, found just off it's shores. The city also has a large Limestone Quarry in it's bailiwick as well as rich forests; the type filled with suitable timbers for building structures, all surrounding it's walls.
In addition to these natural riches the city is known for it's training of a particular brand of knights wielding arcane forces (The Spellblade Houses) as well as a more classic school of arcane mage-craft: The House of the Zaffre Eye.
Those with an arcane persuasion also might know that the Limestone queries of the city, beyond the produce's use as mundane a building material, are shoot through with veins of Viraxan. This magical mineral is often used in the production of magical items and as a catch-all and wildcard component for powerful spells and rituals.
The South-West Kingdom: "Confederations, City States, & Merchants — 'The Billionaires'"
This kingdom contains in it’s hill and mountain range the city of Astraustis (Piltover crossed with Minas Tirith with a little bit of Ba Sing Se thrown in). The city is ruled by a council of Oligarchs, each of witch control districts. These districts tend to be specialized in their purposes (industrial output or reason for existing eg. a market district). The districts tend to become more "rich" as they climb the mountain side that the city is built into with the poor push to slums in the hills at the base of the city.
The Northern Kingdom: "The Water People"
This land is made up of Fjords to the north and swampy marshland and wetlands to the south, there is quite a few small rivers and streams that flow down from the snowy peaks of the northern central mountain range of the continent.
The North-East Kingdom: "Mountains and Plains"
A land of two faces, one a windswept land of low barren steppes, mild hills raising the terrain above the numerous rivers and stream that wind towards the cost. And the raw jagged mountains of the north. The people of this land are mostly nomads horse bound in the plains and sure-footed shepherds and goatherders in the mountains, leading their flocks between sheltered meadows in the mountains and the ice-feed lakes high in that land.
The Central Kingdom: "Bellicose Warrior Houses"
Eventually the steppes of the north become a more varied landscape often defined by the north and south of the [] river a huge, ice feed, and sluggish boy of water 10 meters wide on average but with wider sections to the west and a treacherous canyon to the east, closer to the mountains.
There is in this land a group of people bound together by a shared martial tradition. The land in the center of the continent is poor in resources, under threat of constant raids from the north and the target of machinations by the southern oligarchs, outside interest have clashed in battle many times in this land and the people who call it home have always been involved.
They raise warriors, their main export is soldiers and mercenaries, in companies to the south and individuals to the north, the individuals serve as bodyguards and honor dualists to all forms of peoples. The few cities that stand in the region are fortresses first and places of mortal comfort a far, far second.
This land is ruled by a set of warrior houses, each house an extended bloodline; with a complex set of traditions and customs governing membership that changes from house to house. Typically each city has a primary house with other houses in the city owing them fealty and it is the prime houses that come together and engage in "The Choosing" to choose the "War-lord" of the people, the ultimate arbiter but not really a king, a war-leader and judge.