The Vansin
Genius
The Realm War has raged like a great fire and, like all fires, it has finally cooled. The peace it was meant to create, however, lasted only briefly. The Viking lords fell almost to a man, bankrupting themselves in a civil war which left few highborn survivors. The Al'Pyr vanished entirely, though whether by deity or sorcery or slaughter, no one is sure. Osgal has fallen. The southern powers are no more. Only the reformed Liberation Union, renamed the Die Freiheit Sortieren, ekes on after the chaos.
There are dangers abound in the new world. Whispers of a terrible power rooted in the mountains, the surfacing of great beasts and legendary monsters in the deep wilds, and the appearance of inhuman creatures in the final days of war are only some of the concerns these new people will have to contend with.
The Realm War was merely a preface, the story begins now.
[Please use the provided map for reference. This thread will contain all stories told in Hearthland. For ease of use, please note the hex your character is in at the top of each of your posts.]
0700: The Featherhills - These rolling hills sport the nests of proud hippogriffs. These vicious, near untameable beasts make their lairs atop the highest hills, allowing them to survey their territories as though kings. Indeed, hippogriffs are intelligent enough to understand concepts of pride, honor and deference, despite having no more capacity for language than the common dog. Trespass into a Hippogriff's territory with extreme caution.
0801: Capital The Acropolis - This empty city promises all the wealth and status of antiquity. With massive aqueducts funneling water from local streams, colossal buildings made to hold lavish games and ceremonies, and a labyrinth of stone and wooden hovels, this city is all the splendor and exuberance of times long past. It has access to healthy forests. The commoners who live here have no lord, and subsist day-to-day.
Currently Occupied By - N/A
1201: ??? - Tales tell of a terrible beast who lurks deep in the forests of the northern island. The common folk of the Acropolis call it the Green Serpent, though few have ever seen this massive beast and lived to tell the tale. Those who have died shortly afterwards of terrible acidic burns all over their bodies.
1103: Town Barcan - A hotly contested village during the Realm War, Barcan finally came under the ultimate control of the Osgals after their warriors wrested it from the Keijo forces. Its capture marked a turning point in the eastern war, eventually leading to the fall of the Keijo Empire. It's easy to see why. With access to a variety of useful resources, Barcan was an ideal holding for the seafaring and mercantile Osgal people.
1205: Capital Tarnosa on the Island - Tarnosa was a socially and technologically advanced city whose people valued progress and invention over all else. Tinkerers and explores to the extreme, Tarnosans eagerly explored the world in their superior ships and made war with all the careful calculation of mathematicians, which their generals often were. Their support of the barbaric Al'Pyr in the Realm War guaranteed them dominion over the east, and their prized island. However after the Al'Pyr's disappearance, Tarnosa's high society collapsed in the absence of any partners in trade. Now, the ruined capital is home to a sparse few hundred peasants.
1207: The Eastern Ruins - No one knows what culture once reigned here, but they had a love for gold and extravagant wealth, animal headed gods, and slave labor. The riches in this ruins are rivaled only by the unparalleled danger lurking within. It is said that the bodies of the slain knights, lords and god-kings of this fallen empire guard their treasures even still.
0508: The Anthills - Would that mere ants were the menace of these hills, yet the portals which have brought so much civilization and culture to Hearthland have also allowed a far more sinister race to establish its foothold: Formians. These creatures, an abhorrent mix of man and ant, range in size based on their caste. The diminutive worker drones stand as tall as children and work wonders with their dexterous hands. Warrior drones stand taller than most men and wield evil lances. Other castes exists, some which can fly, some which can enslave the minds of their foes and, most gruesome of all, there exists one titanic queen who lairs deep below the earth. Her powers are said to be beyond human understanding.
0409: Town The Southern Village - This village sports a small collection of people. Without a lord, their day to day life consists of little more than subsisting. They struggle daily to repel the dangerous Formians, local bandits, and all other manner of wild incursions.
0403: Capital Jorgamundr Castle - This castle was one of the first abandoned places in Hearthland. The Clan Jorgamundr won great victories during the Realm War from this solid castle, but left the realm in pursuit of other conquests, leaving the small Viking kingdom vacant of lords. The castle is still maintained and kept by a small army of commoners, who retreat into it at the first sign of danger. They are an undisciplined and uneasy force, however.
0503: Town Jorvik - This village was formerly held by the Vikings after their conquest of the northwest. Now it is ruled by a weak town council, though its commerce still remains strong due to wealthy gem and gold mines at the foot of nearby mountains.
0204: Town Suthrngate - This village saw considerable traffic during the Realm War when Viking warriors used it as a springboard to bombard their Highlander foes to the south with army after army. The Highlanders refused to break, so Suthrngate remained the southern border of the Viking kingdom. Now it is a vital trade route. It is ruled by caravan merchants and customs officers, who collect taxes to fill their pockets and hire out unsavory mercenaries to "guard" traders.
0702: The Northern Ruins - These abandoned ruins acted as a Viking outpost during the Realm War, but whatever loot remained there was mostly taken with the Vikings when they left. Now, it hosts only a few deranged squatters.
0405: The Western Ruins - Occasionally used as a resting place for caravans coming south, these ruins sport a few shops and farmers, who have done their best to eek out a living providing for travelers.
0304: ??? - No one who ventures into these mountains come out. No one. It is clear that something powerful and vicious lurks in these mountains, though who or what this menace is none can say...
0305: Capital Burg Hohenzollern - At the end of the Realm War, the Highlanders of this castle found that their successive defenses against the Vikings had left them alarmingly depleted. They prepared to abandon their castle, injured but undefeated, when they were fortuitously restored to power under the Die Freiheit Sortieren, a like-minded military power who had come seeking Hearthland to begin their own free society.The two cultured blended with little conflict, resulting in the sole stable castle of the west.
0605: Capital Kilnmouth - Kilnmouth is a massive castle carved into the side of an active volcano. It is considered by many to be cursed. When the Al'Pyr vanished, stories were quick to surface telling of a catastrophe which annihilated the race. Some attribute it to an angry god, others to the Royal Family, who also vanished at the same time. It is likely anyone will ever know their true fate. The only truth that matters is that the Al'Pyr are gone, and as the world moves on, only their fiery mountain home will mourn their passing.
0805: Town Ruined Village - The Al'Pyr did not create settlements, they created ruins. This village is a collection of bones and blackened earth. Superstitions aside, the violent scorching of all wooden structures has left the land burned, but fertile. A new settlement could be raised here and might prosper. This particular village originally belonged to the Keijo Empire, a short lived power from early in the Realm War. This ruined village was one of the first to be destroyed.
0506: Town Ruined Village - The Al'Pyr did not create settlements, they created ruins. This village is a collection of bones and blackened earth. Superstitions aside, the violent scorching of all wooden structures has left the land burned, but fertile. A new settlement could be raised here and might prosper. This particular village originally belonged to the Fedayeen, the last power to fall to the Al'Pyr in the Realm War.
0706: The Southern Ruins - Unlike the devastation left by the Al'Pyr, these ruins still stand thanks to their stone construction. They seem to reflect an ancient civilization who worshiped and made sacrifice to a god of cold and winter, in a time long before the desert to the east existed. The ruins are serene but haunting, and few people stay for long.
0807: Capital Ruined Capital - Once called Mukhamas, the empty stone castle the Al'pyr hollowed out with their fires was the victim of internal secession as much as it was external attacks. Leaders rose only to be killed by their own men, or more rarely Al'Pyr commanders. Always religion was at the heart of these fallen people's motives. Each new ruler was a strong and charismatic man who, nonetheless, seemed incapable of forming a coherent strategy to protect its borders. The mighty Al'Pyr commander Truthspeaker is responsible for the vast majority of the southern conquest, and his final contest against the people of this castle ended in fire.
1006: Town Ruined Village - The Al'Pyr did not create settlements, they created ruins. This village is a collection of bones and blackened earth. Superstitions aside, the violent scorching of all wooden structures has left the land burned, but fertile. A new settlement could be raised here and might prosper.
0903: Capital Kokoro - The Keijo Empire's capital was given to the Baron of Osgal as a gift for his loyalty to the Al'Pyr in the Realm War. That it was given as a gift from the brutal warleader of the Al'Pyr saved Kokoro from total destruction at the hands of his pyromaniac tribes. The Baron of Osgal had begun to rebuild this sacked city, but his nascent empire collapsed before he could. Now, it is occupied by squatters who can trace their lineage back the oriental Keijo.
