Kingdom of Panthias
From World of Kralis
| Regional Information | |
| Population: | 756,000 (75% Northerns, 10% Firbog, 5% Centaur, 5% Formorian, 5% Elven) |
|---|---|
| Capital: | Bragih |
| Government: | Monarchy, Ruled by Queen Callisa Morinog |
| Major Religions: | Elal, Mala, and Llir |
| Imports/Exports: | Timber, Coal, Silver and Leather Products |
The Kingdom of Panthias (Pan-the-az) is one of the oldest of the Northern Realms kingdoms. It is not particularly large, in comparison to total land that lies within its borders. But it is one of the more powerful kingdoms, keeping the the more northern evil filled kingdoms from running south in waves of invasion. It has a huge standing army filled with aggressive northerns, firbogs and formorians looking to repent for their ancient betrayal. This army is also backed by several earth dragons that reside in the Sazar Crys Mountains as has been customary since the Great Pact. It is a heavily wooded, rugged land that has cold winters and warm summers. It is a place of ancient ruins and dark pits that lead deep into the DeepEarth Realms.
Contents |
Life and Society
Life within the kingdom can be hard due to the winters and arctic winds blowing down the Vast. In addition, it is made more difficult due to the region’s hostile groups of orcs, wildmen and other unpleasantness. Most of the kingdom is divided into small fiefs governed by a noble or a region protector, generally one of the barbarian kings is left in charge of a specific area, mostly to keep them content.
Most of society is based around the family unit as well as loyalty to the throne. The fiefs are home to ten to twenty large families or clans that have lived in the areas for ages. These clans/families have between 10 and 30 members and live in their own small communities, thorps or even small villages within the fief. A typical fief will cover about 200-500 miles, have four or five villages and will contain anywhere from 400 to 3000 individuals per village. There are 250 fiefs within the kingdom. The oldest fiefs are concentrated in the center of the kingdom and surround the capital.
Elal, Llir and Mala are all worshiped in the kingdom. There are shrines and temples in every fief and there is often only one temple with priests that are aligned to all three deities. These people are very religious, they pray to these deities as though not doing so would be like not breathing.
While there are a number of roads that make their way through the Kingdom as well as the forest, there are hundreds and hundreds of trails that cut through nearly every part of the Kingdom.
While the Kingdom has an appearance of civilization, it like much of the rest of Kralis is made up of thousands of square miles of Wild Lands, areas where mortals have left to the wild beasts, monsters and creatures that exist in the world. The majority of the Kingdom is made up of thick forest, and this forest is home to many, many beasts and creatures.
Still wild compared to the more southern nations, the kingdom as stated is made up of a number of fiefs, some with barbarian leaders. However, truly savage nations lie still further north, beyond the borders of the kingdom. Each of the 400 fiefs have a singular large city, town or village that those fief acknowledge as being the fief seat of power, where all other village, city or town leaders meet to adjudicate new laws, hear news from the capital and otherwise decide the fate and future of their particular fief. In addition, these seats of power are also the stronghold for the fief should it be attacked by another fief or invading force.
The majority of the fiefs are ruled by a large village, situated in the center of the fief. There are far to many fiefs to be listed and discussed in any great manner, thus only a handful of them are listed here. They are listed because of their location, political interests and their overall relation with the capital.
Major Cities
By definition these are the major and central points of the kingdom in which most civilized individuals gather to safe guard against the darkness of the world. There are a number of villages and smaller towns that dot the landscape of the kingdom. There are a few paved stone roads that connect these larger cities and very rarely the smaller villages. Most of the time these towns and villages are connected by rough mountain passes or craggy hill trails that frequently become overrun with foliage and the wild.
Capital of Bragih
Situated in the center of Panthias is the golden capital of Bragih. It is a mid-sized city of nearly fifteen hundred main buildings, it is situated where the High Road and the meets the Westering Road. It is a fortified city, surrounded by a mixture of thick logs and heavy stone. There are a number of posts and trading houses just outside its two gates.
Bragih is an ancient city that has grown from a single village into the majestic City of the North. It is first and foremost a city of trade, known for its strong blades, and worked leather goods. A number of trading companies in the north have major outposts within the city.
Like most major cities through out the various realms of Kralis, it is always busy with new ideas, new ventures, and new things to buy. The royal guard vigorously hunts down and eradicates all forms of thievery and smuggling that it can. But it is not a city without its blemishes. Because it is a town of the north, it is a city that has a frontier edge to it, where barbarians from the surrounding forests and mountains mingle with farmers and nobility of the city.
The streets are patrolled by the city guard, which are known as the Bragih Knights, and at any sign of trouble they are accompanied by war wizards. While it is a frontier city, a royal decree has placed curfews on its citizens to make it clear to even visitors that no lawlessness will be tolerated within the city proper.
It is home to just over 100,000, ranging from humans, elves, dwarves, aelwyn and firbogs.
There are three temples and several lesser shrines located through out the city. The Tower of Stars, dedicated to the worship of Elal, is on the eastern side of the city. The House of Storms, dedicated to the goddess Llir, is also located on the eastern side of the city. Finally, The House of the Wild, dedicated to the goddess Atura, is located in the western section of the city. There are also a number of shrines venerating Mala, Akiri, Albiorix, and Daemah.
The city is under constant threat from various marauding hordes of monsters, these are often deterred by the massive 80-foot-high, 15-foot-thick wall of stone and wood. This is connected by the High Road that runs through the center of the city.
The city is made up of mostly wood and stone homes and shops, the royal palace is the only building in the city that is built completely of stone. The city is not divded into divisions, districts, or wards, rather it is a city that has grown around the original village of Bragih where houses of nobles have been blended into homes of lesser folk. The marketplace or Trade Moot, is located on the western end of the city along the High Road leading towards the elven nation of Ta-Kanasiti. The area around the Trade moot is a bit more rowdy and is considered the "bad part" of the city.
City of Kzarik
Located on the Bay of Sorrows in the southern portion of the kindgom, where the great northern forest Storhet dwindles out and on the banks of the Oghold River, sits the city of Kzarik. It is the second largest city of the realm and is much younger, it was built in the early half of the First Age (62 S.R./1662 N.R.). It is a mist shrouded city that always seems to be damp. In the summer it is a pleasant place to be, but the winters bring harsh cold winds, and freezing temperatures that make life in the city a harsh existence. It is the governing city of the Sharthane Fief.
It is a place of stone buildings, rough stone streets, and hardwood wharfs. It is both a fishing port and trade port to the various realms beyond Panthias. The port city has a sinister, seedy appearance that is well founded. While the city is under the protection and control of the Royal Guard, there is still an underlying problem of smuggling that plague it.
There are over 50,000 citizens in the citizen during the summer, but this number drastically drops to less than half as winters icy grasp crushes the life from the city. The city is full shops that offer unique and exotic items from around the region and Hurlan.
The city is host to two temples: the Church of Destruction, venerating Mala, and the House of the Sea, venerating Aernus. There are a few other shrines within the city venerating the gods: Akiri, Llir, and Gishra.
Marichioas
Situated at the foothills of the Sazar Crys Mountains where it meets the Storhet forest. Stands the village of Marichioas. This village of 1,500 or so folk stands on the northern bank of the Black Lake, from which the Oghold River makes its way to the Bay of Sorrows. It is very busy farmers market for most of the smaller villages on the shore of the lake.
It is well known for its master swordmaker Julian Redstar, one of only a handful of smiths able to bend Redsteel to their will. The village is also well known for the various types of heavy, dark beers that it makes. It gets most of its water from the Black Lake, which is said to hold magical remnants of ancient magical springs that were formed when a bit of the Ny Shar plane of water touched this area thousands of years ago.
Marichioas is also the jumping of point for adventurers braving the Sazar Crys mountains in search of lost treasures and Shinial Og. It is well protected by a number of priests of Atura and a group of Sidz Ra. It is the largest city in the Ungar Fief.
Gunaithus(The Black Gate)
This isolated and formidable keep sits on a high ridge of hills known as the Tyrshaw Hills that run southeast to northwest along the border of the Vast to the north, these hills sit at the edge of a vast length of broken land rising from the valley floor creating granite walls protecting the northern portion of Panthias from the monstrous hordes that haunt the Vast. Gunaithus sits at the lowest point of those hills towards the center of the valley over looking into the lands far below on the Winding Road that comes from the north, across the Vast.
This gigantic fortress covers an area of nearly half a mile in diameter and is surrounded by a high, thick black granite stone wall. From this stretches a fifteen-foot-high black granite wall that follows the natural lay of the cliffs below it stretching for nearly 1,000 miles in both directions.
Its wall are pierced by only two gigantic gates along the Winding Road, each are made of black granite that give the fortress its other name: The Black Gate. It is manned by 3,000 footmen, 1,500 heavy cavalry, and 750 archers. It is also home to just over 600 other families that make this far northern fortress a living community that trades with those merchants brave enough to cross the Vast and with the numerous villages along the southern journey of the Winding Road as it makes its way to Bragih.
It is a thriving community of glassblowers, smithies, armorers, and potters, which is sent southward to be sold at the various markets. The inner village is a maze of buildings that have been designed in such a way as to provide a defense should a marauding horde break over the walls. The entire village is built from the black-grey stone from deep under the keep creating a massive labyrinth beneath the stronghold that is used for storage of food items, weapons, barrels of fresh water, and is able to be used to hide the villagers of the stronghold should it be attacked.
It is ran by Commander Rhigard Dyrstone (30th Rank Warrior) and his 15 lieutenants.
Ten Villages of Jiliak
Straddling the borders between Ceithlenn and Panthias sit the ten villages of Jiliak. They surround the single great lake of Jiliak which helps define the borders of Panthias and Ceithlenn. It sits in the windswept region that is lashed by violent summer storms and pounding winter storms. The land is an open plain with the occasional open crags. These villages make up the Lhar Feif.
The ten villages cluster along the southeast shores of the lake and on the High Road as it snakes its way along the shore line heading into Ceithlenn. The greatest of these villages is Adandar. A large, thick walled trading town that is considered the central hub of the other surrounding towns. It sits on the shores and a part of the lake itself as the town sits upon stilts above the water. North of Adanar lies the villages of Dunshire, Juntin, Coldwater, Lyndon. Coming from the east along the High Road are the villages of Minbar, Illiard, Trybnal, and Daleshire. South of Adanar are the villages of Dephrin, Noan, Luskyn, Gorgthain and the Anor Inn.
Each of the towns have an average of 1,500 to 2,000 citizens and are able to field 5,000 to 6,000 footman and archers in defense of the towns.
Major Features
Storhet - The Great Northern Forest
Important Sites
Graveyard of Bragih
Situated outside of the walls of the capital stands the ancient burial grounds of the isande people of the Kingdom of Panthias. It is a walled in area with vafrious types of graves, gravestones, tombs, and monuments. It is neatly tended to by a contingent of royal guard and priests of Elal. There are hundreds of families buried in large underground crypts as well as entombed in private monuments above ground. The graveyard is expanded when necessary or even dug deeper to add new generations of family members.
The graveyard is haunted, but the priests of Elal keep the wandering dead mostly contained in the various sections of the graveyard, even so there have been over the past thousand years or so a number of instants where the undead, propelled by Negative Energy, have escaped the walls and the surrounding magical protections disappearing into the deep woods that surround the place.
There is many a treasury buried deep within the graveyard, but few ever have the courage or the skill to be able to last a night in the graveyard, long enough to esacpe with any treasure. Those that have survived often live only long enough to be hunted down by the royal guard.
The Dark Barrows
Hidden in the Storhet south of Bragih, there are a rise of low hills covered only by low grass and uprooted stones covered in moss that is ringed by 24 stone monoliths and a clear brook running through the middle, it is an idyllic place. It is an ancient place, said to be the home of undead things that wander the forest and haunt the barrows underground labyrinth of interconnected tombs, caves and wells. Considered by many to be an ancient burial ground of the first humans to make their way here, it is also considered a place of dark magic where Negative Energy runs freely in the form of thick, dark streams and gloss pools deep beneath the rolling hills.
It is a dreadful and fearful place where many a lost traveler stumbled upon the soft grass, weary from the long road from the south have thought the barrows a welcoming place to rest only to be caught off guards when the last rays of the sun drifted away.
Over the thousands of years that it has been here it has also become a WildLand, a place that has taken on a life of its own. It gains the following Traits and Abilities as per Legends of Kralis (pg. 199)
- Fear of the Land - Every turn all beings in the area must make a Fear check or become troubled by the area. Undead are immune to this.
- Aura of Darkness - There is a greyness or darkness that afflicts the area. Lighting conditions are always 1 category darker than normal.
- Death Aura - The land is cursed all critical hit ranges gain +10 bonus.
- Turned Around - Creatures the enter the area often do not escape. Any attempts to Navigate, Tracking, or leave the area via any means suffers a -60 penalty on the attempt.
- Brutality - All those of a evil philosophy gain +10 bonus to all their skill attempts per 100 years of the land. (+60)
- Blood of the Fallen - Any damage done during combat is increased by +10.
Abilities -
- Blight
- Barbed Land
- Summon Undead
- Dark Earth
- Wild
The Ruins of Qiniak
Sitting on the banks of the Running River the ancient ruins of the city of Qiniak rise like bony fingers. Long ago this ancient city was once a flourishing city inhabited by dwarves that were mining the silver ore along the granite faced cliffs just south of the city. There are many ancient stone buildings that have been reclaimed by the ancient forest that the cleared in order to build the city. Thick layers of vines and giant oaks stand over broken stone covered in layers of moss.
There is no record of the end of the city, but many believe that during their diggings the dwarves stumbled upon and ancient secret of dark power that consumed them all, leaving the city empty and silent.
What as remained are dark places for monsters and creatures to make their homes in. There are a number of open mine shafts within the city that give access to the dank, water filled lower regions of the mines and the wealth that the dwarves once mined but never had a chance to spend.
The Tower of Arquino
Just east of the Storhet where the Oghold River exits the forest on a wide open plain stands the Tower of Arquino. It was once a fortress used by the kingdom of Kish before the first age of this land. The fortress is defended by a high wall built from heavy, hardwood and thick stone that encircles the main part of the fortress. When the empire of Kish fell from grace, the tower stood empty for nearly a thousand years. A number of monsters had scaled the walls and dug underneath them using the interior of the ring, that was once clear of thick brush and trees, as a stronghold.
There is no visible gates or doors through the fortress wall nor is the a visible door that leads into the tower. The tower is over 400 feet tall and is decorated with numerous spires on its sides. It is not circular as most towers might be rather it has eight sides with sparse windows.
In 1250 S.R./2800 N.R. a group of mercenary adventurers hired by King Hurigath Morinog to find and determine the status of the Tower of Arquino. By the end of the winter they found the tower, and had killed the necromancer that had made the tower home for his dark creations. From that moment on the Tower, under the protection of the Royal Guard and several spellcasters, was returned to its former glory of study and experimentation. It has become one of the leading schools of spellcasting in the Northern Realms.
It is now under the auspice of Grand Mage Rayche Blackstone.
Major Organizations
Kingdom Riders
Travelers of the various roads, by-ways and trails of the Kingdom are often subject to gangs of monsters, highwaymen or other unnatural creatures that know the roads are always a place to score a quick robbery or even dinner. It is the duty of the Kingdom Riders to keep these places safe for travel and trade. The Kingdom Riders are a group of individuals, setup by a Royal Decree, that ride through the Kingdom as guards and protectors.
The Kingdoms Riders are known for their silver shields, silver helms and bright mail. They are well armed with long spears, longswords, and short-bows. Nearly all Riders are men, with the occasional woman finding herself as part of this battle ready brigade. Their mounts are also well armored in mail armor barding. Their shields are emblazoned with a fiery mount and red and silver banners.
There are several bands of these Kingdom Riders constantly moving about the various roads of Panthias. Each band is made up of 200 heavy horse. Their mounts are said to be of an ancient bred known for its ability to move with great speed over a great deal of land.
Warriors of Storhet
Through out the southern woods of the Storhet travelers have often reported that they have seen the trees move and ghosts moaning in the distance just over the next ridge. Known also as the Ghosts of the Storhet, the Warriors of Storhet are group of like-minded individuals that see the forest as a realm that needs to be protected against further incursion of mortals, monsters and other creatures that would destroy the forest in their quest to control land.
They are a single large group of several hundred men and women of various races that spend most of their time fighting against incursions of evil giants, gobliniods, and the occasional demon. They travel mostly the southern woods 200 leagues south of Bragih and have headquarters in a hidden and lost ex-dwarven mine and outpost.
The Dark Heart
Bent on the destruction of the kingdom, the Dark Heart is an evil group of men and women that are determined to bring down the fall of the kingdom and replace it with a new realm set up in the name of Mala, a kingdom that would return the ancient forest back to its former glory of darkness, mystery and evil creatures. They work at returning the great forest back to the Wild Land that is once was. Often this comes at the price of many lives, the loss of a fief and the destruction of civilization.
Major NPCs
Queen Callisa Morinog, Rayche Blackstone
Cities, Towns and Villages
The Kingdom is made up of 250 fiefs each with a number of villages and few have large towns as their centers. While there are to many fiefs to list with any specificity, the following are some of the more powerful and large fiefs in the Kingdom.
Sharthane
The fief of Sharthane covers the land up to 100 miles around of the Bay of Sorrows, with the city of Kzarik as its capital. It is overseen by Lord Khel Unthyr.
Ungar
Ungar covers an area of approximately 75 square miles along the edge of the Storhet and the Sazar Crys Mountains. It is ruled by Lady Syne Furlath from the town of Marichioas.
Lhar
Considered the most further west of the fiefs, Lhar is the second largest fief in the Kingdom covering approximately 500 square miles along Jiliak Lake. Its center has changed many times, presently the large town of Adanar is the ruling capital of the fief. It is governed by Teth Agriva.
Asvur
South of the capital of Bragih, the fief of Asvur holds control of forest covered hills and is the land that separates the capital from the Dark Barrows. It is governed by Lady Alustia Evareen.
Nalenthor
The third largest fief in the Kingdom, the fief of Nalenthor sits east of the capital and covers some 400 square miles of farmland. It is dominated by rolling fields, diverted streams and villages that blend so well with the natural surroundings, they appears nothing more than low rising hills covered as they are by the earth and sod of the area. The capital town is known as Eldar.
Arwood
South of Lhar and bordering Ta Kanasiti, this fief is seen as the "ambassador" of Panthian life. Sitting squarely on 350 square miles of thick forest, and deep gullies, the fief is a blend of elven and isande buildings and social customs. It is governed by the soft spoke sister of the Queen, Julia Morinog.
