Trothkhannan

Introduction

Trothkhannan (Vannic for Wild Lands) is a wilderness between the empire of Del'Marah and the great wild forests of Skaarvald. The Del’Marahans, fearful of the dark and foreboding woods of Skaarvald are reluctant to expand up to the borders of the forest and as a result a boundary land some hundred miles wild and over a thousand miles long exists. It is in the interests of Del’Marah that no other power occupy Trothkhannan and so it has become a haven not just for bandits and marauders, but for Chorale, Half Fey and renegade spellcasters on the run. Within the hills and woodlands of Trothkhannan, villages, small towns and lone taverns and waypoints dot the landscape and attitudes towards magic and the mysterious are more relaxed than in the Arclands.

History

For centuries, Trothkhannan has been a place at the eastern edge of the Del’Marahan Empire that served as a dumping ground for the empire’s unwanted peoples and social misfits. Trothkhannan was also a place that existed beyond the rule of Del’Marahan law and fugitives and bandits often settled there to survive in anonymity. The only Del’Marahan presence in the borderland were the Kheve, bounty hunters who had sworn loyalty to the emperors of Del’Marah and who hunted the crown’s enemies there. In the three centuries since the Sundering, the position of Trothkhannan has changed. The wave of energy that has swept the world since the fall of the Keeper has caused many nations to become more insular, fearful and inward looking in the face of uncertainty, but none more so than Del’Marah. Instead of policing its borders, its emperors have decided to defend them and withdraw from meddling in the affairs of those who live in the wild lands of Trothkhannan. The Del’Marahans have another reason for withdrawing from Trothkhannan, the fear of Amarah. The great forest was impenetrable to most humans, for most of its history, but after the Sundering, it seemed to awaken. Strange rumours of unnatural creatures roaming the edges of the woods and Del’Marahan army patrols vanishing into its depths after becoming seemingly bewitched has given empire’s leaders further reason to withdraw from Trothkhannan. The cynical view of the current emperor, Iblim, is that if a threat emerged from the forest, then Trothkhannan would be the battlefield on which Del’Marah’s armies and this danger would meet.
In the past decade there has been a flow of newcomers into the small towns, villages and outposts across Trothkhannan. There are no borders and settlers are often viewed with suspicion by the frontiers women and men, wanderers and hermits who have laid claim to the land many years earlier. Many seem to be coming from the Arclands and the road to Trothkhannan is long an perilous. Some of those who wander across the wildernesses towards the border region seem inexplicably drawn there, desperate to find what is calling them. For others there is a clear reason; to find the Wild Lands League.

The Wild Lands League

Across Aestis, there are humans, Half Firg and Half Fey who have begun to sense a darkness seeping into the world. It is one which currently defies description or name, but that exists at the edges of dreams and hovers at the periphery of waking thought. Some of those who have started to sense that this presence is a real and malign intelligence have seen glimpses of the darkness first hand. Some have seen strange and monstrous creatures or have simply heard their name whispered in the breeze on empty wilderness trails. Those that are touched by this unknown darkness have tried and failed to alert their own peoples to the threat and word has spread across Aestis and beyond that a league of humans and non humans has emerged in Trothkhannan to investigate, identify and oppose this mysterious enemy. They are led by Centus Dranath, a marauder tomebearer mage and one of the very few humans who has been able to enter Skaarvald and leave again. By his side is the Half Fey corsair Lodine Calan, who fights with a longbow crafted from the blackened wood of Skaarvald. It was when their small band met with a colony of Chorale in Trelvec, a long and deep canyon in Trothkhannan that they began to understand that a dark shadow stretched southwards from the northern shores of the Greater Arc Sea. The enemy’s gaze is constantly on Trothkhannan, and it seems almost amused that its presence has finally been noted. Centus Dranath has started to suspect that there is something else about Trothkhannan that is currently hidden to all of them that the enemy seeks.

Society

Trothkhannan is organised in a network of autonomous communities, mainly small towns and farms defended by palisade walls. They meet twice yearly at Revekka, a river valley in the south of the region, where a large tent city assembles in high summer and midwinter. There, the main issues of the region are discussed, principally matters of mutual defence and the sharing of grazing, foraging, hunting and fishing rights between different communities. Strangers who make Trothkhannan their home are normally accepted and whilst outsiders might consider Trothkhannanites unfriendly, many inhabitants adopt the attitude that another’s privacy is sacrosanct. Many come to Trothkhannan to keep a low profile, hide from a powerful enemy or live free beyond the power of a king or emperor and so being left to ones own devices is deeply ingrained in the region’s culture. The principal of mutual defence and help is also a key part of the way of life in Trothkhannan. Riding to the aid of a farm or village under siege from bandits or some of the strange creatures that are now more and more often part of life for people in the wild lands is considered to be an obligation all Trothkhananites should live up to. Anyone who is renown for abandoning others in need finds themselves cast out by a society of outcasts. Because Trothkhannan is where many of those who are struggling with the power of Fate go to in order to find answers or to hide away from those that might exploit their abilities, the acceptance of magic as a reality is far more widespread. Trothkhannanites have little faith in the lies peddled by kings, emperors, priests or scholars and many can see that magic has seeped back into the world, and are less shocked when they encounter non humans like the Chorale and the Half Fey.

The Swan’s Neck Forts

The Swan’s Neck is a curving stretch of fast running river, along the River Rhoherde, which runs through Del’Marah, across Trothkhannan and into Amarah. Six centuries ago, when Del’Marah attempted to control Trothkhannan directly, Emperor Naxe II built a series of stone fortresses to control river traffic and protect the Del’Marahan border. Following the withdrawal of Del’Marah from Trothkhannan, a small garrison of soldiers was left behind to control the fortress, but over the past three centuries it has been gradually abandoned by Del’Marah. The descendents of the garrison became gradually woven into Trothkhannan society and a cluster of small towns emerged around the Swan’s Neck and the forts divided into two small fiefdoms, those of the Ghuland family in along the south west of the river and those of the Orland clan along the north west. The two have become the closest thing that Trothkhannan has to a political dynasty, using the river traffic to acquire wealth. They periodically feud between each other and occasionally cooperate, normally when a mutual threat emerges. Together they can put up to 500 soldiers, mainly mercenaries, in the field.

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Type

National Territory