Tavelia
Stay on the roads, and make sure that you're behind strong walls by night
The dark forests of tavelia have always been shrouded in secrecy, filled with dangerous creatures and dotted with dark castles with even darker inhabitants. Only the brave or foolish venture into the forests or off of the roads even when the sun is out, and by dark the locals are all in their houses inside of their village palisades, behind barred doors and heavy wooden shutters.
Geography and Climate
The overwhelming majority of tavelia is covered in mixed temperate forests, with mild rainy summers with heavy fog and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The vast difference between Tavelia's climate and that of it's eastern neighbors can only be put down to the chaotic magics of the cataclysm and the spellstorm. During the winter one can stand on the relatively warm shores of the Achaean side of the Cebresian Strait and look across at the snow covered tavelian shoreline.
In the south east, The Dark Forest gives way to the swampland of The Fetid Marsh, it's own hazards merging with Tavelia's and creating one of the most dangerous places in The Shattered Continent. Miles of stagnant bogs span the area between solid land and the beginning of the Fetid Marsh, a place where every step could send an unwary traveller plunging into the stinking waters, and every pool could contain hungry undead waiting in ambush.
Tevalia's coastline is rocky and harsh, with lots of tall cliffs and stony, inhospitable shorelines. The population who live on the coast subsist on fishing and what crops they can grow in the stony soil, prefering that lifestyle to living within The Dark Forest. The high cliffs which dominate much of the shoreline is topped with a number of castles, most ruined but some occupied, and a few of the tavelian counts have made their homes in these seaside castles.
Society
The people of Tavelia live a hard life, danger is ever present in The Dark Forest and eking out a living from it's stony soil is a constant struggle. Houses are built as sturdily as possible, with heavy wooden shutters and thick barrable doors, villages are surrounded by sturdy palisades, and everyone makes sure to be safely indoors by the time that darkness falls. The majority of the population lives in small scattered villages and farming, mining or logging are their main sources of income. Logging tends to be done from the edges of the forest rather than from logging camps deep within them as in other regions, and the tree line is cut back substantially from the edges of villages, as it's common knowledge in Tavelia that you don't venture far off the roads or into the forests unless you have a deathwish.
Government
The capital of Tavelia and the nominal seat of it's government is Covareni, a walled city built on the northernmost point of Tavelia. Covareni is ruled by The Baron of Covareni, who is in theory the ruler of Tavelia as a whole. The reality is that the authority of The Baron extends no further than the outlying settlements around Covareni, and the current baron, a man named Timotei Ilionescu, rules at the pleasure of the Counts of Tavelia. It is convenient to have a safe, human face to present to the governments of the rest of the continent as well as a city which is perceived as a safe destination for oceanborne merchants to dock and ply their trade.
The Counts
Tavelia isn't a unified nation by any means, but it does have a ruling class of sorts. The dark forest is dotted with ancient castles, keeps, and manors, and some of them are home to the self-styled Counts of Tavelia. Powerful individuals who have declared themselves rulers of their domains, they are largely ruthless figures who enforce their rule via dark magic and force of arms.
Count Drahoslav Dinu
The patriarch of the Dinu bloodline, Dinu is a truly ancient vampire who was alive before the cataclysm, and some speculate even before the rise of the serpentfolk. For his part, Dinu refuses to confirm just how old he is, but he is the first of his bloodline, with all of the Dinu being his spawn. Dinu has been conservative in his creation of spawn, but the main reason that the bloodline of such an ancient vampire is so small is that he hasn't been active for most of his unlife.
At some point during the reign of the serpentfolk, Dinu began to sleep for longer and longer periods, eventually spending centuries without leaving his coffin. After the cataclysm, he initially dismissed the primitive humans as being little but a vermin swarming the ruins of the serpentfolk's civilization, good for little but sustenance. As humanity began building a proper civilization, forming kingdoms and building their own cities his opinion began to shift, and he began carefully integrating himself into human society.
Countess Corina Grigorescu
A relatively young vampire at just four centuries, Countess Grigorescu is nothing if not ambitious. Having ascended to the position of matriarch of the Grigorescu bloodline following the untimely death of her sire, she has proven that her ruthlessness matches her ambition. While she may prefer to use her velvet tongue to accomplish her goals, she has no hesitation when it comes to getting her hands dirty. Now that all of her most implacable opponents within the clan have been disposed of, she has turned her attention towards building power and influence, both personal and for her clan.
Count Marius Mircea
A bit of an oddity among the counts, Marius Mircea was once a prominent member of the Bommbergonia Royal College of Surgeons, well known for both his skill with a scalpel and his passion for advancing the understanding of anatomy and physiology. Marius passionately believed that with enough Science the human body could be improved to the point where even death could be denied, although he didn't limit his scientific interest to just biology. In pursuit of knowledge he studied under the masters at both The Institute for Dwarven Innovation and Invention and the Achaean Academy at various points in his career, and was widely regarded as a prodigy. Curious visitors to his lab would often find him elbow deep in a cadaver while various mechanical and clockwork assistants handed him tools or performed menial tasks around him.
His passions eventually lead him to cast moral and ethical constraints aside in the pursuit of perfecting the human body and he was forced to flee Bommbergonia with little more than his trusty manservant Ferka, his notes and the clothes on his back. Returning to Ferka's homeland of Tavelia and taking up residence in an abandoned castle on the coast, he began his research unfettered from the constraints of ethics and morality. Offering his services as a doctor to the village below his castle has provided him with a plethora of loyal and willing test subjects, and the use of his mechanical servants as guards only further endeared him to the villagers.
As count, he has no desire to expand his own domain or engage in politics, but his fascination with improving the human body and the pursuit if immortality has lead to him regularly 'acquiring' test subjects from Tavelia's vampire and werewolf populations, earning him the ire of the counts representing those factions.
Count Iosif Lupul
The self proclaimed leader of the Tavelian werewoves, Iosif Lupul is a hulking individual who through intimidation, violence, and sheer force of personality has united a dozen of Tavelia's scattered werewolf packs into the largest pack in recorded history. Werewolves tend to live either solitarily or in small family packs, so a massive consolidated pack is something that tavelis has never seen before. The Lupul pack rules their territory through terror, demanding regular tribute of livestock and other goods and making themselves visible via regular patrols through their territory.
Count Merpher Shadowhill
An unusual figure even among the counts, Count Shadowhill is a halfling necromancer with an ego which far outstrips his physical size. His heavy use of large creatures in his necromantic creations may be overcompensation, but saying that too loudly will likely result in becoming another of his undead minions. When in the presence of others he is typically perched on a custom throne mounted on the shoulders of a hulking skeletal troll, allowing him to tower over everyone around him.
Count Petre Predoiu
Count Predoiu isn't the first necromancer to claim to be the direct successor of Lord Negutesco, and he won't be the last, but he has advanced further down that path than many. He claims to have successfully retrieved a number of The Lich Lord's personal journals from the deathtrap that is Castle Dorogheni, using them to achieve his own ascension to lichdom. Despite his ambitions, he is smart enough to know that he lacks the power to forcibly unite Tavelia at the current time, but his power is rising by the day.
Count Corneliu Balcescu
In life, Count Balescu was a powerful necromancer who sought to surpass Lord Negutesco, and his ambitions survived the passing of his mortal shell. As a ghost, Count Balescu has built a court out of the myriad ghosts who haunt tavelia and his palace is as active as that of any mortal ruler. Using raised minions to perform the physical tasks which are now beyond them, they believe themselves to be as legitimate as any living nobility, With further advancement of him magical abliities lost to him, Count Balescu has turned to increasing his political and military power in his quest to rule Tavelia.
Notable Locations
Castel vs Castle
Often a point of confusion to outsides, the various fortresses built across Tavelia are referred to as 'castel' rather than 'castle', a relic of old Tavelian dialect.
Covareni
The nominal capital of Tavelia, Covareni is the largest and most developed city in the region, with cobblestone streets, stone and timber buildings, and a proper sewer system. The only deepwater port in Tavelia, Coverani is where all oceanborne trade passes through, and has all of the amenities expected by trading ships and their crews. As the main source of outside trade in Tavelia, traders from the various tavelian settlements and most of the counts make regular trips to and from the city.
Castel Dorogheni
The ancient fortress from which Lord Negutesco ruled over Tavelia with an iron fist, today Castel Dorogheni stands as a stark reminder that none have surpassed The Lich Lord. Castel Dorogheni has stood abandoned since the ascension of The Lich Lord despite the aspirations of the many counts who have, over the years, claimed to be the heirs to the legacy of The Lich Lord. Many have tried to take the the fortress as their own, all have failed, and most lost their lives in the process.
Whether from some machination of The Lich Lord while he resided there or an effect of his ascension to divinity, the fortress has taken on a life - or perhaps unlife - of it's own. As many would be visitors to or conquerors of the castel have discovered, only someone truly worthy of The Lich Lord's legacy will be able to take it as their own, and thus far all have failed that test. Castel Dorogheni is filled with ravenous undead, devious traps, and uncounted deadly secrets waiting for the next claimant or invader to stumble upon them.
city names: Dronaia, Drobeturu, Coprig, Cislac, Critin, Comarnicea, Funduvasna
Comments