Vaasa

This untamed wasteland of frozen moors and tundra was the seat of power for the evil Witch King Zhengyi until he was killed on the slopes of the Tempest Cliffs in 1365. The land has largely returned to the way it was before the Witch King's rule; a lonely wilderness dotted with scratch farms with vast stretches of wilderness populated by evil humanoids and other monsters. What the land lacks in hospitality it makes up for in untapped wealth, as the mountains of Vaasa are rich in rare metals and precious gems (particularly bloodstones) and the fields (such that they are) harvest rare plants and herbs that are useful to wizards and alchemists. Miles of mountainside go unclaimed by any civilization, and many well-armed prospectors make the trip to Vaasa hoping to harvest resources. Stories endure about gems as large as a grown man’s fist, but few find them and fewer still survive long enough to sell them.
It is a cold, dreary place with poor soil inadequate for large settlements without magical help (see Telos). During the brief summer the frozen earth turns to thick mud, making travel more difficult than it is in the wintertime, when dogsleds and skis are a common sight. Numerous bands of humanoids hunt the plains and mountains in search of game, consisting mainly caribou and medium to small herbivores. Other humanoids resort to consuming the dead of enemy tribes.

Local settlements of humans are typically very well protected. Some are in isolated places where they are likely to go undiscovered. Life is hard and the people are tough, quiet, and stern. People of the flatlands speak a mixture of Damaran Common, Dwarvish, and strangely Jotun, while the inhabitants of remote mountain settlements (and those close to Palischuk) use many Orc words. Bordered by the Galena mountains on the south and the Great Glacier on the north, Vaasa is virtually isolated from the rest of the world. There are however some fascinating natural (possibly unnatural?) features:

• The Black Steppes
• Bottomless Bogs
• The Great Glacier">Great Glacier
• The Scar of Vaasa

In spite of all of the reasons that habitation is difficult in Vaasa, the nation does support a handful of significant settlements. During the Second Bloodstone War, these locations went largely untouched as the Damaran armies were content to destroy as much of the Vaasan war machine as possible as they pushed them back into their own country. Internally, the power structure that held the various settlements and tribes together evaporated with Zhengyi's death, and they each returned to their own ways.

• Castle Perilous (now, just a ruin)
• Darmshall
• Maur-Eturo
• Mistmoor (Castle)
• Palischuk (the Monastery City)
• Telos (the City of the Warlocks)

Recent History
For most of its existence, Vaasa has been barely capable of supporting civilized folk. For two thousand years nothing more than humanoid tribes and scattered hunters, trappers and farmer/gatherers inhabited the land. Then a band of Warlocks established the city of Telos, and later, Monks constructed the remote Monastery city of Palischuk. But it was the arrival of Zhengyi around the 1290's, and the creation of his fortress "Castle Perilous" in 1295, that turned Vaasa into an organized military nation of goblinkin, orcs, giants, Warlocks, Witches, undead, demons, bandits, and skilled assassins - all intent on conquest.
Less than a century ago, those armies attacked and defeated the people of Damara in the First Bloodstone War, dividing that nation into petty baronies. The so-called Witch King then inexplicably disappeared for a short time, and then reappeared with new and even more cruel and terrible plans. In the wake of this evil, the Heroes of Bloodstone rose to defeat the various factions of semi-organized Warlock despots, Monk task masters, demonic minions, and other petty warlords. Thus began the Second Bloodstone War which ended with the defeat of Zhengyi himself in 1365, Castle Perilous simply collapsed, and the various warbands, mercenary companies and other hosts of evil fell into complete disarray. Within 2 years all of them had been driven out of Damara.
The Vaasa of today has mostly reverted to its old ways, with hordes of monsters running loose with no central authority. However, bandits and assassins are known to exist in the country, many plotting revenge. The Warlocks of Telos have retreated to their ensorceled fortress city. The tribes of the Black Steppes have gone back to battling one another. The entire land carries a sense of unease about it.

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Demonym

Vaasan (VAA-san)

Controlled Territories

• Telos