The Ostoyan Empire

Beyond the Grey Spine Peaks lies a land shrouded in mist and shadow. The hearts of the Ostoyan people are as cold and forbidding as the land they dwell in. Here the mages of the Ravencourt Sanctuary spin their nebulous plots, the Vampire Lords of the Crimson Court devise plans to engulf Etharis in a tide of undead, and the hidden denizens of the City Below wait in the dark, hungry for the living.

LANDSCAPE

The lands east of the Grey Spine are a temperate, heavily-forested region filled with hills and valleys. The further one travels east, the more the land flattens into rolling plains, dotted here and there by treacherous heaths and bogs. At the easternmost edge of Ostoya, the terrain breaks into jagged cliffs that border a restless, ice-filled sea. Further eastward across the water, a magical fog surrounds an island that few have ever laid eyes on.
The terrain is not suited for heavy farming. The Ostoyans supplement what meagre crops they grow by hunting and herding. Coastal cities also employ fishing and whaling fleets to feed their burgeoning populations. The Ostoyan weather is typified by Nov Ostoya's skies, heavy rains, sudden snowfall, and endless mists. The sun is a rare sight, and most welcome when it breaks through the mantle of grey clouds.

What Ostoya lacks in hospitable environment, it makes up in tremendous amounts of ore, stone, and coal from the Grey Spine. Lumber is also plentiful, enabling the Ostoyans to build robust structures. These resources lend themselves to frequent trade with other nations, but also lead to violent border disputes with neighbours, particularly the Bürach.

HISTORY OF OSTOYA

A Land of Our Own

Ostoya was founded centuries ago by Bürach secessionists—migrants who fled the fledgling Bürach Empire’s tumultuous early days to find a more peaceful country. A nobleman named Elias Beralt led his family and followers through the treacherous passes of the Grey Spine, emerging on the other side to find a country lush with pine woods and rolling hills. He named it Ostoya, which in the ancient tongue means “Our Own.”
Over the years, a loose confederation formed among the communities trying to carve a living out of the wild lands. The most successful of these became the provinces of Soma to the south and Raevo to the north. Other settlements of note include Malkovia, Fallowheart, Riven, and Voyd.

The Ostoyans worked hard to tame the land, clearing forests for livestock and lumber. With the discovery of coal and precious minerals in the foothills of the Grey Spine, mining towns soon opened, followed by roads and byways. Further to the east, explorers discovered a break in the seaside cliffs that led to a natural harbour. Here they founded the coastal city of Nov Ostoya, which became the seat of the Ostoyan Aristocracy.
While Ostoya was not known to have large populations of natural predators such as wolves and bears, every now and then people were known to disappear for good, often with signs of a struggle.

War Against the Bürach Empire

After spending two hundred years taming its borders, the Bürach Empire turned its attention towards expansion. Since the Ostoyans were descended from the Bürach, the Empire deemed them its citizens, ordering them to pay taxes and turn over control of their mines. When the Ostoyans refused, the Bürach attacked.
The Ostoyans hastily forged their arms and mustered their men. The wealth drawn from their mines allowed them to bolster their army with mercenaries such as the Free Swords. Despite this, the Ostoyans were not adept at war, having lived too many years in peace. Were it not for the natural borders of their forests and the Grey Spine, Ostoya would have been overrun long ago. Still, the Bürach gained a firm foothold in the region.

The Darkfall

Two decades into the Ostoya-Bürach war, a terrible earthquake shook the Soma region. Something sinister underneath the ground was making itself known. The skies darkened over Ostoya as necrotic energy poured out of cracks in the earth.
To the shock of the local populace, the fissures that opened revealed long-buried ruins. The city of Nov Ostoya had apparently been built over the bones of an ancient metropolis that had sunk beneath the earth ages ago. The Soman nobility sent expeditions to investigate these underground structures in the hopes of uncovering treasure or magical secrets that would help the war effort. Most of these groups did not return; the few that did had been reduced to stragglers, babbling hysterical tales of maze-like ruins, ravenous undead, and a dark shrine that spoke to their minds.

Eventually, the missing explorers returned, though as many would soon find out, they had been changed forever. They marched with an undead horde that rose in full force into Soma. The desperate Ostoyans then found themselves caught in a war on two fronts.
Stretched to breaking, the Ostoyans fell to drastic measures. A specialised company of soldiers descended into the abyss and held off the horde. Then, mages from Raevo collapsed the largest of the fissures, sealing the undead back underground. With that, the Ostoyans hoped to turn their efforts back to repelling the Bürach.
But the undead, it seemed, were not finished. One year later, a strange malady began to spread among the nobility. They died only to rise again—as vampires.
The undead quickly overran the government and suppressed all opposition. Then they moved against Bürach. In the winter of the war’s 25th year, the Bürach abandoned their forts in Ostoyan territory and retreated to their homeland.
To this day, Ostoya and Bürach remain at war, but now as rivals of equal strength. For every step one side takes into the other’s territory, they are driven back. The two great powers stand at a deadlock.
Even now the supernatural darkening of Ostoya’s sky persists. The youngest generation of the city of Nov Ostoya have never seen the sun. A perpetual night covers the whole land, only weakening to a dismal twilight near Ostoya’s borders. Indeed, the people of the neighboring Charneault Kingdom consider Ostoya to begin where the light ends—though some fear that the border is encroaching year by year.

The Raevan Secession and Civil War

The knowledge that vampires had taken over the nobility created a deep schism among the Ostoyan populace. Despite efforts to suppress them, the entire province of Raevo seceded from the Aristocracy.
The Ostoyans began an unusual civil war. While Raevo and Soma exchange violent skirmishes, the two sides still have a symbiotic relationship—for while Somans and Raevans hated each other, they hated the Bürach even more. Both sides took care not to annihilate a potential ally in the event the Empire should attempt a second invasion.

THE OSTOYANS

Ostoyans are a hardy folk, having long accepted the likelihood of a short life thanks to the ever-present threats of war, sickness, the cold, and the roaming undead. They value the simple life—a hot meal at the end of a long day’s work and a mug of mead is reward enough for the lower classes.
Most Ostoyans are clannish, putting familial honour and bonds above life itself. The people suffered much under the Bürach Empire, now many of them consider the Soman nobility heroes for driving out the invaders. They follow the nobility without question, with only the secessionist Raevans as an exception.
A plethora of Seraphs have retained a foothold across the Etharis, but in truth, Ostoyans have faith in only one idol: Solyma, the Lady of Vengeance. Revenge is the only true religion in Ostoya. No Ostoyan believes in turning the other cheek. Indeed, forswearing vengeance is considered a weakness of character, bringing shame and a loss of face before society. An overly forgiving Ostoyan would surely be driven out of town by their own family.
Visitors from other lands would do well to acquaint themselves with local customs, and to keep wandering eyes and hands far from the peasants’ daughters, lest they make an enemy for life. Even the vampiric nobility, who hold absolute sway over the lives of the peasants, take pains not to make their cruelty personal. For once wronged, Ostoyans pursue retribution single-mindedly.
Folk tales and sagas abound of entire families wiped out by disputes over land and grazing rights. To this day, long-standing family feuds occasionally require intercession from the nobles themselves, to prevent further loss of warm bodies.