Rothenian Plain
(Roh-THIN-ee-an)
Life is hard in the open lands, where only the wind is free. Among the rolling, endless grasslands of the Rothenian Plain, Kariv bands dance among gaudy, mule-drawn wagons, keeping an uneasy peace with the centaurs. From these empty quarters come strange alliances of man and centaur to wrest gold from the cities and kings, to assault the walls of Morgau’s Cloudwall, and to steal the secrets of the infernal gnomes of Niemheim.
No hand is friendly here. The region’s few cities are held in fists of iron, and robber barons command the river-roads. Any place where two stones are piled together is hostile to nomads, though friendly to mercenaries. The stout warriors of the Khazzaki ride tough steppe ponies for plunder. Baba Yaga plays one leader against another, a friend for a month or a year—and then a bitter foe. The boyars and the ravenfolk of Vidim vie for the tsar’s ever-shifting favor, but remain united to protect Vidim against external threats.
The roads that connect the most civilized places are as dangerous and wild as the uncharted prairie. Bandits from Misto Cherno and heartless centaur raiders control the roads, preying on the weak and ill-prepared. The Wandering Realm is crisscrossed with the trails of the nomads, whose trajectories change as quickly as the whims of Baba Yaga. To walk the trails across the Plain is to risk your life, though you may learn something about a wandering heart from the journey.
The steppes smell of wild thyme all summer long, when the golden grass parts before a rider’s horse with a dry whisper and the wind takes flight to the horizon. The lands lie beneath pure white blankets of snow in the winter, when few dare travel far. The people of the Rothenian Plain wander the horizon, holding tight to their freedoms and fighting hard to keep their herds moving, their hearts bold, and their people strong.
Kariv magic, centaur steel, and the finest bows ever strung await you—if you are strong enough!
Grandmother Baba Yaga
Many tales feature the bony-legged fey witch Baba Yaga, and most of them contradict each other. It’s hard to get a sense of Baba Yaga, and many suspect that’s exactly what she wants. Indeed, little happens anywhere that isn’t exactly as she desires. As convoluted and dark a mystery as Baba Yaga is, bits of her story rise to the surface and provide more truth than the rest, like foam on a bubbling stew. Baba Yaga is a trader of secrets. It’s said there’s nothing she does not know. The brave, the desperate, and the stupid make pilgrimages to seek her wisdom, but she is rarely found when she doesn’t want to be. Those who find her regret it when she attempts to force them into her service—as a beast of burden or common tool—or eats them, having developed a taste for mortal flesh. Rarely, she seeks out those in most need of her assistance, when it serves her purposes as well.Geography
The Rothenian Plain has no real permanent settlements, but it does contain the gulyay-gorod (literally “wandering town”). Each moving town is a mobile fortification made from large wall-sized prefabricated shields set on wagons or sleds, which provide full or partial cover for all inhabitants inside. The structure is easy to pull with oxen or draft horses, and without any need to set up tents or unpack goods when moving.
These enormous wandering towns include Misto Cherno (a bandit wandering town, primarily a home to fallen Kariv and wild or bandit centaurs), Misto Ellel (the town of runes, a home to mystics, it floats without wheels and is drawn by swans or reindeer or even stranger things), and Misto Tilla (drawn by 100 oxen, with a battery tower as part of the wagon that carries two ballistae, the home of a notorious Khazzaki warlord and his harem). Wandering gulyay-gorod come and go, but the tales of them expand with each retelling.
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