Frozen Over: The Sorrows Festival

The long, cold winter’s opening is marked by Sorrows, which occurs at the juncture of the months of Little Yule and Great Yule.

What is Sorrows about?

The purpose of Sorrows is to commemorate the dead, to remember friends and family lost to the sands of time and honour them. Along with the mortal dead, the festival also serves to honour Voland; when Bishal cut him down, for all intents and purposes he was dead, and so Sorrows remembers the sadness of having lost him. Finally, the festival also marks the beginning of the Namelessness, when children are stripped of their name and treated as dead. Namelessness is part of remembering Voland’s death; children are made to be ceremonially dead for six months, the same amount of time as Voland was.

Though the colder weather usually arrives before Sorrows, it is officially viewed as the first day of winter. The Libram tells that after Voland died, the world was plunged into the first winter as Bishal let loose the ice of Nifel, the frozen hell that Bishal hails from. This part of the story is meant to explain the cycle of the seasons; prior to the Freeze this was used as evidence by the sceptical that the Libram was largely fictional, a view which has waned in support in the Bay in the present.

What are normal Sorrows activities?

The festivities of Sorrows occur in the first half of the day, culminating in a modest feast at midday. Prior to the feast, many people sing various traditional songs about Voland, death and rebirth, and the remembrance of those loved ones that are gone to Muspel to reside with Voland and bask in the heat of his eternal flames. Sometimes games are played in the morning, especially by the children who are about to become Nameless. These activities and the midday meal that follows are often conducted with just the family.

After the feast, people begin to make their way to the kirkhall for the holiday service. Traditionally, the service begins with a reading from the Libram, the first chapters up to the death of Voland and the coming of the winter. Following the reading, the service takes the form of a funeral for Voland complete with a coffin surmounted by a large red candle; various songs are sung, laments for the dead and messages of love and remembrance. When sunset approaches, it is time for those children who have reached the age of twelve in the past year to become Nameless.

The children are dressed in white robes and each given a candle. One by one, they approach the head of the kirkhall and are given a blessing by the Keeper. The child lights his or her own candle from the flame of the red candle on Voland’s coffin, then one of their parents or another family member such as a sibling or an aunt or uncle proceeds to remove the child’s hair with a saege knife. The child speaks his or her name aloud for all to hear, and hands the Keeper the candle. The Keeper declares the child dead, and places the candle with Voland’s. Once all the children have become nameless, one final lament is sung, and the people return home for bed. The candles of the nameless are watched over by the Keeper, keeping the flames alive and exchanging spent candles for new ones all through the winter.

What is eaten during Sorrows?

As mentioned, the feast on Sorrows is modest, but still larger than a normal meal. The contents of the meal are very simple, the only special feature being cinnamon loaf baked and distributed by the Keepers. The Order maintains a number of trees from which cinnamon is harvested specifically for this purpose. The rest of the meal traditionally consists of porridge, cheese, and apples, though some people also include small portions of reindeer meat. Cider and rosehip tea are the usual drinks for all ages.

Possible Adventure Hooks

Namelessness can prove to be quite an ordeal, being without contact from your family and friends for so long, and the prospect of it can frighten many preparing to undergo it. Your adventurers could be enlisted to find and return children who have run away, hoping to avoid Namelessness. This mission would come with a time limit as the ceremony cannot be performed on any other day, and a child who has not undergone his or her Namelessness will never be considered an adult.

Because of the war, malicious people on both sides might attempt to disrupt the Sorrows traditions in order to damage the enemy’s morale. This may come in the form of a minor disruption, such as the cinnamon being stolen before it can be used in the baking of the holiday loaves, or it could be a more significant matter, such as stealing or destroying the candles used in the Sorrows service.

Lastly, the ceremony itself could be interrupted. Perhaps midway through the service, Voland’s empty coffin opens itself, and someone claiming to be Voland emerges. This could be a genuine visitation from an aspect of the god himself, or it could be a malicious spirit or being with some sinister plan that involves gaining the trust of the people.

Gone on Holiday: Returning January 3, 2011 for a full week (five days) of posts. Resuming the normal schedule the following week.

Missed Day

This article will go live on Saturday, 18 December.

EDIT: Going Live on Sunday

Frozen Over: The Ghost Town of Dample

History

The village of Dample was a normal fishing village, like many others in the Bay. Its population of roughly 150 set to work each morning, going out on trawlers to try and fill their larders and their purses. The uruks of Dample got along well enough with the nearby alfar villages, but as the situation in the Belltower Council became more heated, relations began to decay. Finally, war broke out, and the fate of Dample took a left turn.

Like everyone else, the citizens of Dample wanted to hope that things could be resolved easily and peacefully, but as skirmishes began to run back and forth over the borders that possibility seemed to evaporate. To the west of Dample, the Uruk militia began to set up a fortified camp on the Old Road where it crossed the border. Eddershot was in a solid position to protect the narrow land entrance into the Uruk nation and the Alfar attacks on it all ended in failure.

The war abated for a time while both sides hurried to bring in the harvest before the frost arrived, but in the first months of winter the alfar decided to take a different strategy. Frontal assaults had not worked, Eddershot was simply too strong, but the southern coast of the uruk nation was poorly defended. And so the alfar used the first of the new ships the hodekin had built, and staged an invasion into uruk territory, establishing a beachhead at Dample.

It was still early in the winter, so there were still some hours of daylight, but the alfar chose to begin before dawn had broken. They opened up with ship-mounted ballistae, the massive darts set aflame and lighting the way for the landing. A few of the townsfolk were alert enough to take up arms, but most were busy trying to extinguish the flames that were devouring their homes. The alfar ships came in close, and the landing parties began to sweep through the town, slaughtering as they went. The people of Dample fought hard, but they were far outnumbered.

Only one-third of the people of Dample escaped to safety that morning, fleeing up the Stony Road to Wigby or the Lane to Hagen. By the time the alfar and hodekin forces reached Wigby, a defence had been mounted, led by the elben Graf, Joral de Roen. The defenders pushed the invaders back, driving them back to their ships at Dample. The village was retaken, and the invasion rebuffed, but Dample had been reduced to smouldering ruins, haunted by the ghasts of the slain.

What is there? Who is there?

Very little remains of the village, those survivors who did not immediately join the militia have taken up residence elsewhere. Dample’s Reeve was in Rackholl when the attack occurred, leaving his Deputy in charge. She led the village’s defence, but was unfortunately one of the first to die. The ghasts of the slain townsfolk linger around the ruins even today, two years later. Normally a ghast would have long since crossed over in that time, but something keeps these ghasts anchored to the world in their ruined village.

The only building that is still standing in any stable manner is the kirkhall. The sturdier construction of the kirkhall, coupled with its distance from the shoreline, contributed to its survival. Those who observe the ghasts have noticed that they seem to congregate in the kirkhall every Volands, as if attending services. Other strange behaviour exhibited by the ghasts includes the fact that they usually will not interact with the living; normally a ghast is every bit his or her own self, but dead; the ghasts of Dample, in contrast, rarely even acknowledge the presence of the living. Sometimes they will speak as if still living their lives, often talking to people who are not there, even carrying on entire conversations with them. Today, the living generally avoid Dample, though regular patrols keep watch on the southern shoreline, in case of a repeat attack.

Geography

Dample sits near the pointed tip of the northern shore of the Narsund. A small wood used to grow just east of the village around the kirkhall, but much of that perished in the fires during the attack. The Stony Road passes through this dead wood as it comes into the village from the north. The other road, the Lane, passes south of this wood on its way east to Hagen. Most of the village sits between the kirkhall and the docks in the west. Most of the burnt-out buildings are missing roofs, and many have lost walls as well. The docks are still mostly intact, though the fishing vessels were all either scuttled or taken by the alfar in their retreat.

Adventure Hooks

The ghasts of Dample provide potential adventure. The questions of why they still cling to the world and why they seem to act as if they are still alive and yet don’t see or react to living beings are mysteries that your adventurers may wish to solve. It’s possible that there is some sort of magical artifact affecting the deceased in odd ways, or perhaps the trauma has scarred the ghasts and they won’t cross over until the alfar have been defeated and punished.

Another idea, if you wish to begin your campaign earlier in the war, is to have you adventurers participate in the battle and subsequent evacuation. Perhaps they can tip the balance of the battle, or help more to escape. If you wish, you can have the ghasts create a vivid hallucinatory re-enactment of the battle, so the party can experience the battle without shifting your campaign back in the timeline.

Friday: The Sorrows Festival

Frozen Over: The Uruk Nation

Structure of the Government

The Uruk nation is the only one of the five to place itself entirely in the hands of democracy. Every government leader from the village Reeves, to the nation’s Governor is elected. The Governor serves as the head of state and government, as well as the nation’s representative on the Belltower council. Also elected is the Deputy Governor who serves as lieutenant to the Governor and is his or her replacement should any ill occur. The Governor presides over the Grand Hall, a legislative house made up of the nation’s Reeves. The Reeves are elected as the leaders of individual villages, as well as town councillors in the larger settlements. Like the Governor, Reeves have a Deputy who serves as their second, and will often take their place during Grand Hall meetings, either in the village, or sitting and casting votes in the Grand Hall.

Each village has three elected Councillors who advise the Reeve on village matters and can overrule a Reeve’s decision by a unanimous vote if the situation demands. Larger settlements are instead led by a Mayor, who serves in the same capacity as the Reeve of a village. Each town is divided into three districts that function just like a village, with a Reeve and three Councillors, while the Reeves in turn serve as councillors to the Mayor and can likewise overrule his or her decisions through a unanimous vote (perhaps complicated by the fact that any of their votes can be overruled by their Councillors). Like the other leadership positions the Mayor has a Deputy, but the Mayor has no legislative duties outside of their town like the Reeves do.

Elections are held every five years for all elected positions. In all, there are twenty-four Reeves (including the Reeve of the destroyed village of Dample), four mayors, and one governor, with deputies for each of those positions. If the people express unhappiness with any person in power, a referendum can be called in the relevant constituency and the person unseated by a simple two-thirds majority; this process of impeachment, however, is rarely invoked. There are no term limits on any position.

Geography

The geography of the Uruk nation is largely defined by landforms that mark its borders. The most significant is the Cliff that forms a horseshoe around much of the nation to the north, west, and south. Depending on the location, the Cliff ranges in height from 100 to nearly 200 feet tall, being tallest in the north. The three rivers in the nation all enter Uruk territory by means of waterfalls plummeting down the cliff-face; the Cliffside River flows directly alongside the Cliff for much of its length between Fracture Falls and the Narsund; the Lipping Rivers enters at Amel Falls and then flows into Scoll Bay; and the Torrent River crashes into Rottel Bay at the gap between the Uruk and Elben Nations. Rottel Bay continues south from Tallfalls, separating the uruks from their elben allies. Finally, in the south, North Circling and the Narsund separate the Uruk nation from Perry Island and the Alfar Nation.

Scoll Bay, which cuts the nation in two, is bounded on the north side by a smaller cliff that rises about 60 feet above the water; the cliff-face is broken by a small inlet at Farthing. The nation falls into two geographical areas north and south of Scoll Bay. The southern region is primarily grassland and prairie, with only the occasional stand of blackwoods or pines. The coast in the south is simple and unfettered by stones or prominences. The north half of the country is different entirely, sedges cling to small patches of the inhospitable rocky terrain and small grove of trees are somewhat more common than in the south. Some grassland can be found nearer the coast before the jagged rocks return in full force at the water’s edge. The north sits on a plateau that rises some 60 or 70 feet higher than the southern grasslands.

Industry

Just as the land is divided into north and south, so is the Uruk nation’s industry. The south is more concerned with food production; farms dot the countryside from Rackholl past Wigby to Hagen. There is also a great deal of herding in this area, primarily reindeer but some horse breeding as well. There is a fair amount of fishing operated out of Rackholl, and Dample was a fishing village before its destruction. Drossen is effectively a part of the larger community of Ambergate, and a great deal of trade moves through the area. One of the elben-uruk alliance’s two military encampments, Eddershot, sits on the Alfar border and is their western command post.

The north, on the other hand, is largely concerned with resources rather than food. Lipton is home to a quarry that supplies a great deal of the Bay’s stone. Mining abounds as well as mines in Broots, Sunders, and Oster supply nearly all of the iron in the Bay. The mine in Carsett is a source of gold, as well as a small amount of silver and electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. Folsham is the industrial heart of the north, housing the metalworks and manufacturing capabilities of the nation, as well as a militia training barracks, while Colvey has shipyards where engineers have been developing heavy cannons for their naval vessels. The only places concerned with food in the north are Galvesdon and Farthing, both practicing farming and fishing, though Galvesdon focuses on the former and Farthing the latter. 

Possible Adventure Hooks

The Cliff, being a significant geographical barrier, might seem to protect the Uruk nation from the varkers that live above, but that is not the whole story. Because it seems to protect them, the uruks might be led to ignore any potential threat from above. A clever varker Ardri might organize the construction of winches or elevators to invade down the Cliff, or previously unknown caves might provide hidden but easy routes down into civilized territory.

Continuing with caves, the mines of the north could lead to stories. Mysterious creatures might come up from below to attack the workers, or even venture further, laying waste to a nearby village. Alternatively, a newly discovered vein of unknown ore might be found and your adventurers hired to transport a sample to Folsham or to the Academy Grounds in Garstang for analysis.

Finally, adventure could occur relating to the nation’s politics. Grand Hall votes might be beset with intrigue and backroom deals; adventurers could be hired as security for a Deputy Reeve who is refusing to bow to pressure and now fears for his life. Elections could also be a source of excitement, and infiltrators from the alfar-hodekin alliance might use the uruk’s tolerance of diversity against them.

Wednesday: Dample

Frozen Over: The Uruk Race

What is an Uruk?

In other settings, one might define uruks as orcs, but that simplistic comparison does not tell the full story. For the most part an uruk does share the usual orcish appearance; uruks are quite sizable beings, most being between 6 and 7 feet tall. Both males and females are extremely well muscled and as a result their average strength easily surpasses the other races of the Bay.

Their skin is greyish-green, trending more heavily toward the green end of that spectrum, and they have sharp fangs that give them a feral look. The features that set them apart from orcs are their pointed ears and startling violet eyes. Uruks have very little body hair, and they never grow facial hair; the hair on their head is jet black, but a large proportion of the population routinely shave their heads, so an unknowing outsider might assume they are naturally bald. Lastly, many uruks have upturned pig-like noses, further setting them apart.

What are Uruks like?

The collective viewpoint of the uruk race is one of equality. Because of their appearance, it has been common through history for uruks to be feared and reviled, even declared outright evil and slaughtered without a second thought. These events have left a mark on the race’s consciousness, and they are now devoted to forwarding the cause of fairness and equality, to save others from undue suffering as they have been subject to. If a situation seems unfair or unbalanced, the uruks will be there to advocate a change.

This single-mindedness, however, can sometimes result in short-sightedness. Once a cause has been taken up, an uruk will not rest until the wrong they perceived has been righted, which ultimately means that they can be just as stubborn as the alfar, refusing to budge even an inch. Conflicts are routinely escalated because an uruk stepped in to help the situation, but in the end only made it worse. The prime example of this escalation is the Academy’s bid for membership in the Belltower Council, and the fallout of that effort which is the ongoing war.

Uruk Society

On the other hand, the uruk’s devotion to equality also arguably makes their society the best to live in. The law is strictly enforced and everyone is allowed to contribute in whatever way they wish. Their leadership is all elected and the law allows the people to remove a leader from office if enough disagree with his or her administration’s direction. Taxes are high, but the government’s primary job is to ensure the well-being of the people, so everyone is guaranteed a minimum standard of living.

Gender is effectively considered irrelevant among uruks; it has no bearing on your position or rights in society. Likewise, sexuality is a topic that is largely ignored, you simply have relationships with whomever you wish, and no-one thinks twice about it. Labels such as homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual simply do not exist, there is no reason to categorize people in such as way. While in other nations one might be discriminated or disliked because of their race, that is not so among uruks; even the svugar half-bloods, reviled for their disturbing appearance, are afforded the same place in society as everyone else. If you hold a position of authority, it is because you have earned the trust and respect of others, not because you come from a rich or well-respected family, and not because the alternative was a member of a different race. As a testament to this, one of the Commanders in the combined Uruk-Elben militia is a svugar by the name of Marthon am Vale.

Uruk Faith

For the uruk’s, faith in Voland and the Order is seen as a unifying force. The Order is the force that ultimately brought them into the fold of greater society and as a result they hold perhaps a greater reverence for it than any other race. Even at the beginning of the Freeze, when the other races had allowed many of the old customs such as namelessness fall to the wayside, the uruks continued to hold them in highest regard. Uruks nearly all carry saeges modeled directly on Bishal’s blade as described in the Libram and they hold most strictly to the rules of namelessness; children have the strictures drilled into them in the year leading up to their namelessness.

As with the other races, the uruks have their own take on the story of Voland and Bishal. To uruks, Voland represents the force of order and civilization, he organized the world in an orderly manner as he created it; civilization and the thinking beings were the pinnacle of that effort. Bishal was little more than a wild and jealous beast, and indeed he is more often referred to as the Beast among uruks than by his name. The Beast is the wild, uncontrolled animal side of the world, while Voland is equality, order, and civilization. Another aspect of this is that the Beast represents terror, while Voland stands for honour and courage in the face of horror.

Monday: The Uruk Nation

Frozen Over: Death & Dying

In the culture of Butter Bay, even more so since the Freeze began, death is held in great reverence. The Libram’s account of the death of Voland at the hands of Bishal and his subsequent resurrection has ingrained itself into the collective consciousness of society, and instilled a deep respect.

Namelessness

The most obvious sign of this reverence is in the rite of passage known as Namelessness. Namelessness is a coming of age ritual that all inhabitants of the Bay go through; it is absolutely mandatory. If, somehow, one was to not do it, they would forever be considered a child. When you go through your Namelessness you are re-enacting the death and resurrection of Voland, claiming your place in the world as one of his children. The process begins at the festival of Sorrows. All children who have turned twelve in the year since the previous Sorrows are deemed ready to go through their Namelessness. A parent or other family member, or occasionally a Keeper, will use their own saege knife to cut off the child’s hair in a ritual performed in front of the whole community.

After the ritual is completed, the children, now called nameless, are considered to be dead. The role of the community in the Namelessness is simply to not interact with the nameless in any way. The nameless must fend for themselves, preparing their own food, dressing themselves, repairing clothing, and anything else that might arise. Though the nameless are not officially supposed to speak at all, they sometimes speak with and interact with one another; the rest of the community does not enforce the no-speaking rule because they are not allowed to acknowledge the nameless. It is also common for the nameless to help one another with food, clothing, and protection; this is also accepted because the community is not allowed to acknowledged them, but some view the practice as a positive as it helps instil the nameless with a sense of community.

When Nighsend, the new year’s festival, arrives, another ritual is performed; the nameless are each presented with a saege of their own, to carry and guard the rest of their lives. Once this ritual is completed, the nameless become adults, and are considered alive again. When the nameless regain their life, they are allowed an opportunity to alter their given name if they so wish. As adults now, they are expected to contribute to society just like everyone else by farming, or fishing, or mining, or even joining the militia.

Dying

When people die in the Frozen Over setting, things work somewhat differently than normal. Upon dying, the person immediately returns as a ghast, a sort of undead spectre of themselves. Ghasts are able to continue to exist in the world for a time if they so choose, but it takes a focused effort to hold onto the land of the living. Over time, the person’s ghast slowly slips away and crosses over to the afterlife. A ghast can choose to let go and cross over of their own accord at any time.

What this means in game terms, specifically in 4th Edition D&D, is fairly simple. After dying, either by way of three failed death-saving throws or by dropping below their negative bloodied value, the character immediately regains 1 hit point and consequently regains consciousness. However, they are no longer a living creature, rather they are undead. A ghast character functions as normal with two exceptions: first, the character gains the following racial feature:

Slipping Away: While you are bloodied, you can move through blocking terrain, obstacles, and enemies as if they were difficult terrain; you must still end your movement in an unoccupied square. In addition, you gain insubstantial while you are below 0 hit points.

Second, you have a pool of ten “ghast points”. Each time you fall unconscious, fail a death-saving throw, or take an extended rest you lose one ghast point. You can also expend a ghast point to gain a +2 bonus to one attack roll. However, when you no longer have any ghast points, you immediately cross over. There is no way to regain lost ghast points.

When you return as a ghast, your dead body remains on the ground, meaning there are effectively two of you, one corpse, and one ghast. The corpse is naked, and all your clothing and equipment is on your ghast body.

Resurrection

Death is taken seriously in the society 0f the Bay. It is to be respected and revered, and not to be counteracted. Returning the dead to life is actually illegal in all but the Uruk nation, and even there it is not looked kindly upon. Part of the reason for this attitude is that resurrection generally doesn’t work, at least not in the way you would expect. The ritual to return life to the dead is relatively simple, but it doesn’t return the body to its original condition. At first glance it will appear to have worked perfectly, but as the days go by it will become apparent that though the persons mind and spirit have been returned to the body, the body is still slowly rotting away as if it were dead.

Eventually the flesh will fall away completely and the still-conscious and fully active person will be nothing but a skeletal being known as an esquel. The length of this process varies depending on the temperature, and therefore the time of year; in the summer it will take only a month, while in the winter it can take up to six months. Ressurected individuals who are obviously decomposing or have become esquels are not accepted in society and the citizens of the Bay are liable to hunt them down and destroy them if they are discovered. An esquel takes a -10 penalty to Diplomacy, and Streetwise checks, but gains a +10 bonus to Intimidate checks; while still rotting the penalty and bonus are only 5.

There is a way to resurrect a deceased individual without them becoming an esquel; it involves creating a substance called the Blood of Voland. If the Blood of Voland is used in the ritual to raise the dead, they are returned to their original state, fully alive with no lasting effects. An esquel can also consume the Blood of Voland and their flesh will slowly regrow, with similar timespans as the process of rotting took. The catch, however, is that the recipe for creating the Blood of Voland is long lost, and the ingredients are exotic and difficult to find. If your adventurers are determined to return a lost companion, the quest to do so should be a large undertaking all on its own and will lead them into distant and uncivilized lands far from Butter Bay.

Undeath

Various types of undead creatures exist; ghasts and esquels have already been discussed above. The other major types of undead are liches, and thralls. Liches are effectively esquels who have enacted additional rituals to preserve themselves, binding their spirit to a phylactery. If their body is destroyed, but the phylactery is still intact they will slowly regenerate. No-one knows how long it takes to regenerate, but estimates are usually quite lengthy, in the range of decades or even a century. Thralls, unlike the other types of undead, are no longer people, but are instead mindless beasts; their bodies were simply reanimated rather than resurrected. Like esquels, they begin covered in flesh, but eventually are little more than animated skeletons; fleshy thralls are sometimes called zombies. A thrall is usually bound to the will of whoever created it, but if they die or their body is destroyed the thrall simply crumbles. It is possible to create thralls that will survive past their master’s destruction, but they are more difficult to keep control of, and nearly impossible to control in large numbers.

Friday: The Uruk Race

Frozen Over: The Alfar Nation

Structure of the Government

Similarly to the Human and Hodekin nations, the Alfar nation is divided into a number of townships each with their own leader, but one of them is superior to the others. In the Alfar nation, however, the townships are somewhat larger as there are only three. Paradoxically, the townships ruled over by the Alder, who also serves as leader of the nation as a whole, is not the largest, rather he rules Benshaw Township which controls the Alfar territory on the islands, including Usk, Felling, and Gordon. The other townships are led by individuals called Onders. The Onder of Ringwood Township has control over Tantham and Upham, as well as the villages in Willem’s Land and Sulliver. The last township is Nefyn Township, which includes the villages of Ruthin, Pallywick, Castol, and Yonder. All of the smaller villages are led by a Ritter.

The positions of Alder and Onder are similar in many ways, particularly in their method of selection. Each year the currently serving Alder and Onders declare their choice of successor should they die that year; most years this is little more than a formality as the choice will not have changed from the previous year. On occasion, however, the chosen successor might die himself or perhaps earn dishonour to the point that he or she is no longer considered worthy, and this process allows a new selection to be made. The position of Ritter is treated differently, in that it is appointed by the Alder or Onder of the township. A currently sitting Ritter cannot be forced out of his or her position, but ultimately don’t control who succeeds them, though they may be consulted for a recommendation. Though death is the usual mode in which any of these positions become vacant, the individuals holding the positions can also choose to step down.

Geography

The Alfar nation controls four rather distinct areas, largely divided along townships lines. At the core are the islands, which fall into Benshaw Township. The western half of Perry Island is part of this region, as well as Doal, Usk, and Sholner Islands. The bamboo forest covers most of this area, though Doal island is an exception as it is treed with blackwoods. Across the main Bay from Perry Island is Nefyn Township; this region is almost entirely fertile farmland, though it becomes somewhat rocky further north, and a fraction of the Wachoer Forest extends into the territory near Pallywick. At the northern end of Nefyn Township the border with the Elben nation is delineated by the Canal River.

Returning west, Willem’s Land is a long peninsula extending eastward. It is separated from the Human nation by Prewett Sound on the south side, and separated to the north from Perry Island by the waters of South Circling and from the Ringwood by the Solsund. Two rivers mark the edges of the region on land, the Silver River, and the Coney River. Most of the area is grassland and farmland; the Roscoe Forest has a foothold in the south around Sulliver, stretching almost to Darby. On the other side of the Coney River is the Ringwood, a heavily wooded area dominated by conifers such as pines and firs, with blackwoods spattered about liberally. The Fairdon River flows through the forest in the north before it gives way to a large rocky hill riddled with caves called the Mound that splits Tantham Bay from the Narsund. Though the mound is rather geographically distinct, there are no real settlements there, and so it is generally considered to be part of the Ringwood. The Ringwood and Willem’s Land together comprise Ringwood Township.

Industry

Farming is important in the Alfar nation, especially in Nefyn Township, which is part of the same fertile stretch of land as Tideswell Township in the human nation. Ruthin, Nefyn, Pallywick, Castol, and Yonder are all either devoted to farming, or lean heavily in that direction, though Nefyn itself is also a food distribution centre. There is also a fair amount of farming in Willem’s Land, though there it shares equal dominance with herding. Fishing also has a presence in the nation, particularly in Ruthin and Gordon, though also in Castol, Tantham, Darby, Upham, and Benshaw. Hunting parties venture into the uninhabited wilds beyond the Friar’s Wall regularly. The last food industry in the Alfar nation is on Usk Island, where they grow several different species of bamboo, harvesting new shoots before they have really begun to grow.

Reindeer herding provides not only meat, but also leather and fur; some are even kept as pets or pack animals. In the same area, Darby boasts one of the major horse-breeders in the Bay. On Perry Island, the bamboo that grows there is harvested for timber, being the principal industry of Felling and Benshaw. In the Ringwood as well, lumber is the principal industry, occupying many of the people of Ringwood, Upham, and Tantham. And finally, Sulliver, near the border with the Human nation, is the site of the Bay’s only silver mine. Some of that silver is sent to the mint in Mortehoe, but a fair amount of it goes directly to the vaults in Benshaw for potential future use.

Possible Adventure Hooks

The fertility of the Nefyn region is a significant factor in keeping the people of Butter Bay fed each year. Perhaps the boats carrying food from Nefyn are mysteriously disappearing; a hefty reward would likely be offered for anybody able to find the cause and put an end to it. Potential causes could range from particularly aggressive butterbasts, to elben-uruk naval vessels capturing the boats, or even alfar-hodekin vessels trying to frame their enemies for the crime. The land itself could also come under attack; one unscrupulous and malicious arcanist, perhaps even expelled from the Academy, might concoct a spell or ritual to poison the land. If using the second, you could tie this into retrieving tomes from Tolling Keep, the adventurers themselves gave the arcanist what he needed to perpetrate this act.

The caves within the Mound could hold unknown secrets to be discovered, there might also be unknown dangers lurking there. Exploring these caves could be an adventure in itself, or the adventurers could simply end up there in the course of another mission, such as finding a lost child. A scholar of ancient history might present a theory that the Mound holds the tomb of some long forgotten monarch, along with many treasures, or it could contain the lair of a dragon, in a thousand-year hibernation. It might be more interesting to combine more than one of these ideas.

The politics of the alfar are full of potential plots. Rival families trying to discredit one another, assassinations, manipulations, individuals seeking positions of power, or trying to protect the power they already have. The Vo Nayer family should always figure into these plots in some way, as they are the single most powerful alfar family with members serving as Alder, Seer, Arch-Seeker, and two of the three Arch-Druids.

Wednesday: Death

Frozen Over: The Alfar Race

What is an Alfar?

The alfar are, in many ways, very archetypal elves. Their alabaster skin is compared by some to porcelain, and though somewhat delicate in appearance they are as hardy as any human. Like the elben, all alfar have dazzling green eyes that seem to sparkle in the light. Unlike the elben, whose hair is black, the alfar all have blonde hair, which ranges in tone from yellow to pure white. It is common for both males and females to wear their hair long.

Like the elben, an alfar’s facial features are well defined, but unlike the elben, their features are not severe; rather, they tend to be quite attractive, almost perfect physical specimens. The primary departure from the common appearance of an elf is that the alfar’s ears are not pointed, but are instead rounded like a normal human’s. Because of the alfar’s greater tolerance for the cold, they are often seen wearing less cold weather clothing than others, and in the warmer months often wear little more than a loincloth.

What are Alfar like?

What most alfar have in common is a strong sense of intuition. They value their gut feelings tremendously and as a result are often arrogant. They especially see themselves as being above those who spend long hours agonizing over decisions, because an alfar simply makes a decision and moves on with his or her life, living with the consequences if necessary. Alfar rarely change their minds after the fact, believing that their first thought on the matter is the purest and is therefore correct.

Despite their arrogance, the alfar are generally a kind people. They are happy to give food and supplies to those in need, following their natural instinct for community and trusting that they will be helped in turn if they are ever in need. Alfar are also very loyal to their friends and family, supporting them no matter the situation, and so they have proved a powerful force in the defence of the Bay from external threats. Their loyalty and stubbornness, however, are the primary fuel behind the war, and the reason why a diplomatic solution is unlikely to be accepted.

Alfar Society

In many ways alfar society is very simple; you do what you need to survive and you never second guess yourself. Respect and equality are very strongly linked; if you are able to earn people’s respect through your actions you gain elevated status. The other side of this is that if your family has high standing, then you don’t actually need to earn respect yourself, though it is fully possible to lose respect, and thus status, especially by changing your mind on a subject. As a result, there is a pressure to fit in with society or risk bringing dishonour to your family, diminishing the status of them all.

Many alfar spend much of their time in the wilderness, being one with themselves and with nature. The kinship and trust in the natural order is what drives so many of them to join the Kindred. It is also very common for alfar to keep pets, often wild animals that they have tamed themselves; these pets are viewed as members of the family, effectively a brother, sister, or child to their owner. There is even at least one notable instance of an alfar family raising a varker as one of their own, and she went on to become the Arch-Shaman for a time.

Alfar Faith

The way the alfar view their faith and the Order is in many ways the same as the elben, but differs on key points. The Libram is viewed more as parable that statement of fact, almost fable-like with a specific lesson to take away from each one. Again, however, Voland and Bishal are important figures, and their story is central to the way the alfar view the world. When Voland was born he began to craft the world, creating the earth and the sky and the sea, creating every leaf and every seed, creating every creature from the lowliest worm to the fiercest whale. He finally created the thinking beings, but that final act was not separated from the rest, it was simply the last step. Alfar and the other races were not distinct from nature in the eyes of Voland, and so they should not act as if they were. Like a worm, or a wolf, or a whale, they should strive to follow the instincts and intuitions that Voland instilled in them.

While Voland was doing his work, Bishal was watching and plotting, studying Voland’s creations and trying to comprehend what he was doing and why. Bishal dissected creatures and plant, experimented on nature, perverting it into demonic forms with his unnatural magic. And when, finally, he believed he had learned all he could from Voland, he set out to destroy him once and for all and claim the world himself. In short, instinct is of Voland and of nature, thought exists so that instinct can be understood, not so it can be reasoned against and countermanded.

Monday: The Alfar Nation

Frozen Over: The Ruins of Southwold

History

Southwold was a simple town on the outskirts of the Human nation. Located near the eastern edge of the Roscoe forest, it was largely a lumber town, housing a lumber mill that processed logs cut in the forest. The town was also used as a staging area for hunting parties heading into the southern wilds, and for parties seeking valuable resources in abandoned outposts and castles, particularly a keep called Tolling that had stockpiles of useful ores not found in the Bay and an extensive library including many magical texts. This quiet but productive town, however, had a change of fate 12 years ago. During the months of Yule in 135 YotF, two hostile tribes of varkers were encountered in the area, the Coppercross and Brokenbow. After several hunters failed to return, and a supply wagon coming from Tolling was attacked, the Ritter asked the Baron to do something about this new threat. First a small scouting party was sent out to investigate the matter; only 2 of the 7 returned.

They brought news that the two tribes seemed to be working together; the taller Coppercross tribe appeared to be in control and many of their warriors seemed to wield some magic and were called witches, while the Brokenbow varkers were more typical of the race, wielding simple clubs and slings. There were also several unknown creatures, believed to be varkers but unusually massive, larger even than uruks. All three types had jet-black fur. To make matters worse, the varkers had taken up residence in Tolling Keep and were massing for a battle. The Baron of the time, Fallas Coel, rightly recognized that the Coppercross and Brokenbow tribes were preparing to raid or even invade the civilized lands of the Human nation. He organized a company of militiamen, almost 200 strong, to make a pre-emptive strike. Baron Fallas led this company himself as they made for Tolling, but they were ambushed on the way, and forced to fall back. Fallas was injured in the ambush, and he ordered his men to retreat without him. Dutifully, the soldiers made their way back to Southwold, where Fallas’ son Ebraen had organized additional troops in defence of the nation.

The varkers made their inevitable strike on Southwold during Little Noer of that year, but arrived in unexpected numbers; the human defenders were outnumbered 3 to 1. Fallas, however, had not been killed but only captured, and he had used his time in captivity productively. He had learned that the hulking varkers were cross-breeds between the two tribes, and were part of the glue holding them together; there was some strife between the tribes and the diminutive Brokenbow were resentful of the Coppercross for luring them into a lopsided arrangement. He was able to convince some of the dim-witted hulks that the Coppercross tribe cared nothing for them except as slaves, and that they should aid their Brokenbow brethren in rebellion. And so it happened that during the Battle of Southwold, the two tribes turned on one another, allowing many of the humans to escape the battle relatively unscathed. They had, however, lost the town and the ancient sawmill that rested there, and Fallas Coel was killed in the battle by Coppercross witches for aiding the rebellion.

What is there? Who is there?

The most notable thing in the town is the sawmill. It is not wind, water, or steam powered, but instead is of ancient design, similar to the Great Well in Audlem. It seems to function through some sort of magic, but how exactly is unknown. The rest of the town has fallen into disrepair in the past decade, and the road passing through Southwold from Grovel to Illsop is now known as the Ruined Road (see map). Also of note is the kirkhall, one of the few buildings maintained by the varkers, which they have turned into a shrine to Fallas Coel, seeing him as something of a saviour for his role in freeing them from the Coppercross. The Baron’s remains and possessions are housed here, and many of the varkers have taken to carrying saeges like those carried in Butter Bay as a sign of reverence to Fallas.

Because of the half-breed hulks’ support of the Brokenbow they were able to win the battle and drive the enemy out of Southwold; the Coppercross retreated to Tolling Keep. The two tribes have been in a state of constant conflict ever since, with battles and raids on both sides and the border between them always shifting. The Coppercross witches have repeatedly led strikes on Southwold itself, trying to seize the magical mill and learn its secrets. The most learned of the Brokenbow have in turn been studying the mill, wishing to use its power to destroy or enslave the Coppercross once and for all. If you were trying to sneak into the town, you would have to deal with regular patrols of the half-breeds on the outskirts, and heavy occupation by regular Brokenbow in the village’s interior.

Geography

Entering the town on the ruined road, you would first pass through a number of small dwellings that the varkers have let fall to ruin. In the core of Southwold are four major buildings, the kirkhall, the mill, a two-storey tenement, and the town’s inn. The mill is much the same as it always was; ancient design made of unmarked charcoal-coloured stone, the design is quite unlike the other buildings, calling out its origins. As mentioned earlier, the kirkhall has been turned into a sort of shrine to Fallas Coel. The inn was heavily damaged in the battle, but the varkers have since repaired it and their leader in the town resides there, using it as his command post; the faded sign reading “The Lost Retreat” still hangs over the shattered front window. The tenement is the only building left that is still used for its original purpose. The majority of the varkers who live in Southwold occupy rooms in the tenement, which comfortably houses about sixty, but the varkers have crammed in eighty or more. A rough trail leads south toward the other Brokenbow camps and the Coppercross stronghold at Tolling.

Adventure Hooks

The former residents of Southwold had to leave much behind in the evacuation, and many militiamen were killed in the battle. Families seeking lost heirlooms, such as the saege knives of those killed, might be willing to pay a hefty reward for the return of those items. The request could even come from Baron Ebraen himself, seeking his fallen father’s saege or signet ring, or even just a part of the body for proper burial.

It might be possible to negotiate with the varkers of Southwold. If your adventurers could offer them insights into the workings of the mill, they may be willing to aid the party, especially if the party’s aims involve taking action against the Coppercross. Your adventurers may be after a specific tome in the library of Tolling, and the books there could lead to a greater understanding of the mill or the Great Well.

Friday: The Alfar Race

Frozen Over: The Human Nation

Structure of the Government

The government of the Human nation is a rather traditional model; there is a hereditary monarch who rules the land, and he has various lieutenants who rule over specific regions on his behalf. The difference is a matter of scale; instead of a King ruling over a vast area there is a lowly Baron as the monarch, and instead of Dukes and Counts as his lieutenants there are petty Lords and Mayors. Each township in the nation has a Lord or Mayor, Lords being hereditary and Mayors being elected. Armley, Cheslyn, Dunstable, and Mortehoe each have a Lord, while the more distant Ambergate and Tideswell have Mayors instead. The Baron technically also holds the title of Lord of Mondegreen, but Baron Ebraen Coel has delegated those duties to his son, Alliver.

Smaller villages in the nation are led by either Reeves or Ritters, again the difference being that Reeves are elected and Ritters are hereditary. Butterwatch, Denning, Downey, Lothar, Palesdon, and Seidle all have Reeves, while the rest of the villages have Ritters. Other smaller settlements exist that don’t appear on the map; they fall under the leadership of the nearest town or village. All of these settlements and villages fall into one of the townships and answer to the Lord or Mayor of the town. Armley Township includes only Butterwatch, while Ambergate Township includes only Palesdon. Tolsen, Grovel, and Denning are all part of Cheslyn Township, while Sableton, Hoskin, and Bray fall into Mortehoe Township. Between those two is Mondegreen Township, which includes Vander and Illsop. On the north side of the Bay is Tideswell Township, which encompasses Lothar and Downey. Finally, on Perry Island, Dunstable Township controls Seidle, Cobury, and Oundle.

Geography

The Human nation is probably the most geographically fragmented. The bulk of the nation is situated on the south side of the Bay, separated from Willem’s Land by Prewett Sound. This section features the only river in human territory, the Sulliver River, which forms the border with the Alfar nation. The area around Mortehoe and over to the ruins of Southwold are covered by the Roscoe Forest. This forest is largely evergreen pines and spruces, but there are stands of the purple-leaved blackwood trees as well. Further east the wood gives way to open farmland. The terrain eventually becomes rocky in the area of Denning and Grovel and continuing on to the coast, though patches of this terrain are still suitable for farming. The coast of the southern land is fairly tame, much of it featuring quiet beaches, though there is a notable rocky prominence near Cheslyn at the Point, which is the site of a large lighthouse. The coast is, however, extremely rocky at the mouth of the main Bay, the only low points being the nestled locations of Butterwatch and Armley.

On the north side of the Bay, adjacent to the Hodekin nation, is Tideswell Township. This area, as well as the Alfar territory up to Nefyn, is the most fertile farmland in the Bay, producing as much as one-eighth of the Bay’s food each year. In the north, Ambergate Township is also situated in the centre of grassy farmland; and just across North Circling from that region is Perry Island. The entirety of the island is covered with a large Bamboo forest, except for a copse of blackwoods inside the walls of Blackwood Abbey, from which the abbey takes its name. Before the Freeze, the island was forested with blackwoods, but the quicker-growing bamboo has since completely taken over. The coasts of Tideswell and Ambergate Townships are simple strands, but Perry Island is much more rocky, especially in the north around Seidle. This rockiness extends out in the form of the Mardon Islands, which are largely uninhabited, save for one or two lone souls hiding from the rest of society.

Industry

A large part of Human nation’s industry is devoted to food. Farming, fishing, herding, hunting, even a little whaling; all practiced by the humans of the Bay and all putting food on the table. Whaling and butterbast hunting are centred around the mouth of Butter Bay and so are primarily an industry of Butterwatch and Armley. Those two, along with the other coastal settlements, especially Tolsen, Seidle, Palesdon, and Bray, all have robust fishing economies. Tideswell and its neighbours are primarily farming communities, though Tideswell also serves as a waypoint for trade goods crossing the Bay. Ambergate has a similar role as a centre of both farming and trade further north, with Palesdon housing the harbour itself. Farmland dots the countryside from Prewett Sound all the way to Denning, though it becomes spottier in the east due to the rockier ground. During the growing season, everyone not normally involved in food production is expected to pitch in, and there are even laws mandating this, meaning that in the spring people are shipped out of the towns to tenements in the country to work the fields. The Roscoe Forest has a great deal of hunting, and there are even some herders in the area around Mortehoe.

In contrast, non food-related industry is much less rampant. Whaling provides useful oils which are used in lamps and candles, and reindeer and other animals provide hides, leather, and wool. Illsop and the other Roscoe Forest settlements have some logging, reduced in recent years due to the destruction of the lumber mill in Southwold, but are preparing for a resurgence with a new mill now completed in Mortehoe. On Perry Island the bamboo is cut for construction material as well. The only mining operations in the Human nation are the copper mines in Grovel and Denning; there used to also be iron mines in Sableton and Hoskin, but the easily minable veins have all been tapped and run dry. However, because of those mines and the silver mine across the Silver River in the Alfar nation, there are metalworks and even a mint, the only one in the Bay, in Mortehoe. Cheslyn is home to the Human nation’s shipyard, operated by the Morgeth family, and Cobury is well known for its horses, generally agreed to be the finest to be found in the Bay. Unlike the other nations, the humans have no standing military camps, but there is a militia training yard in Mondegreen, and many civilians have basic training there at some point in their youth.

Possible Adventure Hooks

The mint in Mortehoe is a ripe topic for adventure. Despite the sense of community that bind the Bay together, there are always unscrupulous individuals who seek to gain at the expense of others. A group of bandits might attack the mint and make off with sackloads of coins. Perhaps someone important was injured or killed in the attack and there is now a bounty on the heads of the bandits. Shipments of copper from Grovel and Denning, silver from Sulliver, or gold from Carsett are also potential targets.

Dunstable and Mondegreen, being the largest towns in the Bay, both have their share of internal strife. From petty thieves and pickpockets to organized criminals and potential revolutionaries, all of these could lead to adventure. Tracking down a treasured pocket watch that was stolen from a struggling merchant could turn out to be simple, or could lead to a tangled web involving the Blackwood Scions attempting to storm the Silver Keep or assassinate the Baron.

An attempt to get a fishing trawler repaired in Cheslyn could set your adventurers on a long chain of tasks involving bribing clerks, investigating late wood shipments, transporting messages, and retrieving macguffins from the varker-infested ruins of Southwold.

Wednesday: Southwold

Frozen Over: The Human Race

What is a Human?

The humans of Butter Bay are very much what you would expect; they look very much like us, act much like we do—they essentially are us. The majority of humans are between 5’6” and 6’6”, but there are always anomalies, meaning that you could very well find a human that is much taller (or shorter). Some humans are as tall as 8 feet, but those are exceptional individuals and are not to be taken as the norm. Humans are sometimes extremely short as well, even being as short as hodekin in some cases, but again these are unusual cases. Most humans living in the Bay are much closer to 6 feet.

In terms of other features, the majority of humans in the Bay have light skin, though usually not as pale as an alfar. There are also a small number who have dark skin like an elben, and it is even theorized by some that the darker tone is a result of elben blood, but the theory is unconfirmed and those individuals do not share any other elben traits such as cold tolerance. The usual hair colour for humans is a neutral brown, but there is variance and some humans have blonde hair like alfar, or black hair like elben or uruk, or even red hair like hodekin. More than half of all humans in the Bay have brown eyes, but a sizable minority have blue eyes instead, often being quite vivid in hue. Some humans with uruk blood may even have brilliant violet eyes, but humans never have green eyes from alfar or elben blood.

What are Humans like?

Humans are a varied lot; they don’t have one specific trait that is common to most individuals like the other races. The one thing they do have in common as a race is that they are survivors. Barton Butter is seen as the ultimate symbol of their drive to live on, a simple man who saw what was happening and the coming consequences and did what was needed to stop it. Humans are viewed by the other races of the Bay as arbiters and peacemakers, primarily because of Barton Butter’s actions.

How humans see themselves is a more complicated matter as it depends on the individual. Some embrace the role of arbitrator of disputes, some become haughty and try to enforce their views on others, some shy away from expectations and refuse to get involved in the disputes of others. Only a small few truly accept and understand both the privileges and responsibilities that come from being seen as leaders, and see the difficult position that the war has put the humans of the Bay in. The other races expect the humans to step in and bring an end to the war, but both sides see themselves as being in the right; Baron Ebraen Coel fears the fallout of choosing either side as it could tear the society of the Bay apart completely. Both sides will always see themselves as right, and if the humans pick either side there will inevitably be resentment from the losing side.

And so the humans collectively walk a thin line, trying to be fair and hold the people of the Bay together. If they fail, the last century-and-a-half will be lost, and the legacy of those first struggling survivors of the Freeze will be destroyed. Leadership, real or imagined, earned or granted, is a heavy burden, and one that all humans share.

Human Society

The society of the humans of Butter Bay is perhaps more what you would expect of a medieval culture than of the other races. For most life is quite simple, they do their work in the fields or the mines, they hunt or they fish; in the towns merchants peddle wares purchased from craftsmen from around the Bay. The majority of humans are fairly poor, but the Baron’s government is devoted to maintaining the well-being of its people and even the poorest can be assured enough food and clothing to sustain them. This large lower class keeps the wealthier middle class merchants and artisans afloat. At the top of the heap are the nobles such as the Baron and his family, and the Lords of the various townships. Even the nobles, however, do not have the grand riches that one would expect of nobility; before the Freeze these were just petty aristocrats in a far greater empire.

Women are treated well among humans; though they don’t enjoy the same entrenched legal protection as they would in the Uruk nation, they are still far more equal than yadekin are among hodekin. Women generally take care of the home and children, rather than doing the heavy work of mining, but when the growing season comes they work the same long hours in the fields as men. In fishing villages many women serve as crew on the trawlers and there are even a small number of female captains. Finally, women do serve in the militia, but mainly in support roles; even so, a woman serving on the front lines in heavy armour may be unusual, but it is not considered surprising or controversial. Most people have at least some basic combat training, male or female, and all carry their saeges with them at all times, so no-one is ever without some protection.

In the Bay, survival and the propagation of the people is considered important, so everyone is expected to marry and have children, at least enough to replace themselves. Despite this, same-sex relations are quite common, especially among militiamen. While the hodekin don’t consider same-sex relations to be sex, the same is not true among humans. Cheating, however, is a less grievous offence, so long as you are discreet about it. Most women are willing to accept their husband having a bit on the side, so long as he comes home at night. It is also not uncommon for women to philander a bit, both with other women and with family of their husband. This is seen as acceptable because though the children a man raises might not be his own, they are at least blood.

Human Faith

The teachings and faith of the humans is the baseline from which the other races’ faiths are compared. Their story of Voland being born from the holy fires of Muspel and setting out to create the world is that which the others' are based on. It is said by some that Voland created humans first, that they were his most trusted and beloved children; he created the other races in attempts to improve upon his first creation, but was never able to surpass them. This isn’t generally understood to mean that humans are better than other races, only that they are the most basic, most even, and most versatile form of thinking being there is. Alfar may be wiser and elben smarter, uruks may be stronger, hodekin sturdier and yadekin nimbler, but humans have a strength of spirit that is unmatched.

The stories tell that while the other races raged against Bishal, trying to destroy her icy grip on the world, the humans were the first Keepers, watching over Voland’s body and healing him with their faith and love. Though other races held Bishal at bay and fought her demonic spawn for every last inch of the world, it was the humans who brought Voland back and stood by his side when he banished Bishal and her brood back to the frozen wastes of Nifel. This legacy of leadership and faith has lasted through the ages, through the kings of great empires, and finally through to Barton Butter, resulting in the survival of the Bay.

Monday: The Human Nation

Frozen Over: The Kindred & Primal Magic

Like the Academy and the Order, members of all races join the Kindred and commune with the spirits of nature, but its membership is overwhelmingly made up of alfar, and politically they are anything but neutral. In the Bay, they are viewed by many as focused on their own affairs and agendas, not caring for the well-being of the people if it interferes with their goals.

Primal Magic

Nature spirits are everywhere, inhabiting every rock and every tree, every ant and fish, the rivers and the mountains. Communication with these spirits is not, however, a simple matter, and requires coming to terms with yourself and your place within the world as a whole. While the Academy looks outward at the workings of the universe, the Kindred looks inward at the self, and only those who can do so gain power from the spirits.

Classes from 4th Edition D&D whose power originates from the Kindred’s teachings include: the druid, shaman, seeker, and warden. The barbarian is only somewhat connected to the Kindred, and their particular teachings are considered to be misguided, at best, and an abuse of the spirits at worst. Druids allow the spirits of animals to enter and transform them, and the others work in conjunction with spirits. Barbarians learn instead to emulate the spirits’ rage without the aid of the spirits themselves; learning this involves capturing spirits and imprisoning them within the barbarian and allowing the rage to take control. Over time the barbarian no longer needs the spirit to enter this wrathful state and it is released, but still the process angers many in the Kindred, and so barbarians often hide themselves from the more orthodox.

Structure of the Kindred

While the Kindred is treated as a single entity by most of the people of Butter Bay, it is really several, having an individual overall leader who represents their political interests. There are actually five Kindreds, each teaching a different path to power through the spirits; druids form one Kindred, shaman another, and the same for wardens, seekers, and barbarians. The Barbarian Kindred, however, is at odds with the others over their treatment of the spirits as mere means to an end rather than beings to be respected and revered. As a result, the Barbarian Kindred is not officially recognized by the others as being a member of the greater whole; on the other hand, the others have not actively tried to end the barbarians’ practices, but the consensus is that they simply have their hands full with one war. It is believed by many in the Kindred that they will put an end to the barbarians once they’ve won the war and are done destroying the Academy.

The political leader of the Kindred is the Seer, who holds their seat on the Belltower Council, but each Kindred has its own leadership as well. The druids are led by a heredity council of 3 Arch-Druids; tremendous pressure is put on the children of Arch-Druids to become a druid and measure up to their parents’ expectations. The seekers and wardens each have tournaments every 5 years to determine who is the most powerful in their ranks, and those becomes their leaders, the Arch-Seeker and the Arch-Warden. The shamans elect their Arch-Shaman every 7 years, each shaman having to come to agreement with their spirit companion before casting their vote. Finally, the barbarians, ever outside the realm of process and protocol have taken a cue from the varkers; those that have the strength to take power have, in their eyes, earned it, being known by the title of Grand Fury. The current Seer, Olwen vo Nayer is also the current Arch-Seeker, and is the nephew of the eldest of the Arch-Druids, Graeden vo Nayer, and cousin of the youngest, Floras vo Nayer, Graeden’s daughter.

Joining the Kindred

Becoming a member of the one of the Kindreds begins with expressing and interest. There is no school to attend, no study of books or memorizing of scripture, you seek out a willing teacher and learn to commune with the spirits. As simple as that sounds, it usually takes a long time, and many who try give up in frustration. The truth is that there is no one thing that you can really do to force it to happen, the spirits will not speak to you until they deem you ready, and the vast majority of people never will be. As with so much about the Kindred, the process depends on which Kindred's teachings you pursue.

Seekers and wardens have much in common, and most seekers choose a warden to be their spouse, and vice versa. They focus primarily on meditation, exploring your inner self to reach an understanding and tranquillity that the spirits will respect. Meditation is supplemented with learning martial skills, such as the proper use of weapons. Once contact is eventually made with the spirits, the true work begins; the prospective seeker or warden must earn the trust of the spirits and learn to direct them, using a weapon as a conduit for the spirits’ power. Those who choose to fight from a distance become seekers, and those who fight up close become wardens. The two styles complement one another, and having a seeker and a warden together proves extremely potent.

For shamans it is not about reaching a goal, a point when one can wield the spirits power like a hammer, rather it is all about the journey, forming a relationship with one particular spirit. Shamans often use mind-altering herbs and mushrooms to aid the exploration of the spirit world and the self. A prospective shaman will spent many long hours simply wandering within their own mind, searching the spirit world for that one spirit that is their match. In a way, the process is almost like dating, as student and spirit get to know each other before deciding that there is a match or isn’t. Once the shaman has found his or her spirit companion the two are inseparable, learning absolutely all there is to know about the other. Perhaps ironically, shamans are usually single, very few engaging in romance with other mortals, in effect they are married to their spirit companion; it is even said by some that when a shaman dies their spirit companion passes on with him. Though rare, occasionally a shaman will do something to damage the bond with their companion and the spirit will choose to leave. Because a shaman’s power is derived from the bond with his companion, in these cases the shaman must seek a new companion, or attempt to reconcile with their original.

When learning the ways of the spirits, druids often journey into the wilderness alone. They do this to better observe nature without the interference of civilization and industry. They meditate, study the weather, they study the trees and animals, sometimes they even stalk animals or live among them. The end result is a deep understanding of the creatures and forces of nature, which allows them to will the spirits into aiding them. Druid are often considered the most reasonable of all the Kindred, often considering and weighing all the factors before making a decision. Once that decision is made, however, they will defend it to the last, no matter what new evidence comes to light.

Finally, the practices of the barbarians have already been discussed. Many that become barbarians are students of the other Kindreds who found themselves unable to reach the spirits, unable to succeed in their goal, and so they choose to take an easier route to power; if the spirits will not give their power then it must be taken from them. Barbarians are usually fairly short-sighted, even a danger to themselves when in a state of rage. They are incredibly protective of their own, however, and view an insult to one barbarian as an insult to all.

Friday: The Human Race

No Post Today

Apparently I got behind myself, so I didn't complete today's post yet. There should be a post on Wednesday, which may or may not be the post that was supposed to be today's.

Frozen Over: The Aquatic Merrow, Part 2

What are Merrow like? What are Vellans like?

Merrow largely keep to themselves, they do not live among or interact with other races except for their slaves, and very little is known about them by the people of the Bay. Encounters with merrow invariably end in conflict, as the aquatic beings are extremely territorial. Their borders are not marked in any visible way, the merrow simply expect outsiders to know and react accordingly. This means that vessels sailing out of the relative safety of the confines of the Bay risk provoking the ire of the merrow at any moment, and being blown about by a storm is all the more perilous.

Vellans, on the other hand, prove extremely docile when encountered. After generations of enslavement few, if any, consider the possibility of their lives being different. Those who are aggressive are weeded out and killed by their masters, so even when confronted by non-merrow they rarely attack. If ever they do, it will be at the urging of their masters, and they will run from combat as soon as there are no longer any merrow to force them to continue. The merrow use vellans for all the most dangerous and labour-intensive jobs, especially those that involve going onto land for long periods of time, such as mining useful ores.

Merrow Society

Most of the information in this section is unknown to the people of the Bay, even the most well studied individuals. As DM, it is at your discretion to decide what details are known to the player characters. The society of the merrow is very clearly separated along caste lines and it is almost three distinct cultures.

Warriors keep largely to themselves; strength, skill, and survival are the key factors in determining rank; the oldest are usually the highest ranking. Sometimes a warrior of lower rank might challenge a superior’s authority; the matter is settled with a duel to the death. The warriors patrol the borders of the tribe’s territory, killing first and asking questions never. They are also responsible for keeping the vellans in line, serving as guardsmen, slave drivers, and executioners when the need arises. Warriors live in communal barracks with their brethren, eating simple food and having few tangible luxuries.

In contrast, the royals live in opulence. They still live communally, but rather than in cramped barracks they live in the spacious tribal palace. Royals have fine clothing, fancy decorations and jewellery, and nearly any other indulgence you can imagine. Meals are great feasts with rich and varied dishes, often featuring the flesh of specially selected and plumped vellans or, more rarely, other races like those that live in the Bay.

The worker caste is the glue that holds the race together. They are the most numerous, and do a large part of the work that keeps their society functioning. Workers oversee and direct the efforts of the vellans; they see that sufficient food is produced; they are the bureaucrats, administrators and servants. The workers of each tribe usually live in a large town surrounding the palace of the royals, but also have other smaller communities elsewhere. The worker caste also live among the warriors, seeing to the more technical aspects of supporting armed troops. Each worker belongs to a brood, a large group of workers hatched from eggs laid at the same time; the brood is like their family, and each brood usually takes on a specific task with all its members working to the fulfilment of that goal. Some workers take it upon themselves to learn magic that might be beneficial to the tribe and so are found among the warriors serving as healers and artillery.

Each tribe has a Queen, one female royal who rules over the tribe and is never questioned. The Queen is larger than the rest of the female royals, her torso is roughly the same but her tail swells up until it is nearly 6 times the size of her torso. She rarely moves from her throne; the royals have all their feasts there in the throne room to accommodate her presence. Whenever a tribe’s Queen dies, her corpse releases a chemical into the waters of the palace that causes the other females to become engorged as they produce a single extremely large egg. Whichever female lays her egg first is selected as the new Queen. She then devours the egg and promptly falls into a coma as her body transforms into that of a Queen, a process that takes roughly a month. Once the transformation is complete, she awakens and begins producing and laying eggs at an increased rate. The new Queen rules until she dies, when the process begins again. Occasionally females take this opportunity to begin their own tribe, in which case they travel to a new territory with at least one male and devour their egg to begin the transformation; members of that Queen’s original tribe are generally hostile toward the new tribe, seeing them as traitors.

Using Merrow and Vellans in Play

To use merrow and vellans as opponents in your D&D game there are a number of options. For vellans, you can use the same sort of monsters as you might use to represent varkers, simply add a swim speed and give them the aquatic keyword. Merrow are a more complicated matter; your players should rarely ever have to face royals, but warriors and workers would appear in combat. You can use such creatures as sahuagin, craud, or even chuuls to represent these castes, but given the scant nature of available stand-ins, I plan to post a number of example monsters in the future. These will give you a better idea of how they operate in combat and serve as a starting point for you to design or modify your own.

Monday: The Human Race

Frozen Over: The Aquatic Merrow, Part 1

The coast and sea north and south of Butter Bay are the domain of the aquatic merrow. With their slaves, the vellans, they rule with figuratively iron fists and literally scaled bodies.

What is a Merrow?

The merrow could best be described as merfolk, though their upper bodies are covered in the same scales as their lower portions. Though naturally aquatic, they can come up out of the water for periods of time, resting on their strong snake-like tails. They can’t live out of the water on a permanent basis, generally requiring to take a swim at least every 12 hours or risk drying out. They can survive up to 30 hours out of the water, but it is in no way comfortable and they get progressively weaker the longer they are in the open air.

Merrow do not have genders as we know them; most of their people are genderless beings that never mate. Instead their race is divided into a number of physically different castes. The majority of their race is split between the warrior and worker castes.

The Three Castes

Warriors are extremely large and have an exoskeleton like a crab or a lobster, meaning that they are naturally armoured. They can also stay out of the water for about 50% longer than the other castes (18 hours comfortably, 45 hours before dying). The warriors’ shells are usually bright red, but variants ranging from yellow to nearly black do occur. It is common among most tribes to tattoo themselves with dark blue-purple markings that show their rank in the caste.

Physically, the worker caste is distinct because of the workers’ limbs; unlike the other castes they actually have legs instead of just a tail, and their tail is shorter and far less muscular. In addition to their four legs, they also have four arms where the other castes have only two. For most workers, one pair of arms is dominant, being stronger and larger than the other pair. The scales of the worker caste vary greatly, ranging from black to white, red to yellow, or green to blue; really nearly any colouration is possible.

The last caste is the royal caste, which does have normal gender. Females lay eggs without requiring fertilization, and those eggs will naturally hatch and develop into warrior caste. It is possible for a male to fertilize the eggs after they have been laid, in which case they will become worker caste, or the eggs can be fertilized before being laid through normal sex, which results in the eggs growing into royal caste. Within any given tribe it is usual to destroy most eggs not laid by that tribe’s queen.

In appearance, the royal caste are most like the archetypal merfolk; they have a humanlike upper body, and a long fish tail below. While they do have scales all across their body, some royal merrow have scales of a different colour above their tails, resulting in an appearance that the two halves are distinct and separate. The colouration of royals varies as much as the worker caste, but royals from the same tribe are usually similarly hued. Many royals also have small scaled tendrils that look somewhat like hair on their heads; these are always either pure white or pure black, or a mixture of the two.

What is a Vellan?

Finally, outside of the merrow race itself are their slaves, the vellans. Vellans are extremely similar to varkers, small furry rodent-like creatures. The difference is that vellans are aquatic in nature with oily fur that water simply rolls off of. If a varker would be compared with a rat or weasel, a vellan is more like a beaver or a muskrat. Because they lived largely on the coast, nearly all vellans have been subjugated and enslaved by the merrow, but it might be possible to find isolated free tribes further inland living in large lakes.

Friday: Part 2

Frozen Over: The Elben Nation

Structure of the Government

The government of the Elben nation is a very simple one. Individual villages are each led by an elected Reeve. Once elected to the position, it is for life, unless the Reeve chooses to step down. A village’s Reeve is not an absolute ruler, but rather makes decisions after consultation with the people in village meetings. The town of Garstang actually has two Reeves, one for the west side of town, and one for the east side. The villages marked on the map are joined by many unmarked communities of smaller sizes, especially throughout the Garwood and in the country around Louth.

Leading the nation as a whole is the Graf. The Graf is advised by the various Reeves, as well as by the Headmaster of the Academy, and a few other individuals with specific expertise. Like the Reeves, the tenure in the position is for life unless he or she chooses to step down. Unlike the Reeves, however, the position is not an elected one. To select a new Graf, each Reeve nominates one person to the position; Reeves cannot be nominated unless they step down before the nominations begin. A candidate does not have to accept the nomination if they don’t want the position. Any citizen of the Elben nation who does not currently hold the position of Reeve is a potential candidate.

Once all the nominees have either accepted or rejected their nomination, those who accepted continue on to a series of tests. Each test focuses on a different subject; some are physical, some are mental, some are knowledge based. After each test, those candidates who did not pass are eliminated, and those remaining continue to the next test, until only one is left. If all candidates fail any given test, the results of that test are discarded and they all move on to the next. Once the testing has concluded with one candidate remaining, that person becomes the new Graf; there is no ceremony or fanfare, they simply take up residence at a house called the Grafshall in Garstang.

Geography

The bulk of the territory of the Elben nation rests on the north side of the Rottel Bay. In the far west is the cliff, which marks the border of inhabited territory, and the waterfall on the Torrent River, the Tallfalls, near the village of the same name. A small stretch of rocky terrain gives way to the heavy forest of the Garwood. The coast of Rottel Bay, from Tallfalls to Garstang, is rough and rocky and in many places features low cliffs at the water’s edge. Further east, past the Garwood, the terrain is somewhat rocky, but mostly flat farmland, especially beyond the River Gar. The coast south-east of Garstang retains the rocky nature, but the cliffs drop down and eventually give way to a simple beach-like strand.

A small section of the south shore is also controlled by the Elben nation, comprised almost completely of farmland and pastures for reindeer herds. A few small islands sit in the main Bay, and serve as part of the extended naval base at Haven. The only major river actually in elben territory is the River Gar, which is the largest river in the Bay, both in width and rate of flow. However, the Canal also forms the far eastern border of the nation.

Industry

The nation’s economy is a varied one. The four communities in the Garwood Forest all harvest lumber as a large part of their economy; Vellis and Plevor devote about half of their energy to logging, while Crawdon and Goole give it a heavier emphasis. Garstang has the largest lumber mill in the Bay, with many of the un-milled logs floated down the River Gar from Goole, and others brought by cart and boat from the coastal villages. An impact crater near the village of Tallfalls is mined by the local populace for the valuable skymetal the elben forge their klaeth’s from. Finally, the quarry at Norwick provides the nation with the multi-hued marble that the elben use for constructing nearly all their buildings.

Food production is also a significant portion of the nation’s economy. Vellis and Plevor have significant fishing industries, and Garstang, Tallfalls and Tandry supplement their other industries with fishing as well. Garstang is also a centre for farming and reindeer herding, industries shared with the village of Louth on the north side of Rottel Bay, and Tandry, Elland, and Sellick on the south side.

Haven is now primarily a naval base, but, like Canalside, it used to be a community in its own right. Some military training, primarily naval, is conducted in Haven, but the elben and uruks also do much of their training in isolated camps in the Garwood. Though many of their militias’ weapons are made in the Uruk nation, bladesmiths throughout the Elben nation make klaeths and saeges. 

Possible Adventure Hooks

The first of our suggested adventure hooks for the Elben nation is actually more specifically about the Academy. Given the arcane magic that abounds on the Academy grounds, all manner of potential dangers could arise. One student, having gained his or her powers through a deal with a demon, might be trying to lure other students into some sort of Bishalic cult. Friends or family of victims might seek the help of adventurers to rescue their loved ones, or the Academy’s administration may want the cultists rooted out and dealt with quietly, so as not to give those who revile the arcane arts more ammunition to use against the Academy. Alternatively, it may be a member of the faculty luring students into the cult, even a member of the Academy Board.

The Garwood is one of the nation’s great resources. The forest provides both lumber and rich hunting grounds, and a threat to those supplies could prove disastrous. A disease or infestation could threaten both the flora and fauna, or could even transmogrify them, setting loose an army of mutant beasts and treants upon the innocent citizenry. To go a simpler route, fire is always a threat when it comes to forests, and saving lost or trapped hunters and woodcutters from the advancing flames could prove to be an adventure all on its own.

Finally there is the skymetal mined in Tallfalls. Elben klaeths and even some of their finer saeges are made from this mysterious material. Lightweight but strong, easy to work with but never loses its edge; the skymetal would be quite a prize for the alfar and hodekin if they were able to capture a supply. Your adventurers could even be sent far behind enemy lines to sabotage the mine and steal as much as they can. Doing that would be a blow to both the Elben nation’s militia and their pride and morale.

Wednesday: The Threat of Merrow