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Rules • Themes • Bestiary • Religion • Races • Guilds • Families • Arlinac City • Maps • Adventures • Stories |
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Arlinac Table of Contents
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The city of Arlinac is one hundred and sixty years old. Uniquely among the cities of the Broad Plains it is not part of any kingdom. It instead calls itself a guilddom, for it is officially governed by its five guilds. In practice, other factions have political power nearly as significant as the guilds. The four noble families exert leverage derived from the taxes they collect and the services they provide. Unofficial clubs and societies complicate the city's uneasy balance of social influence, owed favors, amassed wealth, and military might. |
On the north border of all maps stretches a great and frozen mountain range, the Barrier Peaks. Many small rivers flow south from these mountains: through the Toren Hills, across the Broad Plains, and finally into the Anthyr Sea. One river, the Arlin, dominates the others. It is so wide and swift that it cannot be safely forded.
During the Age of Dragons the Arlin River was everywhere too wide for any bridge and too deep to ford. Merchants crossed it by ferry where it was widest and least treacherous.
In those days the place the river was roughest was halfway down its rush across the Broad Plains. There a lone mountain rose right in the center of the river, which tumbled and frothed around it on either side.
As the Age of Dragons ended, a large group of Unseemly created extensive caverns under the mountain, and eventually changed the course of the Arlin River to dive underground at the mountain's steep, rocky northern face. Ever since, the river no longer goes around the mountain but rushes through it in wide tunnels before surfacing at the southern base of the mountain. Underneath, the water whistles through passages, pools in eddies in side caverns, and moistens large caves where strange creatures dwell.
The mountain was now important a bridge, indeed the bridge, over the Arlin River. It was given the name of Arlinac. Merchants adapted their caravan routes to cross the river at the mountain's less steep Southern side. A few travelers rested upon the mountain, but most crossed quickly because Unseemly lived within.
The mountain became desolate at the end of the Trooping War, when all Unseemly became evil and armies moved across the Broad Plains. For a reason still unknown, those who died on or under Arlianc Mountain during that war became Undead. The Unseemly at the mountain were vanquished but no replacement settlement could be established. Extensive ruins of caverns and buildings remain under the mountain. Many treasures from the Unseemly civilization also remain but treasure hunters are few because some Undead still walk those halls, because dangerous creatures have also moved into those caves and tunnels, and because the Unseemly guarded their valuables with cunning traps.
Around the mountain stretches the Broad Plains, mostly wilder-ness almost untouched by civilization, with numerous and dangerous monsters.
West and Southwest of the mountain is the Pagelyn Forest, which extends diagonally from Arlinac south and west to the Anthyr Sea. The Therion towns of Jedesi and Jwint are within this forest, nestled along the banks of lesser rivers flowing south to the sea.
Northwest of the mountain is the Jagged Mire. This is a fetid land where the Toren Hills extend unusually far south into swampland while remaining unusually rocky and inhospitable. A number of wicked Kobalts dwell there, amassing strength for their next invasion upon settlements of the other races.
West and slightly north of the mountain, stretched between the Jagged Mire and the Pagelyn Forest, is the Serpentine Swamp: a place much more lush, green, and soft than the Jagged Mire. Here the Llamia rules over her reptilian attendants.
Northeast of the mountain are the Grey Hills, a pleasant land dominated by many Dweorg clans.
East of Arlinac is the Enchanted Forest, full of evil witches, good fairies, tiny kingdoms, talking statues, and cruel stepmothers. Here strangely unique perils are commonplace but wit and skill can lead to fortune or romance. Rumor claims Ogres are originally from the Enchanted Forest.
Southwest of Arlinac is the Ognost Frontier, an especially dry and dusty part of the Broad Plains. This is rough and challenging country.
Due north of Arlinac, where the Arlin River crashes down from the Barrier Peaks, is a tall and shining mountain: Mount Menekrod, home of the oldest of Bergtrolls.
Although isolated from other populations, it is not self-sufficient agriculturally, in mined ore, or in quarried stone. It imports these necessities from the many merchants who travel to or through the city.
The city's most valuable exports are a rare but exceptionally hard ore named illithium found only under that mountain, a glowing moss (simply called "glow moss") once cultivated by the Unseemly to light their underground cavern-complex, and magical or mundane artifacts from the Unseemly ruins.
Of these exports, the glow moss is the most relatively easy to find and use: machinists have recently discovered that it glows even more brightly when put in a tube of water through which an electric current is sent. Illithium is rare but prized by Dweorgs for metalwork, by alchemists who use it powdered in potions, and by Kobalts and Ogres who have found it makes daggers that hold poisons especially well, causing hallucination when their cuts draw blood.
The city charter has seven rules that serve as the city's constitution:
Introductary text goes here.
This plant grows many long leaves from a central bulb. Each root develops four gas-filled bubbles as the plant separates air. The bubble at the tip fills with a floating, flammable gas. The second bubble fills with a second floating gas that makes voices funny. Together these bubbles lift the end of the leaf into the air. The third and largest bubble fills with a gas used by machinists (along with glow moss) to make lamps; this gas also aids in extinguishing fires if transmutery is not available. The fourth bubble, nearest the central bulb, fills with a breathable gas prized by divers.
This rare bush produces hard gourds filled with a floating gas. These are valued by mechinists, who use them to design small, propeller-powered flying devices. In rainy years a bush may produce so many gourds that it is uprooted and drifts away.
(Story currently incomplete.)
0 (1630 years ago) - Age of Animals begins (240 years)
240 (1390 years ago) - Age of Dragons beings (480 years total)
632 ( 998 years ago) - Dweorgs claim Arlinac Mountain from Dragons (claim for 300 years)
720 ( 910 years ago) - Age of Armies begins (? years total)
932 ( 698 years ago) - Trooping War (20 years long war, Unseemly claim Arlinac for 99 years) [in 950 G.General appears]
952 ( 678 years ago) - Unseemly still in Arlinac Mountain after Trooping War
1031 ( 599 years ago) - Undead take over Arlinac Mountain (claim for 360 years) [Mart-Marta appears]
1391 ( 239 years ago) - Conquest of Gara Gara (has 179 years of peace before Kobalt attack)
1570 ( 60 years ago) - Kobalt three-Superfamily attack on Arlinac Mountain
1630 ( 0 years ago) - present
1680 ( 50 years future) - predicted end of Age of Armies since 240 + 480 + 960 = 1680
The Age of Dragons
Dragons were initially dominant because of their speed and breath attacks. Early dragon hoards had only gems and literature, since the Age of Animals did not involve coins, jewelry, enchantments, weapons, or armor. The lack of armor in hoards meant the dragons had soft skin and were vulnerable to therianthropy.
Initially, only those dragons who had been given literature by Big Blackie were intelligent. Later other dragons were aquired books and scrolls as gifts or plunder.
The heroine and hero Nietha and Nerb spied on the dragons to find their weaknesses.
Once Big Blackie was freed from Pillory, he organized those dragons who followed him as the Dragon Dominion.
The Seven Blades were forged and the Dragon Domion was dispersed.
Through theriantropy, people used dragons for warfare until all dragons were either Snags or resistant.
The Age of Armies
The current age. Warfare now involves armies of Kobalts, Bergtrolls, Dweorgs, and Therions.
The Trooping War was the most recent major war. All of the Seemly Ones turned evil and attempted to conquer all of Theralin.
Despite the river's inhospitality around the mountain, the height was strategically important and Dweorg fortifications kept watch from its peak.
Under Arlinac Mountain they lived in spacious caverns. Most were empty and used as streets, storehouses, and market squares. The largest caverns contianed many buildings, usually one story tall and built against the cavern walls.
Two Dweorg kingdoms fought over the mountain for ?? years after the Unseemly were gone. The Jasper clan from the west and the Malachite clan from the east made war on and near the mountain. Their struggle ended when the leader of the Malachite clan found a strange artifact under the mountain and used it. The dead from both Dweorg armies rose as Zombies. The Dweorg clans fled, no longer advancing for conquest but suddenly retreating while fighting for their survival.
Neither Dweorg army succeeded in making any lasting defensive fortifications even though the attempts largely deforested Arlinac Mountain during those dozen years. The current city of Arlinac is in many places built on top of the rubble of Dweorg walls and towers. Occasionally an impressive Dweorg armament will still be unearthed by a city dweller extending his or her basement.
For forty years the mountain was avoided. Only Undead walked upon its slopes. Merchants who wished to cross the Arlin found it much easier to use ferry boats than approach a mountain swarming with Undead.
(Story currently incomplete.)
Conquered by Gara Gara - 239 YEARS AGO
Then, eighty-eight years ago, an unlikely hero rose to return the mountain to civilization.
Most Ogres live solitary lives alone in the wilder-ness or hidden in a civilized location, as wary of other Ogres as anyone else. But one Ogre named Gara Gara had kept his family together. He decided the best way to gain an advantage over other Ogres was to amass wealth, and for this goal he and his family led the "recapture" of Bridge Mountain. The famous Deal of Gara Gara was simple: any non-Ogre member of the intelligent races could join their effort and enjoy a share of the loot and the eventual reclaiming of the mountain if Gara Gara and his family were allowed to eat anyone who died during the attempt.
The Deal was widely accepted. The possible rewards were great. The possibility of being eaten by an Ogre immediately after dying was seen as preferable to the likely alternative of joining the mountain's Undead. Thus Gara Gara and his kin were unique in history in publicly being able to satisfy their Ogres' Hunger. The bulk of Gara Gara's forces were the four armies of four Bergtroll kingdoms, whose generals eventually became the ancestors of the city's nobility.
The Advance of Gara Gara lasted two years and was a nearly successful conquest. Only the Fortress upon the mountain's peak was impossible to rid of Undead. A wall was build around this Fortress, which has since become the uphill border of the Glimmering district.
Gara Gara founded the city of Arlinac, established the City Charter, and became its first and only King. He had built the main road across the mountain along its southern shore. He also had built the tall and sturdy city walls, which are almost circular around the city but incomplete where the river flows. The only gates in the wall are two toll gates at the west and east edges of the city.
Gara Gara's family vanished when Arlinac was founded. Gara Gara himself vanished six months later. His Ogres' Hunger required recently living intelligent prey, and he was aware that the public would soon declare a city's King should not be personally eating those criminals condemned to death.
Supposedly Gara Gara's larger plan was successful and now he and his family are the wealthiest among the world's hidden Ogres, to whatever benefit that provides.