The Lands of Warlderia

Goerath

Goerath is a world existing upon a parallel plane to Warlderia and Erdian, the latter better known to Warlderians simply as the Other Place. Though entirely separate, the three worlds are occasionally connected by ancient crossings, unstable portals and strange paths through the Fey Realm, allowing the exceptionally fortunate—or unfortunate—to pass between them. Goerath is a vast and varied world of old kingdoms, wild frontiers and ancient forests, containing such lands as the Korvaj Peninsula, Duchy of Averneth, Ardran Hills, Caledor Woods and Faelwyn Forest. Many of its realms and peoples have close parallels elsewhere, though their histories and names are entirely their own. It was the world of Dîmeril's birth and the setting for much of her early life, although her wanderings would eventually carry her through the Fey paths to both Erdian and, ultimately, Warlderia.

The Korvaj Peninsula

The Korvaj Peninsula forms a broad, rugged projection from the southern coast of Goerath, bounded by the sea on three sides and connected to the mainland by a comparatively narrow and heavily wooded northern frontier. Its interior is dominated by broken hills and low mountains, interspersed with forests, fertile river valleys and a long, irregular coastline of rocky headlands, sheltered bays and natural harbours. Korvaj has always been a wealthy land. Its hills contain considerable deposits of iron, copper, silver and other valuable ores, while timber from the interior and good fishing along the coast support numerous settlements. Several important trade routes once connected its mining communities with prosperous ports along the southern and western coasts. That wealth also contributed to Korvaj's downfall.

For generations, the peninsula's interior had contained scattered communities of orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and other humanoids, usually confined to the rougher uplands and frequently employed as mercenaries or mine labourers by the more settled peoples. Eventually a succession of powerful Orcish warlords united many of these tribes. What began as raids became a genuine invasion. Fortresses fell, mining settlements were seized and several towns were sacked before the divided rulers of Korvaj fully appreciated the scale of the threat. Within a generation much of the peninsula had passed into humanoid hands. The conquerors did not simply destroy what they captured. Orcish chiefs occupied existing strongholds, seized mines and levied tribute from surviving communities. Goblins and other humanoids settled in the abandoned countryside, while pirates and smugglers increasingly operated from the peninsula's numerous coves. Some human and demi-human settlements survived by paying tribute. Others became fortified enclaves surrounded by hostile territory. Korvaj acquired a grim reputation as a place where civilisation had retreated without entirely disappearing.

The peninsula varies considerably from region to region. The northern marches contain thick woodland, farmland and the principal roads connecting Korvaj with the rest of Goerath. Historically these were amongst the most heavily contested areas, with forts and settlements repeatedly changing hands. The central highlands are harsher country: rocky hills, wooded valleys, abandoned mines and isolated strongholds. Many Orcish clans established themselves here, and even after the liberation some of the remoter valleys remain dangerous. The western coast is broken and wild, with cliffs, small islands and innumerable coves. Smugglers and pirates have used these waters for centuries. The southern and eastern coasts contain Korvaj's better harbours and consequently many of its larger settlements. Low Harbour, despite its rather unimpressive name, became strategically important because of its excellent anchorage and the roads leading inland from it.

Eventually the continued existence of an Orc-dominated peninsula became intolerable to Korvaj's neighbours. The half-Elven ranger Gimdaruth assembled a coalition army of exiles, mercenaries, adventurers and troops supplied by neighbouring rulers. Their objective was not simply another punitive expedition but the reconquest of the peninsula. The resulting Korvaj Campaign was long and frequently brutal. The eventual victory broke the organised power of the Orcish rulers and allowed much of Korvaj to be resettled. Estates were granted to victorious commanders and new lordships established to hold territory reclaimed during the campaign.

The liberation did not magically make Korvaj safe. The principal towns and roads are once again controlled by the new authorities, mines have reopened and settlers have returned, but large areas of the interior remain thinly governed. Orcish survivors, goblin tribes, bandits and displaced mercenaries still inhabit the highlands, while piracy remains troublesome along the western coast. Relations with the peninsula's surviving humanoid population are complicated. Some communities fought against Gimdaruth and remain openly hostile; others accepted the new order, while a few claim their families lived in Korvaj long before the Orcish conquest and have no intention of being driven from their homes merely because the rulers have changed again. Old mines and ruined fortresses also make the peninsula attractive to adventurers. Many were abandoned during the wars, and some descend into workings far older than the settlements above them. Modern Korvaj is therefore a land caught between reconquest and frontier. New castles overlook burned villages. Settlers cultivate fields that were wilderness only a few years earlier. Merchants once again travel roads upon which armed escorts remain advisable. And in the hills, the war is not quite as finished as the new lords of Korvaj sometimes like to pretend.

The Duchy of Averneth

The Duchy of Averneth is a substantial human realm of central Goerath, lying north-west of the Caledor Woods and extending southwards towards the wild Ardran Hills. Much of Averneth is pleasant and fertile country of rolling farmland, wooded valleys and numerous small rivers, becoming progressively rougher and less settled towards its southern frontier. Averneth is an old realm, but historically a loosely governed one. Much authority rests with local nobles, landed families and chartered towns, whose loyalty to the Duke has often depended as much upon circumstance as law. The countryside contains numerous castles, fortified manor houses and old walled towns, reflecting generations of feuds, border disputes and weak central government. Its capital and northern heartlands are comparatively prosperous. Grain, livestock, timber and wine are produced in considerable quantities, while the roads connecting Averneth with neighbouring states carry a healthy merchant trade. Further south, however, the land becomes increasingly thinly populated and dangerous.

The southern reaches of Averneth border the Ardran Hills, a rugged region notorious for bandits, humanoid raiders and monsters. Ogres, trolls and worse occasionally descend from the hills, while isolated settlements have repeatedly been abandoned or destroyed. By the beginning of Duke Eruyk's reign, the situation had become serious. Old settlements were disappearing, roads had become unsafe and the effective frontier of the Duchy was slowly retreating northwards. Eruyk's formidable Lord Chancellor, Varenthos Krail, devised a solution. Rather than attempting to defend the entire frontier using the Duke's limited standing forces, Averneth would create a chain of Border Lordships. Land, fortifications and considerable local authority would be granted to proven soldiers and adventurers prepared to settle the frontier and defend it.

Duke Eruyk

Duke Eruyk is the hereditary ruler of Averneth: charming, extravagant, impulsive and considerably more interested in hunting, feasting, horses, lovers and the pleasures of court than the tedious business of government. He is not generally regarded as a cruel man and can be surprisingly generous when the mood takes him. Unfortunately, moods take him frequently. Much of the actual administration of Averneth consequently fell into the hands of Lord Chancellor Varenthos Krail. Krail is everything his master is not: patient, disciplined, calculating and intensely interested in government. He brought order to the ducal finances, strengthened the bureaucracy and gradually made himself indispensable to Eruyk. The Duke reigns. Increasingly, Krail governs.

Averneth's prosperity increased considerably as the Southern Marches were restored. Reopened roads allowed merchants to travel south again, abandoned mines returned to production and valuable iron, copper, stone and timber from the frontier began flowing north. Krail encouraged this development through extensive commercial concessions. Powerful guilds and merchant houses received exclusive licences to exploit particular resources, operate mines, harvest timber or control sections of trade. The policy undoubtedly enriched Averneth and provided the Duke with considerable additional revenue. It also enriched Krail's friends. Small traders, independent miners and established rural communities increasingly found themselves competing against organisations possessing privileges granted directly by the ducal government. 

Averneth emerged from this period considerably stronger than it had entered it. Its southern frontier was stabilised, abandoned lands were being resettled and commerce with the border regions had revived. The official histories therefore remember the creation of the Southern Border Lordships as one of the great successes of Duke Eruyk's early reign.

The Ardran Hills

The Ardran Hills are a broad and rugged upland region of Goerath, lying along the southern marches of the Duchy of Averneth. They form a wild frontier of broken ridges, steep escarpments, rocky valleys and high windswept plateaux, noticeably drier and harsher than the greener lands surrounding them. Coarse grasses and thorny scrub cover much of the uplands, with scattered stands of hardy woodland surviving in sheltered valleys. Water can be abundant in the deeper ravines, where streams tumble down from springs amongst the rocks, yet surprisingly scarce across the exposed heights.

The Ardrans have never been completely settled. Small communities of shepherds, miners, hunters and prospectors inhabit the more hospitable valleys, but vast stretches remain effectively wilderness. Caves, abandoned mines and inaccessible valleys provide refuge for bandits and humanoid raiders, while ogres, trolls, manticores, wolves and hill giants are amongst the creatures known to inhabit the remoter country. The hills are also remarkably rich in minerals. Iron and copper have been mined there for centuries, while deposits of silver and occasional discoveries of gold continue to draw prospectors into increasingly dangerous country. Ruined settlements and abandoned workings are commonplace—sometimes because the ore ran out, but often because something drove the inhabitants away.

Hence the old Ardran saying: “There is gold in the Ardrans. That's why there are bones in the Ardrans.”

The Ardrans were old long before Averneth existed. Ruined towers, strange stone circles, forgotten roads and the remains of settlements belonging to no known people can be found throughout the interior. Some mines have broken unexpectedly into far older passages beneath the hills, while occasional expeditions have discovered sealed tombs and underground complexes whose builders remain unknown. Not everything discovered there has remained dead. The hills consequently attract a steady trickle of adventurers, treasure hunters and scholars, alongside the more numerous miners and prospectors. For generations the Dukes of Averneth claimed portions of the northern Ardrans but exercised little meaningful authority there. When ducal power weakened, monsters and raiders increasingly descended into the settled lands. By the accession of Duke Eruyk, entire frontier communities had been abandoned. It was this deterioration that prompted Lord Chancellor Varenthos Krail to establish the Southern Border Lordships. Even today, maps of the region become increasingly speculative the farther south one travels. Roads become tracks, tracks become paths and eventually even those disappear.

The people of Averneth therefore have another, rather less poetic saying about the hills:“Everyone knows where the Ardrans begin. Nobody quite knows where they end.”

The Caledor Woods

The Caledor Woods are an extensive temperate forest of Goerath, lying south-east of the Duchy of Averneth and its troubled Southern Marches. Though ancient, Caledor is neither wilderness nor an organised kingdom. Instead it is a patchwork of small woodland communities linked by forest paths, streams and old tracks beneath the trees. Caledor is particularly noted for its unusually large half-Elven population. Humans and wood elves have lived alongside one another around the forest for many generations, and marriages between the two peoples are sufficiently commonplace that half-Elves are regarded neither as outsiders nor curiosities. Indeed, in some settlements they form the majority. Wood elves inhabit the deeper forest, while human farmers and woodsmen are more numerous around its fringes. Half-Elven families are found throughout both.

There is no single ruler of Caledor. Villages and woodland settlements largely govern themselves through elders, reeves and local councils, while several respected Elven and half-Elven families exercise considerable informal influence. Disputes between communities are normally settled through negotiation rather than appeals to some distant lord. It is a remarkably peaceable place by the standards of Goerath.

The people of Caledor live largely from the forest without attempting to master it. Hunting, beekeeping, small-scale farming, forestry, horse breeding, herbalism and woodland crafts are common. Clearings contain orchards and small fields, while livestock graze amongst the more open woods. Settlements tend to be small. Timber houses cluster around greens and streams, and even the larger villages rarely possess substantial fortifications. Instead, the inhabitants rely upon their knowledge of the forest, local rangers and the willingness of neighbouring communities to come to one another's aid. Visitors are generally welcome, provided they behave themselves.

Caledor consequently attracts rangers, druids, hunters and travellers who find its mixture of civilisation and woodland life particularly congenial. It also provides a natural stopping place for those travelling between Averneth and the lands farther south.

The Veyrwood

The Veyrwood is one of the oldest and most mysterious woodlands of Goerath, a vast sweep of ancient trees, deep valleys and hidden clearings where the distinction between the mortal world and the Fey Realm has never been particularly certain. Unlike the relatively peaceful and settled Caledor Woods, the Veyrwood remains predominantly wild. Wood-Elven settlements lie deep beneath its canopy, while small communities of humans and half-Elves occupy the forest margins and more open valleys. There are few true towns and fewer roads; travel is instead along woodland tracks, streams and paths whose routes have sometimes remained unchanged for thousands of years. The forest is particularly renowned for its fey inhabitants. Dryads, sprites, pixies and other woodland spirits are encountered with surprising frequency, while deeper and stranger creatures inhabit places rarely visited by mortals. Nymphs have long been associated with the Veyrwood's secluded pools, waterfalls and sacred groves.

The people of the Veyrwood believe that their forest touches the Fey Realm more closely than most mortal places. There are glades where travellers disappear for an afternoon and return several days later, streams which seem to flow somewhere quite different beneath moonlight, and paths which occasionally lead to places that cannot be found again. Ancient standing stones and circles of impossibly old trees are treated with considerable caution. Most inhabitants accept such things simply as part of living in the Veyrwood.

Relations between mortals and fey are equally complicated. Some fey protect particular settlements or families, while others regard mortals as entertaining neighbours, rivals or occasional nuisances. Old bargains between families and fey beings are still honoured in some communities long after anyone remembers precisely how they began. Unsurprisingly, fey ancestry is not particularly rare amongst the people of the Veyrwood. Families tell stories of ancestors who loved dryads, nymphs and other spirits of the forest. Most such tales are probably nothing more than family legend, but occasionally a child is born with something about them that makes the old stories rather harder to dismiss.

The Veyrwood has no king, duke or other recognised ruler. Its Elven communities largely govern themselves, while human and half-Elven settlements are usually led by elders or locally important families. Rangers and druids command considerable respect and frequently act as intermediaries between settlements and the inhabitants of the deeper forest. The people themselves tend to be fiercely independent but remarkably cooperative when the forest is threatened. Hunting, forestry, herbalism, trapping and woodland crafts provide much of their livelihood, supplemented by small farms, orchards and livestock in the more open country. The Veyrwood also produces an unusually large number of rangers, scouts and adventurers. Anyone raised there learns early that knowing when not to follow an unfamiliar path can be considerably more important than knowing how to use a sword.

The Faelwyn Forest

The Faelwyn Forest is one of the great woodlands of Goerath, stretching for hundreds of miles along the borders of the ancient Elven realm to its north and east. Although outsiders commonly speak of Faelwyn as a single forest, its character changes considerably from the beautiful northern woods to the darker and far wilder country of the south. The northern Faelwyn is an old but comparatively peaceful woodland of broad rivers, wooded hills, clearings and enormous ancient trees. Wood elves and half-Elves are numerous here, alongside scattered human communities and many sylvan creatures. Small settlements lie beneath the trees, connected by woodland tracks and waterways rather than great roads, and the influence of the neighbouring Elven realm is strong. There has never been a firm boundary between its mortal and fey inhabitants. Dryads guard ancient trees, sprites and pixies inhabit secluded glades, and nymphs are traditionally associated with some of Faelwyn's pools, springs and waterfalls. Relationships between mortals and fey are sufficiently well attested that families claiming distant fey ancestry are regarded with curiosity rather than disbelief. The deeper south is another matter.

As Faelwyn extends southwards, settlements become fewer and the forest increasingly wild. The trees grow thicker, roads disappear and great stretches of woodland lie beyond the effective authority of any neighbouring realm. These southern reaches are known collectively as the Deep Faelwyn. Here the beautiful woodland of the north gradually gives way to tangled valleys, dark forests and forgotten ruins. Orcs, goblins and other humanoids have periodically established strongholds beneath its canopy, while ettercaps, giant spiders, predatory beasts and considerably stranger creatures inhabit its depths. The fey themselves become less predictable. Not every creature of the Fey Realm is benevolent, and the Deep Faelwyn is home to beings who regard mortals as prey, playthings or simply unwelcome intruders. Travellers tell stories of joystealers, splinterwaifs and other dangerous fey, while even apparently harmless encounters can become perilous when ancient promises or obscure rules of hospitality are involved.

To the north and east lies one of Goerath's great Elven realms, whose influence has shaped Faelwyn for countless generations. There is no wall or clearly marked frontier between the two. Elven settlements simply become more numerous as one travels towards its heartlands, while the wilderness gradually gives way to carefully tended woodland, ancient roads and domains that have belonged to the same Elven houses for centuries. The Elves regard much of northern Faelwyn as a natural buffer protecting their realm from the more turbulent lands beyond. Rangers regularly patrol the woodland, but there has never been any serious attempt to bring the whole forest under direct rule. This relationship has made northern Faelwyn one of the most strongly Elven-influenced regions of Goerath outside the Elven realms themselves.

The proximity of the Fey Realm has also left its mark upon Faelwyn's people. Stories of mortal hunters marrying dryads, wandering Elves becoming lovers of nymphs, or children being born after mysterious encounters in the deep woods are part of local folklore. Most such stories are impossible to prove, but there are enough families displaying peculiar gifts or distinctly fey characteristics that few inhabitants dismiss them entirely. Consequently, the people of Faelwyn are considerably more familiar with the idea of fey ancestry than most inhabitants of Goerath.