GEOGRAPHY:The civilized peoples of the world inhabit the Tarhanat Flats, a large expanse of land bordered by the Shining Sea in the north, the Witchwood Ridge in the west, the Badlands in the south, and a large amount of nothing in the east. There are three major rivers flowing through the Tarhanat: the Chol, which flows out of the Witchwood mountains and crosses the flats from west to east, the Left Hand, which is an offshoot of the Chol going from south to north and flowing into the Shining Sea, and the Right Hand, which flows south, through Messeni lands and into the Badlands.
Much of the western part of the Tarhanat is occupied by the Witchwood – a bad, bad place, inhabited mostly by monsters, savages, evil spirits, and who knows what else.
The Singing Ridge is situated in the southeast; so named for the southward winds that blow over it, it separates Podgorjan land from the steppes and foothills inhabited by the Shih barbarians.
The city of Vratgorod stands on the junction of Chol and the Left Hand.
The Farland Continent lies to the north, over the Shining Sea. Few things are known about the people who live there – they're collectively called “Farlanders” by the inhabitants of the Tarhanat.
THE NATIONS AND PEOPLES OF THE TARHANAT: The Tarhanat was historically inhabited by four distinct ethnic groups: the Podgorjans, the Messeni, the Shih, and the Witchlanders. It is not known who came there first: usually, it is claimed that the four peoples have lived in the Tarhanat “from a time before all time”. The city of Vratgorod was founded by Podgorjans, but exists independently from the Ring of Podgorje – the closest thing the Podgorjans have to a state.
The PodgorjansThe Podgorjans have always existed in a loose alliance of city-states, sometimes warring with each other, but always uniting against a common foe. Each city is ruled by a hereditary (though not always for long) kagan, who is advised by a circle of influential boyars – the nobility of the city. The cities, in turn, form the Ring – a loose military alliance of sorts. The general principle is “we can squabble all we want, but let's not forget we hate the Shih and the Messeni more than each other”.
Cities appear and vanish, but six were always the most important and influential: Podgorsk, Zolotyn, Sirodom, Zastava, Polevo, and Zabolotsk. Each city has its own flag and heraldry, but when the Ring goes to war, it flies a gold-cloth banner with a black circle in the center.
The Podgorjan culture does not put a lot of emphasis on religion, but most Podgorjans worship Oleg the Old – the supposed divine ancestor of all Podgorjans, who, according to myth, sired children with a forest nymph. Time is counted since the return of Oleg to the land of the gods, which marked the transfer of power from the hands of the gods to their descendants. The current year, by this reckoning, is 1471. There are thirteen moons in a year, and twenty-eight days in a moon. A year begins with the Midwinter Feast.
The Podgorjans are typically stocky and light-haired. Greenish eyes seem to be very common.
The Messeni:The Messeni are very religious and intensely hierarchical. Each Messeni is part of a clan, and each clan has a place on the clan roster. One thing unites them: clan Samin, the first clan of Messen. The head of clan Samin is also the ruler of all Messen, and while the other clans may squabble among themselves, he or she has the ultimate power to solve disputes and instate laws.
The gods of the Messeni are called the Ninety-Nine: I won't tell you about all of them. The general idea is this: the First created the world, the Rest improved upon it. The First is a primordial deity, while the Rest are more like deified folk-heroes – don't say that where a Messeni can hear you if you wish to keep your teeth, though. Divine acts are attributed to the Rest.
There is also the Other, but the Messeni do not speak about him. “By the Hundred” is a foul and blasphemous oath.
The Messeni are typically tall, light-skinned, and dark-haired, though this is by no means a rule. They are often at war with the cities of Podgorje over religion or territory: the Messeni consider a stretch of land north of the Chol to be historically theirs.
The Messeni are not barbarians, though: they have a highly effective military system and a lot of general cohesion, mostly enforced by clan Samin, who unified the clans of Messen long ago. The flag of clan Samin is a pattern of blue crosses on a green field.
The Shih:Those guys, unlike the Messeni,
are barbarians. They have a multitude of gods, and their favorite pastime is fighting. Fighting among themselves, fighting the Podgorjans, fighting the Farlanders who arrive to trade with Vratgorod – or so the world thinks, anyhow.
The truth is that the lands of the Shih, situated north of the Singing Ridge, are mostly barren, and the Shih lead a nomadic lifestyle. While one tribe may engage in raiding and slavery, another may be content with subsisting on horsemeat and horsemilk. Still, the practice of getting nice things by taking them off people is firmly ingrained in the minds of the Shih, especially the ones that live in the mountains themselves.
The Shih are bronze-skinned and slightly slit-eyed. They are usually dark-haired. Each wandering tribe of Shih has its own colors and banners.
The Witchlanders:Witchlanders say that they have lived in the woods west of the Left Hand
before those woods were the Witchwood. Their mythos details some grim and terrible event that blighted the Wildwoods – the Witchlanders' ancestral home – and sundered the utopian state of Dekjo Daj, reducing the Witchlanders to wanderers. The Witchlanders live in the Witchwood and on its borders in villages, each of which is independently governed. They are expert hunters and survivors.
The word “Witchlander” is the name the other peoples use for them. The Witchlanders themselves call themselves
Dekjodaji [dek'yodai-yi], meaning “one from Dekjo Daj”.
The Witchlanders are few in number, and other cultures find their customs strange and off-putting. They tattoo their arms with red ink, and they eat fermented meat. It is considered an expression of politeness in Witchlander culture to stare wide-eyed at someone's mouth when that someone is telling you something – a reflection of their belief in the preciousness of words. Coupled with the fact that most Witchlanders are unusually pale, slight in build, blink rarely, and prefer to keep silent in most situations, outsiders often find them unnerving.
The Farlanders:The Farlanders are nominally governed by a hereditary khalif, but in reality their immense trading guilds hold the power, pervading every aspect of a citizen's life. They trade with the natives of the Tarhanat as well as other, more mysterious lands.
The Farlanders themselves are usually boisterous and loud, their friendliness sometimes bordering on obnoxiousness. However, one might notice that they're much quieter when conversing among themselves. Not much is known about their religion, save for the fact that it forbids them from sharing its details with outsiders. Therefore, a variety of wild rumors exists about this subject. Undoubtedly one of them is true – it seems very improbable that during their long relationship with Vratgorod, not one of them let slip the truth while drunk. However, most Farlander traders and their guards find amusement in spreading tales about their worship, so it would be extremely difficult to get to the heart of this matter.
While it might be difficult to tell a Messeni, a Podgorjan, and a Witchlander apart by looks alone, a Farlander is immediately identifiable by the dark brown color of his skin and his lustrous black hair (well, unless he's bald, of course).
When the Farlanders go to war, they usually fly a pure white flag to symbolize the purity of their cause. This has caused a lot of confusion in the past, seeing as in the Tarhanat a white flag is a request for a temporary truce.
THE HISTORY AND POLITICS OF VRATGOROD:The period from 980 to 1070 was largely peaceful, and cooperation among the city-states reached such a height that a common Host was declared to expand Podgorjan territory to the shores of the Left Hand, which were claimed by the Witchwood at the time. A Host is a typically Podgorjan method of doing things – when a Host is declared, the boyars and kagans of Podgorje will pay any citizen for the heads of fiends from a particular territory, as well as bestow significant privileges on those who settle on that territory, including tax cuts and monetary support. In 1072, during the Third Host of Podgorje the city of Vratgorod was founded, as well as several small fortified villages on the shores of the Hand. For a few years, all was well – until the Witchwood struck back. Most of the new villages were razed by monsters and wights, and Vratgorod stood besieged. The edge of the Wood crept back: it became almost impossible for new settlers to reach Vratgorod.
However, the citizens of Vratgorod were stout people, and they wouldn't surrender their new city so easily. For a while, supply barges arrived from the mainland. Then things started to go sour between Podgorsk and Zolotyn, the two most powerful cities in the Ring. The atmosphere became strained, and the situation in Vratgorod was shifted down in the list of things anybody has time for. The supply runs stopped. Still, Vratgorod held firm – for forty years.
During this time, its warriors managed to push back the Witchwood and clear the shores of the Left Hand and a stretch of the Chol. In the Wood, they found what is claimed to be the blade of Oleg – it cleaves stone and bone alike, just as the legend says. This caused a major religious schism, since official Podgorjan doctrine claims that wherever Oleg had walked, the Witchwood cannot go, and that Oleg ascended somewhere in the foothills of the Singing Ridge. The citizens of Vratgorod, already bitter at being abandoned by the Ring, declared total independence. A series of skirmishes followed, and the Ring's (in this case, mostly Podgorsk's) soldiers were defeated.
What it is now:Vratgorod is a major trading hub located at the junction of the Chol and the Left Hand. Technically, it's a single city, but it controls a significant length of the Chol and both Hands with its “watchtowers” - actually small fortress-cities in their own right. The land along this stretch of river is also settled by people who swear fealty to Vratgorod.
Vratgorod is inhabited mostly by ethnic Podgorjans, but there is also a lot of immigrants from Messen, large amounts of silent Witchlanders, and even Farland traders sometimes take permanent residence here.
It is a city of craftsmen, artisans, and traders: the finest exotic wares from the Farland flow into Vratgorod down the Left Hand, and from there, to the rest of the Tarhanat. Shipments of steel and brass arrive up the Chol from Messen and the Ring to return as fine Vratgradian weapons and clockwork. Vratgorod imports grain and foodstuffs, however, because the swampy shores of the rivers it stands on offer very little arable land. It is by no means
completely dependent upon outside trade – just mostly.
The system of government in Vratgorod is peculiar: their kagan is elected every ten years by the landowners of the city. This does not mean most people vote: you see, hereditary boyars own the land in Vratgorod. You can rent some land from a boyar: then you will have to pay him or her taxes, and you won't be considered a landowner. You will also be subject to his justice. However, you can pay him a fee and buy your land off. Then you will be considered a direct subject of the kagan, and a tax-exempt landowner. This is not hereditary: your children will have to pay the same fee you did, though a boyar traditionally allows them not to pay it until they're twenty years old. For a common worker, the boyar's taxes do not mean much, and so he rents land. For a wealthy artisan, the tax becomes heavier, especially if he owns multiple workshops. So it becomes cheaper for him to buy the land off. His children usually inherit his money, and therefore continue to be landowners.
Most economical matters are decided by the Council of Boyars. The kagan is merely the supreme military leader of the city, and has the right to veto Council decisions. He also keeps a list of all people who must not be granted landowner status. He cannot institute laws, though: he must propose them to the Council, just like any boyar. The boyars maintain their own police forces, and it is their duty to keep and feed a certain number of soldiers, and levy more if the kagan calls for it.
This happens frequently: the monsters from the Wood attack all the time, and the Shih like to lay siege to the Seaward Tower, as well as rob passing ships. Sometimes, this city or the other in the Ring decides to raid Vratgorod, and Vratgorod usually retaliates with swift brutality. Sometimes the Messeni get it into their fool heads to mount another crusade in the name of the Ninety-Nine, and then Vratgorodian longships go to war. Hell, sometimes a boyar decides to raid the Messeni himself, for glory or just for plunder's sake.
The five watchtowers of Vratgorod are governed by a single boyar each. They are mostly inhabited by soldiers and their families.
The people who settle on the rivershores owe allegiance directly to the kagan: they pay him a tax, usually in the form of grain or furs. How they govern themselves is up to them. It's dangerous to live out in the open, and so close to the Witchwood, though.
The flag of Vratgorod is dark blue, emblazoned with a white ship and a white stylized sword. Most Vratgorodians practice their own schismatic version of Oleg worship, though this is not enforced officially. The blade of Oleg is the kagan's official regalia, and it is displayed to the people yearly during the festival of Siegebreak Day.
TECHNOLOGY: All medieval weaponry is present and widely used. Matchlock firearms are more-or-less common, though rather expensive. Usually, light arquebuses or heavy muskets are used, as well as pistols. A
matchlock, if somebody doesn't know, is a type of firing mechanism where a slow-match in a holder is suspended over a weapon's flash-pan, and pressing the trigger lowers it on a spring. So, to fire, you first pour the powder in the barrel, tamp it, then put in the bullet, then cock and light the slow-match, and finally pull the trigger. Flintlock firearms can also be seen sometimes, but they're very prone to misfiring, needing several consecutive cockings of the trigger for the powder to ignite.
Clockwork is fairly widespread – Vratgradian artisans make the best. All sorts of clever mechanical devices are also made.
There is no steam power yet, through research is being done (one guy made a steamboat once; it exploded spectacularly, launching a red-hot brass fitting through boyar Vishnevski's window and into his soup-plate), and the printing press hasn't yet been invented.
There is no magic, or at least none that you can use.
THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS, A.K.A. THE QUEST:Recently, the number of wight attacks has dropped dramatically, so now, on the twenty-fifth day of the fourth moon of the year 1192, kagan Fiodor has declared a Host upon the Witchwood west of Vratgorod. He promises pay to all who would march out there, and additional pay for each dead wight, and also for maps of the land. Any who settle west of the Left Hand will be liberated from tax.
However, this isn't all. Just two days ago – and five days after the declaration - a strange glow has appeared in the western skies: a pale white blaze that is clearly visible at night – the source of the glow is estimated to be somewhere in the foothills of the Witchwood Ridge. The kagan has promised a medium-sized fortune and a title to any who reach this source and come back to tell. That would be an unprecedented journey, as nobody has yet crossed the Wood and come back to tell – the existence of the Ridge itself is only known thanks to a few brave sailors who reached it by sea, and even that happened only once in history.
Wild tales abound about this glow in the west: rumors of immortality, the descent of the gods – the usual. It has been called the witchfire by some poetically-inclined person, and the name has stuck so far.
Hundreds of people have set out west in parties small or great, some in search of money, some for fame and titles, some out of wanderlust, and some to find what lies west of the Wood.
You, the heroes of this story, have met, I am sorry to say, in a tavern. It turned out that all four of you have planned to set out tomorrow, and strike out for the witchfire. Perhaps being made a boyar appeals to you. Perhaps you want money. Maybe you just looked and went “Why the hell not?” Anyway, you decided to buy supplies today (after a few more pints, of course), then sleep – you already have rooms rented – and set out tomorrow, at the break of dawn.
