The Player Characters are adventurous sorts from various of the more settled territories to the south-west: the Barony of Redfort, County of Kallent, County of Herdley, and the Royal City of Dunfalcon, the seat of Good King Yrag and his royal court. The royal city Dunfalcon lies on the shores of Lake Neme some 150 miles south-west from Yggsburgh along the Dunfalcon Pike, a patrolled roadway. Yggsburgh is a free city, the immediately adjacent realms are the bucolic Barony of Redfort to the southwest, bleak County of Easmoor to the northeast (including the town of Stoneford Meade on the Nemo, 50 miles beyond Great Leech Marsh), and the powerful Margravy of Talworth to the east. None of their lords recognise the formal suzereinty of the King in Dunfalcon, for centuries the Realm of Man has been more a notional than political construct. To the north and west beyond the Wychwood, Great Hillwood and Menhir Hills lie wild lands inhabited by many petty lords, barbarian clans, demi-human folk, and numerous evil humanoid races. Northman Vikings have recently established Jarldoms on the upper Urt river, the nearest some seventy miles north-east of Yggsburgh at the Urt Rapids. East beyond Talworth are said to lie lands long settled by Realmsmen, but now ruled by Easterling tyrants who oppress the native folk cruelly.
Hearing rumour of much adventure and treasure to be had in the East Mark, and that the fog that has long cloaked Castle Zagyg has begun to lift, the adventurers have bought passage on a stage coach along the Dunfalcon Pike to the free city of Yggsburgh. Some may have other good reasons for leaving their homelands...
Culture & Religion
The Realm of Man is narrow and constrained. Always the forces of Chaos press upon her borders
- From 'The Keep on the Borderlands'
The Realm is a northern, temperate land, with an extent and borders similar to those of the medieval Holy Roman Empire. To the south and south-east beyond the Inner Sea lie the deserts and jungles of mighty Neria. To the north are the barbaric Northmen from their homeland around the frigid Ice Sea, while to the east are the wide lands of the Easterling Wainriders.
The culture of the Realm is something like mid 16th century England (think fantasy version of 'The Tudors'), but with little central authority, more like the German principalities. The only sanctioned religion is the Great Church, a quasi-Christian Lawful Good religion that follows the Lord, the Son, and a multitude of Saints. Popular local Saints include St Parus the Kindly, St Farlonn the Traveller, St Margaret of the Forest, St Agatha the Pious, and St Cuthbert of the Cudgel. The Old Faiths of the Pagans are still practiced in remote areas, notably by the Druids, and by many of the heathen, barbaric Northmen (who still follow the old Odinic faith) and the diabolic Easterlings, who are said to be slaves of the Dark Powers.
Slavery is usually legal but generally rare in the Realm, except among portions of the aristocracy, and the Great Church frowns upon enslavement of its adherents, so human slaves tend to be heathens from remote lands. To get around this, adherents of the Great Church may be sentenced to Indentured Servitude, which is theoretically limited in time but in practice resembles chattel slavery. The slave trade is banned in Yggsburgh; however the Talworth Marches to the east are a centre for slave trading, with many unfortunates shipped east to Easterling lands. The Great Church enforces monogamy; to evade this some noblemen maintain stables of concubines, whether slaves or nominally free women.
South of the Realm beyond the Inner Sea lies the sprawling black kingdom of Neria, strong in the faith of the Great Church, whose women are said to wear little but gold and gemstones. Far to the east, beyond the plains of the Easterlings, lie the heathen but civilized lands of Sungkin, from which strange golden-hued folk hail, clad in finest silks.
PC Backgrounds
You might be an outlaw fleeing a murder, or an agent of Good King Yrag, or just a landless wanderer.
Beginning
Most likely your PCs have first met on the stage coach which is taking you to Yggsburgh, along with a couple of female aristocrats Dame Gertrude Kallent, her shapely niece Lady Tabitha Kallent, their maid Molly and manservant Grigor. However if you wish to already know each other, let me know.
Tabitha Kallent, a shapely young aristocrat
Kjato's PC:
Duvader of Thorn. Hague Duvader is second son of the Thorn Hagues, a family of poor (but free) gnomish farmers. He became a mercenary and worked as a scout in the long conflict between his gnomish community and neighbouring orcish and kobold tribes as well as a nearby human lord. Recently, the gnomes succeeded in tricking the humans into attacking the orcs, which kept those two enemies busy for some time, and used this release for driving the kobolds off. Since, the need of mercenaries declined, thus Duvader chose to gain his fortune elsewhere.
Goonergeezer's PC:
Garrick, a farmhand who likes his drink a bit too much, after a very heavy night drinking he returned home and argued heavily with his wife and losing his temper and hitting her, unfortunatly she fell hard and broke her neck, garrick is now running away from the law and is deeply ashamed of his actions. After the murder of his wife garrick blacked out, in the morning realisation of what he had done sank in and he rushed to his friend the blacksmith for help (they had been friends since childhood), but all he could manage to give hime was some trail rations, a pair of throwing axes and a small battered shield, armed with these he made his escape. since then he has been hiring out his services to anyone who will pay, with the money he has earned he has managed to buy a old but useable longsword and a rusty but servicable suit of chain mail.
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