TSR 9193 GAZ1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos.pdf

by Aaron Allston

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................

PART ONE: GAZETFEER SECTION

Players’ Background ..........................................

..........

......................

The History of Karame

........................................

............ 16

Politics of Karameikos

Kanmeikos society ...........

.................................................................

The Karameikos Economy ..............................................

.................. 34

The Lay of the Land .................................................

............ 35

The Communities of Karameikos .............................................

Characters ....................

..................................................................

Monsters ........................................................

PART TWO ADVENTURESECTION

Adventure Themes ....

.............................................................. 61

Basic Adventures .............

........... 62

........................................

Fxpert Adventures ........................................................

Companion Adventures ...................................................

Masters Adventures ................................................................................... 64

Adventures in Print

.......

................................................................ 64

Credirs:

Design: Aaron AUston

Editing: Karen S. Martin, Jon Pickem, Aaron AUston

Coordinators: Bruce Heard, Karen S. Martin

Cover Artist: Clyde Caldwell

Interior Artist: Stephen Fabian

Graphic Design: Dennis Kauth, Ron Kauth, Colleen

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ISBN 0-88038-391-7

9193

The lands of fiction and fairy tale aren’t usu-

ally created all at once-they accumulate. A set-

ting wiU be induced in one novel, and earh

subsequent novel in the series wiU add more to

Subsequent Gazetteers will include the

Emirate of Ylaruam, the Principalities of

Glantri. and many more sites. The timelines

and histories of these sourcebooks arc SCNPU-

another and all

already published scenarios set in the Grand

Duchy.

(4) Finally, using your knowledge of Kara-

meikos and your preferences of adventure top-

ther some adventures and begin

until it’s as detailed and

‘dual adventures set in distant

ands can be fun, it takes a con-

with recurring allies. enemies,

-.ally, I’d like to give thaoks to the indi-

als whose materials already in print have

ially to The Grand Dnchy of

attention to th

the inuiguing magocracy o

of Glantri. One epic scenario mig

to all the known countries of the c

And with each release more is re

, Graeme Morris and Phil Gal-

0, Night’s Dark Termr, which

pful materials on the origins of

ommunities o

ence wants to

. Dobson, for X10, Red Arrow,

, which showcased the armies and

ationships of most of the nations

acten using those guidelines.

politics, monstels and adventures.

This is The Grand Duch

&D game world; and

entzer, who provided helpful notes

ikos and Threshold in the EX~K

play. If they’re all Basic-level ch

to the “Basic Adventures” sect

e you enjoy playing in the Grand

nuch as I’ve enjoyed writing about

Aumon

-Aaron

monsters and adventure oppormni

Let’s talk about what Karameikos is; what it

means to be from Karameikos; and how to

create a chvacvr from the grand duchy.

If you’re a game-master, you should lis0

read the material on Karameikos and Thresh-

They visited Zirchev, a huntsman, and

taught him how to tame and ride and fght

from hones, how to train dogs to fight for

their masten, how to walk silent as the cat,

called the Golden Age of the Tnldar, and (as

all citizens of Karameikos know) the Tradar

never did found a mighty empire or even fully

recover from the devastation brought by the

beast-men.

old from the DUNGEONS &

F%pert set; it’s in the section

Campaign, Part 2: Sample Wil

Home 'Fawn."

UClUlF L

Regu

Golden

descend

did‘ . ‘

Q€ G-NO DUCO

ItanaMeikos

the peoples of this land

to a dark age from which they

y emerge until the last century.

vidual villages survived, and the uiba-

Ih even~ally &ed at greater than subsis-

ice level. Trade soon commenced with

lnrothad and Thyatis peoples. The descend-

ts of the Tnldar. called Traladara, began

their way toward economic recovery.

t the Traladara stiU faced many problems.

the centuries after the Golden Age,

things settledin the Tnladaran for-

and mountains. Some evil force med

with vampires, lyanthmpes, and

beasts. Today, every Traladara village has

Fim, we’ll look at the Grand Duchy.

tory, its peoples, and its settlementsan

Histony

This is the land’s ON as known to

‘I

peoples of Karameikos.

The fm part of the history is recorded.

epic work of poeuy of the Wdar (

people, “The Song of King Halav.” This

ancient work maintained by generatio

bards before finally being committed to

ing about six centuries ago.

est

thl

Otl

its

pic

gends of a neighboring ruin once-occu-

by a vampire-lord, or some village lad

g out to be a were-wolf and slayer of vil-

. Often, the legends are true, and every

Tnladara youth knows that the land has

pircs and were-beings still.

use there were horrid things in the

, travel between inland villages was un-

, while the coastline villages prospered

e foreign trade, while only the bravest

IS would risk expeditionsinto the Ea-

terior. As a resnlt, the inland villagers

to remain blated and more ignorant

eir seaside cousins.

g this dark age, dans of goblins, hob-

and om also settled in Wadara

y some distance from the hu-

unities. They warred upon one an-

the humans, and in general

land less con@

The Song of King Halav

tu1

In ancient times, the land now called

meikos was the forest homeland

Wdar, men and women so favored

Immortals and allowed to live in these

ItS

ful lands.

Saf

frc

lac

tended

than

The Immortals let the Wdar live

simple lives. The Wdar fished and

the men spent most of their time

with one another and offering pnis

DUIU

goblins,

lands-

man COI

other, a

made d

ish sett

The elvo

land, w

tain foc

peaceab

them a

tribes.

Immortals.

But the Immortals knew that the

of the Tnldar was to end. Far to th

race of evil beast-menwas preparing

through the easterly lands in sear&

prisoners and more hospitable horn

These beast-men had their own

sponson equal in might to the pau

Wdar, so only victory between

beast-man would determine the f

for everyone.

eable tribes of elvish and gnom-

also came to Tnladara, though.

settled in the central forcsts of the

fwo races.

The Imm~rtals descended to Law

village, to fmd dever youths and gi

crefs they could use to defeat the

They visited Halav Red-Hair,

stone knives, and taught him to

ons and armor of bronze. Thq

northward. Both races traded

east-men.

the less friendly demihuman

., .

him the am of the sword and &d

Wadarc.

They visited Peua, a maker of pottery, and

taught her art of the bow, the craft of medi-

cine, the use of the potter’s wheel, the spin-

ning of flax and use of the loom.

their eye toward rebuilding their lands into a

adara

I llc

Traladara, a century lgo, was a well-known

trading spot, pvticularly Mdenev, its chief

city, built where the Volaga river enters the

sea. There, Tnkdanos traded valuable furs

for weapons, wines and other spirits, a proft-

The Duk Age

The time of King Halav has since been

able enterprise.

Most of the Traladaran profits stayed on the

coast and the lands immediately inland. Few

traders ventured inland; those that did in-

Worst among them was Duke Stefan’s own

cousin, Baron Ludwig “Black Eagle” von

Hendriks.

On the good side, Duke Stefan himselfwas

Intelligence to be literate, you can be literate

if you wish. If you prefer, because of the way

you conceive your character, that he be illiter-

ate. that is also vour choice.)

cluded the annual Gnome Caravan. a well-

armed force of gnomes who de

the northern hills, traded a ye;

tion of craft goods in Marilenev

their way back to gnomish lands.

At about this time, the natio

and Thyatis began to view Tral:

creasing concern. The forest nat

offered them any threat, so tl:

erected any signifcant defenses agai‘;

dara. But what if its people should b

under a powerful leader - or, worse vet.

For the most‘part, Traladarans don’t care

~tians. They see the Thyatians as

e of bad luck which keeps the

I from re-achieving their Golden

c Cnll”

the far-flung villages into a single nation He

Age Since

y of the origih Thyatian ar-

en land-grabbers, many of the

all Thyatians as being the

on’t wish for your own charac-

ay, he doesn’t have to.)

e majority of the population of

is Traladaran, the court language

Thyatian is the language of of&

I documents and trade and is basically the

,ommonTongue” of Karameikos. Most Tn-

Iarans under the age of 30 speak Thyatian,

ially with a distinct accent which marks

ir Traladaran origins.

built a substantial army, using native

rivals WC-

Traldarans, Tbyauan immigrants, and even

Traladar

Callarii elves, to protect the Grand Duchy In

same. (I

short, he began the long, slow process of

ter to fe

building Traladara, a land of unfriendly vil-

lages and wolf-howls in the night, into a

strong trade nation

quered by an enemy foreign power?

The Empire of Thyatis decided the mat

by sending mops to the Traladaran capi;

Marilenev, and conquering it, claiming

Traladara for Thyatis. Darokin shrugged :

began steps to make sure its border was sec

Thyatis took few real steps to secure TI

Today, the Grand Duchy is still growing

cia

into that nation-it

is still young, with its two

“C

halves of the population (Ealadaran and Thy-

lad

atian) largely unmuted and its interior mostly

us1

uncivilized But it is growing stronger day by

the

I auam

ost of the nobles in Karameikos are of

tian descent, and a sizeable proportion of

ommoner population is of Thyatian de-

day, and most of the nations of the continent

have representatives in Karameikos, a sign of

the nation’s growing international impor-

tance.

Zhe Peoulc

’ans tend to be physically larger than

ans, men averaging around 5‘11” and

about 5‘5”. The Thyatians have had

s to interbreed with other natio

Most of the-humans of the Grand Duchy of

Karameikos fall into two categories Native

Traladarans and those of Thyatian descent.

Other than that, the rest of Trala

left pretty much to itself. The m

Other inhabitantsof the duchy include elves,

cer

gnomes, humans of muted descent, a few

an(

dwarves and halflings, the savage demi-

ran

humans in their distant villages, and traders

who’ve settled in Karameikos-and

among

COl

Traladara meant

profited more anyway.

That’s how conditions remai

years ago. At that time, D

meikos 111, a youthful noblem

st~ck

that last category are representatives of practi-

cally every humanoid race and nation in the

the

world.

eas

lheh

pire of Thyatis is a large, flourishing

with powerful armies, strong trade re-

with the great nations of the world,

ertainmenu, and a cultural

in few places in the world.

many of Thyatian descent

supenor to the native Traladarans.

ny of the Thyatians, there is a sen-

t Traladarans are superstitious and

feel that Thyatian spoken

cent denotes lack of men-

, this is a prejudice which

have to foist on your own character

it wish to.)

Traladarans

empire T

a deal with the Emperor

Karameikos, in essence, traded

ancestral lands forTraladara-an

of autonomy. The Empire reco

meikos’ claim to Ttaladara, now

Grand Duchy of Karameikos,

officials from Traladara territory.

Duke Stefan traveled to his

The Traladarans, descendents of the native

lations

Traldar tribe of legend,tend to be fairly small

lavish ar

(men average 5’9“, women 5’3”) and light of

standard

build They tend to have pale complexions,

so It’s n

brown eyes, and dark hair (deep brown to

tendtof

black)

Among

In general, they are a very superstitious

timenft

people-if

you can call it superstition when

ignorant

it’s based on truth They are great believers in

with a li

good luck charms, omens and portents (palm-

tal abilit,

reading, the reading of tea leaves or sheep en-

YOU don’t

If YOU de.-

trails, interpretations of natural phenomena

dit’s a strange event, the Traladara consider it

Half-Brc

n omen), curses and evil eyes

,_ .

thirty years, since the arrival of

and his followers. there have

been born many children of mixed Thyatian

and Traladaran descent. Most of them are the

children of Thyatian men who immigrated to

the duchy, fought in the Duke’s army, then re-

Outside the larger towns, education is not

commum-

ties, most villagers are illiterate, though often

a village cleric will be lettered. (Player-

characters, being exceptional people, don’t

have to worry about this; if you have enough

d. in the more NI~

On the bad side, many ofthe Thyahset-

who poured into the countty. swearing

loyalty to Duke Stefan and receiving land

grana, Weft ruthless men Who literally Stole

lands from the Traladarans living upon them.

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