July 2018 Challenge: Elion: Dead Risen in the Shadows of the Woodlands

[AzureWings]

Glad to hear you like the mountains, Bogie! I looked at a number of tutorials to refresh my mountain linework when I was getting started on this one

Hopefully I'm able to add a proper border, compass rose, and some embellishments tomorrow. In case I don't, here's Elion now with (most; I haven't decided whether or not I want to label forests with names) of the labels, and the Darkness in the north, and a title and legend. Had a little trouble having the smaller labels that overlaid lots of linework show up nicely; I gave them a bit of a glow but it is still somewhat awkward and I may revisit that a little bit.

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And of course, it's lore time! With these every kingdom's been covered except Torvanthal (which sort of was already), Nelska, and Ulsk.

Kingdom of Evanth
- Seekers of Knowledge -

The Kingdom of Evanth is often considered to be at the forefront of research into necromancy and other, stranger magics. Any loyal Evanthi would inform you that they have good reasons for this, most of which are the Hollow People being located just across the border. Anyone else might or might not consider this explanation believable. Evanth has seen itself as being in a continuous escalation of arms for over one hundred years, viewing Ulsk to its north as an existential threat since the last time in recorded history the Hollow People attempted to invade human lands (Evanth started all the major fights with them since then). The crown sponsors several organizations of research and learning, who continuously scour the land for more talent to add to their ranks (sometimes they even get caught scouring other lands for talent, which can lead to some diplomatic kerfuffles). If the state of Elion overall continues as it has then Evanth might be a likely birthplace for more modern scientific principles in the future.

Evanth is a kingdom primarily of living humans; though various undead servitors are quite a common sight the living are generally afforded superior rights and treatment. Beyond the royal family, the greatest social power and prestige goes to the most knowledgeable, skilled and powerful of Evanth’s necromancers, scholars and sages (the occasional skilled - and needless to say intelligent - undead necromancers are exceptions to the aforementioned primacy of living humans in the kingdom). Magics, most of which are necromantic as typical of Elion, are the lifeblood of Evanth’s might; any fear of powerful necromancers or the products of their work generally are seen as mundane in Evanth as compared to the threat the Hollow People are seen to pose (this despite the latter’s apparent lack of interest in any form of invasion or offensive military action since over a hundred years ago; some outside views might find Evanthi policy on the Hollow People to not be entirely rational). Any cleanup of other dark threats in the shadowed corners of the land (not unusual on the continent) is seen as comparatively routine.

Evanth has an awkward sort of back-and-forth with Aleveri; the latter’s historical expansionism has Evanth nervous but they’re still better friends than Ulsk as far as Evanth is concerned. Noxe, another neighbor to the south, is rather plainly friends with anyone who has money and so isn’t a particular concern to Evanth beyond being a useful trading partner. Vleoh’s potentially unusual gains of knowledge from its unique perspective make it a potentially valuable interest for Evanth, but the overland route to Vleoh is long and mildly treacherous in places (not to mention skirting regions near the Ulsk border. Finally, Fyrovan is a relatively removed neighbor - the Lethemar Rift is a rather forbidding border in both directions - but is usually assumed to be up to something, since it is Fyrovan. Before the current Kingdom of Evanth, some of its ancestor civilizations fought a terrible war against Fyrovan, which resulted in the Lethemar Rift and the near-total destruction of one of those civilizations. The ruins of that old civilization’s capital of Melladova are still occasionally visited by the brave, foolhardy, or overly well-funded in hopes of uncovering ancient knowledge and magical arts.

Kingdom of Fyrovan
- Land of Portents -

A rather long-lived kingdom, Fyrovan is known for its oracles, who gain insight into the future through strange arts. This is a double-edged reputation; while the value of such oracles cannot be understated it is by now also well-known that in Fyrovan “oracle” and “spy” generally mean the same thing. The kingdom has a long history of using its vaunted oracles for espionage purposes; precognitive clandestine agents is a phrase that rather well explains why many other nations in Elion have trouble fully trusting Fyrovan (especially combined with its long history of known and unknown meddling in the affairs of surrounding lands).

Aside from the oracles, more conventional necromancers are also prevalent in the tiers of Fyrovanian aristocracy. A notable and not uncommon sort found in Fyrovan are lyches, necromancers who transfer their soul to a jewel or other small object and then simply puppet their undead body to last beyond their time. The only reason the more accomplished and long-existed lyches can’t quite compete for depth of knowledge with Medorjnsy ancestors is because Fyrovan (and the knowledge of becoming a lyche) hasn’t been around in its present form for nearly as long as its southern neighbor.

Of its neighbors, Noxe gets along best with Fyrovan; incessant spying doesn’t prevent the Kingdom of Fyrovan from spending money and engaging in trade and those are really the determining factors of a relationship with the House of Gold. Evanth, Vleoh, and Symurth are typically distrustful though barring unusual circumstances cordial. None of them really want to be friends with Fyrovan, but neither do they want to be enemies. The Elder Kingdom, on the other hand, is a longtime rival of Fyrovan and the two don’t get along well (considering Fyrovan was a breakaway many centuries ago from Medorjnsy this may not be too much of a surprise), but neither have historically been confident enough in their chances against the other to break out into full-scale war rather than occasional periods of skirmishing.

Kingdom of Medorjnsy
- Elder Kingdom -

The Kingdom of Medorjnsy was the first human civilization in Elion, as they helpfully inform any and all foreign diplomatic contacts at every available opportunity. According to their records, the Kingdom was founded by Medor I, who arrived leading a people in a great fleet of hundreds of ships thirteen hundred years ago. While the length of time might be cause for suspicion as to the veracity of these records, there is some cause to think the accounts may be more accurate than one might expect, and that is the fact that the royal family and highest circle of necromancers in royal employ can helpfully consult the ancestors of the royal line and some other notable figures to ask them directly. While the remains of Medor I and similar early figures have been lost, preventing consultation, Medor VI and Lewan I are popular and fairly well-trusted ancestors from which to seek knowledge of history and ancient rites, and their memories are obviously far less removed from the kingdom’s founding than any members thereof alive at the present.

This necromantic skill kept under strict control of Medorjnsy is often much more applicable than one might expect. Consultation with Lewan I resulted in reviving old research that was used to deal the finishing blow to Thembrad, in Medorjnsy’s reconquest of that breakaway state; said finishing blow also resulted in the Tempest’s Rage and the surrounding blasted wasteland. The possibility that they have another such magical weapon at the ready has often been a threat counterbalancing Fyrovan’s incredible spy network, and had thus kept the two in a stalemate for more than five hundred years. Even aside from such spectacular wonder-weapons Medorjnsy is large, populous, wealthy and possessed of numerous skilled practitioners of necromancy; it is one of the more powerful states of the continent. Perhaps this makes the historical failures of Medorjnsy to conquer Torventhal to its south rather remarkable; while the latter has never been more than a nuisance in the face of Medorjnsy’s might it is one that has been very difficult to deal with. Many more common animated undead struggle to cross running water, and the Torven Strait counts as an awful lot of running water - largely removing the advantage of necromancy over the vehemently abstaining Torventhal. Although Medorjnsy could produced a vastly larger navy, and has in the past, in attempts to overwhelm Torventhal the former has never managed to succeed in bringing that full force to bear against the wily navies/pirates of the latter. Thus there have been many periods historically where it has been seen as the better choice by Medorjnsy’s rulers (and the ancestors they consult) to reluctantly trade and make nice with the island kingdom and quietly ask that they please send the privateers elsewhere, like the Vlochen Sea or the coasts of Knosprith.

Medorjnsy’s best friend among other nations is more of a best frenemy - although they’ve warred in the past with Symurth it has never progressed to an all-out attempt at conquest on either side, and oftentimes they’re both more willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt than they are Fyrovan. Also being friendly with Symurth is a great way to get access to more silver, as their mines are well-known to be the most plentiful and Elionese nations can never have enough silver on hand.

Kingdom of Symurth
- The Silver Crown -

The Kingdom of Symurth is descended from one of multiple kingdoms that broke away from Medorjnsy in ancient times. Unlike Thembrad, the two kingdoms that later became Symurth did not get blasted to oblivion by the Elder Kingdom and so survived to the present day despite occasional quarrels with their former overlord. Symurth itself resulted from a union between those two kingdoms, under a weighty crown of solid silver. Silver is the key advantage of Symurth; as the metal has significant impacts on necromantic workings (often though not always to the detriment of the workings) it is of a civil and military interest to all nations of Elion even discounting its potential value simply as a precious metal. And Symurth has the most silver, as generally everyone knows; the mines in the mountains of the Sarzeka region are seemingly limitless. The kingdom has used this resource to bolster its strength and bargaining power both in times of relative weakness and times of strength. Symurth’s necromancers and magisters are perhaps not the most skilled and capable compared to those of other nations in general, but they excel at countering the workings of other practitioners (often assisted via copious use of silver equipment and components, of course).

Despite the small size and distance of Noxe, Symurth often considers the other nation to be a rival - while perhaps without as much ability for raw silver extraction Noxe at times threatens to undercut Symurth’s silver-backed influence through sheer spread and distribution ability due to its far-reaching trade influence. Vleoh is Symurth’s best customer - silver is a key component of producing the necessary materials to allow Vleoh’s ghosts to interact with the physical world, and the southern reaches of the Border-Mountains are much less rich in the metal than Symurth’s mountains. Fyrovan is treacherous but not outright hostile, and Medorjnsy is a fair-weather friend (so is Torventhal for that matter).

Kingdom of Vleoh
- Immaterial Kingdom -

A sizable segment of the Kingdom of Vleoh’s population consists of necromantic ghosts, incorporeal spirits with limited ability to interact with the physical. The ruling line remains among the living; being insubstantial is considered to disqualify one from taking the throne (and becoming so after abdication is generally seen in a poor light). However, the royal and noble courts of Vleoh are perhaps among the hardest places for spies (often from Fyrovan, but sometimes elsewhere) to infiltrate, as there are numerous generations worth of siblings and cousins that ignore blades and poisons and pop forth from walls at will. Of course, it isn’t easy for the ghosts of Vleoh to do much to affect the physical world other than talk, though; it takes treatment with necromantic magic and large quantities of silver to render a physical object one that the ghosts can interact with (even more silver if one wants the object to stay physical at the end of this process as well).

This need for silver ties Vleoh to some extent to its southern neighbor of Symurth; Noxe and other regions are often also options but Symurth benefits from driving less hard of a bargain for its neighbor (not to say it goes easy on Vleoh either; the silver trade agreements are a continuing point of aggravation for Vleoh’s rulers and treasury). Notably, Vleoh also trades on occasion with the Hollow People of Ulsk. One might think that having immaterial ghosts is an advantage as a glimpse of a Hollow Person’s back will not turn them to stone; but as it turns out the ghosts just get sucked in and ‘eaten' instead in that circumstance. Opinions vary on which fate is worse. Nonetheless, they do occasionally engage in (cautious) trade with Ulsk, and for all their trepidation are probably the friendliest other nation to the Hollow People (not that that says much at all). Vleoh’s relations with Nelska to its east are fairly neutral; they don’t care for the Darkness and so appreciate a dedicated buffer state but don’t particularly wish to deal with that buffer state much either. All around (except perhaps with Ulsk) Vleoh often uses its noble-blooded ghosts as ambassadors and negotiators, as they are much, much harder to permanently inconvenience than even most other forms of undead, and having no physical body does not seem to do their ability to speak any impairment. Vleohnian ghosts appear pale, washed-out in a somewhat chilly shade, and translucent, but often clearly defined physically. Their immaterial clothes or hair often move in breezes that don’t exist, at least in the physical.

[AzureWings]

All right! I did manage to get a few more embellishments done today!

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I'd originally wanted to do a fancier border, but I've gotten a bit exhausted with this map and had some aggravation trying to make my vaguely-bone-like relief-style border blocks tile how I wanted it to, so just did a simple wooden frame with a silver inner rim. Also added a compass rose and some simple arts to the legend!

And now, for lore. I think I already gave an overview of what's unique about Torventhal, so here's the last two:

Kingdom of Nelska
- Wardens of Shadow -

The Kingdom of Nelska was formed by apportionment by an ancient kingdom, a permanent march whose lords were tasked with ensuring the Darkness never progressed south (not that there’s anything known that could actually do something about that) and that nothing from it came down into the rest of Elion either (more potentially doable). When that former kingdom fell Nelska was spared the destruction, and since that time few have attempted to retake the kingdom as few want to take up its task as well.

The Darkwood, the name for the dense forests in northern Nelska that extend into the Darkness, is known for devouring people. Those who venture too far into it never return, those who spend too much time in or near “not too far into it” often become shades, and things that actually come out of the deeper Darkness are generally quite dangerous and almost universally hostile. In most years Nelska’s charge of being the bastion against the Darkness is a routine duty with occasional dangers when the odd shadowy monster emerges; the exceptions are when many or bigger ones come out. Historically, however, there has never been a real emergency situation (aside from whatever lost-to-history event prompted Nelska’s founding) and the Darkness is usually only a real concern for Nelska itself. This has been some source of resentment coloring its international relations.

Shades are rather similar to humans - to the surprise of many, they apparently are even still alive, rather than undead - but are eerie nonetheless. Their skin always has an odd cast, as if it is either constantly in shadow even when it isn’t, or as if it were softly illuminated by a distant glow of some strange color. Their eyes glow yellow, a trait shared with many of the more monstrous things that come out of the Darkness. For others interacting with shades there always seems to be this skin-crawling sense that the shade or shades are party to some great secret that no others know; every shade’s grin seems knowing, every glance either distant or calculating, every movement furtive. And those who were once human (as opposed to those shades born to shades) say nothing of what they experienced within the Darkness that changed them. Most of the shades of Nelska still live on the fringes of the Darkness, within the less deep and eerie (relatively speaking!) parts of the wood; as they tend to unsettle others shades tend to form rather insular communities. In Skand, for example, though there’s never been any formal act to make it so there’s a distinct ‘shade quarter’ in the city, where the vast majority of its shades choose to reside. People are especially nervous about shades in Nelska; in other nations where most folk are less concerned about the Darkness there’s less conscious reason to fear them, though they retain all their other unsettling qualities.

Aside from forbidding mountains Nelska only shares one tiny oceanside cliff as a land border, with Vleoh. Most of its interaction with other powers is via seagoing trade, and that mostly across the Vlochen Sea. They import silver from Symurth: although Nelska has some silver mines of their own, they’re not the most productive and worryingly close to the edge of the Darkness to boot. There are some small populations nominally a part of Nelska on the Eastern Isles - mostly the southern one as settlements on the northern one, under the shadows of the titanic megalith circles on the central hills of the landscape, have a bad habit of going missing.

Ulsk
- Realm of the Hollow People -

The land of Ulsk is something of a large city-state; other than Port Blady there’s only really one major city that dominates the region, which is otherwise dotted with villages (including throughout the Ulskenwood that occupies much of Ulsk’s land area). All of the inhabitants of Ulsk are Hollow People; it is really far too dangerous for anyone else to live there. This is because the Hollow People, it is said, are literally hollow, empty when viewed from the back. One wonders who said this originally, since anyone who actually sees the back of a Hollow Person turns to stone (or is sucked inside and presumably consumed, for the immaterial ghosts of Vleoh). As this means the end for living and undead alike, the Hollow People are feared throughout Elion. It doesn’t help that their culture is quite foreign to most Elionese ones, and whatever social rules they operate by make them seem capricious and treacherous. Other than this very notable trait, the Hollow People look somewhat human, though they have long, thin ears and are pale, slightly grayish, and more slender than humans on average.

From an out-of-universe perspective one might say that the Elionese view the Hollow People much akin to other worlds’ mythological Fair Folk: possessed of strange magics but dangerous, tricky, and inscrutable. Despite their terrifying reputation however, there are only two times in history where the Hollow People have really posed an active threat themselves; one attempted invasion long lost to history beyond any hope of putting a date to it and one other, a bit over 130 years ago. In the latter, they were fended off desperately by Evanth, which has dedicated its primary focus to preparing to fight the Hollow People ever since (to an almost paranoid level; indeed it has been Evanth that has started numerous smaller conflicts with them since then). The cause for either invasion is unknown; the most that the Hollow People have consistently said about the more recent one was that it was evidently started over “an amount of the green stone” and that further fighting for the same reason is “unlikely." No one among the Elionese has yet determined precisely what material “the green stone” is.

Some trade does go on with the Hollow People, by the brave or foolhardy (or very rarely by the Hollow People making their own trade caravan to neighbors that receive them like one might a live explosive). Most often this is through Vleoh, the land-bordering neighbor that hasn’t dedicated most of its military capacity to potential fighting with Ulsk. Particularly adventurous sailors are welcome to make port in Port Blady (though the Hollow People use a different name for it) on the northern coast, a city inhabited by the Hollow People filled with markets and bazaars of things esoteric and bizarre.

For all their fey strangeness and danger, however, a more neutral mind might note that the Hollow People do share many of the traits of a human society. They have some measure of government and a centralized hierarchy of power (though one rather inscrutable to outsiders) and they farm and hunt and trade and smith tools (not that anyone knows what all of the common tools of the Hollow People are for) and form villages, have families, and so on.