Interlude - Five Years Gone

[History needed a nudge, and I wanted some of the changes the players have made to the world to take effect. Time has therefore been moved on again, this time for five years. The more visible of their activities, plus the other things that happened in the world during this time, are described below]

Dalaghendor

The Shared Realm expands carefully into the remains of the Northkingdoms; the new accord between lizard and human is too fragile to stretch quickly. Sangr'm also refrains from expanding south, leaving the Deep Trakar as a refuge for the feral lizardmen.

The targetless pogrom against the undead burns out in early 1604, and most of the hunters leave. Dalaghendor remains clearer of undead than any other land for years to come.

Tarlanor

Skufruss, equipped with the mighty military he inherited from Gozan, expands ruthlessly until his borders touch those of Dalaghendor, New Tellare, Enning and the Kordasa. In all cases, once contact is made, he establishes clear lines of demarcation and stops expanding.

Within these borders, Tarlanor develops apace, becoming a significant centre for magic and technology. Alumini begin to emerge from the Dark Tower, trained to a very high standard in the Art Magic and all characterized by a tendency to take no crap from anybody. Although not particularly notable for its' art or aesthetics, the workshops, foundries, and places of learning within Skufruss' realm begin to be seen as serious rivals to the Empire's.

The ruined cities of Lossal and Minensal are incorporated into the expanded realm, and sections of each city are rebuilt, although it will be many more years before they are completely restored.

Thallith, the ancient capital of Antrol and favourite city of Galoriand, is designated as part of the border between Tarlanor and New Tellare, and becomes a significant market-place for goods from both lands to change hands.

Gloiran

Despite repeated attempts to contact them by various people, the city of Gloiran remains sealed off in obedience to the warning of the Goldeneye.

Kobur

With Gloiran out of the picture, Kobur quickly picks up the position of the city that trades dwarf-made goods to the outside world. With the secret of working adamantite in its' possession (although with no source of the ore), the city can provide at least one product no-one else can, if the materials can be located. Other exports are also in demand; dwarf-wrought mail and weapons, raw metals and stone, worked finery. But most of all, the dwarves of Kobur export skilled labour. All over northern Alair, rebuilding is going on, of cities, roads, towns. Many places don't even have a village smith. To all these places come the dwarves, trading in dressed stone, steel tools, iron fixings, and the skill of stonemasonry. Gold, and foodstuffs unavailable in the Erean Mountains, flood in, and Kobur's prosperity waxes - as does King Berrin Ironfist's popularity.

Orc-land

Forsaken by nearly the entire orc population, Orcland lies desolate, and Dun Tolk stands abandoned. In the spring of 1605, two absutii of Imperial troops march north, securing the hills of the orcish homeland and reclaiming them for the Erlyid Empire.

Orcish agriculture having been rather desultory and inefficient, the majority of the land has been effectively fallow for five hundred years, and is ripe for turning and planting. Imperial settlers begin to move north, encouraged by generous land grants, and the landscape begins its' transformation from the wild hills and grasslands of before towards the ordered and civilized farmlands of the Empire.

Very careful borders are marked out north and west, clearly indicating no intention to poach lands theoretically belonging to the elves or dwarves.

No attempt is made to use Dun Tolk, and it is left abandoned; the ancient Elven city of Dalbin is instead rebuilt as the provincial capital of the new region.

Enning

Guided by his prescience, Thelvian Tyrkor does not participate in the great northern land grab, but concentrates on building his economy and creating a more balanced military.

His alliance with New Tellare remains strong, but relations with the Kordasa are rather poor, as the latter keeps sending missionaries into Enning, and some do not survive the process of being rounded up and removed. These brave souls all seem to labour under the same misapprehension; that Tyrkor does not believe in Kord, or indeed any gods. This is not true. Thelvian Tyrkor knows quite well that the gods exist; he just judges them more trouble than they're worth, and wants nothing to do with them.

The Kordasa

The temples started by Jasselan in 1602 rise all over the lands of the Kordasa, and the faith of Kord has never been stronger. Trade is strong too; with the building work going on all over the northern world, the ancient stone mines of northern Trialt are re-opened and provide a marketable asset for the New Faithful.

With gritted teeth, the Kordasa accepts the instructions of Hildraft and opens trade with the Orcs of Kîshshul; rather to their surprise, they find the latter as good as their word (with the occasional mishap) in their intention to do business instead of war.

The borders between Tarlanor and the Kordasa intersect around 1606 and the defences along the Kordic side are truly impressive, fortresses, walls, fences and garrisons all braced, ready for the attack everyone is convinced will come.

Despite the regular losses, Kordic missionaries continue to cross the border into Enning, each convinced that he can prove to Thelvian Tyrkor that the gods do exist, and that Kord is worthy of worship, or at least tolerance.

New Tellare

One of the real winners in the northern Land Grab, New Tellare expands remorselessly over the five years, reclaiming the ruins of the shattered northern realms of Antrol and Oret. Chaos and lawlessness is replaced by order, construction, roads and policing. Finally, the northwestern and northern borders reach the Trakar Swamps and Tarlanor, respectively, and the land grab is effectively over.

To the south, New Tellare continues to absorb chunks of the badlands north of the Desolation. Technically, these were once part of Sildor, but for the moment the Elves say nothing; they have enough to handle as things are. The southwestern tip of New Tellare finally reaches Belegond, and there the freeport becomes a defacto buffer zone between New Tellare and Stryre.

The ruins of Kelorsal and Thallith are absorbed during the expansion process, and reconstruction work commences. Cyrn Weithelin, home to the Cavalry Academy of New Tellare, has already spread enough to be regarded as a town rather than a simple border fort. Cyrn Sharresh, that formerly demon-haunted citadel in the mountain, has become a bastion of noble virtue, home not only to a Kordic order of knights (The Brotherhood of the Mountain), but an Aderran one (Wisdom's Edge). As well as training some of the best knights in the world, Sharresh also is gathering one of the biggest libraries outside Thornal, Reital and the Dark Tower.

The Sledgehammer remains in training, but active service is limited to border control and occasional forays into the Desolation. The cavalry academy at Weithelin begins to produce usable numbers of mounted troops, and the cavalry wing of the Sledgehammer becomes a force to be reckoned with.

With Leonora now Queen, a new Councillor for Rhorien is needed, and her cousin Namlup Kerr is chosen. The long-vacant position of Councillor for the Religions is filled at last, by an Aderran, Lackaj Nar.

In 1607 the announcement is made that Queen Leonora is expecting, and there is much celebration. The Queen has become very popular in New Tellare; where the common people are rather in awe of their warrior King out of the legendary past, Leonora has more of the human touch. She travels across the realm, working tirelessly to knit the new portions together as part of the reborn Tellaran nation. Without Leonora's help, Hansen the Bard would have utterly failed to cope with the lordship of Coronos. She taught him the statecraft he needed to get started.

Trakar Swamps

A sullen silence is about all that comes from the deep Trakar during the years between 1602 and 1607. The feral Lizardmen have only ever really wanted to remain undisturbed in their rank swamps, with the opportunity for a little raiding into more civilized lands. The latter objective has become harder, however, as the neighbors have changed. Instead of the scattered and relatively defenceless remnnants of the land of Oret, the borders of Dalaghendor to the north and New Tellare to the south have the lizardmen penned in. Strongly held, these lands discourage small-scale attacks with firm responses, and the lizardmen have learned not to regard them as a source of income.

Belamir and The Desolation

The magically assisted restoration of the elven homeland presses on apace during the years after Surya's crowning, with forests spreading across what was once ash and ruin. Proper restoration of the trees will take hundreds of years of course, but the groves are mapped out and the saplings planted, and growth accelerated in key places.

The reclaimed land (although not the trees) has finally expanded far enough northwest and southeast to join up with the untainted land north of Nhased and south of New Tellare, splitting the remaining Desolation in half. It has also reached and incorporated the ruined cities of Lomegor and Lantalaure, and the long and difficult process of rebuilding these has begun. Elverandil the Mastersmith, as the highest-born survivor of the city's original population, has been made Lord of Lantalaure, and the House of Swords is being rebuilt as his palace and citadel. Their position on the edge of the land of the Elves has suited Lomegor and Lanta for trade, and each is linked into the webwork of new roads along which the commercial heartbeat of Alair is beating.

While nowhere near as hostile to visitors as before the Dragon, the Elves are still pretty careful about who crosses their borders, especially into the inner forest itself. The Shadowguard patrol beneath the trees, ever alert for creatures of the Curst finding their way in, and politely but firmly turning back any orc, lizardman or Kin who tries to enter Belamir.

The Elf Hammer remains buried fifty feet below the ground on the borders of Belamir. In all the time that has elapsed since its' initial attack, no-one has managed to make any form of impression on it at all. Skufruss has sent several messages to Belamir, offering to remove the Hammer from their lands, but the Elves have refused him every time.

Belegond

No longer a part of the Elf Realm, Belegond the Freeport flourishes. Open to all, the primary users are New Tellare, Stryre, Belamir, and Dalaghendor, with some trade from the Empire passing through as well. Ships range out from the once-ruined quays, plying between the lands of known Alair, and more distant countries not mentioned in these chronicles. The trade, the tolls that are exacted, and the business that is done, makes Belegond rich, and the city that begins to arise from the ruins reflects this.

Stryre

Vardar Peacock may be a vain popinjay, but he is no fool when it comes to expanding his domain. With the reduction in the corruption of the Desolation, the lands north of Stryre begin to be habitable again, and the kingdom is expanded to fill that space. To the west, the northern border of Stryre is staked out as far as Belegond, allowing Stryre direct access to the freeport.

To the south, Stryre is once again plagued by Red Dust raiders, more daring and aggressive than they have been for over a hundred years. They appear more organized, and rumours persist of a Jerfaya-khan, a Khan of All the Khans, despite the patent implausibility of such a thing.

Nhased

The Church of The One remains in iron control of Nhased, which propers in its' isolationist way. Unlike its' two neighbors, Nhased does not expand as the Desolation shrinks. The whole nation appears poised, almost prepared, as if waiting for something.

Kîshshul

The location of the vanished Orc nation becomes apparent, as the ancient fortress of Kîshshul comes back to life after two hundred years' abandonment. Unlike most of the others Kîshshul had never been sacked, as the orcs fled before Varkar arrived, and was in rather better condition than Gadûhvrás and Shânauk. The survivors of the Orcish civil war are nowhere near numerous enough to fill the hold, but set to work with a will rebuilding and repopulating. They claim the lands around their citadel as well, and name their new country Kîshshul after the city at the heart of it.

The other nations in the north-east brace themselves, fearing a return of the raiding parties and attacks that were the way of life for the orcs of the Erean Mountains before the Dragon came. To their surprise and disbelief, the expected attacks do not come. Instead, clearly at the cost of enormous mental effort, small parties of orcs begin to come out of the mountains laden with goods instead of going back laden with plunder, and offer to open trade with their neighbors.

This is greeted with enormous caution to begin with, as everyone is convinced that it is a trick, but despite a few unfortunate mishaps, commerce does begin, and settles into place as the orcs get the hang of fair exchange instead of robbery.

While there are few crafted items of orc make anyone would care to purchase, the new masters of Kîshshul are not without goods to offer. The stone of the northern Erean Mountains was once a famous export of Trialt, produced at constant hazard of orc disruption. In all that time the orcs had never made the mental leap from interference to competition; now, they are mining the fine building stone themselves and trading it for the things they cannot make themselves. There are plenty of customers. Tarlanor, New Tellare and Dalaghendor are all rebuilding major cities and countless small towns. Much of the work on these is now being done with Orc-mined stone, by dwarf masons as like as not, a truly cosmopolitain way to build a city. Other products of the earth are equally valued. Some minerals and ores are only found within Kîshshul's borders, and the initial wariness of the dwarves of Kobur fades as they realize what the benefits may include. They begin to do business, and go so far as to trade dwarfmade mining tools and some of their lore.

This proves a wise decision, as in the spring of 1606 the orcs strike mithril deep under Kîshshul. Although treasuring the wonderful metal, the orcs are well aware that they lack the smithcraft to work it, and also that the dwarves will trade enormous quantities of gold for it. It is offered for sale to Kobur, and this really cements the commercial relationship, as the dwarves will gladly buy all the orcs can produce, paid from the plentiful gold seams of Kobur. 

The ancient Trialtan border fortress Leotha, originally built as a defence against the orcs, is taken over and rebuilt by the orcs. Placed in the river valley where the Vileflow passes through the Tainted Forest, it is a natural place for a market town, equally accessible to the orcs, Kordasa, Enning, New Tellare and the Empire. The emerging road network links to it, and it becomes a bustling multicultural community.

In one respect, however, all the orcs' new trading partners remain cautious. Politely but firmly, they decline to sell the orcs weaponry or military technology superior to that they already possess. Of course, with a sizable slice of their warriors having had training in the Imperial Absutii, there are elements of stable doors and horses here, but it will be many more years before the north of the world relaxes completely in the company of their new neighbors.

The orcs make advances of their own however. A beastmaster named Krûkmat rediscovers the ancient skill of taming the brutal wargs, the dire wolves of the Erean Mountains. In the days before the Dragon, the orcs had been accustomed to ride these monsters into battle, but the gentle hills of Orcland were not terrain wargs were happy in, and the skill had been lost through lack of use. Now, returned to the old home, the orcs have regained their traditional mounts. Comparatively few so far, they are given to warleaders and generals to begin with.

No King emerges to rule Kîshshul, again an atypical result, but rather a council led by the four surviving clan-lords; Thend the Seer, Shuumash Death Tongue, Ramphaag Thunderslayer, and Maurend the Uncanny. Maurend is the last of the leaders from the southern civil war that erupted after Garkaur's death, whereas the other three were the leaders of the breakway faction who originally conceived the idea of returning north. Contrary to most people's expectations, these do not fall out and fight each other, but work more or less in agreement, steering the Orc race on their new and surprising course.

Erlyid Empire

In late 1603 the Emperor Heredatus finally passes away. Most of the people who had attended Surya's wedding and coronation also attend or send representatives to Heredatus' funeral, and Crixus' coronation.

The new Emperor, once settled into place and through the complex ceremonial of an Imperial succession, starts his reign off in a very active fashion. He expands the northern borders to absorb what was Orc-Land, and westwards to take in the ruins of the Elven city of Dalbin. Apart from a few orc stragglers, there is no resistance to this, although a small battle takes place about fifty miles north of Dun Tolk.

The Empire, of course, has far less of a problem with the idea of trading with the new realm of Kîshshul, and Imperial merchant caravans begin to ply the new roads as soon as they're completed. Crixus makes it perfectly clear that any Orc refugees who had fled south from the civil war are free to travel north to Kîshshul if they wish to. He also confirms that the orcish citizens already in the Empire will remain valued members of the community.

Elsewhere, Imperial society begins a renaissance of spirit. The decadence that has permated the Empire for hundreds of years begins to lift, as the young, dynamic Emperor makes changes to better suit his nation to the modern world. Her southern neighbors begin to look rather nervously at the Empire, wondering if this revival will extend to attempts to regain the lost provinces to the west. Crixus states publicly again and again that he has no intention of such an action.

Roads

All across Alair, roads are being constructed or repaired. Trade is booming, as it has not since before the Dragon, and goods have to be able to travel for that to happen.

A webwork of roads link the major trading cities of Alair. Only a few extend into the lands of the Elves, however. The Elder Race do not permit travel through Belamir itself, but the reviving cities of Lomegor and Lantalaure are linked to the Empire, the Kordasa, and New Tellare.

The road from New Tellare to Belegond runs down the coast, around the Desolation; but for the brave trader, a quicker route to the seaport exists; a rough, dangerous route directly through the Desolation itself. It cuts the journey time by a third, but is a frightening path to tread, and is universally known as Damnation Alley.