Map

Map

Monday, October 26, 2015

FAMOUS CITIES: Bouvet Keep


Bouvet Keep of  the Macron Mountain-the capitol of Bouvaldia, the giant keep is carved out of  as well as inside of a dormant volcano that legends claim to have been the home of the great Fire Giant Macron.  Supposedly the Fire Giant created the keep for Ysson Bouvet in exchange for his life after Ysson defeated the giant in combat.  The rest of the Evening Isles believes it more likely that the volcano dwarves that live in the region are a more probable sculptor of the gigantic keep.  The most impressive feature of Bovet Keep is the deep harbor that cuts into the mountain and guards the dukes navy.  Bouvet Keep is the most defensible city in all the Isle’s.  Never, has an invader felled the keeps mighty walls.  The city is reported to be 50,000 strong with another 5,000 people serving actively in the Bouvaldian Navy.

Famous Location:
The Water Wall-The wall ranges in height from 50 to 100 feet in a 40 mile radius some thousand feet from the northwestern coast of Bouvaldia.  The Wall blinds the vanguard position of the isles from seeing where they travel to while also threatening everywhere the Isles travel with a moving wave of destruction.  In the 1000 feet between the wall and the coast, monstrous waves fall off the wall battering the coast.  Occasionally, creatures known to be native to the elemental plane of water have passed through from the wall, creating unique threats for Bouvaldians to conquer.


Bouvet Keep, the living mountain, a nickname earned by the constant construction and expansion of the original keep.  In truth Bouvet Keep was a military base and port for one of the world’s most powerful navies. The stone walls of the Keep were one-hundred miles long and made of mountain. The volcano dwarves that survived the sundering of the isles turned from their sorrow by investing their engineering might towards the sculpting of the northernmost portion of the Macron mountains.  The Duke’s castle and the deep harbor the castle sits above make up the original Bouvet Keep.  The harbor, encircled by two mountains in an enlarged U, is never forgotten once seen, The two mountains are known as Day and Night by the foreign sailors for their unique abilities to enhance light due to their rich mineral deposits. During the day the mountains seem to absorb the light, providing warmth to the castle and preventing reflection and horizon blindness for sailors.  At night the minerals of the mountains glow a rich fluorescence, providing enough light to see and sail by, and so much beauty as to inspire the creation of the Bard’s College Northern Lights.

The Duke’s Castle has had many names through the years, being rebranded and rechristened through its variety of leaders..  In the lean times of recent years skeptical Bouvaldians refer to the castle as The Crows Nest, a reference to the lookout point on a ship but also a sarcastic criticism of a royal family without answers.  Perhaps not surprisingly local superstition connects crows to abnormally long lifespans, death , or as a supernatural creature serving as an otherworldly messenger.  The original castle sits atop the plateau of the mountain that makes up the original keep. 

The original structure beneath the castle has always been called the Roc’s Nest so named for the legendary monster that once laired upon this mountain.  The structure now served as the central headquarters for the Duke’s military and civilian apparatus.  The current commander of the Roc’s Nest is  Chief of Staff  Carvanatos Tramore. Commander Tramore is singularly recognized as the greatest administrator in all of Bouvaldia.  It was a designation that provided him appreciation from his superiors and derision from almost everyone else. The Chief of Staff ‘s greatest talent lay in recognizing talents and shortcomings in people and systems  then redirecting those two resources towards more efficient production.  It was this talent that allowed Carvanatos to accurately evaluate his own talents and shortcomings where he found his military acumen lacking.  Commander Tramore’s solution has been referred to by some of the upper crust of Bouvaldian military as the most selfless act of statesmanship in the history of Bouvaldia.  In a speech before the Counts and Warlords, Carvanatos Tramore nominated Ralikanthae the Sea Master Knight Protector of Bovet Keep, placing all of Commander Tramore’s considerable military power under the wizard’s control while he protects Bouvaldia from the Water Wall.  While some praised the decision, others were outraged and reacted by warning their young Duke against giving so much power to a wizard about whom so little was known.

The expansion of Bovet Keep has spread through many miles, claiming seven individual mounts. Each Mount, is rechristened and provided a Warlord leader. Each Warlord gains a seat on the Duke’s council where they sit alongside all of the Counts that rule Bouvaldian lands.  The Mounts and Warlords numbers are also indicative of proximity to the Duke and original castle.  

1.      Hollow Mount: The first expansion is the nearly bereft of all ore from the years of mining.  The mount was strictly a mine during the earliest years of Bouvet Keep, only being converted into a three tiered mountain structure after all the minerals were freed from the mount.  After hollow mount each additional mount converted well before being stripped of all their resource, their three tiered structures mimicking Hollow Mount.  Regardless of mountain, all tiers are identified as 1st Tier Near Earth, 2nd Tier Sky High, and 3rd Tier Cloudhome.  Accordingly citizens of Bouvet Keep would refer to each mount and Tier to identify location, “Hapius the Alchemist? He lives Near Earth Hollow Mount but works Sky High in the same.” Hollow Mount is ruled by the Elven Admiral of the Bouvaldian Navy, Melandrach Olithir.
2.      Praecipium Mountain, the most bountiful land in all of Bouvaldia, it provides half of all food for Bouvet Keep and its navy.  The entire mountain is designed to continually utilize everything produced upon it.  Those that are privileged enough to visit Praecipium all mention the swarm of movement and activity visible from great distances in the daylight, and the mountain lights at night.  Praecipium Mountain is ruled by Fumi Laumstaucher, famous not only as a Warlord but also a midwife, responsible for guiding many successful births in Bouvet Keep.  Other midwifes train under the Laumstaucher method.
3.      Downhill Mountain, normally just referred to as Downhill.  The shortest in stature of all the individual mountains, it was developed into animal husbandry, training, and processing.  The animals travel through life can be denoted by its location on the mountain.  Due to the animals Downhill is also the most odorous of all the Mounts and the term Downhill or Downhiller an insult to all but those who live there.  Downhill Mountain is ruled by Verasqueue Wolair a ranger of impressive skill, if few words.
4.      Mount Artis: Crafter’s mountain, the bottom near earth tier serves Bouvet Keep with its ship making and repairs.  The two higher tiers of Artis provide a shared environment for all the craftsmen of Bouvet Keep to work in concert and limit waste.  Since the sundering, great effort has gone towards finding ways to use and reuse or repurpose. Mount Artis is ruled by Javier Kipps, a Halfling knife fighter of such skill that locals claims no armor can stop his blade.
5.      Mount Carcerem: The people of Bouvet Keep incorrectly believe this to be the world’s largest prison. Despite this mistaken belief the prison is quite large and bulging near capacity with foreign prisoners. Near Earth Carcerem is reserved for the families of prisoners who were accepted into Bouvaldian military service to fulfill their criminal sentence.  Families that live in this lower region have to put up with constant surveillance and searches but are otherwise unharmed and are well provided for. Mount Carcerem operates under the leadership of the half-elf Epnitious Snoot, a man who identifies himself not as a warden but as a linguist. 
6.      Embassy Mountain: The Sundered dwarves finally claimed a home and seat at the Duke’s table.  The dwarves identified this mountain as being rich in resource and soon began converting it into a new home for the Volcano Dwarves. Since the conversion, Embassy Mountain has provided a steady new source of silver, iron, copper, and cold stones. Gargoyle Zarl is the Warlord of Embassy Mountain.

7.      Stranger Peaks: The newest mount and most controversial, Stranger Peaks is named for those individuals who purchased citizenship from the crown and in return are provided Bouvaldian lands and titles.  While newly purchased citizenship will not require military duty, Stranger Peaks future generations will have to take part in mandatory military service.  The Duke ordered the creation of  the mount  and within a couple years a Warlord.  The most recent Warlord of Stranger Peaks was assassinated and the post has yet to be refilled. The murder of the Warlord is believed to arise from the inner turmoil of newly forming politics in Stranger Peaks. 

Monday, July 13, 2015

The Duchy of Bouvaldia

The Duchy of Bouvaldia

The Duchy once referred to as Traitor’s Nest has fallen on hard times.  The great volcanic eruptions of The Dawning not only sundered the Evening Isles from its earthen moorings it also wrecked havoc upon the terrain of Bouvaldia whose lands were dotted with volcanoes. Those Bouvaldians alive at the time survived one catastrophe only to face another elemental challenge of water, with some locations lacking salt free water and those along the northwest coast facing a rising wall of water that the scholars of the time used to prove the isles were moving. During the first fifty years of the isles passage, the isles movement was not fast enough to create the size of water wall that blasts those coasts today. 
Problems such as flooding lead to long years of struggle for Bouvaldia. Starvation, disease, and constant exposure to new environments the isles moved Bouvaldia into greatly reduced the population .  These traumas caused a population shift towards larger cities and the complete militarization of the capitol city, now simply known as Bouvet Keep where only veterans and royalty are allowed to maintain private residences. Luckily for the citizens of Bouvaldia everyone is given the opportunity to complete ten years of military service and earn their citizenship rights.  Duke Calias has recently allowed a few foreigners to purchase their citizenships, a decision that has proven to be quite controversial.
Bouvaldia is known to have the finest Navy of all the Duchies.  Bouvaldia‘s entire economy historically is based upon shipping, trade, and nautical travel.  Within the last two hundred years the sundered dwarves have provided mining secrets and identification methods to Duke and aligned with the military of Bouvet Keep.  The secrets the dwarves provided saved the economy of Bouvaldia and led to a unique agreement between the ruling elves and sundered dwarves.  The agreement was based around that most valuable  of commodity; survival. The mountains and volcanoes keep entrance to this isle limited to those who can either fly or sail there for it is said to be impossible to survive a trek through the mountains of Bouvaldia. 

FAMOUS CITIES:
Bouvet Keep of  the Macron Mountain-the capitol of Bouvaldia, the giant keep is carved out of  as well as inside of a dormant volcano that legends claim to have been the home of the great Fire Giant Macron.  Supposedly the Fire Giant created the keep for Ysson Bouvet in exchange for his life after Ysson defeated the giant in combat.  The rest of the Evening Isles believes it more likely that the volcano dwarves that live in the region are a more probable sculptor of the gigantic keep.  The most impressive feature of Bovet Keep is the deep harbor that cuts into the mountain and guards the dukes navy.  Bouvet Keep is the most defensible city in all the Isle’s.  Never, has an invader felled the keeps mighty walls.  The city is reported to be 50,000 strong with another 5,000 people serving actively in the Bouvaldian Navy.

Famous Location:
The Water Wall

The Water Wall-The wall ranges in height from 50 to 100 feet in a 40 mile radius some thousand feet from the northwestern coast of Bouvaldia.  The Wall blinds the vanguard position of the isles from seeing where they travel to while also threatening everywhere the Isles travel with a moving wave of destruction.  In the 1000 feet between the wall and the coast, monstrous waves fall off the wall battering the coast.  Occasionally, creatures known to be native to the elemental plane of water have passed through from the wall, creating unique threats for Bouvaldians to conquer.

The Great Cat Mountains: This Mountain Range separates Bouvaldia from the duchy Emmerdin Pac Napiay.  Emmerdin was Bouvaldia’s greatest enemy and the Great Cat Mountains were what prevented their enemies from conquering them.  After the Sundering, the volcanic eruption made this range even more uninhabitable with passage being near impossible.  There are strange environmental conditions in the Great Cat Mountain range such as quicksand that boils over small pools of lava, poisonous gases, and beetle swarms that are immune to fire.  

FAMOUS CITIZENRY-
Duke Calias Bouvet

Duke Calias Bouvet-The current duke, a human,  rose to power five years ago after the passing of Duchess Sarshaun Bouvet, a young elven woman of only one hundred fifty years who passed away from a wasting disease. Duke Calias’ reign has been marred by controversies, the most recent of which is the Duke’s decision to allow the teachings of the book of virtues. The book of virtues has yet to be officially sanctioned by the church as holy word nor has the church spoken officially upon whether these dragons were truly the celestial messengers of god. Calias is the first Duke in the Evening Isles to recognize the book of virtues as a holy tome.  While the decision has been controversial to the masses within Bouvet Keep it is believed to have been done in exchange for the secrets of irrigation, which the new duke believed to be vital to the duchies survival.

Gargoyle Zarl: Volcano Dwarf Leader of the Sundered Dwarves.  The Sundered Dwarves are those volcano dwarves that survived the volcanic eruptions.  The sundered are made up of a variety of former clans and have spent the last hundred years as surface dwellers.
 
Avicrator Delease
Avicrator Delease: High Priest of Charity, this male half-elf’s temple is a barn where the acolytes provide free food to the poor and Avicrator provides healing, solace, and wisdom.

Melandrach Olithir: 250 year old Elf High Admiral of the Bouvaldian Navy, Master of Cannons

Ralikanthae: Sea Master Elementalist, Guardian of the Water Wall, Race unknown but legend is aquatic elf.

Inasia: Elf female Assassin, everybody knows who she is, everyone knows what she does, no one knows where she is, no one knows when she’ll strike.
Inasia

Zhuat: Fire Giant who lairs in the Macron Mountain Range

Foaughh: Stone Giant who lairs in the Macron Mountain Range

Taril: Volcano Giant Outlaw, Enemy of Bouvet Keep, fiercely believes in the legend of Macron and claims to be his descendant. Taril has vowed to conquer Bouvet Keep.