Gráficas

Another two centuries would pass before the Traladarans would recover from this time of wars and misery. In the first half of 9^th century AC, dwarves fleeing from persecution in the Highlands region during the Year of Infamy (828 AC) came south;

most sailed toward Minrothad, where the local government granted them the opportunity to settle of Fortress Island, but some stayed in Traladara, settling among the human communities. Meanwhile, the main branch of the Marilenev dynasty died out when the last Duke of Marilenev, Radu, perished in AC 872; the ducal title was abolished, and Castle Marilenev was inherited by the cadet branch of the family, while the city also formally became an oligarchic republic⁴⁹.

On the eve of the 10^th century AC, Traladaran communities were again in a phase of great economic growth; coastal cities had again entered a time of economic rise, and even some inland settlement was growing again (like Vatresh⁵⁰, built over the ruins of Lugsid). The Thyatian Empire, more than ever interested in the vast wood

46 The canonic history of the Traladaran migration toward the Highlands has been expanded by J. Mishler (Thoughts on Darokin) and G. Agosta (A Karameikos Companion).

47 Lumm should survive as a small farming village after this event, because around AC 980 its inhabitants are kidnapped by the mad wizard Skarda according to X12: Skarda’s Mirror.

48 G. Agosta in his A Karameikos Companion has both Lugsid and Zadreth abandoned at the beginning of 10^th century AC. However, in the Hail the Heroes adventure the location of both towns is nearly unknown to the locals, and it is not unreasonable to think that local folklore had knowledge of their location if they were abandoned only a century ago or so. Thus I found more fitting if the abandonment or destruction of these two towns happened some centuries earlier, and the Holy Wars seemed to me the right time for this to happen.

49 See also note 41. Poor Wizard’s Almanac I says that AC 872 was the fifteenth year of Radu’s rule over Marilenev. The cadet branch is the one to which Valor Marilenev (husband of Magda) belongs.

50 The name of Vatresh was borrowed from F. Defferrari’sHistory of Traladara ; here, however, the name refers to a much older settlement on the same site.

deposits of Traladara, then decided to put its hands on them by conquering the region with the force of arms before the Traladaran states strengthened again or someone else began their conquest.

The campaign was launched in AC 900. The Thyatian armies, led by General Flavian Osteropolus⁵¹, quickly seized control of southern Traladara, conquering Marilenev and declaring the whole country a protectorate of the empire; Marilenev was renamed Specularum and became the seat of the Thyatian governor of the Province of Traladara. Additional campaigns were launched in the following months against the northern and western clans; the north was easily subdued, while the west held for a longer time against the Thyatians. Halag fell quickly to the forces of Legate Alharbius, but the Kingdom of Achelos required greater efforts to be conquered, which happened in AC 901 with the siege and destruction of Achelos town⁵². However, skirmishes in the Cruth Lowlands area would have continued in the following years, up to AC 903. Later governors had to quell the uprising of the northern clans in the following years, and consolidation of Thyatian rule over Traladara could be said complete only by AC 910⁵³.

Despite some damage wrought by the troop movements, for the first time in centuries the Thyatian conquest managed to tie together the main parts of the country. The presence of small Thyatian garrisons helped to make communication routes safer and Traladara’s inclusion within the trade network of the large empire made trading even more lucrative. A number of Thyatians migrated in the following decades to Traladara, mostly settling in the cities and in the southern communities. Lands far from main trade routes and towns were however largely neglected by the Thyatian provincial government, and mostly left to themselves;

this fate befell, for example, on the Cruth Lowlands area, depopulated by prolonged skirmishes between Thyatians and local rebel forces, and then invaded by orcs chased again from the Shires in AC 944.

Despite the beginning of the construction of Riverfork Keep in that same year, the northern half of this area was gradually abandoned by humans (who resettled to the south, in Luln or Halag) and fell under the control of the orcs within the next twenty years⁵⁴.

51 The name of Flavian is found in DDA1: Arena of Thyatis: “The chapel was built by Flavian, grandson of Eusebius and grandfather of Helenites, in AC 901. He built it to honor Vanya for his safety and success in the campaigns of conquest led by Emperor Gabrionus IV against the Traladarans (whose land is now known as the Grand Duchy of Karameikos). Its construction was financed by spoils of the war”. It’s quite likely that Flavian was already back to Thyatis in AC 901 (when an imperial governor may have been sent in his place), or that he sent home his accumulated money and gave instructions to build Villa Osteropolus’ chapel.

52 This story was originally created by P. Sullivan (Information on Western Karameikos), and then revised by G. Agosta (Lords of the Cruth Lowlands), whose version I’m following here. Alharbius’

surname betrays his Alasiyan ancestry (the character’s name was Muktar al Harb in Sullivan’s original writeup).

53 Some works – G. Agosta’s A Karameikos Companion and J.

Guerra’s Traladaran Clans – have many Traladaran clans and settlements destroyed by the Thyatians during the conquest.

However, according to GAZ1 Thyatis’ seizure of Traladara seems to be relatively bloodless, and resistance of the Traladarans to

conquest scarce as well. So I chose to have only Boldizsarovich (from the work of B. Yarbrough,Fort Boldizsarovic: Background Information), Demiatic (from G. Agosta’s Crywolf!), and Achelos (from G. Agosta’s Lords of the Cruth Lowlands) destroyed.

Likewise, most of the Traladaran clans marked in red on the accompanying map were exhiled (like the Gogunov, who went to Ierendi, and the Vidrina) or ousted (Vargos, Ivanovich), rather than killed (something which happened to the Boldizsarovich and, maybe, also to the Dragomir). Besides in the Cruth Lowlands and Halag, the Thyatians encountered some staunch opposition from the lords of south-western Traladara – the Ourosco clan and its allies, the Strolojca, the Dragomir, and the Sulescu. The latter’s defeat opened the road to the reduction of their lands; the Brezovo and the Moubotka, on the other hands, stayed neutral, and saw their possessions untouched or even enlarged.

54 See G. Agosta’s Lords of the Cruth Lowlands for a more detailed account of those events.

The adventure module included in AC2 – Combat Shield and Mini-Adventure, titled The Treasure of the Hideous One, introduced the story of Colonel Rosentos, sent about a century ago by Duke Stefan ‘the Hermit’ to explore and claim the wild lands west of Luln – that is the Blight Swamp. At that time, the module says, the duke’s land

“were very new”. The module features a map, which however is quite difficult to fit within that of GAZ1 – even if AC2 itself clarifies that the map is left very vague in order to be fitted within whichever setting a DM feels right. This allows a certain freedom of use regarding the map, and the possibility to tweak it to fit with GAZ1’s map.

As the module’s tale is set a hundred years ago, Colonel Rosentos’ mission was likely part of the events which followed the Thyatian conquest of Traladara. However, Luln didn’t exist at that time, being settled by refugees from the Black Eagle Barony after AC 971 - so you can substitute it with the adjacent village of Lenov. [You may even suppose that Luln was born as a ramshackle village of refugees on the verge of Lenov in AC 971, but later its population swelled so much that eventually it absorbed Lenov itself, which became one of its suburbs.]

After the occupation of the village of Lenov, Rosentos and his men were sent to explore

the Blight Swamp area, to chase some Traladaran rebels who had sought shelter there, or simply to take possession of the sparse fishermen villages found there.

Rosentos’ superior, Duke Stefan ‘the Hermit’, could well be Stefan I Karameikos, great-grandfather of present Grand Duke Stefan III Karameikos. Stefan I thus would be the father of Boris Karameikos, who is featured in the Karameikos family tree shown in Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure supplement. Stefan I, before becoming Duke of Machetos, would have been one of the first Thyatian governors of Traladara, as his lands “were very new” at that time. Perhaps he was the very first governor of Traladara after the conquest, or the second one if Flavian Osteropolus – general of the expeditionary force which completed the conquest – was also the land’s first governor. Within AC 910, Stefan I was likely called back to succeed to his family Duchy of Machetos, but he could also have abdicated the throne to his son Boris before dying if he finished his days as a hermit (like his nickname seems to suggest). So the expedition led by Rosentos should have taken place in the very first years of Stefan I’s rule over Traladara, which could be from AC 901 to AC 903.