Castles & Crusades After Winter's ...

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A
FTER
W
INTER
’
S
D
ARK
THE
WORLD
OF
AIHRDE
A
UTHOR
: S
TEPHEN
C
HENAULT
C
ONTRIBUTIONS
BY
: M
AC
G
OLDEN
AND
D
AVIS
C
HENAULT
E
DITOR
: N
ICOLE
L
EIGH
C
HENAULT
M
C
M
URRY
C
OVER
A
RT
: P
ETER
B
RADLEY
I
NTERIOR
A
RT
: J
ASON
W
ALTON
, M
ARK
A
LLEN
, B
RYAN
S
WARTZ
& P
ETER
B
RADLEY
L
AYOUT
AND
D
ESIGN
: P
ETER
B
RADLEY
P
RODUCED
BY
: T
ROLL
L
ORD
G
AMES
T
ABLE
OF
C
ONTENTS
Introduction
2
I Geogrpahy
3
P. O B
OX
251171
L
ITTLE
R
OCK
, AR 72225
EMAIL
:
TROLL
@
TROLLLORD
.
COM
WEB
:
WWW
.
TROLLLORD
.
COM
WWW
.
CASTLESANDCRUSADES
.
COM
Lands
4
Oceans
6
Cradle of th eWorld
7
II Cultural Landscape
11
People’s
11
Kingdoms
20
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© 2007 Troll Lord Games. All Rights Reserved. Castles & Crusades ® is a Registered Trademark of Troll
Lord Games. All Rights Reserved. C&C, Castle Keeper, SEIGE engine, Troll Lord Games, and the Castles
& Crusades, SEIGE engine, and Troll Lord Games logos are Trademark of Troll Lord Games. All Rights
Reserved.
111 Cosmological Landscape
31
The Heavenly Bodies 34
Gods Of Aihrde
36
IV History of Aihrde
46
Index
53
ISBN 1-931275-46-7
Printed in the United States of America
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I
NTRODUCTION
The world of Aihrde spins upon an earth–like axis of ancient
civilizations where good and evil have struggled for countless
years. It is a world that bares the markings of its past; where
ancient evils slumber, stained with the power of eldritch wizardry;
where gods dwell in bejeweled halls of wonderment, worshiped by
men and women of all creeds; where dragons live in great dens of
heaped treasure; where the new stands upon the ruins of the old
in beds of ancient glory. Here, kingdoms have risen and fallen,
ground to dust by war, famine, plague or time. Aihrde is a world
reborn, and in the
After Winter Dark
heroes tread in iron shod
boots and wizards lean on crooked staffs to plunder the buried
wealth and power of the ages. Here, the eternal struggle goes on,
age after age, for Aihrde is a world of adventure, of undaunted
heroes, untainted by the decadent philosophies of those meek who
suffer in the shadows of lesser men. For here the stone columns of
history are wiped clean, awaiting the bold to carve their mark and
gain entry to the halls of immortality.
foundations for an epic world are solidly built into the cosmology
and history of the world, but new players enter a world reborn
after a millennia of the Winter Dark. The kingdoms are young, the
people newly liberated from slavery and despotism and the world
is ripe for development.
Written with the Castle Keeper and player in mind
After Winter’s
Dark
is presented here in two books. Geography, Culture, Cosmology
and History. Geography is an overview of the world, with brief
notations made on all of Aihrde’s continents and oceans as well as
climate, the Wall of Worlds and the Four Corners. Geography also
includes more detailed information on the “Cradle of the World.”
This region is highlighted on the map and consists of the countries
and peoples around the Inner Sea where the focus of the setting,
adventures and other material for Aihrde are generally located. In
the Culture an overview of the peoples, languages and calendars
is given with details supplied on those nations and peoples in the
Cradle of the World. In Cosmology, religion and mythology are
explored in some detail, the unfolding tapestry that is the struggle
of good and evil, law and chaos is explained as are the relations of
the planes and other cosmological bodies. The Histories supply the
reader a brief over view of the days of Aihrde, from creation to the
present, including the birth of the first races to the victories of the
Winter Dark and the fall of the Great Shroud.
After Winter Dark
is designed as a primer for the world of Aihrde.
Within its pages lies a multitude of information from the mundane
to the fantastic, from the mythologies of the people of Aihrde to
the long history of the world. Aihrde is unique amongst settings
in that it is specifically designed to allow participants to build
and shape the world to fit their style and mode of play. The
2 C
ASTLES
& C
RUSADES
I G
EOGRAPHY
O
F
THE
F
IRMAMENT
A
IRHDE
:
Aihrde was created by the All Father in the deeps of the
Void and made to rest upon the firmament of the Maelstrom. In
its beginning it was flat and sat upon the back of Inzae, the dragon
goddess of the Maelstrom. A great fence, the Wall of Worlds, was
made to surround the world, and it rested upon the far edges
of creation. Here the waters of the oceans collided with great
tumult upon the fog of the Wall. It was built to protect the world
from the emptiness and the denizens of the Void. Too, it bound
the creatures of Aihrde to the world. During the Winter Dark,
Unklar bent the world and shaped it into a sphere, binding it at
the Four Corners. This served to imprison Inzae in what became
the Inner World. He reshaped the Wall of Worlds and made it into
the Shroud of Darkness.
It cannot be seen from Aihrde with the naked eye, except on
moonless nights, when it appears as a distant haze of milky lights
in the sky.
S
HROUD
OF
D
ARKNESS
:
With his great might Unklar devoured the
fog of the Wall of Worlds and blew it forth again as a breath of chill
air. Great clouds settled far and wide across Aihrde, blanketing all
in a world of Winter and Dark. The legends of those days tell of a
great fog rising in the heavens, of the dampening of the light of the
sun. The fog, they called the Shroud of Darkness or the Cold Mist,
for it brought a terrible cold. Sheets of snow and sleet blanketed
the northern lands in ice, and much of the south as well. The
Shroud hung over Aihrde for 800 years, and in time the warmth
of the sun and the pure, unfiltered light of day became legends to
the people and they spoke of these things as if faerie tales.
T
HE
F
OUR
C
ORNERS
:
When Unklar rose to power, the world was
flat. He reshaped it. Here Unklar bound the four corners of Aihrde
together. Using magic and force he drove a giant spike shaped of
bronze metal into each of the corners and fused the world into a
rough sphere and made it round. But the Four Corners showed the
strain of his labors and keeping it required his constant attention.
He placed Yas–d’Kramn, an Aenochian magician and engineer, the
greatest of his age, upon the Four Corners to keep it secure. He
gave him an army of slaves. These slaves work tirelessly to keep the
bronze spike in place and the world held together. Unklar gave him
power as well and taught him the Empty Riddle, prophesying that
when one came with the answer to the Riddle, only then would the
spike break and the world return to its origins and natural shape.
In the latter years of the Winter Dark Wars the Shroud began to
wane, even as Unklar’s power faded and he struggled to keep his
throne. In the end Wenafar the Queen of Fey drove the Shroud
from the skies and it fell to Aihrde as so much mist and dew.
T
HE
C
LIMATE
:
Airhde is a very wet and warm world. Precipitation is
heavy in most regions through the early spring and late fall. Warm
springs and summers keep a constant flow of melt water from the
highlands which add to the overall prosperity of agriculture. The
thousand years, called the Long Centuries or Long Years, of the
Winter Dark left tremendous reservoirs of glacial waters throughout
the world. The sudden collapse of the Shroud allowed these to melt
off quickly. Regional climate varies. There are five types of climate
in Aihrde: tropical, dry, temperate, cold and polar.
The Four Corners lie in the very center of the Dulzdine Ocean
upon a huge island of bronze. The waters around the island are
ferocious, deep and have never been passed by ship or beast. The
air around the island has a massive updraft that draws even the
strongest of dragons up into the air less reaches of the atmosphere.
Magic does not work around the island, failing utterly. A host of
dark skinned, misshapen people dwell here, slaves to the engineer
that keeps the Corners. The island is devoid of anything but one
large, square pyramid.
A
NNUAL
A
VERAGE
P
RECIPITATION
A
NNUAL
A
VERAGE
T
EMPERATURE
C
LIMATE
Tropical
65in.
65
°
60
°
Dry
.3in.
Temperate
35in.
56
°
Cold
21in.
12
°
T
HE
W
ALL
OF
W
ORLDS
:
The Wall of Worlds is not a plane in and
of itself, but rather a magic barrier that lies between the Void and
Creation. It was crafted of pure magic and its nature reflected this.
Its size was stupefying for the Void stretches from horizon to horizon
as far as the eye can see, rising from bottomless depths and reaching
limitless heights. It stood as a giant wall of fog and mist.
Polar
16in.
–2
°
Now the Wall of Worlds is little more than a shell of what the All
Father created. Unklar, the horned god, devoured the Wall and
cast it back out as the Shroud of Darkness, the very ensorcellments
he used to blanket the world and create the Winter’s Dark. The
Wall was not, however, completely destroyed and enough of it
remains that breaching it is still a horrible and difficult task. At
times it is calm, with the white mists quiet and serene. At other
times, the Wall rages in mindless anger, hurling great bolts of
electrical energy through its swirling clouds.
A
FTER
W
INTER
’
S
D
ARK
3
Crenthul Mountains, though they did settle on the far coasts
around Ikem’s Horn. Their decline saw the rise of man and the
Aenochians extended their power into the Marl where they
were halted by the iron fortresses of the orcs. During the Winter
Dark the orcs of the Marl rose to power over most of the eastern
countries. Since the fall of Unklar their power has waned and
other regional powers are on the rise.
O
F
THE
L
AND
& W
ATER
T
HE
C
ONTINENTS
A
ATUCK
C
LIMATE
:
The climate varies from dry to polar.
L
ANDMASS
:
Aatuck lies in the northern hemisphere. This is a land
of great contrasts. In the south are deep conifer forests, where the
ancient Ean Trees dwell – huge poled monstrous trees that tower
hundreds of feet into the air. These forests stand upon deep firths
and inlets, countless bays and estuaries. Further north, beyond
the forests, are frozen tundra, stark rocky hills, deep valleys and
gulches. There are two great mountain chains, both of which
sport active volcanoes. The slumbering magma beneath the lands
of Aatuck give rise to hundreds of hot springs and lakes making
much of the land hospitable, despite its northern latitude.
E
THRUM
C
LIMATE
:
Its climate varies from tropical to cold, though it is
largely temperate.
L
ANDMASS
:
The lands of Ethrum are those that lie west of the
Inner Sea and include the Gorthurag mountains where lies First
Home, the huge Coral Bay, the sprawling forests of the hinterland
and much of the Inner Sea region.
P
OPULACE
:
The dwarves were the first to settle these lands and are
still found there in many parts. Of the tribes of men, most of them
are Ethrum though some Aenochian immigrants live around the
Inner Sea. Large tribes of the Engale have settled throughout the
lands. Giants dwell here in abundance.
P
OPULACE
:
Some dwarven settlements created inroads for almost
all the peoples of the world. Of the humans, the Aathuk and
Engale dwell here. There are scattered tribes of orcs, some few
elves and other peoples. But largely the land is inhabited by
monsters of all calibers.
M
YTHOLOGY
:
Ethrum is considered the cradle of life for here the
All Father dwelt upon the slopes of Mount Thangondrim and
fashioned the world. From those heights he saw the first fires of
the distant mountains, created the Maidens and pounded the
molds of the dwarves.
M
YTHOLOGY
:
It is a land rife with adventure.
H
ISTORY
:
Home of one of the most ancient human civilizations in
Aihrde. Here the Aathuck (
see below page 13
) settled and plied the
skies with their flying ships, studied the stars and built wondrous
cities. They eventually declined and many of them died out. After
the decline of the Aathuk many people came and went from
Aatuck: orcs, elves, other humans and more besides. During the
Winter Dark the land was largely ignored and its people retreated
into the hinterlands. It is largely a wilderness area now.
H
ISTORY
:
This land is truly a part of the greater landmass of
Aenochia, and many do not separate the two. But the dwarves
first came to power in these lands and their first and greatest
kingdoms were here. It has played host to the world’s greatest wars
and suffered like no other from the Winter Dark. Of all the lands
of Aihrde, Ethrum is ripe with ruins, dungeons, old cities and the
like for the dwarves and goblins had their beginnings here and left
much in ruin or abandoned it after the many wars.
A
ENOCHIA
C
LIMATE
:
The continent of Aenochia is huge and its climate
varies from tropical to cold, though it is largely temperate.
I
ANUK
C
LIMATE
:
The climate varies from temperate to cool.
L
ANDMASS
:
Aenochia lies largely in the northern hemisphere and
is the greatest landmass in Aihrde. It extends from the Inner Sea
in the west to Ikem’s Horn in the east, from the frozen tundras of
the north lands to the jungles of Zuala in the south. It comprises
massive mountain chains, the great Channel Lakes, several large
inner seas, the temperate forests of the central belt and great
southern deserts.
L
ANDMASS
:
Southern Ianuk is temperate and seasonal, whereas
the northern reaches of the land are gripped in long, harsh
winters. Many indigenous hardwoods grow along the southern
slopes of the mountains with conifers further north. Ianuk has a
great chain of mountains for its spine, and as with much of the
mountains in the north, there are many volcanoes here.
P
OPULACE
:
Hosts of people of all races make their home in
Aenochia including three of the tribes of men: the Aenochians,
Zuala and Madrui. The orcs dwell in the eastern wilderness as do
many of the elves.
P
OPULACE
:
There are some few dwarves, halflings, gnomes and the
like. The land is largely dominated by the Nia peoples and elves.
Legendary creatures stalk the highlands and forest paths, ever
preying upon the Nia who dwell here. There are many orcs, ogres
and giants in Ianuk as well as hob–goblins and gnolls.
M
YTHOLOGY
:
It is here that the gods first took refuge, fleeing
from the fires of the All Father’s forge that lay further west. The
dragons first came from the White Mountains north of those lakes
and still infest those high peaks in tremendous numbers.
M
YTHOLOGY
:
The land is filled with great and ancient magics for it
is these cold lands that the first humans made war upon the gods
for the peoples that settled these lands were minions of Mordius.
H
ISTORY
:
Aenochia has seen peoples rise and fall and the ruins of
ancient civilizations are found throughout the whole continent.
The dwarves made little penetration of the lands beyond the
H
ISTORY
:
The dwarves almost never ventured this far north and
across the seas, though some few colonies of Alanti were founded
4 C
ASTLES
& C
RUSADES
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