Blasingmark
Population
Approximately 15,000 people reside in the scattered hamlets and villages of Blasingmark, the vast majority of them are humans. Only 3,500 of them are gathered together in and around the march fortress at Blasingdell. The balance of the population live in small hamlets and villages clustered along the main arteries of the march.
At A Glance
Blasingmark is a land of ancient forests nestled in jagged, rocky hills of the Vaughn Dnar Pass, rising from the more level countryside of Wye and Borca in the east towards the "Mountains of Misery" in the west. Each of the seasons grips this land for the full strength of its ability, but Spring and Autumn tend to come early are both are slow to relinquish their grip.
Many of the settlements of Blasingmark, including Briggdarrow and Viktal, are located on the shores of Lake Kronov. The large, clear mountain lake is either fed by or feeds all the white water rivers that rush through the forests of the Cidrean Weald, including the Vaughn Dnar (which in turn feeds the Vascha), and the Blackmist river which flows south past Blasingdell and feeds the river Wye. While Blasingmark looks to most outsiders like one vast forest that features minor breakpoints marked by impassable gorges and rivers, the locals see their land as containing many different forests. North of the South Dnar and Lynn Kathryn rivers and reaching to the North Dnar border with Yordric is the Giftwood. The majority of the realms thorps and tiny hamlets can be found here. Between the South Dnar and the Lynn Kathryn rivers and Lake Kronov is the Tanglewood, one of the two areas in the land where cloudberries - used to make a valued wine - are grown.
West of the Wylo river (the Crying river), north of Lake Kronov and stretching to the barren slopes of Mount Lament lies the Goblinwood. Together with the dense, untouched forests on the north bank of the lake these forests make up the Wytchwood, and they are considered the frontier of humanity in the Duchy of Cirdan. The forests south of the South Dnar river have a dangerous reputation among the locals. From the headwaters of the Vaughn Dnar river to the broken, forest shrouded berm of the Faerie Highway, the forest is known as the Wormwood. It serves as the home of outlaws, goblins, and worse. South of Brigdarrow, between the Blackmist river and clustered along the foothills of Mount Bruja in the east lies a forest the locals call the Blackwood, though it also known by the itinerant Vistani travelers as the Brujamonte, which translates roughly as Sorceress' Wood. The Brujamonte is rumored to harbor no animals, and tolerate no intrusion by walking beasts.
Two main roads provide access for both locals and travelers to this remote border region. Along the eastern border lies the Prince's Road. This road, laid down in the time before the Kingdom of Impiltur, winds repeatedly across the South Dnar, utilizing ancient stone bridges, from the city of Wye in the south along the southern shore of Lake Kronov before joining up in Blasingdell with the Blackwalk which follows the course of the Blackmist river from Doingorod.
Most of the settlements in Blasingmark consist of scattered collections of tiny one and two family homes, the simplest of which consist of berm like dens built into the side of forested hillsides. In the larger settlements, the homes tend to be whitewashed, stone and wooden structures with steeply sloped thatched roofs. Virtually none of the structures have more than one story.
Scattered throughout the countryside, either on the edge of the pastures where the locals run their sheep during the day or deep within the most overgrown parts of the forest stand austere single or two story stone structures. Decaying and overgrown, these structures once served as keeps for the Tuitiarna, the Axelords, who once ruled this land in ancient times. The locals studiously avoid these buildings, to the point of pretending they don't even see those that stand near their sheep pastures. Near these structures can also be found standing stones, some as small as a child, others well over 15 feet in height.
Flora
Blasingmark is covered with thick, ancient forests that consist mostly of hardwoods (predominantly oak, beech, and hazelnut), punctuated with the occasional, towering evergreen (spruce or pine). They grown strong and healthy, and their crowns are thick and tangled overhead, preventing the sun from ever reaching the forest floor in the thickest parts of the forest. In this eternal gloom, a wide variety of mushrooms and mosses flourish.
Every so often, wide clearings break the gloom of the forest. In the spring, the clearings are explosions of color. Strangely, in some of these clearings spring and summer seem to last longer than in the forests around them. The locals believe these clearings are touched by the fay, and refuse to frequent them until they have been cleansed by the Church. Once this cleansing is accomplished, however, such clearings become popular places for herders to graze their sheep and goats.
Three noteworthy types of plants grown in the hills of Blasingmark: the cloudberries, fairy stools, and Wichtingourds (also called witching gourds). Cloudberries grow on low, prickly bushes found in small patches throughout Blasingmark. Difficult to cultivate, its only successfully farmed plantings thrive on the steep hillsides along the Blackmist river south of Blasingdell. Otherwise, the plants grown on the edges of small bogs in the southern woods and along the southern shores of Lake Kronov. The tiny hamlet of Linde, which controls the only concentrated cloudberry farms, is steadily gaining fame for cloudberry wine.
Fairy stools are small, red-speckled, tan mushrooms that grow quickly in circles, line or spiral patterns when exposed to arcane magic. The locals believe the mushrooms grow where they fay have danced or traveled, springing from the ground in order to give them places to rest.
Wichingourds are small gourds filled with seeds that mature in early fall. They grow throughout Blasingmark's forests, and the locals believe that they also appear where they fay have been. Common folk turn the wichtingourds to practical purposes. They dry them out and use them as rattles. They also believe that the rattles can offer protection from fay; if a gourd is broken open and its seeds scattered, say the legends, any fay who comes upon them must stop and count all the seeds.
Fauna
The forests of Blasingmark support the standard range of wildlife one expects to find in a region of this type. Game animals are plentiful, with deer and ermine being the most common. Lake Kronov teems with sturgeon and pike, and a fair percentage of the population of Briggdarrow, Blasingdell, and Viktal survive through fishing. Many other locals maintain small herds of sheep and goats, keeping them in pens close to their homes during the night where they can more easily defend them from predators.
Predators in Blasingmark include a variety of cats and snakes, as well as wolverines, wolves, and bears. More remarkably, it is also home to particularly twisted sub-breeds of normal predators. The locals call these animals alternatively "autumn beasts" and "goblin beasts". The native goblins seem adept at training them and using them as mounts or guard animals.
Government
- Heraldry
- A broken silver sword over a gray tower on a golden field.
- Government Style
- Military Governor
- Current Marchlord
- Hugo Verbask
- Other Notable Figures
- Earl Mikhail Kraznik, Earl Gerald Feddyg, Lady Karrin O'Connal, Lady Harleon Nesta
Religion
The Lords Assembled
- Center of Worship
- Chantry of St. Patrus - Anchorite Collum MacFyre
- Other
- Chapel of the Blessed Mother, Jakob Sprengler, assorted small local parishes
Local Religion
Local religion begins with their creation myth. They believe that the gods created the world one season at a time, starting with Spring, and populated each season with its own beings. The native calendar starts at the vernal equinox, as well, though it has since been replaced by the Kingdom Calendar.
Regardless of the version, the creation starts with Spring. Along with Spring, the gods created the Children of Spring - the fey. These immortal nature spirits neither knew nor experienced death, so to this day they have no respect for life or death. In the versions that state each season was the work of different gods, Spring is credited as the work of Daghda (goddess of fertility and the forest), Diancecht (god of healing), and Lugh (god of magic and secrets).
Summer and Summer's Children came next - mortal men and women, and natural animals. All versions agree that the gods felt giving the fey immortality was a mistake and therefore created Summer's Children with a limited life span. Since Summer's Children experience all facets of life and death, they develop an appreciation and understanding of the joys and the pains that make life what it is. The local people consider summer's children to be the only "trustworthy" type of spirit. The versions that credit seasons to individual gods say that Belenus (god of the sun) was the main architect of Summer and of men and women, while his consort Brigantia (goddess of nature, industry and agriculture) and her brother Manannan mac Lir (god of the water and aquatic creatures) created the animals and helped with defining how mortal beings moved through their life-spans.
Autumn and Autumn's Children followed. This season came about because some of the gods felt they could improve upon Summer but failed miserably in their effort; none could match the splendid creation that resulted when all the gods worked in consort. The creatures of autumn are all inferior and twisted reflections of Summer's Children - goblins, shapechangers, and other monstrous beings. In the "separate worlds" myth, Autumn and its children are the creation of Arawn (goddess of death) and Loht (god of discord and war) because they were jealous of Summer and felt they could create a superior world. Unfortunately, the fundamentally vile natures of both deities seeped into their creation, making it a place of death populated by unnatural, hate-filled creatures.
Last in the order of creation was Winter, as well as Winter's Children. Interestingly, all creation myths credit this creation to Math Mathonwy (goddess of dark magic and secrets), apart from the rest of the gods. Most commonly, it is believed that she initiated his creation as an expression of spite toward the other gods, because none of them consulted her during their efforts. Other interpretations suggest that Math Mathonwy was attempting to perfect Spring and Spring's Children, but that her own cold and evil nature tainted her creation beyond any ability to support life, or that she was creating the ultimate repository for the evil magic and secrets that she wanted to preserve. To this end, she had snow blanket Winter and created the unquiet elemental spirits of the world, and the terrifying hags - strange reflections of Spring's Children, eternal as well, but utterly devoid of true life. (An interesting note about the local people is that, unlike many other peoples of the world, they do not worry much about the undead; they tend to be of the opinion that if the undead are left alone, they won't trouble the living.)
In the "separate worlds" version of the local creation tale, Belenus visited all the various creations and decided that if the gods combined their worlds into a single place, it would be a more perfect creation, a place where Summer's Children in particular could flourish. All the gods agreed, and so the world was born. In both versions, the gods agree that in order to avoid the problems that arose with the Children of Spring on a cosmic scale, their world would eventually die. The old druid priestesses thus taught that subsequently all of history follows the course of a single "year", as seen from the vantage of the gods. The world will follow the course of that single year, and then it will end.
According to the local superstition, we currently live in the Autumn of creation. Untold eons ago, the fey reigned without challenge and kept mortals in fear with chaotic and unpredictable magic. Eventually, mighty heroes arose among the mortals and forced the fey into the wildest depths of the forest. As the fey retreated, magic became more orderly, and humans became increasingly more powerful and important in the world. With the retreat of the fey, the Summer of the World began, when men and the fey walked in harmony together and stood against the forces of darkness. Now, local superstition holds, the old alliances have broken down and the world has begun its long slide toward winter.
Local Lore and History
During the earliest chronicled times, the locals called themselves the Tepestani, and they lived in numerous clans, each ruled by a tuatiarna, or clan lord. The title literally means "axelord," after the ornate weapon a clan head wields, much as a king holds his scepter; yet unlike kings, a tuatiarna's power seldom extended farther than the reach of his weapon. The axelords were feuding constantly, with their clans gaining and losing power quicker than the seasons changed and accomplishing nothing of lasting consequence.
Under the axelords, the Tepestani lived in a rigid, strict society. The clans did not mix, and the sexes had specific roles and duties from which no deviation was tolerated. Among the common folk, men hunted, fished and tilled the fields, while women tended to home, hearth and children. The tuatiarna were all male and charged with making war: it was their place to protect the clan by defeating its enemies and expanding its power, drafting common men into armies during particularly troubling times. Their wives did not rule; instead, they convened with the gods, providing spiritual advice. These clerics were called cailleaigh, which translates into "wise women." This culture permitted no social mobility and held absolutely no doubt regarding what roles the sexes had. Sons and daughters were equally important to both the rulers and the peasants, because each had important duties to fill in the community. Yet the society would never allow a woman to rule, nor would it tolerate a male who claimed to communicate with the gods.
Unsurprisingly, a society so inflexible was also brittle and doomed eventually to crumble. What is remarkable about this region is the totality with which their ancient society seems to have been completely erased by the passage of time - all that remains are the murals and the structures inhabited by the axelords and their families. Modern-day Blasingmark has a far looser social structure, there are no social restrictions on who can serve on the Council of Elders that passes for leadership in most Tepestani settlements and towns.
Tepestani bards tell that the ancient order was brought low by the Seduction of the Fey. Trying to ruin humanity and reassert their dominance over the world, the fey crept back from the deepest, untamed wilds and secretly approached the cailleach of each clan. The fey promised each cailleach that they would teach her how to tap into the raw magical power of the Weave, manipulating it without the shepherding of the gods. With this vast power, they would be able to crush their family's foes and end the feuds forever. The Tepestani agree that all but a few of the cailleaigh refused the temptation, knowing no good could come of it. How many wise women accepted the offer differs in the telling, but in most versions it's three. Those women did learn the secrets of the magic of the Weave - but the power was too much. The cailleaigh could no more contain the power of the Weave than a child's dam built of pebbles and mud could hold back a flash flood. The power of the Weave was relentless, all-consuming.
The cailleaigh did indeed become mighty, but they also became hideous crones, their bodies warped by the merciless power of nature. The corrupted cailleaigh retreated to the forests. Today, the literal translation of "cailleaigh" has been abandoned for a new meaning: witch. It is also the word that the Tepestani use to describe the monstrous humanoids known as hags. When exactly this occurred is a hazy subject for most storytellers, and in the telling many conflate the Seduction of the Fey with the fall of the Kingdom of Caernarfon upon Lake Kronov and the sad tale of King Aelfdan, Queen Ashiel, and Taer Tristan. The cailleaigh that resisted the lure of the fey were said to have become the prey of the three that did not, and one by one they were seduced to dark power of eliminated. Regardless, the Tepestani believe that with the elimination of the cailleaigh, the fey managed to draw the world from Summer into Autumn, where it remains today. Also, the Tepestani also believe that the forests around them started to change at this point. New and hideous creatures emerged from the transformed forests: goblins, goblin beasts and worse beings - Children of Autumn, all. Initially, the hostility of these beings was focused on the clans whose cailleaigh had resisted the fey. Within weeks, those clans were exterminated and the Children of Autumn turned to attack the rest. It also left them disorganized and relatively powerless to resist the advance of Impilturan forces under House von Doin over two hundred years ago.
