A Darker Age

• Roadscholars game of Iron age MRQII
• IC thread
• OC thread
• recruitment

Characters

• Daegmund 'The bastard hound of Andazyn' Iskallor's hunter turned knight. Bastard half brother to Rosine. Nephew to the king.
  • Godfrey his retainer
• Aelfric of Clan Mernii. Herbmaster and cousin to Rosine and Daegmund, played by Jarulf
  • Rhín is his young servant.
• Rosine of Lerenil King's niece, played by Mandacaru
• Osgar, a landed mercenary knight, played by Pseudoephedrine
• Krallion, a Shamanistic warrior played by ThaGuy
• Corbin the Crow played by Chalkline

House Rules

• Abilities and Spells not found in the books.
• Sunsigns affect skills in different ways.
• Armour

Links

• Lerenil

Maps

• A ‘poetic’ map of Harn . It’s the only one you need, and all named features will be ‘canon’ for this game. what they mean might be vastly different, however.

• The island keep on the lake

• land grant Map of the land grant This is adapted from a small portion of a map from the Columbia Games Harn module Chybisa, and the original is copyright. Please do not use for commercial purposes. This is altered and adapted for a personal game only.
• The legend is pretty self explanatory. As you can see, only a few hundred acres are currently 'clear'. Osgar will have plenty of timber for a time...

Setting

The small kingdom of Chybisa, once a crossroads for trade and major cavalry centre in the Remull holdings on Harn. Now, its an isolated collection of small manors centred round the formidible Burzyn keep [which looks remarkably like Harlech castle]. The current king has taken the peaceful times of the last six years as a good omen - and looks to reclaim some of the fallen manors to the north of the river. Meanwhile,the Baron of Lerenil pursues his aim of establishing Lerenil as a seagoing port. To do so requires a settled north bank to the river...but the greatwoods are populated by Setha And worse, wolf riders and forest-orcs. Rumors speak also of Trolls and Ogres, not seen since the Remuli drove them out.

A sense of Scale

This p-Harn is cinematic in scale. What would be the extreme in naturall features is the norm here. Caves are commonly as big as the largest caverns of our world, waterfalls are longer, trees larger, mountains higher. Animals can be much larger and are generally more intelligent. This applies to the superstitions, folklore and stories of our Earth as well. People do see ghosts, true love and innocence are powerful forces, there are little people and monsters and old laws that even gods must obey. Riddling games, bets and wagers, hosting laws, oaths all have power. So do rightful positions…true kings, godmother/father, clanhead, kings champion all bestow a modicum of Power.

Major holdings of Chybisa

• Burzyn. Seat of the King, Verlid II. His seneschal is his queen.
• Onden. Seat of the Kings older sister. Her Seneschal is the crown prince Balesir.
• Lerenil, Seat of the kings younger brother, Aernadh. Salagys Legith is Seneschal. His wife is Aelfrics Aunt.
• Geda, seat of Chaliss of Kanday.
• Aeraban, seat as is. Baron Afaelin.
• Andazyn, seat of the Kings sister in law [by his first wife]. Baron Vastair.This is Rosins family.
• Caermal seat as is, Baron Rythal.

Setting assumptions

• Magic - Common magic will become the province of specialist users. The average person, while not superstitious about magics use, will regard it as a dangerous pasttime.
• I'll run all the magic systems as is - with the main change being the general unavailability of common magic. Sorcery with have a particular mode or approach - there are alchemists, astrologers, enchanters, power word mages and necromancers rather than sorcerers. Crunch wise, this simply means that different 'grimoires' require a mundane as well as magic skill to enable. The mundane skill must always be greater than the magic one.
• Common magic becomes the province of the church and divine initiates, witches, warlocks and shaman/druid types. Most magic specialists will also pick up a little. It is 'low magic', but you must have the gift [or divine/spirit backing] for it.
• Technology - Due to Remuli and Dwarf influences, there is a wider range of arms and armour technology on Harn, but getting fitted plate [or fancy helmets] is, on the other hand, not going to be easy. Inheriting grandpas Equestrian war gear, being very good mates with a dwarf [remember, they have withdrawn from the lands of men largely] or being a noble from Melderyn [for thoe unfamiliar with a Harn map, the southeastern Island kingdom] would be about the only way to access that sort of gear.
• For cultures, assume picts on too many sacred herbs for the Setha, a general gaulish feel for the Anadhe, and more germanic for the Hodiri [who are mounted].
• The hodiri are pretty much Goth/Alans, if you are looking for an analogy.

Background

===The Cwll or Forest Folk

The Hodiri and their Traditions

To make it easier, heres a list of the spirit types a spirit worshipper would have been able to contact. These are all from the tradition of Horadir, which is followed by Hodiri, Chybisan, Solori and Setha shaman societies or traditions.

• Nature spirits. Important ones are hound and horse, hawk, fox and bull/cow.
• Spirits of place. Horadir, river spirits, wood spirits, grassland spirits.
• Ancestor spirits. Great riders, warriors, Shaman, Speakers.
• Elemental spirits. wind/air is favoured. fire and moon spirits are possible.

• The gods of the Hodiri are natural things...sun, moon, thunder, night. Their priests do not give them names or worship them seperately but speak to and of them as a whole. It is another Way of the Old Ways. In many ways, worship of the divine is seen as the 'other' shamanic tradition of the Hodiri.

Other gods

There are various other divine beings or concepts worshipped by smaller groups or individuals on this Harn. Goblinkind has the Crom Cruach, Baelor and the cauldron mother Annig. There are dark or old things that answer to a few who dare to call them...demons, entities of Chaos or dark Intent. Rethem and especially the city of Golotha are famous for their open worship of darker gods and forces.