Bazaar Balazar

rstites's Griffin Mountain Runequest IIish game.

History of the Elder Wilds

During the Age of Darkness, the creatures of Chaos marched here from the frozen North, and mighty glaciers followed close behind them. When the waters of the Elf Sea froze, the people of the Elder Wilds saw their impending destruction, and realized that the only way to survive was cooperation. Dwarf, elf, troll, dragonewt, and human fought side-by-side, and together they were able to defeat the Chaos and hold off the ice, but the survivors of the Chaos Wars were extremely few.

At the Dawning, the region was dotted with clumps of gaunt trees where lonely elves huddled in bitter defense. Human families skulked in the shadows, seeking stark fare to eke out their miserable lives. The humans at this time were children of Votank, and his descendants were called Votanki. Dwarves were buttressed in Greatway, but their interests were in Dragon Pass and they sent few patrols to this region. Only troll war parties stalked the land in strength, crossing the cold mountains from Dagori Inkarth to fulfill their pledge to fight and destroy Chaos everywhere.

During the First Age this was an elf stronghold. The Aldryami forests grew to cover what are now the Redlands, Garsting, Balazar, and spilled into Dragon Pass. At first, after the Dawning, elves were friendly with the nearby trolls and dwarves, and gave free access. But the races began quarreling about the time that the Second Council moved to Darastor. Northern Fire worshiper depredations dwindled the Redlands forests. Balazar was burned sometime in the era, too, though no one knows if by Gbaji the Chaos god, by Zorak Zoran, or by some Fired god.

When the Second Council unveiled a plan to construct a god, the trolls objected heavily and withdrew, followed shortly thereafter by the dragnewts. One of the first acts of the new golden god Nysalor was to curse the trolls and dragonewts. The dragonewts sloughed off his curse and sent it into the maws of a hungry dragon. But the trolls were overcome, and tragically began birthing trollkin instead of healthy offspring.

The struggle between the council and troll also turned into a fight between all the Elder Races, and opened many old sores closed since the Dawn. The elves were aided by the council, and the trolls were driven from the Elder Wilds. Elf and human warriors from the region are known to have served with the armies of the Broken Council in their wars against the west, though no details are known.

When Arkat defeated the Broken Council and their elf allies, terror and fear reigned. Tribes swarmed over the Wyrms High Pass and Giants Pass to burn woods and kill elves. Some settled; the fighting went into the next Age, after Arkat was long gone.

As with many kingdoms of the Elder Races, the peoples of Balazar fought and troubled each other mercilessly through the Second Age. The dissension between elf, dwarf, troll, and the dragonewts left the region badly weakened, and the Votanki humans were able to improve their own position by carefully playing the one side against another to their own advantage. This made them half-enemies of all the non-human races and established a distrust that plagued relationships ever afterwards.

When envoys from the Empire of the Wyrms Friends came to the lands and solicited support, the Votakni consented and so did the local elves. In 721, these two forces, with imperial dragonewt aid, suppressed the dwarves and drove the trolls back over their mountain, and then entered a period of relative peace. The trolls sacked the city and shallower tunnels of Greatway about this time, probably in the year 747, and also burned the forest covering the land now called Dangerground.

In 826, the rulers of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends altered their government to be a magical theocracy bent upon re-establishing the magical powers of the Gods Age in their land through their manipulation of unusual dragon magics. They called their new organization the Third Council. For some time this succeeded, but internal dissension began in 889, when the rulers ordered their subjects to worship them as gods. This brought protests, and the Aldryami of the Elder Wilds were the first to protest militarily. They seceded, and in 890 invaded with a strong raid which escaped unscathed.

The elves were hard pressed by their traditional foes, the trolls, for the elves now had no imperial aid. The humans gained the southern forests as their realm by promising the elves that they would kill trolls, and by telling trolls they would kill elves. This was the first clear-cut agreement that delivered any of the region to humans directly. The elves probably planned to retake it at their convenience, but that has not come about yet.

Dissatisfaction with the leaders of the Third Council grew, until at last the Votanki Peoples agreed to throw off their draconic yoke. Many other borderlands of the Third Council were also revolting. At first, the Votanki were overrun by a brilliant raid by Third Council mercenaries. The Votanki asked for outside help from the bands of mercenary adventurers, who thought they might seize themselves a kingdom while aiding the hunters. Many failed.

In 1082, the leader named Balazar came from the Northwest lands with his cult of Yelmalio and made many friends with the Votanki, both through his military skills and through his wisdom in dealing with the simple hunters. Within five years he was hailed as the leader of all those peoples, and two years later he was crowned as King Balazar. His lands became the Lands of Balazar, later called simply Balazar after him. Ever since then the clans have revered him as their greatest Hero and taken his name as their own.

After the Dragonkill, the sons of Balazar decided that they would best suit themselves and their people by remaining at home, and for nearly the whole of the next Age they did that. Dragon Pass was closed through fear and superstition, and Balazar entered a period of isolation amid primitive squalor.

The kingdom which Balazar had hoped to found was an empty dream in this unfertile land. The hunter chieftains who tended the children of Balazar raised each according to their own tribal interests, so the three sons were quarrelsome rather than cooperative.

In 1250, a trio of giants began ravaging travelers near the citadel of Dykene, and then the king was killed in combat with them. Then they tore the citadel down almost to the ground and scattered the survivors. It remained in ruin until 1580, when rebuilding started under the direction of the great-grandfather to Skilfil Heartpiercer, the current ruler.

Around the year 1300, wanderers and refugees increasingly moved into Balazar from the west. These were mostly hill tribes who worshiped Yelmalio or Orlanth, and who were retreating before the rapidly encroaching Lunar Empire. The tribes accepted some; many died, and more stayed or passed on as they wished. Many raised bands of hungry or greedy hunters who followed them into wars. Thus, many Balazarings went away to the lower lands for several years, led by foreigners.

Kings of the citadels made an occasional name for themselves, either through a wise and peaceful rule or a glorious and bloody one. The citadel of Elkoi was ruled between 1526-1564 by the vigorous Vizkinni clan, who were clever and lucky in war. The greatest of them was the last, King Partobas the Bold, who so often led successful raids against the Lunar provinces that all of his soldiers rode Lunar mounts.

In 1563, the patience of the Lunar Provincial Commander gave way and he ordered a punitive expedition against the raiders. In early spring of 1564, a small column of Lunar soldiers set off, rapidly made their way to Elkoi, and then took the citadel after three days of siege and a single magical assault. They stuck the head of Partobas atop the old gate and sold his relatives into slavery. The Lunars placed a loyal hunter named Bytokus (who had guided them thence) on the throne of the citadel and left loyal soldiers to help him. Glyptus, the descendant of Bykontus, still rules them.

People of Note

Blueface: There are many shamans in Balazar but there is only one Blueface. Balazarings say he is centuries old and rumored to be nearing godhood. Blueface is above tribal bickering and goes where he is needed. His face is tattooed with stylized runic whorls and swirls, and brilliant blue. Blueface is often accompanied by a huge saber-tooth tiger called Greyrunner Runefang.

Glyptus the Good: The king of Elkoi citadel is a weak-willed Lunar puppet allowed to rule as he wishes because the Lunar Provincial Government has no interest in directly administering the local barbarians.

Gonn Orta: This enormous giant was born in the God Time. In the First Age, he was a friend of the dwarves, but that friendship soured during the Second Age. He was instrumental in the Giant Revolt which smashed many dwarf strongholds and released the stone Jolanti. He settled atop the Rockwoods in 1042, founding his market and remaining there ever since.

Granny Keeneye: Since the time of Balazar there has been a Granny Keeneye. She is an immortal Chaos spirit that has possessed an unbroken string of bodies for centuries on end, each incarnation passing on the same spirit and intelligence to her successor. As she wears a body, it slowly warps and metamorphes into her true form - something entirely non-human. Eventually she takes a new host, passing the victim's spirit into her used monstrous body.

Skilfil Heartpiercer: The direct descendant of the Hero-king Balazar the Founder, the king of Dykene is a famous warrior king. He magically quested to the High Flyer to gain the flock of seven giant hawks that carry his warriors and protect his citadel.

Yalaring Monsterslayer: The king of Trilus was a mighty hunter in his youth. He and his followers overthrew the despotic Gadaringer dynasty that had ruled the citadel for two hundred years. He is liked by the citizens of Trilus. His wife, Queen Vania, is also a well respected warrior in her own right. They have three children.

Places of Interest

Balazar: A rugged and thinly populated expanse of land, Balazar lies between the Elf Sea on the north and the eastern Rockwood Mountains on the south. Its grassy plains and grassy hills support many herds of wild cattle and other such animals. Local barbarians and prides of smilodon hunt the herds.

During most of the Second Age, trolls occupied the land. Some old ballads refer to this, and the Balazarings claim that their Found himself conquered the trolls. Non-Yelmalions delight in pointing out that the trolls had already been exhausted by the elf wars.

The barbarians of the area are the Balazaring peoples. They trace their descent from the legendary Balazar, famous as a leader of a Yelmalio legion during the days before the Dragonkill War. He met, and wed, a local hunting nymph and they had three sons. Balazar marched to war with the True Golden Army while his sons were still boys. Like most members of that army, he died in the Dragonkill of 1120. Everyone knows that the sons quarreled afterwards for the inheritance and became dire enemies. Since that time there have been three tribal fortresses, housing the three kings of the tribes. The three forts are Dykene, Trilus, and Elkoi.

Bear Hills:

Bear Woods: The pine woods were once where the Great Tree of the Elder Wilds was rooted, until it was destroyed by the trolls in the second age. A large number of green elves live in these woods.

Bilini River:

Dog Hills:

Dwarf Hat:

Dwerrow River:

Dykene:

Elder Wilds:

Eleven Big Giant Mountains:

Elf Sea:

Elkoi:

Er'oring Wilds:

Gonn Orta's Pass:

Gork's Hills:

Greatway:

Griffin Mountain:

High Wood: The southern forest of eastern Balazar, this is a mixed forest of conifers and deciduous trees. It is the wildest of Balazar's woods and inhabited by brown elves.

Highbridge:

Look Hill:

Rockwood Mountains:

South Wood:

Trilus:

Troll Hills:

Valley of Hammers:

Deities

[Brother Dog]

Hearth Mother

[Vontaki]

[Balazar]

[Foundchild]

[Aldrya]

[Kyger Litor]

[Zorak Zoran]