Wasteward Keep

The town of Wasteward is young in comparison with most settlements of the Telkarion Empire, and yet ancient at the same time. It was established nearly a century ago, shortly after the founding of the Empire itself.

In the late years the Age of Warring Kingdoms, House Telkar found its northwestern borders threatened by aberrations originating in the Gena Wastes. Since the Gena Disaster, these monsters had been relatively free to roam the nearby borderlands, where no single local power could gather a sufficiently large force to hunt them down. In the peace following the wars, the Empire was able to dedicate an entire legion to this frontier, and hired the services of borderlander rangers and scouts to police the edge of the wastes.

A camp and supply depot was established at the ruins of a long-abandoned elven settlement, on the heights overlooking the Folyoba River. Upstream from these ruins, the river forks, each of its tributaries providing river transport to watchtowers overlooking the Gena Wastes. All that remained of the elven settlement were stumps of five ancient trees, hollowed-out and carved into what were once luxurious living quarters. These living quarters were repaired and a stone wall added around the exterior to form a fortified keep. The keep is occupied by a small garrison of the governor's personal troops, and provides living quarters for the governor and other important local officials of the Empire. At times, the keep will also house heroes who have been asked by the Empire to help police the Waste, seeking out and destroying powerful aberrations.

The keep quickly attracted a small town of servants, craftspeople, merchants to provide support for the keep and the legion guarding the nearby border. The settlement of Wasteward Town has grown on the banks of the river beneath the Keep, to a present population of approximately 2000, not including nearby farmsteads. There is one well-appointed, moderately-sized inn owned by the Sweetherb Halfling clan, two human-owned inns offering less elegant fare and lodging, a large marketplace, a generous number of craftsmen, and four small temples. Blacksmiths and other providers of military equipment do brisk trade with legionaries and passing adventurers, with enough profit that a small guildhall has been established by the local dwarven merchants.

The population of Wasteward Town is more varied than that of most other towns in the Empire. Only about 80% of the inhabitants are human, with a further 10% being Halflings, 5% dwarves, 5% elves and half-elves, and 5% goblinoid (largely to provide service for the Legion). A small number of gnomes and other uncommon races can also be found.

A Cohort of approximately 500 legionaries maintains a camp on the other side of the river. The legion currently assigned to guard this frontier is the XIIIth (Goblinoid) Legion, a well-respected Legion renowned for its recruitment of goblinoid legionaries from the far southern frontier. While some commanding officers are human, the majority of the troops are goblins and orcs, with smaller numbers of bugbears, hobgoblins, and ogres providing leadership.

While the Gena Wastes, with its aberrations born of wild elemental magics, is the main concern of the Empire, the Feywilds are also located only a few days' travel from the Keep. It is not uncommon to see adventurers provisioning at Wasteward in preparation for an excursion into the untamed fey lands. The Feywild near Wasteward was once an area inhabited by humans and their allies. During the Age of Warring Kingdoms, many of these settlements were abandoned and others disappeared without a trace. For the past century, the Empire has been pushing back the Feywilds and resettling the area, but there are still many leagues between the edge of the Empire and the ancient borders of human settlement.

At first view, the Feywilds are a vibrant, beautiful land. Towering forests stretch league after league, broken by meadows awash in flowers of every shade imaginable. Clear emerald and jade ponds dot the landscape. Skies of a perfect blue are broken only by flawless clouds – until they are broken by coal-dark thunderheads boiling with fierce winds and torrential rains. Only one who is trained in the magic arts will see that arcane power thrums through every tree and rock. In fact, nearly all that exists here is magical. The creatures that inhabit the Feywilds are charged with mystic energy. Some are blessed by it and some are warped. It is a land of both childhood dreams and childhood nightmares.

It is here that our adventurers begin their tale, as apprentices to mighty heroes who are currently residing in Wasteward Keep. This is a human town in a human Empire, and there will therefore be definite advantages to begin human. Fey and goblinoid races will find that they are often feared and distrusted, or even hated by the local human population. In fact, halflings are the only non-human race that are generally welcomed in all human settlements. There will also likely be advantages to being of character classes that cope well in wilderness settings, as this is a frontier town on the edge of dangerous, untamed forests. Within the nearby Gena Wastes, magic is often unpredictable, the result of wild elemental magics that permeate the very air. Arcane spellcasters may find this is sometimes a great advantage, and at other times a great hindrance.

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