| From Manual: The History of the Universe Recent History of the Lands of Farr |
From books in the game:
The Great Moon Priestesses of Padavis
Seeds of Despair Before the Mist came The History of Pentere - Kiger the Great
The History of Pentere - The Tragedy of King Karassmus
The History of Pentere - The Royal Regalia of Kiger the Great The Golden Tree of Pentere The Speech of Mourning Aroblin
The Great Moon Priestesses of Padavis
Grand Lady Granita Pessen (served 4,654-77, Star Elven Reckoning)
Cured the Great Contagion in the Year of the Plague (4,661 SER)
Negotiated First Peace with Goblin clan Crowspur and leader Garssh in 4,670.
Laid foundations for Moon Temple in 4,676 SER, completed posthumously.
Perished at the hands of Coblitt, lieutenant of Garssh in 4,677
Death instigated the First Goblin War.
Remains rest in the Padavis graveyard.
The Sul (4,677-85 SER)
Reign was marked by town expansion and goblinoid troubles.
Appointed in the Year of Strife, 4,677 - magically razed three goblin villages that year.
Blessed town with Spells of Growth in 4,678, resulting in Year of the Harvest (4,679 SER).
Year of the Hoard (4,681), brought Goblins to Wildevarr. Second Goblin War begins.
Organized militia and courted favor of the Bilton Throne to put down the Crowspurs in 4,682 - Slayed Tuurmid, Thirdson of Garssh to end Second Goblin War.
Incinerated by a young copper wyrm, Throselez the Contemptable, in the Western Hills in 4,685.
Theresa Enlai the Aged (4,685-4,742 SER)
The longest reigning Moon Priestess in Modern Times, and oldest (at forty-three) ever appointed.
Managed Second Peace Treaty with Crowspur clan.
Established mission in Hatak near Gleng'l Zur and named daughter Ilyana the Immaculate; mission was destroyed one year later by tribemen, and Ilyana was slain.
Purified Kotay River, bred the Moon Apple Tree, presided over the most births and weddings in Padavisian history.
Blessed Glass Sparrow Inn when built, Year of Banners (4,713 SER)
Died naturally on one-hundreth birthday.
Interred in Padavis Cemetery, Spring of 4,742
Nerin'ah Derenn Chey (4,744-50 SER)
Prescribed in 4,744, after two years of searching for Enlai's heir.
Goblin activity calm.
Plagued with scandal in 4,749 - accused of affair with married Adrad Yawdail, town smithy.
Disappears in Year of Crowns (as does Adrad Yawdail) in 4750 SER, and is never heard from again.
Lady Rhonda Kerenith (4,750-59 SER)
Poor in health and picked rashly, her reign was marked with trobuled times, recessions, and increased goblinoid activity.
Town expansion stirs up Goblin clans. Raids and kidnappings more frequent, starting in 4,750.
Fell ill to Hethrallin Fever in 4,757. Withered and near death's door. Lady Margaret Mondarin prescribed before death. Lady Margaret disdains the Order and successfully brings Lady Rhonda back to health. They share the station for two years.
Believed kidnapped in 4,759. Never seen again.
Current Priestess: Lady Margaret Mondarin (appointed 4,758 SER)
Seeds of Despair
The only fruit the Great Waste bears are the Seeds of Despair.
And although it was believed that the Seeds had delicious meat inside, travelers could never split one.
In the First Age, when the Great King Thorl Owmsbutt of Clan Pumice brought his people across the Waste to Bronsheim, they found many such Seeds.
Exhausted and hungered (cursed, the Waste always takes longer to cross then expected), they took rocks and stones and swords to the Seeds, but every blow only chipped the shell.
Delirious from the heat, the Curse controlling their minds, the dwarves refused to go on.
The haven of Bronsheim Hall was hopeless - a dream and nothing more.
King Owmsbutt saw his people stop. He climbed the Altmound at the foot of the Red Waste and spoke to them. He told them that the Waste would be crossed… but only by those with Hope.
Bah, said his people, Hope cannot fill one's stomach. It's a meal for fools.
The King answered them: No. It can beat any foe, solve any puzzle and feed any mouth.
They grumbled as dwarves do and challenged him: So break open these Seeds with this Hope. Feed this desperate company.
Over their scoffs, he replied: Let this silence your doubting tongues!
And King Owmsbutt raised his hammer. With a mighty wail he brought his hammer down upon the Seed with a streak.
The ground shook, the sky wailed, and a thunderclap was heard as far as the Overworld.
The Seed was split. Within, delicious fruit sat, and each dwarf took his fill.
They finished the journey to Bronsheim. The Waste claimed no dwarf, for the King was right: Despair can be broken.
The Line of King Owmsbutt carries hammers even today.
Before the Mist came
Before the Mist came, Darnok sprawled.
Men fished the sea for bass and shook many a hand in business.
Women tended to their families' meals and health, singing to their little ones at sundown.
Children played as children do and dreamed of the heroism and happiness that would come to their lives in the year ahead...
But the Mist came.
It rolled off the heavens and flowed with the currents of the Maldav Sea to the open windows of the homes of Darnok.
Breathed in while sleeping, no man, woman, or child could safeguard himself from this midnight viper.
It coated memories with its gray dust, slicked vows with its oily fog, and wrought hearts limp with cold indifference.
Mingled with blood and soul, it fouled all that it touched.
And the Mist stayed, swirling in hideous eddies.
It formed a shadow fortress that jelled into solid rock.
And soon after that, its gates swung wide for the wizard Roska.
He thundered through the land to take his seat in his awful fortress.
He brought his hate, his foul heart, and his legion of horrors.
All went from the black battlements to bleed the land and its people.
The History of Pentere - Kiger the Great
By the Court Scribe & Lord High Historian,
Kemus the Sensible
In ancient times, when most men would not dare go into the lawless wilds, Kiger the Great came to Farr.
Of common blood in his homeland, he vowed to make a noble line in this new world of opportunity.
In what is now Bilton, he settled, forging a homestead out of sheer force of will.
It was said he could spilt logs with the edge of his hand, order fish to jump into his nets, and command a grain of wheat to sprout in the ground.
Disenfranchised men from every corner of the Realm heard of his greatness.
They traveled thousands of leagues to meet him. His monstrous frame, his pure heart, and his sterling honor made men fall before him, swearing fealty until their dying day.
Kiger Hall was built, and he was named Kiger I, Kiger the Great.
His lands and power grew as rapidly as his reputation grew.
People rallied to his call, and before many winters, his homestead grew into an estate, fed by a community of loyal retainers and lords, his community quickly became a town, his town quickly became a city, and his city quickly became the center of the continent.
From his strength, lawlessness became community; from his wisdom, tribes of men became joined in a brotherhood; from his loins, a line of great kings sprung.
The History of Pentere - The Tragedy of King Karassmus
By the Court Scribe Lord High Historian,
Kemus the Sensible
It is said that all great men have one tragic flaw.
If this is true, with all of Karassmus's flaws, one should say that he was not a great man.
Yet, if you will allow me leave to step out of my objective role for a moment, I liked him.
He had many misgivings: he was vain and paranoid, he blamed his own mistakes upon his Court, he generally disliked his subjects, his inaction in dealing with the Ogre population led to his downfall.
Yet, above that, he loved his family; his queen, Arelja, and his daughter, Brythe, were the center of his life.
In the years of the Border Wars, Karassmus made some very unpopular decisions.
The ogres in the Borderlands grew to incredible numbers.
They were too arrogant and too brutish to organize themselves effectively, but had they done so, you might be reading an ogre historian's writing right now.
At any rate, the King did nothing to stop them.
The Guard stayed close to home, more for Karassmus's paranoia of a revolt than any other reason.
Meanwhile, traveling merchants were attacked and slain, border farms were burnt, and border villages were sacked.
The people were afraid.
Despite his accusations against his Court, the people knew it was Karassmus who was failing.
They grew hateful. And then the darker times occurred...
The first assassination attempt came quickly after the first ogre skirmishes.
Then another. And another. Ten in all, each failed the preceding by a slimmer margin.
Fearing for his wife's and daughter's safety, Karassmus arranged to have them taken to their country estate in the utmost secrecy.
It was to be the most important, and most destructive, decision of his reign.
Their carriage was ambushed. A large ogre party had slipped by the Border Guard. Outnumbered three-to-one, the King's Guard was slaughtered, Queen Arelja was massacred, and the Babe, Brythe, Heir to the Throne, was slain.
In one quick attack, Pentere's future disappeared.
The King's Captain of the Guard barely made it to the castle with news of the tragedy.
With his dying breath, he informed the King of the sad news.
I still remember the King's eyes then. He didn't move, he didn't blink, he did nothing. He sat there unwavering. The moment his first tear dropped onto his regalia, he collapsed entirely, sobbing like a child.
His sorrow quickly escalated into vengeance. The Royal Guard took mount to rid the countryside of every ogre, whatever the cost.
They near succeeded, razing acre upon acre, laying waste to forests, leaving the bloody carcasses and the stench of rotting ogre in their wake. Karassmus had won the war, but he had lost the most important battle.
He soon contracted moody melancholy, a disease that preys upon the weary-souled.
The Royal casks of wine could not be cracked open fast enough to calm his depression.
Stumbling around the castle, screaming laments at the top of his lungs, Karassmus was a pitiful sight.
His death was an afterthought.
He was such a wreck of a man in those final days, the Council of Elders was amazed that he didn't perish sooner.
Moody melancholy is quite quick and quite lethal.
Sadly, there are many who believe that he fell to his death of his own accord.
There are others that truly believe he slipped. I am not sure.
Whatever the case, one thing is for certain: Karassmus did not die from the fall.
He died of a broken heart.
The History of Pentere - The Royal Regalia of Kiger the Great
By the Court Scribe Lord High Historian,
Kemus the Sensible
The Royal Regalia remains one of the most strange and compelling artifacts in all of Farr's history.
It has a number of strange properties:
The Regalia is made up of three pieces: a Crown, an Orb, and a Scepter.
No person can hold all three of the pieces at once unless he or she is ruling sovereign of Pentere.
If no heir is alive, and the current Sovereign has not decreed one, the Council of Elders may elect one to the position.
The Regalia will sit with the latest Sovereign, even after death, until the next King is properly placed upon the throne.
The Regalia allows the Sovereign to ordain eight of his closest retainers to become members of the Council of Elders.
The Council acts as the Sovereign's private confidant, advisor, and executor of the Sovereign's will.
The Regalia allows the Sovereign to know the whereabouts of each member of the Council of Elders at any time. This is to ensure that the Council will remain loyal to the Throne.
Created in the last years of Kiger's life when his heirs squabbled over the rights to the Throne, the Regalia's many properties allow it to positively, and unequivocally, determine who is the correct heir.
The Golden Tree of Pentere
When Kiger the Great came to the land, he did plant an empire.
He did also plant a tree...
The Golden Tree of Pentere at first was a mere sapling, a spout from the oldest tree of Kiger's home realm.
He placed it in the courtyard of his Great Hall. The wizard Kithenen the Red cast a powerful magic upon the sprout. The great spell linked the tree to the Land forevermore: as Pentere would grow, so would the tree, as Pentere would suffer, so would the tree.
And so, like the Land, the tree did flourish.
Sitting in the courtyard of his Great Hall, the Tree's roots spread as fast as Kiger's kingdom. Along every road, under every building, beneath every citizen's foot is a root of the Golden Tree. Platinum flowers would bloom during the land's good times. The high winds would sweep them to the kingdom's edges, pushing Pentere's boundaries to greater lengths. As each new heir in Kiger's line ascended to the throne, a new branch would bud. A good ruler would produce a sturdy limb, strong enough to last an eternity; a poor ruler's bough would quickly grow sickly, withering into uselessness at his death.
So, as long as the Golden Tree lives, so shall Pentere.
It is the land's essence. Its most magical citizen. And its greatest treasure.
Long live the Golden Tree, and long live Pentere.
The Speech of Mourning
given by
Lord High Chamberlain Riven Comsbone
the Seventeenth of Venn
Four Thousand, Seven Hundred, Forty-Six, Star Elven Reckoning
People of Pentere, friends of Bilton, esteemed kinsmen all, my news to you on this dark morning is sad: King Karassmus, Lionsblood, Champion of the Three Shields, fifteenth in the line of the great Kiger the First, has died.
The balconies in his royal chambers were slick last eve, and His Grace slipped to his death. I assure you all, he suffered not; the Lord High Examiner believed he died in an instant. Let me also assure you that his careless chamber attendants have been dealt with, swiftly and justly.
My simple mouth does not have words to express either his greatness, or our tremendous loss. I know that he would want you to know this: since the horrible murder of the Queen and the Heir, Karassmus often bent my ear to tell me that he felt that each and every one of you were his family. Your support of him in the days after his loss meant more to him than even the Gods could imagine. And just as you loved him, know that he did love you. You were his blood, his heart, his life.
So weep not, Pentere, for now Karassmus is in the Hereafter, sitting beside Queen Arelja, bouncing his daughter Brythe upon his knee. Your love for him has carried him to a happier place.
And in the world of mortals, Pentere, our work must continue. Since the murder of the True Heir Brythe, there is no blood claimant to ascend the High Seat. As is our law, the Council of Elders shall elect a new sovereign that will carry on in good Karassmus's name. Karassmus has told us who he would prefer, and we only have to make the announcement. When that time is right, I will be sure to inform you of our decision. It will occur soon, gentles all, and you have my word that the next ruler will be well up to the tasks expected of him.
So remember, friends, good Karassmus has not left us: he will live on in our hearts, our minds, and in our every breathing moment. As all here will agree, His Grace and honor was too great for the horrors of this world. May he now rest in peace.
Long live Pentere, and long live the memory of our beloved King.
Aroblin
Formed during the Seashift in the First Age, Aroblin enjoys many of the comforts of Wildevarr: Temperate climates in the forest and farmland contrasted with harsh and frigid climes in Aroblin's Northern Mounts (peaks as large as those making up the center of the continent).
However, a major geographic difference does underscore the major social difference between the two. Aroblin's Easternmost boundary is the Ocean of Aroblin, and during the Plane Migrate at the beginning of the First Age, the Dwarfather Durnl Ironhammer led his people to the Aroblin Mines and found there many generations' worth of riches to take from the land. Thus, Durnl's descendants still mine the minerals of the region and constitute the largest dwarven population in all of Farr.
To date, Aroblin has only fallen under outside influence once, when the Ogre Mage Jainil'li levied an army of ogres, goblins, brigands from the Amber Castle and seized the dwarven mines of Durnl's kin. Jainil'li is said to have found two of the three golden apples necessary to take his forces into the Underworld (to do what, once there, historians can only speculate). Slain by the great heroes in the Party of the Amorphous, Aroblin has not seen the likes of Jainil'li in its long history.
Since the Blight, few dwarves have been seen, little of the dwarf's mineral can be found in circulation, and fewer travelers journey to Aroblin. Could a power of greater strength than Jainil'li sit within the Amber Castle? And what of the mines? Why do their tunnels stay silent? Could a Leech rest there as well?
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