Eyrolia; People of the Farm; People of the Trees
The wide, fecund Eyrolian valley is composed of two large land areas. The southern regions of the Duchy of Eyrolia are dominated by expansive farmlands dotted with widely spaced villages. Surrounding the domesticated landscapes on three sides is the deep and wild forest known as the Moonwood. The Duchy is beholden to the Throne of Puriol, and King Ulthebden, several hundred miles to the south of the Ivory Castle. The vast majority of the population of Eyrolian villages are human although significant numbers of halflings and dwarves also make these pastoral locations their home. The five towns: Shasne (Sheep town), Threbos (Steel town), Bellenin (Hemp town), Idendel (Wine town), and Myrtlin (Horse town). Each town is populated by approximately one thousand souls, each specializing in a different trade product, or series of trade products that are then shared with the others. The currency of the realm is gold Eyrolian talons, which are minted inside Ivory Castle. Hemp is a primary commodity and is used to make strong ropes and fine textiles and also to make paper. Eyrolia is an extremely literate culture and each of the five towns has a small printing industry that actively produces all manner of books and periodicals. Although scenes of overt violence are rare, weapons are regularly carried by the citizenry, and duels, fights, and even bloodshed are not unheard of. The people of Eyrolia can be standoffish and a bit aloof at first encounter, but warm and inviting upon personal contact. The older folks remember the orc wars, almost three decades ago, and for some, those memories have never faded. The military based in the Castle Ivory has a standing army of seven hundred and fifty infantry pikemen and two hundred fifty soldiers trained as heavy cavalry. Most of the soldiers are mandatory conscriptions as all young people of Eyrolia (boy or girl) must serve for two years. The professional soldiers are members of the Order of Opal Knights and serve the Duchess of Eyrolia, Lady Ealimeau. Lady Ealimeau also serves as high magister of the Tower of Sorcery, the tallest tower in Ivory Castle. The agents who serve as emissary to the north and council to the Ivory Court are the Druid order of the Wreathers, who are all half-elves called the Enjarin, their own people, not a half-bred mix of elves and humans, based out of the woodland community of the Sacred Well.
The Moonwood is populated by two distinct cultures: The fay and the elves. The fay are ruled by a mysterious regency called the Seelie Court and the elves make their capital city of Indryon in the alpine air where the two great mountain ranges, the Gray Mountains and the Bronze Mountains come together. While there was a brief alliance between the elves and the men of Eyrolia during the orc wars, it was short-lived lived and there has never been a treaty between the fay and Eyrolia. Fundamental ideological differences separate all three cultures. The people of the farm, the Eyrolians, till the rich volcanic soils, sowing crops and domesticating livestock; the elves steward the forest and forage for a wealth of wild foodstuffs, never imposing industry and only rarely employing magic to augment stores of resources through particularly harsh winters. The Fay are a magic people of many races who have no centralized government but exist in a society of feudal relationships where passion and beauty are held as the highest ideal. The fay want to have nothing to do with the elves or the Eyrolians and guard the deep woodlands against any interlopers with great and perilous tenacity.
Lady Ealimeau
Before the modern ages of Eyrolia, the land was governed by a society of high-magic elves known as the Orsolon. The Orsolon, the ancient elves, are not historically related to the elves of Indryon, who refer to themselves as the moon elves. The language of the Orsolon, Orsolonic is also the language of the dragons, or Draconic. It is not spoken in normal conversation by any people, but all major bits of geography are named with Orsolonic words, and books are often printed in this language. For example, The Ivory Castle (the common name) is an ancient castle that was built over fifteen centuries ago at the end of the Orsolonic culture and was called Ithterion. Vast networks of now-buried Orsolonic cities remain unexplored Eyrolia and the Moonwood.
GLORY EA
The young niece of Duchess Ealimeau Ithgeryev has, as yet spent her life proving her worth. Glory is not human, and her origin is mysterious. Glory is of the tiefling. Tiefling is an ancient word that bespeaks an alien ancestry, and her own pedigree remains a mystery to herself. With faintly green and blue skin, black feathered hair, and six fingers on each hand, Glory has always stood out in court when appearing next to her aunt and her human mother, Isthania Ithgeryev. Isthania has never revealed who Glory’s father is, always only suggesting that he was of the northern wind and their love was brief and wonderful. Again and again, Glory has proven herself a capable knight and a talented hunter. Glory is a pious knight and worships her vision of Rillifane Rallathil, an Enjarin (half-elf) deity of the Wreathers. Some call Glory, Ea because the word appears on her shoulder as a birthmark in fine script. She recently learned from her aunt that the Ward of the North, Emrhaster, in his keep, the northernmost Eyrolian stronghold, also has the EA mark on his shoulder.
KOSTHUS
Born on a flying pirate vessel in some far-off world, the young tiefling known as Kosthus would probably have quickly been killed had it not been for the seers in the Eyrolian Tower of Sorcery who found the young sorcerer and decided to take him in as an acolyte. There, the black-scaled young sage was able to explore his own heredity and discover that in addition to some kind of infernal heritage, his blood also carries a draconic component. Ever since coming to Eyrolia, the smart and charismatic young man has been having dreams of what he refers to as the Wyrm under the Wood, a vision of an ancient dragon who has been asleep, under the soil of the Moonwood for thousands of years. He understands that his destiny somehow lies in learning more about his strange connection to this elder power.
VIRENE LUMIN
Virene, having grown up at the Sacred Well, knows how the Moonwood is supposed to feel and lately, it hasn’t been right. The young, half-elven druid has been suspecting that some eldritch sickness has been infiltrating her beloved woodlands for some time. It was only one month ago that she saw an apparition, a terrible and malignant ghost moving in the trees, and it scared her more than anything she had ever witnessed. Instructed by the ruling council of Druids to head to the Ivory Castle, Virene beseeched her friend, Kyfthi, to join her and together made their way east to Eyrolia to seek out the mystery. Virene is of the druidic astromancers and funnels the divine power of the constellations called the Archer, the Chalice, and the Dragon in the invocation of her power.
KYFTHI STARLIGHT
The Shadarkai are an elder race of elf folk from the shadow worlds of the Faydark, and Kythi is of this aloof race. A year ago, Kyfthi, defending a friend, wounded an agent of the Queen of Air and Darkness, with her long, thin rapier. The metal on the blade turned black and Kyfthi became a fugitive from what is called the Unseelie Court. Stealing to the surface world, Kyfthi became a friend of the druids and is grateful for the sanctuary that the Wreathers offer, repaying their succor with her own deadly and protective services.
EPISODE ONE: THE JOURNEY NORTH
One morning in the first week of March, a light snow fell on the Ivory Castle. From the courtyard of the castle bailey, the dwarven captain Uthurgot of the Opal knights summoned Glory and Kosthus to join him in the mud of the central walkway. Old Klankenbeard they knew the dwarf; from the dozens of bone-carved rings he hung in his beard. At the same time, the druid and her company, Virene, and Kyfthi arrived to join the long-planned party. Confirming Virene’s suspicions of something foul spreading through the Northwoods, Uthurgot charges the new company with questing north on reconnaissance that might assist in what strategy the Ivory Court might require in bolstering the defense of the Duchy. There are four other companies being assembled as well. Glory wishes to journey to the Emrhaster Keep and decides that is where her company will journey. Uthurgot informs her that they have two weeks before terrible weather is expected to descend, valley-wide, impeding any possible journey, and that they should make great haste to return by then.
Under a wyrding tree behind the castle barracks, Virene meets with one of the Baba, elder druid women who are known to speak in riddles. Baba relays to Virene that there are death knights on the move, and may be the source of this new shadow. Knights of elder wars who are restless in their graves and have returned to the world with great wrath. Meanwhile, Kyfthi spots one of the Harrengon bounding over the many rooftops of the castle complex. Following the mysterious character, Kyfthi witnesses the Harrengon pass an odd parcel to a sorcerer who is also part of one of the other journeying parties.
Leaving before noon on four horses, the newly introduced comrades begin riding north to a planned end-of-day visit to the Golden Owl, the largest inn in all of Eyrolia and a place where they might learn new rumors and decide on the next step. Along the way, the party encounters a large herd of red elk, the bulls with massive antlers, who block the road. Virene attempts communication and inadvertently insults one, although talks down his antipathy. The elk gives the young druid a secret fay word that will dissuade such insult from occurring between her and beasts of the Faywild in the future. The elk are grazing in Eyrolia because of the growing shadow in the woodland home.
The Golden Owl
At the Golden Owl, a five-story mansion of a tavern, staffed by hundreds and built of stone and massive timbers, the party settled into revelry. Kyfthi joins a game of Drakara, a gambling sport of dice and cards. The game is run by the Harrengon whom the Shadarkai saw earlier in the castle, and who now introduces himself as Ollie, in the service of Agdon Longscarf, a folk hero of the Moonwood, whom Kyfthi suspects, maybe a bandit. Meanwhile, Kofthus encounters another member of his order from the tower of Sorcery, a Dragonborn called Tyrius who has been traveling south for many years in the town of Shasne. Tyrius is studying the Orsolonic origins of the growing shadow. He gifts Kofthus a magic knife that will assist him should he need to face off with aberrant souls who have returned with ill intent from the realms of the dead.
The following day, the party makes it to Ollon Henge, where Virene wishes to visit with the local order of Wreathers whom she met many years ago as a child. The party is alarmed to find that the henge itself is covered in a thick copse of dark, broadleaved trees, too tall for what surely is their young age, as they were not here when Virene visited only a few years before. Upon closer inspection, the party is swarmed by hundreds of fist-sized, gray-wing wasps, and attempting to get closer are surprised that the ground itself falls away in an ambush trap by a terrible creature of monstrous origin. The beast, a roper, stands twenty-five feet tall and, springing from the ground, collapses the south side of the henge. Virene is restrained by one of the creature’s terrible tentacles. Her ribs crack under its enormous strength and quickly she succumbs to unconsciousness. Kyfthi bounds behind the thing and stabs repeatedly into its sponge-like flesh. Kosthus throws magic darts at the terrible eye that it apparently sees from before leaping to help Virene from death’s grip. In the end, it is Glory, whose sword glows read with divine incantation who strikes at the living core of the monster and successfully slays it before it may claim any more victims. Healing the druid the party wonders at this terrible scene. Where did the druids go? What happened to this henge? Is this part of the shadow’s plan?
Chronicles of the World of DaoTyr 