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This is a first draft and still rather rough. Please tell me what you think of it.
Of the numerous principalities, provinces, and city states of the Kessel Gral-Shalar is possibly the strangest. It is the only principality that has almost no refugees or immigrants from elsewhere in the world despite the hundreds of years that have passed. This is mainly due to the fact that no one wants to settle in Gral-Shalar due to the original inhabitants, Hobgoblins. Bizarre, isolated and highly militant, the only reason Gral-Shalar has not been wiped out or aggressively settled is because of the Hobgoblins skill at arms and their eagerness to fight the fiends. They make superb shock troops and are often employed by the Lord of Blades as marines on his skyships.
Located just to the south of Egran province Gral-Shalar is an unforgiving heavily forested land, which lacks much good topsoil for crop growth. This suits the Hobgoblins fine however as they prefer to use traditional hunting and gathering skills as opposed to “eating grass and roots” like the weak humans. Still however their burgeoning population has forced them to begin importing various grains and other foodstuffs from the rest of the Kessel much to the dismay of many of the elders who believe that their traditional lifestyle is what keeps them strong.
The Capitol City of Gral-Shalar, Ibrickham (Ib-rick-ham or heart of the world) is relatively small by Kesselian standards having only 20,000 or so inhabitants. It is constructed out of massive granite blocks quarried from the bedrock of Gral-Shalar and is actually one of the oldest constantly inhabited cities in the Kessel, with evidence pointing to a primitive wooded ceremonial lodge created almost 700 years before the founding of Egran.
The aggressive nature of the Hobgoblins creates no end of problems for their neighbors, they are constantly attempting to gain new lands through whatever means necessary. The current prince of the province named Cholan has dreams of one day toppling the Grey King who he views as weak and meddling, and taking the Kessel over for himself. The principality pays homage to the Lord of Blades and it’s actually an arrangement that works quite well. They give him troops and in return he keeps the Grey King off their back.
Ibrickham:
Ruler: Cholan the Mighty (Lord of Blades)
Population: 20,000
Racial composition: Almost 90% Hobgoblin with the remaining 10% consisting of various diplomats traders, rangers, druids and envoys of all different races. Few, if any non-hobgoblins call Ibrickham home.
Languages: Hobgoblin for the most part though it is possible to survive speaking common.
Major holdings: none
Major resources: Fighting men, stone and metal work.
City guardsmen: tough estimate, almost every hobgoblin male over 15 years of age considers himself a warrior so up to approximately 7000. Officially however they maintain a standing guard of 300 guardsmen, mostly veterans who have served under the Lord of Blades.
Military presence: There is almost always an Archon located within 2 or 3 days ride of Gral-Shalar though it is more likely to fight against a hobgoblin raiding party on a neighboring principality than they are to fight along side them. The hobgoblins keep their exact troop numbers secret, though they tithe 1000 able bodied soldiers to serve under the Lord of Blades every 5 years so their numbers must be considerable.
Major temples: There are temples dedicated to both the Lord of Blades and Mistress of Flowers, though they don’t refer to her as such. No other patrons are represented and their worship is actively persecuted. There are also a couple of temples to Cholan, who is attempting to follow in the patrons footsteps and fancies himself a deity.
In this way we can start knocking out the locations and fill in the blanks..
Another suggestion would be to look at SHARK's hobgoblins and see if you like them. They are a more militaristic and 1E type of hobgoblin. I personally think they are 10X better than the 3E version but this is your call. If you like the way they are used Let me know and we can replicate the stats on the monster page with his permission.
well like I said they are in the forest just to the south of Egran. It's tough to say on that map since it is a map of the entire world but if you look on this map
I would place them in the northeren edge of the forest to the south and west of Egran in between Egran and Rusen.
As for Shark's Hobgoblins they do look quite cool. They are a bit powerful stat wise, I was envisioning a CR 1 creature that could possibly be played by a player at first level if the circumstances of the campaign warrent it.
Hrm... that might work... I only just now found the actual principalities map... What if we were to expand #21 into the forest and use Lake Morrushine as a border? Just cause as it is #21 doesn't have much in the way of a forest, it is mostly just the islands out there.
Its one of the 21 principalities and has 20000 people? Remember that an average nation could field maybe one percent of their population in war (exceptional nations perhaps five percent).
Wasnt the total population of the Kessel between 2 to 20 million?
Originally posted by The Burned Man The popupalition is quite small?
Its one of the 21 principalities and has 20000 people? Remember that an average nation could field maybe one percent of their population in war (exceptional nations perhaps five percent).
Wasnt the total population of the Kessel between 2 to 20 million?
that is a rather large gap of 18million people...i think it was around 2million people
quite small compared to Egran and Red Harbor at least. with 300 000 and 110 000 respectively. I mean it has less than 10% the population of Egran and less than 20% the population of Red Harbor. Also remember the little bit I said about every single male over 15 years of age concidering himelf a warrior. The females do the hunting and what not while the males are off serveing under the Lord of Blades. Besides Gral-Shalar doesn't break the system anyhow, with the entire principality haveing perhaps 35 000, and (for the sake of simplicity) every other principality haveing say 50,000 we are still only looking at a population of about 1 360 000 for the entire kessel and that's includeing adding on Egran and Red Harbor. Even if we were to increase the other principalities to double the population of Gral Shalar (so 70 000), we still fall 260 000 warm bodies short of the 2 million mark.
*edit my math could be off, it is early in the morning and I need to get to work.
Last edited by Imperialus; 14th April 2002 at 04:48 PM..
This was never settled, but look at the size of the Strongholds. Lets take Lavernum for instance...
150000 inhabitants.
Since its a pre-industrial society it would propably require 10 peasants for every city-dweller. (Don´t have to belong to the dominion of Shay Lay, but still supply the city with resources).
thats a lot of people.
Still if we assume that technology and magic makes agriculture more effective, then we could have a more urbanized civilization.
And if you look at the mountains. The Forge and Templemount together have one million inhabitants, they need food, food, food and grain.
Thats why the Gnomish Brotherhood has so much power. The entire economy of the region revolves around transporting food to the strongholds of the mountains.
------------------------------------------
"The Capitol City of Gral-Shalar, Ibrickham (Ib-rick-ham or heart of the world) is relatively small by Kesselian standards having only 20,000 or so inhabitants. It is constructed out of massive granite blocks quarried from the bedrock of Gral-Shalar and is actually one of the oldest constantly inhabited cities in the Kessel, with evidence pointing to a primitive wooded ceremonial lodge created almost 700 years before the founding of Egran."
Hmm, so the city has 20000 inhabitants? So how many leave in the principality itself? ten times as many, five?
Also Egran lists the population of the City alone? Right or wrong?
Eh, just confused
---------
Otherwise no problems. Just refer a little to the Prince-thing. If they are a principality the leader would have that title and still be under the "legal" authority of the Grey King even if he offers fealty to the LoB.
"The capital city of Turrounne rises high above the ocean on the small island of Turromos. The city itself has been carved into the cliff side of the isle. From the sea the city looks like a series of great steps, leading in the end to the colossal tower of Dragemaenon "the builder". The city houses a different class of citizen progressing from wealthy to poor in a very literal series of steps; from the Divine Ward to the Rat's stewpot their are eleven of these steps."
Originally posted by The Burned Man This was never settled, but look at the size of the Strongholds. Lets take Lavernum for instance...
150000 inhabitants.
Since its a pre-industrial society it would propably require 10 peasants for every city-dweller. (Don´t have to belong to the dominion of Shay Lay, but still supply the city with resources).
thats a lot of people.
Well, that does include Lavernum's three southern protectorates. Lavernum's population is about 100,000. Which is still dang huge, but the one thing this setting has over real life pre-industrial cites, is all of that Arcane, Divine, and Psionic powers flying around.
__________________ Wisdom cannot be bought.....only faked.
the people of this world can do stuff WE cant do in the real world. Ie large flying ships which can hover in the air without having to use gas or large amount of fuel forinstance.
Originally posted by The Burned Man That has to be decided as well.
How technological and how magical,
the people of this world can do stuff WE cant do in the real world. Ie large flying ships which can hover in the air without having to use gas or large amount of fuel forinstance.
I prefer a larger population.
Well for Lavernum, thats the "native" count. I imagine, due to its nature, that Lavernum would have as much as 2-3 times that population in travellers and foreign interests at any time. Its a hot spot for activity and a transient population.
975,000 does seem a whole lot for Irrasibon, i agree.
__________________ Wisdom cannot be bought.....only faked.
"The capital city of Turrounne rises high above the ocean on the small island of Turromos. The city itself has been carved into the cliff side of the isle. From the sea the city looks like a series of great steps, leading in the end to the colossal tower of Dragemaenon "the builder". The city houses a different class of citizen progressing from wealthy to poor in a very literal series of steps; from the Divine Ward to the Rat's stewpot their are eleven of these steps."
Well for Lavernum, thats the "native" count. I imagine, due to its nature, that Lavernum would have as much as 2-3 times that population in travellers and foreign interests at any time. Its a hot spot for activity and a transient population.
975,000 does seem a whole lot for Irrasibon, i agree.
Isn't it the biggest city on the island though? I could see this being half the size of kessel put together and therefore with all the folk wandering in and around the city proper i could see this count being 975,000. Main city say 1/3 that, supporting lands 1/3 and transient population 1/3. Seeing as how the backgound of Lavernum is basically the place everyone goes to buy equipment for their wars that they wage I could see this being the case.
Now specing out the other principalities within the islands is a nother thing alltogether.
I think we can probably assume that there is a lot of magic used. After all if it is a setting where there is enough magic to create flying ships on a routine basis it is only natural to assume that they would also be willing to control the weather and speed up crop growth and harvesting with magic.
but casting spells on that level takes ALLOT of priests...are there farmer/priests who do nothing more than cast control weather on the crops to make them grow? If so doesn't that affect the natural weather rotation and how does it affect the surrounding areas...
I think this is about ready for posting, unless anyone else has ideas on how it should be changed.
Of the numerous principalities, provinces, and city states of the Kessel Gral-Shalar is possibly the strangest. It is the only principality that has almost no refugees or immigrants from elsewhere in the world despite the hundreds of years that have passed. This is mainly due to the fact that no one wants to settle in Gral-Shalar due to the original inhabitants, Hobgoblins. Bizarre, isolated and highly militant, the only reason Gral-Shalar has not been wiped out or aggressively settled is because of the Hobgoblins skill at arms and their eagerness to fight the fiends. They make superb shock troops and are often employed by the Lord of Blades as marines on his skyships.
Located just to the south of Egran province Gral-Shalar is an unforgiving heavily forested land, which lacks much good topsoil for crop growth. This suits the Hobgoblins fine however as they prefer to use traditional hunting and gathering skills as opposed to “eating grass and roots” like the weak humans. Still however their burgeoning population has forced them to begin importing various grains and other foodstuffs from the rest of the Kessel much to the dismay of many of the elders who believe that their traditional lifestyle is what keeps them strong.
The Capitol City of Gral-Shalar, Ibrickham (Ib-rick-ham or heart of the world) is relatively small by Kesselian standards having only 9,000 or so inhabitants, well over 3/4th of the total population of Gral-Shalar which has no more than 13 000. It is constructed out of massive granite blocks quarried from the bedrock of Gral-Shalar and is actually one of the oldest constantly inhabited cities in the Kessel, with evidence pointing to a primitive wooded ceremonial lodge created almost 700 years before the founding of Egran.
The aggressive nature of the Hobgoblins creates no end of problems for their neighbors, they are constantly attempting to gain new lands through whatever means necessary. The current prince of the province named Cholan has dreams of one day toppling the Grey King who he views as weak and meddling, and taking the Kessel over for himself. The principality pays homage to the Lord of Blades and it’s actually an arrangement that works quite well. They give him troops and in return he keeps the Grey King off their back.
Ibrickham:
Ruler: Cholan the Mighty (Lord of Blades)
Population: 9,000
Racial composition: Almost 90% Hobgoblin with the remaining 10% consisting of various diplomats traders, rangers, druids and envoys of all different races. Few, if any non-hobgoblins call Ibrickham home.
Languages: Hobgoblin for the most part though it is possible to survive speaking common.
Major holdings: none
Major resources: Fighting men, stone and metal work.
City guardsmen: tough estimate, almost every hobgoblin male over 15 years of age considers himself a warrior so up to approximately 4000. Officially however they maintain a standing guard of 200 guardsmen, mostly veterans who have served under the Lord of Blades.
Military presence: There is almost always an Archon located within 2 or 3 days ride of Gral-Shalar though it is more likely to fight against a hobgoblin raiding party on a neighboring principality than they are to fight along side them. The hobgoblins keep their exact troop numbers secret, though they tithe 400 able bodied soldiers to serve under the Lord of Blades every 5 years so their numbers must be considerable.
Major temples: There are temples dedicated to both the Lord of Blades and Mistress of Flowers, though they refer to her as “Lady of Storms”. No other patrons are represented and their worship is actively persecuted. There are also a couple of temples to Cholan, who is attempting to follow in the patrons footsteps and fancies himself a deity.
looks fine. pick a place on the kessel map to use it so LRK can change it to suit this. Format it with the template on the main page and email it to me bd_92@yahoo.com
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