Castle Tarengael
Hex 16.16
Note: Pillsy wrote some references to Thring as a feudal duchy that competes with Shuttered to influence the Freeholds but never fleshed it out. Here’s my stab at it.
The waters that flow from the Draugmere Peaks drop down into the Glass Rapids (05.05) and through many caverns (07.06). Those waters that do not sink down into the Sunless Sea seep into the low-lying Brindlebrook Swamp (18.10) where they mingle with waters that wash down from the north before flowing southwards into the River of Crystal Waters that flows through the Duchy of Thring.
The river waters the Duchy’s crops and protects its greatest bastion: Castle Tarengael, (16.16) whose nine domed towers were built by Duke Ulthar the Loved himself on a rocky island that lies in the River of Crystal Waters so that the flowing waters would keep the Lords Sanguine at bay.
The bards tell many stories of Ulthar the Loved, but none more often than the one of how Ulthar reclaimed the Green Lady’s shawl from the Steeple of Alberon itself (in Shuttered, see 29.14). On his return journey, while sleeping beneath an oak tree, the Green Lady appeared between the eye and the lid and dictated the Seven Laws of Thring that guide the Duchy to this day. Here are three of them:
The Law of Love: let not men of gentle birth cling to the skirts of their mothers like women and peasants, but let them become knights errant and seek glory in the halls of strangers so that they may win noble brides and prepare themselves to stand as guardians over the lands of their ladies.
The Law of a Thousand Nights and One: for all things that have persisted for a thousand nights and one, let them continue forever no matter what their provenance.
The Law of Blood: only blood can pay for blood, never gold. Whether it be the blood of the guilty or the blood of the beasts that assail the Duchy makes no matter.
There are also the Law of the Breath of Man, the Law of the Lake, the Law of Splintered Steel and the Law of Bread and Salt. Perhaps you have heard of them.
Note: in more straightforward language the Law of Love means that all noble titles are passed from father to son in-law and that sons are knighted and sent off to make a name for themselves elsewhere, the Law of a Thousand Nights and One means that anything that’s been going on for a 1,001 days counts as legal even if it wasn’t legal to begin with and the Law of Blood says that crimes are punished by corporal or capital punishment or by forcing the guilty to go off and kill monsters.
Hooks:
-What are the Law of the Breath of Man, the Law of the Lake, the Law of Splintered Steel and the Law of Bread and Salt?
-Why was Ulthar called the “Loved?”
-What role does the Green Lady play in Thring? What is the importance of her shawl?
-Who is the current Duke of Thring? Who are his primary vassals?
-What is the river that feeds into the Brindlebrook Swamp from the northern Grey Moutains? The Brindlebrook?
-What's the Sunless Sea?
-What were (are?) the Lords Sanguine?
Stargazer Keep
Hex 19.04
The grandly-named Stargazer Keep of the self-styled Lord Ward is little more than a two-story wooden box that serves as everything from barn to sleeping quarters for its people and lord. The current Lord Ward is the grandson of a younger son of one of the lords of the night men, who was driven out in disgrace. These days, the keep is often a refuge for people from the Lands of the Night Cattle who can no longer stand the physical or social constraints of their home, but who do not wish to wander too far.
It has a modest herd of sheep and a few ostriches, but the people of Stargazer Keep are regarded with some contempt by its neighbors. The night men remember its history, the Freeholders bristle at men who call themselves lord, knight or lady and dress in wool and the minotaurs (18.02) consider its sheep delicious. However, Stargazer Keep does have one treasure. It has the finest kennel of blind dogs in the world, for they seem to thrive there far better than in the kennels of the lords of the night men, where most of the breed lives.
The blind dogs are not truly blind. Long ago one wit in Shuttered (29.14) said that any dog who had so much hair before its eyes must be blind and the name stuck. The blind dogs are a stocky and hairy breed that range from brown to white. Their puppies sicken easily and require expert care, but as adults they are sturdy, friendly, and loyal. However, despite their winning personalities, they are most valued for their bark. A blind dog will bark fiercely in the presence of ghosts and other spirits and some will bark at any invisible or undead creature. They do so without being trained, although it can take some training to make them not bark at cats, each other and sunbeams as well. A few rare blind dogs have a bark that drives off the undead as a cleric with the turn undead ability.
The current Lord Ward is a thin man who is prone to inaction and fits of depression, but he still retains the mastery of the blade that made him famous (but never wealthy) in his youth and he is a man of honor. He welcomes all guests and never asks payment for food and bedding beyond sitting still and listening to his acid tongue. Rare guests that please him are given a young blind dog as a gift, which is a rare honor, as he will not part for them otherwise for any amount of money. Although Lord War is now a widower, his wife bore him many children before dying in childbirth and his three daughters are remarkably beautiful.
Hooks:
-What disgraced the first Lord Ward?
-What sort of social constraints do the night men have to deal with? It must get pretty claustrophobic being indoors whenever the sun is up in the crowded keeps.
-What did Lord Ward do with his sword when he was young that won him fame?
-Tell me more about the beautiful daughters!
Note: the blind dogs are not based on Mouse from the Dresden Files but on the 삽살개 of Korea (
Sapsali - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). I'll try to add a few more bits and pieces of Korean folklore as I get around to it.
As for the license thingie, I've deleted it and will hash out with the other contributors what sort of license we can stick on this thingie and it develops. A bit thoughtless of me to put it in without consulting with others...
chutup: I've got to go and reread John Julius Norwich's histories of Byzantium, Norman Italy and Venice, that bit reminds me of the bits about Iconoclasm. Of course that puts those books at the end of a really long list of books I really want to get too
The map has been updated, I'm pretty far behind on the compilation now, will get to it after I get through copy editing another engineering thesis (ugh, they're even worse than the potato genetics).