Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The History of Karameikossages. Eventually, under the leadership ofthe Hutaaka, the new bronze-age Traldarculture emerged, characterized by city-states,warrior-kings, and hero-worship.Thus began the Golden Age of the Traldars(BC 1300-1000), which saw a rapid growth ofthe population. The region became apatchwork of wilderness areas, Hutaakaruledand Traldar-ruled but Hutaaka-adviseddominions 18 . With the passing of decades,some southern cities even managed tobecome entirely independent fromHutaakan guardianship 19 ; they were mostlythe coastal settlements, which alsodeveloped a seafaring tradition that allowedthem to send colonizing expeditions to thesouthern archipelagos (modern Ierendi andMinrothad), to the coasts of modern Thyatis,and even to the western coast beyond theHins’ land (where they founded the city ofAthenos 20 ). (Meanwhile, the older Ptahr-al-Dar colonies in modern Darokin had been18Of the Traldar settlements featured on the accompanying map,only Hlas (Lavv), Krakatos, and Mirlenos (Marilenev) have somebasis in canon sources; the others were created by me (some of thenames or locations were borrowed from F. Defferrari’s map ofTraladara in BC 1200, even if Oyllenos can be linked with Halav’spast (see note 24, below), while Dymos could be the site of theancient tomb found in the dungeon featured in DDA4: The DymrakDread. Regarding the Hutaaka, besides the Temple of Pflarr onlyXitaqa (from B10) is mentioned in canon sources; Koxaqa shouldbe the Hutaakan settlement mentioned in GAZ1 under Threshold’sdescription (and found on the site of the subsequent CastleMistamere), while Achelos is described in G. Agosta’s Lords of theCruth Lowlands.19The Hollow World Traldars don’t have Hutaakan masters – quitethe contrary, the Hollow World Hutaaka live far away from theTraldar kingdoms. This means that the Hutaaka did not havecomplete control over all the Traldar kingdoms, otherwise theImmortals would have chosen to preserve their cultures in closecontact in the Hollow World – in other words, in my opinion thismeans that there was at least a part of the Traldar culture for whichthe Hutaakan culture was no longer instrumental.20Athenos could well have been founded during the Ptahr-al-Darage; I chose to have it founded during the Traldar age as part of theexploration and colonization effort undertaken by some Traldarkingdoms in this period. After all, the Hollow World Traldars arequite adept seafarers and sea raiders (Hollow World campaignsetting says that “Their war-galleys […] once dominated the regionof the Sea of Dread”), and their expansion in the southernarchipelagos is meant to underline this trait of them.wiped out by humanoid invasions comingfrom the Atruaghin lands; Akorros, forexample, was burned to the ground in BC1254. 21 )In the rest of Karameikos, Hutaakaninfluence was much stronger, in particularin the west, where the powerful Hutaakandominion centered on the city of Acheloswas founded 22 . Over the centuries tensiondeveloped between the Hutaaka and theTraldars, even leading to an open rebellionagainst the Hutaakan influence, enacted bya King Tahrek ‘the Bright’ around BC 1280.Tahrek was the ruler of a dominion incentral Karameikos who managed to winsome victories against the Hutaaka beforebeing abandoned by his allies andcrushed 23 . This was a singular episode ofconflict between the Hutaaka and theTraldars; aside from this, the Hutaakacontinued to advise and protect theTraldars, teaching them what technologyand magic they deemed wise, in exchangefor servile labor.Near the end of this age the Nithian Empireagain began to turn its greedy eyes on theSea of Dread, conquering the modernMinrothad and Ierendi archipelagos (BC1100-1000), and thus subjugating and21The burning of Akorros is mentioned in GAZ10. It’s quitepossible that what the GAZ calls “Akorros” had a Nithian name atthis time, or that a Nithian-named city had later changed its nameinto Traldar-sounding “Akorros” due to Traldar influence(brought there through trade along the Streel River from Athenos,for example).22The history of the Hutaakan dominion of Achelos is describedin greater detail G. Agosta’s Lords of the Cruth Lowlands.23The magic item card “Diadem of the Sun”, whose descriptionfeatures King Tahrek, is found in the Dungeon Master’s SurvivalKit supplement. According to it, “Centuries before Halav’s mortalreign, central Traladara was ruled by King Tahrek the Bright. […]The ballad ‘The Tragedy of Dymrak’ says that Tahrek annihilatedhis beast-man foes with the diadem.” Obviously there were nobeastmen before Halav’s reign in Traladara, so I supposed that thebeastmen of the ballad were actually Hutaaka; just like for the restof Traladara’s history, the passage of time blurred the differencebetween the jackal-headed humanoids and the gnolls.43THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1