Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The History of KarameikosTHE ANCIENT CITY OF TUMAWHERE IS TUMA?Adventure module B8 – Journey to theRock, introduced the ancient city of Tumaand its background. Even though themodule had a generic setting, it gave somesuggestion on how to include its scenarioand background in the Known Worldsetting. Two options were given here: thefirst was to place Tuma in the mountain orhill region north of Lake Amsorak inDarokin; the second was to place thescenario in the mountain country west ofWereskalot, in the Five Shires, or west ofThreshold, in Karameikos. The lateradventure module B1-9 – In Search ofAdventure, supported B8’s second choiceby placing Tuma in Karameikos’ mountains,but had the Journey to the Rock adventurestart in the area north of Threshold.Placing Tuma’s setting is not so easy,because the area’s map featured in B8 isquite large (about three 8-miles hexes fromwest to east, and two from north to south)and placing it north of Threshold wouldalter the terrain featured in GAZ1’s andother supplements’ maps. The best choiceseems thus to place B8’s map north-east ofThreshold – looking at GAZ1’s 8-miles perhex map of the Grand Duchy, it would befound beyond the mountain hexes thatsurround Threshold in the north-east, in thehill hexes that border that border theRepublic of Darokin. This way, the wholeadventure area would be split betweenKarameikos (where Arkayz’ manor, thewooded lands west of it, The Barrens andBarkel Mountains would be found) andDarokin (where the ancient site of Tuma,Lake Neshonan, and Krayzen Mountainswould be located).The choice to have Tuma in Karameikosseems better, not only because it issupported by a later module (B1-9), but alsobecause it is easier to integrate this scenariowith the existing setting. The names ofancient Tuman kings featured in B8(Alcidaxes, Belkazar, Calobanes, andDelophenes) have a vague Greek or MiddleEastern flavor, and thus can naturally belinked with the ancient Taymora andTraldar cultures which existed in theKarameikan region. The rise and fall ofTuma, moreover, can be merged easily withthe history of Karameikos, in particular withthe ages before and after the GreatBeastmen Invasion, which were left quitevague by official supplements.Thus, this article (and also theaccompanying article about Karameikos’demography) assumes that Tuma waslocated in the mountains of Karameikos,suggesting the following way to integratehistory of the city in Karameikos’ history.A BRIEF HISTORY OF TUMATuma’s origins trace back to the fall of theTaymoran civilization. When thecatastrophic civil war and earthquakes thatmade the southern Taymoran lands sinkunder the sea, many refugees and survivorsfrom the southern lands sought safety in thenorthern forests, a small group of them45THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1