Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The History of Karameikosfurther destruction in the already devastatedTraldar lands. The Vandars pushed deep intoTraldar territory, as more and more tribesmigrated there from the Five Shires (up toBC 910), but their cultural influence wasgreater in the western half of the country.Within a century, the Vandars adopted asedentary lifestyle, and settled as rulersamong many Traldar clans, even founding orre-founding some towns (like Achelos in BC900, and Halag in BC 800). During this timethe knowledge of iron smelting eventuallybecame widespread in the Traldar lands,which definitively entered the iron age. Onlyaround BC 800, when the worst effects ofplagues, famines, and wars began to lessen,did the population begin a very slowrecovery. For many decades, the politicalsituation continued to be troubled by warsand fights between the Traldars and Vandars,with the latter slowly gaining the upper hand.After BC 700, when the worst years of theVandar invasion and dominion had passed,the conquerors began a process ofintermarriage into Traldar clans, whichultimately brought about - around BC 500 -the blending of the two cultures into one.The culture of the Vandar masters imposeditself over the declining culture of the Traldarpeople, even as it adopted many traits of theTraldar culture. The most widely usedtongue of the country came to be a Vandardescendedtongue heavily influenced by theTraldar dialects. The merged peoplegradually became known as Traladarans, andtheir land as Traladara 27 . Although theTraladarans were divided into many villagesand communities, they were kept united byin fast and easy plunder but the dwarves and orcs were determinedto rule the land as their own.” Thus, before the determination oforcs and dwarves, the Vandars eventually left Hindon for the east,invading the beleaguered Traldar lands in BC 933.27At this point the old Mycenaean-like Traldar culture has givenway to the newer Slavic-like Vandar one.their faith in their Immortal patrons - Halav,Petra and Zirchev – whose stories were keptalive by the oral tradition of the Ballad ofKing Halav, which told the story of theirdeeds during the Great Beastmen Invasion;the veneration of Halav, Petra, and Zirchevbecame widespread across Traladara duringthis age, slowly replacing that of the oldTraldar and Vandar Immortals.This age also saw the arrival of the elves,who suddenly and mysteriously appearedin the lands to the east of the Traldars (BC800). They had abandoned their far-awayhomeland, the Sylvan Realm, through themagical Rainbow Bridge, under theleadership of Mealiden Starwatcher. Whilethe main body of the migration passedthrough Traladara to settle north of theBlack Peaks mountains (on the site of thefuture Canolbarth Forest), one of their clans- the Callarii wood elves - chose to split fromthe migration and to settle in the centralforests of modern Karameikos – theRadlebb Woods, parts of the Dymrak Forest,and the forested hill country between theHighreach and the Hillfollow Rivers. TheCallarii established friendly relations withthe more peaceful human clans and foughtagainst the more warlike ones 28 .Nevertheless, this age was troubled byrecurring humanoid invasions. Since BC650, the Hins’ successful struggle againsttheir orcish masters during the Time of28GAZ1 says that the Callarii migrate from Alfheim around theend of the 1 st century BC, and this take is followed by some fanworks, like G. Agosta’s A Karamikos Companion. However, latercanon sources, starting with GAZ5 and Hollow World campaignsetting, say that the Callarii clans split from Mealiden’s migrationtoward the future site of the Canolbarth Forest and chose to settlein the deep woods of Traladara while their brethen continuednorth in BC 800. I chose to adopt this second version, alsobecause I could not see why a number of elven clans should havemigrated from an idyllic fairy forest to a lands inhabited byhumans and threatened by scores of goblin hordes (like Traladarawas in the 1 st century BC).50THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1