Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The History of KarameikosHeroes had pushed a significant number oforcs into western Karameikos; many of them- like the Blackstone and the Jagged Clawtribes - settled in the Cruth Lowlands andpresented a serious problem for all thewestern Traladaran clans. Still another waveof invasions and raids descended on theTraladarans in BC 491; hordes of bugbears,goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, orcs, andogres, fleeing the onslaught suffered againstthe dwarves in the Battle of Sardal Pass (BC492), poured from the north into Traladara.Some of their tribes, like the Greyslayers orcsand numerous ogre families, settled in theCruth Mountains and Lowlands area in BC491, while the rest staged a mass invasion ofcentral Traladara the following year, againbringing death and destruction. Althoughthey were initially attacking without a plan,the humanoids found a new and fierceleader in Leptar 29 , a brutal hobgoblin chief;they accomplished much devastation, themost infamous of which was the destructionof the cities of Krakatos and Lavv, lastlegacies of the old Traldar civilization inthese lands. The humanoid invasion alsobrought about a devastating plague whichravaged the whole country. The Traladarans,now strengthened by the Vandar warriortradition, managed to hold off thehumanoids; the hordes of Leptar weredefeated in BC 488 and his humanoid armysplintered into a number of small hordes,but the war against them continued up untilBC 480. At the end of the war, many bands ofthese creatures had settled in the southwesternwoods, in the Dymrak Forest, in themountains, and in the wilds of Traladara,where many of them still live today. Thearrival of the humanoids also hit the more29The mortal story of Leptar has been devised by Marco Dalmontein Hircismus (at The Vaults of Pandius) and further linked withTraladaran history by G. Agosta in his A Karameikos Companion.sparsely populated and isolated Callariisettlements which dotted the woodlands;many wood elves decided to retreat to thesecure depths of the Radlebb Woods or tothe western reaches of the Dymrak Forest(the rest had fallen into the hand of goblintribes), consolidating their hold on themand abandoning almost all their outlyingsettlements.THE REBIRTH AND THECULTURAL UNIFICATIONThe end of the humanoid invasions alsomarked the beginning of the late Dark Agesof Traladara. The fall of the Nithian Empire(BC 500) and the disappearance of itsculture from the Known World had norelevant consequences for Traladara. Afterthe slow recovery begun in the 9 th centuryBC had been halted by the events of the 6 thand 5 th centuries BC, the population begangrowing again, starting from the 4 th centuryBC. Settlements which had been on theverge of collapse began a stable recovery,while new settlements were built andprospered in coastal and riverside areas.The political landscape became morestable, as the main settlements became theseat of small principalities called “banates”.Toward the end of the first millennium BC,Marilenev arose to become the major city ofTraladara, followed by Halavos (built nearthe site of old Lavv), Lugsid (a settlementborn of the shore of Lake Windrush), andother towns 30 .30Lugsid is a canonic settlement found in the Hail the Heroesadventure. The names of most other settlements are borrowedfrom the fan works of G. Agosta (A Karameikos Companion andLords of the Cruth Lowlands), F. Defferrari (History ofTraladara), J. Guerra (Traladaran Clans), and J. Mishler(Thoughts on Darokin).51THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1