Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The History of KarameikosThe end of the Dark Age also saw the firstsuccessful attempt at uniting the Traladarancommunities into one kingdom. On the eveof a war against the humanoids, anticipatedby a time of renewed humanoid raids all overTraladara, Ban Ithron Zlatarev 31 succeeded inBC 195 to the throne of Volaga and managedto unify under his banner some of the otherprinces, leading them to victory over thehumanoids. In the following years, heexpanded his domain through force anddiplomacy to nearly all of Traladara, and inBC 171 he was crowned in Marilenev bypriests of the Traladaran patrons as “King ofTraladara” – marking the first use of this titlein history. In BC 147 Ithron died, and hiskingdom would not outlive him for long; hissuccessors couldn’t manage to keep thequarrelsome clans united, and the kingdomslowly fragmented, until at the half of the 1 stcentury AC the title of king, by then empty,fell into disuse.Hostile humanoids were not the only ones tomigrate in the wild Traladaran lands. Anumber of rock gnomes led by theHilltopper clan, survivors of the slaughter oftheir own race perpetrated centuries beforeby the kobolds under the HardangerMountains, after many wanderings camefrom the north to Traladara around BC 100,and settled in the lands between theHillfollow and Windrush Rivers, where theybuilt their own settlements, the largest ofwhich was called Highforge.The turn of the first millennium AC markedthe beginning of an age of rapiddemographic growth for Traladara. Both theconsolidation of the Thyatian Empire to theeast and of the Kingdom of Darokin to the31Ithron is mentioned in Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure asone of the leaders that managed to claim the title of King ofTraladara; his surname was created by me.north-west helped Traladara to enter amore stable age. From the 1 st to the 4 thcentury AC, the population began a slowbut steady process of resettlement of thewilderness – mostly the woods and theforests. Settlements grew and some of thembecame prosperous trade cities. Thanks toits plentiful natural resources - such aswood, furs, and precious metals - Traladarabegan to be frequently traveled bymerchants of neighboring countries, mostlyThyatians, Darokinians, and Minrothians.Even a Rockhome dwarven clan, theStronghollow - following rumors ofprecious metal veins to be mined below theAltan Tepes - came to Traladara, where itwas welcomed by the gnomes in theirKingdom of Highforge; the dwarves settledthere around AC 300. The increase of tradeand steady passage of people though landroutes improved the cultural unification ofthe Traladarans.Religion was another powerful factor ofunity. Around AC 400, after centuries ofcultural contacts, Thyatian missionaries ledby Lucor 32 - who subsequently was made asaint by the Church of Traladara - translatedinto Thyatian the Ballad of King Halav 33 .32The character of Lucor is mentioned in B6: “Advancing towardthe gate is the Procession of Lucor. The procession is a religiouscelebration honoring a legendary local cleric named Lucor. […]The festival is of great importance.” The story of Saint Lucor wasfurther developed by G. Agosta as part of the Fantasy Cities:Specularum project .33It’s unlikely that literacy was introduced by Thyatians this late.The Hollow World campaign setting, under the description ofMilenian customs, says: “Milenian is the language of these people.Though it is descended from Traldar, it is not the same language.There is a written form of the language, which is not at all similarto the written form of Traldar.” So the Traldars did have a writtenlanguage; literacy among the Traldars surely suffered a hard blowduring the Dark Age, but some sort of literacy (based on the oldTraldar alphabet) may have resurfaced between BC 500 and AC400. Despite this, it may be that the Ballad was kept in oral formonly out of some religious tradition. I suppose that the translationof the Ballad into Thyatian marks the gradual adoption of theThyatian alphabet in the religious practices and then in theTraladaran tongue, in place of the old Traldar alphabet.53THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1