Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The History of Karameikoscalled the “Black Count of the Moor”,became a nosferatu after a dark pact with theImmortal Alphaks in AC 720; he began anaggressive expansionist policy against theother clans. Other cities, includingMarilenev, Vidrin and even Selenica, alliedagainst him, ultimately defeating Morphail inAC 728 and forcing him into exile 46 . At theend of the war, Gorenenov and Lumm 47 hadbeen destroyed; a number of clans alliedwith Morphail chose rather to follow theirruler and migrate to the Highlands thansubmit or continue fighting (those were theancestors of the Boldavians of theHighlands).Diseases, misery, and famines plaguedTraladara during the Holy Wars and duringthe whole 8 th century AC. Many settlementshad been destroyed, many clans wiped out,many people had died and many others hadleft for foreign lands. Once proud andwealthy cities and towns, like Vaion, Halavos,and Volaga, lay in ruins; Zadreth had beenabandoned at the beginning of the Holy Warsdue to a plague; and the survivors of Lugsidhad abandoned their town to pillage, seekingrefuge on the island of Fogor, in LakeWindrush 48 .Thus, the wars marked the beginning ofanother time of demographic loss. Darkforces, who had entered Traladara during46The canonic history of the Traladaran migration toward theHighlands has been expanded by J. Mishler (Thoughts on Darokin)and G. Agosta (A Karameikos Companion).47Lumm should survive as a small farming village after this event,because around AC 980 its inhabitants are kidnapped by the madwizard Skarda according to X12: Skarda’s Mirror.48G. Agosta in his A Karameikos Companion has both Lugsid andZadreth abandoned at the beginning of 10 th century AC. However,in the Hail the Heroes adventure the location of both towns isnearly unknown to the locals, and it is not unreasonable to thinkthat local folklore had knowledge of their location if they wereabandoned only a century ago or so. Thus I found more fitting if theabandonment or destruction of these two towns happened somecenturies earlier, and the Holy Wars seemed to me the right timefor this to happen.the wars, continued to feed on those foolenough to ally with them – like CountKoriszegy, whose lands were cursed andabandoned after he had signed a pact withEntropic powers (AC 783).THE THYATIANCONQUESTAnother two centuries would pass beforethe Traladarans would recover from thistime of wars and misery. In the first half of9 th century AC, dwarves fleeing frompersecution in the Highlands region duringthe Year of Infamy (828 AC) came south;most sailed toward Minrothad, where thelocal government granted them theopportunity to settle of Fortress Island, butsome stayed in Traladara, settling amongthe human communities. Meanwhile, themain branch of the Marilenev dynasty diedout when the last Duke of Marilenev, Radu,perished in AC 872; the ducal title wasabolished, and Castle Marilenev wasinherited by the cadet branch of the family,while the city also formally became anoligarchic republic 49 .On the eve of the 10 th century AC,Traladaran communities were again in aphase of great economic growth; coastalcities had again entered a time of economicrise, and even some inland settlement wasgrowing again (like Vatresh 50 , built over theruins of Lugsid). The Thyatian Empire,more than ever interested in the vast wood49See also note 41. Poor Wizard’s Almanac I says that AC 872was the fifteenth year of Radu’s rule over Marilenev. The cadetbranch is the one to which Valor Marilenev (husband of Magda)belongs.50The name of Vatresh was borrowed from F. Defferrari’s Historyof Traladara ; here, however, the name refers to a much oldersettlement on the same site.60THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1