Reikos

Regions of Reikos

Overview

This formerly peaceful stretch of the Couros river was also home to pleasure gardens, parks and country estates. Reikos is composed of sweeping plains with occasional patches of deciduous woodland or raised elevation. The only major woodlands outside of the Great Forest of Peytaht is Broken Ride, while only the south-eastern downs around Chalcis Mount really count as being hills.

The wealth of Reikos traditionally came from four places. Firstly, the Vigilant Swan and the Great Forest at Reikos produced quality stone and wood respectively, as well as highly sought after white granite and weirwood. Second, the Gardens of Chalcis produced herbs sold all over the Empire. Third, the wide roads helped connect the Navarr in Therunin and the Urizen in Morrow with the rest of the Empire and several towns grew up to cater to the needs of merchants and pilgrims. Fourth, the beauty of Reikos itself made the territory wealthy - the great gardens, sweeping estates and peaceful surroundings made it a favourite place for Imperial citizens from across the Empire to convalesce after illness, or to spend time away for the cares of everyday life.

The downfall of Reikos came from its border with the Great Forest of Peytaht. At its edges, the Great Forest is an abundant source of lumber; but its heart is wild and untamed. The long border with the dark forest was notoriously hard to defend, despite the efforts of vigilant chapters such as the the Grey Watchers of Peytaht, but at least the forest was equally hostile to human and orc alike. When the Druj barbarians launched a surprise attack through the forest in 367YE, the Highborn were woefully unprepared for it. Those chapters on the edge of the forest that did not retreat were overwhelmed in the first few months of the attack.

Recovering Reikos is an important goal for many Highborn chapters. Several, such as the (now-Bastion based) Shattered Tower; the Unbound Chapter (now in exile in Casinea), Suns of Couros, Cantiarch's Hold, the Stone Vigil, Reumah's Redoubt, and Lux Reikos have foundations here, while others such as The Unrelenting have formed specifically to ensure that Reikos is recovered. They will not rest until the Druj are driven out, Reikos is restored, the gardens re-planted, and the bells set up on high so that the sacrifice of the defenders of Highguard will never be forgotten.

Recent History

In 367 YE Reikos fell to the Druj barbarians who took advantage of the cover of the Great Forest of Peytaht to launch numerous assaults against the fertile territory. The territory was lost along with half the wealth of Highguard. Many benefactors were ruined in the attack, and many more are still struggling to restore their fortunes. The gardens, parks and pleasant villages of Reikos were largely unprepared to face the onslaught of the Druj, and hundreds died in the initial attacks before they were able to take refuge in the fortified chapter houses. The presence of refugees complicated matters severely; several northern chapters fell prey to disease and starvation. The malicious tactics of the Druj served to make the situation even words - they regularly poisoned supplies; publicly tortured and displayed the horribly abused corpses of captured guardians and priests; crippled and maimed Highborn refugees then allowed them to flee so that their presence would further damage morale and absorb valuable medical supplies. Slowly but surely they pressed their advantage and drove the Highborn defenders southward.

Finally, in Autumn 377YE the Druj mounted a major offensive against the surviving Highborn chapters in Riverwatch, Haros and Tabernacle. The last regions of the territory fell beneath this assault, leaving only a scattered handfuls of fortified chapters as guttering beacons of hope in a sea of dread. it took some time for the Empire to rally after this defeat, but in Winter 378YE a combined Highborn and Navarr force crossed back into Reikos to begin the liberation. It was here that the Imperial soldiers gained first-hand experience of something that would later be referred to as the Druj miasma or the shroud of dread.

After a few skirmishes and the liberation of the Vigilant Swan, the Druj forces in the area - represented by a single clan referred to as the Stone Toads, withdrew into the massive fortification they had built in the ruins of High Chalcis. They left guerillas, traps and ambushers to harry the Imperial troops while they remained secure behind the great white granite walls of Urith Barath.

Major Features

Urith Barath (High Chalcis)

High Chalcis was one of the larger settlements in Highguard. The town was a centre for healing and the study of the apothecary arts where the medical knowledge of the Empire was codified and expanded. The settlement fell to surprise attack in 367YE, and the storehouses of knowledge raided by the Druj and turned to corrupt uses. The town has since been converted into a twisted fortification by the Druj. While the Gardens are the best known, the hills of Chalcis Mount were the site of a great many herb gardens, and was known for producing very fine quality Imperial Roseweald. Scouts suggest that a number of Druj apothecaries are using the place as a base of operations, supplying the orcs in the territory with potions and herbs harvested from the remaining herb gardens and the nearby Gardens of Chalcis.

When Imperial troops moved in to liberate Reikos in Winter 378YE, the Navarr scouts quickly discovered that the Druj of the Stone Toad clan had used the intervening year of total occupation to reinforce and rebuild their castle in High Chalcis. The remaining barbarian forces are now securely entrenched inside the great Citadel of Urith Barath, as the orcs are believed to call it; most Highborn refuse to use this name choosing to refer to it still as High Chalcis.

(OOC Note: High Chalcis is a fortification in the control of the Druj; its strength is unconfirmed at this time.)

The Gardens of Chalcis

Said to contain every kind of flower, fruit and herb in the known world, this walled sanctuary was once a haven of tranquillity and the study of the healing arts. While much of the gardens were given over to the study of healing herbs, it was also maintained as a conservatory where examples of plants brought from all over the world were cultivated and studied. Since the fall of High Chalcis to the Druj in 367YE, the gardens have been gutted and enslaved Highborn now toil to produce herbs and poisons for the use of the barbarian invaders.

The Sign of Tamar

A vast sigil incised into the plain in northern Reikos, created by digging long trenches in the earth. Scholars are unsure what purpose (if any) it serves, or when precisely it was constructed. There is no viewpoint nearby where the entire figure can be seen clearly, although scholars have paced out the sigil and drawn it, and declared it a humanoid figure that matches the constellation called the Drowned Man. Until Tamarbode fell to the Druj, there was a great deal of speculation as to who Tamar might have been, who placed this sigil here, whether there was any connection with the Old Pig in Mournwold to the west, and precisely why the region as a whole was called Tamarbode.

The Great Forest at Reikos

The Great Forest at Reikos is a Bourse resource that covers the eastern hills of Broken Ride. Custodianship of the weirwood groves was an Imperial Title that brought with it a Seat on the Imperial Bourse. It produced 25 Imperial wains of weirwood every season. Control was allocated to any Imperial citizen by open auction during the Winter Solstice. The weirwood groves are not currently in Imperial hands; when they are recovered, the Imperial Senate will choose whether to leave them as an Imperial Seat, or re-assign them as a National Seat.

The Vigilant Swan

The Vigilant Swan is a Bourse resource located in Riverwatch. Custodianship of the Vigilant Swan is an Imperial Title that brought with it a Seat on the Imperial Bourse. When restored to full functionality, it would produce 25 Imperial wains of white granite every season. It is currently not clear whether this is an Imperial or National Resource; prior to its loss to the Druj it was a assigned to the Highborn candidate who received the most support from the Highguard owners of congregation resources..

Regions

Broken Ride

The rolling woodlands of Broken Ride were regularly used for hunting and for training Unconquered recruits. Only a few scattered chapters were built here, and they were especially isolated from the rest of Reikos when the Druj invaded. These woods are the site of the massacre at Exile in 369YE. Exile was built round a chapter of Unconquered who trained in the solitude provided by the deep woods. It was a hard place, and the Highborn there embraced many trials designed to harden the soul; they held out for three years before they were finally overrun. In the last days of the siege, the choice to hold against overwhelming odds or leave with honour was given to all of the recruits, not a one of whom chose to leave. In battle now, some of the unconquered say: “Remember Exile. We will return” in memorial of fallen friends and mentors.

The Druj are believed to have desecrated the corpses of the dead, using them to construct a shrine of terror and hate that now stands as a monument to the dominance of the Druj over the territory. Scouts suggest that the Druj have continued to add to this shrine, and claim that it exerts as malignant presence that is beginning to make itself felt in Longshire, Tamarbode and Chalcis Mount.
Keywords: Forested

Chalcis Mount

They gentle hills of Chalcis Mount are in the hands of the barbarians. They are the site of the Gardens of Chalcis, and the walled town of High Chalcis. In some poems, they were called the Red Downs due to the distinctive hue of the Imperial Roseweald that grew profusely on their slops. Since the region fell to surprise attack in the Autumn of 367YE, however, the name has fallen out of use.
Keywords: Hills, Ruins

Grey Charge

The wide plains of Grey Charge are avoided by the Druj themselves, but lie under the control of at least one of their subject tribes. There are believed to be a number of enslaved human settlements still intact here, used as a source of brutalized labour by their barbarian oppressors.

Haros Water

The chapters of Haros (the settlement takes its name from the tributary of the Couros on which it stands) were largely devastated. Those that survived the initial Druj conquest were broken during the liberation. Over Winter 378YE, after a three day battle in the streets, the Druj fired the town, creating a conflagration that lasted through the night and saw the entire settlement reduced to ruins. The beautiful river gates of Haros, which once allowed daring forays by expert boatmen, are no more.

Even before the final devastation of Haros, the fields and gardens outside the wall were reduced to mud and ashes. The Druj took a particular pleasure in crucifying captured cataphracts within sight of the walls of one of the few surviving chapters, goading the defenders into leaving their walls and attempting a rescue mission.
Keyword: Ruin

Longshire

The plains of Longshire are scattered with the ruins of chapters that have fallen before the barbarian assault. These ruins have been claimed by various barbarians, some of whom are said to launch raids against each other when they think the gaze of their Druj overlords is elsewhere. In 370YE scouts from nearby Tabernacle reported that one of the captured chapters - the Granite Chain chapter - had been razed to the ground and every orc within it slain and left for the crows. Apparently the Druj themselves did this as some sort of warning to other orcs. At least one band of Unconquered takes advantage of the superstitious dread the orcs seem to feel towards this place and use it as a base of operations - although they report that the place is almost certainly haunted by the angry spectres of both slaughtered barbarians and murdered Granite Chain Highborn.
Keyword: Ruin

Riverwatch

Site of the settlement of Tabernacle, this was the last region of Reikos to fall to the Druj after many months of sustained assault. A well-fortified triple-ringed chapter whose settlements sprawled outside its walls in long years of peace, the town was the last settlement to fall to the barbarians. In happier times this was a popular stopping-point for merchants travelling between Casinea and Sarvos in the east and the Navarr steadings of Therunin to the west. While some chapters survived the initial invasion, there is little sign of them in Riverwatch.

A year of occupation, and the vicious tactics of the Druj during the liberation, has seen Tabernacle reduced to mud-choked ruins scattered with lethal traps and deadfalls that will take months of careful work to locate and disarm.
Keyword: Ruin Since the season of mushrooms devoured the ruins of Reikos, this region has lost the ruin keyword.

Tamarbode

The desolate plains of Tamarbode are best known as the site of the enigmatic Sign of Tamar, and at least one chapter dedicated to protecting and guarding the eerie earthworks. It was also home to a couple of fortified chapters on the borders of Brocéliande, facing into the forests there and keeping a careful watch on the Vallorn that slumbers fitfully at its heart. There has been no news from any of these chapters since the last of them was overrun by Druj in 372YE. Now the region appears to be under the control of an especially vicious Druj Ghulai who goes by the nickname "Greenmask"
Keyword: Forest

OOC Notes

• As of the end of the Autumn Equinox 379YE, the Empire controls the regions of Riverwatch, Haros Water, Chalcis Mount, Longshire, Gray Charge, and Broken Ride. While the Druj technically control the other region of Reikos, there are no appreciable orc forces remaining in the territory. The Druj Miasma however remains an impediment to attempts to reclaim the territory.
• The Druj fortification of Urith Barath at High Chalcis was destroyed during the Autumn Equinox 379YE and the region returned to Imperial hands. Both the citadel and the town of High Chalcis were reduced to ruins by a combination of fighting and years of Druj abuse.

Druj Miasma

The so-called Druj miasma, or shroud of dread, was first encountered by Imperial troops crossing into Reikos during the Winter 378YE counter offensive against the barbarians. Described as an almost physical pall of dread and despair, it infested the air, the water, and the soil. It was described by those exposed to it in fanciful terms; “clawing at the spirit”, “slowly grinding away every positive emotion”, and “threatening to undermine every virtuous thought”.

At night, the effects of the miasma intensified. It seemed to take advantage of the long hours of darkness to play upon the natural fears, doubts, and uncertainties that come naturally to mortal minds. Some exposed to the miasma describe hallucinations, especially of deceased loved ones. There is no suggestion, however, that this effect is actually producing images of the dead – several soldiers reported catching sight of loved ones they knew were alive and safe at home, but seemingly murdered and weeping.

The Druj do not appear to have used conventional ritual magics to create this effect; rather, it bears more similarity to a massive consecration associated with the malign spiritual presence of fear or dread. Yet the existence of a magical method to deal with the aura (coupled with orc inability to use liao ceremonies) points to it being more than a purely spiritual effect.

While the miasma is unpleasant in the wider territory, the miasma pillars themselves are surrounded by the aura of dread in its most primal form. Even approaching a miasma pillar will prove extremely difficult without significant precautions such as ceremonial anointing; the use of a ritual protection such as Crystal Clarity of the Rational Soul; or the use of magic items such as a Banner of the Bold, or a Circlet of Falling Snow.

One element that became clear during the abortive battle at Reikos was that the pillars appear to reinforce or supplement one another when they are close together. Removing the potence of a single pillar is ineffective if there are other pillars nearby – all nearby pillars will need to be deactivated simultaneously. If a single pillar is deactivated, there is little noticeable effect on the local miasma – it is theorised that once all the pillars in a location are deactivated, the miasma will quickly fade from the region where they were placed. Obviously, the magicians who wish to perform the Chimes of Annulment will need to attack each pillar simultaneously creating a significant challenge for both the ritualists and the soldiers protecting them.

Given that the pillars supplement and reinforce each other, it is believed the Druj have constructed them in a limited geographical locale within each region of Reikos. So far, only the Grey Charge pillars have been located.

In Summer 379YE, a magical ritual was developed and codified at the Halls of Knowledge in Zenith, specifically to aid in destroying the Druj pillars.