Reikos

A peaceful place, home to pleasure gardens and country estates, now riven by war

Regions of Reikos

Overview

This 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 decidious 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.

Reikos borders the Great Forest of Peytaht. At its edges, the Great Forest was an abundant source of lumber, but its heart is wild, untamed and notoriously hard to defend.

Recent History

In 367 YE Reikos fell to the Druj barbarians who took advantage of the cover of the Great Forest 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.

Regions

Haros

A chapter that straddles the river, the endpoint of trade from the Bay up into Highguard. It is currently under siege, like Tabernacle, but holds its river gates clear, and every so often daring forays by expert sailors manage to get word or goods in and out down the fast-flowing Couros. Its inhabitants have refused to give it up.

High Chalcis

Where the combined knowledge of the alchemists of all the ages was stored. At the Chapterhouses of High Chalcis the medical knowledge of Empire was categorised, and the plants there mentioned tended in the Gardens. Even Urizen acknowledged there was Wisdom here. It is now lost, as High Chalcis fell to a surprise attack, and it’s unclear how much knowledge might remain to be regained.

Exile

Was built round a Chapterhouse where the Unconquered trained in solitude. A hard place, for trials designed to harden the soul, and now fallen. 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, you will hear the Unconquered say: “Remember Exile. We will return.”

Tabernacle

A well-fortified triple-ringed chapter whose settlements sprawled outside its walls in long years of peace, now under siege as barbarians march from Reikos to cut the land route between Anvil and Bastion. Save for the besieged Haros, it is now the front line, many of the outlying houses razed in defense before the enemy attacked.

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.

Haros Water

The chapters of Haros are currently under siege; it is unclear how long the defenders can continue to hold out. Beyond the walls of these chapters, the fields and gardens have been burnt to ashes. The Druj seem to take a particular pleasure in crucifying captured cataphracts within sight of the walls of one of the surviving chapters, goading the defenders into leaving their walls and attempting a rescue mission.

Broken Ride

The rolling forests 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, where the Druj slaughtered a force of Unconquered recruits engaged in a training exercise in 367YE. 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.

Chalcis Mount

The hills of Chalcis Mount are in the hands of the barbarians, and were the site of the Gardens of Chalcis, and the walled town of High Chalcis. This centre of healing has been converted into a fortification by the Druj. 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 here.

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.

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 th 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 raised 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.

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 it's 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 Druj#Magic Ghulai who goes by the nickname "Greenmask"

Places of Interest

The Gardens of Chalcis

Said to contain every kind of flower, fruit and herb in the known world and a haven of tranquility and the study of the healing arts.

The Sign of Tamar

A vast sigil incised into the plain in northern Reikos, created by digging long trenches in the earth. No-one is sure what it is for. 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. No-one is sure who or what Tamar was, either...

The Great Forest at Reikos

The Great Forest at Reikos would be a Bourse position producing weirwood. It is not currently being auctioned.

The Vigilant Swan

The Vigilant Swan would be a Bourse position producing white granite. It is not currently being auctioned.