Current (1534 WM) Regents of the Westron Baronies

In the current era of the Valley (year 1534 since the Westerner Migrations first began out of the Olmart Empire, so it is marked 1534WM), each of the various Baronies is ruled over by a regent of some sort.  Most of these are Barons, at least in the nomenclature of the Kingdom of Ymnaris.  The Kingdom was first established, in the year 26 when the First City was settled (now often called Hogle).  The capitol of the Kingdom moved progressively eastward with successive generations and waves of migration.  Each of the four fiefdoms that originally housed a capitol city of Ymnaris is entitled to the title Duke for their ruler, however they are still commonly referred to as Baronies.  Up until the Neill family assumed the throne of the Kingdom of Ymnaris, several generations back. the ruler of the kingdom was referred to as the Archduke, however with the growing separation from the Olmart Empire, this title was dropped, and the title of King (or Queen) has been in use now, by the Neills at least, for the past 352 years (since year 1182).

Rulers of the Westron Baronies
Hogle - Duke Keevar Silverhand (m, age 54), settled year 26. Capitol of Kingdom of Ymnaris from the year 26 until 165.
Macester - Baron Tyremius Ap Troft of Trofthall (m, age 162), settled year 82.
Ockham - Baron Guiscar the Enlightened (m, age 47), settled year 107.
Scallen - Duchess Safeeny Everlight (f, age 53), settled year 163. Capitol of Kingdom of Ymnaris from 165 until 341.
Kof Karn - Baroness Talena Ap Ironheart (f, age 31), settled year 219.
Khomaes - Baron Aldra Ap Iaggio of Erthos (m, age 59), settled year 231.  The city itself is ruled by a Proctor.
Henn - Baroness Lendara Astern (f, age 32), settled year 285.
Pellorix - Duke Falden the Just (m, age 51), settled year 341. Capitol of Kingdom of Ymnaris from 341 until 642.
Werms - Baron Kilgar Ap Huim, Ne Etro (m, age 45), settled year 352. The city itself is ruled by a Magistrate, typically a magic user (currently, a mysterious hooded person titled the Wizard of Werms).
Huygen - Baroness G'Melan Luce Ap Viellot (f, age 33), settld year 394.
Gorrem - Baroness Catherine Ap Terrasund of Tatelis, also called The Second (f, age 49), settled year 462.
Na Kram - Baron Farris Quar Nev of Borleos (m, age 73), settled year 558.
Lynch - Duchess Tindra Ap Logis of Oakforge (f, age 40), settled year 642. Capitol of Kingdom of Ymnaris from 642 until 1021.
Botts - Baron Pesar Ap Gansford of Tuldis (m, age 51), settled year 728
Ungams - Baron Virondis Pulchky (m, age 59) , settled year 902.
City of Narn - King (Archduke) Alasdair IV (m, age 37), settled year 914. Capitol of Kingdom of Ymnaris since 1021.
Devrie - Baron Huntain Dorren of Ymnar Hall, also called The Miner (m, age 51), settled year 1022.
Futtonol - Baron Rolan Ap Kopf of Kopfheim, settled year 1099.
Kennidor - Baron Hugh Voxely, of Lakecastle (m, age 39), settled year 1186.

A curious  event occurred just over four hundred years ago.  The gathering of Barons in the year 1015 had agreed that a new capitol for the Kingdom was needed, as the Tower-Keep of Oakforge (in the Barony of Lynch at the City of Fire) was under constant threat at the time by an army of chaos creatures out of the western Nel Nod forest.  The new location was to be the new settlement forming between the Erando and Moa Thola rivers, which would become the City of Shale, and capitol of the Barony of Devrie.  However, at the last, just before the Malachite Throne was to be transferred to the new site in 1021, a group of northern Barons made the case for transferring it to the city of Narn instead.  Narn was previously not considered, because it was built on the site of a long dead city, taking advantage of the ruins that were there already when the Westroners came in 914, however it was thought to be a safer location, than another capitol in the wild south, where the Sun King Barbarians still threatened all of the settlements and cities.

The new location, at Narn, satisfied most, except for the southern Barons from Gorrem, Lynch, and Ungams, who have referred to Narn as the Shadow Capitol, and refer to Devrie as the Chosen Capitol.  These tensions have spread to understandings and relations among the various eastern Baronies, but nothing has come to open war.  With the passage of three centuries, the original animosity that accompanied the founding of Devrie, and the change of the Capitol from Devrie to Narn, has been mostly forgotten, but the establishment of alliances (however tenuous the reasoning) between the different groups of Baronies, has proven a strong motivation for mutual support, and trade, ever since.

Knights of Torisch - Knights of the Barony of Hogle

The Knights of Torisch are an order of knights that are headquartered in the First City, of the Barony of Hogle, in the

Shattered Plains.

They are allied with the Aublan Cat Riders.

Torisch of Ockett was the first Prince of the Granite Hold - the castle built by his Father (Sir Tuneyer of Ockett), the origin of the city and Barony of Hogle.  The name of the Barony comes from the name of Sir Tuneyer's family (technically, without his title from the Westron Lands, he would be Tuneyer Hogle; but he was also the lord of the Ockett Fiefdom, that he left when coming to settle the Valley).

Both Sir Tuneyer and  his son Torisch were of the Lass Indol people, and as such,they venerated the four goddesses of those people. In the early days of the migrate, before the understanding of the relationship of the Three Goddesses to the Valley, and the structure of the Church of the Three Goddesses become much more formalized, there were many who were worshippers of the Lass Indol goddesses.  Torisch himself was partial to Neuvirra Oss, the goddess of Spring and Planting.

When the extensive presence of evil creatures (as well as diabolical forces and curious sorcerous monsters left behind by the departed Old Ones) became known, it was decided that an order of questing knights would be formed in order to proactively find evil and vanquish it, before it became a threat to the new Barony and its land and holdings.  The young prince, strong of arms and admired by the fighting men of Sir Tuneyer, would be at the head of the order.

There were no orders of Paladins at the time, so the idea of holy knights of Neuvirra Oss was not in mind when Sir Torisch formed the order, but instead they became a large company of knights, having forsworn personal property, and loyalty to Sir Torisch instead.

The order exists to today, as an example of a non-church aligned order of knights that fighting men of the valley can be associated with.

From the earliest days of the order, however, they had a very important ally.  That was the friendship between the Knights and the Aublan Cat Riders.  These were a barbaric people, by Westron standards.  A group of nomadic clans, that did not build cities or permanent holdings, did not work metal, and did not have learning (either religious or magical).  They did, and still do, have a singular relationship with the great plains cats of the region.  These plains cats are similar to the great saber cats that sometimes roam down out of the Destriel Mountains (especially in the Darkearth Plains region, but really all across the north).  The plains cats, however, instead of the only the tawny color of the Saber cats, are sometimes orange or white and sometimes striped somewhat like a great tiger.  With their friendship with the Westroners, and especially the Knights of Torisch, the Cat Riders now had metal weapons and armor made available to them.  Gifts of this sort where enough to bond a Cat Rider for life.

The Cat Riders were a great ally to the Knights, and participated in a lot of quests and adventures with them. One of the main foes for both forces, however, are the cannibal-cultists of the vampire lands that emerge from the Caves at Groben.

The vampire lands are the name of an underground realm, peopled by cannibalistic human barbarians, and held in sway to a trio of vicious devils.  These poor souls are often thrust into the wars between the Gray Dwarf kingdom of Deep Delving and the vast Black Goblin Empire.  When pressures mount too high, migrating bands of the human cultists and barbarians will emerge, and have to be dealt with by the Knights and their Cat Rider allies.

In addition, the primitive men, the Oordut, who live in and around the icy upper levels of the Groben Caves, sometimes will frenzy (the shamen-chiefs of the Oordut are typically peaceful, but occasionally, for some inscrutable reason, they will begin attacking the more civilized lands around their own icy reaches), and this demands the attention of the Knights and the Cat Riders.  The very small Keepi-keepi people who dwell among the rocks scattered throughout the region are thought to be similar to the Oordut - except that they (the Keepi-keepi) are so much smaller.

The Cat Riders are known as the Aublan Cat Riders for the one thing in their culture that passes for

a permanent holding.  Usually the clans are divided up into two "nations" - the Northern Hunt, in the plains north of the King's Highway, and the Southern Pack, from the plains south of the King's Highway.  The whole region is referred to as the Aublan Valley.  Each summer, for a week before, and a week after the summer solstice, representative warriors from all the clans will gather at a particular spot of the King's Highway, on both sides of the mighty mound.  At the top of the mound, along the Highway, at this point, there is an ancient structure of the Old Ones.  It is a very tall alabaster tower, with a ringed round wall around it.  Written on the wall, in several locations, is the word Aublan. It stands in the middle of the mound of the King's Highway, dead center in the highway itself, with the road passing on either side.  There is neither gate nor door through the ringed wall, but inside there is an opening into the tower.  It is said to be the home to a curious race of dormant gargoyles, yet the rite of passage of a young member of the Cat Rider clans who want to become a clan chieftain, or a Khan of either the Northern Hunt or the Southern Pack, is that they must climb to the top of the tower of Aublan, awaken one of the alabaster gargoyles, and do battle with it.  It is not known what other secrets the tower of Aublan holds, but it might be worth exploring, by the brave and prepared.  But not when the massed clans of the Cat Riders have gathered for their summer ritual.

Baronies - The holdings of the Westroners in the Valley

There are currently 19 Westron Baronies in the Valley of the Old Ones.  Technically speaking, there are 18 Baronies, and the city of Narn, which is the capitol of the Kingdom of Ymnaris - of which the 18 other Baronies are technically fiefdoms.  However, in practice, Ymnaris (currently ruled by Duke Alasdair IV of the Neill family) is little more powerful than some of the other larger baronies.  The two points of exception for Narn are its size (it is larger, by thousands of inhabitants, than the next largest Baronial city), and the fact that the Cathedral of St. Narn is there - for which the city is named.  The Cathedral of St. Narn is also the seat of the Church (technically, the "High Office at St. Narn of the Westron Church of the Three Goddesses").

The Cities (which are technically named for the barony of which they are the capitol) all have their own "official" nick name. They were all settled between the years 26 and 1186.  It is currently the year 1534 of the Western Migration, so the younger cities have only been established as short as 300 years since they were originally settled, compared to the oldest, which has been settled now for over 1500 years.

The population figures given are JUST for the City, and not for the whole Barony.  In most cases, assume that the Barony will number this much again in dependent towns, and double this amount in dispersed rural communities.

So other than the city of Narn, the other 18 Baronies are as follows:

Hogle - "The First City" in the Shattered Plains region; pop. 18,000, settled year 26.
Macester - "City of the Sword" in the Gateway region; pop. 21,000, settled year 82.
Ockham - "City of Enchantment" in the Enchanted Forests region; pop. 19,000, settled year 107.
Scallen - "City of Birds" in the Bartaloo region; pop. 19,500, settled year 163.
Kof Karn - "City in the Cradle" in the Rising Land region; pop. 21,000, settled year 219.
Khomaes - "City of Mists"; in the Darkearth Plains region; pop. 22,000, settled year 231.
Henn - "City of the Shadows" in the Rising Land region; pop. 18,000, settled year 285.
Pellorix - "City of the Lake" in the Rising Land region; pop. 19,000, settled year 341.
Werms - "City in the Clouds" in the Darkearth Plains region; pop. 19,000, settled year 352.
Huygen - "City of Light" in the Darkearth Plains region; pop. 18,500, settled year 394.
Gorrem - "City of Ten Gates" in the Wychwood region; pop. 27,000,settled year 462.
Na Kram - "City of Dust", in the Sildur Reaches region; pop. 18,000, settled year 558.
Lynch - "City of Fire" in the Nightside region; pop. 20,000, settled year 642.
Botts - "City of Wind" in the Sildur Reaches region; pop. 17,500, settled year 728.
Ungams - "City of the Harp" in the Nightside region; pop. 16,000, settled year 902.
City of Narn - "City of the Three Goddesses" Capitol of Kingdom of Ymnaris; in the Suuviz region; pop. 38,000, settled year 914.
Devrie - "City of Shale" in the Shale March region; pop. 16,000, settled year 1022.
Futtonol - "The Shield City" in the Suuviz region; pop. 11,000, settled year 1099.
Kennidor - "City on the Frontier" in the Shale March region; pop. 12,500, settled year 1186.

Note that the nicknames of the city are those that the Archivists at Parn Tandalorn have decided to grant the city, in order to differentiate the City itself form the Barony, which often includes lands, villages, castles and other holdings far beyond the borders of the city.  The local inhabitants, however, will sometimes choose a different name (either from custom, or predating the naming by the Archivists).  For instance, the inhabitants of the First City (capitol of the Barony of Hogle) often refer to it as Granite Hold - which was the name of the Castle first built there by the founding baron, Sir Tuneyer of Ockett, in the year 26.  It took him, and his men, a number of years to build Granite Hold, but they adopted for a stone structure from the start, hence the name.

Regions of the Valley (1) - Shattered Plains

While in a human-centric fashion, it is convenient to speak of the Valley in Political terms by referencing the Westron Baronies, there are other considerations.

When talking about the geography of the valley, or the non-human Flora and Fauna, it is perhaps better to speak of the Northern and Southern regions of the valley.

In brief, these are defined by the Nine rivers, in terms of separation one from another, and the big divide between North and South is of course the Great River.  What follows is a brief naming and description of the regions, Northern first, from west to east.


Shattered Plains

The most western of regions north of the Great River is mostly plains. It is bounded on the north by the western reaches of the Destriel Mountains. The eastern edge of the shattered plains run up against the Durwash River. The southern boundary is the Great River, and to the west is the defacto edge of the Valley of the Old Ones. The western edge of the valley is patrolled by great hosts of the Omart Empire.

As the empire is certainly not interested in entering the Valley (or involving itself with the Westron culture that has taken root here), and the large military patrols seem charged with keeping all FROM the valley contained IN the valley - there have been few large expeditions west.

Geographically, the shattered plains are quite interesting. They were once overrun by large icefields and glaciers from north of the Destriel mountains, and when the ice receded, the region was strewn with many bolders and singular rocky formations jutting up out of the plains.

The only Westron Barony to call the shattered plains home is the Granite Hold at Hogle, capitol of the Barony of Hogle. Although Hogle is the oldest of the baronies (first settled in the year 26, some 1500 years ago), it is also one of the smallest. It boasts a size of only 18,000 in the capitol city. The city is home to the Knights of Torisch, and their curious allies the Aublan Cat Riders. The Cat Riders, of course, ride the great plains cats that live in the region. Like much of the rest of the northern regions, the animals here have adapted to the sweeping cold that comes down out of the Destriel, and includes giant elk, great wooly mammoths and rhinos, and the great wooly buffalo. Only here, however, are the great plains cats found.

The Aublan valley is home to the Cat Rider peoples (who are semi-nomadic, moving north to Aublan for the summer and the breeding season, but moving south to near the Great River for winter). Aublan riders, who are quite proficient with the small horned bows that they shoot from atop their giant riding cats, are allied with the Barony of Hogle (or more accurately, with the Grand Master of the Knights of Torisch).  The Aublan riders are divided into two "nations" or collectives of clans,the Northern Hunt, and the Southern Pack.

Together they protect the region from maruding orcs and hobgoblins out of the mountains; from rampaging raids of Storm King Tribe barbarians; from the overzealous encroachments of Omart Empire patrols, and finally from the occasional uprisings of the primitive Keepi-keepi people who live among the great stones of the plains.