Hearth Home - River Jarl Steading (4)

Hearth Home is the ancestral home of the White Wolf, a very long lived warlock (self-styled) that rules with an iron claw, but is also very protective of his people.  The steading itself is a series of stone mead halls, with a central "great hall" that is actually a multilevel towering affair, with lots of balconies and towers.  It stands atop a great dungeon complex, built years ago by the original followers of the White Wolf.

Great Hall of the White Wolf

The palisade-circled city that surrounds the mead halls overlooks a curious feature of the land.  There was once a lake, with a number of streams and a single river (the Moonharp lake, fed by the Shining River) that ran down into the Great Owl Forest.  Many, many years ago there was a fight in this are between Helgor and the Storm Lady, Othero.  In the battle, Othero fired her bow, Icefinger, three times at Helgor.  All three times, Helgor deftly dodged the frozen missiles fired by the Storm Lady.  But all three of them fell into the Moonharp Lake.  The lake itself was instantly frozen by the first, and the ice made thicker and deeper with the two successive shots.  To this day it stands frozen solid, even in the bright sun of the short, but warm, northern summer.

In the middle of the Ice Lake, which itself is 5 miles across, there stands a rough concentric wall and tower, both made of ice.  These have been constructed by the surviving members of a tribe of Fish Men (Ichor Lang) that lived in the lake at one time. There is a rough truce between the Fish Men and the men of Hearth Home, but that truce does not extend to travelers, or others on the eastern shores of the lake.  The culture and practices of the Fish Men has been described as "vile and disgusting - cursed by the gods" by some skalds and rangers that have encountered them.

Ice Castle of the Ichor Lang (Fish Men)

The Shining River has dried up, for the most part, but the lands in and around it are a sort of marshy territory.  The amount of moisture, and free standing water, in the marsh varies widely during the year, and it serves as a hunting ground for some of the far-ranging Fish Men, as well as other beings that live there, and even more that wander up in search of prey, out of the Great Owl Forest.

South of the steading, almost on the border of the Great Owl Forest, stands a curious tower, nicknamed by wanderers from Hearth Home as the "tower of the world's ending".  It is not known where this nickname comes from, but it could be that the rolling hills that the Hearth Home is part of, finally flatten out, and give way to the very dense Great Owl Forest, and the lands of the tower are at the point where they meet.  Or it could have to do with the sorcerer Belue Gorm who built the tower.  Belue Gorm was obsessed with the long forgotten (by sane men) elder beings that the Old Ones worshiped, especially the Lord of Fire.  The sorcerer felt that the world, since the Old Ones had departed, had fallen into corruption and misuse, and that it was the duty of those who remembered the elder beings from the beginning of time (and before) should seek to recall them to this domain.  In order to do that, at least with the Lord of Fire, Belue Gorm was seeking about a way to bring about the end of most of life within the Valley (and else where) by means of magical fire.  How far he got in his studies, and how successful he might have been, it will never be known, for a war party of Elfin warriors came and laid waste to the tower, and threw down the dead body of Belue Gorm.  It is rumored that the White Wolf was asked by the Fey war party for assistance, and refused.  This story is used to explain the curious rift between the men of Hearth Home and any and all representatives of the Seely court.

Tower of Belue Gorm

In spite of what the Elfin warriors wrought against Belue Gorm, the "tower of the world's ending" still stands, and the dungeons underneath it are unplumbed to this day.


During the Week of Adventure Locations, the writeup of The Glade of Time was originally part of this article on Hearth Home.  This was location 4.

The Storm King's Pantheon

The various tribes of Storm King barbarians vary one from another in many different ways, however they all share one thing in common - reverence and worship of the Storm King and his associated pantheon. This is a brief overview of those gods.

Bronc is the King of the Destriel Gods, and also the King of Storms. He is rarely seen, but always present. He is in every storm cloud, and looks down on his people. The Destriel Mountains, marking the northern boundary of the Valley of the Old Ones is a cold, windy place, often wracked by mysterious storms of all sorts. It is fitting that the king of storms dwells here. When the broody Bronc (who is much more frequently called, simply, the Storm King) appears, either in artwork, or during his very rare appearances on earth, he is a dark hulking being, with a horned helmet, wearing a great black shag-cow's hide as a cape. He carries a single broadsword, called Arrios which sings to the Storm King when in combat. His common foes are the many Sun Worms sent against him by the Sun King, Photos. The Storm King dwells in his cloudy castle Windkeep with Tyrros and Othero.

Tyrros is the son of the Storm King, and is the Prince of Thunder. He is the god of thunder and lightning, and has a personality to match. He is often roaming the world, in search of combat and warfare. He carries a great warhammer named Bloodthunder. When roaming the world, he is often in his chariot, which is pulled by a pair of great blue oxen named Glangor and Feory.

Othero is the lady of the Storm King, sometimes called the Storm Lady. She is pale and golden and beautiful, but she is also freezing cold. She dwelt alone at the top of the tallest peak in the Destriels until she attracted the interest of the Storm King. He rescued her from her mountaintop by beating the giants keeping her imprisoned, and then took her back to Windkeep with him. She bore him the son, Tyrros. Now she dwells at Windkeep and controls the coming and going of winter. She sometimes, for sport, will shoot at the sun worms that encircle the fortress with her bow, Icefinger.

Helgor is the Black Chieftain. He is the ruler of the Dark Shore, and is the lord of the domain of the restless dead. All those who die an unsatisfying death are doomed to dwell on the Dark Shore, where they may be called upon by sorcerers to perform foul deeds, or worse. Nobody wants the Black Chieftain to appear, however some will pay homage to him when affairs of the dead are concerned. He appears as a tall dark man, with a helmet set by two great curving goat horns. He carries a black longspear named Soulteaser, with a slender tip that ends in flame. By his side, when he is seen traveling the face of the earth, he is sometimes accompanied by a Fell Beast (a huge wolflike creature the size of an elephant, and quite ferocious).