Post by The Dungeon Master on Feb 28, 2013 10:57:58 GMT -5
Ancient History of Karameikos
The region now called the Grand Duchy of Karameikos was once the homeland of the Traldar, an indigenous human race. The Traldar were a short, stocky, dark-skinned race, and were not known to other human tribes or races within recorded history.
Scholarly excavation of buried and ruined Traldar villages reveal that, in the oldest settlements, the Traldar relied almost exclusively on fishing and hunting to survive. They made their weapons of wood and stone, constructed rude dugout canoes for transportation, and lived a frugal, subsistence-level based existence.
Then, so far as scholars can tell, Traldar civilization took a sudden jump in sophistication. Almost overnight, the Traldar were forging bronze weapons and armor, cutting roads through the dense forests of Traldar territory, joining communities into a trading network of some complexity.
In Traldar legndry, the immortals created the world from a roiling, chaotic mass, then created animals and man, and for many years let man live in ignorance, with poor homes, poor tools, poor weapons. Then, as told in “The Song of Halav,” they bequeathed to the Traldar the secrets of working tin and copper into bronze, of weaving with spindle and loom, of creating pottery with a potter’s wheel, and of using many other miraculous tools and weapons.
“The Song of King Halav” legends deal with a Traldar society very similar to that which the scholars have uncovered. The Traldar hero-kings reigned over large forest communities, engaged in trade, wore weapons and used armor of glittering bronze.
According to “Halav.” A fierce horde of beast-men descended on the Traldar, intent on exterminating the tribe and occupying these rich lands themselves. The fighting was bloody; ultimately most of the Traldar and beast-men perished; King Halav and the king of the beast-men slew one another; and the surviving beast-men departed Traldar lands while the surviving humans rebuilt their homes and set about making their villages prosperous again.
According to scholars, the legend is based on fact. The decorations on broken pottery, the inlay on weapons forged during that time, distinctly show beastlike humanoids in conflict with men. Scholars tend to believe that the beast-men were, in fact, gnollish tribes from the far west, though many pieces of art show the beast-men as being much more like dog-headed men or werewolves.
The region now called the Grand Duchy of Karameikos was once the homeland of the Traldar, an indigenous human race. The Traldar were a short, stocky, dark-skinned race, and were not known to other human tribes or races within recorded history.
Scholarly excavation of buried and ruined Traldar villages reveal that, in the oldest settlements, the Traldar relied almost exclusively on fishing and hunting to survive. They made their weapons of wood and stone, constructed rude dugout canoes for transportation, and lived a frugal, subsistence-level based existence.
Then, so far as scholars can tell, Traldar civilization took a sudden jump in sophistication. Almost overnight, the Traldar were forging bronze weapons and armor, cutting roads through the dense forests of Traldar territory, joining communities into a trading network of some complexity.
In Traldar legndry, the immortals created the world from a roiling, chaotic mass, then created animals and man, and for many years let man live in ignorance, with poor homes, poor tools, poor weapons. Then, as told in “The Song of Halav,” they bequeathed to the Traldar the secrets of working tin and copper into bronze, of weaving with spindle and loom, of creating pottery with a potter’s wheel, and of using many other miraculous tools and weapons.
“The Song of King Halav” legends deal with a Traldar society very similar to that which the scholars have uncovered. The Traldar hero-kings reigned over large forest communities, engaged in trade, wore weapons and used armor of glittering bronze.
According to “Halav.” A fierce horde of beast-men descended on the Traldar, intent on exterminating the tribe and occupying these rich lands themselves. The fighting was bloody; ultimately most of the Traldar and beast-men perished; King Halav and the king of the beast-men slew one another; and the surviving beast-men departed Traldar lands while the surviving humans rebuilt their homes and set about making their villages prosperous again.
According to scholars, the legend is based on fact. The decorations on broken pottery, the inlay on weapons forged during that time, distinctly show beastlike humanoids in conflict with men. Scholars tend to believe that the beast-men were, in fact, gnollish tribes from the far west, though many pieces of art show the beast-men as being much more like dog-headed men or werewolves.