Gather o ye lords of Emoreah!
Hail and well-met, traveler, and welcome to this place we call The Lands of Emoreah. Emoreah is a place not unlike your Earth once was – perhaps about one or two thousand years ago. There are no knights in shining armor or grand castles here. Not yet. In Emoreah, these are the days of the spear and shield, the hill-fort, the sling, and the chariot.
On the west coast of the Emorean continent, lies the Kingdom of Garnia. The Garnian people are known as ‘Garns’. The Garns are farmers, fishers, and hunters, and have a reputation as fierce fighters. Their capital, Wintermond, is home to over twenty-five thousand, including a variety of skilled artisans and crafters, leather, bronze, and iron workers, tailors, jewelers, and weaponsmiths.
At present, you find yourself in a place called Seandrochaide (which, in an ancient language known as Old Naltish means ‘old bridge’). It is a small town situated on the River Braeme. There is, as expected, an old bridge in Seandrochaide. So old no one knows who built it. It is said when the Garns first came to Garnia, the bridge was already here.
The Thegn of Seandrochaide is named Seldric, Son of Amon, of Clan Arofaetna. Seldric is a master ship builder, a wise and fair ruler, and despite his advanced years, is still quite nimble and can dance with the best of them.
About one day’s ride downriver from Seandrochaide, the River Braeme empties into the Ellusian Ocean. The coastal region here is known as the Cladach Cogaidh (the war coast). Much of the coastline is rough terrain, dominated by cliff faces and rocky shoals. The Garns have built a series of promontory forts along this coastline, to protect the interior from incursion.
Garnian Society
Garnia is ruled by a clan system. Ordinary free people who do not own land are known as churls. Unfree people are known as thralls. The landowning class is known as eorls (yorls). Landowning families band together to create clans. There are 27 clans in Garnia, each with about 5,000 to 10,000 members. In order to be in a clan your family must own land (thus most Garnians are not in a clan).
Not all landowning families are in a clan, but the vast majority are. Families and kin-groups promise loyalty to clans and in exchange receive protection and other benefits.
The patriarch or matriarch of a family that is formally seated on the clan council is known as an Ealdorman or Ealdorwoman. An Ealdor represents a sept, a sub-division of the clan, that is typically an extended kin-group. Each clan’s Council of Ealdors chooses a clan Chieftain. The exact rules for how this is done vary from clan to clan, but in general, the Chieftain is a lifetime position. Upon the death of the Chieftain, the position often passes to the Chieftain’s eldest son, but a vote of the clan council is required to affirm this, and on occasion a new Chieftain is selected.
Chieftains have the power to declare a feud with another clan, to end a feud, to set trade policy with other clans, to make war on foreign enemies, and in general to represent the clan in all matters. Chieftains also have the power to grant land and title and to administer justice within their own clan.
The Chieftains from all 27 clans choose a Cyning (King) from among themselves. The Cyning represents Garnia in all dealings with foreign nations. The Cyning has no real power over the other Chieftains, he or she has no ability to issue decrees, make laws, taxes, or raise armies. The Cyning is considered ‘first among equals’ in reference to the other Chieftains, not their overlord.
A Chieftain can make a minor lord into a Thegn, which gives that lord the right to act on behalf of the Clan, to raise armies, and to administer justice. A Chieftain can also appoint a retainer to be a member of the Housecarls — loyal bodyguards and agents who serve the Chieftain.
Chieftains can appoint a Reeve (bailiff) or High-Reeve (sheriff) to oversee justice, tax collection, and other administrative functions.
Corvosian Overlords
Garnia is part of the Empire of Corvos, a city far to the southeast. By treaty, Garns are not citizens of Corvos, and are thus not subject to what is known as Venar Law, which is the law of the Empire. Garns are instead subject to Brithean Law, which is the legal code of the Nalts (see below). As a result, Garns are not required to serve in the Corvosian Army, but instead all male Garnic churls are required to serve for two years in the mines of Gleann Copair, or to pay a sufficient sum to exempt them from service.
The Corvosians have built a fortress, which they call Iňgünbatarda (which in their language – Corros – means ‘furthest west’). To the Garns it is known as Daingneach Cèin (‘the fort of the foreigners’). You do not know how many soldiers are garrisoned at Daingneach Cèin, but it is rumored to be over ten thousand.
Culture, Language, and Religion
Garnian culture is descendent from a people who were known as the Nalts, and originated in the Nalt Valley of what is now a Kingdom to the East called Urmania. Much of your language and customs are rooted in those of the Nalts.
The language here, Garnic, is spoken throughout Garnia, as well as in the region to the north of here, known as Argynia, and in portions of a kingdom to the south called Ithyria.
The Naltish Gods are worshipped throughout western Emoreah. Among the most prominent of them are:
Sruthlùbach
The goddess of nature, the earth, fire, and fertility. She is the Mother-Goddess, the source of all life, and she brings fulfillment, stability, power, and security. She is represented by the full moon. She is often depicted holding a beehive or a crow. Sruthlùbach is associated with water and is usually depicted as being surrounded by water. The goddess’s name literally translates as ‘winding stream’.
Gealachog
The goddess of birth, youth, children, the spring, the planting, herd animals, and rain. She is represented by the frog or dragonfly, and is often depicted holding a cherry blossom, or an amphora. Her name means the waxing moon. Gealachog is also known as Gaeir and the word Garnia is derivative of her name. She is believed to have descended from Heaven onto the mountain of Dachaigh Eile, which is known as the mountain of eternal mist, and from there, she walked across the plains of Foghar Mor, and dispensed three blessings: warm sun, fertile soil, and gentle rain. She is the Goddess-Queen of the Garns, and holds a place of special reverence among them.
Leomhannabhais/Aidseantrocair
Leomhannabhais is The Ghost Queen, the goddess of aging, death, discord, and disease. She is represented by the waning moon, and is often depicted as a human with the head of a fox. She is the keeper of fate and prophecy, and she knows the day on which she will meet each of us. She has two aspects: Leomhannabhais, The Ghost Queen, who is truly fearsome, but at other times she is Aidseantrocair, the Wise and Merciful, who alleviates pain, grants peace and acceptance, and gives mercy to the innocent. Aidseantrocair is depicted as an old woman with a snake wrapped around her wrist.
Orcellos
The God of Loss, Destruction, Ruin, and Dispair. Orcellos is one of the gods known as the Forbidden Seven. Garns do not pray to the Forbidden Seven. They pray to the other gods for delivery from the Forbidden Seven. Orcellos is depicted either as a man-headed bull or a bull-headed man. He is sometimes carrying an axe, and at other times is depicted as holding a giant phallus.
Mahannan
God of the rivers, thermal springs, and healing. Mahannan is depicted as a youthful man either carrying a net full of fish or pouring water from a vessel. Mahannan is the twin brother of Diancan, the goddess of music and poetry.
Diancan
Diancan is the goddess of music and poetry. She is associated with all celebrations but especially weddings. She is the patron of Bards. Diancan is depicted as a woman holding a harp or with a robin perched on her finger. Sometimes she is shown as having a round of robins circling her head.
Dunitreulh
The god of the forest, wild animals, storms, floods, and wind. He is depicted as a bearded man with stag-like antlers. He is one of the Forbidden Seven, and is not someone Garns pray to. Only the priestly class known as the Draoidhean conduct rituals to appease Dunitreulh, and the mere mention of his name will cause many Garns to say a prayer to Sruthlùbach to ask protection.
Dallapona
Dallapona is the Divine Horse, the goddess of horses, and is often depicted as a horse, but at other times she is shown as a woman with long hair riding a horse and holding a basket of grain, or a woman standing and feeding a foal. She has a keychain around her neck holding one of the keys to heaven. She is sometimes depicted as dropping a green piece of cloth to start a horse race. Small roadside shrines to Dallapona can be found throughout Garnia, where travelers drop flowers or other small offerings for luck. Dallapona is the one Naltish deity that has been embraced by the Corvosians. Lacking a horse deity in their own pantheon, some of their cavalry units have taken up the worship of Dallapona.
The Draoidhean
The Draoidhean, which means ‘tree-knowers’, are considered the highest religious authorities in Garnia, far above priests of individual Naltish deities. The Draoidhean teach the doctrine of transmigration of souls and discuss the nature and power of the gods. They teach of an otherworld, imagined sometimes as underground and sometimes as islands in the sea. The otherworld is called Tìrnanòganach, the “Land of the Young”, and is believed to be a land where there is no sickness, old age, or death, where happiness lasts forever, and a hundred years in Emoreah is only one day in Tìrnanòganach.
Although their teachings center on the natural world, the Draoidhean are far from primitivistic nature worshippers. They are learned elders, scholars, historians, scribes, naturalists, astronomers, and alchemists. They study and record the natural world in all its forms. They are the keepers of the calendar. They instruct the people when to plant and when to harvest, make laws about when and where the people are allowed to hunt, what to eat, and how to worship. It is said that even Kings and Chieftains fear the Draoidhean, for they speak to the Gods, and at times administer divine retribution. To harm a Draoid is a great offense among the Garns, and to refuse a request from them is to invite the wrath of the gods.
The Bards
Bards in Garnia hold positions of significant prestige. Travelling bards are the most common source of news of the world. The words of a Bard are protected by law, and retaliation against a Bard for a performance will invite the scorn and mockery of all the Bards of Garnia – a fate few are willing to face.
The Fàidhean
The Fàidhean are prophets or seers who are thought to know the future. Although they are few, they are perhaps the most influential group in all of Garnia. Kings and Chieftains have been known to let important decisions turn on a few words from a Fàidh. All Fàidhean are physically blind. They always wear simple black robes and have no possessions to speak of. To provide for a Fàidh is a symbol of status among wealthy families.
Festivals
The year is divided into two periods of six months by the feasts of Catsaman (May 1) and Sursaman (November 1), and each of these periods was equally divided by the feasts of Imborcann (February 1), and Bron (August 1). The Draoidhean hold a three-day religious festival known as the Latheanadraide, that always begins on the first Friday following Catsaman.
Culture of Garnia
One local saying is that Garns rule by strength. Physical strength is a subject of great pride among Garnian men. Nearly all Garnian festivals include games or contests involving feats of strength.
Another saying that is common throughout Emoreah is that someone dances like a Garn, which means they dance with great enthusiasm and abandon.
However, when someone fights like a Garn it means they will fight you stubbornly, to the bitter end, without regard for themselves.
Garnia is a rough and tumble place. Clans routinely fight one another over land and other resources. Each clan must defend itself – there is no higher authority for them to appeal to. At times, clans have been utterly destroyed, and new ones are occasionally created.
Garns practice a limited form of slavery, mostly as punishment for crimes, although sometimes as a result of raids and other military action in foreign lands. Brithean law prohibits chattel slavery and the purchase and sale of people in general. The proportion of thralls in Garnia is less than about 1 in 20.
Brithean law gives Garnian women comparatively more rights than in many places in Emoreah. Garnian women can own land, sign contracts, hold wealth and title, and generally participate in civic life.
Child Rearing
The children of Garnian eorls spend most of their time with the women of the family until they are age six, when they are most often sent to be raised by an uncle or family friend, who takes charge of seeing that the child is prepared for adult-hood.
The child is taught how to fight, to hunt, most often with the bow, but sometimes with an eagle; to fish, to ride, forestry skills, and farm-steading. Some wealthy families may hire a tutor to provide formal instruction in academic subjects such as language, history, mathematics, natural philosophy, music, etc., but this is rare. Other wealthy Garns may send a child east, to the city of Mitheris, in Urmania, to study with the Varynkars, a sect of religious scholars, who, for a price, will teach the child to read and write in Garnic, Corros, or Urmanian.
At age 16, young Garns undergo their Innraeharleika– which means something akin to ‘instill honesty’ in Old Naltish. The Innraeharleika is a religious ceremony and a rite of passage. At that age, a young Garn acquires rights of adulthood under Brithean law. Many marry at that time (some of which are pre-arranged), but others begin apprenticeships to learn advanced trade skills like blacksmithing or ship-building.
It is also not uncommon for young Garns to delay marriage and take one or more years to engage in what is known as ‘wilding’ –living off the land in the mountains in order to perfect their wilderness skills, or to spend a year or more to pursue more advanced military training, by riding with their clan housecarls. Others take time to study the priestcraft of one or more of the Naltish gods.
A very few young Garns join the Corvosian army. The term of service is twenty years, and you will have no control over where they send you. Enough to deter most. On the other hand, by the time you muster out, you will have enough money to live out your days quite comfortably.
Male Garnian churls typically spend the years between the ages of 16 and 18 in the mines of Gleann Copair. The fee for exemption from service is 75 gold pieces.
Notable Sites in Garnia
Wintermond
The capital of Garnia and the largest city in the kingdom.
Daingneach Cèin
A massive fortress constructed by the Corvosians, Daingneach Cèin is the barracks for many thousands of soldiers, and the seat of Corvosian power in the region.
Gleann Copair
The Copper Valley, site of three different large mining operations built by the Corvosians.
Losgadhsìorraidh
The mountain of eternal fire. A mysterious place revered by the Garns, the north face of the mountain features caves that emit a smoky haze continually.
Dachaigh Eile
The mountain of eternal mist. The holy mountain of the goddess Gealachog. This is the place where Gealachog first set foot upon Emoreah, and she walked from there to the sea.
Cnoc nan Diathan
The isle of the Draoidhean, a place forbidden to ordinary Garns, except during the celebration known as the Latheanadraide, at which time it is the site of a great festival and games.