Dragon Magazine #050.pdf - TheCrimsonPirate.com

June 1981
life of the Nithmere was thrown into confusion.
This was the state of affairs in the
year 1290, when the Great Barbarian
War broke upon the rocks of the
Nithmere.
We know of the war largely from the
memoirs of the Ozerg Mountaineers,
who stood by their Goblin allies throughout
the conflict. Sagaradu Black Hammer
had risen to the status of Great Chief
over the barbarous north. He directed
the energies of his fur-clad warriors
against the barbarian’s common enemy,
Zorn, and in the war that followed,
scarcely a hill or dale in Zorn was free
from the bloody skirmishes of Goblin
and barbarian warriors.
It is testimony to the trauma this war
caused the Goblins that not one lay describes
it, nor is any year named from an
event issuing directly from it. For example,
the calamitous year 1296 is called
“The Year the Traders Did Not Come.”
Yet, out of the horrors of this conflict, the
barriers that divided tribe from tribe inexorably
fell, as a sense of common
cause and “Goblinness” replaced them.
How the last Goblin host made its
stand in Stone Toad Forest and was relieved
by the timely arrival of the Black
Hand with a demonic aid so terrible that
the scene of the battle was ever after
known as “The Cursed Forest” is a tale
too well known to bear repeating here.
After the barbarians were expelled,
leaders of all the tribes met to debate the
future of the Nithmere. No other kingdom
had aided the Goblins in their desperation;
the elders feared an attack
from without would one day destroy the
Goblins utterly if they did not band together
now and forever. Nergil worship
had spread widely during the war, further
enhancing the spirit of Goblin brotherhood.
According to the scholar Nuadat, the
council met for a year and a day, drawing
up the laws that would govern the country
called Zorn. It was decided they must
have a lord. They chose Ockwig, the sirdar
(war leader) who had delivered Zorn
in its gravest hour.
Ockwig’s government was still young
when Boewenn’s War made the west
tremble. Although Boewenn’s fury was
spent upon human foes, he won no sympathy
from the Goblins. The massacres
and burning towns of lmmer reminded
them of the Great Barbarian War.
As the Elves advanced, many Immerites
fled into the Nithmere to escape
death at the hands of Boewenn’s most
fanatical general, Tegwedd. At the fringe
of Wild Wood, a mob of the lmmerites
were captured by a detachment of Goblin
soldiers, who intended to sell them for
slaves.
Tegwedd demanded the surrender of
the prisoners, but the Goblins insisted
upon payment first. Sharp words were
exchanged and arrows followed. Tegwedd
withdrew, but communicated the
event back to Boewenn, by means of a
magic glass. Incensed at the impudence
of the goblins, Boewenn ordered Tegwedd
to make reprisals. He did so,
against several border settlements, and
added additional insults by desecrating
the shrines of Nergil with the blood of the
hare — a “vile beast” to the Goblins.
Angrily, the Goblins joined the war
and shattered the Elven army in Immer.
Worse than the loss of soldiers was the
capture of the magical devices on which
the small Elven army depended for
victory.
By spring, lder Bolis’ broad walls were
breached, and Tegwedd hanged himself
from the Triumphal Arch of Elir rather
than be turned over to the Goblins.
Zorn emerged from the war legitimatized,
if not well liked, in the eyes of its
neighbors. Ockwig nurtured good international
relations by maintaining the
‘peace, but his successor, Nystul, took an
aggressive stance. He sent a raiding ex-
Dragon
pedition against the rich Mines of Rosengg,
only to have it frustrated by an
alliance of Dwarves and Muetarians.
The sirdar’s humiliation alienated a
large section of his support among the
tribes — a situation that encouraged a
charismatic military adventurer, Ortwir,
to force his way into the sirdarship. This
conflict, called the Brothers’ War, threatened
the survival of both the infant state
and the faith which had made it possible.
Although a brilliant tactician, Ortwir
thought too little of Immer’s fighting spirit
and boldly raided that area for supplies.
In reply, King Reglissar of lmmer
made common cause with Sirdar Nystul
and helped destroy Ortwir’s army at
Shrieker’s Scrub. The villain himself escaped
capture and fled Zorn for parts
unknown.
Since the civil war, Zorn has increased
its variety of exportable products and
acquired a new ruler by lawful succession.
It is yet to be seen if Sirdar Draschgig
will lead Zorn to greater prosperity,
or to new troubles and division.
A depiction of the sirdar Ockwig leading a united Goblin army
which surprised the elven invaders at Twilight Moor and drove the
elven forces from Immer.
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