Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The Demography of Karameikosand the hill country several miles around it –is ruled by King Dorfus Hilltopper, advised inturn by a Council of Elders withrepresentatives from all the clans; it is aneffectively autonomous kingdom within theGrand Duchy. Highforge gnomes preservetheir customs and laws independently fromthose of the human population. They arevery good wood and metal craftsmen, but arequite reserved and prefer to be left alone andnot deal with the affairs of the outer world.Trade between the Grand Duchy andHighforge is strictly regulated by thetraditional gnome caravan which annuallyleaves the gnome town for Specularum,where it trades the gnomes’ goods for a fewdays. Highforge’s gnomes are often involvedin skirmishes with the goblins that live to thenorth-east of the town.Some gnomish families are also found inother parts of the Grand Duchy. This is dueto a local gnomish custom, according towhich a clan who cannot peacefully agreewith a decision of the Council of Elders mustleave the kingdom and settle elsewhere.Though this happens rarely, during thecourse of the centuries some small gnomeclans have indeed left Highforge to resettle inthe larger cities of the Grand Duchy or tofound mining or crafting settlements in theborderlands or wilderness areas.Orcs (pop. 10,000)Orcs are the second most numerous race ofhumanoids in Karameikos, and theirpresence in this land is quite old.About half of the orcs living in Karameikos arefound in the western part of the country.They were the first orcs who came toKarameikos; tribes of red orcs and commonorcs driven out of the hin lands to the west bythe halflings’ uprising (BC 744-610). Theseorcs settled the Cruth Lowlands regionbetween the Cruth and Achelos Rivers.Modern local orc tribes, like the Jagged Clawand the Blackstone, claim to be descendantsof those hordes. Later defeats at the handsof the hin in the following centuries (likethose of AC 700 and AC 944) have pushed astable flow of orcs into the Cruth Lowlandsregion. These orcs are often in league withgroups of ogres and control much of thelands north of Riverfork Keep, representinga real hindrance to the penetration ofhuman presence in that area. Other smallerorc hordes are part of mixed (goblin orgnoll) tribes who are stationed within oraround the lands of the Black Eagle Barony(with which they are allied), while severalhundred orcs directly serve the Black EagleBaron as mercenaries in his elite division,the Banner of the Black Eagle. The tribesliving in western Karameikos are mostly ofcommon orc (Orcus porcus) stock, but arelevant part of them (about 30%) belongsto the red orc (Orcus rubeus vulgaris) stock.Other large orc tribes, who belong entirelyto the common orc (Orcus porcus) stock, arefound in eastern Karameikos, mostly alongthe Altan Tepes range; among those areorc-only tribes (like the Hairless Dog or theBlack Web of the southern Altan Tepes) ormixed tribes (like the Jagged Rocks of thenorthern range). A couple of smaller tribesare also found around the medium flow ofCastellan River, between the Duke’s Roadand the upper Highreach River flow. All theorcs of eastern Karameikos arrived in thisregion during the humanoid invasions of theearly 5 th century BC, after the humanoiddefeat at the Battle of Sardal Pass (BC 492).20THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1