Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The Demography of KarameikosAPPENDIX I: THE LOST VALLEY OF HUTAAKAThe Lost Valley of Hutaaka is a hidden valesurrounded by the highest mountains of theBlack Peaks including Mount Pavel. TheValley is inaccessible by means of paths andtrails, and its existence is a secret known onlyto the Immortals. The only way to access theValley is through the upper Foamfire Rivervalley (the territory of the Death’s Headgnolls), where a hidden and very ancient roadleads to the Lost Valley’s doors. The road canonly be detected by means of ancient magicaltapestries and needles created by thehutaakans, which now are lost.The Valley was the power seat of the HighPriest of Pflarr during the height of theHutaakan civilization; here most hutaakanswithdrew in secrecy on the eve of the GreatBeastmen Invasion (BC 1000), abandoningthe Traldar humans to their doom save ahandful they brought with them as slaves. Infact, the hutaakans kept to themselves andsevered any ties with the outside world.Though this decision saved the hutaakancivilization from the ravages of the BeastmenInvasion, it also triggered its decline. In BC500, when the Nithian Empire met its doom,the Immortal Pflarr, creator and patron of thehutaakan race, displeased by the isolation ofthe hutaakan culture, transplanted a randomnumber of hutaakans to the Hollow World,losing interest in the fate of the outer worldones. The hutaakan rule in the Lost Valleywas overturned in BC 100, when thedescendants of the Traldar slaves roseagainst their masters, starting a genocidewar that lasted for centuries and nearlycaused the extinction of both cultures.Today the Lost Valley is inhabited by the lastremnants of the outer world hutaakans, andby the degenerate descendants of therebellious Traldar slaves. The war betweenthe two groups, which over centuries hasdeclined to the level to band skirmishes,continues to this day. Meanwhile, darkerbeings, born out of dark magics orawakened from an even more ancient age,have taken control of the ruins of the GreatTemple of Pflarr and now wander freely inthe Valley.There are about five hundred of Hutaakansand degenerate Traldars, evenly split amongthe two groups. However, their number hasnot been included in the population figuresgiven in this article, because the Lost Valleyis a place apart, without any contact with theoutside world.32THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1