The History <strong>of</strong> <strong>Karameikos</strong>38THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1
The History <strong>of</strong> <strong>Karameikos</strong>Elf travelers and colonists coming from theSerpent Peninsula began arriving from BC2250 in Taymoran lands 5 . They establishedfriendly relations with the humans, whoemployed them as mercenary troops inexchange for lands.Centuries later (BC 2100), a larger group <strong>of</strong>elves who had split from Ilsundal’s migrationtoward the Sylvan Realm, came to theTaymoran lands; they were mostly dividedamong two clans: the Verdiers (wood andfair elves 6 ) and the Meditors (water elves).The Taymora allowed them to settle in theforests north and east <strong>of</strong> their city-states, inthe areas occupied by modern <strong>Karameikos</strong>and Minrothad.In the following decades, the Taymora had tocontend with the resurfacing power <strong>of</strong>Grondheim, a local giantish kingdom 7 alongthe northern border. The modernrefer to Nithia as the first empire on Mystara after the fall <strong>of</strong>Blackmoor, but were perhaps more like a collection <strong>of</strong> city-states.5The elves led by the Sheyallia clan split from Ilsundal’s migrationand settled in the Serpent Peninsula some time after BC 2250(around this year Ilsundal’s migration crossed the Great Waste; see“The Great Waste - Ancient History” in Champion <strong>of</strong> Mystara -Explorer’s Manual). Canon sources (GAZ9 and Hollow Worldcampaign setting among others) tell us that the Verdier andMeditor elven clans only settled in forested area that will become<strong>Karameikos</strong> in BC 2100. However, fan sources like G. Agosta’sTimeline <strong>of</strong> the Taymoran Age, 2800-1700 BC and G. Caroletti’sTaymoran timeline have elven settlers reaching Taymoran landsalready in BC 2250. In the present history, I preserved this earlyelven contact with the Taymora, considering it mostly developed bysmall elven families, clans, and groups coming from the SerpentPeninsula.6I subdivide the elven race into ethnicities according to the work<strong>of</strong> Marco Dalmonte, Razze di Mystara at The <strong>Vaults</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Pandius</strong> (thebook is in Italian); <strong>of</strong> them, only the wood and fair elves are <strong>of</strong> someinterest for this history. Wood elves (also called sylvan elves) are alittle smaller than humans, with fair skin (which tends to tan underthe sun), and blonde, silver, grey or brown hair. Fair elves (alsocalled gold or noon elves) are tall as humans, have a paler skin (butwith golden tints in some individuals), and dark (usually black orbrown) hairs, with rarer blondes or redheads. This historyconsiders the Meditor elves all belonging to the water elf ethnicity,while the Verdier elves to be evenly divided between fair and woodelves.7The kingdom <strong>of</strong> Grondheim is taken from the fan works <strong>of</strong> JohnCalvin on “Mystara BC 2300”. The story <strong>of</strong> the giants’ struggleagainst the Taymora is further told in Giampaolo Agosta’ssupplement Lords <strong>of</strong> the Cruth Lowlands.<strong>Karameikos</strong> region became a battlefieldbetween the Taymora, with their elvenallies, and the giants. The latter were finallydefeated, and the kingdom <strong>of</strong> Grondheimcrumbled; many giants were killed in theprocess, while others were enslaved by theTaymora, who put them to work and beganbuilding cities in the modern <strong>Karameikos</strong>region, to the north <strong>of</strong> their civilization’sheartlands.It is not known exactly how or when ithappened, but before BC 2000 some cities<strong>of</strong> the Taymora began worshipping thepowers <strong>of</strong> Entropy, and parts <strong>of</strong> the countryslowly became dark places whose rulerswere devoted to gruesome bloody andnecromantic practices 8 . Undead creatures,such as nosferatu and vampires, made theirappearance at this time, as well as the firstrecorded lycanthropic bloodlines, likelycreated by Taymoran experiments 9 .At last (BC 2000), a great civil war betweenfollowers <strong>of</strong> rival entropic Immortalsravaged the country, while at the same timea long period <strong>of</strong> seismic instability hit thesouthern Known World, which was shockedby recurrent earthquakes over the course <strong>of</strong>the next three centuries 10 . Many people8Besides a short sentence found in PC3 (“The shark-kin inhabitmany <strong>of</strong> the ruined settlements, but there are some places wherethe shark-kin fear to go. These dark and sinister sites harbourmalignant entities, beings whose evil has festered for much longerthan they have been covered by the sea” – which, however, can bevariously interpreted), nothing in canon specifically supports theconnection between nosferatu or vampires and the Taymora,fan-created materials (from the works <strong>of</strong> J. Mishler and G. Agostato the more recent ones <strong>of</strong> J. Calvin) have for a long time workedon this connection, producing very interesting ideas. Thus, thishistory keeps the idea that the Taymora began to worship Entropyat some point in their history, while leaving the details <strong>of</strong> theintroduction <strong>of</strong> entropic cults in their culture as vague as possible.9This history assumes that the Alphatian lycanthropy was onlyone <strong>of</strong> the strains <strong>of</strong> this magical disease. Other strains in fact mayprecede the Alphatians’ landfall on Mystara. See Treatise onLycanthropy by J. Calvin and Lukka, the beast-men by G. Agosta.10The exact chronology <strong>of</strong> seismic events <strong>of</strong> the BC 2000-1720period is tricky, because canon sources are not always clear and39THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1