Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The History of KarameikosThe magic that kept Tumaimprisoned in another plane hasweakened during the course ofcenturies. Sometimes it happensthat the city – but not itsinhabitants – temporarilyreappears in its ancient site, onlyto fade some time later. Localadventurers may spot or evenenter it, and some tell tales aboutan alien magical city found in theBlack Peaks range. However, todaynothing is known about Tuma’sfate. Ancient historical recordsmay mention the city as one of theTraldar kingdoms of the ancientage, but not much else can begathered about its history. Onlyone man knows the truth: he isLirdrium Arkayz, one of the lasttwo members of the ruling councilof Tuma, who still tries to breakthe curse which affects its ancientpeople. Arkayz lives in a manoreast of Tuma’s ancient site.plague) reduced the Traldar population to one-fifthof the previous one - many of their most prosperouscities had been destroyed, most of their warriorskilled; the wilderness reclaimed a vast part of theirlands, as there were no more people living on them.The remnants of this people temporarily stayedallied together under the banner of Halav’s andPetra’s descendants (who ruled the united centralkingdom of Krakatos and Lavv), but the Traldarcivilization had definitely fallen into decline. Withcommunications made more difficult by the lack ofinfrastructure maintenance and the country’sdepopulation, peripheral communities becomemore and more independent from the center, whilethe memory of King Halav’s days faded and passedinto legend. Thus began the Traldars’ Dark Ages.THE DARK AGES AND THEBIRTH OF TRALADARANCULTUREEven with the gnolls gone, the land would not knowpeace. In BC 933 the Vandars invaded the regionfrom the west; they were a northern human warriorpeople,who had migrated from Norwold centuriesbefore, and had taken part in the wars betweendwarves, halflings and orcs in the modern FiveShires region 26 . Skilled horsemen, they brought26The Vandars are an Antalian-related people native of modern Norwold; theyshould belong to the same language group of other Slavic-like tonguesspeaking peoples (see some of the NPCs in CM4, and also the Vatski and Yevoof some fan works - Empire of Zuyevo and Norwold Region); I included themto explain the passage from the Traldar culture (similar to the MycenaeanGreek one) to the Traladaran one (which is more Slavic-like), and also toestablish a link between Slavic-like tongue speaking people of Mystara. Theancestors of the Vandars migrated from Norwold on the eve of the GreatHorde’s invasion (BC 1722), living first in the Heldann and Northern Reachesarea, and then moving to southern Ethengar around BC 1000, pushed away bythe Nithian pressure from the south. The Vandars founded the short-livedrealm of Zölaströya in southern Ethengar, before moving south again whentensions with their neighbours became unbearable (BC 950). They crossed thesparsely-populated Darokin lands following rumors of easy and rich takes tobe made in the halfling realm of Hindon. The Vandars should be the humansmentioned in these passages of GAZ8 the Fall of Hindon and the Dark Years:“In the years that followed, human, dwarven, and orc bands roamed the landfighting viciously with each other. […] Human bands were largely interested48THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1