Legendium
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@TJ
There's a Wiki? I'll use that to document everything I have on Craghold. When I get the time.
@Draycos
I'll get to it eventually, but right now, I've barely got my character bio finished, and still have work to do with school. I really should've done my schoolwork first, but once I get on a roll with a character I can't stop.
And done. That was fun, but tiring.
Name: Gamall Björn
Age: 79
Gender: Male
Titles: Lord Gamall Björn of the Crag, the Old Bear, Lord Hermit (But only by those who don’t like him)
Physical Appearance: Gamall is an old man. His back is hunched like the crooked mountains in the west of Craghold, making him look small, although should he ever rise to his full height, he would tower over most men. His face is lined and weathered with wrinkles and creases from both smile and frown alike. His hair is grey and white, much like the mountains and tundra plains he calls home. Both hair and beard are long, flowing from his head like a glacier from a mountain. His good eye is as clear as a winter sky, but his blind eye is as cloudy as a storm.
Armor/Clothing: The only armor Gamall owns protects him from the cold. Soft leather and thick wool protect him from the daily invasions of chilling wind and tiny shards of ice. He wears a thick cloak of snow-bear fur, protecting him from freezing rain and winds. During ceremonious events, he wears his circlet of polished platinum and moonstone, mined from Gemhold and made by smiths of the Crag.
Since Gamall never fights in combat, he also wears no armor. Such an old fellow would surely collapse under the weight of chain mail anyways.
Weapon(s): His mind. His army. His Dragon.
Skills and Abilities: Gamall is not a warrior. His old age renders him useless upon any battlefield but the one on the table of his strategy room. While Gamall prefers a peaceful solution over any other, he does know that time will come when his people rebel against Dragonhold and take back what they think is rightfully theirs.
Naturally, Gamall is prepared for it. He’s always prepared. Because that’s just the way he is.
Hold: To describe Craghold in a mere paragraph would not do it justice. Thus, I promise to eventually create a larger document on the subject later, but for now, I hope you can make do with this summary.
“When the world began, there was naught but sea. The sea was cold, ferocious and raged at nothing, existing as the chaotic turmoil it was. Mother Sky in her lofty palace above the sea was unaffected by the rage of that which we call the Sea. Pitying the world beneath her feet, she used her powers to bring stone out from under the Sea. And so, the mountains leapt from the Sea, creating the world and giving birth to Father Earth. Mother Sky soon left the world to return to her palace above the world. Alone now, Father Earth created Beast, Ice and Tree for company. And then Father Earth, much like Mother Sky, left the world for his great underground cave to sleep for eternity. Tree, Beast and Ice then set out to shape the world in the way they saw fit.
Ice, ever the fastest and most dominating of the three, climbed the highest mountain tops and claimed them as his own. He established his Kingdom in the North, where he beat the Sea and froze it to show his dominance. When Ice comes out every year to beat the Sea into submission again, winter comes.
Tree and Beast decided to stay together. They established their Kingdom in the South, creating huge and bountiful pine forests and tundra. However, they did not stay in the same place for long. Tree soon left and made her new Kingdom in the frozen swamps of the east, and Beast made his way west, where he stalks the caves full of iron.
When the two split, Man was born. And so began the story of Craghold, many years ago.”
-The Creation Story according to the Cragmen.
As you can learn from that text, the religious views in the Crag are rather primitive, treating natural forces like ice, plants and animals as gods. The Cragmen are rather passive about their religion; they will not force it upon others (To them, that is simply how it is. If someone else believes differently, that does not make it untrue in their minds.), but they will also continue to practice it despite being told not too by other forces. This is especially true on the northern coast, where survival is extremely tough and offerings are always given to the gods in hope of survival.
Speaking of the northern coast, I probably ought to move on the geography of Craghold. The western coast is completely mountainous. Nothing lives there aside from the god Beast, if legends can be believed. Very few people tough it out there, aside from the iron miners. They barely scratch by though, since they cannot compete with Gemhold steel.
To the east you have the frozen marshes. This area is rich in alchemical ingredients, and alchemists who aren’t bothered by the hold often come to Craghold to experiment.
The northern coast is by far the harshest environ of all of Craghold. Sheer cliffs dotted with caves line the raging sea. Surprisingly, many people still came here to live, because the frozen sea during winter makes for excellent ice fishing and the snow bears that roam the ice fields are wonderful hunting.
To the south, you’ll find most of the population of Craghold. This area is filled with frozen tundra and evergreen forests. It contains the most animals and the most farms, which in combination with being the center of the trade routes leading into Craghold makes it the richest part of Craghold.
The middle sections are mainly all mountainous, and thus uninhabitable.
Skýinu Hámarksþéttni: Skýinu is the castle in which House Björn has lived for the past century. It is located high up on the tallest mountain in Craghold (And all of the Isle for that matter), a few meters below cloud level. It is possible to walk up to the point where the mountains breaks the clouds, and is also often done by the castle inhabitants when they seek solitude.
The castle itself is a concentric style castle, with a large keep built into the mountain itself and a courtyard with pines and a statue of a bear. One can walk up the mountain from a staircase hewn into the mountain, accessible from the keep.
The castle itself can only be accessed by a long winding mountain path. Armies can try to get to Skýinu, but Gamall would simply send them running with boulders and oil. Brute force will never take Skýinu.
Farther down, at the base of the castle is the city of Jökull. It is the largest city in Craghold.
Dragon: Valkyrie is a young creature, with icy blue scales that resemble opaque crystals. She is still small, the size of a hunting falcon, yet she can breathe icy blue fire. It only looks like fire though. It’s actually a magic beam of freezing ice, but as of now it can only cover your glove in frost. When Valkyrie gets bigger, she will be able to freeze human beings into a block of ice.
She is currently being trained in a way similar to a hunting falcon, to make sure she is obedient. She will not be ridden by Gamall, but by Gamall’s brother’s daughter Valkyrie (Who the dragon was aptly named after)
House Björn: House Björn is one of the oldest houses of Craghold. Its sigil is that of a roaring white bear on a field of grey and black, and as such, one can guess that they are descendants of the tribe that wore bear heads over their helmets. This tribe was situated very neatly in the center of Craghold, a bit further east though. Today, they still live in that area, as it is where their castle is.
The House motto is “Through the Storm we weather on.”
They were not always the ruling House though, and were in feuds with other Houses before becoming lords. But that’s a story for another day.
The current male members of the house are Gamall, Lord of the Crag and his younger brother (Aged 45 years) Miðill, banner-man to Gamall and the heir of Craghold.
Miðill also has three daughters: Fallega, Skýr and Valkyrie. They are each in their twenties.
Gamall’s father, wife, mother and older brother are all deceased. No one remembers Gamall’s parents anymore these days, because he outlived most people that knew them. But people remember his wife and older brother, both of whom died in the same attack.
Personality: Gamall is best described as wise. He has been on this earth for many long years, and while he may have started out as a brash young man, he has opened the secrets of patience and wisdom. He always seems to know what to do in any situation, and has become the elder figure of all of Craghold.
Gamall is very protective of his family though, and should they be threatened, he will sometimes throw his wisdom out the window in order to protect them.
History: Gamall was born into the Björn family as the second son, and as such always stood in the shadow of his older brother. Gamall was obviously jealous at the time, because all young nobles want to be the Lord. Gamall eventually got over that and settled for being a knight. Like all knights of Craghold, he had to train intensively and complete the survival trials required for knight-hood. His noble ancestry however gave him the advantage, and he often had easier tasks than most others.
But then Gamall’s father died a few days after their mother, who died in childbirth of Gamall’s youngest brother, and his older brother took over Lordship. He called Gamall to be his bannerman and body guard. At that time, Gamall had finally married into another House and had finally started to lead a simple life, so he was a bit miffed to say the least.
When Gamall arrived, he realized his brother had changed. His views on the current rule of House Kalzar had grown radical, and he was almost on the verge of waging war and rebelling.
But it was then that tragedy struck. The Red Assassins, obviously hired by House Kalzar after a very bold statement of Gamall’s brother, infiltrated the castle and killed almost everyone in it. Gamall survived, because he was up with his younger brother above the clouds, but his wife, older brother and all other noble relatives were slaughtered.
It was then that Gamall took up the Lord’s mantle, and began his reign, although reluctantly. He was a fair ruler and managed to calm the voices of some of the more radical citizens somehow.
He learned about the importance of patience, strategy in politics and many other things. Eventually, his physique deteriorated to the point where he could not fight, but he remembered how the techniques.
< Message edited by Legendium -- 2/3/2014 15:05:27 >
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