It occurs to me that I’ve been sharing a lot of material centered in the realms of Tamalaria, and haven’t yet compiled any kind of standardized terminology reference guide or in-world historical record. I’ve hinted at certain things being standard or expected, but haven’t made anything concrete. I think I should like to take the time to indicate just a few key terms, phrases, and events that, despite the Age or Era, will largely hold true unless otherwise specified.
Rashum- a general term in the realms of Tamalaria and Tallowmere which means ‘monster’. There are dozens of species of rashum throughout the realms, and each one has its own unique physiology, behavioral patterns and expectations, and frequency. Terrachnids, for instance, are one of the more common rashum types, dog-sized spiders that are mostly non-venomous and tend to travel in large packs. On their own or in groups of two or three, not really that dangerous. However, large groups consisting of perhaps 10 or more, usually with a maximum of 30 in a pod, can be a deadly creature type to have to come across in the realms. Conversely on the opposite end of the spectrum you have the shape shifting troke large bestial creatures that can take on many different forms and are almost entirely and uniquely homicidal towards mortal creatures. They’re particularly rare.
The Rangers- Unlike what one usually thinks of in a fantasy setting, The Rangers of Tamalaria are a loose-knit organization, not a type of wilderness-focused archer with semi-magical abilities or animal familiars. The Rangers, also known in some regions as The Wilds Rangers/Wilderness Rangers, are a paramilitary outfit that routinely traverses the realms in search of rashum that get too near to populated areas and heavily-trafficked roads, and either chase them off of exterminate them, thus securing safe harbor and passage for the peoples of the realms. Answering to no singular authority, they nevertheless operate under the general advisement and laws and regulations of the nation in which their particular unit is either housed at the moment or presently operating.
The Rangers are not picky about the sort of people who sign up for their ranks; oftentimes, criminals in the court systems of Desanadron, Ja-Wen, Palen and even the Fiefdom of Lemago, are offered the choice, if their charges are below a certain threshold of seriousness, of serving a term of time with The Rangers in lieu of jail/prison. This has resulted in the Rangers having some of their greatest members coming from rather unscrupulous roots, but turning these men and women into upstanding, honorable and, in even a few rare cases, outright heroic figures. Most notably of these was Donald Ferrick, an illeck necromancer who ended up becoming a recognized Commander of the Rangers (a regional leader) in the Fiefdom during the late years of the Third Age. Enlisted when he was caught raising the dead of an unwilling family member and using those zombies to steal from the villagers of Haruk’s Grove, a village in the nation-state of Desanadron. Rather than go to the Desanadronian prisons, he opted for service to the Rangers, where he actually developed a social life among his fellow misfits and ultimately began taking his job seriously.
Praxin- A slang term used in the city-states of Desanadron and Ja-Wen, it typically means the unofficial but broadly accepted true leader of the nation. Since both nations utilize a High Council with an odd number of High Councilors, so that every vote has a final outcome and no one person is seen as ‘in charge’, there is no higher title than High Councilor. However, most folks ‘in the know’ come to accept that one Councilor will have enough leverage over their fellows to earn a kind of unnamed leadership role of governance; this person is referred to as ‘The Praxin’.
The only time Desanadron has had a leader who was a stand-alone in recent memory was just after the Fall of Mecha, in the dawning days of the Fifth Age. This fellow was General Arcturis Massich, who was the leader of the Desanadron Military Police, which briefly renamed themselves The Grand Militia of Westland. Massich himself dubbed himself ‘Allfather’, which didn’t go over well with the religious community still in and around the sprawling metropolis of Desanadron.
488 4.A.- The 488th year of the Fourth Age, also known as the year that began the Fall of Mecha, which would prove to be a four-month stretch of technology failing all over the world. In the chaos this created, numerous small-and-mid-sized conflicts sprang up, most notably the Desanadronian Civil War (lasted 3 years roughly) and The Rashum Rampages, a string of massacres and assaults all across the g q2b1` `f etu\lands and eastern provinces carried out by various rashum, all seeming to forget their own natural proclivities for fighting each other for domination or food and focusing all of their efforts on attacking civilization as a whole.
During the second year of The Fall, the Greenskin Nation invaded and overtook the whole of The Kingdom of Graneck, slaughtering the royal family and most of their standing army. Those who threw down their weapons were also slain for the crime of cowardice, but their families were spared. Ug-rock-kuro, a fierce commanding officer in the Greenskins army, eventually was named High Chief due to both his military prowess, and the sudden demise of the previous High Chief, who passed of a massive coronary.
Fully five years after The Fall, with most geo-political strife settling back down and life returning to some semblance of normality in most regions, the city of Palen, Capital of Magic as it has often been called, pronounced that it would be ending its long-held tradition of being governed as a city-state in the High Council model, and would instead be selecting from among its own High Councilors a President, then replacing that High Councilor. The city-state would move from its previous arrangement as a direct democracy to one more akin to a real-world parliamentary system.
The City of Arcade would temporarily fall under the control/protection of Palen for a period of approximately ten years. In the officially recognized year of 13 5A, Arcade would send a group known as The Berg Street Boys to Palen’s Lower Council Hearing in the town of Helmtop to petition for the city to be returned to its prior status as a free city; the implied threat of violence notwithstanding, the Lower Council agreed by a vote of 73-8 in favor of allowing Arcade to split back off on its own again.
The Berg Street Boys were ambushed and slaughtered by a rival street gang upon their return to Arcade, save for one survivor, who had betrayed them to The Hot Hands Band. This group would be recognized as the unofficial leaders/rulers of Arcade for four years, until a contingent of The Midnight Suns thieves’ guild sent a delegation to brutally supplant them through assassinations and assaults in broad daylight. This delegation would rule for nearly fifty years, when they would withdraw from Arcade after naming Diggery Moloch, a popular goblin pickpocket, the de facto ‘leader’ of the city upon their departure.
Moloch would govern Arcade as a kind of meritocracy for nearly thirty years. It was known through the 5th Age as ‘Arcade’s only peaceful stretch’.
Khan- The tiger-men of Tamalaria and Tallowmere, there are technically lycanthropes, but unlike other lycans, their regenerative powers are slow by comparison, and they only possess two forms, their bestial hybrid form and that of a full-fledged tiger. Physically faster than most lycanthropes, they are tremendously talented warriors, but there is often a great deal of debate surrounding whether or not they have any sort of societal ‘honor code’ like the simpa (werelions), with whom they almost universally in conflict.
Simpa- The werelions of Tamalaria, this lycanthrope species is almost non-existent in the lands of Tallowmere, the continent south of Tamalaria across the Blue Divide. As a people, they tend to lean toward a sort of pseudo-Bushido style code of honor, though they are individualized enough for each to have his or her own personal ethos that they adhere to.
The Allenian War-
During the sixth century of the Third Age, the vampire clan Allenia rose to prominence among their kind, absorbing nearly a dozen lesser clans into their own ranks and coming to lead them all under a broad banner known as The Allenian Dominion. In the year 678 3A, they began consolidating much of their personal and clan property, selling off large swathes of it in order to purchase territory in the northcentral regions of the recently established Fiefdom of Lemago. Emperor Hirotanu brokered a shaky peace accord with the vampires, ceding them the territory known as Red Marsh, a 100-square-mile plot of land that was naught but scrub grass and marshlands, in the hopes that this would further please the Dominion. It did, for a time.
The clan began expanding north into what then were known as The Central Hills terrain, clearing vast stretches of the enormous expanse of their native rashum, or bringing them to heel as servant beasts. The Dominion soon established a ‘forge settlement’ just south of the Hills and perhaps 20 miles north of Citano, the northernmost township of the Fiefdom.
In the year 698 3A, the truce between the Fiefdom and Dominion was shattered as a battalion of zombies, revenants and raised skeletal warriors was sent into Citano from Grave’s Reach (the forge settlement), slaughtering most of the township’s residents. Of the survivors, a trio took horses all the way to the imperial capital of Uzuki to inform the Emperor of the Dominion’s breach of the peace. Thus began what would come to be known as The Allenian War.
The War would span nearly 25 years, and end up involving peoples from every nation, even the faraway dwarven Kingdom of Traithrock in the northwestern mountains. Of particular import, however, was that every lycanthrope race sent warriors and agents against the Dominion, being almost undeniable natural enemies to the vampire race. Nobody at this point understood the rivalry, but there it was, and of those who hated the vampires, it was perhaps the fierce simpa and khan who held the deepest enmity toward them.
Despite the many advantages the Dominion held, they ultimately could not fight against the whole of the realms combined against them. In the end, it was a small group of lycanthrope warriors who breached Ravenwood Keep, which was the seat of the clan’s power, and made their way to Lord Avesti Allenia, King of the Vampires. The two warriors who are said to have landed the fatal blows, a khan who stabbed a silver spear through Avesti’s heart, and a simpa who lopped off his head with a silver-edged sword, were credited with finishing the war.
However, the two warriors bickered over who had actually landed the killing blow, taking their heated rivalry back to their respective peoples. The simpa and khan peoples then began colonizing and establishing large camps throughout the Hills, which took the title of the vampire clan that had dominated them for a quarter of a century. This rivalry, blood-deep, rages to this day.
Greenskin ‘Ranks’
Among the races referred to as ‘greenskins’, there is a kind of hierarchy that is known to them and widely accepted among their own peoples. Orcs, being the most versatile and 2nd-largest cohort in numbers, are viewed as the primary greenskin race. Just behind them are the hobgoblins, who, though physically smaller, are more agile and more commonly able to use magic. Then come the ogres and trolls, who have physical power and size in spades, but are none too bright. After them come the goblins, the most populace of the greenskin races, and then lastly, kobolds. Kobolds are sometimes referred to as bestials, however, given their rodent-like physical appearance.
Of the greenskins, however, it is the goblins who have most frequently broken away to do their own thing as a race. Even within the Greenskin Nation territories, goblins have their own clans, hierarchies, and rivalries, both amongst themselves and against other greenskins. They hold orcs in contempt for their inability to plan ahead and be strategic or tactical, and view kobolds as hangers-on to the greenskin label, often thinking of them as bestials instead. A goblin will also hold their clan higher in import than the good of the Greenskin Nation, even if they are denizens born and raised in that country.
Hobgoblins, of all the greenskins, have the most general potential for destructive magic spells, with many of them focusing on fire and lightning magics. As a race, they are hyper-competitive among their own kind, often maneuvering against one another for supremacy. Their own family/clan structure is loose, but mating among them is considered a sacred thing. Once a hobgoblin is paired with a mate, they will not betray them, for anything, even up to and including their own personal demise. The source of this loyalty is not broadly known, though some Palenian scholars have posited a race-wide curse of some sort that causes them to cling to their chose mates for dear life.
Kobolds, unlike the mages of the hobgoblin and goblin races, don’t just access mana from their own personal reserves; their magic-users can also tap into latent mana in the environment, a talent which is completely unavailable to other greenskin races. They are also mechanically-inclined in ways far beyond the ken of the other greenskins, though there is a tradeoff. That tradeoff comes in the form of a kind of lethal curiosity, their sense of self-preservation not quite strong enough to ask the question of ‘just because I can do a thing, does that mean I should do the thing?’ When looking to the aftermath of an alchemical explosion, if you don’t find the corpse of a human, you likely find that of a kobold.
That’s all for now, folks. There’s more general points of knowledge to get to, but those will come later on down the road. Cheers for now!