Stroun

The walled town of Stroun was long famed for its singular mage-priests of Boccob and Istus who were known throughout Tenh as "The Declaimers." Believed to be diviners without peer and to have powers of foreknowledge and precognition, these enigmatic men and women, no more than twenty in number, always refused to attend the courts of Ehyeh or any other noble. They gave their judgements, warnings, and announcements without fear or favor and did so when they deemed the time right. In 580 CY, they stood together in the town square and stated that Tenh would fall within three years. The immediate reaction was one of panic, followed by the budding of the town's walls, and then, after a year, gradual amnesia as the words of the robed masters faded from memory. It was another year before they were proven right, but by then, they had all vanished without a trace on the eve of the fall of Stroun. Now, the Declaimers whereabouts are unknown. They have disappeared as completely as the dervish High priests of Tdon, ten centuries before them. Stroun is also noteworthy for its Hall of the Wave, an acoustically unique bardic recitation chamber at which the skalds of the Fists marvel and wonder. Groups of Fists perform their extraordinary hakara here, a chanting foot-stamping, war-dancing ceremony enacted by men clad in simple, basic leather jerkins and carrying spears. Something of the glory of the bards here remains and even the Fists are moved by the emotion which seems to wash around the marble and stone of this hall.