Zeitz
Upon these coastal plains there are no kings or princes, but rather a hardy folk who rule themselves, all, that is, but for the fortress-city of Iregaul, that dread remnant of Unklar’s rule. Here, the Ungern of Iregaul rule under their dread chieftain, Bazur.
Of That Land & Governance
The KNIGHTS OF HAVEN dominate the coastal plains, their castles dotting the area. They rule by the dictates of the Order, answering only to the GRANDMASTER OF HAVEN or the priests of ORE-TSAR. Others who live here govern themselves as with any frontier region. The Order’s chief residence in the region is in CORDEA CASTLE, a massive castle partially protected by incoming tides.
The ungern are ruled by their King Bazur, an intelligent, vile creature with an extraordinary capacity for cruelty. He rules his people and all the citizens of Iergaul with an iron fist..
Of Her People
The March attracts wild adventurers, desperate fugitives, and erstwhile wizards. The locals war and intrigue against each other and raid the lands to the south. There are several powerful castles of the Knights of Haven, sitting astride the main Gunshof Road, only adding to the confusion in the region.
The March has little to offer the civilized world. There are towns and one city, but all of these are rough frontier communities. The people build their homes out of thick timbers and rock, using thatch to cover them. Sturdy yet primitive buildings, they serve the people as small forts within the larger walled communities. Only the more wealthy towns have stone walls, most having wooden palisades. Within, the people are a dour lot. Men mingle freely with dwarves, orcs, ungern and other races. They care not who someone is; only that someone avoid nosing about. They are brigands, warriors, bandits, and adventurers
mostly. They are the world’s flotsam and jetsom. Some, however, are pilgrims, arriving on foot from the south lands. These stout souls seek spiritual aid from the town of HAVEN which sits upon the far shores of the Inner Sea. For the most part they are poor men and women, but a few nobles come along, though they rarely travel without guards of one type or the other.
The Knights of Haven are a continual presence in the March, serving the pilgrims as guides and guards. They have a few large castles, mostly on the coast, where importing lumber is relatively easy. In the hinterlands they live in small moat and bailey
castles. As singular knights, or in pairs, with a dozen or so men-at-arms, they offer refuge to any folk of Ore-Tsar. Food and housing is given freely, though it is common custom to offer goods or coin in turn. In the March, these knights (even the lesser ones) are rarely molested by the local populace. To do so may bring scores of their brethren down upon the offender, and they are ferocious and unforgiving, putting all malcontents to the sword, regardless of who the original perpetrator was. This is not to say, of course, that their lives are sacrosanct. Many knights die upon the highlands. They fight lonely battles and die lonelier deaths, slain by creatures of eldritch evil and power, hunted, or murdered, like all men.
Geography
The March of Zeitz consists of a broad coastal plain stretching several hundred miles along the northern escarpments of the GRUNDLICHE MOUNTAINS. The area is breathtakingly beautiful. Gently sloping hills tumble down to the sea, dropping off suddenly into rocky coves or small, secluded, sandy beaches. Small streams and rivers run off the highlands, through narrow gulches to spill into the sea’s churning waters. Here, the waters of the INNER SEA Inner Sea are choppy, for a whole range of craggy islands stretch across those deep waters to the ROSHEISEN MOUNTAINS in the far north. Behind it all, the stark granite world of the Grundliche Mountains, with their long ridges and white capped peaks, overlook the country like tired old men.
Travel in Zeitz
There is but one main road in Zeitz, the GUNSHOF ROAD. It winds along the coast from Iergaul to the GUNSHOF PASS and hence south into the Kingdom of Augsberg. The mountains here creep down to the shores, split by numerous broad fields and grassy plateaus. This makes east-west traffic in Zeitz difficult, as small ranges must be topped constantly, but north-south travel is easier, as the valleys generally lead from the mountains to the sea.
History
During Unklar's long reign the northern barbarians, in distant GALLAND, never fell to his conquering armies. When the SHROUD OF DARKNESS came the barbarians thought only the great FENRIS wolf had come to Aihrde, blanketing the world in his breath. On more than one occasion the Horned God or his servants sought to subdue the barbarians, but never fully succeeded. For this reason, when they began their migrations south, they came in strength. They settled upon the northern shores of the Inner Sea and harried all the folk of Unklar’s Empire in the Land of Ursal long before the Winter's Dark. Unklar’s
commanders sought to control this scourge. To this end they built a fortress city upon the sea, one which could hold great stores of goods, horses, men, and other necessities of war. This fortress they named Iergaul and peopled it with a host of Unklar’s folk.
The first expedition sent several legions marching around the Inner Sea and against the barbarian tribes of what is today TRONDHEIM. Early successes led the legions to plunge deeper into the wild north. There they attracted more tribes of these wild Northmen, and though these battle-lusty folk always fought one another, they banded together for the glory of the war with the southerners. The campaign ground to a halt in the frozen north. The barbarians chipped away at the legions until at last they began to disintegrate. Their commanders withdrew the legions to the south.
Many more expeditions followed and, they too, ended poorly. The barbarians loved war, rarely shrinking from a fight. Eventually the legionnaires established a few colonies upon the islands south of MOUNT TUR, but these were eventually abandoned.
Meanwhile, Iergaul grew into a large sprawling port city. Much of it remained within the walls, but whole districts sprang up in the environs. It attracted all manner of folk during the Winter Dark. Here, men could find work as carpenters, metalsmiths, blacksmiths, sailors, boatsmen and other besides. If all failed, then as mercenaries they tramped into the distant north to fight the ever present barbarian hordes.
During the Winter Dark Wars the region languished from neglect. The dwarves closed the passes through the Grundliche Mountains so that only a few could manage to cross over to Iergaul or the lands around. Worse came when the Northmen arrived in their ships, girded for war. They raided the outlying communities, burning and pillaging. The threat became such that a great concourse of ships gathered in Iergaul, and in 1122 when the main fleet sailed from Avignon intent upon the barbarians’ destruction, they joined it. They never returned to the city, for as is told elsewhere, they perished at the BATTLE OF GOKSTEAD. For the first time in many centuries the folk of Zeitz knew fear. The raiders came more frequently and the Northmen became more bold. Larger towns fell to the raiders. Those that did not die, fled to the hinterlands or found themselves slaves in distant northern climbs.
Thrown upon their own resources, the region quickly dissolved into a host of small cities and townships. They fortified their homes; walls with parapets sprang up as if overnight. Those who did not defend themselves soon perished. The lords of Iergaul rebuilt the walls with huge fortified towers interspersed along its whole length. They turned away many who came to the gates pleading for aid, but only the strong were allowed entry. It soon became a desperate place filled with fierce men, orc, and ungern.
Zeitz continued to suffer. The imperial cohorts that remained deserted the region in 1126. They plundered the whole country on their march to the south. In some instances they ransomed whole towns with threats of destruction. For the most part, they burned and pillaged, taking what they wanted. Early the following year these same cohorts, little more than a disorganized mob, came over the western mountains to EISENHEIM. Marching on to the DETMOLD in the newborn Kingdom of Aachen, they fell afoul of Baldwin I and his knights. There they perished but for a few.
These desertions only served to embitter those who remained. Once a proud and powerful land, the March slipped into the obscurity of a backwater. The land soon became the home of many deserters, bandits, homeless knights, adventurers, and homeless riffraff. The towns took on a decidedly different character. Gone were the days of Imperial order, replaced by ramshackle communities run by strong men and thugs.
The barbarians’ raids continued, only abating a few years after the fall of Aufstrag. The coves and bays of the coastal region served the barbarians well and many settled there, building small fortified enclaves from which to continue their raids. Within a few years of the Winter Dark Wars, the March broke apart into a dozen walled towns and an equal number of Northmen settlements. Iergaul, for a time, lorded over the region. Internecine war consumed the towns and settlements and the March became a chaotic place, dangerous to all as men and ungern battled for survival.
The greatest of these battles took place in the early years following the banishment of Unklar. In the latter part of 1129 the lords of Iergaul, seeking to enjoin themselves to the victories of the KING OF THE PUNJ sent great waves of orc and ungern south and west into Eisenheim. There, they overwhelmed the Northmen settlers, driving all before them into Aachen and the Detmold. All of this brought the Val Tulmiph DALADON to the northern wastes. He brought with him a host of rangers mounted on griffins and WOOD ELVES from the ELDWOOD. Together they joined Queen Ephremere, Baldwin I’s daughter, in a campaign against the orcs of Iergaul. For almost the whole year of 1131 Daladon remained in the north. He fought two great battles against the orcs, one at the ROT-TOR RIVER and the other at the fortress of UTUAL. Daladon was hard pressed to keep the forces of the queen together. But he met the warrior cleric FJORGY, the Vin-Gotha sister of King THEODAHAD from Eisenheim, who joined his armies with a host of fresh warriors. With these to strengthen him, Daladon and Ephremere were able to push the orcs back and by the spring of 1132, they lay siege to Utual again. But they could not break its walls and after many months of futile combat they quit the field. Utual survived the siege.
Early the following year the orcs again raided into the south, reaching Aachen where they burned farmsteads and small villages. Daladon rejoined Ephremere in a campaign to destroy them. They fought a series of battles that mimicked the previous years. They fought the bloody SECOND BATTLE OF THE ROT-TOR RIVER, where the dead piled so thick, that they clogged the river. The SECOND SIEGE OF UTUAL came soon thereafter as Daladon was full of the wrath of his people. At this second battle the fortress was overwhelmed and its garrison put to death. The ruins of Utual remains a wrecked ruin, haunted by the ghosts of the dead.
Ephremere’s forces came at last to Iergaul and lay siege to it. The siege lasted many months and the ranger-god and his Watchers fell upon the orcs time and again, but they could not break the walls. The orcs taunted them so that Daladon became mad with a lust to destroy the city and all who dwelt therein.
To this end he attacked Iergaul time and again. Thrice more he brought armies to the north, battering its walls. In 1140 King Theodahad of Eisenheim stormed the gates of the great fortress, but made it no further, and died there a hero’s death. It would not yield, for that mighty place bore great magic, and the ice of the Winter Dark lay inits very stones. At last in 1143, Daladon rousted out the long disbanded COUNCIL OF LIGHT. ST. LUTHER called a crusade against Iergaul and many knights and adventurers came to the far north to lay waste to the March and break Iergaul at last. With the armies came Queen Fjörgyn and troops of Eisenheim and Augsberg. Dwarves also came, and they brought diverse instruments of war with them. Many elves of FONTENOUQ joined the siege, girded in strange armaments. The great host gathered upon the green hills before Iergaul and called for those lords to step down and quit that place.
The orc warlord USTUF stood forth, laughing and taunting the knights and gods before him. “Do not think you are greater than you are. Curs you are, one and all. By trickery you slew our dread Lord Unklar while he slept in his great halls, but we do not sleep! We are vigilant and have no have fear of the likes of you. For 20 years you have battered at these walls, to no avail. For 20 years we have carted off your people to our slave pits without fear of you. So get you from this place; return to your chattel houses in the south and await us like good slaves. We are your dread foe!”
Daladon returned, “Ustuf! Beware, for I have brought a new battering ram.” Then the wizard and archmagi ARISTOBULUS came forth. Clouded in cloaks, he was steeped in eldritch sorcery. He rode a gold-hued charger and from its back called down the powers that only he and NULAK could command. A great howling wind thundered from the skies, battering the gates, even as Aristobulus hurled waves of fire and acid into the cacophony of magic. The doors, rent from their moorings, flew back, crushing many an orc, and the walls cracked, great pieces of them falling away. Daladon led the army forward then, filling the breech with iron and steel, blood, bone, and flesh. He slew Ustuf upon the walls and many more besides. All day and night the battle raged until at last the town lay in ruin, a burning wreck of what it once had been. The southern lords left it thus, after slaying all its inhabitants.
This touched off more wars and the battles between the various Marcher Lords, towns, and other inhabitants continued, unabated for many years. Iergaul was eventually reoccupied, creatures from far off Aufstrag crawling into its wreckage as the wars boiled on, ever more bitter.
Into this maelstrom of brigandage came the PILGRIMS OF DEMETER. Within the foothills of ROHEISEN HOHLE, across the Inner Sea, lay the town of Haven. There, PHILIP THE GUILELESS had been born, lived and preached the religion of his god. Too, he retired there for some few years. In consequence, the town became a place of pilgrimage which drew many people of all walks of life. Though some crossed the sea, such voyages were costly, and many sought more direct, if longer, routes. This invariably brought them through the March of Zeitz. They trekked up through the far western passes of the Grundliche Mountains, coming down into the coastal plains seeking transport across the sea, or to continue their journey around the ocean through the dangerous lands of TRONDHEIM. Small bribes bought them safe journeys or put them on fishing boats to island hop across the sea.
Though some brought troops of guards and others traveled in large bands, many more fell victim to the ravages of the BRIGANDS OF THE MARCH. They robbed and extorted the pilgrims, sold some into slavery, and others they killed. All of this eventually gave birth to the Knights of Haven, an order of paladins and cavaliers dedicated to protecting the pilgrims. They built small castles along the pilgrim’s routes, giving them safe haven from the depredations of the brigands. They manned these castles with two or three knights and a dozen or so men-at-arms. In 1178 the first of them arrived in the March itself, where they remain still, adding to the constant warfare which plagues the region.
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