Gazomur
Try as you might to claim the Forest of Telamirein. But the forest has shown that it can claim us equally as easy. Gazomur is just one more example of the attempts to make a claim for its unknown recourses.— Everam, Teller of Nimenra
Gazomur is located in the western part of the Forest of Telamirein. The former small town/village was an attempt by the 19:th Nini of The Theocracy of Nilari and Minrans to claim a large part of the forest. The attempt was one of several made during The Nini's reagin around the same time but none were so far in as Gazomur, which was known at the time under a different, forgotten name. The village, however, lasted only a decade before succumbing to the hostile environment that the forest is in and rumours about monsters and evils hiding in the forest. Records about the town were destroyed on the orders of the Nini, who is said to have been furious about the failed attempt.
Defences
The most prominent feature of Gazomur that stands today is its defensive walls and embarkments. From what little is known the first thing that was built was the walls and the thick, compact embarkment that was supposed to protect the town. The embarkments are 1,2 meters tall and on top of them are a 1,5 meter wood and stone wall. These have overtime decayed but remain still firm surrounding the ruins of the town. It is the wall that gives the name to the town since it is all covered in greens, thus the name Gazomur, or "Green wall".
History
For a long time the countries and people that live in the surrounding area around the Forest of Telamirein have wanted to claim the hostile and mysterious forest as their own. Attempts to build settlements inside have continuously ended in varying degrees of failure, from animals overrunning the area to disappearances of people. Despite this, Nilaminra's 19:th Nini wanted her country to claim a large portion of the forest and made a plan to settle along the river Vieavon. One of the settlements was Gazomur.
The Nini sent 400 men and women who were willing to move to the new settlement which would mark the furthest point of the claim. The first action the accompanying 300 soldiers started out with was to help the settlers to build the embankments and walls all around the location. The walls were built using local wood and shipped rocks while the embarkment was filled with dirt and pebbles both dug up and shipped from Nilaminra. At this early stage the town were able to build a small church to Reliona and Nilari.
According to my grandmother, the town lost a whole family in the first week. No one knew where they went and no one tried to find them.
The town was able to hold on to its own for the first five years. Since soldiers always were present they could repel wild animal attacks and support necessary activities such as hunting and tree chopping. However, the village had already had a number of causalities and disappearances. Of the original 400 men and women, the village had declined to 250, most having died to an outbreak of
desease and attacks. The Nini was adamant about continuing the effort and sent an additional 200 settlers. Families are said to have welcomed them, but they were also the first unfortunate victims of disappearances. The local fauna also began to intrude more and more, with rumours of even more terrifying monsters lurking around the forest, waiting or gathering for an attack on the suspecting town. When the soldiers had to leave and left only a handful of soldiers, the town had started its counting of its surviving days.
It was only after a decade or so that the townspeople had enough of living in the settlement. Only 150 now remained with a whole 50 people disapearing on the fatedeciding night before according to oral history. Bording their own boats, even the local magistrate, they all left and swore to never return. It is said that when they left, they saw a large, lurking band of creatures standing on the opposite side of Vieavon to Gazomur. The Nini and her government deemed the whole ordeale a failure and any record of the attepmt was removed, perhaps even destroyed from offical archive and historians. The memory of the attempt, however, still lives in rual villages where people returned again, trying to forget the life they left in Gazomur.
Cursed, damned or failure?
While no one can dispute that the ordeal was a failure, there are claims that the location chosen might have been cursed. Notably there, according to relatives of the ones that lived in Grazomur, there were other, rare creatures like Crystal Foxes that roamed freely and aplenty and there was also "the Vexins". The Vexins was the name given to the beings that were said to protect that area of the forest and caused the disappearances. They were spirits or evils of some kind that did not take a liking to the humans and what they did. They were described as bipedal and short, with tails that lured hunters to think they were hunting an ordinary animal. They might also be able to use magic, having lured away people or cursed the settlement so that the people would leave. While no one has ever spotted the so-called "Vexins" again, the village has been left alone ever since.There is also the belief that the town was built on an ancient site of magic or an old tomb... Neither can be confirmed except by returning.
Forest of Telamirein by A of Worldkeymaster
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