Fort Marekar
Fort Marekar is the sole outpost and largest settlement on the lonely northern coast of Barendar, in the small Kalmasan colony of Marekar. The fort and surrounding settlement is under military command and its main purpose is as a station of repair and resupply for navy and trade vessels in the northern waters and as a trade port for ships coming from the Kalmasan colonial province of Rotskjoldland across the sea to the north and the country of Yngheim to the east.
Originally the fort was to be little more than the first foothold on the northern side of Barendar. The rolling plains of the colonial province of Koryem in southern Barendar were well settled and it was thought that most of the continent, aside from that portion held by the Yngir in the northeast, could be easily cleared and settled, with cheap, virgin land given as a reward to veteran soldiers and sailors of the Kalmasan forces. They, in turn, would provide new resources of crops, timber and other resources for the ever expanding Samraj.
This vision came to a crashing halt however, when the initial Kalmasan expeditionary force, clearing forest only a couple miles inland, were met with the native dhun. The dhun, Dholm warriors, bid them in their tongue to cease their cutting and turn away. But the Kalmasan colonists were unable to understand and unwilling to obey the strange creatures in any case. They attacked and half their number were quickly slain. Those who fled were mercifully allowed to live to tell the tale.
Reinforcements with greater numbers soon returned to the forest to guard the woodcutters. These too were repelled and those who escaped told of attacks by animals, insects and the very trees. More attempts followed but each ended in disastrous loss, even those including powerful Dharmati magicians and devanic priests. It was clear that the tree devils, who they eventually learned from Yngir traders were called the dhun, were too powerful in their native forests.
Though many land hungry Kalmasan nobles called on Samrajan Mahendran I to do what whatever was necessary to dominate the land, he determined that the cost was too high and the few square miles of hard won land around Fort Marekar would have to suffice. The dhun, for their part, have maintained a careful watch on the unfriendly settlement and strongly defend any incursions further into their forests, though they have left the colonists unmolested on the land they have already settled.
Comments