Posted on September 21, 2025 in Steel-Realms
The ancient and partially ruined port city of Saltmarch is located north of the Sabarmati River mouth on the Salt Shore of the Reedbed Principality in the Grand Duchy of Rhyl. The city is focused on ship building and a secondary civilian port. This is an ancient and many times razed and rebuilt town without walls and having a large sprawl. Solavia’s Landing is the primary civilian port on the Salt Shore, and Saltmarch the secondary. To the south of the city is the estuary and river mouth of the Sabarmati River, spanned by the Whitescale Bridge connecting Arbenants Port.
Quality items from the Inderood Bronzeworks in the City of Fortun are made for ships built and repaired on the Rhylian ports on Lake Caolite.
Here to can be found the home of House Narcosa, the order of Necromancers. Though seemingly connected to its presence, the large and ancient cemetery mound that was once sacred to the Pine Tribes is kept respectfully inviolate by the order – even maintained by them.
This location as a Autumnleaf Ale Houses.
Briarwood Presence: This location has the presence of a typical Rhylian Briarwood.
Crime: Though this place may have a couple local gangs, the predominant Rhylian Criminal Presence is The Dead Hand.
Initial Description:
This is…
Greater Sovereignty: {part of larger territory?}
Type: {type} (see Settlement Planning and Design in The Realms)
Governance: {model} (see Titles and Honors of The Realms)
Population: {total perm} / Transient:
Demographics:
Groups/Factions:
Primary Hospitality/Accommodations:
Commerce: {commerce} (see Trade Organizations/Institutions of the Realms)
Institutions: (see institutions of The Realms)
Founding: {approximate year/age and culture of origin}
Primary Surrounding Habitat and Weather:
Roads, Streets, & Thoroughfares:
Defenses: {defensive works, fortifications, garrisons, holdouts}
Office of the Harbor Master:
> Launches x | Tenders x | Pinnace (armed) x | Cutters (armed) x
See Encounters in the Grand Duchy of Rhyl for common potential scenarios of notable events and creatures.
Knowledge is broken down by ease of discovery/availability & Meticulous Record Keeping may improve usability; Any attempt to know more than what's Pervasive will require a reference, source, knowledge, check, or access to someone who can get or provide either of these. Specific Lores may increase the chance of knowing specific elements.
Information Sources: Mundane Reference | Associated Phenomenology Only | Specific Lore
For those native to or long-dwelling in the region, ALL Common Knowledge may be Pervasive.
CY 2330’s Fall of East / Rise of the Dark Lands (Orrishai Abandoned); Refugees flee – some cross the Tolkisson Mountain Range into the ‘Lands of Rhylan’ that would become the Kingdoms of old Rhylan and finally The Grand Duchy of Rhyl.
CY 5580 Fall of Dundaria in the North – Frostfang spreads, the Lich Lord power rises. Horses of the undead, fortunately disorganized (at first), sweep south and west from the heart of old Dundaria.
CY 5980 The Kingdoms of old Rhylan united settled as a single Kingdom of Rhyl to fight the Lich Lords drive south. After centuries of warfare between territories and races, the common cause of the threat to the north secures a lasting peace.
CY 6514 The Grand Duchy of Rhyl is created by the High King. In exchange for the resources and organization that can be brought to bear against the now organized undead armies, the lands become part of the High King’s domain.
CY 7007 The area of North Gate Garrison freed & The Red March created; Money, supplies, and manpower flow into the north to fight the Lich Lords.
For those native to or long-dwelling in the region, ALL Common Knowledge may be Pervasive.
Posted on August 29, 2025 in Steel-Realms
Honeybark Meadows is a western location in the Territories and Fiefdoms of Rhyl of the Grand Duchy of Rhyl. This Rhylan Grant is home to an enclave of mixed blood halflings and faerie kin. This location bears the Frost-Melded mark an ancient encounter with the Dragon of Rhyl.
Initial Description:
This is…
Greater Sovereignty: {part of larger territory?}
Type: {type} (see Settlement Planning and Design in The Realms)
Governance: {model} (see Titles and Honors of The Realms)
Population: {total perm} / Transient:
Demographics:
Groups/Factions:
Primary Hospitality/Accommodations:
Commerce: {commerce} (see Trade Organizations/Institutions of the Realms)
Institutions: (see institutions of The Realms)
+ Hartwood Presence: This location leans heavily to the Wyld Faith, and has the presence of both Rhylian Briarwood and Rhylian Beastwood.
Founding: {approximate year/age and culture of origin}
Primary Surrounding Habitat and Weather:
Roads, Streets, & Thoroughfares:
Defenses: {defensive works, fortifications, garrisons, holdouts}
Rulership: Council of Elders; each small settlement represented by a Hetman.
Population: 200-300 each settlement
This flows between the forests, going south, providing a natural eastern boundary to the meadowlands.
The only constructed crossing point over the Wandering Rope Stream.
Posted on August 1, 2025 in Steel-Realms
City of Rhylan is a massive, spread out capital city that is the central hub of The Grand Duchy of Rhyl.
Initial Description:
Rhylan is a sprawling, bustling unwalled city, with a main district on an uplift topped with the Ducal Keep, two other hills (Reethedyn and Hoarthedyn) and four suburbs with obvious vineyards and orchards at its edges. Several towers can be seen from a far distance, and most of the buildings are made from white limestone, making it a dazzling sight. Lush green trees grow throughout the city, making the white limestone even more striking. There are 5 roads leading into it, each marked with a statue of a white dragon as the city’s formal boundary.
Initial Description:
Crime: Though this place may have a couple local gangs, the predominant Rhylian Criminal Presence is The Dead Hand.
See Encounters in the Grand Duchy of Rhyl for common potential scenarios of notable events and creatures.
Heraldry/Symbol:
Greater Sovereignty: Grand Duchy of Rhyl
Type: (see Settlement Planning and Design in The Realms)
Governance: “{title}” (see Titles and Honors of The Realms)
Population: / Transient:
Demographics:
Laws and Protocols of Note: + standard Laws and Codes of the Realms
Groups/Factions:
Primary Hospitality/Accommodations:
Commerce: (see Trade Organizations/Institutions of the Realms)
Institutions: (see institutions of The Realms)
+ Hartwood Presence: This location leans heavily to the Wyld Faith, and has the presence of both Rhylian Briarwood and Rhylian Beastwood.
Founding: {approximate year/age and culture of origin}
Primary Surrounding Habitat and Weather:
Roads, Streets, & Thoroughfares:
Defenses: {defensive works, fortifications, garrisons, holdouts}
This Locale has a Office of the Herald representing the local Lord/Lady; Rhylan heralds all follow the Heraldic Boreal Tradition.
Knowledge is broken down by ease of discovery/availability & Meticulous Record Keeping may improve usability; Any attempt to know more than what's Pervasive will require a reference, source, knowledge, check, or access to someone who can get or provide either of these. Specific Lores may increase the chance of knowing specific elements.
Information Sources: Mundane Reference | Associated Phenomenology Only | Specific Lore
For those native to or long-dwelling in the region, ALL Common Knowledge may be Pervasive.
For those native to or long-dwelling in the region, ALL Common Knowledge may be Pervasive.
Many arches along The Red March and at many places in North Gate Garrison are equipped with the keystone of Aerna’s Rhylan Reveal to detect undead are made here in the temple of Aerna.
Posted on July 29, 2025 in Steel-Realms
The City of Fortun is a large (capital) city Settlement in the Barony of Cunee. The walled city is dominated by 2 tall, wide towers on the NW and SW corners – small keeps unto themselves. The wall is obviously something that came later, as a great deal of the city is actually outside of it, spreading out on the west side. The road going directly north leads to the Cunee Abbey about 3 miles away.
This locale has a Chapter House of the Narcosan Order of Necromancers in Saltmarch.
Occult/Magi Services: General Occult Services is provided here mostly by Quizmans Magusterum in Rhyl. The other Orders of Magi generally focus their efforts on supplying and defending The Red March and North Gate Garrison against the forces of The Lich Lords.
Initial Description:
Heraldry/Symbol:
Greater Sovereignty: Grand Duchy of Rhyl
Type: (see Settlement Planning and Design in The Realms)
Governance: “{title}” (see Titles and Honors of The Realms)
Population: / Transient:
Demographics:
Laws and Protocols of Note: + standard Laws and Codes of the Realms
Groups/Factions:
Primary Hospitality/Accommodations:
Commerce: (see Trade Organizations/Institutions of the Realms)
Institutions: (see institutions of The Realms)
Beastwood Presence: This location has the presence of a typical Rhylian Beastwood. This locale trains characters (elves) in the practice of the Rhylian Undead Hunters.
Founding: {approximate year/age and culture of origin}
Primary Surrounding Habitat and Weather:
Roads, Streets, & Thoroughfares:
Defenses: {defensive works, fortifications, garrisons, holdouts}
This Locale has a Office of the Herald representing the local Lord/Lady; Rhylan heralds all follow the Heraldic Boreal Tradition.
See Encounters in the Grand Duchy of Rhyl for common potential scenarios of notable events and creatures.
Knowledge is broken down by ease of discovery/availability & Meticulous Record Keeping may improve usability; Any attempt to know more than what's Pervasive will require a reference, source, knowledge, check, or access to someone who can get or provide either of these. Specific Lores may increase the chance of knowing specific elements.
Information Sources: Mundane Reference | Associated Phenomenology Only | Specific Lore
For those native to or long-dwelling in the region, ALL Common Knowledge may be Pervasive.
For those native to or long-dwelling in the region, ALL Common Knowledge may be Pervasive.
The Transit of Western Fire is a once-a-century symbolic journey to ‘re-light the rising sun in the east’. It travels from Merkaine’s Shrine of Shieldfire in the west, east to the start of The Red March, to the end of it, then through City of Fortun, up The White Stairs to Burning Crop. There a beacon fire is lit.