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Welcome to Adventures in Western Arret

21:56, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Adventures in Western Arret

Western Arret:  cradle of the Paldorian empire, bourne of the leaf-laced elven civilization, seat of Druidic power, and terminus for overland and sea trade from across the continent.  Clothed in tremendous forests, rolling plains, and towering mountains--laced with mighty rivers and bounteous with lakes, fens, and the vast, terrible region known as the Malg--western Arret is home to a number of nations and civilizations.

However, events in the eastern portion of the continent always have played a critical role in Arret, and the current instability among the eastern nations has created a sense of foreboding elsewhere.  War has erupted--war in the hills and along the coasts of Canile; war in the ruins of the Canilian cities and among the islands of The Daggers; war along the trade routes and around Lake Zandik.  Rimsedge struck first, its rampaging irregulars reinforced by the humanoid mercenary legions from Keep Dustygrave and Keep Splinterskull in the Uarthian deserts.  The sorcerous might of that dubious city was added to the military might, and the target of the concerted effort were the Grangian troops in the region.  Grang reeled at the blow, and then the Grangian Empire flexed its own muscles.  Cazistan, its own troops in place along the desert forts and outposts on its northern border, elected to take no action.  Grangian Imperial troops swept in and captured several of the forts, and, more importantly, the gold that had been slated to pay for Cazistani's own Uarthian mercenaries.  Cazistan reacted swiftly, allying with Rimsedge against the Grangians.  Grang, however, parleyed the gold into more mercenaries, and--importantly--into a treaty with the warrior race of the Akeito, the non-human mountain species rumored to be the fiercest warriors in all of Arret.

The Grangian navy dominates within the Inner Sea; neither Rimsedge nor Cazistan have the capacity to even challenge the Grangian pre-eminance.  The added mercenaries and the deadly Akeito have enabled Grang to recover some lost ground and to push the front out of Kai Mang and near the city of Kanth.  Rimsedge, however, seems to have inexhaustible coffers, and the rumors of wraith captains and demon generals fighting for the city-state have not died away.

Paldor looks with ever deeper misgivings at the situation spiralling out of control in the East, and the sea trade routes are the only thing linking East and West, even tenuously.  Coupled with piracy, disastrous tides and disconcerting natural disasters, and rumors of disquiet from the deep, the old campaigners of former battles and old salts alike agree.  The sea routes can no longer be relied upon as stable contact vectors between East and West.

Rumors fly from the East like sparks from a bonfire.  The armies of the Uarthian warlords are marching for whomever can afford them--currently, the Sultan Shirku the Deathless of Cazistan and the various Lords of Rimsedge.  Yet Grang stands, employing the humanoid Akeito of the mountains--accounted the most fearsome warriors of Arret--to devastating effect.  Demon generals and their ravening legions hold the field for the Lords, and the Infernal soldiers of the Nine Planes are called to service and bent to the will of Grangian summoners.  Black deeds and blood-drenched contracts hold sway in the pitched fighting along the shores of the Inland Sea and amongst the hills of Canile, and the more responsible and knowledgeable of Arret's people wonder at the price and consequences of the involvement of Outer Plane denizens in the affairs of mortals.

But matters closer to home strike nearer to the heart.  Paldor has undergone much change of late.  New powers have arisen in that land--the re-discovery of sorcery and the upsurge in magic has upset the upper echelons of Paldorian nobility, and the Fey have begun to bestir themselves from their long slumber again.  It is in such a context that you find yourselves--young adventurers on the cusp of great changes in the world