Land of Outcasts. Land of the Lawless. Land of Brigands. Thalonmar.
It has been known by many names since it's founding. The original land
was once a rich and famous land over a thousand years ago, but when
it's riches became plundered, the folk of the nation went away to find
greater lands to rape.
Then, all that was left was farmers and herdsmen. Sheep became the
way to power with herdsman villages that arose from the dust of the once
proud land.
For over 500 years, the land was fallow to all seed, the land only
good for grazing of sheep. The few farmers who knew enough of the land
to rotate their crops and fertilize the soil survived. Yet still, the
sheep herders remained the primary resource of the land.
Trade of wool by shrewd herders brought many a tradesman to the small
communities which had grown out of the dust.They were hardy people,
willing to go hungry and work in the soil, scratching out a meager
existance from the raped land. Anyone who was willing was accepted
into the community, if you could prove yourself to be a hard worker.
It mattered not that you might have once been a thief, begger, or
even an escaped slave. Survival of the comunity was all that mattered.
Thus, it became known as Land of the Outcasts. Many fled there to
avoid the prosecution of the neighboring realms. Once there, if you
lived to join a community, no one would care what you had done in a
previous life. The penalty in some of the neighboring realms began to
include banishment to Thalonmar as a regular sentence for crimes small
and large. Thus, it came to be known as the Land of the Lawless.
Once the thieves caught on to the fact they were being put into
Thalonmar, there arose a small town of lawless people who would form
raiding partys to raid across the borders into the neighboring realms.
Thus, was the vaunted city of Shalmet, city of the lawless, founded.
As yet, Shalmet was no more then a meeting place for Brigands throughout
the land. When threatened by the neighboring realms, they would melt
silently into the countryside, paying the poor herders with stolen goods
and gold to hide them.
None of the neighboring kingdoms had the resources, nor the time, to
search the whole countryside for the Brigands. To remove the threat,
they tightened the borders and virtually ignored the Land of Brigands.
Ignored for 500 years, they grew silently in power, slowly siphoning
off the wealth of neighboring countries until they could at last fortify
their city of Shalmet into a real city, rivaling any in the land, that
would take a major war to defeat.
Careful planning by the farmers once again made the lands good for
crops. The Dwarves and Elves are now seen once again, reclaiming their
now fertile lands, much to the disruption of the communities. Barter
of wool is still a major export, but is now added to by several other
goods, such as produce. Metals from the dwarves and skilled works from
the elves also add to the exports once again.
Like the majestic Phoenix, Thalonmar has risen up once again. The
King, Midin the Just, is the great grandson of a powerful Brigand King,
Marcous the Bold, but no one who knows of his temper will dispute his rule.
The neighboring realms are:
Saladontis:
Also known as Priest Kings, and the original rapers of
Thalonmar, is a theocracy. They are ruled by High Priest Halodona for
whom it is rumored to be the Avatar of the god Zitara.
Delmara:
Also known as the True-Line of Lords, is a kingdom run by
bloodlines, that they say are so old they can follow them back to
the days of the true kings of the land. Broken up now into small duchies
that vie for power over the kingdom, all are waiting to unite under the
hand of the next True-Born that their gods say will come soon, in the
prophecies written by their seers.
This is where the group first met the Druid Filobuster and is
a common meeting place for them.
