Major Realms: Court Marsilion, Spurn Grip, Exaltancy of Warepass
Continent: Dominarchus
Terrain: Northtip Forest, Cadno Forest, Shadowpoint Mts., Manacle Mts.
Rivers: Shahane River, The River Fireagh
Special Classes & Kits:
The people of Arquian tend to prefer wool and fur, heavy knits and utilitarian leather breeches or woven skirts. Plaids and checks are the most common designs for shirts and skirts. Heavy hooded cloaks are normally worn by men and women, as are small boot daggers. Both sexes commonly wear daggers, but swords are more commonly carried by men. Weapons are utilitarian but well-made. Hair tends to be worn long and braided or tied back by both men and women. Men usually wear beards or moustaches. Red and blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin predominate. The typical Arquian's build is thin but muscular, and the typical Arquian has a thick burr.
Architecture stresses stone for the wealthy and wood for the commoner; medieval-style castles and keeps are common, with amenities such as panelling and plumbing added in later years. Poorer roofs are earth or thatch; wealthier roofs are pointed and wood. Windows tend to be small and shuttered. Almost all travel is horseback; the roads aren't conducive to carriages and even peasants' waggons sometimes get stuck in the mud.
Foreigners tend to see Arquian as quaint in a damp, backward sort of way. The climate is cool and, since the realm lies on the tip of the Northern Continent, tends to be damp and windy. Its villages and towns are small and medieval. The people are expressive but provincial, with strict moral codes that most women carefully obey and most men pay lip service to but otherwise ignore. Arquians make undisciplined but enthusiastic fighters, with a tendency to become beserkers. Some of the most notable paladins have been Arquian, but the land is also known for its cunning border bandits. Arquians make shrewd merchants but tight-fisted consumers. They are also noted for their tragic love ballads and rousing battle songs.
Most Arquians are human or half-aseku, with a few aseku villages or clans (wood, grugach). Most bade'in who have left their Holdings seem to live in Arquian, since Citik Holding is within the Shadowpoint Range, and Spoff Holding is within the Manacle (Border) Mountains.
The Arquians have always resented foreigners, and were particularly rude to satamharanthu and their minions, which means that an anti-aseku and anti-Helar mood is quite strong in this realm. This tends to be directed more toward strange and especially foreign aseku, rathern than toward those that any given human might know.
Court Marsilion is honorably ruled by White Gwydion. The domain covers most of the land-mass of Arquian and is kept secure by the White Rebels, the name of the fierce guerilla fighting force that patrols its borders. Court Marsilion is the northernmost port in the Cognoterre, and trades primarily in timber, fish, whale-oil, and wool. Other cities in Marsilion include the mining town of Incandos, the strange city Cronoan that was founded by an archmage at the northernmost point of the Cognoterre, and Hierodei, a small enclave of hierodules that has won tolerance, if not liking, from the dour Arquian people.
Spurn: Spurn Grip
[Map: FantasyMaster's Town of Baldemar]
Spurn Grip is ruled by Amastre Dask and has close relations with Court Marsilion; the two have mutual aid agreements and many of the nobles are related by marriage or blood. Both regard the Exaltancy of Warepass with mistrust. Spurn Grip is a river port that straddles the River Fireagh, which runs through the Manacle Mountains of Empyrias and into Candor. Other notable cities in Spurn are the mining and foresting towns of Aconite and Grandoyne, and the city of Yare, which hosts the annual Livestock Fair for Arquian by the River Shahane.
Ware: Exaltancy of Warepass
[Map: Warhammer Fantasy, Shadows Over Bogenhafen; Bogenhafen]
The Exaltancy of Warepass is ruled by a drow hierodule calling himself Ecclesiarch Darkangel. Hierodules and coryphei are welcome in the exaltancy, as are kine. Darkangel keeps a strong guard called the Seraphim to maintain the peace and patrol the mountains around Warepass over which the Darkangel claims, and tenuously holds, rule. The River Fireagh runs through Ware, but sailors seldom leave their ships in this port, fearing the strange beings within the city. Nevertheless, it is the last port before the river begins winding through the Manacle Mountains, and thus an important spot to stop and reprovision. The only other city with a tenuous membership in Ware is the mountain village Esk, whose taciturn residents seem to accept and be accepted by the hierodules.
