Major Realms: Windway, ShadowEyrie, House of the Three Oaks, Icewaste Magiarch, The City-State of Ankham, The City-State of Jack, Eschaton
Continent: Geronfrey
Terrain: Shadowmarch, Cinerious Mts., Stonecourt Mts, Cusp Forest, Alzana Forest, Shroud Forest, Hieral Forest, Donweyr Waste
Rivers: River Gothos, River Dirge, River Mordant
Special Classes & Kits:
The common people of Geronfrey tend to prefer wool and fur, heavy knits and utilitarian leather breeches or woven skirts. Aristocrats prefer silks and lace, with feathered hats and wide-topped riding boots. Heavy hooded cloaks are normally worn by men and women, as are small boot daggers. Both sexes 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. Common buildings tend to be made of wood, with thatch or wooden roofs and small windows. They often have iron or woven-straw symbols of good luck hanging from the eaves and rafters and over the doors and windows. Good luck symbols may also be painted on the walls or around the door- and window-frames. Some individuals - typically the better-off bourgeois - whitewash their houses and paint the walls with bright murals. Nobles' houses are bavarian-baroque, with whitewashed stone walls, pointed roofs and a great deal of interior decoration, often in the form of gilded plaster forms across the walls and ceilings.
Geronfrey is cold and wild, with a northern climate that is constantly cool, even in the summer. The people seem to come in two types - the dour, secretive city dweller and the kindly country dweller. Geronfrens have a tendency to drift into crime at the drop of a hat, usually becoming bandits that roam the rocky mountainsides and dark forests robbing the fat, wealthy merchant caravans that go from town to town to trade, or evil sorcerors who build cold stone towers and delve into the forbidden secrets of human anatomy and necromantic magic. Vampirism and lycanthropy are thought (probably erroneously) to have arisen in Geronfrey; certainly vampires and lycanthropes were very strong in the realm until the Domination War, when most were crucified and slain for opposing the invading armies. Geronfrens tend to be violent and supersititious.
Geronfrens are mostly human, half-aseku and aseku (valley), with aarakocra in the northern lands, and Holdless bade'in settled in much of the mountainous area. Hair, skin and eye color tends to be light, with blonde and brown hair predominant. Grey eyes are typically thought to be a sign of Geronfren blood. Geronfren build tends to be average.
Windway is populated by the Hellebore Mercenaries who had been assigned there before the Shattering Wars, and their descendents. They enlisted en masse with the satamharanthu army once it was clear that the Cognoterre forces had lost the war. The satamharanthu, favorably impressed by their skills, accepted their services. As a result, the populace is rough and weapon-trained, suspicious of foreigners and ready to take arms at the slightest offense. They maintain a strong border guard against the Donweyr Wastes, where it is believed a great evil dwells. Now that the Dawn Masters are gone, the turncoat Hellebore are regarded as social pariahs, and have banded together in self-defense against the rest of the Cognoterre. Social misfits, renegades and criminals can often find a home with the Hellebore, although they first must prove their worth to the hardbitten populace.
Hierial Forest: ShadowEyrie
ShadowEyrie was the last home of the aarakocra, abandoned shortly after the end of the Domination War. This city of steep cliffs and mountain ledges is now abandoned. The bone and feather mourning charms that the aarakocra left behind are all that remains.
Shroud Forest: House of the Three Oaks
The House of the Three Oaks was once run by the aarakocra wizard Shroud, and protected by its surrounding forest and the magical creatures that live within. It was overcome during the Domination War, and was taken over by an aseku mage who calls herself Quicksilver. As far as anyone knows, she still teaches there.
Roscarberry: Icewaste Magiarch
[Map: Warhammer Fantasy: Death's Dark Shadow: Kreutzhofen]
Roscarberry is a river port along River Gothos. The city is governed by Shreir Nyctalop, an aseku mage rumored to be plagued with vampirism. The magicarch is generally peaceful, but the citizens have a haunted look in their eyes, and it is said all the northlands are populated with creatures of evil - particularly, by lycanthropes. The people of Roscarberry are poor and provincial, and given to superstition. Other cities in this realm are Nepenthe, known for its dark liquors; Monasterboice, for its hunting hounds; Scariff, a dark city huddled within Cusp Forest, and Valterne, which sits within the pass between Ankham and Roscarberry.
Ankham: The City-State of Ankham
[Map: TSR's Lankhmar]
The City-State of Ankham is ruled by its Overlord and is overrun by gangs, organized crime and a decadent aristocracy. Ankham is protected by a military guard on both land and sea and economically as well as culturally dominates Geronfrey. The Gedding Gaol lies outside Ankham (TSR Country Sites - Island of Lost Souls).
Jack: The City-State of Jack
[Map: Chaosium's Sanctuary]
The City-State of Jack has no stable government, and is constantly at war with itself; indeed, it is commonly believed that the real wielder of power in Jack is the so-called Beggar King and his desperate followers. It is ramshackle and filled with the dregs of Geronfrey.
Eschaton: Eschaton
[Map: Palladium Book II: Old Ones - Calra]
Eschaton sits between the ocean on the edge of the Alzana Forest. The city is cold and weatherworn, and merciless ocean winds whip endlessly through its streets. Intercontinental ships seldom port here, although the city ships out timber and fish to Anseis, Jack or Ankham.
