The Greenwold

This thread is for information about the Greenwold region of the world.

HISTORY
The Greenwold is an area on the wild western end of the continent separated from the breadth of the ancient Drakall Empire by the Nubetanya mountain range. It is primarily composed of vast forests, the Hornwood, the Trollfell, and, largest of them all, the Tanglebrier. These forests were once the domain of a mighty elven empire that had already diminished by the time the rebellious Imperial "Gray" generals fled with their followers from the civil war in the Empire. As their empire had dwindled, the elves were able to spare some abandoned territory on the coast to the refugees. The refugees found a harbor and built their initial settlement in amongst the ruins of an abandoned city; that settlement is now the capital and largest city of the Greenwold: Grayhaven.

The players discovered that the abandoned city was built around an ancient abbey. Long before even that city was built, the great Elder Dragons fought for supremacy across the world, a conflict that toppled nations and exterminated peoples. Then members of four surviving races (dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans) banded together in an alliance to put at end to the war by any means possible. Their mightiest sages worked together to craft a legendary artifact, the Orb of Dragon Souls, which allowed the wielder to bend dragons to their will. Threatening to use the Orb was enough to get the Elder Dragons to end their war and agree to a peace treaty, and then the wisest of the four races decided to hide the Orb so that it could not be misused. They chose the site of a distant mission, and had an abbey constructed there. Unbeknownst to everyone, a secret chamber was built below the abbey to hide the Orb. The dragons kept to their word, and divided dominion of the world between them, never again intruding on another's domain. The settlement around the abbey grew into a city, but there was no external threat maintaining a balance of power among the humanoid races. Empires rose and fell, wars were fought, and the city with the abbey was sacked and abandoned. Millennia passed, and the Gray Generals came looking for a refuge...

GOVERNMENT AND CURRENCY

The Greenwold is ruled by the royal family of Grayhaven. The current ruler is Queen Sophia. The royal seal is a round sun surrounded by four stars.
Below the royals are the Dukes, which administrate different areas of the region. The Duke of Grayhaven's symbol is a harbor and a rampant goat. The current Duke of Grayhaven is Dain Draymore.

Grayhaven mints its own coins, which are in common use throughout the Greenwold.
Copper: bit
Silver: argent
Electrum: orb
Gold: krugerrand
Platinum: plate
Gem-embedded platinum: crown

The base unit of currency is the "bit," a copper coin bearing the sun-and-stars seal of the royal family; bits are used for everyday transactions. For price estimation, it is useful to think of a bit as having around the same value as a modern dollar or euro.
The silver coin, the "argent," is worth 10 bits, and bears the symbol of the harbor-and-goat of the Duke of Grayhaven; argents are used for larger purchases in everyday transactions. An argent is roughly equivalent in value to 10 dollars.
The electrum coin, the "orb," is worth 5 argents or 50 bits, and bears the fortress image of the Duke of New Regalport. Electrum was an experiment about a century ago to revise the economy of the Greenwold, taken on by King Polodni the Reformer. He'd set up a new capitol city in New Regalport, a new mint, and many other reforms. Upon his death, the old ways resumed. Electrum coins have not been minted since, but many are still in circulation and are accepted as legal tender. Obviously, an orb has about the same purchasing power as a modern real-world fifty dollar bill.
The golden "krugerrand" coin is worth 10 argents, 100 bits, or 2 electrum, and bears an image of a ship at sea. Krugerrands are rarely seen except in the most expensive purchases; they are often paid out as wages, as a krugerrand is more than enough money for a normal Greenwold citizen's total expenses (rent, food, and other necessities) for a day. Like the bit, the krugerrand bears the circular sun surrounded by four stars symbol of the royal house. You'll have a good sense of how much you might buy if you imagine a krugerrand as being worth 100 dollars in the modern world.
The platinum coin, called a "plate," is worth 10 krugerrands, 20 electrum, 100 argents, or 1000 bits. Most people will never see a plate as only the merchants, bankers, nobles, landowners, and other wealthy people deal in amounts of money large enough to need such coins with any regularity. The plate features a wave, a tree, and a crag, meant to represent the breadth of the Greenwold from the Nubetanya to the sea.
Above the plate is the "crown," a large platinum coin with small gemstones in the center, that at a minimum is worth 10 plates, 100 krugerrands, 200 electrum, 1000 argents, or 10,000 bits. Crowns are financial instruments minted at the behest of the guilds to enable large financial transactions; they are quasi-mythical to most people. There is no image embossed on crowns because of the gemstone in the middle, but the coins bear the words "The Gods Smile" around the gem. This is an abbreviation of the old blessing, "May the gods smile upon you and bring your family good fortune." The rumor is that the type of gemstone in the crown determines its value, but this has yet to be corroborated by any PC's experience.

The city of Grayhaven, Jewel of the West, capital city of the Greenwold, lies on a promontory overlooking a deepwater harbor at the southern end of the Harpy Coast.
It is surrounded by a high wall on three sides, with the harbor on the fourth. The city is divided into a number of districts, some of which the PCs have visited.
The City Gates is the name given to the area around the main gate into the city: a pair of gargantuan doors that are operated and maintained by the Grayhaven Guard. The doors open onto the caravan grounds outside the city, which feeds into the Old Trade Road.
The Waterfront District is the majority of the low city that is adjacent to the harbor: where the people who work in shipping live and labor and play.
High Street is the upper part of the city, running up and along the promontory toward the castle. It is where the wealthy live and work and play.
The Market Square is the center of the city, located between the waterfront and the rise onto the promontory. All major roads in Grayhaven lead to the Market Square, where most of the merchant class lives and works and plays.
The Castle is the name given to the area at the tip of the promontory overlooking the harbor; it includes the original fortress built by the Gray Generals and the castle that has been built around it by succeeding generations of rulers, as well as the homes of those who live and work in the castle itself.

The Old Trade Road, route of many caravans, begins at the city of Grayhaven and climbs east by northeast through the many forests to cross the Sowkalt River flowing from the Nubetanya mountain range and continues across the Drakall plateau, arriving eventually at the ancient Imperial city of Mara.

A turbulent icemelt cataract for much of its length, the Sowkalt River has carved a deep canyon that parallels the Old Trade Road for much of its length. After a score of leagues of rapids cutting through the Trollfell forest, the Sowkalt reaches the lowlands and broadens and forks, enclosing Thile, a halfling-dominated island community. Many forks of the river branch off to the southern lands, but the main trunk of the river - called by some the Windy River at this point - continues west through the Barrens, a rock-strewn region of hills where little grows. Few people live in the Barrens other than the reclusive wizards whose only passion is magical study that inhabit the infamous towering citadel known as the Alabaster Academy. The Academicians intentionally have little contact with the outside world. Past the Barrens, the River eventually flows into the vast river delta region known as the Starless Mire. The community of Slew sits at the border of the swamps and the farming region of the Granges to the north of the Starless Mire.

The Granges is the breadbasket of the Greenwold. Originally part of the Tanglebrier Forest, the Granges were formed when the refugees from civil war in the Drakall Empire settled in Grayhaven and clear-cut the trees to make room for the farms they needed to survive. Now the Granges stretch 10 leagues from the city of Grayhaven to the town of Crosswell.

The Spire is the tallest mountain in the Greenwold, located several days' travel to the north of Grayhaven at the mouth of Kraken Bay. The noble Order of the Spire makes its home at the Spire's peak.

MARGARET, FIRST QUEEN OF GRAYHAVEN

Without the city of Grayhaven, the nations of the Greenwold could not have arisen, and without Queen Margaret the True, Grayhaven as it stands today could not have existed.

A young woman from humble origins, Margaret seized the destiny life presented her - overcoming the strife and greed of her fellow man to build a strong and peaceful world.

The great war of the dragons was an age of catastrophe - centuries of violence and conflict that separated the races and drove them to small, isolated settlements. When the Orb of Dragon Souls at last ended the war, peace settles across the wracked land, and the Greenwold finally had a chance to rebuild. However, centuries of war and destruction had taught humanity to be brutal and petty. Human warlords arose in the wake of the dragons, breaking the newfound peace with a hundred new wars of their own, squabbling for resources and land.

Humankind might still be mired in this era of feudal tribalism, easy prey for the beasts of the woods, were it not for the courage of one woman.

Born in the mouldering ruins of the long-fallen city of Grayhaven, Margaret was raised by a destitute band of survivors from the dragon wars. Unwilling to tolerate the savagery and fear she saw all around her, Margaret began to travel from isolated community to isolated community - arguing for peace with the leaders, and when they would not listen, taking her message of goodness, hope, and truth directly to the people.

Gradually Margaret built a coalition of the like-minded, unified by her vision of a peaceful world. When she faced resistance from petty lords she would overcome them - whether by strength of word or strength of arm - dethroning the greedy men who clung to power at the expense of peace.

All along she was aided by her enchanted blade - the ancient great sword Alendele, recovered in her youth from the ruins of the ancient city when the Gray Generals had originally founded their settlement: Grayhaven.

Led by the strength of Margaret's vision, a vision of peace and unity, her movement grew into an army of justice. Her forces claimed victory on victory, beating back the goblins, orcs, and monsters that had overrun the land and routing the forces of darkness by the light of her blazing sword.

At the end of a decades-long campaign, Margaret had established a new peace in a formerly villainous land. The worst of the bandits and brigands were forced to the ungovernable Kraken Bay, where they gathered in the ruins of Haven, the first city of the realm that had been founded after the Gray Generals' refugees settled in the Greenwold and spread out from the initial encampment.

Throughout the rest of the realm, Margaret had breathed life into a nascent network of rebuilt cities and villages, connected by trade roads and shared vision of a peaceful future. To crown her achievement, Margaret returned to the remains of Grayhaven, and declared it to be her capital city. She inherited it in a state of ruins, its proud buildings having been razed, pilfered, and rebuilt many times during the seemingly-endless dragon wars, and oversaw its transformation into the Jewel of the West once more.

Queen Margaret ruled from Castle Grayhaven for many years, before setting forth on a great crusade against the gnolls that boiled forth from the blighted Barrens of the south. Though the gnoll tides eventually waned to a trickle, the first Queen of Grayhaven and her army were never seen again.

Despite the loss, life in Grayhaven carried on, and the Queen's dynasty continues to this very day - in the form of young Queen Sophia. Every year since, the reigning monarch has presided over the Queen's Fair - a day marking the first founding of Grayhaven and the reunification of the Greenwold by Queen Margaret.

THE ABBEY AND THE ORB

The end of the War of Dragons, and the dawn of the modern era, began with the founding of an abbey long ago. The War of Dragons devastated the world for centuries - an endless conflict between bickering dragon lords who battled over territory without any regard for the "lesser" races living there.

This war was brought to an end only through the efforts of four heroes and the sacrifice of one noble dragon. Working together, they were
able to force a powerful new artifact - the Orb of Dragon Souls, which would allow its bearer to control the mind of any dragon.

In the hands of the good heroes it was the ultimate deterrent, and by its power the people of the Greenwold were able to sue for peace in court of the Dragon Lords. Lines of territory were drawn which the dragons agreed to abide by, and for the first time in a long age the lands of elves, dwarves, humans, halflings were able to establish themselves, to build and flourish.

Fearing that the Orb would be a potent weapon for evil if it ever fell into the wrong hands, the four heroes dedicated the rest of their lives to protecting it. They founded an abbey on the coast of a sea - a place where the survivors of the dragon war could seek peace and healing, giving prayers of thanks for the recovery from the depredations of the dragons. In its depths, they built a secret vault and concealed the Orb there - warding it with mighty magics to prevent the artifact from falling into the hands of the unworthy.

Centuries passed, the humanoid lands flourished, and the threat of dragons receded into memory. As the peace drew on, the abbey gradually became neglected and fell into disuse. The people who had built their settlements around the Abbey dwindled or retreated into the nearby lands. The existence of the Abbey faded into history, and then into legend.

(With Findal's insight) We now know that the Abbey was here, where the Gray Generals fled from the Drakall Empire and treated with the elves. The elves had left the coast for the forests of the Greenwold, and granted the refugees space to build in the land that they no longer desired...which included the ruins of the Abbey. The refugees built their camp on the shores of the bay, and came to call it Gray Haven. The haven grew into a city, which eventually encompassed the ruins of the old settlements and the Abbey itself. The city continued to grow around it and over it, until the Abbey became just one more part of the city’s tangled and forgotten sewer system, little more than a haunt for rats and thieves.

And all that time, hidden somewhere far beneath within the abbey’s subterranean, crumbling halls, the Orb of Dragon Souls still rested, the two-edged sword by which peace was forged and by which it can be broken, waiting patiently to emerge again into the world.

There are many celebrations and feast days in the Greenwold, and a city as vast and diverse as Grayhaven has many special occasions, but they are generally local neighborhood, district, or temple affairs. Only one festival is big enough that the entire city comes to a halt to celebrate: the Queen's Fair, which is so big that it lasts an entire week.

For some people, their entire year is planned around the event. Merchants come from far and wide to peddle their wares and begin new business, while common folk gather with families for reunions and weddings.

The Queen's Fair celebrates the legendary founding of Grayhaven by its first queen, Margaret the True. In the centuries since, it has developed into an occasion for the current monarchs to connect with their people and give back to the city. It is a patriotic occasion: a time to celebrate their nation, its capital, and the shared history of its people. Special dispensation is available for performers and vendors to provide entertainment and peddle goods, and the monarch will usually commission some grand gesture of largesse: a gift to the people, a monument, a feast, a menagerie, or a spectacle to delight the populace. People travel from all over the Greenwold (and beyond!) to attend the Queen's Fair. Many deals and treaties are finalized during the week of the Fair, and fortunes are made and lost. Inns everywhere in Grayhaven are packed solid with guests, and some residents make extra money by setting up cots for visitors.

In the past generation, Queen Ava decreed a grand competition, the Queen's Cup, which her husband the King, Galen, eagerly implemented. Each Queen's Fair has had a different competition - Galen and Ava were very inventive - but the prize has always been the same: a fabulous jeweled trophy cup, royal grace, and a benediction from the Queen.