Forest Jen
by Mark HowardThis is something I've been knocking around for a while, and thought I would finally put it down.
Quite large scale, based off Thorf's 72 mile map of Skothar, The Forest Jen.
In the Master's map, the Jen are to the north-east of Esterhold, and then to the south-east is the "Empire of the Great Khan". When you look at the planetary map in the HW boxed set, the "Steppes of Jen" replace the "Empire of the Great Khan", and the area to the north-east of Esterhold is forested, and separated from the steppes by a mountain chain.
This made me think, what if both are true? And what if the refugees from the Alphatian invasion had migrated to the forest area. And who was there before?
Forest Jen
When the Alphatians invaded Esterhold, some fled to the south-east steppes, but others fled to the heavily forested valley of the River Chisdiq. These Jen adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle suitable for their new home, small clans moving their villages from one spot to the next.
Over the years, these Jen have moved away from the worship of Rathanos and Tarastia (although she maintains a following among the more recent arrivals), and towards the more nature focused Immortals, Ordana and Zirchev. They largely depend on druids for their spiritual needs.
The forest is a dark and dangerous place, with the unseelie court holding sway over large parts of it, and there is a continual flow of dark and mutated beasts coming from the ruins of Tresidan.
Fiorrin Elves
The Fiorrin Elves are the descendants of an ancient colony of Elves who traveled to Skothar to trade with Blackmoor. They established their capital at Tresidan, and established a number of smaller farming and mining settlements in the region.
The Great Rain of Fire destablised the core power unit for the colony, and it exploded. This destroyed the town and all the surrounding settlements lost power. In the aftermath, more Elves died as they sought each other out, and eventually only a couple of thousand were left. Having lost all contact with Grunland, they returned to the forests and the worship of Ordana, and over the years added Faunus, Eiryndul and Zirchev to their pantheon.
These Elves have returned to being protectors of their forests, and continually atone for the sins of their forefathers who turned away from the forest. They do this by keeping all non-forest races out. Using any tricks they can they will discourage and scare intruders away, these will tend to become more harmful and dangerous, the deeper an intruder gets into their forest. The only intruders they allow are the druids of the Forest Jen.
Tresidan
Before the Great Rain of Fire, the city of Tresidan was the capital of the Fiorrin colony. Powered by technomancy, it was linked by magical couplings to the outlying farming and mining communities. Then as Mystara shifted its axis, these couplings failed and caused a massive feedback loop, which in turn led to a melt-down.
Today, much of Tresidan still stands in a large clearing in the forest. Nothing grows here. In the middle of the ruins is the old power unit. When the melt down happened, the fusion of technology and magical power created a small rip in the fabric of the multiverse. Periodically something happens across the other side of this rip and comes through.
The Elves know of this and try to guard against these incursions, but this rip also lets dark energies through that mutate creatures that spend too long in the area, so they must watch at a considerable distance. These mutant creatures frequently disappear into the surrounding forests.