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What’s in a Name? – Thoughts on the Heldannic Port of Forton

by Geoff Gander

An Introduction of Sorts

The funniest things bug me at times. Sometimes it’s a dish that turned out just a little too salty, other times it might be a story that just isn’t coming together the way it did in my head. What they all have in common, however, is their transitory nature – none of them bother me all the time.

The same cannot be said for the Heldannic town of Forton, introduced in Joshuan’s Almanac, which covered Mystaran events for the year AC 1013. It’s not that I disagreed with the Heldannic Knights establishing a deep-water port in the bay that has become known as the Kamminer Bucht; in fact, it makes perfect strategic sense given the Knights are preparing to advance on Norwold in the wake of the Wrath of the Immortals. What I took issue with – and to many I am sure this seems comical – is the name of the place. “Forton” sounds grand, yet perfectly middle-of-the-road in a sort of generic fantasy sense. The very name screams “place with a fort in it” and conveys all the exoticness of a tuna fish sandwich. It also, in the context of the Heldannic Territories and their explicitly Germanic cultural atmosphere, doesn’t work etymologically at all. It’s as though Forton were scooped up from some distant land and dropped, Oz-style, on the rocky shores of Heldann, at which point the Immortal who did the deed lit a cigarette and called it a day.

So what to do about it, since it’s just a place name in a fictional setting and who really cares anyway? Well, I do, for a start, and as I said at the very beginning of this piece this is something that bothers me. I could propose a name change, but Forton is established in “canon” and simply Germanising it, or renaming it entirely, probably won’t go over well with the community as a whole. So let’s continue the time-honoured Mystaran fan community tradition of retconning to make Forton’s name make more sense!

First off, there isn’t a whole lot of official material about Forton – there’s Joshuan’s Almanac and that’s about it. Everything else I have found about the place has been generated by the fan community, and as a result my effort will be to reconcile what we’ve collectively written about it – and Heldann by extension. Thorfinn Taite has been extremely helpful in pointing out sources I hadn’t been fully aware of beforehand, and we bounced some ideas around in the context of his work on mapping Heldann. Thibault’s August 2004 work, supported by his as-yet-unpublished Gazetteer, was especially useful here. In those works, Forton is located at the mouth of the Heldland River, the next port of any size north of Kammin, and is described as being built “entirely by the Heldannic Knights under the ruins of an old castle along the Misty River” but also as having been seized by the Knights in AC 1010 (which implies a pre-existing settlement). What this tells me is that while the Knights built something in AC 1013 (as per Joshuan’s Almanac), there is nothing saying that there couldn’t have been anything there before – the Knights probably razed what was there to make way for the new port, which then incorporates the spirit of what Thibault wrote.

So, what was there in the first place?

We know that before the Knights arrived in the mid-10th century AC, Heldann was inhabited by clans of Antalian-descended folk (and therefore kin to the peoples of the Northern Reaches) divided into numerous petty dominions of varying sizes and strengths, and this is part of the reason why the Knights were able to conquer the area in the first place. However, we know that the locals didn’t simply acquiesce for the most part; although some certainly would have sided with the invaders in the hopes of settling old scores with rivals, or hoping to secure a better deal for themselves when the dust finally settled. (We have a good idea how well that turned out.) Taking all this into account, it stands to reason that the lands now occupied by Forton were held by a local warlord or leader, since if the Knights wished to built a port here, then the locals would have seen the value in doing so as well.

So who was this person? My idea is based on the following premises:

A Possible Background

The land now occupied by Forton was once the domain of a Heldanner warlord known as Førra, who, along with his band of Thirty Heroes, protected several hundred people from the depredations of bandits, rival warlords, trolls, and worse things. The community of the day was based around Førra’s extensive farm, which was fortified with a palisade and was known for having enough supplies to feed 500 people for an entire winter. Located as it was at a strategic river crossing, Førra’s realm collected revenue from passing traders as well in the form of tolls; in practical terms, he was a wealthy man. In the local dialect, a farm was known as a “Ton”, and therefore the locals called Førra’s farm – and the community that grew up around it – as “Førra’s Ton”. To the Heldannic Knights, the pronunciation sounded more like “Forston”, or “Forton”.

Førra was at first openly hostile towards the Heldannic Knights when they arrived in AC 950, and his warriors attacked several exploratory patrols that ventured too close during the first decade of Heldannic presence in the north. However, by AC 960 almost all of the Heldanner lands south of Altendorf were under the control of the Heldannic Order, and the Knights turned their attention northwards in a bid to secure more definite borders. While the primeval Altenwald remained full of rebels, and was therefore acknowledged to be a difficult region to pacify, the Knights had no fears about the coastal regions. The closest settlement of note, the town of Keflavík (now Kammin), was conquered in AC 966, largely destroyed, and then rebuilt as a new, fortified community of Hattian immigrants. Heldanic control over what is now the Kamminer Bucht followed soon afterwards.

As the Heldannic Knights pressed further northwards some Heldanner lords, well aware of what had happened in the south, quietly made overtures to the invaders in the hopes of currying favour. Many of these were jealous of Førra’s success and offered to assist in conquering his domain in exchange for a share of the loot. The Knights, while eager to gain a strong foothold in the north to open a new front against the partisans in the Altenwald, had no intention of dealing with any of the local leaders as equals; however, they also saw an opportunity to further divide resistance against their advance.

The Knights sent emissaries bearing gifts and offers of co-operation to Førra, who was very conscious of his strategic vulnerability. Førra was offered governorship of the northern marches if he would not only submit to Heldannic authority, but also convert to his new masters’ faith and consign at least two of his children to holy orders. At that time, a coalition of Heldanner lords attacked Førra’s Ton, at which point the emissaries and their armed retinue stood by Førra’s side to help him defend his lands. Many of the combatants on both sides perished in the pitched battle that destroyed the community Førra had worked so hard to build and protect – including Førra, his Thirty Heroes, and all of his children – in AC 971.

There it might have ended were it not for a decision decades later to found a new port in the north. The Heldannic authorities were casting about for a name for the new settlement, and many favoured the name of “Heldbrücke”. However, it was decided in the end to appeal to the native Heldanners by invoking the name of one of their own who died in battle, fighting for what he believed in. Thus, the name of “Forton” was chosen.
While many seem to appreciate the gesture – similar in many ways to the decision by the Heldannic authorities to allow the town of Strondborg to retain its Heldanner name (while Hattian settlers call it by another name) – there are those who insist, quietly of course, that the official story is quite different. Dissidents argue that Førra did not convert as he lay dying on the battlefield (as the official account relates), nor did he actually accept the emissaries’ offer prior to the battle. They claim, instead, that Heldannic spies incited the other Heldanner chiefs to unite against Førra, and thus the entire battle was a bloody puppet show designed to bring all of what is now Heldland under the Knights’ control.

For its own part, the Heldannic Order declared Førra a hero, erected a statue to him in Forton, and consecrated the actual battle site (which lies about 5 miles west of the town), complete with a 50 foot tall statue of Vanya, a specially planted grove of trees, and pathways for pilgrims to wander about the grounds and meditate on the power and justness of Vanya and the Order.