Rondowayn

## Climate

Rain is a constant factor to deal with when travelling through Rondowayn. The whole continent is filled with swamps and marshes of all kinds and the permanent moisture in the air helps them to never really dry out. More than fifty percent of the time you can expect at least one variant of rain, so first of all things adventurers have to find a dry shelter before they even think about camping in the wilderness here. Depending on the time of year temperatures can easily vary from freezing to uncomfortably hot.

## Nightfall

The capital of Rondowayn is the only place on the continent (apart from the Academy of Necromancy) that doesn't fall unter the direct jurisdiction of any of the Seven Baronies. Including the smaller settlements outside of its city walls its population is being estimated to be a little bit over 100.000. Its origin can be tracked back to several centuries before the Great War, so it's one of the oldest still populated areas in Navaria. With its victorian architecture and the many modern magical inventions in its streets Nightfall has become the most technically advanced place in the whole world.

The official ruler is considered to be Dularion Miskov, an ancient vampire, who has been the mayor of Nightfall ever since before the first official records were created shortly after the victory of the forces of Light more than two thousand years ago. Many believe him to be the first vampire ever created by the Darkness and he supposedly served it for several years, before he also became the first creature of darkness to turn its back on its former master. For unknown reasons for more than a thousand years now he's been sleeping in a crypt in the basement of his estate in the east of the city.

Today a council of emissaries of the Seven Baronies takes care of the cities governmental issues, a compromise lasting centuries now until hopefully the mayor may wake up from his long rest at last.

## The Seven Baronies

During his mysterious absence the ancient vampire Dularion left the continent in the hands of his children. They divided Rondowayn into eight baronies and since then each child (or their respective heirs) ruled over one of them. The noble families emerging from these children carry their names up to this day. While some have changed the head of the family quite regularly, there are also some direct descendants of Dularion Miskov still in power.

One of those families was lost in time at some point and the remaining barons and baronesses make sure it remains that way. Whatever happened to them centuries ago is a secret not meant to be shared.

### Redigosa

Current head of the family: Valdon Redigosa

The oldest son of Lady Redigosa Miskov was always rather shy and not very keen of other people, so it was far from certain he would become the next baron after the death of his mother in a tragic accident. Many preferred one of his seven siblings to become her successor, so it took him a couple of months and a lot of work to convince everyone he was up for the task. To the surprise of most of his critics he turned out to be one of the best leaders in the history of Rondowayn. His judgement is famous among his people for its fairness and impartialness, while his decisions not only benefit the rich and influential, but also the common folk.

He is married to Levina Xanadur, the younger sister of Lydia Xanadur, who is also one of the seven barons of Rondowayn. With her he has three children: Feledin, Lordeena and Morian.

### Gilbel

Current head of the family: Gilbel Miskov

Known to be a womanizer in his younger days the oldest son of Dularion Miskov had already sired a considerable number of children, before he actually met his wife Neera by pure chance, as he visited a small fishing village at the edge of his territory. She was a commoner and his siblings strongly disapproved of marrying her, but Gilbel had never been a man to actually care about them. From the day he met her he was truly faithful to her and it is said he never even looked at other women ever again.

Sadly his past would catch up to him in the end anyway. One of his bastard children felt treated wrongly by him and his family, so they followed an evil plan to murder the one person he truly loved. Gilbel never really was able to get over her death. For more than a hundred years now he's been suffering from being alone, unable to take care of the daily duties of a baron. Most of the time he spends sitting in his office with a blank stare on his face.

It was his son Mothas in the end, who finally decided to take care of the baron's responsibilities. His natural charm and wits won over the rest of the barony within weeks and nowadays it is him everybody is approaching for all kinds of matters. While his father still remains the official ruler, Mothas has effectively taken his place completely and nobody seems to mind.

### Cecani

Current head of the family: Gisa Cecani

Gisa is a ruthless baroness and one of the most powerful necromancers in Navaria. She has a rivalry with her brother Geralf Cecani, who lives in the southern parts of Azarva. Both are however quite insane. The sinister Gisa is a beautiful, young but crazed woman who knows no social restraint in proving that she is the best. As evidenced by her relatively pure approach to reanimating the dead, she doesn't care about the quality of her work; undead creatures are useful for the moment and can be cast aside at will. She believes in raising the dead directly from their graves, which is why most of her undead creations are ghouls. While her brother is known to have grand ambitions, Gisa is far less formal and more driven by her whims.

The siblings are scions of the noble Cecani family and thus relatives of the first vampire Dularion Miskov. Once living in Nightfall they were banished from the city in a hushed scandal and moved back to the moorland of their barony, where they waged war against one another by raising armies of undead. Their battles prompted many of the moorland's inhabitants to move to the neighboring baronies, leaving the area even more desolate than before. Now marauding ghouls range freely through the moors, lost playthings in the mad, epic battles of the siblings.

### Beladan

Current head of the family: Joseph Beladan

Joseph’s father Henry Beladan had always been a very careful man. Most of his life he had spent being afraid of assassins, which had always caused him to keep his personal guard close around him. But even then, his paranoia tended to be stronger than his sanity, so the thought of betrayal became a constant fear in his life. The same fear would also lead to some questionable decisions, that impacted the barony in a very negative way for the next few centuries.

The worst of them was to turn his thirteen-year-old son Joseph into a vampire. Even back then it was considered a cruelty to trap their own child in the body of a teenager for the rest their lives, which in the case of a vampire could be several millennials. Because of this the nobles of Rondowayn usually choose a birthday in the early twenties of a family member for the transformation to take place.

Henry’s fear of someone taking his son’s life was stronger than reason though, so he waited just until the moment his eldest offspring was able to sire an heir of their own and then turned him.

The result was the creation of a monster. After gaining his new powers it only took Joseph a few months to kill his father and most of his closer family. Henrys own fears had brought his worst nightmares to life and it is said he died a miserable death at the hands of the one he had just wanted to protect. The reign of “Joseph the Bloodcursed” had begun.

Nowadays the territory of the Beladans is quite isolated and not many travelers visit it anymore, since they tend to go missing during their journey. The local inhabitants live in fear of the moods of their baron and try to avoid his attention as best as they can.

### Xanadur

Current head of the family: Lydia Xanadur

Lady Xanadur is known to be a recluse of sorts. Ever since she became baroness around 300 years ago, she mostly stayed at home and took care of her duties instead of attending the many fancy balls and parties in the capital city of Nightfall. Only for very important meetings that may affect the concerns of her people she considers leaving her homestead and traveling there. Not many have ever met her in person and the few ones that have claim her to be a very stern and almost stubborn partner in a discussion.

Because of her focus and passion for her home the barony is probably the most tightly governed one in all Rondowayn. Plenty of specific laws and an army of well-trained guards to enforce them have made Lydia’s territory one of the places with the least amount of crime in Navaria. Even though it might appear overwhelming for any outsiders, the residents of the barony seem to appreciate their rather quiet and regulated lives compared to the others on the rest of the continent.

### Mileria

Current head of the family: Mileria Miskov

Known as the most timid and humble child of Dularion Miskov the beautiful Mileria has been ruling over her barony ever since its founding shortly after the Great War. She has always been very well liked by the population, because she tends to rule fairly and with a certain amount of emotion, that makes her quite relatable even to the common folks. Having never officially announced any kind of romantic relationship she is the only child of Dularion to not have created offspring yet.

She despises the belligerent Andryns in the neighboring barony, because they force her to take actions she had never wanted. Wars. Battles. Spilling the blood of her people saddens her on the deepest level. To prevent this from ever happening again she was the one who ordered the construction of the Great Milerian Wall almost 70 years ago. It acts as a border between the two baronies and as another layer of protection from potential attacks.

### Andryn

Current head of the family: Roderyck Andryn

House Andryn considers itself to be cursed, even though it is quite the opposite in the literal sense of the word “curse”. With the death of Andryn Miskov, the first head of the family, their vampiric bloodline had ended before it even really had started. His children had been too young to be turned at that point in time and thus they and all their descendants had to live their lives as simple mortals ever since.

Over the generations many family members tried to acquire the lost powers, but most of them failed quite miserably. A few of them actually managed to become some sort of vampiric being, but it didn’t even compare to the unmatched abilities of the original Miskov bloodline. During the centuries they became desperate and even started a war with the neighboring barony of Mileria.

Capturing Mileria Miskov and forcing her to turn the head of house Andryn into a vampire was the core of their plan. Several generations followed this idea and the war cost endless lives among both sides. Even though there officially is a ceasefire right now, it seems like the army of the Andryns is still prepared for another attack at any moment and the tension at the border is very high.