Fiendeyrr

The Fiendeyrr - meaning 'Beach of the Fiends' - is a province of the Arathi Highlands. Situated next to the Oriental Sea, it is a wind-swept stretch of lands bordering the Eastern Mountains of the Highlands. With arable land at a premium and travel by land made difficult by the mountains, the sea-side villages of the Fiendeyrr have historically survived by trade with the ports up and down the Oriental Coasts - an arrangement that has, over the last five years, become increasingly precarious.

## History

### Pre-Imperial Period

Prior to the rise of the Arathorian Empire, the Fiendeyrr - and the broader Fiend's Coast - was the home to a settlement of the Amani Empire. This settlement, now lost to the waters of the sea, preyed on the handful of human fisher-tribes that made their living on the narrow coast, and this predation gave rise to the name of the region. The local tribe's name has been lost to history, but records reference 'fisher-men from the East' joining in the formation of the Arathorian Empire.

### Imperial Period

#### Early Forays

Shortly after the Troll Wars, the Emperor decreed that his best warriors were to form the backbone of the Imperial Army rather than returning to their prior lives. Among these warriors were a contingent from the fisher-tribes, known for their skills with javelins and with axes. These men, together with some of the 'moor-men' (of uncertain origin, though believed to be from the swamps of what is now known as the Wetlands), formed the Oriental Guard posted to patrol the Eastern Mountains and Oriental Coast.

With the trolls largely destroyed, the Oriental Guard was a peaceful posting throughout the south and central Oriental Coastal regions. In the north, and especially the Fiendeyrr region, this was not the case - the Fiendmund settlement had become a significant site for the surviving trolls, and had in fact grown in size as troll tribes from across the Amani Empire were displaced and sought new tribes. The fighting between the Oriental Guard and the Fiendmund trolls was heated, bloody, and ultimately extremely long: Their struggle simmered for three centuries of skirmishes, minor battles, and sieges before the final chapter of the Fiendmund was written.

#### The Founding of Caer Ostgaeta

In 179AD*,* Legate Vandermar of the Twelfth Legion (formed out of the Oriental Guard in 64AD) ordered the construction of a permanent fortification in the Fiendeyrr region. With the Guard and the Legion having previously relied on semi-permanent field encampments, and with the Trolls growing more daring and now threatening the settlements further south, Vandermar was convinced that such a site would be the decisive blow needed to end the conflict.

It took three years for scouts and architects to locate a suitable site, a hundred miles south of the Fiendmund. The site was a steep rise beside the sea, eroded by wind and waves for centuries, and left with an ideal Northern face of hundred-foot sheer cliffs. While the site was still approachable by land from the South and the West, its position gave it excellent visibility of the main approaches open to the Fiendmund trolls and would allow for any attack to be channelled into fortified killing fields.

Construction began in 184AD, and the Twelfth Legion established an earthwork fortress on the hill to safeguard the engineers late in that year. This proved to be a wise decision, as they repelled over a dozen Troll raids during the winter of 184-185, though at great cost in lives. Building was slow, but in 189AD, the large stone fortress was complete, and Legate Vandermar assumed his post as its first commander. He named it 'Caer Ostgaeta' - the Castle Watching the East.

#### The Battle of the Fiendeyrr

That summer, the first major conflict of the final chapter of the war took place. The Legion set out from Caer Ostgaeta to take the fight to the Fiendmund trolls for the first time in decades - and were met in battle by the forces of Warchief Azi'kerak in the now-destroyed Saltwoods (a forested salt marsh, standing roughly fifteen miles from Caer Ostgaeta). With three thousand men at his disposal, Legate Vandermar neglected to send suitable scouts into the treacherous mire - and stumbled into an ambush prepared by Azi'kerak's numerically inferior forces.

Two days earlier, unbeknownst to Vandermar, Azi'kerak's spies had sent word that the Legion was preparing to move, and the troll Warchief had moved all his forces south to the Saltwoods - the one area where the Legion would be unable to exploit cavalry *or* their shieldwall tactics. There, the jungle trolls had hidden among the trees and in the pools of salt water as Vandermar passed, waiting in order to snap at him from the rear as well as the front.

The trap did not go quite to plan as Legionnaire Darthir - a low-level officer in charge of the supply train - noticed the first movements of the attack and alerted the force. Battle was swiftly joined as trolls came from all sides but the sea, tearing through the woods with spears and swords, with their supporting troops hurling javelins, stones, and arrows at the column.

Vandermar, knowing his troops to be unable to fight effectively as a solid wall in the terrain, immediately ordered that each man look only to the man right of him and ignore the shield wall. The basic training would remain in play, without the necessity of forming a full phalanx. This decision did little to blunt the initial charge, and the fight rapidly began to turn against the Legion. It was the intervention of the attached sorceror of the Tower - Magus Heironomyus - that allowed the Legion to rally.

The sorceror, thinking swiftly, set light to as much of the swamp as he could rather than focusing any individual troll. The resulting blaze - though exceptionally short-lived - served its purpose admirably; the trolls, confronted with their ancestral enemy, lost the momentum of their push and the battered Legion was able to push them back and press onwards into the sole remaining area of contention: The knot of battle that had previously been the first unit of the Legion, and now consisted largely of corpses and a handful of men from the first unit reinforced by the second.

Their opponent was none other than Azi'kerak himself and his elite band of soldiers, too disciplined to be affected by the blaze roaring around them. The counter-charge was swift and decisive, however, and Azi'kerak himself was slain (his head was sent back to Caer Ostgaeta, where it was preserved and stuffed, and where it remained until it was stolen by a troll raiding party in 670AD). The battle ended in a minor victory for the Legion, but a costly one.

The total dead among the Legion is recorded as 1,268 men of the 3,000 who entered the marsh, with the wounded taking that figure to 2,500. The trolls are recorded as having lost just under seven hundred, and their wounds did not prove sufficient to prevent them from swiftly rallying.

The most desperate phase of the renewed hostilities was soon to come, as the Legion retreated to Caer Ostgaeta and a new warchief rose among the Fiendmund trolls. The dread Zul'rohk, the Great Destroyer - an Amani general, come south from the great city itself to lead the tribe into battle.

#### The Siege of Caer Ostgaeta

Zul'rohk - whose birth name is lost to history, and whose stories have become mixed in Trollish folklore with the many others who have borne the name - was a fearsome opponent, well-trained by guerrilla skirmishes with Elves and with other trollish tribes. Tall, strong and capable, he quickly reorganized the Fiendmund tribe so that warfare became the tribe's sole and only purpose. The infirm and the children were set to work hunting, gathering and fishing in order that every able bodied Troll could serve during the coming conflict.

   Early in 190AD, Zul'rohk's warbands swept south from the Fiendmund by sea, bypassing Caer Ostgaeta to strike at the small fishing and farming villages of the southern Fiendeyrr. These small, fast raids served two purposes: to diminish the supplies available to the fortress, and to draw off troops to man outposts and small garrisons along the coastline. Few actual skirmishes were fought, and the Troll forces withdrew on meeting any serious resistance. The effect was a serious disruption of the planting season, and as the raids continued through the year, the fishing and lambing seasons.

Throughout these raids, the lesser trolls of the Fiendmund toiled under harsh conditions to produce as much as quickly as possible. Such supplies were added to by the spoils from raids and captured fishing ships, building a large stockpile of foodstuffs and fuel. As winter set in on the coast, Zul'rohk marched south through the much-diminished Saltlands once again while a diversionary force struck hard down the coast, lingering to actually engage in battle. With the garrison of Caer Ostgaeta diminished and distracted, Zul'rohk set siege to the citadel, surrounding it on all sides and butchering the returning troops from the coast through ambushes and trickery.

The Siege of Caer Ostgaeta had begun. The Legion, still devastated by the 189 Battle of the Fiendeyrr, numbered a severely understrength 1800 men, with only half that number actually in the citadel proper. Of the other half, two-thirds were killed or routed returning to the citadel, leaving only a small contingent of cavalry and scouts to operate freely in the Fiendeyrr under the command of the Otto Lucius Siriovic. Siriovic, born in the area, was ranked only as a legionary but had been acting informally as the commander of the Twelfth's scouts, and quickly set his forces to work harassing the Fiendmund supply lines and sent runners to the neighbouring territories to beg aid.

## Notable Features

### Geography

The Fiendeyrr consists largely of narrow strips of land fixed between the Eastern Mountains and the Oriental Sea. It's most significant feature however are its numerous bays, the largest of which is home to a once-major port (the Merchant's Bay) and which remains the region's population centre.

A land of steep sandstone cliffs and narrow stony beaches - Eyrr in fact referring specifically to the shingle beaches - the Fiendeyrr's soils are relatively shallow and make for poor farming, and there are few trees. Hardy shrubs anchor the soils and provide grazing fodder for the local goat farmers.

The few areas of extended flat land in the region are dominated by the few succesful farms along the coast. These areas, few and far between, are of particular importance to the region's economy and agriculture, especially given the unforgiving craggy mountains that border them and make so much of the area unsuited to settlement or the plow.

The highest point in the Fiendeyrr is a small peak that meets the waterline, dubbed the Fiendmund (Fiend's Mound, named for the trolls that once inhabited it). The Fiendmund stands at seven hundred feet tall, worn down to a sharp cliff on the ocean side, and is considered a major landmark for sailors thanks to its unmistakable profile.

The sea itself is home to jagged stone reefs and outcroppings

   , though there are a number of safe routes through. These outcroppings and reefs have had the fortunate side effect of creating a relatively calm anchorage once inside the varied bays, as waves break on the rocks. This is largely responsible for the region's role as a formerly significant trade post of the Oriental routes.

### Major Settlements

#### Gudbayn

The small town of Gudbayn is the largest settlement in the region. Numbering at just over eight thousand people, the town is home to a once major shipyard, a fishing industry that exports salted fish over the Mountains and into the Highlands proper, and the converted Eastgate.

    The Eastgate (a modern, and flawed, translation of the Old Common Ostgaeta, meaning 'To Watch the East') is a former Arathorian Legion fort, and provided the initial population of the town following its establishment in 204AD. It has been unoccupied by the Legion since 1874AD and has ever since formed the nucleus of the town, with just under a third of the population residing in the cramped 'city' within the original fort's walls.

The town is split into two main regions. The Eastgate - situated atop one of the region's rises and surrounded by cliffs - is the smallest, geographically. At the base of that rise, on the southern side, is the once-independent township of Saltbreak, which now forms the bulk of the town and which borders the sea. The Eastgate is home to merchant families, traders, temples, and other services, while the Saltbreak is home to the fishermen, labourers, shipyards, and the handful of butchers.

Gudbayn is also the home of Abram Osterblut, the reigning patriarch of the Eastern Osterblut clan.

## Prominent Figures

### Baron Heinrich d'Fiendeyrr

The current ruler of the Fiendeyrr region, Baron Heinrich is the Seventh Baron d'Fiendeyrr and a vassal of Count Thor Templeston. Under his direction, the region has begun to build up a small navy specifically focused on countering the troll canoes from the Hinterlands coast - and on retaliatory raiding. The long and sleek ships being built in Gudbayn are rapidly forming the basis of the region's new economy now that trade has been interrupted. Troll villages and cities are home to ample gold and supplies, and Baron Heinrich intends to see it all in **his**people's hands.

### The Osterbluts

#### Abram Alfred Osterblut

The oldest living Osterblut, Abram (the son of John Osterblut and Nicole Redsmith) is the defacto mayor of Gudbayn. At seventy-one years of age, he is half blind and quite infirm, but has managed to retain his intelligence and wit. He is literate, numerate, and capable of long-term planning, and it is due to his guidance that Gudbayn has weathered the storm of the last decade without major loss of life, despite troll raids and the loss of their traditional trading partners along the coast.