Tormwood

Tormwood was once the kingdom of the Torms, but is now devided between Tomsk and Styke.

**From A Land of Trees:**

   *When you are a race of people, smaller then nogs, smaller than men, smaller even than the naxeme, the smallest pygmy race in all of Nillamandor in fact, you either stay out the way, or stay where you are put. If your greatest warriors are no more than four feet tall you can forget owning a nice patchof goodfarming land. Not for any great length of time anyway.*

*If the Stykians were the forgotten people of Nillamandor, the torms of Tormwood were the forgotten race of Styke. Many years ago a small kingdom of torms had existed between Styke and Tomsk. During one of the many wars between the two kingdoms Tormwood was gobbled up by the protagonists and divided up at the treaty table. North Tormwood became Fraska and South Tormwood became Fressle. The good land was settled by humans of both sides and the torms moved deeper into the forest. The bad land, well, the torms could keep the bad land.*

*Fressle became possibly the most little known shire on any map of Nillamandor. Torms, or fressles as they were known in Styke, were tolerated in the rest of the country although treated little better than tame goblins. Over the years this small people, who took almost anything in their stride made a place for themselves in the kingdom, even if it was, needless to say, a very small one.*

*Fraskans and fressles made little difference to mankind, but they were all torms as far as torms were concerned. So, this tale begins with a small fressle as she was born south of the border.*

*Why she currently was not in Fressle remains to be seen, but here she was trudging through the snow in a town called Korismalle.*

*Fressles are very small creatures, and Mary was even shorter than most. She stood not much more than three feet tall, which made the larger snow drifts particularly heavy going. Dressed in a multitude of skirts and pinafores, and an overcoat two sizes too big for her, topped off with a pointed wizard’s hat, its tip sagging slightly due to the damp snow, she looked more like a child’s spinning top than a person.*

*Her thick leather boots, made for the feet of a human child, were beginning to let the moisture in and she could barely feel her toes, wrapped up in two layers of stockings as they were.*

*Pulling the collar of her coat further up and hugging her muffler around her she continued on her way, the only bit of her face visible were her green eyes and very red nose. She was not far from her destination now at least she reflected. Just a few more streets and she would be at the inn.*

*It was still dark, as dawn had not arrived yet, but murky street lamps cast a yellow glow down onto the snow, and created an eerie effect on the fall of the clumps of thick snowflakes.*

From Island of Dragons:

‘Oh I don’t
know, I was just a girl really. It seems like a long time ago now. I worked in
a bakery, and then later a tavern. My grannie, on my dad’s side had been a
druid, my family made a huge thing about it. She’d gone east though, years
before I was born and we all thought she was dead. Torms do things differently
from humans and elves. They have their own methods, but in Tormwood the druids
act as custodians of the woods and protectors of the forest folk. This is
probably really boring for you...’

‘Just keep
talking.’

‘Well,
ahem,’ said Meggelaine, more used to addressing aging Great Forest Council
members than children, ‘Tormwood has a human border run right through it,
between Styke and Tomsk, so there is a lot of work for torm druids there making
sure our people’s rights are respected. It’s a lot of work.

Well anyway,
everyone thought my big brother was going to be a druid, but he became a
merchant instead. He has a barge on the Duchy canals. I started showing some
aptitude and interest, so well, my parents sent me off to the elders and
well...’

...

‘It’s not as
simple as that. The partition happened a long time ago, before I was born. The
humans are brutes, but it’s better than the alternative. If the humans didn’t
fight the goblins then they would hunt and kill all the torms. That’s how most
torms see it. We’ve made our peace mostly. Of course I would like to see a
united Tormwood, or Tormland or whatever and maybe one day it will happen. The
king of Styke is a real turd, but at least he keeps the goblins in check.
Letting the dwarves in was a clever move. And well, Roztov knows more about
this than me, but the kingdom to the east has failed. The rumours are its
overrun with… the undead… oh…’

...

And so it
went. Meggelaine didn’t want to get into the ins and outs of torm nationalism
with a twelve year old human particularly, but it was a subject close to her
heart. Throughout her entire life, torm heroes had come and gone, always
failing, who wanted to unite the kingdom again and gain independence from Styke
or Tomsk or both. The humans would get on their horses, ride into the forest,
make a few arrests, burn a few homes and that would be the end of it.  Well, she supposed as she blew out the candle
when Ophess was finally asleep, it didn’t matter much now. If she ever made it
back to Nillamandor alive she’d re-evaluate her to-do list, maybe. Maybe become
the first torm queen of Tormwood after two hundred years of human rule...

Notes:

Was The Shire - now South Tormwood. At the moment it is placed much too far south.
So at some point it will need to be moved further north.

Tormwood is the name of the whole region. The town in this zone is called Antoly.

fressles and fraskans are the two types of torm.

Fressles in the south Styke part and Fraskans in the northern Tomsk part.

'You stand on top of Henteeth Hill, named after the legendary Hula Henteeth.'