Lamordia

## Landscape

Lamordia is well known for its brutal and lethal winters; still after the spring thaw bodies of travellers are usually found frozen. In stark contrast, the summers in Lamordia are often scorching. Lamordians are certain a natural cause exists.

Here the Musarde River is locally called Riefa Spandwäw, or Cobweb River. By the time the river reaches Lamordia it is tainted by the collected refuse of Darkon, Lekar, and much of the western core. Its waters are the colour of strong tea, filthy with silt and detritus; the appalling septic odour makes those unused to it struggle to hold their lunch. The river changes to a broad delta as it reaches the coastal flood plains. The sea is known as Mäa Trüa, or the Sea of Sorrows.

The flood plains give way to Essenbach Somp, Heath of Fevered Tears, dotted with patches of fetid marsh. Here mosquitos are common during the summer months, making travel here unpleasant at best.

A coastal plain creeps north form the heath, gradually turning from marshy shoreline to treacherous cliffs riddled with caves. Here the Riefa Schwoat, Black River, flows from the eastern uplands cutting through the cliffs at Ludendorf to create a natural cove.

Continuing north, the coast fragments into a string of islands known as Finja, The Finger. The chain reaches into the Sea of Sorrows, dwindling from the Isle of Agony to solitary spires of stone. The shallows around here hide choking seaweed and shoals, causing ships to make detours. During the summer months a sticky black mud causeway connects The Finger to the mainland -- caution should be taken, though, as travellers can easily sink to their waists and spend time being harassed by seabirds. The Isle of Agony is the most notorious of the islands, for though foreign sailors say all the islands are dangerous or haunted, even the sceptical Lamordians are terrified of the Isle's bogeyman. The Finger terminates at The Demise, a region well known for shipwrecks.

Winding forested crags known as Schlaptia, The Sleeping Beast, distinguish eastern Lamordia. The Beast is not so much a mountain chain, but a twisting spine of rocky ridges covered with evergreens. However, despite the modest height, the beast shelters Neufurchtenbug and Falkovnia from the sea's bitter northwestern storms. A small number of trappers brave the ridges' natural dangers and predators to make a living here. The ruling family's estate can also be found here.

Lamordia has only a very small amount of cobbled road -- the Wauntmäa Road and Timori Road -- which link Ludendorf and Neufurchtenburg with Rivilis in Darkon and Lekar in Falkovnia. Everywhere else dirt roads are the norm. These roads transform into morasses of viscous mud in the summer months.

Settlements are extremely tidy. Lamordians seem to not like stray mud or browning leaves and will tactfully remind neighbours who fail to notice these problems. Lamordian buildings are typically two or three stories tall, made of heavy timber, brick, and plaster, and thatched and decorated with geometric or floral carvings. Deviations are frowned upon. Even the prison is scrubbed daily whether or not it is occupied.

## Law

Baron Vilhelm von Aubrecker rules Lamordia from his estate in the Sleeping Beast Mountains. His family has ruled Lamordia for generations. The von Aubreckers have been distant rulers, collecting tribute on occasion and maintaining small garrisons of soldiers throughout the nation. Vilhelm is on his deathbed, however, and with the loss of both of his sons, it falls to his daughter, Gerta von Aubrecker, to take his place when he passes on.

Each of Lamordia's settlements is ruled by a mayor, who is appointed by a council of wealthy aristocrats. The main responsibility of the mayors is to encourage and maintain trade with other towns and other nations. Since Lamordians are extremely polite and have such a strict moral upbringing, they rarely have many conflicts and therefore do not need to enforce many laws. On the rare occasion that trouble arises, the baron's enforcers and the town militias are quick to respond.

## Population

Three words sum up Lamordians: pragmatic, rational, and stoic. Lamordians view these traits as virtues and are suspicious of frivolity and fanaticism, tending to spurn easy answers or rewards without work.

Lamordians make their living primarily through craft traditions. The guild system is quite strong here, but craftsmen and merchants are not antagonistic to nobles. Earnest hardworking attitudes prevail, and the value of fine craftsmanship and the good name of a workshop are prized. Destitute poverty is not common in Lamordia and most people make a reasonable living from their trade.

Lamordians are passionate, though they consider a chaste moonlight walk as an amorous rendezvous. Young Lamordians awkwardly present gifts of wildflowers and earnest love letters. Despite this early enthusiasm, most men seek to be established in their craft before marrying. Lamordian women are unusually assertive and clever, many taking up their husband’s trade or managing his affairs.

Children are prized in Lamordia. They are called Kjleen Flocke, or Little Snowflake. From a young age, they are taught to be silent, courteous, and productive. Parents teach their own children, providing literacy, and the value of common-sense, experience, and observation. Children may pursue any craft they wish, though most choose to follow in their family’s trade.

Lamordians have a deep fondness for food and drink, viewing meals as a social celebratory event to reaffirm their materialistic worldview. In autumn there is a month-long festival before winter snows seal them in. Lamordians actually prefer their food heavy and tasteless, a tradition they call je'stuckt. Though Lamordians laud their local breweries, few outsiders care for their weak musty beer.

Lamordian commoners believe in simple 'peasant-sense', a practicality suspicious of over-analysation and academic jargon. A philosophy snorted at by educated men who believe that the search  for scientific truth is the pinnacle of civilisation. They have no patience for people who dismiss what they don’t understand.

### Appearance

Lamordians tend to be lean with square shoulders and wiry limbs. They are of above average stature and blessed with well-defined chins and cheekbones. Children have fair skin but gain a ruddiness to their skin with age due to the harsh weather. Eye colour is pale blue or sea green. Hair colour ranges from blonde to rich brown, but lighter colours are more common.

Men wear their straight or slightly wavy hair trimmed to a medium length and usually in a ponytail or braid. Men shun facial hair but often grow mutton chops.

Women let their hair grow long throughout their lives, regarding short hair as the mark of a harlot. Their locks are meticulously pinned up or woven into a pair of long braids.

Lamordian garb is always excellently tailored but completely bereft of adornment or distinction. As a general rule, Lamordian clothing is devoid of colour; black, grey, and white dominate the clothes. Jewellery is not worn, but men carry personal accessories to mark them as enlightened men, such as pocket watches and walking canes.

Men wear collared shirts, vests, and trousers. Wealthier men add a waistcoat, scarf, and pointed black hat. Long heavy leather coats are standard attire for warding off the winter wind. Women dress modestly; heavy woollen dresses with high collars and long tight sleeves are normal. Most also wear snug bonnets, though some are trying to adopt the pointed hat of men. Harsh weather finds them garbed in leather cloaks, fur hats, and earmuffs.

### Attitude to magic

Lamordians are an oddity in a world so full of supernatural oddities. They believe in what they can see and feel for themselves and in truth gleaned by those before. They outright deny the existence of magic and unnatural creatures, or more commonly, dismiss them as natural phenomena for which there is currently no scientific reason deduced.

Those who dabble in such preternatural forces such as wizards are akin to ignorant men playing with gunpowder, and as such can only result in disaster and receive a vaguely hostile reaction. The few spell casters who are present in Lamordia report the alarming rare occasion where spells utterly fail. This phenomenon is sporadically referred to as Dakj Fe'nunft, the Smothering of Reason.

### Attitudes to others

Non-humans, including the dwarves of the sleeping beast, are regarded as natural abnormalities and flawed branches in the Great Tree of Life.

Lamordians have always been suspicious of Darkon for its superstition and archaic traditions. Prior to The Requiem, Lamordians had a reputation as the brightest and most headstrong students at the University of Il Aluk.

Dementlieu is viewed with bemused interest and the disapproving mutterings usually given to eccentric artists. Lamordians approve of the rich civic and cultural life, yet find the fascination with romantic foppery grating.

Lamordians assume that the lack of aggression from Falkovnia is because of the trade deals they have, though what those deals are is kept a secret.

### Names

**-Lamordian Male Names:** Augustin, Berthold, Conrad, Dieter, Frans, Hubert, Juergin, Ludwig, Niklaus, Oscar, Rudolph, Stefan, Tomas, Werner, Yann

**-Lamordian Female Names:** Brigitte, Camilla, Daniela, Erika, Federica, Ingrid, Johanna, Katia, Mathilde, Pascale, Ramona, Sofia, Teresa, Ursula, Victoria

**-Lamordian Surnames:** Accola, Acklin, Agassiz, Albrecht, Almer, Anderhub, Baehler, Baertschi, Bertod, Besse, Boller, Bornisson, Bovet, Brand, Burkhart, Corminboeuf, Delfs, Egemann, Frei, Frischknecht, Geiger, Gisler, Goeschi, Graf, Grassi, Gruenenfelder, Gygax, Haefeli, Heinzmann, Huber, Kestenholz, Lafranchi, Lambert, Lanbrigger, Lautens, Lucchesi, Metzier, Monachon, Nietlispach, Perren, Plancherel, Quentin, Reuteler, Riegler, Righetti, Rusterholz, Schneider, Seifert, Sforza, Stocki, Von Gruenigen, Von Sibenthal, Zberg, Zingre, Zinsli, Zulle, Zurcher, Zwygart

## Religion

Lamordians deny the significance and sometimes even the existence of the gods, not out of despair like the Falkovnians, but because they see no need for them. Academic writings use gods figuratively, but only as a scholarly contrivance. The modern Lamordians view of the universe is summed up as Groot Tankjet, the Great Clockwork, a theory frequently invoked by craftsmen and philosophers alike. The Great Clockwork operates with flawless and perpetual precision, following a finite set of rules. While Divine intelligence may have established them, the world as it is today no longer needs input.

Lamordian cosmology believes that the mists are surrounded and contained by an orb the Weltaulkúgel. The sun and moon revolve at fixed distances, Lamordians see no other world as existing beyond the mists, and outlanders are considered mist-led travellers of distant but yet undiscovered realms.

Lamordians subscribe to a vast empty cosmology governed by eternal and fundamental principles, seeing no place for other worlds populated by angelic or demonic hoards. The Mists they envision as a mercurial but everlasting pool of creation, the Easchtwolkj, constantly spawning and destroying new lands. Some scholars speculate that the mists are the elusive Feftelstoff, an enigmatic substance believed to hold the cosmos together.

Most commoners accept gods made the universe, but scholars are more often utterly atheistic, instead claiming an inevitable natural event led to creation. Lamordians are never outright scornful to those of religious conviction -- they are far too polite for that. They do, however, subtly chide them, speaking to them like they would a child. No organised faith has yet penetrated the Lamordian Border.