Saracan

Leader
 Capital
 Largest City
 Militia
 Notable Citizens
 Population
 Language

Saracan is called the country of a Thousand Faces, and well it might be. Saracan occupies the north western corner of Karandia and is home to the most diverse population of any country on the continent save perhaps Wargak which it borders. Its proximity to the wild untamed country of Wargak was why Saracan remained unclaimed for so long and it leaves the people of Saracan with the constant fear of invasion. However Saracan enjoys more freedom and prosperity than almost any other country. Tolerance is as high here as diversity and trade and riches are as abundant as frontier dangers. This has produced a nice mix of merchant-minded, warrior-bodied adventurers. Indeed Saracan works as a buffer zone to keep the forces of Wargak in check and prevents mass slaughter from being reaped across the continent. Sadly, only Saracan itself seems to appreciate its value to Karandia. Still its key attribute is its diversity: races, religions, people and places of every kith, kin and kind are to be found here in Saracan.

## Geography

* Barkarin Mountains
	+ Barkarin
* Battlerock
* Dark Gate
* Dusken, Trade City
* Free Country
* The Helm's Gate Alliance
	+ Dragon's Dare
	+ Faithsblade Castle
	+ Greystone
	+ Heartcleaver Keep
* The Hidden City
* Northport
* The Seven Sea Brothers
* Swamp of the Free Visks
* The Undivided Lands
* Vigris
* Woodguard

## Demographics

Only the main races can be named. Far more inhabit the Barkarin Mountains, Blackened Sea and Spreean Sea.

* Catlords
* Dwarves
* Elves
* Goblins
* Halflings
* Humans
* Kenchillians
* Ogres
* Orcs
* Skirge
* Vhentra
* Visks

#### Key Organisations

There are various important organisations within Saracan.

* See Barkarin for the dwarvern organisations
* Battlelance
* Duskmasks
* Golden Hearts
* Faithsblade Knights
* See Greystone for catlord organisations.
* The Star Seekers

#### Important Characters

* Faithsblade
* Hanark Ironwright
* Heartcleaver
* Jace Thrawn
* Massus O’Hakkendak
* Ratorbi Sebini
* The Skywraith Brothers
* The Unknown
* Thane Dougan Mastermace
* Xi’al the Red Claw

## Culture

#### Religion

As would be expected religion in Saracan is very diverse. From the shamanistic gyar, orc and cairen tribes to the paladins of Faithsblade and esoteric worship of the catlords.

Religion in Saracan is as free as race and politics. See each race and place for religious information. The only thing that is similar across the board is the acceptance of religion in any form and that missionary work is rife between religions here.

#### Disposition

The disposition of someone from Saracan can be as varied as a secretive and mysterious Vhentra from Vigris, to a drunken gyar berserker from the Barkarin mountains, to a greedy Dusken merchant or a stoic fighter from Battlerock's Battlelance. The only thing those citizens of Saracan have in common is they believe Saracan is a country and they like it better than the others.

Its citizens like their freedom, even if it is the freedom to remove freedom and have slaves. Saracan is the only place in Karandia without a some person or group claiming to lead it outright and its people like it that way and will fight to keep it that way. All in all their culture is if it doesn’t affect me I don’t care, but if it does watch out! All are welcome here until they mess with the status quo!

#### Language

Languages are extremely diverse almost every language on Tal is spoken within the borders of Saracan. Possibly due to this Saracan's language of choice is of course Common.

## Politics and Government

Politics in Saracan is interesting as Saracan is not actually a single state as to law, taxation and even ruler. Each section rules itself. The Helm's Gate Alliance, the Elves in Woodguard, the Dwarves in Barkarin, the humans in Dusken, the halflings of the Midfield, the Vhentra in Vigris, the halfelves and humans in Battlerock and Northport itself are all self-governed.

Dusken is considered the capital of the 'country' of Saracan but it is actually more of a mutual assistance and support alliance than a country in the feudal sense of most of the other nations of Karandia. Since the Saracan treaty all these forces have agreed to support each other against outside aggression but there have been wars among them and there is a lot of resistance to Dusken in particular exercising its influence over the others,

Most of the individual manners of government are covered in the separate sections.

## Military

Saracan has a strangely varied set of armies called the Army of Seven Colours or the Seven Colour Army, which it alone can gather under one banner.

The army of Seven colours; Green, Purple, Red, Orange, White, Grey and Black.

Each represents something specific though really the whole army is a medley of colours, nations, races and towns.

* Grey is for the Catlords and Kenchillians of the Helm's Gate Alliance.
* White for the Faithsblade Knights.
* Orange for the Orcs of Heartcleaver Keep,
* Green for the Elves of Woodguard,
* Black for Dusken and the freemen of **Saracan**.
* Purple for Northport and the halflings who come from the seven sea brothers often don this colour as well.
* Lastly Red for the men and half-elves of Battlerock and the dwarves of Barkarin. Yet for the dwarves it is a deep dark red which the dwarves call rouben.

Many of these groups have their own sections detailing their military in more detail.

## History

Time on Karandia and for simplicity on Tal is determined by the existence of the dominant human Empire or Auria. So years from before the Empire are annotated BE those after it or Post Empire are annotated PE. (eg ‘Jomark came to power in 10BE’ means Jomark gained his power 10 years before the founding of the Empire).

Pre 9000 BE: Elves present in continent wide Karritan forest what remains in this area is Woodguard.

8950: The Vhentra found Vigris.

7080-6980: The century long Ogre wars. The Eternal Alliance of elves and dwarves is formed and topples this Empire.

7000BE: Elves gain the Armlet of Strength

7000-3300BE: Elven Golden Age.

3689BE: Dwarves found Barkarin.

3300BE: Elves lose the Armlet of Strength to the Orcs.

3300-1800BE: Rise of the Orc Empire. It grows to cover Saracan, and western Danaspree, Alkan and even some of modern day Auria.

3300-2000BE: Elves and dwarves suffer defeats at the hands of the orcs, their control over Karandia as a whole is weakened for the first time.

2646BE: Barkarin gains the name/title Stonehold as the dwarves with draw there due to relentless orc attack. The Battle of Stonehold is fought in which the Hammer Bodyguard of the king are killed to a dwarf. The king however lives and the dwarves carry the day.

2620-2570BE: Humans under the tutelage of the elves and dwarves mature and go from simply building huts and villages to towns and founding their own civilisation. Humans start using wheels, farming and crowning kings. Is is thought, that there were human settlements built at the site where Dusken now stands, as early as this.

1950BE: Dwarves share the secrets of metal working and alloys with the humans. Importantly, they share the working of iron and steel allowing the humans to make weapons and armour to match (or come close to matching) those of the other civilised races. They learn very fast and make in mass quantities.

1900BE: Faithsblade a human knight or paladin meets Heartcleaver, sometimes known as the last holder of the Armlet of Strength, then decides to follow him.

1900-1895BE: Faithsblade becomes called Whiteskin and is put in charge of a human settlement near Heartcleaver Keep. He is known as Heartcleaver's main guardian, companion and confidant.

1880-1875BE: The Chaos Lords attack Saracan.

1875BE: The Battle at Helm's Gate. the Catlords and Kenchillians who have fought relentlessly against Chaos are facing extinction. Heartcleaver and his ally Faithsblade ride to their rescue. There on the tor they face down and destroy the Chaos Lords at incredible cost. Heartcleaver dies and seals a four way alliance with his blood. The Helm's Gate Alliance built on four towns surrounding the crossroads at Helm’s Gate is born. The Armlet is buried with Heartcleaver.

1950-1000BE: Humans form city states and countries, with laws and governments. Due to their physical strength, incredible adaptability, growth speed and accelerated birth rate, they become the most populous race of the continent.

1400BE: Elves believing humans evolved enough to use magic share its secrets with them in hopes of helping them further their studies. The elves had already shared the secrets of languages, sciences and mathematics with them. Human adapt to this power just as they did the crafting skills of the dwarves and immediately found organisations on magic and develop the power independently.

1000-100BE The Wars of Betrayal. The humans now populous and very strong, force the dwarves and elves back. They cut down the forests to build and do not replant, hunt heavily to feed their huge populations and soldiers. By the time the elves and dwarves are warned enough to object forcefully it is too late. Though they can win individual engagements they simply cannot stand the loss of life that the humans are capable of inflicting. The humans seem unconcerned about loss of life rather that seems to ease their own burdens of feeding their constantly growing population. Elves flee to the woods and seas and dwarves to the mountains.

999BE: Once the wars start the dwarves try to seal off the route to Barkarin by founding the fort of Farmount.

960BE: Human raiders attack Farmount, still only partially finished and are given a decisive battering. The humans withdraw from the whole area and no longer pursue dwarves once they have fled to the Barkarin Mountains.

948BE: Farmount completed but repaired and extended many times over the coming centuries.

900-800BE: At some point this century the Hidden City builds the Skirge Wall and mans it with the Skirge. By the time the humans expand far enough to see the wall it is already complete. The elves have no record of the city existing during their age of dominance.

728-9BE: The Four Race War. Some human armies coming from the area of modern day Dusken attempt to attack Greystone as they had the elven and dwarvern cities. The Helm’s Gate Alliance activates and all Four races catlords, kenchillians, orcs and even the humans of Faithsblade castle come to the rescue. The human armies are defeated and to make a point the alliance continued to their lands and raised their city to the ground. The shock especially of the humans working in concert with the other three races, shook the new human nations to their cores. None of them attacked the Alliance again.

90BE: Dusken ‘Trade City’ is officially founded. The elves and dwarves have all retreated completely by now. The dwarves have sealed Barkarin and the elves of Woodguard are unseen, their is no actual settlement at this time. To all intents and purposes the Wars of Betrayal are over the humans have enough space to fight each other now.

30BE: A tomb robber steals the Armlet of Strength from Helm’s Gate where Heartcleaver’s body was interred. He flees south and becomes Vizier to one Jomark of Auria.

10BE-10PE: Many elves and dwarves flee into Saracan from the growing lands of the Aurian Empire. Saracan gains a reputation for tolerance and being home to many races. The Barkarin dwarves secure in their fortress begin to send out caravans and trade once more with the wider world. It is suggested in some histories that the Helm’s Gate Alliance put pressure on other human settlements to treat the refugees well. The elves formally found Woodguard with human knowledge. It is not openly attacked.

50PE: The Aurian Empire tries to expand further into what is now Saracan. They are turned back by an unlikely alliance of elves from Woodguard, humans from Dusken and an army from Barkarin.

51PE Having seen the effectiveness of the Saracan Alliance in resisting the Aurian Empire and fearing the return of the Empire only much stronger the Helm's Gate Alliance offers to form a mutual defence pact with Dusken, Barkarin and Woodguard. Many are astounded that the dwarves so far from the border and so well protected would agree to this. Nevertheless they do and have never failed Saracan since. In many ways this is the early founding of Saracan itself.

498-507PE: A huge invasion from Wargak sweeps through Saracan without warning. Many small settlements of human, dwarf and elf alike are destroyed. The dwarves of Barkarin send a huge army to beat the invaders from the gates of Farmount.

501-502PE: The Helm's Gate Allies, Dusken and the elves of Woodguard march to the assistance of the dwarvern armies already trying to hold back the expanding frontier of Wargak. They are successful.

507PE: Battlerock founded by those who never wanted to see the Wargak War repeated. Over the next 40 years gems are found and Battlerock becomes a prosperous frontier town and finally a city.

550PE: Battlerock's proximity to Farmount reopens regular lines of communication with the isolationist dwarves of Barkarin. Trade between the two becomes non-stop.

687PE: Aurian Invasion of Saracan. The legions are now proper Protectorans on the modern design. The whole country begins to collapse before them. Only through the actions of a group of heroes and the newly created Seven Colour Army is Saracan preserved.

694PE: After ceaseless efforts by various leaders the mutual assistance pact operating in the land is declared permanent. Dusken is chosen as the nominal head and logical capital of a new country called Saracan. Hopes are that this will make invasions and raids from Alkan and Auria things of the past. Vigris and the Hidden City do not technically join Saracan though the land they are on is certainly within its borders.

810PE: Northport is recognised as an important world port and now a key city in Saracan. it has become a large population centre for halflings and rivals Kolaran and Gan Tarak in its naval successes.

1240-1242PE: The Northport War. Hoping that they could acquire the jewel of Northport and force a peace settlement leaving it in their possession the Empire sends in the Protectorans to take Northport. They are successful using an art of combined warfare never before seen. However word does reach the rest of Saracan and instead of choosing the easier route of appeasement they decide to honour their agreement made under the Saracan treaty to treat any land within the Saracan borders as one country and their country. The entire alliance under the Seven Colour Banner marches on Northport and after terrible and bloody fighting Northport is freed.

1112PE: Beginning of Dusken Monarchy with the Mayornen line.

1200-present: Visks who escape captivity in Elygia, Auria, Torash, Saracan, Danaspree and elsewhere start to flee to the Swamp of the Free Visks. This becomes very safe for them as no one can attack them without ‘invading’ Saracan. In recognition of this some argue the Visks should be formally a part of the alliance and help pay for Saracan and fight in its armies.

1258 PE: A huge comet slams into the lower Barkarin Mountains. A dwarf named Ammanan Tefras leads an expedition to recover the Star Metal for forging by the current Rune Master Cobalt Irontone. In the end his son Roigon Tefras will wield the Star Ore after it has been forged into a sacred hammer (Indomitable) and shield (Eternal Vigilance). Known as the Stone Paladin for his Stoneforge armour Roigon began a meteoric rise to prominence in the dwarvern clans of Barkarin.

1260 PE: The halflings of the Midfield adopt a policy of isolationism and bar trade as they openly declare their allegiance to Colossal Fury their dragon/deity.

1264 PE: War racks Saracan over the independence of Midfield and its terrorizing ruler. Dusken is powerless and enforcing obedience through war is controversial and so the Seven Coloured Army will not march. Dusken tries to force them back using the military and suffers a huge defeat. In the history books this will become known as the ‘Field of Fury’. This ends up resulting in ‘The New Crowning’ a rebellion which leads to the end of the Mayornen line.

1265 PE: The Stone Paladin with his closest allies the group called the Hammer of Justice (Or the Hammer of the Light depending on the text) engage and defeat Colossal Fury freeing the halflings of the Midfield from his oppressive Immortal reign. It is this deed above all others that has immortalised the legend of the Stone Paladin. The midfield is reabsorbed into Saracan proper.

1300PE: Free Country founded at the axes between Auria, Saracan and Alkan.

1360 PE: The Stone Paladin passes from this life. His regalia is passed to his heir his younger brother Garret. Though he is never called the Stone Paladin he is sometimes called the Heir of the Stars, meaning the weapons made supposedly from Star Ore.

1372PE: The start of the Stonetower Dynasty rule in Dusken with Grantham Stonetower taking the throne.

1503PE: The death of Ernest Stonetower the last monarch of Dusken to carry the Stonetower name.

1520-22PE: First Invasion of the Dragon Armies, though they never got as far as Saracan. Racque Overon, King of Dusken insisted on sending forces to help to repel them. The decision was resented among the merchant classes and some trace the eventual Crownfall (Event) to this origin.

1550-1600PE: Founding and building of the Seven Sea Brothers in northern Saracan.

1649PE: The Duskfall Comet hits the Barkarin Mountains.

1650PE: End of the Dusken Monarchy, the Crownfall.

1847PE: The Frostbiter incursion, turned back by the Skywraith Brothers.

1898-1900PE: Second Invasion of the Dragon Armies turned back by the Stars of Destiny.

1906PE: The Sevenfall

1924PE: Rise of The Avenger.