Konnigstrava

Konnigstrava is a kingdom in ruins.  Once it was a prosperous feudal monarchy, ruled by benevolent kings and queens, and overseen by a noble class that was by and large fair and virtuous.  The kingdom was by no means opulent, but most people lead a comfortable life without want or need.  All that came to an end with the coming of the Pestilence.

### Geography, History, and Climate

The Kingdom of Konnistrav is composed mostly of gently rolling plains and moors, dotted here and there with forests and rocky hills.  The southern shoreline is more protected and has many harbors and fishing towns large and small.  The northern shoreline tends to be more rocky and rough, with cold waves crashing on tall stone cliffs.

The weather is generally mild year round, but also a bit cool and damp.  Rain and fog are common in all seasons.  Snow is uncommon in the winter but it will occur particularly along the northern shoreline which is affected by the wind coming off the cold northern currents.

Konnigstrava was settled in antiquity by people moving south and west from the main continent.  The land was not particularly rich and fertile but it supported some farming and sheep herding on the plains.  Over time noble houses formed and a hereditary line of kings was established.  Things ran fairly smoothly in the sleepy rural kingdom for years until the time of the Pestilence .

No one is exactly certain where the Pestilence came from, what caused it, and why it settled in the Kingdom of Konnigstrava.  But its effects were immediate and widespread.  It began in the slums of the coastal port of Schonnenburg, leading some to believe it came by way of ship from some far off land.  But within a year it spread across the entire length and breadth of the kingdom, and no town, city, hamlet, or estate was left untouched.

The Pestilence is nearly always fatal.  It starts as a cough, but quickly results in sores and rashes over parts of the skin.  Generally within a few days the coughing gets worse and the victim becomes weak and bedridden, and then dies. In some rare cases people recover, though often they will have marks on their skin for the rest of their lives.  For reasons unknown some people seem to be impervious to it.

The  Pestilence spread quickly, and soon the dead and dying were everywhere.  In short order as people panicked and became desperate, society frayed and then utterly collapsed.  Peasants and serfs looked to their Lords for help.  Some tried to offer what little aid they could.  Others walled themselves within their castles and manors and tried to hide from the Pestilence with varying degrees of success and disaster.  Cities became depopulated and lawless.  Whole villages and towns were deserted as people fled to the countryside in hopes of escaping the Pestilence.

The Pestilence has begun to subside in recent years as the population of the kingdom has plummeted and cures and measures to combat the Pestilence have been discovered.  The borders of the kingdom are still officially closed on both sides, but people have been known to slip across in each direction.  Some of the ports are now open to very limited and regulated commerce.

### Politics, Government, and Economy

Much like everything else in Konnistrav, the government is largely in shambles.  The King is nominally still in charge of the kingdom, but his rule barely extends beyond the gates of the capital city of Alberstadt.  There is some semblance of normalcy within the capital city, but life there is stressful and dangerous.  The Iron Guard carefully controls who does and does not enter.  Any sign of illness will get you thrown into the Sanitarium, which is usually a ticket to the Charnel Fields outside the walls.  The Iron Guard and what human City Guard that remain ruthlessly enforce the will of the king within the walls, which over time has become stricter and more repressive.

Those towns that are still functioning have largely given over to self rule by mayors and town councils.  Some rule justly and benevolently, while others are little more than warlords ruling through fear and thugs and enforcers.  A few towns especially hard hit from the Pestilence are in ruins, and home only to madmen, the dying, doomsday cults, Plagued Undead, and Undead Hunters.

Noble holdings run the gamut.  Some noble families and estates are either dead or so depleted as to be unable to administer their lands and provide for their people.  Others have weathered the Pestilence and still provide for those under their protections.  Still others have turned their backs and fortified their estates and castles and allowed the lands around them to fend for themselves.

The common folk in the countryside have in some cases are still supporting and being supported by their liege lords.  Most however have been left to fend for themselves.  Nearly all large scale farming and herding has ceased, and people are given over to subsistence farming and foraging.  Barter and charity take up as much commerce as coin.

### Everyday Life

For most people in Konnigstrava everyday life is about survival.  People are as a rule scared, suspicious, and paranoid.  Finding food to get through the season and protection from Plagued Undead, brigands, and monsters are high on the list of concerns.

When the Pestilence first struck there was a lot of hysteria.  Everyone was scared of getting the Pestilence from everyone else.  Conspiracies and rumors washed over the land as to the cause and culprits.  Many people felt the Pestilence was supernatural in origins, and claims that it was a plot by heretics, Black Witches, foreign agents and the like were common.  Demagogues arose who convinced people that it was all the fault of one villain or the other.  No one trusted anyone else, and this sped up the unraveling of society.  While much of that is now in the past, cults and gangs and companies of witch hunters still prowl the countryside and can be found in nearly all towns and cities.

Some towns and cities are abandoned, but people have started coming back to the main and important ones.  The population, or at least the living portion of it, is a bit less than half of pre Pestilence levels.  Basic business and trade is beginning to come back, but urban areas are still full of ruins, poverty, and slums.

Farming and sheep herding still exists in the countryside, but not to the scale it was once practiced.  The rural population is much more spread out with many people living in lonely cabins and houses in the woods and hills and moors.  Vegetable gardens, small amounts of livestock, and hunting and foraging allow people to get by.

The Pestilence is still around and people still die from it, but it no longer rages the way it once did.  Over time people began to discover folk remedies and medicines and tonics to either aid those that catch the Pestilence or fortify people against it.  Many were produced by alchemists, apothecaries, hedge wizards, and cottage witches experimenting in primitive conditions over boiling pots and cauldrons.  There are as many different elixirs, potions, and remedies as there are people inventing them.  These cures are often peddled by traveling Plague Doctors, though unscrupulous ones also sell basically snake oil.

The noble houses and estates that have not walled themselves in and secluded themselves are struggling.  Some struggle to administer their lands and aid their subjects.  Others seek to regain lost glories and stature.  The small class of questing knights attached to the noble houses has grown smaller still.  Many were taken by Pestilence, or slain trying to combat the Undead and Monsters that have spread in the land as civilization has retreated.  A few currently roam the lands with no lord or master left alive.

One difficulty Konnigstrava faces in coming back from the Pestilence is to find a way to fill the depleted ranks of guardsmen.  With everyone focused on surviving this is no spare manpower.  To compensate for this the capital city rolled out a force of constructs to keep the peace and guard the wall.  Called the Iron Guard they are a formidable if slightly erratic force.  The practice has spread to towns and noble estates outside of the capital city, though often constructs there tend to be of lower quality.

Over time people in Konnigstrava has grown very superstitious.  With no clear cause for the Pestilence it is common for people to wear charms, talismans, fetishes, and wards against the Pestilence, ill omens, the evil eyes, and so forth.  Often this takes the form of trinkles hung from a belt.  Seals and ribbons attached to clothing are often widely seen.  A folk practice that predates the Pestilence but which has become much more common is to build scarecrows to protect your household.  Even in urban areas a cornhusk doll will often be seen over a fireplace.

Home life everywhere is simple.  Luxuries and finery are largely a thing of the past.  A staple of Konnigstrava households is that they will always have a pot of soup or stew on the fire.  This is usually a simple root vegetable broth or basic stew.  The smell of soup usually greets visitors to a house even before the door is answered.

### Current events

The current king remains locked in seclusion within the royal palace in the city of Alberstadt.  He has not been seen in public since the start of the Pestilence .  He rules the city and his decrees are enforced by the Iron Guard, but the people of the city begin to grow restless until his increasingly harsh decrees.  Many people long to return to the days before the Pestilence when life was simple and laws were few.

### Notes for Players

Konnigstrava provides players with a setting in which to explore a society in crisis.  While the worst of the Pestilence is over, the future of the kingdom is uncertain.  Depending on how current events are resolved the kingdom may be on the road to recovery, or it could fall further down the spiral towards chaos and anarchy.

### Cultural Plot Themes

Much of the plot set in Konnigstrava will deal with how the various elements of society have dealt with the disaster of the Pestilence.  The relationship between the nobles and those they have been charged to protect will likely play into many plotlines.  The lands of Konnigstrava are profoundly unsafe.  The threat of the Pestilence still remains, but there are also dangerous cults conducting bloody rituals by moonlight, deserted town overrun with Plagued Undead, dangerous monsters and the Monster Hunters that seek them traveling the roads, and starving brigands who would murder for a loaf of bread.

Konnigstrava also provides players with an opportunity to explore growth for characters rooted in profound poverty and a lack of safety.  While life as an adventurer is likely to be relatively comfortable for characters, it might be seen as “roughing it” for players coming from more privileged backgrounds.  However, for someone with a recent background in Konnigstrava, adventuring life might seem to be a huge improvement compared to conditions at home.  This can be used as a way to provide contrasts between characters.

Elements of horror and the supernatural will certainly be present in storylines.  Monsters roam the countryside, Undead are everywhere, and ghosts linger in the halls of cold deserted castles.  Even in places that are seemingly safe like the few towns and cities that are still populated the people are under such stress that there is always the danger of being accused of black sorcery or spreading the Pestilence, or running afoul of underground cults looking for victims.

### Costume and RP Themes

Costuming for peasants, serfs, townsfolk, and rural dwellers tend to be simple and drab.  Dark colors predominate.  Clothes are often old, tattered, and patched due to hard living and not much in the way of wealth.  Simple pants, long shirts and tunics, wide leather belts, peasant blouses and skirts in simple flat colors are common.  The cool weather means that coats and vests are often worn, along with knitted or crocheted scarfs and hats and sweaters.  Wearing hats is the norm among all classes and professions.  Pointed wide brimmed felt hats (i.e. witches hats and pilgrim hats) are popular and worn by both men and women.

Well to do townsfolk and nobility dress much nicer.  Again, dark blacks, browns, and reds predominate.  High collars, vests, and lace at the cuffs were the current fashion when high society collapsed with the Pestilence.  Corsets are seen, but not for everyday wear.  Haute Couture is a thing of the past, so all but the most well to do are wearing clothes long past the point where they would normally be retired and replaced.  A certain amount of frayed edges and scruffiness has come to be accepted by all.

The martial class of knights, though small, had a particular style about them that they still retain.  Purity seals denoting their devotion to faiths and churches were common, and while still seen they are being replaced by seals, wards, and talismans against the Pestilence and ill omens.  Heraldry is typically displayed.

Konnigstrava allows for players to portray the characters who enjoy the simple comforts of rural and rustic living.  Players can come from a lifestyle of rural or woodland homes with simple comfortable features, a warm pot of soup on the stove, and a simple garden.  Players may achieve success by acquiring and sharing simple homey comforts and not seek riches or influence.

If someone wishes to portray a character from the nobility there are a number of opportunities to explore stories in crumbling castles, failing family lines, and doomed quests.  Characters might seek to find ways to return their families to the glories of the past, or they might seek to find new ways to form a society and relationship between the landowning and peasant classes.  A questing knight could be seeking most anything.

Do you wish to be a witch who brews potions in a cabin at the edge of town?  A hedge wizard who experiments on Pestilence cures?  A hunter or woodcutter who must travel in dark dangerous forests?  A blue blooded noble who runs through castle halls at night with a candelabra?  A refugee from a cult trying to escape a traumatic past?  A questing knight trying to regain faded glory for your house, or who is on a noble but doomed quest?  A Pestilence survivor who still bears the visible scars of the illness?  All these archetypes fit in well in Konnigstrava.