A young nation still deciding what it wants to be — and certain it will be
something great.
“To be Karameikan is to know that you belong to a nation destined for
greatness. And to be a Karameikan adventurer is to believe you are part
of what will bring that greatness about.”
— Common sentiment, expressed by Karameikans of both bloodlines
when speaking to foreigners
The Grand Duchy #
Karameikos is, by any honest measure, a work in progress. Most of it is
forest and foothills — beautiful, largely unexplored, and home to things
that make travel between villages an adventure in itself. The communities
cluster along the coast and the rivers, sensibly enough; the interior is
no-man’s-land in the most literal sense, where goblin clans, hobgoblins,
and older, quieter evils have settled in the spaces between human ambition.
What makes Karameikos worth knowing — what draws traders, adventurers,
and ambitious minor nobility from across the Known World — is the tension
at its heart. Two peoples share this duchy: the Traladarans, who have been
here since the days of King Halav, and the Thyatians, who arrived thirty
years ago with land grants and attitudes. They do not, in the main, like
each other. But when a Karameikan of either blood faces the rest of the
world, they call themselves Karameikan — citizens of the best nation in
the world — and they mean it, with the quiet stubbornness of people who
have decided something is true and are simply waiting for the universe to
catch up.
The Traladarans #
The natives of this land are a compact, pale-complexioned people — men
averaging around five foot nine, women somewhat shorter — with dark hair
ranging from deep brown to black and a characteristic wariness in the eyes
that visitors sometimes mistake for hostility. It is not hostility. It is
the expression of a people who know the woods around their village contain
vampires and lycanthropes, because the legends say so, and the legends
in Karameikos have a habit of being true.
The Traladarans are deeply superstitious in the way that people are
superstitious when their superstitions keep them alive. Omens, portents,
good-luck charms, the reading of tea leaves or sheep entrails — these are
not quaint customs here. They are a survival technology, refined over
centuries of living in a land that the Immortals, for reasons of their own,
left full of things that go wrong in the dark.
Outside the larger towns, education is scarce. Many rural Traladarans
cannot read. What they can do is sing — the oral tradition is ancient and
strong, and every Traladaran child knows the Song of King Halav before they
know their letters.
A Word on Traladaran Wariness Toward Thyatians
A Karameikan of Traladaran descent who gives you a cool reception is not
being rude — they are being historically accurate. The first wave of
Thyatian settlers included genuine land-grabbers who dispossessed farming
families without ceremony. Your Thyatian accent is not your fault, but it
is your problem until you demonstrate otherwise. Buy the first round,
listen more than you speak, and do not suggest that Traladaran customs
are quaint.
The Thyatians #
Most of the nobles in Karameikos are of Thyatian descent, and a sizeable
portion of the commoner population as well. Thyatians run larger on average
— men around five foot eleven, women around five foot five — with the
varied coloring of a people who have been interbreeding with half the Known
World for centuries. Dark blonde to dark brown hair is common; eye color
runs the full range.
The Empire of Thyatis is a large, flourishing place — powerful armies,
strong trade, lavish arts — and many of Thyatian descent have absorbed the
reasonable conclusion that this makes them superior to the people they
arrived among. Among many Thyatians, there is a sentiment that Traladarans
are superstitious and ignorant, and that a Thyatian accent blurred by
Traladaran influence indicates a lack of mental sharpness.
This is, to put it gently, a prejudice. The Traladarans survived the worst
the world could throw at them. The Thyatians arrived afterward and built
roads. Both contributions matter; neither is grounds for condescension.
Others in the Duchy #
The Callarii elves occupy the central forests east and west of Kelvin
and in the forested foothills to the north — a merry, hardworking people
with very pale hair and blue eyes, proficient in riverboating, horse-trading,
hunting, and forestry. They have no strong preference between Traladaran
and Thyatian; they become fast friends with humans who demonstrate honor
and humor, and do not cooperate with humans who are pretentious or rude.
Duke Stefan has a guard unit composed entirely of Callarii, which speaks
well of him in Callarii estimation.
The gnomes of Highforge, several thousand strong in their mountain
community northeast of Threshold, send an annual Caravan south to
Specularum and are generally well-disposed toward the Duke, who built
the roads that make their trade profitable.
Dwarves are either members of the Stronghollow clan at Highforge or
dwarven professionals who have immigrated as soldiers or craftsmen. When
they express a preference, they lean Thyatian — they find practical people
congenial, and they find Traladaran superstition baffling, though they
would be the first to concede that their own detection abilities are
essentially a form of extremely specialized intuition.
Hin (halflings) are mostly immigrants from the Five Shires, drawn by
heavy trade. They are found as traders, craftsmen, and innkeepers throughout
Specularum and Kelvin. When they take sides — which they do not always do
— they side with the Traladarans, whom they consider life-loving and
expressive, over the Thyatians, whom they find cold.
The Communities #
Specularum is the largest city in Karameikos, population around fifty
thousand, built where the Highreach River meets the sea. A trade city with
a good harbor, ample accommodations for visitors, and most of the comforts
of civilization — including the political complications that come with
power shared between Duke Stefan, the Merchants’ Guild, the Church, and
wealthy families like the Vorloi, Radu, and Torenescu clans.
Kelvin (population twenty thousand) sits where three rivers merge and
was designed as a fortress waystation for caravans. It is a practical
city — walled, military in character, efficiently run by Baron Desmond
Kelvin II, who is young for his duties but manages well.
Threshold (population five thousand) is a logging community in the
northern reaches, ably governed by Sherlane Halaran, who holds the rare
distinction of being both baron and Patriarch of the Church. It is more
civilized than its size would suggest.
Luln (population five thousand) sits on the western border, a
ramshackle community of refugees who have fled the Black Eagle Barony.
It is caught between Baron Ludwig von Hendriks’s forces and the rest of
Karameikos, slowly being organized into something defensible by its
determined townsmaster, Mistress Sascia.
Fort Doom (formerly Halag, population ten thousand) is where Ludwig
von Hendriks — Duke Stefan’s power-mad cousin — holds a farming
population in tight repression. It is a dreary place, and the people
there know it.
The Shearing Ceremony
When a Karameikan youth approaches adulthood, their parents dress them
in traveling gear and shear the bottom of their cloak ragged — a
reflection of their condition as an impoverished traveler starting from
nothing. From that day, they are a friend of the family but not part of
it. They must make their own way until they prove themselves worthy of
being invited back. The ceremony began among Traladarans in the old city
of Marilenev and has spread throughout the duchy, adopted enthusiastically
by the Thyatian settlers who recognized in it something useful.
All young men between 14 and 19 go through the Shearing. Young women
may insist upon it — and doing so is one of the more effective ways a
Karameikan woman earns respect within her family.
A sheared youth from a titled family has no title until they are invited
back. That invitation must be earned.
Regional Skills Available #
Characters from Karameikos may select the following at character creation.
- Traladaran Singing (Type A, CHA): The oral tradition is ancient and
specific — not merely pleasant singing but the preservation of lineage,
history, and the Song of King Halav itself. A skilled Traladaran singer
is a living archive. - Mysticism (Type A, WIS): The Traladaran relationship with omens,
portents, and the spiritual world is practical rather than merely
superstitious. Those who study it seriously develop a real sensitivity
to the unseen. - Survival (Type A, CON): The interior of Karameikos is genuinely
dangerous. Those who grow up traveling it learn things that coastal
dwellers never need to know. - Thyatian Colonist (Type B): A character raised in the Thyatian
settler tradition carries the cultural confidence of the Empire —
its language, its legal assumptions, and its expectations of
social hierarchy.
See also: The Song of King Halav · The Shearing Ceremony ·
Specularum · The Church of Traladara · The Church of Karameikos ·
Callarii Elves · Highforge · Black Eagle Barony
