Tuesday, December 1, 2020

The Vale - A Journey in Worldbuilding Part Two

As I mentioned in the last post, most of the world-building for Alenostr was centered around The Vale, as it was where the player characters would start, and was the focus of the larger world story I wanted to tell and use as a guide for the characters actions. Of course, if they'd just up and left the area, I would've had to adjust, but that's the trick of setting up worthwhile tasks and compelling NPCs (and also trusting your players not to derail everything for no reason).

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The Vale, post-Rebellion
 

The Vale is an odd region, whilst nominally recognised as it’s own state, it was actually in fact a region of the Dwarven Empire up until the Ogre Rebellion just over two hundred years previously. Largely a human-settled region, it nonetheless also homed populations of dwarves, halflings and even ogres before the rebellion, and produced much of the food the empire required thanks to the Vale’s more fertile soil.

Geographically, The Vale is a pocket of land nestled between the Gallhyr Ranges and Troll Hills to the north and the Barrier Mountains to the south. Whitefish Bay borders the west, and Lake Djopr borders the east. Bisected by the River Dross, which feeds into the Many Mouths, it is an extremely fertile land, and so much of the land is used for farming crops or grazing cattle (cows, goats and predominately sheep).

The south of The Vale borders the old Dwarven Lands, now controlled by the Ogre Holdings. The northern border butts up against the more wild northlands, home to a number of barbarian tribes and ruins.

The capitol of Manheim lies almost centrally, north of the Silken Forest, with Leafton, which holds much of the halfling population to the north of that. Port Finnesheim lies in the far north-west, just below the Crescent Peaks. Kurzak-Hizarn, one of the few surviving dwarven mining towns sits deep in the Gallhyr Ranges. Some hundred years after the Rebellion, an Urdjan Academy, the second establishment of its kind, was founded in the north-east. In recent times, a small village has also popped up in the shadow of the Barrier Fort, which is colloquially known as Barton.Much of the rest of The Vale’s population is spread out amongst many farming towns and goat-herd cottages, as well as several fishing towns scattered up and down the coasts.


As a country, The Vale is largely a poor one, struggling in the wake of the Rebellion. It survives for the most part by trading in food products, but much of its money is tied up in defending Barrier Fort and the coasts from the ogres. It does trade in high-quality silks, but such items are rare and manufactured slowly.


The Vale is currently governed by Thane Efstein Valesborn, a distant ancestor of Bori Steelblade.

History

The Vale was founded and gifted to a force of humans and halflings who were also instrumental in allowing the dwarven army to finally trap and defeat the goblin horde of Grashnalak, at the Many Mouths. The human chieftain, Bori Steelblade, was granted title in reward, and allowed to preside over the area north of the Barrier Mountains, where the inhabitants of the Vale prospered for centuries.


During the rebellion, whilst the Vale’s military was able to deal with the Enchantress’ forces within their borders, they were stymied at the mountain pass and Border Fort by a goblin and ogre force and unable to do much to effect the war. They were able to later hold the pass against the Enchantress’ army with the help of a small dwarven refugee force, but it is likely were it not for the favourable terrain, the Vale would’ve also been lost.

Key Areas

Manheim

Manheim, also known as Kirzak-Mirgar in Dwarven, has always been the capital of The Vale, spreading out from where Steelblade built his hall upon a tall hill in the bend of River Dross. The city guards the main bridges allowing passages north and west over the river. Like many dwarven cities, it also holds a large temple to Fyordin and Donaria, although a number of smaller shrines to other gods are present. A temple to Halja, and its attendant graveyard and barrows is situated on the north side of the Dross.

As the capitol, naturally the city is large and fairly metropolitan, with entire districts populated by halflings and dwarves. The riverside holds a large number of warehouses and markets, serviced by barges. Finally, a large training barracks covers the the southern gate.

Notably, Manheim is also home to the Freelancer's Guild hall. The Freelancers are a mercenary band mainly, but one that also provides craftsmen, and most of it's work comes from supporting the interests of The Vale and it's military.

 

Finnesheim

Ruled by Lady Larensine Ranasholt, Finnesheim is The Vale's second city and its main port into Whitefish Bay. It is home to the Finnesheim Library, which houses a several underground laboratories used by mages and druids for research. The city is guarded by the famous Mariners, a port police unit that expanded into a citywide militia.

The Church of Rana, who presides over the sea is central to the city.

A Druid's circle, cared for by local practitioners and envoys from the Elves, sits on the outskirts of the town.

 

Leafton

A largely Halfling population runs many of the The Vale's breweries, including the important Golden Bee Meadery, which also collects valuable Queen's Honey for use in potion making.

Leafton's lord, Lord Halfred Pinehill, is known for championing Buckhorn, a newly created whiskey.


Barton

Part shanty town, part barracks. Barton sprung up after the fall of the Dwarven Kingdoms in order to service the need for a much larger and more permanent garrison.

The General of the fort, Lord Svienmar Groven, is responsible for administering the town, though he has a light hand as his attention is focused on the defence and garrisoned troops. 


Djoside

A small sleepy fishing town in the north east of The Vale, sitting on the banks of lake Djopr. It is notable for bordering the Vala Woods, source of many witch stories, and for the Lord of the area, Belias Ironwood, going missing years ago, shortly followed by his wife after their son died in a battle near Barton. As such, the Ironwood Manor now lies empty.

 

Apolberge

Home to the Apolsede family who look over a small number of farms in the south east. A larger number of goatherds are present here, using the lower mountain slopes as grazing land.

 

Urdjan College

The second of the three colleges within Alenostr, built one hundred years after the Ogre Rebellion. The Headmaster of this college is the second of the three brothers and works quite closely with the Thanes of The Vale towards protecting the borders. They are heavily responsible for patrolling the Underroad, a old tunnel burrowed beneath the mountains in the east that was partially collapsed and destroyed during the Fall.

 

The Many Mouths

Site of the battle that led to the founding of The Vale, the estuaries of the River Djopr have become a vast swamp infested with undead. It is dotted with lost villages and blanketed in heavy mists, and there are rumours of an old necropolis at its centre. 

 

Lake Djopr

The lake forms a natural border between The Vale and the Northlands, and is used by the Vale partly for fishing and partly as a trade route into the north, as the free town of Crossing lies on the far shore.

 

Silken Forest

A small forest in the south-west that is home to numbers of giant spiders, whose webbing is harvested for use in weaving of high quality clothing that is traded across Alenostr.

A Trip to the Storage Unit for Reinforcements

With some free time this week I figured I'd take a trip down to my storage unit, which has been sat untouched for nearly three years at this point. I knew for sure I'd have a bunch of MESBG models sitting in there, as back in the day I had at least 500pt forces for Minas Tirith, Wood Elves and Easterlings, with a bunch of miscellaenous models courtesy of random allies and the BGiME magazine.

What I found essentially a pile of broken models, and in much lower quantity than expected. I don't recall what happened to most of the models, possible misfortune with house moves and the like. In fact, most of what I found was my Warhammer 40k Orks in huge quantities. Disappointing, but there's enough here that with some repairs, I can kickstart some allied forces for both Rohan and Mordor... maybe.

 
Minas Tirith
 

Not a single plastic Warror here has an intact weapon, which is crazy. Not a great loss, as I do have a sprue of of them (not pictured) ready for assembly, but they might suffice as a base for building up some Osgiliath Veterans. Nicely, there is also a fresh sprue of Knights as well, supported by an older metal knight and a banner. With some repairs and extra horses, that gives me a nice heavy cavalry unit.

Other notable survivors are the Fountain Court and Citadel Guardsmen. These need som heavy cleaning, but I can rescue one FC and three Citadel quite easily. Replacement weapons would be needed for the rest. The headless FC Guard (I have no idea) might be good fodder for a character conversion.

There's also three heavily damaged Rangers, which I'll likely toss for the new plastics, and the crew of the Avenger Bolt Thrower, minus the actual siege engine.

 

Wood Elves (Lothlorien)

 
Another bunch of weaponless plastic warriors, aside from on plucky spearmen. 
 
On the metal side, two each surviving Galadhrim swordsmen and archers, plus a banner is great, as I love these models and missed the recent limited run. Two more of each, if they can be repaired, would be a nice start if I add in Haldir.

Rounding these guys up is a Wood Elf Captain and a pair of Sentinels.


Easterlings

Not one to buck a trend, the Easterlings also lack a single weapon, which has been extended to the metal models as well. A shame, as I'd love a phalanx of these golden warriors supporting my Mordor force.

Two Khandish axemen, but no sign of the six horseman I used to have, though three of the Easterling Kataphrakts survived with heavy damage.

Oddly, there are also a pair of Haradrim, possibly coming from my brother's collection.

 

Mordor

Though not sizeable, I remember having far more Mordor than pictured here. A handful of damaged Orcs, and three warg riders (one metal, one plastic, one warg-less), was not it. The old Grishnakh is nice though.

Additionally, there is Khamul, though it would've been nice to have his horse.

I threw in the miscellaenous Moria Goblin and pair of Uruk-hai too, but I doubt these will see use.

 

Heroes

Few in number, but I'm quite happy to have these. Saruman doesn't fit anywhere, but I appreciate having the model. Likewise for the old metal mounted Gandalf the White. Next to him is the most mangled Boromir, Captain of the White City model I've ever seen. 

Then we have not one, but two Aragorn. The is Helm's Deep vairant, missing his arms and crudely outfitted with a cloak by a younger me. The other is the luckiest find of all. Breaking of the Fellowship Aragorn is my favourite version of him, and I'd been bemoaning the rarity (and subsequent high prices on eBay) of this model. And here he was chilling in storage, completely forgotten about. I'll be repairing him up for sure.

Rounding out the group is Khazad-Dum Gandalf the Grey, another great sculpt, and the original Fellowship Merry, who is perfect for Rohan despite not being armoured.

 

All in all, not the best haul considering what I used to have, but decent in a few ways. I think with Green Stuff and plasticard I should be able to repair a bunch of these, though many will be resigned to casualties for bases and objective markers. If you have any suggestions at, please pop them in the comments.

Thanks, and see you next time!