History of the Kingdom
Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it...
History of the Bloodstone Lands
For centuries, the story of the Bloodstone Lands was simply the story of Damara. The cold wastes of Vaasa attracted little attention from scholars (or anyone else!) outside the mountainous barricades of the region. The people of Vaasa gathered in scattered communities of hunters, trappers, and farmers, all pitifully poor and eking out a squalid, uninteresting existence. Damara, though, had a different tale to tell. This kingdom traces its noble lines back almost three centuries, to the time when Feldrin Bloodfeathers, the first king of Damara, founded Heliogabalus.
Thereafter, his long, unbroken line of kindly heirs ruled Damara well, only ending with King Virdin’s death. Until the most recent generation, the kingdom was a force on par with Impiltur. Damara maintained strong trade relations with the city-states along the Moonsea and along all the reaches of the Sea of Fallen Stars. The narrow gap between Rawlinswood and the southern expanse of the Earthspurs is still known as Merchants Run, and it is slowly returning to its former glory.
At the height of Damara’s glory, long caravans of merchants transported chalcedony down this pass to the fortress of Ilmwatch along the Easting Reach. They were welcomed and even protected by the legions of Impiltur. Fortified by brigades of Impilturian soldiers, the Damaran merchants then crossed through the Traders Bay region and into the great port of Sarshel. Ships from Thesk and all the nations floating vessels on the Sea of Fallen Stars met the merchants with open arms and open purses.
A second trade route, shorter but more difficult, carried the precious stone through Bloodstone Pass, the only sensible trail through the mighty Galenas. From there, the stone went to points north and west. Because it crossed through the wilds of Vaasa and through the Earthspur Mountains along Garumn’s Climb, this route was not preferred. But Garumn’s Climb has proven invaluable to Sembia and the city-states on the Moonsea, especially in times of heavy pirate activity, or on such occasions as when the Moonsea was cut off from the main waterway by a particularly nasty dragon turtle, as happened a few decades ago.
The bloodstone was traded in bars, each measured at 25 gold pieces in value. The crest of a Damaran noble house marked every bar, and on the opposite side was the year in Damaran reckoning. Nearly 1,000,000 gold pieces worth of the stone was taken annually from the mines in the Galenas alone. Particularly rich was the small region surrounding Bloodstone Pass, aptly named the Barony of Bloodstone. This annual yield of raw wealth more than kept the interest of merchants and speculators, and therefore the craftsmen, farmers, and ordinary folk of Damara lived quite well. Furthermore, Damara had little to fear from its neighbors. Protected by imposing natural boundaries, with the noble houses united under the rule of a single well-accepted king, there was little cause for unrest. The king maintained an army only to protect the caravans, and to defend the outlying rural communities from bands of raiding goblins or other wretched creatures. Certainly, the scattered tribes of Vaasa could never unite or pose more than a marginal threat. Peace was the norm, and the expectation of future prosperity, obvious.
Or so the Damarans thought. The merchants could never have guessed that the bloodstone bars would in time be called cursed money, shunned by all outside the region for fear that it would bring to the user the same disastrous fate that befell Damara! In CR1322, a calamitous event in the wastes of Vaasa rocked the stability of the entire region. In a single night, the evil fortress Castle Perilous arose on a lonely crag only 60 miles north of the Galenas and the Damaran border. Out from this bastion of wickedness stepped Zhengyi the Witch-King, a lich of unspeakable powers.
Rise of the Witch-King
The Witch-King claimed the sovereign powers of the kingdom of Vaasa. Winning the cold hearts of the countless goblins, orcs, and giants living in the mountains, the Witch-King pulled them all into his fold. Zhengyi enlisted the aid of powerful denizens of the lower planes and surrounded himself with the foul priests of Orcus, who could raise and command legions of undead. With this vast army swiftly assembled, and further aided by the infamous Grandfather of Assassins and his foul guild, the Witch-King prepared for war.
Damara’s eyes were blind to the sudden rise of Zhengyi. At the time of the Witch-King’s rise, the kingdom was suffering a series of catastrophic events which, in hindsight, seem suspiciously connected with the Witch-King. First, a nameless evil awakened in the Mines of Bloodstone, a force that drove the men and dwarves from the place in terror. These mines had been the primary source of wealth for the northern barony. Indeed, up to that time, the wealth rolling out of them (more than 400,000 gp annually) represented nearly half of all the bloodstone flowing out of Damara. Hundreds of brave men tried to reclaim the mines in the next few months, but none returned.
Wolf Winter fell that same year. Early frosts destroyed the harvest and the winter that ensued was therefore doubly terrible. Starvation was common among man and beast alike. Packs of dire wolves swept into northern Damara from the Galenas, leaving little but bloodied snow in their wake. Even worse, many of the wolves were infected with lycanthropy. The Witch-King’s armies roared down to the Galenas the very next year, cutting off Bloodstone Pass and effectively shutting down all the mines on the Vaasan side of the mountains. The horrid army pushed on, driving hard into Damara and committing one massacre after another.
But the people of Damara were a tough people. After they recovered from the initial shock of Zhengyi’s lightning attacks, they fought back bravely. For ten brutal years, Vaasa and Damara fought. Neighboring nations, notably Impiltur and Narfell, looked on with more than passing interest, fearing the shape of their own future if Zhengyi proved victorious. Yet though they sided with Damara in principle and for practical reasons, the nearby kingdoms of the region had problems of their own. In turn, they had too many opportunistic neighbors just waiting to gain their own advantage.
Neither Impiltur nor Narfell offered Damara any substantial assistance. Their paralysis almost cost them dearly. In the summer of CR1332, Zhengyi’s forces faced off against King Virdin at the Ford of Goliad. Neither side could gain any advantage through the month of Kythorn, and many thought that the war would hold in stalemate until the next winter, when the river would freeze. Then came the day that Damarans will ever despise. No one can say for certain what occurred that foul day, but it seems obvious that treachery led the way for Zhengyi. Most scholars agree that the scoundrel was Felix, King Virdin’s chief lieutenant. Long afterward Felix was discovered to be a member of the Assassins Guild of the Galenas, Zhengyi’s cohorts. Nothing was suspected at the time. Felix (if it was him) tricked young King Virdin into believing that a magical wand he had acquired would allow the Damaran army secret passage across the river. Actually the wand was a cheap stick stacked with a false magic aura. Virdin desperately grasped at the chance to end the long and costly conflict. Already aware of the deception, Zhengyi held his forces in check for several tense minutes, coaxing in the Damarans. Then the lichking struck hard, trapping the bulk of the Damaran army in the river and shattering Virdin’s forces.
On a hillock a short distance away, the young king watched his kingdom fall. His grief ended when a dagger (wielded by Felix?) found its way into his back. Zhengyi had spent ten years preparing for this day, and he didn’t hesitate. Calling on the forces of the Grandfather of Assassins, the Witch-King instituted the second phase of the destruction of Damara. It took only one bloody night for the most loyal and powerful nobles of Damara to be slain. The peace that ensued was not favorable to the conquered. The Witch- King granted a veneer of independence to the feeble remnants of the Damaran houses, dividing the southern reaches of the old kingdom into six poor baronies – poorer still after paying tribute to their conqueror, the Witch-King. Zhengyi gave control of the Galenas to the Grandfather of Assassins, and then tightened his own evil clutch on the north. A stream of refugees trekked south as best they could. With Damara spiraling into economic ruin and Zhengyi’s power growing every day, the neighboring states could only sit tight and hope that the Witch-King would be content with his new domain. But how swiftly things can change!
After the Witch-King secured his hold on northern Damara, he disappeared for a time, presumably to reevaluate the remaining strength of his forces and to plan out his next moves. Deliberately, he left a nation in disarray. Zhengyi’s decision to divide southern Damara into separate, independent baronies was shrewd indeed. In spite of the hardships descending on the conquered land, the puppet rulers of these baronies squabbled, conspiring against each other. Each one would gladly fight another over whatever might add to his own power and meager wealth. Combined with the terrible tribute to the Witch-King, this disarray crushed the pride of the people of Damara. Under such ineffective rule, the entire southern region was quickly thrown into chaos, both political and economic.
As he had planned, Zhengyi was left in peace to concentrate on his next moves. In the security of his arrogance, Zhengyi took no notice of the actions of his cohorts, the bandit army of the Galena Mountains. Led by the Grandfather of Assassins, a High Priest of Orcus, and an Arch-mage who had once been Zhengyi’s own personal advisor, a tribute of gold and even slaves was demanded from the poor people of the Barony of Bloodstone. This proved to be the proverbial last straw. The bandit army’s depredations bred an angry resolve in Baron Tranth and in all the people of Bloodstone.
Perhaps because arrogance and evil so often go hand-in-hand, Zhengyi did not imagine mighty heroes might arise, but proud people can only be pushed so far. When a group of heroes emerged to lead them, the people of Bloodstone rose up and fought for their homes.
The Arrival of Damage, Inc.
That group of heroes was the adventuring party known as Damage Inc., which operated out of Cormyr for many years. In CR 1339, Vangerdahast, royal mage of Cormyr, sent Damage on a mission to Damara. This mandatory mission was to correct a violation of Cormyrean law, which required all wizards above a specific level of experience to register and report their sigils to Vangerdahast. Misery, a member of Damage, had failed to register and was quite delinquent. Additionally, Damage had become a powerful group of adventurers, and trying to keep them in check had become difficult. Their mission to Damara was a veiled attempt by Vangerdahast to rid Cormyr of adventurers who were somewhat unpredictable and followed their own moral code, which was not always in conformance with Cormyrean law.
Those heroic leaders were Cherek “Bull” Bunky of Proskur (a paladin of Tyr), Stone (a ranger from the woods of Cormyr), Misery (a fighter and wizard), Methos (a rouge), Niteshade (a white necromancer), and Thoryn (a cleric of Illmater). Arriving in Bloodstone, and finding the situation desperate, Bull Bunky took swift action. Men, women, and even children of Bloodstone Village followed them, and boldly faced the bandits, even standing proud against the horrible undead brigades of the evil priest, Banak. The sheer courage of the villagers rallied support, and groups of dwarves and centaurs rolled up from the woodland clusters just south of Bloodstone Village. The Grandfather of Assassins was slain, and the bandit army was soundly defeated.
The most important result of the battle was that the races of the region had come together and mighty new leaders had been found. Quiet whispers spoke of hope when rumors circulated that Bull Bunky had fallen in love with the Lady Christine, Baron Tranth’s daughter. But just when Bunky and his friends seemed to have the region turned back toward the right course, bad luck and an unspeakable evil once again came crashing down.
First, torrential rains swept through Bloodstone for a full week in Eleint, and after the storm came a sudden freeze. Unharvested wheat and hay rotted and died in the fields and the town feared another Wolf’s Winter of hardship and starvation. Second, a scream in the night came from the Abbey of St. Sollars, rousing the village. What looked like a simple worg attack was soon found to be something much more insidious when the symbol of Orcus, a horned goat’s head, was discovered painted in blood on one of the Abbey’s walls. Everything pointed to the long-closed bloodstone mines as the source of the horror, prompting talks of a heroic adventure. Furthermore, all the people of the barony could see the possibilities of wealth if the mines could somehow be reopened.
Bunky and his friends went boldly into the mines. With the help of a community of svirfneblin gnomes, they routed the minions of Orcus, a tribe of duergar dwarves. The mines were promptly reopened and King Ruggedo, head of the svirfneblin, swore eternal friendship to the barony. Baron Tranth, confident of Bloodstone’s bright future, gave to Bunky the hand of his daughter in marriage. As a dowry, he turned over rulership of the barony itself. The happy couple was married on Greengrass, CR1340.
The people of Bloodstone dug in and fought through the savage winter. Under the leadership of the new baron, they were confident that the spring would bring new growth and hopeful about the wealth to be dug anew from the mines. The very next spring (CR1341) the dwarves of Clan Orothiar and the svirfneblin brought out a million gold pieces worth of the fabled bloodstones. With new wealth came new trouble. The promise of riches attracted thousands of new citizens to the barony.
Perceptively, Bunky understood what was to come next. He promptly put the newcomers to work building new towns and new fortifications. Then the baron commissioned his friends as generals and bid them to build a great army. He recognized that the jealous lords of the other baronies surrounded Bloodstone and, of course, there was still the Witch-King. For the next five years, Bunky kept a low profile, reinforced the Barony of Bloodstone, and prepared for the inevitable war to come.
The Bloodstone Wars
The opening salvo of the Bloodstone Wars was the conflict between Arcata and Bloodstone. In CR1346 William the Lazy, eighth Duke of Arcata, was first to strike, by organizing several baronies against Lord Bunky. His move began the Bloodstone Wars. Duke William tried to take the wealth of the bloodstone mines by force. More than 1,600 strong, William’s army forged straight in toward Bloodstone Village, marching through the foothills between Sleepy Wood and the Galenas. On their first night encamped on the outlying hills, Bunky sent a simple note to the Arcatan generals: “We are of common heritage, common suffering, and common goals. Why, then, do we fight?” The Arcatan generals did not know of the massive fortifications that had been built in Bloodstone, and they could not appreciate Bunky’s magnanimity. They thought the note was a desperate plea for mercy. The next day taught them a bitter lesson. When the sun rose on the forces of Bloodstone, they were 1,200 strong, fully arrayed, and entrenched in cunning fortifications. There was worse news yet for the Arcatans. Centaurs, halflings, and dwarves had crept out of the tunnels of the Warren to encircle the Arcatan army from behind. Still loyal to the wishes of their duke, the Arcatans attacked the walls of Bloodstone anyway and battle was joined—but only briefly. In a matter of minutes, 300 Arcatans lay dead or wounded, and the remainder of the army was pinned down in the little vale against the outer wall of Bloodstone Village.
Now Bunky and the people of the new Bloodstone showed their true strength of character. The paladin and his friends raised a white flag and rode through the Arcatan lines, unarmed and unescorted, and sued for peace. The terms were simple. The Arcatan army would collect its casualties and return home, swearing not to renew the attack. Duke William could remain on his throne, and no penalties would be imposed, no reparations demanded. Bunky only asked that the Arcatans allow him to move his forces along the border of Arcata and Brandiar to meet Carmathan, a new threat growing in the south. The peace was quickly accepted. The new land of Bloodstone based its own hopes on the precept of self-determination. The Baron of Bloodstone gambled that Arcata would realize that its best hopes lay on the same path. The terms of the peace, which have come to be known as “Bunky’s Benevolence,” apparently worked their magic. Nearly half of the Arcatan army fell in behind the marching army of Bloodstone. Three hundred more troops joined in along the trek to meet Carmathan.
The second to strike was Zhengyi’s chosen puppet, Dashard Devlin, an incompetent coward, who had ascended to the seat in Ravensburg, Carmathan. When the Bloodstone army learned of Dashard’s plans for an invasion, they marched south to meet the evil duke head on. Dashard’s propaganda network whipped Carmathan’s people into a patriotic frenzy of defense against the invaders. The armies met 20 miles east of Valls, on the edge of the Brandiar Moor, in a battle that came to be known as the Fight of Three Borders. From the outset it was apparent to the generals of Bloodstone that this battle was going to be much different than the diplomatically engineered victory over Arcata. Believing Bull Bunky to be the invader and usurper, the Carmathans advanced with fire in their eyes and a song on their lips. Fortunately, the Bloodstone army was equally well motivated.
Battle-hardened, and supported by the remnants of the Arcatan army, the forces from Bloodstone battled the Carmathans for almost three full days. Finally Bull Bunky achieved a hard-fought victory after the bloodiest battle of the Bloodstone Wars. Five hundred of the Bloodstone forces were cut down. More than two-thirds of the 1,800 Carmathans died on the field. Dashard himself was slain when he got in the way of a lightning bolt conjured by Sir Niteshade. Bull Bunkey would have continued south to put things right in Carmathan, but the alliance of Morov, Ostel, and Polten had united under Dimian Ree of Morov and was marching to cut off the Bloodstone army’s return home.
Morov, Ostel, and Polten should have fared better. After all, Morov and Ostel alone counted for more than one-third the total population of Damara! But these three provinces did not raise even 2,500 soldiers to battle the army of Bloodstone. Dimian Ree and his allies planned to entrap Bunky and his men as they marched back to Bloodstone. The three-nation alliance set 1,200 men on Bunky’s heels, while another 1,000 prepared an ambush ahead of the Bloodstone army. Unfortunately for the alliance, the ambushers laid in wait in Warrenwood, right on top of that bees’ nest called the Warren. In a day, the halflings of the Warren killed 100 men and captured the other 900. When the main body of the allied army attacked Bunky’s flank, they found themselves outnumbered two to one. The results can be imagined.
After the battle, more than 1,000 soldiers of the alliance disobeyed their nobles’ orders to return to their lands and stayed. These were primarily the 900 who had been spared and treated so well by the halflings. After Bunky’s victory, many soldiers went home only long enough to collect their families before relocating in Brandiar or Bloodstone. In a few short weeks, the southern provinces of the old Kingdom of Damara were united once again.
The Defeat of the Witch-King and Orcus
The brave companions next decided to strike out at the heart of the Witch-King’s power. They struck at Orcus himself, ruler of the lower planes. The year was CR1347 when the friends traveled to the Abyss to steal the demon-lord’s wand. Unfortunately, a group of adventurers operating out of Goliad in the Barony of Brandiar known as “Dragon’s Demise” were tricked into removing the Stone of Corbinet (also called the Apocalypse Stone due to the damage its removal caused) from its rightful place in Castle Pescheour. This stone was the lynchpin holding this prime material plane to all other planes. This action therefore severed the connection to all other planes of existence, and the Realms began to tear apart.
Once the Realms shifted out-of-alignment with the other planes, many events unfolded. First, Baron Bunkey and the rest of Damage, Inc. were stranded in the Abyss. Second, Zhengyi suddenly re-appeared. With Damage, Inc. missing, his kingdom weakened and rebelling, and so much in flux, the Witch-King turned his eyes back to Damara and lashed out in panic. Zhengyi sent his vast army south. He pulled the bandit army back into his fold, and attacked across the Galenas. But the swelling army of Bloodstone, under the temporary leadership of two former Knights of Mistmore (Katia the paladin and Liljana the ranger and wife of Niteshade) and with additional support from Sir Broden of Helmsdale, fought fiercely and drove back the Witch-King’s soldiers.
The forces reached a stalemate at the Ford of Goliad—ironically, the very site of the Witch-King’s first victory over Damara. With each army in firm control of one bank of the river, there seemed no end in sight. The stalemate was shattered by two events – the return of the Stone, and the theft of Orcus’ wand.
First, Dragon’s Demise were made aware of their horrible mistake. Fighting a horrific battle against terrible odds, Dragon’s Demise reclaimed the stone and returned it to Castle Pescheour, thereby restoring the connection to the other planes. They were subsequently never heard from again.
Second, King Bunkey and his companions had struck out at Orcus by stealing the demon-lord’s wand and taking the vile instrument to the Seven Heavens where it was ultimately destroyed. Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, gave King Bunkey the Tree-Gem, and sent the victorious heroes back to Bloodstone. Once planted, the gem grew into a beautiful white tree, a symbol of hope with the power to forever banish Orcus and the other monsters of the Abyss from the Bloodstone Lands.
Additionally, with the defeat of the demon-lord, the Witch-King lost the source of his dark power. Castle Perilous crumbled into ruins, the priests of the goat’s head religion lost their strength, and the undead of the Vaasan army fell to dust. Baron Bunkey, Stone, Misery, Thoryn, Niteshade, Methos, Broden, Katia, Lilijanna, and the might of the Bloodstone Army drove the confused remnants of the wretched forces of Vaasa back through Bloodstone Pass and into their dark holes in the north kingdom.
The Creation of a Kingdom
If there was to be a challenge to Bull Bunky’s rule, it would have had to come from Dimian Ree. The Witch King had set up Dimian Ree as the baron of Morov. Dimian Ree’s first act was to move the seat of the barony from Morovar to Heliogabalus, once capital of all Damara. Previously, Heliogabalus had belonged to no single province, existing rather as an independent entity. Co-opting the city’s status to make it the capital of Morov clearly stated Ree’s ultimate aims, namely to be King of all Damara. Yet Dimian Ree did not openly claim the throne of Damara, though he is a true descendant of Feldrin - one of only three surviving members of the line. The others were Tranth, former Baron of Bloodstone, and his daughter, Christine. By marring Christine, Bull Bunky now had a legitimate claim on the throne (although theirs was a marriage of love and not politics).
To understand Dimian Ree’s hesitation, one must understand the dynamics of Heliogabalus. Heliogabalus was a city of independent merchants, with no army - only mercenary guards controlled by those merchants. The people of Heliogabalus were loyal to the throne out of simple expediency. The merchants were only concerned with the flow of trade, and they cared little whether Dimian Ree or Bull Bunky ruled. Wealth was and is their key concern, and any upset of the status quo makes the merchants nervous.
Bunky knew that Morov would be tricky to fight, regardless of the previous desertion of most of Ree’s forces. Although the province couldn’t raise much of an army, neither could Bloodstone’s forces easily take Heliogabalus. The merchants would oppose any army just walking in, the thieves would hold every alley, and the battle would no doubt devolve to bloody house-to-house fighting. Bunky, therefore, was determined to be patient, and waited for his popular support to force Dimian Ree’s hand.
Dimian Ree was also in a predicament. He sat in Heliogabalus with a legitimate claim, but his reign would have been short if he could not gather enough support to revive the old kingdom. Baroness Sylvia of Ostel remained his staunch ally, but Polten was slipping away. Before he could make a decision, the merchants of Heliogabalus made it for him.
The merchants of Heliogabalus do not tolerate uncertainty in the region for long, fearing that uncertainty will send the goods from the supply provinces flowing around, and not into, Heliogabalus. In secret, they contacted King Bunky and invited him and his army into Heliogabalus. Niteshade and Misery used magic to keep the army hidden until it flowed through the gates and into the city. Meanwhile Bunky’s agents had been working with the people of Ostel, the majority of which were tired of Sylvia, and the day the army marched into Heliogabalus Sylvia was disposed by her own people and subsequently replaced by Christine’s father.
Dimian Ree had no choice but to meet King Bunky in the plaza before his palace. In front of the senior merchants of the town and thousands of citizens, King Bunky declaried Damara re-united under himself as King, stripped Ree of all titles except for Baron of Morov, reinstated Heliogabalus as an independent province, forced Ree to swear an oath to Tyr of allegiance to the new Kingdom and King, and sent Ree packing back to Morovar. King Bunky then declared Vassa to be a Duchy of the new Kingdom, and appointed his friend and fellow Paladin Katia Dorritt as Duchess.
And with those actions, Bull Bunky became the King of the Bloodstone Lands, and peace seemed, at last, to be at hand.
Thus, Damage’s mission to Damara succeeded beyond even Vangerdahast’s wildest imagination. What started as a minor mission to help a small border town ended in a full-scale war. By the time it was over, the Witch King of Vassa was defeated and the old Kingdoms of Damara and Vassa were reunited into a single entity - the Kingdom of the Bloodstone Lands. Damage’s paladin, Cherek “Bull” Bunky, was now the King of Bloodstone, with the other members of the organization in high positions of government. Their success ensured that they would never again return to Cormyr as anything but diplomats.
Dimian Ree’s Oath of Allegiance
“I promise by my faith and before Tyr, that from this time forward I will be faithful to King Bunky and his heirs, and will maintain toward him my homage entirely against every man, in good faith and without deception.”
WHERE THE REGION STANDS NOW
Damara and Vassa are now united under a single King—Bull Bunky. King Bunky has forsaken the old name of Damara and declared the current Kingdom to be the Kingdom of the Bloodstone Lands (which is a separate entity from Bloodstone Barony, which also still exists). King Bunky quickly moved the capitol of the newly reunited Kingdom to Heliogabalus (CR1350), the original capitol of Damara. Five years have elapsed since the Year of Wild Magic when the Realms were nearly torn apart. In CR1347 – 14 years after the Time of Troubles, the Crown Prince was born to King Bunky and Queen Catherine -- Randolph Tranth Bunky.
The fabric of the Realms was altered during its separation from the other planes. People fled into the hills to escape disease and pestilence, leading to a rise in the number of half-orcs in the land. People with an innate, magical nature suddenly found that nature enhanced to the point of enabling spell casting without spell books. The very spells of the Realms were altered, and mages found their spell books subtlety changed. Demi-humans found classes and abilities closed to them in the past suddenly open. These changes had a profound effect on the Realms. What other effects may be yet to come? Only time will tell.
(C) 2013 Curtis M. Sawyer, All Rights Reserved