Avendale | Tyrrapedia: Encyclopedia of Tyrra

Avendale is a frontier Kingdom to the north of Evendarr. There are two cultures coexisting uneasily in Avendale. The south is called the city-lands, where life resembles any other metropolitan Kingdom. The land to the north, near the frontier, is wilder and untamed. As Avendale grows, these two lifestyles sometimes find themselves at odds. Avendale is built atop the ruins of an empire called Brisbane which was known for its powerful wizards.

Every year, Avendale pushes its borders north and west into the frontier. The campaign has expanded through plains populated by Minotaur and the Scorpion Clan Barbarians. The Barbarians, historically, served the Master Vampire Karvecki. Since his defeat, the Barbarians have been struggling with their newfound freedom. Now they are neither friends nor enemies of Avendale. Many of the honorable Minotaur have tried to adapt and live at peace with the Avendalians, but few have made this transition smoothly. Avendale lives in an uneasy symmetry with its wild north. It is believed that Avendale will expand until it reaches the mountains to the North and the desert of Rihad to the west.

After the final death of the vampire Karvecki, an Amani vampire named Goliath set his sights set on Avendale. Goliath has posed quite a threat to the young Kingdom, and has succeeded in unifying, for the first time, the monstrous factions that live in the North.

Avendale’s first ruler was Queen Naomi. Known as the Warrior Queen, she was loved and respected by all. Her reign was beset by both political and martial strife. It seemed that at many points, the Kingdom was on the verge of collapse. This was attributed in part to the Curse of Brisbane, which was laid down by the Gypsies of Ancient Brisbane. An old prophecy declared that no one would rule the lands of Brisbane until a Gypsy wore the crown. In an attempt to end the Curse of Brisbane, Naomi tried to join the Gypsy race. Though she was accepted by the Gypsies of Avendale, the formal magic affected not her, but her unborn son, Stefanos. Crown Prince Stefanos was born a healthy gypsy child, ordained to take the crown on his 18th birthday.

In 601 ER, Queen Naomi was slain by the Vampire Karvecki. She was survived by her husband Tavernier Septorian, who was named Regent by his mother-and-law, Lady Arundel of Evendarr. In April of 604, the Kingdom knew both joy and sorrow. The vampire Karvecki was finally slain after a grueling campaign to locate and destroy all of his spirit cradles. The next day, Regent Tavernier Septorian was murdered by nobles of Ravenholt. He was lain to alongside his fallen wife. Later that year, Duke Frederick Arundel, a noble from Evendarr, was appointed by Lady Arundel of Evendarr to rule Avendale.

History

The lands now known as Avendale used to be the home of a now dead empire called Brisbane. The Brisbanian Empire flourished under the use of formal magics and a powerful line of Emperors. Emperor Justin Brisbane executed many of the gypsies of Brisbane, seeing them as the root of his nation’s weakness. As the gypsies were exterminated from the lands, they laid down many curses, causing great strife to every Kingdom which would dare lay its doorstep on that area. Avendale now faces the echoes of the Curse of Brisbane, which bolsters the forces that oppose the Kingdom.

Avendale was founded in 597 Evendarrian Reckoning by Lady Naomi Avendale, a Knight of Evendarr. After establishing the Kingdom, she was celebrated as its Queen and led the people of Avendale through the many hardships that threatened the fledgling nation. As Avendale grew, it made alliances and eventually integrated the nearby Quentari Elves of the Silvermyst forest and the Dark Elves of the mountains of Nebulonde ?. Avendale remains a Kingdom of change, having survived the death of its former Dukes and a rapidly shifting noble hierarchy.

The foremost challenge that young Avendale faced was the vampire Karvecki, who dominated the land for over a millennia. Once an Archwizard of Ancient Brisbane, a formal magic backlash transformed Karvecki into a vampire. Centuries after the Brisbanian Empire had fallen, Karvecki lived off the remains of the dead empire, amassing an uncontested army which would hold the land in check. Even after Karvecki was slain and laid to rest, his influence is still felt throughout the Kingdom.

Geography

Avendale has several neighbors. Avendale shares its borders with Elysia and Volta. There is a desert Kingdom to the west, called Rihad, a merchant land which is ruled by three human Robber Barons. Just past Rihad is the Kingdom of Rockshire. The Kingdom of Aeran’Or lies to the Northwest. To the north of Avendale, there is a large stretch of unclaimed wildlands. In the northern Frostpeaks, near the Avendalian frontier, there is Baniktor, a powerful Dwarven nation that prefers isolation to diplomacy.

The city of Greystone was once a Brisbanian city called Grienkala, a hub of magical research and golem-craft. The abandoned city had been ruled by undead and attercob for many years, until the adventurers of Avendale discovered it and cleared it out. Now, more than two thousand commoners live in the great grey stone mansions and buildings left by the long gone Brisbanians. The city is filled with old monuments, crumbling towers, and faded, cobweb filled buildings. There are still sections of the city which no one has moved into, and the streets aren’t quite safe to venture into at night. At the edge of Greystone, adventurers gather in manor houses by the woods and protect the city from the myriad attackers who would try to violate it.

The Barony of the Silvermyst is a great wood in the north east of Avendale. The forest was long been populated solely by Quentari, but after joining the Kingdom they have opened up their borders to non-elves. The Silvermyst forest has many secret paths which lead into the lands of Faerie. The Elves fight a continuous battle against the Lord of the Haunted Wood, an unseelie Fae King who seeks to twist and corrupt the forest.

The Barony of Nebulonde is a chain of mountains in the south east of Avendale. The mountains are populated by Dwarves and Hoblings but the most common race is the Drae. For a long time, Nebulonde considered itself an empire apart from Avendale, but a drawn-out political struggle stabilized the territory as a part of the Kingdom. Nebulonde is home to the Institute of Knowledge, a college of scholars who study topics ranging from ancient history to magic.

The other two Baronies of Avendale are named Brisbane, for the empire which once rested there, and Galenson, for Katherine Galenson, the first Evendarrian to set up camp in this area. Brisbane and Galenson are in many ways the center of Avendale. Populated primarily by humans, these areas are cosmopolitan and quickly growing. Many Evendarrians move into these areas because they have all the comforts of a civilized area, but with the vigor and excitement of frontier territories.

In recent years, many scavengers, half-orcs, half-ogres, Wild Elves, and Barbarians from the Scorpion Clan have come to live in Brisbane. A few small communities of the honorable Minotaur also live peacefully in Brisbane. It is being heralded as a land where civilization and the wild are meeting in some harmony.

Galenson enjoys a more metropolitan life. The cities of Galenson are bustling with Avendalian colonists who are enjoying lucrative trade, good farmlands, and a relatively safe countryside. Trade taxes are slightly more lenient than Evendarr, so many merchants from the surrounding climes come to trade in Avendale.