The Mysteries of Strangiato Encyclopedia

Item

Item description goes here, including links to other entries, if desireable, as well as items that are other terms or possible entries to come.
If of note, the material's source is explained here.

Acquizar

This small farming town is located some 200 miles or so north of Stharaio Ovus Stharaii, in the land of the Kingdom of Malmuur that was formerly the Union of Light. It's situated around the sourcelands of a small tributary to the River Avian, aptly named the Acquizar River, and sits at about the lattitude where the border where the old Stharaio Province yielded to the Westland Province.
Acquizar was a point of raiding by the Orcs during the short wars of 1403, and many innocent farmers and their families fell to the malicious inhuman attacks. Aside from occational setbacks as so, the town has grown very steadily and slowly since its official founding in the late 1200's.

Aeryth

Aeryth is the name given to the world as a whole. It has been used by both humans and Elvenkind alike for many centuries, and it's exact origin is unknown. While the people of Aeryth have the technology to know the planet as a sphere, no lands beyond the seas that surround the mainland, and the islands Lobbezia and Ubrek are known, so the term Aeryth tends to be used to describe the lands and the sea, but not really a "planet" as it were.
Aeryth was a name that Marc Renouf recommended to me while the planetary map was being devised.

Aragon, The

The Aragon is a huge underground space built deep within the heart of La Villa Strangiato. Below the main level of the Villa is the basement level, and below that is a small corridor level that leads to the entrance to the Aragon. While the architecture of the Aragon probably most resembles that of a cavernous cathedral, it housed a great library of books, statues and other strange items. It also housed a strange portal of some sort, whose opening seemed to oddly correspond with the fall of the House in 1403.
During the party's first interactions here (pre-fall of House), the Aragon was said to be haunted by a Ghost (whose banishment by Zheran seemed to relate to the portal opening). It was a place of strange occurances, where items, statues and bookshelves were constantly rearranging themselves without apparent reason, and statues would often appear different at each visit, sometimes foretelling events to come. When the party returned (post-ruin), the Aragon was heavily sealed off and static, but still all too eerie (especially due to the ominous open portal, the body of Sir Aldess, and the body and ghost(?) of Greysmoke of the Strangiato Guild). The tale of Lerxst I told by Ariare gives clues to the origins of both the original Ghost, as well as the Aragon's construction itself.
See also Strangiato, La Villa.
The Aragon and the presence of the Ghost within it were inspired by the section of "La Villa Strangiato" entitled "The Ghost of the Aragon". While the mysterious contents and mood of the Aragon were inspired by the overall feel of the song, its physical spaciousness may have been inspired by a musical venue called The Aragon Ballroom that I stumbled across in my work a few years back.

Ariare

Ariare is a full-elven woman of the Elderlands who, with Danu of Strangiato, mothered a daughter with her name. To do this, she travelled far and wide with Danu studying the land's magics and ancient history, during which time they both uncovered some of the secrets of the origins of the House of Strangiato, including many details of the life of Lerxst I.

Calendar Months

The main calendar used across the continent and Lobbezia alike is based on the main eight old compass points: Nare, Narestra, Estra, Sarestra, Sare, Sarvind, Vind and Narvind, in that order. Each month has 40 days, and the calendar year is exactly 320 days long. Nare 1 is the Winter Solstice, Estra 1 the Vernal Equinox, Sare 1 the Summer Solstice and Vind 1 the Autumnal Equinox. In different cultures of the civilizations on Aeryth, many of these days are important holidays, and most cultures consider 1 Nare the first day of the year.
Considering the correspondence of the motions of the sun with the turn of the seasons, naming the months after the compass points seemed natural. Winter, being coldest, begins on the month named after the cold North, the converse for summer. Spring, being a time of awakening, begins on the month named for the direction of the sunrise, and the converse for autumn.

Compass Points (Old Names)

While North, South, East and West (and their usual interproducts) are used and understood by most Common-speaking people of Aeryth, the old names for these directions are often used for the eight main compass directions (N, NE, E, SE, etc). The old names are Nare (pronounced "NAHD-ay" with the proper Latin "R") for North, Sare ("SAHD-ay") for South, Estra ("EST-rah") for East and Vind ("VIHNT") for West. The off-cardinals are compound words: Narestra ("Nahd-EST-rah") for NE, Sarestra ("Sahd-EST-rah") for SE, Narvind ("Nahr-VIHNT") for NW and Sarvind ("Sahr-VIHNT") for SW. The main eight compass points are also the names for the eight months of the year on almost all of Aeryth.
These are basically simplified psuedo-Latinized versions of the real cardinals that were redone for a change in style, as they seem a bit more fluid than our English versions. Vind was likely related to the word "wind", as it generally blows from the West (where I come from, anyway).

Danu I of Strangiato

Danu of Lerxst (1298 - 1375) was the eldest child and first heir to Lerxst I, and was the first child born into the blood, name and House of Strangiato. She was given Ladyship of the House by Lerxst I's hand in 1337.
Danu was named for a character of legend (my memory of which legend it is fails me at the moment) that was introduced to me by a close friend. The Danu of legend is a woman of great loving wisdom, and my friend mentioned how wonderful a namesake she'd make for a child. When I drew up the Strangiato family tree shortly after, I decided to make Lerxst I's eldest a woman with the name Danu, as her wise leadership would be exactly what the House would have needed to continue in Lerxst I's footsteps. Incidentally, this also broke the stigma of House Lordship passing only to men, an idea that needn't apply to a fantasy world, and certainly not to a House like Strangiato.

Danu of Strangiato

Danu of Valersta of Jarin of Lerxst (died 1387) was a wise and well-traveled woman of Strangiato blood. She left the House as a young woman to travel and study the magics of Nature, and returned decades later with a young half-elven daughter, Ariare, but never clearly stated who her lover was. In her letters to Raivavei, she mentions her daughter's namesake, as well as that she learned much of the House's history in her travels. Danu was named after her great-aunt, Danu I.
See Danu I of Strangiato.

Dyakkarai

'Rai, as the brave few call her, is the goddess of power for control. She teaches that the control of others to her will is of highest importance, regardless of how it is attained. The most pious and blessed servants of her church will threaten or kill, or deny and even forsake their goddess' name to bring others under their control, as it moves their victims, indirectly, into her realm of control. Backstabbing and deception, even within the church itself, are mainstays, as 'Rai teaches that the strongest, cleverest and most interminable are destined to rise to her holy light. Even if those deceived into her work are not aware, bringing their resources into her service is all that matters, and destroying resources that cannot be taken is often seen as beneficial to this end. The one-mindedness of 'Rai's teachings make her church unextinguishable, and cause its servants to infiltrate many hidden aspects of life like vermin.
Dyakkarai's strongest visible following is in the basis of the growing empire of Malmuur, which was rooted in the harsh dark mountainlands northwest of the Highlands.
The concept of this goddess came via collaboration with player Emily Dresner during background discussions for her first PC, Julian Veer. It was Em's descriptions of Julian's tale that got me thinking of a religious teaching that would place acquision of power as paramont above all else. The name Dyakkarai was supplied by Marc Renouf, who has an odd knack for providing evil-sounding names on the spot.

Lerxst I of Strangiato

Lerxst I (? - 1346) was the founder and first Lord of the House of Strangiato and the Union of Light. While his origins have always been unclear, Ariare told the party her story of some of his history, which she and Danu of Strangiato learned in their travels.
See Lerxst II of Strangiato.

Lerxst II of Strangiato

Lerxst of Damus of Danu of Lerxst (1347 - ?), or Lord Lerxst II, was the fourth Lord of the House of Strangiato, and the first of the family to bear its founder's name. He was Lord of the House when the party began their travels, and remained so until the fall of the house in 1403.
See also Strangiato, La Villa.
When the "La Villa Strangiato" portion of the campaign was envisioned, the fall of the House was actually dreamed up first, including the fact that the leader of the House would be taken away to some odd place or madness. This aspect came from the "A Lerxst in Wonderland" portion of the song, and so Lerxst was chosen to head up the family that would own the mysterious Villa.

Lobbezia

To the southwest of the mainland continent is the smaller island continent of Lobbezia. The continent enjoys generally warm climes in its lower, more southernly seaboards, but can become quite harsh in the steep moutains that spire out of the sea in its northern area. North of the continent are many small, sharp islands, merely peaks of the massive underwater mountain range that forms Lobezzia's central ridge. The continent overall covers some 350,000 square miles, and is roughly evenly divided into three regions: the kingdom Mareja to the Southeast, the Seaset Kingdom to the Southwest, and the mountainous Dwarven kingdom to the North.
Lobbezia, like many places on Aeryth, is named for the player who first helped define the area by creating a character from it. In this case, the character William, from the Marejan Kingdom, was created by good friend J. "Zoo" Lobbezoo, who wanted to be from a place in the campaign world across the sea. The island was (obviously) named in his honor.

Malmuur

To the North-Northwest of the lands that were the Union of Light, beyond the lands that were the Highlands, lie the lands that birthed the Kingdom Malmuur. On the banks of the River Murdoch, in the rugged foothills of the mountains, the original Kingdom of Malmuur slowly rose over the past few hundred years from zealous warrior tribes that sought wealth in the mountains long ago. Before the turn of the 15th Century, Malmuur grew in power to the point where it continually threatened the Highlands, its neighbor to the Southeast, and its invasions and pillagings became near commonplace. By the early 1400's, Malmuur had punched through the Highlands and taken a foothold in the recently fallen Union of Light. From there the New Kingdom spread throughout the old Union and Highlands alike, bringing their strange Law and Order to the lands from the mountains to the Rieznian border, becoming the largest kingdom on Aeryth.
Malmuur is heavily connected to the dark church of Dyakkarai, and it's said that its line of kings have used (or been used by) the Goddess' controlling influence in their marches across the lands.
While I believe the name Malmuur was of my devise, the nature of the Kingdom was largely inspired by the background of Emily Dresner's original PC, Julian Veer. Julian's near knighthood into the regimens of a ruthless tyrant king was the birth of Malmuur's disposition, and work with developing the religion of Dyakkarai and later with creative collaborator Jonathan Appel made it develop from there into the omnipresent threat that it now represents in the campaign.

Raivavei

Raivavei (?? - 1403) was a very old and well-travelled Elven mage who lived for the last near-century of his life in a tower on the southern edge of Stharaio Ovus Stharaii. While his origins are unknown to most, Raivavei was known for his vast travels through many of the lands of Aeryth, including his explorations of many of the wilderness areas to the far North, East and Northwest of the mainland continent. He had a love for travel over land and sea alike, and spent many a quest using his skills in both combat and magic in defense of the land. Later in life, Raivavei found his place in the blessed land of the Union of Light, and was of service to the House of Strangiato from almost as soon as it was founded to just before its fall. Raivavei was a friend to many, and many more mourned his eventual fall to an unknown sickness on the night of 40 NE 1403, the night of a Diurnal eclipse. Of great infamy was the burgulary of his home in SOS after his death on that same night; many of his artifcats are still missing and the thieves were never apprehended.
For the most part, the party's exposure to Raivavei was limited to hearsay and some access to his correspondences with Danu of Strangiato and her daughter, Ariare, which led them to seek the latter in the Elderlands in search of tales of the founding of the House. Although they never knew him personally before his death, it seems that some of them may have a chance to chat with him after all...
Raivavei is one of my most dearly held NPCs. His name comes from my first AD&D character, an Elven Fighter-Mage named Northwolf of Donneryl, who I played under a few very good GMs in my younger days. One of these GMs, an old friend by the name of Eric Tolentino, encouraged players to devise actual spellbooks for magic-using PCs, and, in my case, I began to create an Elven runic language in which to write it. While the development of the language never got too far, it did get far enough to translate Northwolf's name: Rah-i-Vah-Veh, "Wolf of the North". Somewhere in my development of the one-shot spinoff of this campaign that I ran at BurCon III, Raivavei worked his presence into the world, and likely with a bit more than just his name, as time may reveal...

Rieznia

Rieznia is the southernmost kingdom on the mainland, oriented across the southern shore of the eastern part of the continent. Its borders are the sea to the South, the River Kingra (over which is the kingdom of Twin Rivers) to the West, the River Avian (over which is mostly unsettled wilderness) to the East, and an approximate parallel drawn through Kingra's source (over which is the new Kingdom of Malmuur, formerly the Stharaio Province of the Union of Light) to the North. Rieznia is predominated by humans, though there are many Elven communities there, and is held as the oldest human kingdom on the continent. Most ancient human history traces back to the lands that are now Rieznia, and, being the seat of civilization, it is known for it technological and magical advances, but also for its deep political and social complexities. It's capitol is First Port, its oldest city, situated at the delta of the Grey River.
Although Rieznia was not named around a player (see the Grey River, which was instead), its magical and technological prowess, as well as its pervasive Mage's Guilds, were based on the fact that the campaign's first mage, Nostromo (played by Dave Morris), hailed from there. As the story developed, it later made sense to have Rieznia be the basis of human civilization on the continent, which also conveniently somewhat explained its advances.

Strangiato, House of

This House is the body that governs the Union of Light. It was officially founded and given the Stranger Lands by the lands of the Strangiato Alliance on 1 Nare 1307. The family founder and first Lord of the House was Lerxst I, who devoted the House to the protection of the freedom and sanctity of the people and blessed lands that became the Union of Light in the same act that officiated the House.
See Strangiato, La Villa.

Strangiato, La Villa

The large family home and court of the House of Strangiato, apparently built in the Stranger Lands by Lerxst I sometime in the late 1200's, is refered to as the Villa. It was a beautiful palace-like estate nestled in the rich woodlands on the point formed by the Strangiato River and the River Avian, and is made from rare marble-like stone and fine timber. The Villa included stables, a stone terrace on the banks of Avian, and beautiful gardens and courtyards, and housed the Aragon, the mysterious cathedral-like library hidden beneath it. After the house fell in 1403, it was apparently not long before the Villa was sacked to ruins and condemned by the conquering Malmuur.
The villa was named directly after "La Villa Strangiato", one of the songs by the group Rush that the campaign source comes from. While the song has no words, it's divided into sections with titles that provided many of the ideas for the portion of the campaign that is centered around the Villa and the family associated with it, the House of Strangiato. The musical imagry of the song also provided inspiration for the mysteriousness of the House and its abilities regarding the land, as well as the strange aspects of its history, and, of course, its tragic fall.

Stringi

The Stringi are a race of demi-human creatures that resemble kobolds in appearance, but are lanky and of roughly human size. While often misjudged by other humanoid races because of their resemblance to kobolds and occasional presence in Orcan raids (as slaves forced to do recon), the Stringi have actually a peaceful agriculturally-based society that usually only fight in defense of their lives and homes, or for occasional hunting of small game. Stringi live in small tribes that can range in roughly equivalent number to the sizes of small humanoid villages, and have a somewhat primitive but rich culture tied strongly to family and land. While they tend to be, in the wild, somewhat less intelligent and sanitary than most humanoid species, they can take to education and technology almost as well as humans, although their tendency is often to be wary of such things, especially when they take away from the values of their tribal heritage. While not hateful of other humanoid races, most Stringi tribes have learned to avoid human contact due to their misunderstood presence.
The only documented and localized Stringi tribe that the party knows of so far is the one that occupied the Ruins northeast of Braagg's Star in the old Stharaio province. This was the tribe they encountered before uncovered the Star of the Dawn early on in the campaign.

Ubrek

In the seas between the mainland and Lobbezia, some ways to the southsouthwest of the mainland, lies the small and mysterious isle of Ubrek. Ubrek spans less than some 35,000 square miles, and is covered with thick tropical woodlands that sit atop its clifflike shores. Ubrek is rarely visited by travelling ships, as it is said to be a harsh and bewitched place. There are other rumors that it is occupied by an ancient race not unlike Elves, and that many human and Elven nations alike have long-standing pacts with the isle's occupants to leave it undisturbed. Some of these rumors seem well justified by many international traditional treatises that declare Ubrek a standing place for preservation, and others seem to be justified by the occasional ships that defy these and consequently never return.
When naming locations on Aeryth for players, I often name the location after another character or alias that the player is known by. In this case, my good friend Markus Nee had designed a character for a one-shot spin-off adventure in this campaign world that I ran at BurCon III. His character had a relation with the mysterious isle, and so it was given the name Ubrek, after Markus' traditional Star Trek character, Steven Obrecki.

• Acquizar River
• Sir Aldess of Strangiato
• Avian, River
• Black Lightning Company, The
• Braagg, Johaan Broluntius
• Braagg's Star
• Cold Fire Company, The
• Dam of the Dead
• Danforth of Strangiato
• Darkening Lands, The
• Diur, the Day Moon
• Elcaro Eht and The Oracle
• Elderlands
• Eva of Strangiato
• Evan
• Everlight, Forest of
• Faftior
• First Port
• Ford of the Sacrificial, The
• Galen Silvershaft
• Gateland
• Gates, The Three
• Gauthrael Nolyas
• Sir Gerard of Strangiato
• Ghost of the Aragon
• Grey River
• Greysmoke
• Lady Herena of Strangiato
• Highlands, The
• Julian of Veer Keep
• Khayla
• Kingra, River
• Kirsis
• Knights of Strangiato
• Knotsek Bustles
• Lareth
• Madman
• Mareja
• Murdoch, River
• Narestra Kingdom, The
• Nuctur, the Night Moon
• Nyshthre
• Pape of Strangiato
• R'Mac
• Raenen & Inoko
• Seaset Kingdom, The
• Seaward Kingdoms, The
• Snakemen, The
• Spear of K'a'tze
• Ssignus
• Star of the Dawn, The
• Stharaio
• Stharaio Junction (S-Junction)
• Stharaio Ovus Stharaii
• Stormstone, The
• Stranger Lands, The
• Strangiato Alliance, The
• Strangiato Guild, The
• Thacsmar (The Old Kingdom)
• Thor
• Thoronto (Thor's Mountains)
• Turning Woods, The
• Twin Rivers
• Union of Light
• Verenas of Strangiato
• Virnur, the High Moon (or True Moon)
• West Line
• Westland Province
• Willow Dale
• Zheran of Strangiato

Nature, Time & Geography

• Aeryth
• The Common Months of the Year
• The Old Points of the Compass
• The Island Continent Lobbezia
• The Isle of Ubrek
• Nations of Aeryth and their Cities
  • High Kingdom of Malmuur
    • Acquizar (formerly in Stharaio, UOL)
  • Rieznia

People (and other Beings...)

• Ariare
• The House of Strangiato
  • Danu I
  • Danu
  • Lerxst I
  • Lerxst II
• Raivavei
• Races (other than the standards...)
  The Stringi

Locations, Events, Items & Tales

• La Villa Strangiato (Strangiato Ruins)
  • The Aragon

Magic, Religion & Concepts

• Gods and Goddesses
  • Dyakkarai

Last modified 19 August 1997.