Blazon Stone

         Areas of interest:

   ►●   Norelands – The wild continent to the far north. It is known to be the home of wolves, arctic foxes, wolverines, lynxes, and sables.
            ●   Wolven Vigil Pass – known as the Jaws of Ice mountainous isthmus that bridges the gulf between the Norelands and Brinethorn. It was named as such due to legends of ancient human explores becoming lost or sick while crossing the mountains and finding help in roving wolf families or packs. It came to be known as the Jaws of Ice following the vicious battles the advancing Rheingard armies lost to the rebelling beasts.
            ●   Brinethorn – a peninsula to the far east of Rheingard northern shores, and directly northeast of Kullainn. It is a former province of the Rheingard, having been retaken by the beasts of the Norelands. Humans resided there before the Rebellion of the Wilds, even before the Empire rose to power. After the war, however, even the native humans had been scattered or driven out by the Noreland beasts.

   ►●   Rheingard – the large island country where most humans reside. Less populated the further north a person travels. Country is split into two sections by a mountain range cutting across the middle from northwest to southeast.
            ●   Soleil Royal -- The capitol city of Rheingard situated on the southernmost headland. It houses the council of the human empire as well as the Church of the Great Mother. The city's tallest and most majestic structure is the citadel that sits atop the seaside bluff of the headland. Like the sea walls below, the houses carved into the cliff, and the fortifications encompassing the city, the citadel's stone structure is clad in radiant white marble. Artillery windows circle around four floors in all directions, and on the top floor rests a steel structure housing three large glass lenses, serving as a lighthouse to guide ships as well as spot the enemy.
            ●   City Harbor – located further north on the headland's east side. The hub of Soleil Royal's fishing market and trade economy as well as the primary navy base.

   ►●   The Isle of Kullainn – A province of Rheingard residing on a smaller island directly east of its western shore. Simply known as Kullainn, it was formerly a territory of Rheingard, slowly being established through human colonization and integration with the native sea minks and the plethora of traveling beasts passing through the harbors nestled in the fjords of the coasts. The relations developed so well between the many species that the municipalities of Kullainn were close to declaring the island an independent state. However, fate intervened when the Rheingard Empire rose up and subjugated the island.

   ►●   The Ardyhne Sea – the body of water between Brinethorn, the Rehingard isles and Sunderland's northern shores.

   ►●   Sunderland – the wild continent to the south. Home to a plethora of creatures, most notably river otters, hares, mice, rats, weasels, hedgehogs, beavers, and squirrels.
            ●   Vaskyre – the northwestern shore of Sunderland. Across the water to the north, the city of Blazon Stone is only two-hundred miles by sail.
            ●   Cape Rose – the northeastern part of Sunderland's northern shore. With oceanic currents running up and around from the east ocean and storm fronts often thundering down from the Norelands, Cape Rose can be very hazardous for passing sailing vessels.
            ●   Firwood Forest – the dense forest covering most of north Sunderland.

   ►●   Religion – the Church of Gaia, the Great Mother had been the primary religion for the humans until they began to believe that Gaia had delivered to them two of her sons, Dhakross and Valloraan. The teachings under the two sons of Gaia made holy the actions of seizing power, seeking the glory in war, giving the humans pride in military might.
The two sons were delivered to the humans by two meteors falling on the same night, thousands of miles apart. The remains of the meteors were believed to be the chariots that brought to godly presences to the earth. One was the chariot of Valloraan, the Blazon Stone. The other was the chariot of Dhakross, the Blacksteel Cross.
            ●   The Blazon Stone – a brilliant sphere of white rock and metal said to have descended from the heavens, bearing the sigil of Valloraan. During the Rheingard Empire's rule, it resided in the Church of the Great Mother in Soleil Royal. However, a beast thief stole the artifact and fled back to Sunderland. The Church sent a ship with a company of what happened to be the most vicious soldiers Rheingard had to offer. Their campaign resulted in the seizure of beast merchant vessels and several coastal communities on Sunderland’s shores being razed to the ground. The Sunderland beasts fought for vengeance. The crew ultimately sunk with the ship to the bottom of the ocean and the Blazon Stone was lost. Without their worldly idol from their goddess, the Rheingard Empire's pride fell enough to let the rising tensions in Sunderland boil over, leading to a chain reaction that would lead to the Rebellion of the Wilds.
            ●   The Darksteel Cross – the remains of the meteor rock that has a twisted black mass of metal embedded in the center. It forms a wicked cross with three jagged bars, the top one curving up and bottom one curving down. And in the center of the cross, there is an emblem in the shape of an eye carved into the metal. It is said that a sword forged from the steel of the cross could slice through anything, but that has yet to be seen as the Cross is still intact. After the Blazon Stone was lost, the Darksteel Cross was the only identity to guide the Rheingard Empire, and their hold on the world became more cruel and oppressive.


   ►●   The Rebellion of the Wilds – the war that crushed the Rheingard Empire. Sunderland beasts rose up against their human oppressors, while forging an alliance with the Noreland beasts who would eventually sweep into Brinethorn to attack the human lines and military outposts, putting the Rheingard Empire into a vice.
         Though better equipped with armor, weapons, and tactics, the sudden unity of all the beast species caught the Empire off guard and the advances to crush the resistance made the human military force be ripped apart by guerrilla warfare. Slowly, the the beast rebels overran the Empire’s borders and forced the occupying forces to retreat to Vaskyre where they defended a hasty retreat by ship back to Rheingard
         In Brinethorn, the rebellion had long been raging once the wolves and lynxes of Noreland swept across the peninsula in what they thought was an unwarranted attack. The Empire’s military managed to repel enemy, though they made the mistake of pursuing their retreat all the way to the Wolven Vigil Pass. The retreating beasts were, in fact, only a diversion. Once the bulk of the human army marched into the pass, Noreland forces hiding in the mountains surrounded and slaughtered them all. By the time human forces were withdrawing back to Reingard, the oceans the open for Noreland and Sunderland to set sail to tighten the noose on the human island.
         When the conflict reached Rheingard, the citadel of Soleil Royal defended the city with impunity while the armies of the Empire were being pummeled from all the sides and forced back to the capitol's defenses. A battle of attrition resulted in a starving human Empire, but the beast forces beleaguered by nonstop cannon fire were exhausted enough for one final push by the Empire to force the them back to mountains of Rheingard. The future of Sunderland and Noreland would be decided by the outcome of the battle in the mountains. With the death of a leading commander, the Rheingard armies were battered and exhausted, but holding firmly to their ground and with reinforcements to the rear. Negotiations were soon underway. The war’s outcome was decided to be a military stalemate. Sunderland leaders demanded that the Empire be dissolved and that Rheingard return all of Sunderland to its native beast races and return the territory of Brinethorn to the beasts of Noreland in exchange for their complete withdrawal from all former Rheingard territory and Kullainn.

   ►●   Jaques the Slayer – a man who was once a commander in the Rheingard army before his death. The Slayer fought valiantly on the lines in Sunderland before the army's retreat to Rheingard where he lead the offensive which pushed the invading beast forces from the city walls of Soleil Royal and followed them north into the mountains of Rheingard where he was killed in a duel by the wolf leader of the Noreland forces. His death marked a loss of hope for the Rheingard Empire to regain lost territory. At first, his prowess on the battlefield made him a likely hero to win his glory after the war, but his death and the failure it meant for Rheingard’s Empire tarnished his name forever.

   ►●   The Rape of Kullainn – angered by the outcome of the war, the council of Rheingard was not going to hear Kullainn's thoughts of independence. The reformed Rheingard army sailed in, cemented their nation's government and prosecuted all humans thought to have aided or even accommodated the beast forces. Native beasts were not targeted, but they still became victims. Many a human and beast alike fled once the bodies began to pile up. The broken hearts of the humans who came to call the island home would never heal when the sea mink population ceased to exist completely.