Regional Map of Rhiassa
Descriptions of Rhiassan Geography
The capital city of Rhiassa, Cold Springs, was founded by Lord Sir Duncan in 994 when New Rhiassa was first established. Though it started out as a small settlement, over the years it has grown into a fully walled city, albeit a humble one. Swift River runs through the center of the city and divides it, as well as the whole nation, into northern and southern halves. Most notable in the north half of Cold Springs is a large cathedral dedicated to Garm which Duncan was tasked with building when he was forced to become one of Garm’s paladins. The north section of the city also houses the mercantile district and several homes as well. In the southern half of the city can be found the lord’s manor house along with the other government buildings through which Rhiassa is administrated. The majority of the living quarters are in the southern section as well. To the east of the city is a small set of docks that connects Rhiassa to the waterways of the Realms, along with the buildings needed to oversee them. To the west, up river, there is a small industrial area with mills and other workshops. Expanding outwards from Cold Springs are the many farms and pastures through which the nation is fed. The most notorious aspect of the city lurks beneath the streets. An extremely complicated set of sewers, basements, and catacombs give way to a sprawling cave complex even further below. In 1009 goblins and trolls began raids on the city through those subterranean passageways and the heroes of the Realms responded to Rhiassa’s call to aid to fend them off. Over the course of the next few years it was revealed that the monsters were arranged into an army by a great eldritch horror that was buried deep underground, imposing its will upon the creatures in the tunnels. In 1013 this ancient demon, The Great Eye, was defeated in an expedition underneath the city, ending the worst part of the threat. These caverns, however, still exist in the depths and trolls and goblins will almost certainly always make their home there.
The second population center founded in Rhiassa, Fallon’s Crossing was named for Lady Fallon, Duncan’s cousin who also escaped the destruction of Old Rhiassa. Fallon’s Crossing leads into two great northward highways and because of this became a central hub where merchants caravans frequently stop bringing goods from all across the Realms. During the warm months an outdoor marketplace springs up in the northwest of the town and there are very few items that cannot be found being peddled in that bazaar. Other than that, Fallon’s Crossing has an active quarter of craftsman’s workshops. Several inns to accommodate the many seasonal guests are dotted in amongst the living quarters of the permanent residents.
In the southwest corner of Rhiassa Proper some great rocky mounds jut out from the earth and nestled within them is the small mining village of Oregoth. Much of the area of the village is dedicated to the industry of excavating the rich veins of iron that can be found in the two adjacent mines. Within Oregoth itself the iron ore is processed and smelted into steel and many ferrier workshops have sprung up around it because of the materials readily available there. Most permanent residents of the village work in the mines and many live in the large common house that at the very center of all the activity. Most notably to outsiders of the country, Oregoth is where Rhiassan Steel is refined which the entirely of Realms uses to make some of the most beautiful and sought after weapons in the land.
Notable in Rhiassan history is the fact that the leadership of the nation has changed hands peacefully a number of times. From Sir Duncan to Sir Da’oud and from him to Sir Aeston after that. When Duncan retired from active lordship he built an estate not far from Cold Springs, on a small road to the east. There he created a mansion and grounds where he and his wife Spirit could rest peacefully as he assumed the title of Elder. Years later when Da’oud retired and became an Elder he also built a mansion on the grounds. Named after the lands in Old Rhiassa over which Duncan reigned as Duke, Crestview is a tranquil place where the former lords can enjoy some of the finer things in life while they watch over the future of Rhiassa as advisors and confidants of the current lords.
Perhaps the most famous part of Rhiassa isn’t the walled city of Cold Springs or the Grand Parthenon of the Just God, but rather a humble set of fields set off into the side of the woods in the eastern part of the nation. These are the war maneuver fields where the Realms gathers every summer to participate in the Queen of Hearts Tournaments and War Maneuvers. A tradition that dates as far back as the very founding of Rhiassa in 994, Sir Duncan began this event to help the Realms be constantly prepared to make war. Duncan had lost his home and everything precious to him because Old Rhiassa was not capable of prevailing against a drow invasion. To make sure such a tragedy would never befall these lands, New Rhiassa began a tradition that would cause armies of heroes across the lands to always be practicing large-sale warfare, a tradition that has endured since these fields were first utilized so many years ago.
After Sir Aeston assumed the leadership of Rhiassa he noticed that the population of the southern part of the country was quickly growing and thus founded the town of Southland as a place for new homes to be built and a new community to create their legacy together. Alongside these houses, Aeston constructed the fourth iteration of the Pen and Sword tavern on a picturesque hill overlooking the nearby Goss Pond which has hosted The Feast of the Leviathan since 1010, the event’s twelfth year. In 1012 the most significant event in Southland’s history occurred when High Priest Slaadar and Aeston were tasked with building The Grand Parthenon of Justari in order to help protect the lands of Rhiassa from Bedlam’s advance. By giving The Just God greater agency inside the nation, the assembled heroes were able to push pack the forces of Bedlam at the feast that day. The Grand Parthenon houses seven great relics in the rotunda of the building, its largest part, each the legacy of a different saint of Justari. It is a place of pilgrimage for worshipers of The Just God from all across the Realms and beyond.
Just to the southwest of Southland is a small clearing which was built up by Lady Areni in order to arrange The Gilded Lion Summer Festival, a party she hosted for several years. Her intent was to present to the Realms a casual social gathering at the height of each summer, but famously those plans got disrupted by the arrival of the Jomsvikings from the plane of Norlund. These interplaner travelers needed help saving their doomed worlds and sought the help of the Realms to do so. Subsequently the heroes of the Realms created a permanent gate linking the southern part of Rhiassa to Norlund, a great stone arch that glows blue when its activated. From the Vanfrost portal, Realms adventurers spent many years traveling to Norlund, righting the wrongs inflicted by Bedlam during Ragnarok.
Periden
Though it is now a province of Rhiassa, several decades ago Periden was a sovereign nation in its own right, one that predates Rhiassa itself. Notably it was the place where the historic Lost Chest gatherings took place. The leader of that venerable country, Lord Biggen, journeyed away from the Realms many, many years ago, leaving the area devoid of nobility or heroic persons. Lord Biggen was close friends with Sir Duncan, and by way of honoring that friendship, Rhiassa always did its best to look out for the peasant population of Periden after they were left to manage their own affairs, providing them with protection and aid as necessary. Many years later, when Sir Aeston became the lord and wed Dame Areni, the birth of their first child would inspire the relationship with Periden to be reexamined. In the naming ceremony of their son, Aeryk, at Feast of the Leviathan XIX, Aeston and Areni gifted him the lands of Periden, in order that he might be raised understanding the duty he has towards others as he grows to be a productive member of Rhiassa and the Realms. The heraldry of this new province became the Rhiassan lion under an arch, symbolizing that the den of the lion lay close by.
When Periden was an independent nation many decades ago, Westview was little more than a manor house at the center of a small hamlet. The population of the country was spread throughout and there was little centralization or organization of the tasks of the peasantry. After Lord Biggen left the Realms, Sir Duncan did what he could to manage the affairs of the people there. He convinced many of them to gather together and make Westview a town where they could work together to provide for one another in absence of noble leadership. Decades later when Sir Aeston made his son Aeryk the lord of the province, Rhiassa built a keep in Westview as a promise to always safeguard the livelihood of those who lived there. The natural topography of the land puts the town and keep of Westview at the top of a long climbing hill in the western part of the province. From the keep, looking to the East reveals a splendid view of Cold Springs and the surrounding countryside.
Lionsmark
Sir Aeston and Dame Areni had their second child in 1018 and held her naming ceremony at Feast of the Leviathan XXI. It was important to Aeston to raise his daughter, Aelise, with the same sense of responsibility and duty as he had planned for his son, but he lacked lands the equivalent of Periden to give to her. Therefore he reached out to High Lord Temorse with the hopes of purchasing some of Ashenmark’s territory that shared a border with Rhiassa. During the naming ceremony that January, Temorse joined the Stromgates at court and made a gift of those lands to Aeston and therefore Aelise, naming them Lionsmark as a sign of everlasting friendship between their nations. The heraldry of this new province was set as the Rhiassan lion under the walls of a keep, symbolizing both the high value of the friendship between the two nations, and the promise to forever protect their bond.
The northern reaches of Ashenmark were the least developed of the nation. When Lionsmark was gifted to Rhiassa there was little there beyond forest, certainly there were no citizens and no agriculture to speak of. To begin the cultivation of those lands, Pride’s Keep was built and the infrastructure for a small town was erected around it. Rhiassa offered monetary incentives to citizens living in Cold Springs, Fallon’s Crossing, and Southland to move to the burgeoning population center and it has been growing at a steady pace. Keeping true to the spirit of Lionsmark, one of the features of Pride’s Keep is an assembly hall for the purpose of having regular meetings between the leaders of Ashenmark and Rhiassa to collaborate and cooperate on projects.
This structure was inherited from Ashenmark when the province was given to Rhiassa. The imposing fortress was originally constructed to be a military training facility, but Rhiassa repurposed it as as a border checkpoint on the road leading to central Chimeron and beyond, changing the route of the roadway to pass through it instead of circumventing it. There is no permanent citizen housing at Battlefate Keep, only administrative and military buildings.