Hollow Moon: Nation Overview
by John CalvinI began a project to map Sharon Dornhoff's Hollow Moon setting several months ago (which can be found at the following thread: Hollow Moon: Nearside, 40 miles per hex). Anyway, I'm getting to the point where I've started looking at the various cultures and nations that make up the setting (and needless to say, there are a lot of them). To help myself get through it all I've started compiling a "Nation Overview". A few notes before I share that with you:
1) Each nation will get an entry in the following format:
Nation: Name of Nation
OW Connection: Connection to Outer World (which may include Mystara, Patera, or anything else outside of the Hollow Moon setting.
Arrival Date: Date of arrival in the Hollow Moon (whether transplanted or otherwise)
HM Location: List of moon terrain features (most of which are real life labels for features on Luna).
Cities: List of cities if known
Notes: This will be a list of notes pulled together by me. They will not be direct quotes from any source.
References: References will start with an article citation, and be followed by a selection of relevant quotes from that article. I'm assuming that most articles quoted will be on the Vaults, so for proper author credit see the listing with the full article. These will include, but are not limited to, all of Sharon's Hollow Moon articles. For example:
Article link
1) - first reference from the article
2) - second reference from the article
2) I'm pulling all of this information from articles written by Sharon. The Notes section of each entry will consist entirely of her work. In the rare case where I add anything I will colour that text green. Also, there are cases where notes are useful for more than one entry. In those cases I post them to multiple entries.
3) Many of the entries are sparse. I'm simply pulling as much information as I can find from all of the various Hollow Moon articles. In 4 cases the nations have expanded Gazetteer-like entries (Crystalbarrens, Pteryx, Ur-Carnifex, and the Trogs of Putrescence). In all other cases this is all the information I could find.
4) There are a lot of entries. I'm going to break them out so that there are 4 or 5 entries per post, just to keep things manageable. I'll create an index in this first post.
5) At some point I'd love to get Sharon's input here, but before I invite her over to the thread I'd like to get some of my thoughts organised and have some questions ready for her. I'd like to eventually use this information to go back to my HM map and start putting in some border lines.
Full Index:
Aardovai
Adhuzan Dominions (Kopru Dominarchy)
- Kogolar
- Labrys
- Limor
- Merfolk
- Thebit
- Vareinya
Albheldri Islands
Aran
Cacklogallinia
Cynidicea
Crystalbarrens of the Cryions
Crystalbarrens of the Desert Ghosts
Devil fish?
Goblinoids
Graakhalia
Hsiao
Margasta Tribes
Marsh of Putrescence
Maskelyne
Modrigswerg
Pisachas
Pre-Imperial rakastas
Pteryx
Qaurikka
Redlands' Peninsula
Shark-kin, Crisium
Shark-kin, Humorum
Shaergarde
Sohktar
Stygia
Taurus gnomes
Toroldorsk
Trade Cities
Ur-Carnifex Tribelands
Vedal
Vesper
Wallaran Dreamscapes
Reserved for compiling a list of questions.
1) What is the nation of Thebit? It is mentioned as one of three magocracies in the HM, but then no other mention of it is made. Could Thebit have something to do with the albheldri islands or the Nephthisians?
2) Who (and what) are the margasta tribes? I'm pretty sure that they aren't human, but have no idea what they are, or where (and when) they come from. There is one sentence comparing them to the Nithians, and another calling them witch-wary (which might suggest some kind of contact with the Nephthisians), but that is all.
3) I'm assuming that the Nephthisians live on the albheldri islands (Haemus?) with their albierendi allies, but I could be wrong. Since the cryions brought them into the Hollow Moon, I always assumed that they would have some contact with those creatures once they settled, but placement on the Haemus might make that unlikely.
4) There are 5 human nations mentioned specifically - Deslandres and Vedal, Cynidicea and Qaurikka, and the albheldri islands. Cynidicea and Qaurikka are easy enough. I'm assuming that the albheldri are the albierendi albinos that left with the Nephthisians (but I could be wrong), and that both those human populations are located on the above mentioned islands. Likewise I'm also assuming (based mostly on their name and the fact that their society contains Bhuts) that the Vedal originated somewhere near Hule or Sind. That leaves Deslandres. Where are these people from? Unfortunately the name gives us no hint (since it is a moon reference and not a Mystaran one).
Also related to this there are other human populations/countries mentioned in other passages - Toroldorsk and the Trade Cities, as well as original Alphatian bloodlines. The Alphers can be sprinkled among many of the other peoples from the Trade Cities, to Vedal, and possibly even some amongst the Cynidicea. I'm assuming that most other one shot references to human populations get placed in or near the Trade Cities - this would include the Rodemus family from Thyatis - since those cities are mentioned as melting pots that are open and accepting of strangers.
Nation: Aardovai
OW Connection: Aardovai (proto-lupins) of the Yazak steppes
Arrival Date: ~2200 BC (Places this around time of migrations toward Sind and Taymora - just before their subjugation)
HM Location: the broken marshy promontories of "the Rilles"
Cities:
Notes:
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
1) Near the vesper elves, the broken marshy promontories of "the Rilles" are a damp refuge for the lupins' eldest and most-overlooked of forebears ... the one breed of Hutaaka-kind which Pflarr would gladly have the world forget.
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
1) Conversely, if a HM race which was never civilised on Mystara -- e.g. the aardovai, the Ur-Carnifex -- has civilisation imposed upon it, then that race will abandon settled ways at the first opportunity (e.g. after a natural disaster), and won't retain any knowledge of those ways beyond their first generation of freedom.
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
1) Two kinds of segnosaur -- picture a bipedal, dinosaur version of an aardvark, complete with long foreclaws for ripping open termite nests and simple, peg-like teeth -- pose a threat to the region's giant termites and the aardovai who depend on them; but dinosaurs as a rule aren't the major problem that they are to HW races:
2) But insects are a principle source of protein in the diet of most HM people, humans and demihumans no less than aranea or aardovai.
3) Giant termites are not only the mainstay of the aardovai diet, but they actually become ill and die if unable to consume their preferred and necessary isopteran prey!
Nation: Adhuzan Dominions (Kopru Dominarchy)
OW Connection: kopru
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Mountains behind the Straight Wall
Cities:
Notes:
1) Behind the Straight Wall, a manmade barrier against cryion depredation, the far-more-predatory kopru of the mountains tug discreetly on the strings of their grand puppet empire -- its befuddled, non-kopru inhabitants, hiding their mental subjugation behind a facade of placid civility. Only the constant vigilance of the Deslandren kouprey-ranchers to the west, and the ferocious guerrilla warfare of Shaergarde to the east, has kept this taint of imperialist mind-manipulation from spreading further.
2) Two other habitats should be mentioned here, namely Mare Nectaris (freshwater) and the hydrothermal vents of the kopru.
3) In the subterranean hot springs of the Stofler-Walter-Purbach-Arzachel mountain range, giant clams and tubeworms which cluster round the spewing "black smokers" use chemoautotrophic bacteria to live on hydrogen sulphide, and these in turn provide nourishment for the kopru and a bewildering array of intermediate lifeforms... many of them extinct throughout the rest of the world, long before the Hollow Moon or even the dinosaurs ever existed. Slithery giant hagfishes, and relict trilobites unseen beyond the vents since the Cambrian, are among the least-alien of these freakish fossils come to life.
4) Humans are also common in the Adhuzan Dominions, but they aren't actually the dominant influence, even discounting the kopru: it's the merfolk who are at the top of the pecking order, and there's a city-state of minotaurs as well as several of humans and one of Kogalor dwarves. Many of the human figurehead-rulers have a merfolk ancestor, much like the Queen of Aquas on Mystara does. Orc slaves are also common in the Dominarchy's territories, and these have been ground down by their masters for so long that they've lost virtually all their savagery and spirit.
I didn't include the Adhuzan humans in my list of human cultures imported, BTW, because it wasn't the humans that the Dominarchy was brought to Matera to preserve, so much as the multicultural society on Vulcania which the kopru had created, in bringing representatives of all their satrapies together there. Sadly, if they'd just taken the other races and left the kopru behind, then the entire social structure would've collapsed, so the Immortals had to bring the puppet masters along with the puppets.
5) Yep, the kopru naturally favour merfolk over "dryskins", so they set things up with the merfolk as the public face of their empire. Official humanoid histories attribute the merfolk's power to how easily they can either support or sabotage land-dwellers' navies and merchant fleets, as well as the strength of their Magi. (Even in BD&D, I'd intended to let the Adhuzan merfolk advance in the same character classes as humans, not as monsters a la the Creature Crucibles.) In reality, the kopru would infiltrate a vulnerable nation with their pawns, then stage a token coup or naval skirmish to justify the merfolk's laying claim to it.
6) >From the kopru's point of view would Shaergarde and the Vesper Elves (and the perhaps even the aardovoi of the Rilles) also fall within their domain?
They'd like to claim both realms, but the vesper elves have proven difficult to exert their mental influence over, and aren't really hierarchical enough for conventional kopru tactics to work well there. The only way they could usurp power in the vesperlands as a whole would be to dominate the relic-keepers, but the vesper elves' relic (the Prism of All Colours) offers a great deal of protection to its caretakers' minds.
7) The kopru haven't had much luck in Shaergarde, because the halflings have developed their own variant of the Five Shires' Denial ability. They can't dispel cast magics by yelling "No!", but if a halfling seems to be acting abnormal, another halfling can shout at them to "Wake up!", and they shake off whatever's affecting them. This Revival ability wasn't originally an anti-kopru defence -- Shaergarde's halflings already had some mental problems of their own to cope with, when the Hin Heroes sent them to the HM -- but it's proven to be useful for that purpose.
As for the Toroldorskis, the reason their nation is still independent actually has nothing to do with what they do or don't know. The immigrant Traladarans don't have any special weapons against mind-control. It's the presence of several clans of werewolves among them -- creatures which, for the time being, are loyal to King Casimir -- that's got the kopru worried: the last thing they want spreading through their satrapies is a plague of lycanthropy, because a werebeast in animal form becomes almost impossible to keep under control.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
[Member state of Adhuzan Dominions]
Nation: Kogolor Dwarves
OW Connection:
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Unknown
Cities: city-state
Notes:
References:
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
[Member state of Adhuzan Dominions]
Nation: Labrys
OW Connection: Minotaurs
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Unknown
Cities: Labrys (city-state)
Notes:
1) On a more conventional note, other races whose power significantly exceeds their own have also succeeded in attaining "kingship" over HM trog clans; most recently, a formidable minotaur warrior who'd fled Labrys under suspicion of murder took over a dozen clans in the pine-forest region, and launched numerous successful raids against passing snail-caravans, before he was finally assassinated by rival clans' warriors for the bounty on his head.)
References:
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Hollow Moon Cultures: The Marsh of Putrescence (troglodytes)
[Member state of Adhuzan Dominions]
Nation: Limor
OW Connection: Lhomarrians
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Unknown
Cities:
Notes:
References:
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Geoff Gander
[Member state of Adhuzan Dominions]
Nation: Merfolk
OW Connection: Sea of Dread/Sunlit Sea, Twaelar?
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Spindrift Sea
Cities:
Notes:
References:
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
[Member state of Adhuzan Dominions]
Nation: Thebit
OW Connection: Nithians (exiles who settled in Vulcania)
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Unknown
Cities: Thebit (city-state)
Notes:
1) There weren't any magocracies in the HW setting prior to Alphatia, but there's at least three of them on Matera (Aran, Thebit and Maskelyne);
2) Thebit is one of the southernmost of the city-states within the Adhuzan Dominions, which is what non-kopru call the Dominarchy. Its inhabitants are descended from Nithians, whose ancestors converted to the kopru's puppet "Adhuzan" religion and were driven from their homeland, eventually settling in Vulcania with a bunch of the kopru's other subject-peoples. So far as human history records it, Thebit was founded by wizards, and the prevalence of arcane magic there makes it a likely starting point for any attempt to break the kopru's control over their satrapies. The Nephthisian exiles do have a presence there, although their faith is not very popular in most Adhuzan settlements due to kopru-spread propaganda.
3) >How far Nearward would you say that the Straight Wall extends?
Hmmm. I double-checked the old map I'd been using, and it's actually the Promontory Taenarium that the Straight Wall is attached to. It's just to the Nearward side of a small crater called Birt, and runs nearly North/South from 20 to 25 degrees South latitude.
[JTC- Thebit is nearby - it's a moon label. This should mark the Dominion's southern borders.]
References:
Materan Spells
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
[Member state of Adhuzan Dominions]
Nation: Vareinya
OW Connection: Varellyans
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Unknown
Cities:
Notes:
References:
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Other References:
Varellyan Timeline by Geoff Gander
Nation: Albheldri Islands / Nephthisians
OW Connection: Albharendi and Nithian priestess sect
Arrival Date: 691 BC
HM Location: islands of Haemus
Cities:
Notes:
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
1) Lacking infravision or the superior senses of lupins and rakasta, humans fare poorly in this place; only four cultures of humans or near-humans have been carried to this setting by the Immortals, and only once -- the Nephthisian Exodus -- have they come here by their own methods. Deslandres and Vedal, Cynidicea and Qaurikka, and the albheldri islands of Haemus all have human populations;
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
1) This flexibility doesn't mean that HM cultures can change in any direction whatsoever, no matter what. Instead, advanced HM cultures always tend to change in ways that mirror their own historical development as a people -- ascending from a primitive state, to their heyday, to that of a civilisation in decline -- and passing through roughly the same intermediate stages as their Mystaran antecedents went through, in their own day. The initial emergence of the culture in question, as distinct from other cultures, is the farthest back such "recursive" history tends to run; for example, the albarendi fluctuate back and forth between fisher/gatherer and plantation-farming lifestyles, but never revert back to their days as servitors of the Taymoran Necromancer-Kings.
2) This had the intended effect of boosting Toroldorsk's population, and of letting the Traladaran immigrants interbreed with Materan humans -- some albarendi, some Cynidicean -- thus bestowing night and/or infravision on their descendants.
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Timekeeping
1) This staggering of activity-patterns across quarti means that every city-dweller must carry out his or her fair share of working during fulldark ... a time when many of the less dark-adapted residents -- particularly the albheldri -- would rather be abed.
[JTC - this statement seems to contradict others that the Albheldri are more dark adapted than other humans.]
Hollow Moon Exploration: A Brief History of Space (Travel)
1) Though strangely-constructed, with broad decks and long, blade-like metal runners beneath their hulls, the new ships do not attack; indeed, closer inspection reveals their sails bear rough designs much like Nephthisi's symbol, the ankh-and-crescent-moon.
2) Befuddled by the moon-creatures' ploy, the majority of Nithian ships turn from their true quarry, and begin to hound the cryions across space on the latter race's own, Stormspume-mandated diaspora to Mystara.
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon
1) While Mare Orientale is the most obvious way to cross over into the Hollow Moon, it's not the only option. Visitors who set out to learn everything they can about Matera will eventually find out -- either through independent spell research, or through contact with descendants of the Nephthisian Exodus -- that certain powerful spells can create temporary openings through the crystalline bedrock of the Maria or the Farside, can allow a space-traveller to phase through the otherwise-impenetrable crystal, or can even seal off an existing passage for a short time (as the Nithian fleet found out the hard way).
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Eclipses
1) They can't. Most Hollow Moon natives (it's about time I mentioned this) don't know they're living inside of the moon, any more than Hollow World natives know they're inside Mystara. Races that deliberately immigrated across space (i.e. gnomes and Nephthisians) are an obvious exception, but their views are dismissed as nonsense by the vast majority of lunar cultures; everyone else "knows" -- assuming their culture has any recollection of their Mystaran origins, at all -- that "the moon" was a flat disk in the sky, certainly not a sphere (!), and probably only a few miles across.
Hollow Moon Magic: Altered Spells
1) Mystics' ranks are fully occupied on Matera, thanks to Vedal's monasteries, and to the Nephthisian Exodus and its descendants.
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
1) Just one human population, by this point. The albheldri/albharendi strain of albinism is genetically dominant, which is why it didn't die out ages ago, and the Haemus Isle Nephthisians and their albino shipwrights have long since intermarried to a point where all their physical and cultural differences have vanished. As the albheldri's ancestors were selectively bred by Taymoran vampires to have superior night vision, it's to the Nephthisians' benefit that their populations blended.
Alternate setting for Ierendi v2.0
1) 680 BC ... Realising that the corrupted Nithians won't be content with leaving the western islands' 'white ones' alone, as the Traldar did, the Immortals transport several villages of albarendi to the Hollow Moon, where their unusual culture can be preserved. They are placed on the Haemus Isles of the Great Spindrift Sea, but soon spread out to populate other lands; nocturnal humans being so rare, they are the first human culture ever to arrive in the setting. (new for the HM ... and now you all know why I was thinking about this stuff! ;-D)
Nation: Aran
OW Connection: phanatrels and aranea
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Nectaris shores to Altai Scarp
Cities: Old Aran
Notes:
1) Their other neighbours, the phanatrels of the Nectaris shores, labour with equal joy for the Altai Scarp's gracious araneas, innocent of any reason they should dispute their arachnid patrons' wisdom. Both welcomed and well-sated, in a world where giant insects are a more common livestock than cattle, the Hollow Moon's spider-folk need not hide their natures; indeed, their silken windships are greeted with enthusiasm by the trade-cities of the Cacklogallinians, and they are much sought after as tutors by mages of all species.
2) Several of the oldest civilisations of the Hollow Moon -- e.g. the pteryx, the hsiao, Old Aran -- were founded by races among whom spellcasters are the norm, not the exception.
3) There weren't any magocracies in the HW setting prior to Alphatia, but there's at least three of them on Matera (Aran, Thebit and Maskelyne);
4) Aranea -- As with Mystara's spider-folk, the inhabitants of Old Aran prefer subtler applications for their power, such as illusions, Charms (usually cast upon subjects ensnared in webbing), and Haste/Slow. Destructive or brute-force methods are considered crude and wasteful, by Aranites, so are seldom researched by lunar aranea. Beyond this tendency, the spider-folk have extensively explored two lines of study, which should be treated as mage-specialties in AD&D games, or as special skills/spells only aranea-mages can acquire, in OD&D campaigns:
5) Aranea are able to live openly in lunar communities, since the majority of people born on the moon consider spiders neither ugly nor needlessly-hostile, and the arachnids have devised simple signals by which they or their phanatrel servants can control unintelligent giant spiders, giant harvestmen, and rhagodessas. (All the types of non-magical giant spider from the OD&D rules or Creature Catalogues can be found on Matera, although only the aranea themselves are sentient.)
6) Giant ichneumon wasps are reared for pest-control purposes in most lunar agricultural regions, though this practice is highly illegal within the land of Aran.
7) Giant wasps -- another luminous taxon -- have a bounty on them in Old Aran, as the aranea have a petrifying terror of these deadly spider-hunters.
8) By comparison, the phanatrels' appetite for farmed freshwater crabs and crayfish, which they raise en masse in Mare Nectaris, seems pedestrian ... yet even they won't pass up a choice platter of stonefly, with sweet broiled aphid-nymphs on the side.
9) IIRC, that's the region where the aranea -- exiles from Herath, who'd resisted their fellows' plans to hide in humanoid form -- have been living. If so, I'd imagined it as a very rugged area, full of steep canyons and buttes, but blanketed with scraggly pine forests. Lots of verticality to the terrain, suited to anchoring web-cities and parking windships.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Materan Spells
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Nation: Cacklogallinia
OW Connection: Savage Coast
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: on the shores of Mare Foecunditatis
Cities:
Notes:
1) Cacklogallinians -- A mercantile race of bird-like, flightless shysters and "con artists", these skittish creatures are the founders and champion bargainers of the eastern trade-cities. They've independently developed their own versions of many Darokinian merchant-spells (those dealing with bargaining and finances -- Count Coins, Evaluate, Trust, Crowd Summoning, Saviour Faire, Silver Tongue*, Detect Lie, Inventory, Smuggling, Accounting, Embezzle -- rather than actual caravan handling), for use in their incessant business dealings. Unlike the Gaz11 versions, many of the Cacklogallinian spells can be reversed, or otherwise applied to nefarious ends; for example, Count Coins in the hands of such a creature could become Miscount Coins, which causes its unsuspecting target to err by 10-40% when counting out coins by hand... always in the spellcaster's favour (either paying him/her too much, or charging too little).(* - This one's designed to work on a single person, as the doting Cacklogallinian merchant puts a companionable arm across the potential buyer's shoulders ... thus providing the contact necessary for Charm-magic to function in the HM.)
2) The bird-like Cacklogallinians, on the other hand, consider foxes of any sort to be evil, egg-eating, chick-devouring monsters every bit as savage as werewolves (!); they hunt vulpines ruthlessly in the countryside of their own nation, and harass or even assassinate known werefoxes in cities which they control, rather than risk their dear pullets' safety.
3) The farthest a given society may descend into barbarism/primitivism, is its state at the time it first emerged as an unique culture (thus some HM nations -- Cacklogallinia, for one -- will never decline so far as to cease practising agriculture, making iron, etc).
4) The Cacklogallinian trade-cities cultivate giant glow-worms and fireflies for their luminous body fluids, and Modrigswerg alchemists isolate the active enzymes of bioluminescence from these, for long-term storage and future use.
References:
Materan Spells
Lunar Lycanthropy and PCs
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
Nation: Cynidicea
OW Connection: Cynidicea
Arrival Date: AC 311
HM Location: Unknown (somewhere near Adhuza)
Cities:
Notes:
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
1) Deslandres and Vedal, Cynidicea and Qaurikka, and the albheldri islands of Haemus all have human populations;
Lunar Lycanthropy and PCs
1) Another bit of Immortal busy bodying -- albeit an innocent one, this time -- indirectly introduced werefox lycanthropy to the HM setting: in the second of his several lives, the Polymath Leo Variantia was challenged to locate an artifact which had been lost with the destruction of the KW Doulakki city of Cynidicea. Searching the city's ruins, he discovered a portal (opened by his Immortal sponsor) to the HM version of Cynidicea ... a thriving, expansionistic city-state perpetually at war with the puppet-kingdoms of the kopru Dominarchy. In the several months it took him to overcome Matera's greater influence over his were-changes, and to investigate the artifact's last known location, Varentia infected several of the Materan inhabitants of Cynidicea with werefox lycanthropy, as well. If Leo Varentia ever attains the Immortality he's sought, there'll be several hundred descendants of those first lunar werefoxes -- descendants, both by blood and by infection -- who'll be eager to take up his worship. (* - And infecting a tiny handful of the Cynidicean Undercity's degenerate, subterranean inhabitants with lycanthropy, in the process; check B4: "The Lost City", if you want to see the first appearance by werefoxes in an OD&D module.
2) This had the intended effect of boosting Toroldorsk's population, and of letting the Traladaran immigrants interbreed with Materan humans -- some albarendi, some Cynidicean -- thus bestowing night and/or infravision on their descendants.
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
1) Giant bees have been imported to the setting by the Cynidiceans, who domesticated them long ago, but there are very few flowers in the Hollow Moon which are of interest to bees and the honey they produce is often of inferior quality; there are bees -- even giant forms -- native to Matera, but these are luminous solitary bumblebees and of no value as honey-makers (lunar beeswax is good enough, OTOH).
The Dungeon Master's Guide to Cynidicea
1) AC 310: Korotiku, Ordana, Seshay-Selene, and Ka privately discuss the predicament of the Cynidiceans. They know that the eternal sun of the Hollow World would be harsh on the Cynidiceans, though they would adapt eventually. The main drawback of this is that the culture of this strange group of humans would be forever altered. The Hollow Moon, with its darkness, would be a far more suitable place for them to rebuild. As a result, the four Immortals opt to whisk equal numbers of Cynidicean adherents of Gorm, Madarua, and Usamigaras to the Hollow Moon.
2) AC 311: After conferring with the three Cynidicean Immortals, and obtaining their grateful consent, 500 followers of each, plus 500 non-aligned Cynidiceans, are quietly urged in their dreams to ascend to the surface. Standing amidst the desert sands and half-buried ruins of their old city, the Cynidiceans look up to a strangely glowing moon, whose rays almost seem to writhe about as they reach towards Mystara. Then, slowly, the awestruck Cynidiceans are gently gathered up with these beams, and, as they slowly fall asleep, they look downwards, seeing the ground recede below them.
3) AC 350: Within the Hollow Moon, the city-state of Cynidicea has already begun to rise in prominence.
Nation: Crystalbarrens of the Cryions
OW Connection: The cryions are natives of the Hollow Moon?
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Crystalbarrens - Mare Procellarium
Cities:
Notes:
1) Befuddled by the moon-creatures' ploy, the majority of Nithian ships turn from their true quarry, and begin to hound the cryions across space on the latter race's own, Stormspume-mandated diaspora to Mystara.
2) To the north, the largest and most-trackless of the crystalbarrens -- open regions of icy, inhospitable bedrock -- sprawls across fully one-seventh of the Nearside's inner surface: the Oceanus Procellarum, hunting-ground and homeland of the nomadic cryions and their traditional nemeses, desert ghosts.
3) Sorry, I guess the semantics weren't clear enough when I wrote that. "Archipelago" refers to islands of rock and soil within the crystalbarrens, not within a body of water. The cryions use a lot of oceanic imagery in their language and customs, even though they sail on crystal rather than liquid; worshipping an Immortal who happens to be a whale is largely to blame for that.
4) Again, there isn't a sea around the Carpathian Archipelago, just crystal. But it's a pretty important region to them, as its thick lichens and its alpine streams give them a safe place to pasture their herds of reindeer and musk oxen while they visit the sacred mountain.
Basically, the cryions are herd-keepers who have to migrate from one patch of encrustation to another, so their herds can forage. There's nothing edible that can grow on naked crystal, although their herds' hooves allow the livestock to traverse it without damage. So they criss-cross the Oceanus Procellarum seasonally, in accordance with the prevailing winds at different stages of the Storm Cycle. Their routes bring them to Mt. Copernicus every 18 months, at which time they re-shuffle their travelling bands (mnelds) and inscribe the names of births and deaths on the mountain's face.
5) Incidentally, those cryions which emigrated to Mystara (trading ships with the Nephthisians) now live on the inside of the northern polar opening. They venture from the interior to the exterior of the planet, or vice versa, every 18 months, to honour their old homeland's migratory traditions. That's why the description of cryions in the Creature Catalogue says they only visit northern settlements once every three years: that's how often they leave the shadowlands to visit the outside of the planet. Their "unprovoked" attacks on villages are actually a response to their observing signs of whale-killing by villagers.
References:
Hollow Moon Exploration: A Brief History of Space (Travel)
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Nation: Crystalbarrens of the Desert Ghosts
OW Connection: The desert ghosts are natives of the Hollow Moon
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Crystalbarrens - Mare Procellarium
Cities:
Notes:
1) To the north, the largest and most-trackless of the crystalbarrens -- open regions of icy, inhospitable bedrock -- sprawls across fully one-seventh of the Nearside's inner surface: the Oceanus Procellarum, hunting-ground and homeland of the nomadic cryions and their traditional nemeses, desert ghosts.
References:
*Hollow Moon Cultures
Nation: Devil fish?
OW Connection: Devil fish?
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: In Sinus Medii and the waters surrounding
Cities:
Notes:
1) In Sinus Medii and the waters surrounding, an ancient, vanished race of sea-dwellers -- known to present-day Mystarans only by their dead -- waits in eagerness within siliceous-coral halls for their next sign of favour from the Immortals.
2) Devilfish : Although vampiric devilfish aren't destroyed by sunlight as conventional vampires are, they find exposure to solar UV -- even the muted UV light which comes through the crystalline beds of Matera's seas -- extremely painful and disorienting. Devilfish in the Hollow Moon (assuming there ARE any; I haven't actually put any there, yet! ;-D) would necessarily be restricted to that lava-floored stretch of the Great Spindrift Sea which flanks the lunar Apennines; it's the one region of open salt water in the entire HM setting, which doesn't get lit up from underneath, every month.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Monsters' Abilities and the SoR
Nation: Goblinoids
OW Connection: Goblinoids
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Southern outlands' forests
Cities:
Notes:
1) Past the perils of Stygia, beyond Humorum, the southern outlands' forests teem with goblinoids that relish the eternal night, heedless of the hsiao who look upon their squabblings with a benign, scholarly contempt.
2) Humanoids : Those humanoids (i.e. goblins and orcs) which suffer "to hit" penalties in daylight aren't hindered by the ambient HM light, even at its brightest. If anything, they usually find the moon's dim, sombre blues and violets more relaxing than Mystaran humans (who'll probably consider the "colour scheme" drab and depressing) are likely to!
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Monsters' Abilities and the SoR
Nation: Graakhalia
OW Connection: Graakhalian gnolls (and possibly elves?)
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Rhieta savannahs south of Foecunditatis
Cities:
Notes:
1) More forgotten cousins of Pflarr's children roam the dry Rhieta savannahs south of Foecunditatis -- ancestors of the Graakhalian newcomers in the Janssen Badlands, although joyfully unaware of the fact.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Nation: Hsiao
OW Connection: Hsiao
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Southern outlands' forests
Cities:
Notes:
1) Past the perils of Stygia, beyond Humorum, the southern outlands' forests teem with goblinoids that relish the eternal night, heedless of the hsiao who look upon their squabblings with a benign, scholarly contempt.
2) Several of the oldest civilisations of the Hollow Moon -- e.g. the pteryx, the hsiao, Old Aran -- were founded by races among whom spellcasters are the norm, not the exception.
3) Hsiao -- The owl-folk of Matera follow a more Neutral philosophy, long abandoned by their Mystaran cousins, than those living outside the moon. In OD&D campaigns, Materan hsiao receive access to the druidic spell roster, rather than the cleric's list. A lunar hsiao may receive druids' spells from the beginning, without first having to reach 9th level as a cleric. In AD&D games, hsiao access the same spheres of priestly spells as druids, plus the Time and Travellers spheres.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Materan Spells
Nation: Margasta Tribes
OW Connection: ???
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: trifold isthmus between Tranquillitatis, Foecunditatis and Nectaris
Cities:
Notes:
1) Tranquillitatis, though deep and coral-rich, lacks inhabitants of its own; the mysterious, shadowed citadel of Maskelyne casts a gloom across the waters, which even the gnomes of the Taurus Mounts feel little drive to investigate. Certainly the witch-wary margasta tribes, who claim the trifold isthmus between Tranquillitatis, Foecunditatis and Nectaris, believe the dour city's island to be cursed. They believe the same -- and rightly -- of the far shores of Foecunditatis, where many in the montane villages of yaks and goatherds are as human as you or I.
2) Although there are exceptions -- the margasta are every bit as fanatical about mummifying their deceased as Nithians are, and the bhuts of Vedal don't tolerate the competition -- most HM natives have given up on their ancestral burial-customs or cremation practices, in favour of leaving the dead "to lie in state" in some isolated locale, and turning a blind eye to pisachas' comings and goings.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
Nation: Marsh of Putrescence
OW Connection: Mystaran Origin: First wave - Brasol Range of Davania, c. 12,500 BC; Second wave - Northwestern Davanian plains, c. 7,000 BC
Arrival Date: 12,500 BC, 7,000 BC
HM Location: Marsh of Putrescence
Cities:
Notes:
References:
* Hollow Moon Cultures: The Marsh of Putrescence (troglodytes)
Nation: Maskelyne
OW Connection: Shadows
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Island on the northern shores of Tranquilitatis
Cities: Maskelyne
Notes:
1) Tranquillitatis, though deep and coral-rich, lacks inhabitants of its own; the mysterious, shadowed citadel of Maskelyne casts a gloom across the waters, which even the gnomes of the Taurus Mounts feel little drive to investigate.
2) There weren't any magocracies in the HW setting prior to Alphatia, but there's at least three of them on Matera (Aran, Thebit and Maskelyne);
3) Shadow : These creatures (which are NOT undead, in Mystara campaigns) totally infest and give their name to the menacing Shadow Citadel on the island of Maskelyne, near the eastern shores of Mare Tranquillitatis. On Matera, "monstrous" shadows come in a bewildering variety of shapes, sizes, and original species before becoming shadows; and they have an even better chance of surprising their victims (1-11 on d12) in the murky out-of-doors. Plus, many of their number retain class abilities -- including spellcasting -- in their adumbrated state.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Materan Spells
Monsters' Abilities and the SoR
Nation: Modrigswerg
OW Connection: Modrigswerg
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Caucasus
Cities:
Notes:
1) Modrigswerg of the Caucasus have been known to welcome traders who brave the trek from the Rimlands
2) Murgvik Shards or Krystalle: Named for the Modrigswerg stonecutter who discovered these stones and first devised a means of mounting them in weaponry, these fragments of splintered rock are popularly known by the more-lyrical term "krystalle" (the "ll" is trilled). It's a pretty name for the material that makes up some very ugly weapons, although Murgvik shards also have their uses in carving hardstones such as granite, for those who can afford to have them mounted on handgrips as awls or chisels.
3) Only the Modrigswerg of Matera have even learned to mount these things, without the shards' cutting their way right through the metal they're set into; anyone who lacks their skills is likely to lose fingers, merely by making the attempt! (Indeed, Murgvik was known as Murgvik Six-Fingers at the time of his death.)
4) The Cacklogallinian trade-cities cultivate giant glow-worms and fireflies for their luminous body fluids, and Modrigswerg alchemists isolate the active enzymes of bioluminescence from these, for long-term storage and future use.
5) Scorpions of all sizes are hunted for their venom -- another alchemical substance the Modrigswerg pay dearly for -- and for their unique (and IRL!) property of phosphorescence: while many lunar arthropods glow, scorpion-chitin absorbs UV light and releases it as blue light, and will continue to do so for weeks or months after the animal dies, whenever it's exposed to the Hollow Moon's ambient ultraviolet. The glow itself is too dim to see by, but the chitin has many ornamental and decorative uses.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Natural Resources
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
Nation: Pisachas
OW Connection:
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Spread across the entire Hollow Moon (except in key areas - see below)
Cities:
Notes:
1) The last of the notable culture "sinks" on Matera is by far the most widespread, yet it's also the one most likely to be overlooked. It's less a culture, than a cultural "blind spot" which has emerged independently in a great number of HM societies ... namely, a grudging tolerance -- though never a liking -- for the diffident, eerie scavenger-race of pisachas. Although there are exceptions -- the margasta are every bit as fanatical about mummifying their deceased as Nithians are, and the bhuts of Vedal don't tolerate the competition -- most HM natives have given up on their ancestral burial-customs or cremation practices, in favour of leaving the dead "to lie in state" in some isolated locale, and turning a blind eye to pisachas' comings and goings. It's not that they're being callous -- indeed, many bereaved Materans will reclaim and inter the bones of their dead (which the pisachas considerately return, well polished) later on, or act out funerals with effigies -- but rather that death isn't a subject around which HM societies revolve; so the pisachas' direct physical and psychological need to scavenge outweighs the other races' cultural mandates to bury/burn their dead, in the SoRs scale of priorities. Pisacha society is thinly spread all over the Hollow Moon, existing on the fringes of other cultures, and the "bone people" maintain a network of contact between themselves across other races' geographic boundaries ... much as beggars of the HWA series of modules recognise the same tokens as signifying 'beggar-friends', irrespective of whether they're Azcan, Shahjapuri, or whatever. (Being a social pariah, like a HW beggar or HM pisacha, makes you FAR more a part of the "culture" of fellow-pariahs, than of the people who look down on you. ;-D)
References:
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
Nation: Pre-Imperial rakastas
OW Connection: Patera's pre-Imperial rakasta
Arrival Date: circa 400 BC
HM Location: Fra Mauro
Cities:
Notes:
1) 435 AC : Daimyo Hirameki completes his effort to bring all the islands under his rulership. Ending a generation of civil warfare and instituting wise and just laws, he is hailed as the first Emperor of Myoshima.
2) On the islands of Fra Mauro in the Mare Nubium, the relict culture of Patera's pre-Imperial rakastas fish the crater-lakes and sing an oral history of time immemorial.
References:
Hollow Moon Exploration: An Outer Moon timeline
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Nation: Pteryx
OW Connection: Pteryx
Arrival Date: 12,500 BC
HM Location: Appenines
Cities: Attyx (first city, transported to the HM, now abandoned), Perryx, Myttex, Corryx, Veddyx, and Nyzzax (all Trog names)
Notes:
1) In 12,500 BC, mere hours before Attyx -- the last pteryx city still untouched by the conflict -- could fall to Carnifex forces, the Immortal Ka transported the entire pterosauroid settlement to the lunar Apennines, dousing the fires of the range's highest volcano and setting the city down within its silenced crater.
2) Several of the oldest civilisations of the Hollow Moon -- e.g. the pteryx, the hsiao, Old Aran -- were founded by races among whom spellcasters are the norm, not the exception.
3) A much older group of pterosaurs, the long-tailed rhamphorhynchids, does have many representatives on Matera, filling many of the ecological niches normally occupied by day-flying birds. None of them grow particularly large, except those which share the roles of seabirds such as gulls or albatross; the Apennines are home to the largest (3 HD) of these leather-winged flyers... not counting the pteryx, who are fully sentient. Skinwings from the shadow-elf caverns were introduced to the Hollow Moon, along with their vesper elven masters, but these domesticated pterodactyls have failed to establish any feral populations and exist only in captivity.
References:
Background on Hollow Moon Magic
Materan Spells
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
* Hollow Moon Cultures: Pteryx of the Apennines
Nation: Qaurikka
OW Connection: human - Qaurikkas
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Unknown
Cities:
Notes:
1) Maria Imbrium and Serenitatis, whose crystal ground gives way to liquid seas beyond the Haemus Islands, keep the rapacious Qaurikkas and frost salamanders of Frigoris at bay from the equatorial midlands, and flank the steam-enshrouded Apennines and Caucasus Mountains east and west.
2) Deslandres and Vedal, Cynidicea and Qaurikka, and the albheldri islands of Haemus all have human populations;
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Nation: Redlands' Peninsula
OW Connection: Savage Coast
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Farward of Sohktar
Cities:
Notes:
1) Farward of Sohktar, the Redlands' peninsula extends beyond the rim into lands they would not be so accepted in, but that region of poison soils and distorted life is inaccessible by windship: though the Savage Coast's nocturnal races also have their refuge, Ka and his allies will not let the contamination of the Red Curse breach the Nearside's rim.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Nation: Shark-kin, Crisium
OW Connection: shark-kin
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Mare Crisium
Cities:
Notes:
1) Out beyond Tranquillitatis, south of the Wallaran dreamscapes and the arid steppes of Sohktar, the shark-kin of Mare Crisium's shorelines prosper on the land, even as their fellows do, beneath the distant Mare Humorum's waters.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Nation: Shark-kin, Humorum
OW Connection: shark-kin
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Mare Humorum
Cities:
Notes:
1) Out beyond Tranquillitatis, south of the Wallaran dreamscapes and the arid steppes of Sohktar, the shark-kin of Mare Crisium's shorelines prosper on the land, even as their fellows do, beneath the distant Mare Humorum's waters.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Nation: Shaergarde
OW Connection: hin and possible Gentle Folk elves
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Unknown
Cities:
Notes:
1) Behind the Straight Wall, a manmade barrier against cryion depredation, the far-more-predatory kopru of the mountains tug discreetly on the strings of their grand puppet empire -- its befuddled, non-kopru inhabitants, hiding their mental subjugation behind a facade of placid civility. Only the constant vigilance of the Deslandren kouprey-ranchers to the west, and the ferocious guerrilla warfare of Shaergarde to the east, has kept this taint of imperialist mind-manipulation from spreading further.
2) In Shaergarde and the Vesperlands, explorers may at last find those the elves and hin of Mystara may call kin;
3) Hin -- The hin of Shaergarde may become Masters, upon attaining sufficient experience, just as those of the Five Shires may. The only alterations to their spell-roster from Gaz8 are the ones normally imposed by the SoR (e.g. the spell "Radiance" is affected as any other light-spell would be).
4) The flightless Dark Jungle cassowary -- long extirpated from the Orcs' Head Peninsula, by the humanoid tribes' careless overhunting -- has been given free reign in the midland forests, where few predators dare challenge its formidable claws and legendary temper. A few of these fierce ratites are actually tamed as steeds by the hin of Shaergarde.
5) The kopru haven't had much luck in Shaergarde, because the halflings have developed their own variant of the Five Shires' Denial ability. They can't dispel cast magics by yelling "No!", but if a halfling seems to be acting abnormal, another halfling can shout at them to "Wake up!", and they shake off whatever's affecting them. This Revival ability wasn't originally an anti-kopru defence -- Shaergarde's halflings already had some mental problems of their own to cope with, when the Hin Heroes sent them to the HM -- but it's proven to be useful for that purpose.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Materan Spells
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Nation: Sohktar
OW Connection: Savage Coast Nimmurians
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Sohktar desert
Cities:
Notes:
1) Manscorpion, Sohktar : These semi-nomadic ancestors of the Nimmurians were brought to the HM in order to preserve their old, non-subterranean culture, when Ixion laid a curse upon their kind which made sunlight deadly to them. On Matera the Sohktars have no such difficulties, and can function aboveground with impunity even during "skybright"; however, spells which duplicate the effects of full sunlight, such as the AD&D druid spell Sunray, will still inflict horrific damage upon them.
References:
Monsters' Abilities and the SoR
Nation: Stygia
OW Connection:
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Stygia (below Mare Orientale)
Cities:
Notes:
1) On a more contemporary note, while virtually no one (except a few pirates and Kubbitts) had been transported to the Hollow World, as of the boxed set's publication, since the fall of the Milenian Empire, the Hollow Moon's received "new blood" -- in the form of Toroldorskis, Cacklogallinians, Graakhalians and Ostegos, some of whom brought magical skills or scrolls with them -- as recently as 80 years ago!
2) Granted, the Ostegos of Stygia aren't able to Teleport Without Error to any locations outside the Hollow Moon, and creatures with inherent Summoning-powers only call up beings which are already present in the Moon -- the lunar bedrock is sufficient to restrict magical passage, even when the SoR doesn't! -- but those are about the ONLY inborn monster abilities, which are continuously hobbled by Matera's magical constraints.
References:
Materan Spells
Monsters' Abilities and the SoR
Nation: Taurus gnomes
OW Connection: Serraine gnomes
Arrival Date: 42 AC
HM Location: Taurus Mountains
Cities:
Notes:
1) Tranquillitatis, though deep and coral-rich, lacks inhabitants of its own; the mysterious, shadowed citadel of Maskelyne casts a gloom across the waters, which even the gnomes of the Taurus Mounts feel little drive to investigate.
2) The wit and prankish habits of werefoxes have endeared many individual werefoxes to the eastern cities' gnomish citizens; a few are even welcome to live openly, without concealing their lycanthropy, in the gnomes' homeland in the Taurus Mounts.
3) (Intermittent sightings of a fifth, undocumented weretype -- a miniature breed of weretiger, with a reputed fondness for leaping down on its prey from great heights -- have been reported in the heart of the Taurus Mounts. However, these stories are not given credence by rational HM thinkers: the only inhabitants of the deeper Taurus highlands are gnomes, NOT lycanthropy-susceptible humans... and who ever heard of a gnomish weretiger? ;-D)
4) Matera's two-foot-long giant cockroaches are likewise regarded as vermin, but are at least put to good use as animal fodder for Rockhome lizards, peccaries, and other arthropods; their wings, if prepared through a lengthy procedure only the Taurus gnomes are able to make head or tail of, much less understand (!), can be reduced to fibres, mashed, soaked, pressed, dried, and at last converted into a serviceable substitute for paper.
References:
Hollow Moon Exploration: An Outer Moon timeline
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Lunar Lycanthropy and PCs
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
Nation: Toroldorsk
OW Connection: Traladara
Arrival Date: 800 AC
HM Location: Deslandres crater and surroundings
Cities:
Notes:
1) As already mentioned, werewolves are present on Matera, nearly all of them in the "High Traladaran" lunar nation of Toroldorsk, having been sent there -- mostly by accident, but also (so claims Zirchev, who likes lycanthropes) as a legitimate "cultural element"* of its people -- along with some covert additions to the human population of this young, beleaguered HM kingdom. These werewolves aren't the forest-haunting loners of their Karameikan cousins, however: they are active, secret participants in Toroldorsk's power structure, particularly the military. (They aren't out to grab themselves a legitimate domain like Glantri's Prince Malachie did, though; they like the army, because nobody notices if a few enemy corpses are more tooth-ripped than sword-cut.)
2) Sharing the familial loyalties of Traladaran culture, on top of wolves' usual pack instincts, the first werewolf immigrants fast established themselves as ordinary Toroldorskis of the same four "clans", though they were actually brethren in fur, not by blood. Like the werewolves of Glantri, they police their own numbers and forbid 'recruitment' of anyone but spouses and blood kin. Unlike Malachie's "Wolf Law", their self-regulation DOESN'T prohibit preying upon humans or demihumans ... only the failure to cover it up effectively, when one does so (this is punishable by death, if it endangers the clan). Among themselves, the werewolves of Toroldorsk refer to their intertwining families and covert society as the "Dire Clans", having taken the dire wolf -- a common predator in the Toroldorsk woodlands, and one their kills are often blamed upon -- as their public heraldic symbol and private mascot.
3) The second hybrid culture of note -- albeit one that probably won't be a culture "sink", much longer; the nation's almost self-sustaining, by now -- is Toroldorsk, the embattled "High Traladaran" kingdom which recently emerged in the forest-and-plains lowlands of Deslandres. Over three hundred years ago, a small band of Traladaran explorers and scholars accidentally transported themselves to the Hollow Moon through injudicious tampering with an artifact. For generations, their descendants diligently preserved their culture in the alien lunar environment, yet their numbers were far too small to establish a nation ... until 900 AC, when Thyatis suddenly invaded and conquered Traladara! Hoping to preserve a fragment of their followers' culture from Thyatian domination and decadence, the Immortals Halav, Petra and Zirchev initially considered sending the city of Marilenev to the Hollow World; but they soon realised that placing Traladarans under the SoPs influence would freeze their culture at its current level, and forever deprive their worshippers of the "Golden Age" they'd longed to achieve. Instead, they made a few discreet additions to the population of the existing HM colony of Traladarans -- who called themselves "Toroldorskis", a colloquial term (like "Yankees" for Americans) that'd been common 200 years before -- including a few werewolves and a nosferatu, as mentioned in the previous "Lycanthropy" post.
Then, with the HM Immortals' permission, they altered the SoR over the Deslandres region, in a similar manner to that which Rathanos had used, to populate the HW city of Hapta with "Nithianised" Tanagoro. For the next hundred-odd years, until Toroldorsk attained a self-sufficient population capable of holding its own*, members of other cultures who moved into the region would routinely lose their original "core knowledge" in favour of that of the Toroldorskis. This had the intended effect of boosting Toroldorsk's population, and of letting the Traladaran immigrants interbreed with Materan humans -- some albarendi, some Cynidicean -- thus bestowing night and/or infravision on their descendants. Unexpectedly, it also had a weak effect on Toroldorski werewolves -- accounting for their far greater level of organisation and sociability than they'd exhibited, as solitary hunters in the forests and moors of Traladara -- and a strong one on several nearby goblin tribes, who now faithfully follow "High Traladaran" ways ... and are loyal to King Kasimir of Toroldorsk![* - Not easy, given that it's caught directly in the crossfire between the Dominarchy and HM Cynidicea -- two of the most aggressive, expansionistic, and mutually-hostile nations in the Hollow Moon!]
4) There's one more group of Materans who live in hiding among other humans, and change to animal-forms on occasion... but they're NOT victims/carriers of lycanthropy. They're living descendants of the original Alphatian and Flaemish clans -- Padfoot, Woodwarder, Bruin, and War-Tusk -- which carried the genetic shapeshifting trait that modern lycanthropy is a permutation of. When the lycanthropy-plague first broke out on Mystara in 401 BC, Koryis -- the Alphatian Immortal patron of peace, and a member of the Bruin clan in his own mortal life -- realised that it would mean the end for a peaceful existence of the shapeshifter-bloodlines: their abilities, once lauded, would be suspected and fears for as long as the plague's memory lingered.
Not wanting to see his former clan OR its counterparts driven to extinction by humans' blind terrors and hatreds, he discreetly rescued a few select members of each shapeshifter-family from the plague-fearing lynch mobs of the day, and -- since three of the four clans' animal-forms are active primarily at night, and he didn't want his own Bruin-clan to lose touch with the other three -- set them down in the Hollow Moon.
Koryis made sure to place the few shapeshifters he managed to save among HM cultures that weren't hostile to strangers, and in close enough proximity to each other so that they could meet, and maintain their own, Alphatian culture, among themselves. He also altered their body-chemistry slightly, so that HM shapeshifters (which were too few to sustain a viable gene pool, on their own) could intermarry with humans of Mystaran* descent, yet not lose their special powers. Instead, when a shapeshifter and a Materan native were wed, one child in each generation thereafter would be born with the Alphatian parent's gifts. Only if both parents are shapeshifters (of any type) will all children share the ability to transform; in marriages of "mixed" shapes, daughters inherit the mother's animal-form, and sons, the father's.
5) Behind the Straight Wall, a manmade barrier against cryion depredation, the far-more-predatory kopru of the mountains tug discreetly on the strings of their grand puppet empire -- its befuddled, non-kopru inhabitants, hiding their mental subjugation behind a facade of placid civility. Only the constant vigilance of the Deslandren kouprey-ranchers to the west, and the ferocious guerrilla warfare of Shaergarde to the east, has kept this taint of imperialist mind-manipulation from spreading further.
6) Deslandres and Vedal, Cynidicea and Qaurikka, and the albheldri islands of Haemus all have human populations;
7) Mountain goats and musk oxen are the only wild bovids in this grass-poor setting, although some of the domestic livestock kept by Materan humans are of species which can no longer be found on Mystara and were provided by the Immortals as a way of preserving both them and their human caretakers, e.g. the kouprey -- a type of wild jungle cattle, which went extinct IRL less than forty years ago -- raised in place of common cattle, by the natives of Deslandres.
8) Deslandres is where the Toroldorskis settled. They're ethnic Traladarans who were brought there to escape the cultural subjugation by Thyatis which had seemed likely, before Stefan proved to be so open-minded. They could've gone to the Hollow World instead, but Halav wanted them to still have a chance to attain the "Golden Age" they'd been dreaming about for centuries, which the Spell of Preservation would have balked. Think Poland at the height of its power, with the addition of a Neutral goblin minority whose presence has caused Halav and Zirchev to argue a lot.
9) As for the Toroldorskis, the reason their nation is still independent actually has nothing to do with what they do or don't know. The immigrant Traladarans don't have any special weapons against mind-control. It's the presence of several clans of werewolves among them -- creatures which, for the time being, are loyal to King Casimir -- that's got the kopru worried: the last thing they want spreading through their satrapies is a plague of lycanthropy, because a werebeast in animal form becomes almost impossible to keep under control.
References:
Lunar Lycanthropy and PCs
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Nation: Trade Cities
OW Connection: humans and Cacklogallinians
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: on the shores of Mare Foecunditatis
Cities:
Notes:
1) the lantern-adorned cities of men and Cacklogallinians on the shores of Mare Foecunditatis
2) the Hollow Moon's spider-folk need not hide their natures; indeed, their silken windships are greeted with enthusiasm by the trade-cities of the Cacklogallinians
3) Cacklogallinians -- A mercantile race of bird-like, flightless shysters and "con artists", these skittish creatures are the founders and champion bargainers of the eastern trade-cities. They've independently developed their own versions of many Darokinian merchant-spells (those dealing with bargaining and finances -- Count Coins, Evaluate, Trust, Crowd Summoning, Saviour Faire, Silver Tongue*, Detect Lie, Inventory, Smuggling, Accounting, Embezzle -- rather than actual caravan handling), for use in their incessant business dealings. Unlike the Gaz11 versions, many of the Cacklogallinian spells can be reversed, or otherwise applied to nefarious ends; for example, Count Coins in the hands of such a creature could become Miscount Coins, which causes its unsuspecting target to err by 10-40% when counting out coins by hand... always in the spellcaster's favour (either paying him/her too much, or charging too little).(* - This one's designed to work on a single person, as the doting Cacklogallinian merchant puts a companionable arm across the potential buyer's shoulders ... thus providing the contact necessary for Charm-magic to function in the HM.)
4) Although werefoxes in the Hollow Moon first started out among the Cynidiceans -- indeed, more than 60% of Materan fox-lycanthropes are of that human subrace, and boast infravision (in either form) as a result -- they have since migrated east, away from hostile werewolves and were-hunters in Toroldorsk, and into the region of Mare Foecunditatis ... a far more hospitable climate, both in its weather and in its society. Indeed, Materan werefoxes took to the trade-cities immediately, enjoying the trickery and economic treachery which prevail there. The wit and prankish habits of werefoxes have endeared many individual werefoxes to the eastern cities' gnomish citizens; a few are even welcome to live openly, without concealing their lycanthropy, in the gnomes' homeland in the Taurus Mounts. The bird-like Cacklogallinians, on the other hand, consider foxes of any sort to be evil, egg-eating, chick-devouring monsters every bit as savage as werewolves (!); they hunt vulpines ruthlessly in the countryside of their own nation, and harass or even assassinate known werefoxes in cities which they control, rather than risk their dear pullets' safety.
5) The first, and most politically-significant, hybrid society on Matera is that of the trade-cities. Originally founded by bird-like entrepreneurs from the erstwhile Savage Coast nation of Cacklogallinia, these mercantile outposts soon sought independence from their motherland and threw their doors open to all comers, so long as "all comers" were willing to trade (and, in all probability, get cheated out of their breeches). Intrigued by this development -- and long frustrated in his quest to promote thievery and trade in the Hollow World -- the Immortal Asterius petitioned his old sponsor, Korotiku, to allow him to "open up" the independent trade-cities' culture, so as to encompass mercantile enterprise and profiteering in any form ... not just that of the Cacklogallinians. Having already done much the same thing with the Hollow World's Merry Pirates, the Spider leapt at the chance to create another polyglot society for the other museum-setting; working together, they altered the SoRs effects upon the cities, so that -- while Cacklogallinian customs were no longer preserved in residents' memories -- no trick, ploy, financial innovation or business technique that arose there would ever be forgotten. Not surprisingly, the trade-cities rapidly became the heart and soul of mercantile enterprise for the eastern and central Nearside ... not to mention the con-artist capital of the known universe! (Korotiku and Asterius are still patting each other on the back and chuckling, over this one.)
6) The last type of Materan lycanthrope which is definitely known to exist, as yet, is greater wererats; in yet another twist to the lycanthropic cliché, there are no lesser wererats in the Hollow Moon! Furthermore, the greater wererats all trace their origin back to a single KW family: the disgraced Rodemus noble house of Thyatis, which was disentitled for embezzlement in 968 AC and disappeared from its barony in the Duchy of Machetos, immediately thereafter. While Imperial court rumours alleged that the shamed ex-Baron Nikolaus Rodemus had hidden his family for two years, then quietly emigrated to Traladara as henchmen in the entourage of Duke Stefan Karameikos -- settling, rumourmongers whispered, in the vicinity of a certain crumbling Keep* believed to be haunted by a vampire -- rumour was sadly mistaken.(* - When I start dropping names from the thumbnail "sample dungeon" in the old Basic red book, you KNOW I've been spending way, way too much time on this HM project! ;-D)
In fact, the entire Rodemus family had been infected with wererat lycanthropy in a massive wererat-invasion of their castle in 961 AC, as a part of a scheme by Mrikitat to gain a voice for his fellows in Thyatis' court. (Before his disgrace, Baron Rodemus had been an up-and-coming courtier with important contacts.) The Big Boss Rat had chosen the wrong family, unfortunately ... one that proved even more Chaotically-inclined and fractious in human form, than they were as wererats! Several years of infighting over who would be "top rat" in the clan left the Rodemus family worse than useless to Mrikitat's plans, the more so when Nikolaus got caught with his fingers in the cheese and lost all his court privileges. Giving up his first batch of greater wererats as a bad job, Mrikitat exiled them to the Hollow Moon -- a nocturnal setting which he hoped might help them get a handle on their "rattishness", and stop acting like *&%#@^ PEOPLE all the time! -- from which he could recall them if they ever learned their lesson. ("Us rats can't jest go roun', fightin' each udda, till we gots sometin' ta fight OVER! Ya wanna kill yer buddies, do it 'bout lunch or yer den or da ladies, NOT yer full-o-garbage EGOS, ya fleabit rag-ears!")
It didn't work worth a damn. To date, the HM Rodemus family has fragmented into dozens of tiny clanlets, each with a half-dozen or fewer members. When they aren't feuding with each other, the groups find new excuses to break up even farther ... usually over personality-clashes or stolen wealth. The latter is more common than the former, as thievery -- not the cheery trickster-play of the laid-back werefoxes, but a brutal, profit-driven criminality with no care for who gets hurt -- is the primary enterprise of the Rodemus-clan lycanthropes. The clan's secondary industry is thuggery: Quite a few unsolved murders on record in the Hollow Moon were committed by assailants who burrowed their way to their targets through holes that seemed far too small to accommodate a human being, then shrugged off the blows of victims' bodyguards as if they were nothing but a nuisance. The least reprehensible of the Rodemuses are those whose stock-in-trade is information -- blackmail, espionage, fencing of forbidden spell lore -- anything that will fetch a good (astronomical) price.
7) There's one more group of Materans who live in hiding among other humans, and change to animal-forms on occasion... but they're NOT victims/carriers of lycanthropy. They're living descendants of the original Alphatian and Flaemish clans -- Padfoot, Woodwarder, Bruin, and War-Tusk -- which carried the genetic shapeshifting trait that modern lycanthropy is a permutation of. When the lycanthropy-plague first broke out on Mystara in 401 BC, Koryis -- the Alphatian Immortal patron of peace, and a member of the Bruin clan in his own mortal life -- realised that it would mean the end for a peaceful existence of the shapeshifter-bloodlines: their abilities, once lauded, would be suspected and fears for as long as the plague's memory lingered.
Not wanting to see his former clan OR its counterparts driven to extinction by humans' blind terrors and hatreds, he discreetly rescued a few select members of each shapeshifter-family from the plague-fearing lynch mobs of the day, and -- since three of the four clans' animal-forms are active primarily at night, and he didn't want his own Bruin-clan to lose touch with the other three -- set them down in the Hollow Moon.
Koryis made sure to place the few shapeshifters he managed to save among HM cultures that weren't hostile to strangers, and in close enough proximity to each other so that they could meet, and maintain their own, Alphatian culture, among themselves. He also altered their body-chemistry slightly, so that HM shapeshifters (which were too few to sustain a viable gene pool, on their own) could intermarry with humans of Mystaran* descent, yet not lose their special powers. Instead, when a shapeshifter and a Materan native were wed, one child in each generation thereafter would be born with the Alphatian parent's gifts. Only if both parents are shapeshifters (of any type) will all children share the ability to transform; in marriages of "mixed" shapes, daughters inherit the mother's animal-form, and sons, the father's.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Materan Spells
Lunar Lycanthropy and PCs
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
Nation: Ur-Carnifex Tribelands
OW Connection: Carnifex
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Jura Peninsula
Cities:
Notes:
1) Conversely, if a HM race which was never civilised on Mystara -- e.g. the aardovai, the Ur-Carnifex -- has civilisation imposed upon it, then that race will abandon settled ways at the first opportunity (e.g. after a natural disaster), and won't retain any knowledge of those ways beyond their first generation of freedom.
References:
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
* Hollow Moon Cultures: Ur-Carnifex Tribelands
Nation: Vedal
OW Connection: humans and Bhuts from Sind
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: north shores of Foecunditatis
Cities:
Notes:
1) They believe the same -- and rightly -- of the far shores of Foecunditatis, where many in the montane villages of yaks and goatherds are as human as you or I. Those of Vedal who are not, of course, prey upon those who are.
2) Deslandres and Vedal, Cynidicea and Qaurikka, and the albheldri islands of Haemus all have human populations;
3) Bhut : On Mystara, bhuts appear as humans by day, and scaly, clawed-and-fanged monsters by night; they have no control, conscious or otherwise, over this transformation. Upon coming to Matera, they gained a considerable bonus, in that lunar bhuts can voluntarily shift between their human and monstrous guises, at most times over the course of a month. Only at fulldark -- the 56-hour period of deepest darkness -- do bhuts involuntarily transform into their bestial state; conversely, only at skybright are they "stuck" in their innocuous human shapes. (Individual bhuts which are important NPCs may be given access to the PC4 lycanthropes' skill of Transformation, in order to resist these twice-a-month involuntary shapechanges. A good base for bhuts who are assigned the Transformation skill is 8, as even the strongest of their kind aren't all that good at resisting such changes.) During the remainder of each lunar "day", when it's neither too dark nor too bright, Materan bhuts may transform at will from one guise to another, whenever it suits their purposes. These voluntary changes take 6 rounds to execute... or perhaps less, with the PC4 Quick Change skill.
4) A single werebat entered the Hollow Moon by a remarkable coincidence in 862 AC, after being captured by Glantri's Prince Morphail. Its messy depredations in Glantri City had incited some awkward personal questions, compelling him to hunt it down; more amused than angered, once he realised he didn't have yet another renegade vampire to deal with, the prince offered the terrified creature to Alphaks as a gift, and Alphaks -- equally amused, as he was bored and it grovelled nicely -- plunked it down in the Hollow Moon with vague commands to cause trouble.
5) Mistress Ayvaer currently resides in an ornate pagoda in Vedal's second largest city, where her Cypri skin colour is easily mistaken for that of the locals -- at least, under lunar light -- and where her indifference to the city's omnipresent religious icons and wards against undead baffle those who hunt the spell-casting "vampires" which prey on hapless citizens.
6) Desdemonda is now well over 200 years old, and -- since several of the traditional ingredients of Alphatian "Potion of Longevity" formulas are unavailable on Matera -- has extended her lifespan using the late Volospin Aendyr's longevity-spell ... an ancient Alphatian ritual-magic which requires a living wolf's heart as a material component, and the secret of which she stole from Silverston before she fled the principality. However, the SoR interferes with the spell's youth-restoring functions; if not cloaked in an illusion, Mistress Ayvaer's human body is every bit as decrepit and hideous as her true age implies, and even her bat-form is bald and horribly wrinkled. Recently, she has hit on the notion that it's her lycanthropy which has caused the spell to fail in part, and is considering sending adventurers to the Toroldorsk forests with snares, to see if the heart of a living werewolf will be any more effective.... ;-D
7) Although there are exceptions -- the margasta are every bit as fanatical about mummifying their deceased as Nithians are, and the bhuts of Vedal don't tolerate the competition -- most HM natives have given up on their ancestral burial-customs or cremation practices, in favour of leaving the dead "to lie in state" in some isolated locale, and turning a blind eye to pisachas' comings and goings.
8) There's one more group of Materans who live in hiding among other humans, and change to animal-forms on occasion... but they're NOT victims/carriers of lycanthropy. They're living descendants of the original Alphatian and Flaemish clans -- Padfoot, Woodwarder, Bruin, and War-Tusk -- which carried the genetic shapeshifting trait that modern lycanthropy is a permutation of. When the lycanthropy-plague first broke out on Mystara in 401 BC, Koryis -- the Alphatian Immortal patron of peace, and a member of the Bruin clan in his own mortal life -- realised that it would mean the end for a peaceful existence of the shapeshifter-bloodlines: their abilities, once lauded, would be suspected and fears for as long as the plague's memory lingered.
Not wanting to see his former clan OR its counterparts driven to extinction by humans' blind terrors and hatreds, he discreetly rescued a few select members of each shapeshifter-family from the plague-fearing lynch mobs of the day, and -- since three of the four clans' animal-forms are active primarily at night, and he didn't want his own Bruin-clan to lose touch with the other three -- set them down in the Hollow Moon.
Koryis made sure to place the few shapeshifters he managed to save among HM cultures that weren't hostile to strangers, and in close enough proximity to each other so that they could meet, and maintain their own, Alphatian culture, among themselves. He also altered their body-chemistry slightly, so that HM shapeshifters (which were too few to sustain a viable gene pool, on their own) could intermarry with humans of Mystaran* descent, yet not lose their special powers. Instead, when a shapeshifter and a Materan native were wed, one child in each generation thereafter would be born with the Alphatian parent's gifts. Only if both parents are shapeshifters (of any type) will all children share the ability to transform; in marriages of "mixed" shapes, daughters inherit the mother's animal-form, and sons, the father's.
9) From Sind, originally. Remember how the Sindhis rose up and ousted all those evil shapechangers from power, that used to rule their nation? Most of the impostors could vanish into the population, but bhuts on Mystara don't actually control when they take on a monstrous form. Their kind always change at nightfall, which means that once their cover was blown, they were easy pickings for vengeful Sind heroes. While some fled to Hule, their patron Immortal Jammudharrah successfully persuaded Ka that evil races had a right to be preserved from extinction too, so the last bhuts in Sind were brought to Matera -- an environment where the usual day/night boundaries are blurred, allowing them far more control over their forms -- along with a human food supply. Think Nepal, for culture.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Monsters' Abilities and the SoR
Lunar Lycanthropy and PCs
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Nation: Vesper
OW Connection: Schattenalfen
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: Vesperlands, on the shores of Sinus Medii
Cities:
Notes:
1) In Shaergarde and the Vesperlands, explorers may at last find those the elves and hin of Mystara may call kin; in the latter realm, on the shores of Simus Medii, descendants of the Schattenalfen who refused Atzanteotl's enticements have found a world in which their affinities for endless darkness and for the out-of-doors are not at odds.
2) These offshoots of the shadow elves and Schattenalfen practice the same brand of magic as their Mystaran brethren, but they had given up their subterranean lifestyle for some decades, even before being transported to Matera. Their standard spell-list includes all the (non-shaman) shadow elf spells from Gaz13, except those which deal with molten lava. Spell affecting "Underground Animal" targets are modified to affect nocturnal animals, regardless of habitat. There's also a 2nd level vesper elf spell called "Day Eyes", which provides 12 hours of light-tolerant vision to its recipient; it is reversible.
3) For example, the vesper elves of Matera are descended from shadow elves, for whom the dietary mainstay was a fungus-derived food called trania. Arriving in the Hollow Moon, they discovered new foodstuffs that were more appealing and convenient to prepare than trania, so ceased to rely upon it as their primary form of sustenance. However, they never lost the knowledge of how trania is prepared, and -- more importantly -- they NEVER WILL lose that knowledge, no matter how long they continue to subsist on other types of foods. Even if another race should conquer the vesper elves, and compel them to live in a fashion that utterly precludes the preparation of trania, a few individuals in every generation will continue to recall its recipe (even if they don't remember what the recipe makes! ;-D) and to pass that information on to younger elves.
4) Faedornae -- These elfin, retiring creatures employ spells from the special "Wee Folk" spell lists of PC1, as do other fairy creatures encountered in the Hollow Moon. In an AD&D campaign, they can be treated as "song mages" from the PO books ... the only such specialists to be found, in the HM setting.
5) They'd like to claim both realms, but the vesper elves have proven difficult to exert their mental influence over, and aren't really hierarchical enough for conventional kopru tactics to work well there. The only way they could usurp power in the vesperlands as a whole would be to dominate the relic-keepers, but the vesper elves' relic (the Prism of All Colours) offers a great deal of protection to its caretakers' minds.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Materan Spells
The Spell of Remembrance: Recursive history
[Hollow Moon] Ruminations Over a Blue Moon
Nation: Wallaran Dreamscapes
OW Connection: Wallara
Arrival Date: ???
HM Location: beyond Tranquillitatis
Cities:
Notes:
1) Out beyond Tranquillitatis, south of the Wallaran dreamscapes and the arid steppes of Sohktar
2) Giant varanoid lizards, including the tremendous and rapacious Megalania from the Pleistocene of the Wallaroo grasslands, are able night-hunters and can be found in the eastern deserts and savannahs.
3) Besides these ancient pests, Matera is home to plenty of familiar mammals ... familiar to your players, that is. Unless someone is playing a Wallara, the nocturnal marsupials of the Wallaran dreamlands -- sugar gliders, wombats, tree kangaroos, thylacines and devils -- will look downright bizarre, even before they encounter giant Pleistocene specimens like the bear-sized wombat Diprotodon!
4) One small glade in the heart of the Wallaran dreamlands, yet cut off even from that mysterious region by steep cliffs or deep chasms on all sides, is home to giant kiwis and the giant earthworms they sniff out.
References:
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon - Emergence
Hollow Moon Planetology: Blue Moon -- Animal Life