The Silver Palace of Haven
Haven was the capital created by Traldar, he who lead his people from Nithia into the Traladara region, a people who later took his name becoming the Traldar. The great Traldar in his wisdom, knew that his people would be tormented by plague and famine and eventually revert into a primitive state. This, the Wizard-Priest had forseen in his dreams. But he also hoped that his people would again rise from this misery and barbarism and become a greater civilization at the end of their trials. To ensure this Destiny, Traldar constructed Haven, and within it the Silver Palace to be a fortress of wisdom and knowledge for future generations.
During the Gnoll invasions of Traladara, Halav rediscovered the Silver Palace in Traladara, and offered the posession of it to Oberon, King of Faerie, in return for aid in the battle against the Gnolls. The Second Silver Palace remained unaffected by this.
The Silver Palace of Gulluvia
At this time, a second Silver Palace appeared in a distant land on a Great Plateau to the Northwest of Traladara. The Immortal Chardastes, believed by some to be none other than Traldar himself, is attributed with the creation of the Second Silver Palace. It is believed that this was to replace the first one that was lost to the Traladarans to ensure that his true purpose of the Silver Palaces would not be lost; that to be the Key to future Traladaran Greatness. Some believe that Traldar was offended by Halav’s trading away of the Haven Palace which would explain why Chardastes is not affiliated with the Traladaran Three.
Others believe that the Second Silver Palace has a different purpose. They believe that the second Silver Palace is not for the people of Traladara but for their cousin Boldavians of Glantri. The Boldavians currently live under Undead Tyranny, but perhaps they have not been forgotten by Traldar, the ruler of their ancestors.
The official rulers of the Silver Palaces and the lands surrounding them, Haven and Gulluvia have always been the Silver Princesses. This title was given to the rulers of the Palaces by Traldar himself. The current rulers of the Silver Palaces are Pricess Argenta of Haven and Princess Silwia of Gulluvia (though Gulluvia is no longer in Princess Silwia’s posession).
The Keys to the Future
What are these Keys to the Future that the Palaces are supposed to hold? Within the Silver Palaces are found the most complete collections of Traldaran History and knowledge back to the days when they were a Tribe affiliated with Nithia. Thus, the Palaces may also hold forbidden knowledge of that mystical Empire. The Palace was also home of many powerful Traldar artifacts, the Eyes of Traldar among others.
I like your take on the the link between the two palaces. My big complaint with The Silver Palace of Haven, in the Wells/Moldvay version, is that it didn't really seem to lend much of anything to the setting, nor did it fit in particularly well. Making it a repository of Traladaran history seems like just the fix needed!
Your take on Chardastes is somewhat at odds with the immortal as developed IMC (you can look over this information at http://pandius.com/ach_camp.html if you are interested), but it is not too big a stretch to imagine that the voyage of Traldar was simply the first step along the Path of the Dynast.
I definitely like the idea that Chardastes is watching over the Boldavians. Of course, he's probably still too weak to openly provoke the wrath of Alphaks, but I like the idea that he is working behind the scenes to lend aid. It never seemed quite right to me that the only significant clerical apposition to Morphail comes from Ethengar--Yamuga and Tubak are great, but they don't seem like the correct immortals to be waging war on Morphail and his minions. Good thinking!
Interesting!
I like your take on the the link between the two palaces. My big complaint with The Silver Palace of Haven, in the Wells/Moldvay version, is that it didn't really seem to lend much of anything to the setting, nor did it fit in particularly well. Making it a repository of Traladaran history seems like just the fix needed!
I based Haven IMC on what James Mishler wrote about it partly existing on Faerie and partly in Karameikos, which lead to the idea of Halav having made some bargain with Oberon over that area. This is also linked to the whole Seer mythology which I have been developing.
Your take on Chardastes is somewhat at odds with the immortal as developed IMC (you can look over this information at http://pandius.com/ach_camp.html if you are interested), but it is not too big a stretch to imagine that the voyage of Traldar was simply the first step along the Path of the Dynast.
I remember loving your Achelos Campaign when you first posted it on the MML years ago. I'll need to look more carefully into it when it comes to your treatment of Chardastes. Traldar is a character I have spent some time developing, but the Chardastes link was something I stole from Marco's recent writeup of that immortal in the Immortal's thread. I intentionally left the Chardastes-Traldar connection vague though since people may have different opinions about it, and I'm not even sure what I think of it myself. Though the post above is an indication that I am warming up to it.
I definitely like the idea that Chardastes is watching over the Boldavians. Of course, he's probably still too weak to openly provoke the wrath of Alphaks, but I like the idea that he is working behind the scenes to lend aid. It never seemed quite right to me that the only significant clerical apposition to Morphail comes from Ethengar--Yamuga and Tubak are great, but they don't seem like the correct immortals to be waging war on Morphail and his minions. Good thinking!
I agree. Immortals have little place in Glantri, but Chardastes, especially if he is Traldar sees the connection between the two peoples and does what he can to help them. The proximity of the Plateau Silver Palace was what made me think of that connection.
So much excellent fan material has already been written on the Plateau, but it has AFAIK been disregarding the Orange Silver Palace, which IMHO is a shame. I think the Orange Cover Silver Palace material could easily be integrated with the fan based material though, since Gulluvia only covers a small part of the plateau.
It is after all the only official material to detail that region....
I'd love to hear what those who have been working on that region think about this though.
Håvard
Oberon is not the King of Faeries, but the King of Fey. The Faeries are instead another fey race that lives above the clouds, and they're characterized by their long noses and hairy skin. ;)
Also, I would say that Tubak is very much appropriate as enemy of Morphail, if you take for granted (as WotI does) that Tubak is another of Ixion's identities. And since Ixion's the Undead Bane, Prince of Sun and enemy of undeath, then it is absolutely appropriate for his followers to be the fiercest enemies of Boldavian undead.
a GREAT idea Haavard, just two minor nitpicks ;)
Also, I would say that Tubak is very much appropriate as enemy of Morphail, if you take for granted (as WotI does) that Tubak is another of Ixion's identities. And since Ixion's the Undead Bane, Prince of Sun and enemy of undeath, then it is absolutely appropriate for his followers to be the fiercest enemies of Boldavian undead.
If I'd known that Håvard would get blamed for my comments, I would've made much more controversial one :D
I agree that it makes sense for Ixion to oppose Morphail. My concern is entirely from a storytelling point of view. I think it's safe to say that Boldavia is at least a loose parallel to the mythologized Transylvania of Earth. In my hazy recollections of my never-extensive knowledge of Dracula stories, I seem to recall (imagine?) that Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican clergy are at least somewhat active in opposing The Count. Imposing this view on Boldavia would mean that a more Western-style religion would be opposed to Morphail, whereas Tubak seems a very Ethengar interpretation of Ixion. Admittedly, this is a very far stretch on which to base any sorts of conclusions ;)
The idea that Chardastes is Traldar has some neat implications, but what would that say about Traldar's view of the Church of Karameikos? (assuming that Chardastes is still connected with that religion) Does the church have a direction that aligns (knowingly or not) with Traldar's purposes (protection of his people) more than the current Church of Traladara? Interesting stuff.
We might have a great backstory here for the religious war "adventure" described in GAZ1.
I like this idea (as well as any idea that deals with the Seer and Traladara in general), but I'm not familiar with the second silver palace. Was this developed in another thread or on the MML somewhere?
This originates from the two versions of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. The most common version (green cover) places the Silver Palace in Haven, in Karameikos.
The first version (orange cover) however, placed the Palace in Gulluvia, a realm found on top of the Adhri Varma Plateau. The module can be downloaded for free over at the dowloads at wizards'.
What I wrote above was an attempt to reconcile these two modules, enabling us to use material from both of them instead of using just one and discarding the other.
The idea that Chardastes is Traldar has some neat implications, but what would that say about Traldar's view of the Church of Karameikos? (assuming that Chardastes is still connected with that religion) Does the church have a direction that aligns (knowingly or not) with Traldar's purposes (protection of his people) more than the current Church of Traladara? Interesting stuff.
I'm still undecided to what I think about all this, but I like experimenting with this idea. It has now lead me to the idea that there is some conflict betwen Traldar and Halav about who is better to represent the Traldar people. This has meant that Traldar supports the Church of Karameikos, hoping that it will be the champion of both Traladarans and Thyatian Karameikans.
We might have a great backstory here for the religious war "adventure" described in GAZ1.
If people like Alfric Oderbury are able to take control over the church, and wage a war on the Church of Traladara, it will most likely increase the polarization of Karameikan society between those of Traladaran and Thyatian ancestry. This will force Chardastes/Traldar into a tough spot since he wouldnt want to end up opposing the Traldarans and he will have lost. His hope would be that King Stefan is able to avoid such conflicts and work as a unifying leader, as is his ambition. Halav also seems to support this idea, knowing that the alternative is going back to Thyatian Rule, but he doesn't share Traldar and King Stefan's idea of the Church of Karameikos being the only church of the land, at least as long as the Traldaran Three are banned from it.
What do you think?
Håvard