Gazetteer for the Kingdom Dawnrim

Description

Dawnrim is a flat land, dominated by of plains and steppes with only a few spots of woods. The southern part of the kingdom slopes up to the mountains of the Surshield Wall. The plains are full of cows, with quite a number of horses. Especially the Dawnrim Steppe and the foothills of the Surshield Wall is the breeding grounds for horses. In the hilly and mountainous regions at the borders to Surshield and Lagrius many sheep can be found. The waters of the Street and Bay of Alinquin are not very rich of fishes, so fishing is poor.

History

One of the most unknown and neglected kingdoms of the Alphatian Empire is the kingdom Dawnrim in western Bellissaria. It was the last territory to be settled, too. When the rest of Bellissaria was already settled, the region which would become Dawnrim later on was an untamed wilderness.

Finally this wilderness found the interest of Lagrian ranchers from the plains to the west of Marbleton. The king of Lagrius had made new laws to restrict the power and expansion of the ranchers as they had ruled themselves more or less on their own. They had acquired their rights when they had helped the kingdom in a very critical phase of its existence. After some centuries this now came to an end. The ranchers were not too satisfied with that and decided to go. The endless plains in the west were their destination.

1478, the ranchers from Lagrius, now called the rancher barons, founded the Council of Dawnrim, and divided the land among them. The ranches were of a tremendous size. As the plains of Dawnrim were destined to be breeding grounds for cows, sheep and horses, the numbers of inhabitants were low from the beginning. Only the rancher barons and their cowboys and house servants inhabited the region. Probably in these early years the population never exceed 6,000.

Twenty years later the Grand Council noticed that there was a kingdom without a king. They came to an decision to tolerate it no longer, and a special emissary as head of a delegation was sent to Dawnrim to negotiate the matter. The rancher barons were not too hostile as a war against Imperial troops would have been bad for business. On the other hand they were not willing to accept a stranger as their king. So the negotiations lasted for three years. Finally the head of the Council of Dawnrim was appointed king of Dawnrim, and both sides were satisfied.

The rancher barons had not been interested in founding cities, but the Bellissarian Sea Traders, a union of independent merchantmen, had founded three ports along the coast of Dawnrim to commit trade around Bellissaria and to the Isle of Dawn. Some cattle were shipped via these ports, too. The middle of these ports, Alinquin, was now made capital of Dawnrim. The inner regions of Dawnrim were left mostly unsettled by royal decree.

This remained for the next centuries and Dawnrim remained a sparsely populated country. Unfortunately the abilities of the rancher barons decreased dramatically in this time. After an inept rancher came one of his even more inept sons. The ranchers were more interested to make a good life than to breed good cattle which was the base of their wealth in the first place. Of course they became poor over the centuries. In the beginning 20^th century Dawnrim was a very poor country. The men and women who still knows how to breed cattle were under-privileged and poor persons who had to fulfil the absurd orders of their masters. The ports of Dawnrim, Alinquin, Bridgeport and Coppertown maintained a little wealth, but they never became too important in the imperial economy.

One interesting note must be told: All those rancher barons had not the faintest talent for casting magical spells. Even the number of clerics among them was very low. Over the centuries some real Alphatian nobles settled in Dawnrim, but they decided to stay for themselves or had to work for the ranchers. Unfortunately for them the wages was very low, so they had the choice between staying poor or leaving the country. Only an incredible low number of spellcasters made their fortunes in Dawnrim, most of them as seafarers and merchantmen in the three ports. Some nobles even had to work as simple cowboys for the rich and mighty rancher barons. Even the decline of the ranchers does not help, as it meant likewise a slow decline of Dawnrim's economy.

This started to change when Jamuga Khan came. He draw those good, but poor men and women into his ranks and formed a horde of nomadic herders like the hordes from the plains of Ethengar. The cowboys were already adapted to such a kind of life as their tasks had led them constantly over the vast ranches of their masters. In the case of those unlucky spellcasters working as cowboys for the ranchers this meant that they had committed experiments about casting spells from horseback, but they were still far away from being perfect. Jamuga Khan taught them the lessons he had learned from the hakomons on the plains of Ethengar. So he was able to form a functioning and even effective horde in a surprisingly short time. Jamuga Khan and his followers could make much money by selling their cattle to the other Bellissarian kingdoms and to the mainland.

This did a great benefit to the economy of the kingdom. The knowledge of the poor Dawnrimians proved very useful now and the herds of Jamuga Khan's horde increased rapidly. They could sell their cattle for good prices, and the wealth of Dawnrim grew.

Unfortunately the rancher barons saw their influence dwindling. Many of them had to give up their generations old ranches only to see the horde using it then. They petitioned the king again and again to exile Jamuga Khan and his horde. As the neighbour Lagrius also pressed on that matter the king finally threw the horde out. This decision was suicidal. The deportation of Jamuga Khan in AY 1947 was the final stroke for the kingdom and brought economical havoc. More rancher barons than before had to give up their ranches. Most spellcasters had left Dawnrim with the khan, so that the kingdom is nowadays even poorer in magic like Darokin or Karameikos.

Ten years the people of Dawnrim starved. The leader of the remaining horde, Dasadas Khan and Ari-Ki Orkhan, did what they could to help the people, but the royal restrictions limited them. When the horde was legalised again in AY 1957 many inhabitants of Dawnrim joined their ranks. Of course, Dawnrim's economy is very poor in the eyes of inhabitants of more "civilised" kingdoms as nomadic herders need much more land as people living in cities and villages, but in AY 2000 it was stable enough to care for all its people.

The era of the rancher barons of Dawnrim seemed to be nearly over, but some young and even capable ranchers maintain some ranches throughout the kingdoms which they are leading on the more traditional way. Some readjustments had to be made though. The surviving rancher families have founded a co-operative to work together. In the past this were absolutely unthinkable. Additionally the cowboys traditionally were servants or freemen. As most free cowboys had joined the horde the rancher co-operative must use slaves now which have the most interesting effects. A slave constantly being on missions which lead him away from his master for days is a totally other type of slave as one kept in a household.

Whether the renaissance of the rancher barons will be successful or not, is kept hidden by the mists of future. At least we can say now that the once mighty rancher barons still exist but the Dawnrim Horde is the more successful model right now. Anyhow, the near future of the Bellissarian kingdom Dawnrim will still depend on the vast plains and the various cattle living on them.

Special Magic of Dawnrim

No such magic is known. Nobles from other Alphatian kingdoms are even mocking that there must be an anti-magical zone in Dawnrim.

Relationship to other kingdoms

The relations to the neighbours are very uncomplicated. Nobody is interested in Dawnrim itself, but everybody wants to buy meat. So Dawnrim delivered (and delivers again) meat to the rest of Bellissaria, the Alatians, Thothia, Seashield and before sinking to the southern kingdoms of the mainland. Until Zandor and his army landed Dawnrim never had fought a war.

The Cities

Alinquin: The capital of the Dawnrim is the greatest town of the kingdom, but with no more than 5000 inhabitants it is not exactly an megalopolis. Besides the port and the royal palace there's nothing special to see, but even those are not very important. The story about its' name is another matter. Alinquin was the name of the Alphatian captain who made the first explorations to Bellissaria in the early 2^nd century. The Strait of Alinquin and the Bay of Alinquin are named after his courageous seafarer. The hardball team, the Alinquin Seadevils, was a real champion team in the past but is now only dreaming about gone glory.

Bridgeport: A town of 1500, most of them travellers. The rancher co-operative had made the headquarter here as most ranches are located in the northern parts of Dawnrim.

Coppertown: 2000 inhabitants are doing their business here. Most meat for Surshield is shipped via Coppertown harbour, so the merchant families of this city could made a small fortune in the past. They finance a well-known hardball team, the Coppertown Redskins, which rivals the best ones of the New Alphatian Confederated Empire. The name comes from some small copper mines in the Surshield Wall. Unfortunately they never were very rich and are nearly depleted for over a century.

The Dawnrim Pony Express

As Dawnrim never was a kingdom rich of magic a fast and reliable way of communication was needed. This led to the foundation of the famous riders from the Dawnrim Pony Express (DPE) by some younger ranchers' sons in AY 1528. The fearless men and women of the express rode from ranch to ranch to deliver the messages. When properly paid they even ventured to such distant places like Marbleton, Lago Springs and Blueside. The farthest recorded voyage was to Alchemos on the east coast of Bellissaria for an urgent needed medicine.

Besides such special missions and a somewhat irregularly postal service between the ranches, the DPE maintained regularly service between the three cities of Dawnrim and Marbleton in Lagrius.

During the Great Dawnrim Depression 1947-1957 the DPE nearly collapsed. It was the idea of Ari-Ki Orkhan to buy the ruined express and run it under the jurisdiction of the horde. In the first decade it was no more than an excuse to travel through the country as the horde Jamuga Khan has introduced was illegal. After 1957 the service was reorganised. Using old Ethengarian tactics the velocity was dramatically increased through the usage of post stations, fresh horses and experience riders.

The Dawnrim Horde

No gazetteer for Dawnrim could be complete without some more words about the horde. Founded 1927 by Jamuga Khan, the horde resembles to the nomadic herders from the "Sea of Grass", the Ethengars from Brun. There are some differences though. Jamuga Khan was a Alphatian wizard from Lagrius who went to Ethengar in his youth. There he learned much about most parts of the Ethengarian life. When he returned to Bellissaria he founded his own horde. He used some Ethengarian customs, but he neglected other. For instance, he did not used Ethengarian hair-styles or diet. Likewise the Dawnrim Horde does not have shamans as Jamuga Khan was not able to grasp this concept. What he used were the riding abilities he had learned, and he was able to teach his warriors how to fire bows from horseback. He even managed it to tell bowyers to make Ethengarian composite bows.

All those components, Ethengarian riding and fighting abilities together with Alphatian magic and other abilities, make the Dawnrim horde a force to be reckoned with. As many of the members of the horde were skilled but underprivileged cowboys in the service of the rancher barons the horde has much knowledge about breeding cows and horses. Together with the nomadic life which usually has proven good for the health of the animals the horde was able to sell the surpluses to other Alphatian kingdoms. During the war the horde was dramatically weakened as the troops were on Brun and the Isle of Dawn for years, but even this critical years the horde survived without too many damages.

Some prominent inhabitants of Foresthome

King Teskilion

Teskilion is an unusual king as he rules an Bellissarian kingdom without being an spellcaster. Even for Dawnrim this is not the accepted standard, but in this magic-poor country sometimes no spellcaster could be found to become king. Crowned AY 1997, he is fairly new. Fortunately the economy of the kingdom is increasing since his grandfather legalised the Dawnrim Horde in 1957. This of course makes his reign much simpler. In his youth his father has even sent him to the horde for three years to become familiar with the lifestyle of the horde. Siaron Lagrius, queen of Lagrius, is a cousin of him. Her mother, Siaron of Dawnrim, were rescued by the horde in 1957 when travelling to her husband, the king of Lagrius.

Princess Falmira

The marriage between Teskilion and Falmira is a typical political one as she is the daughter of king Lodrig II. of Notrion. There is no love between them. The princess spent most of her time to waste the few money Teskilion earns as king of Dawnrim.

Diemer of Bridgeport

Diemer is the head of the ranchers' co-operative. He does his very best to keep the remnants of the rancher barons intact.

Lord Gauk of Coppertown

Gauk is one of the few Dawnrimian wizards. He maintains a tower in the Surshield Wall to the east of Coppertown. He is the owner of the copper mines too but he does not make too much money with them.

Coach Xaran of Coppertown

Xaran is one of the most prominent inhabitants of Dawnrim as he was a famous hardball player. 2004 he finished his career as a player and became the coach of the Redskins.

Coach Zund of Alinquin

Zund once played with Xaran in the team of the Coppertown Redskins. He was not so famous as Xaran, and after his active career he became the coach of the Alinquin Seadevils but was never able to rival the Redskins.

Dasadas Khan

Dasadas Khan is another of the few Dawnrimian wizards. Since 1947 he is the leader of the Dawnrim Horde, and he reached the nowadays status. During the war and some years after he fought against Thyatis and returned after the foundation of the New Alphatian Empire.

Ari-Ki Orkhan

The sister of Dasadas was a cleric of Valerias for many years. She was the general of the horde, too. According to Ethengarian customs she is called Orkhan. 1989 she became a druid. Rumours said that all Mystaran druids were shocked about a druid on a steppe. Rumours also said that Valerias never made a druid before but if I have understood it right, this charming immortal is very impulsive and does not care very much about the opinions of the other immortals. Perhaps a discussion with Valerias would be absolutely futile.

Captain-Knight Toronas

Captain Toronas from the Order of the Lakes commands the small Coast Guard flotilla Dawnrim can pay. Smuggler sometimes try to enter Bellissaria via Dawnrim as the coast are not well guarded. On the other hand no smuggler has tried it a second time yet. Dawnrim is not a rich market, and the overland transport to Notrion or Lagrius is really not worth the costs or the trouble. Nevertheless Toronas does his very best to do his work. When not aboard his ship he can be found in Alinquin.

Ylor of Coppertown

Ylor is the head of the small merchant's guild of Coppertown. He is perhaps the most powerful man of the city and the owner of the Redskins.