Location: Endworld Spine, secluded valley somewhere in the Spine.
Area: 638 km sq
Population: 1,500 duckmen.
Languages: Scottish (Klantyre dialect)
Coinage: Pound (1 pound = 12 sp)
Government Type: Dictatorship
Industries: Mining, agriculture (wheat, potatoes), farming (sheep)
Important Figures: the Khan of Auropolis
Description: Auropolis is the home of the duckmen. Duckmen are 2 1/2 feet tall
humanoid ducks, whose wings have changed into arms. They are feathered but
unable to fly. Duckmen were created a lot of time ago, on a distant dimension by
Duncan McGregor, an ancestor of Brannart McGregor. The duckmen proved an
interesting race: while some were useful as servitors, other were able to learn
spellcasting, and in general they seemed a very creative race, although stubborn
and greedy. But when the McGregors turned to necromancy, some duckmen were used
for experiments, while others, using their magical abilities, left hoping to
find a new place to live. The McGregor's world was no place for them: the fear
for magic had always kept their existence limited to McGregor's family estates,
and thus they used plane-shifting abilities and left for another reality,
reaching Mystara. The duckmen arrived in a valley of the Endworld Spine in 433
AC. A former volcanic zone, and still an active thermal zone, the valley, called
Auropolis by their leader Gerald Conway, was warm, and had a temperate climate.
Winters are cold, due to the abundant snow, but springs are mild, and summers
warm. The valley was perfect: secluded, isolated, where agriculture and farming
could have been possible...if they had anything to start with. Several duckmen
left for the outer world, hoping to find things to start with. They stole cattle
and plants in the Zuyevo and Klagorst regions, mostly undetected by humans and
humanoids, and created their own little paradise under Conway's guidance. The
life of duckmen went on peacefully. Sometimes, a duckman left to roam the outer
world, but for the most they remained in the valley studying strange and
particular fields of magic, and working in their farms. Gold and diamond mines
are also present in Auropolis.
The situation changed somewhat in 998 AC, when a duckman returning from Ethengar
proclaimed himself Khan, and killed the third King of Auropolis, McNamara. A
group of his followers left Auropolis, while the Khan, whose name is not known,
has imposed his rule on the valley. He is imposing very high taxes, and not
paying them results in harsh punishment. Since 1006, the Khan has begun to
change jail and slave labour into missions outside Auropolis to find treasures
in the outside world, but this is very dangerous, and could soon turn into human
and humanoid interest in a valley who has never been visited before...