Template:Breadcrumb Shards > Acrolon > Oscillia > Bleakridge

Overview

Bleakridge (Enchiridian, Nortongue Hvammi \hɪˈvɔmi\ meaning tall bluff, Ningtongue Okashapu \oˈkɑʃəpu\ meaning sharp hills) is named for being one of the highest elevations in Oscillia, as well as being among the most riddled with mass graves and ancient battlefields from Sindra's March. Lore about Bleakridge is relatively rare and incomplete, largely because it has not been explored to any significant degree in centuries. Bleakridge is considered a frontier region, not fully claimed by any power of government.

History

Shattered Age

In the early Shattered Age, the wilderness of Bleakridge was originally settled by the cultural Nor Human explorers from Tjorhof (modern Malocia. They traveled down the Wyldwash river and named the expanse of steep hills Hvammi. They settled it sparsely on their way south to the Jeweled Sea. While the steep and rugged hills of Hvammi proved difficult to settle, there were a few river valleys and lake valleys where Nor settlements could thrive between IR 110 and IR 230.

In IR 234, the first Queen of Langhaugr, Tabitha Irontooth, was coronated, and Hvammi was part of her queendom. While Hvamm remained one of the lesser populated regions of Langhaugr , the coastal region prospered through illicit trade with the penal colonies of Bannor (now Mercatia).

Much later in the Shattered Age, in IR 563, at the beginning of the Realm War in Tjorhof, the contemporaneous king of Langhaugr built a series of military forts throughout Hvammi, as a line of defense against the eastern invasion of Barigor. Most of these fortifications fell to the Barigor armies, and Langhaugr became the second kingdom of Acrolon to fall to the Barigor, after Tjorhof.

Hvammi was liberated from the Barigor, along with the rest of Langhaugr, when the Barigor retreated from Acrolon in IR 595. Though many Orcs remained behind, detached from the hasty and disorganized retreat. These Orcs settled in remote areas, far from Nor civilization which would still consider them enemies for centuries to come. One such location was Hvammi, which the Orcs named Okashapu in IR 640. Eventually hostilities toward the Orcs died down, and many even immigrated to the Pirate Isles to the south.

The Orcs remained the primary inhabitants of Okashapu until the late Shattered Age, in IR 1269, when the undead armies of Sindra began their conquest of Acrolon. The Orcs put up their best defense, using every advantage of their homeland's treacherous terrain. But ultimately Sindra's Army wiped the Orcs out and rose them to replenish the ranks of her undead army, continuing Sindra's March.

Okashapu spent the rest of the Shattered Age in this pitiful, war-torn state: depopulated, desperate bands of refugees huddled together, trying to survive the roaming bands of scattered undead leftover from the war. Starting in IR 1275 the region became known as Oscillia, no longer a kingdom, and the area of Okashapu was nameless, nearly lost to history.

Dark Age

Once The Long Night had settled in for a generation, the pitiful refugees became bloodthirsty warlord tribes and bandit kings. Not long after, in the year IR 1366, a rather insidious noble matriarch named Euphemia of House Gashi was compelled to travel to Oscillia in a twisted desire to help the war-torn people who still lived there. Corrupted thoroughly by the warped sense of love found in the ideology of Lascivia, Euphemia felt that it would bring the Empire great honor to rehabilitate the war-torn vagabonds of Oscillia and give succor to the poor refugees who they victimize.

Several such missions were set up in the eastern hilly region once known as Hvammi. The Dark Imperials renamed the region Bukurikotskat (Darktongue \buˈkuɾɚkɪt͡sˌkɑt\ meaning beautiful bones). Like elsewhere in Oscillia, the missions started in a harmless enough fashion. But as with all love and compassion stemming from Lascivian ideals, it went terribly wrong. The Dark Imperials were able to capture all of the warlord tribes and bandit groups. The refugee camps became dens of misery and hopelessness, feeding countless Demons for centuries.

One rather famous rehabilitation camp is now known as Embershore. It is where the hero of the Dawn Age, Ember freed herself to join the heroes that defeated the Dark Empire and Lascivia.

Ilira's Uprising

One rare exception to the Euphemia's Missionaries was a refugee camp on the southern shore of Bukurkotskat named Dashurivala (Darktongue \dɑʃu[r]i\ meaning love's tide). One of the refugees, Ilira, was forced into labor as a smith, creating weapons of war for the Dark Empire. However, she proved to be a Paragon of Craft, though she hid the full extent of her talents from her benefactors. In time she was able to amass enough secret weapons of power that she led an uprising, freeing the camp and founding the town of Ilira's Anvil.

Dawn Age

After The Reckoning of the Dark Empire, most of the worst missionaries in Oscillia and Bukurikotskat fled their refugee camp cities, which were rather poorly defensible. They fled into the hills and caves that riddle Oscillia, and many still hide there in the modern age.

Beginning in IR 2225, Mercatia becan sending trade missions to the southern coasts of what they called Bleakridge in Enchridian. Two successful trade missions became the village of Ilira's Anvil (though the reason for this name was lost to history after the village was depopulated from a fire) and the town of Embershore.

Cosmology

Bleakridge is a relatively typical region of an Integral Shard. Due to the high concentration of death in a short period of time, there are some places where The Mortal Veil is thin, allowing passage to and from Gehenna.

Geography

Bleakridge is approximately 240 miles from north to south and 260 miles from east to west. The terrain is dominated by densely packed, rough hills that increase in elevation to the east, creating a bluff above the Wyldwash river valley that separates Oscillia from Viridia to the east.

South of Bleakridge is the Jeweled Sea, which contains the archipelago nation of Mercatia. North of Bleakridge is the southeast corner of Stonewall mountain ranges. West of Bleakridge are two more regions of Oscillia: Crimson Hills in the north and Thornholt in the south.

In addition to dense hills, Bleakridge is spotted with small river valleys that lead into lakes. There are light woods through most of the hills, becoming more dense in the southwest, where the Bonewood Forest can be found.

Inhabitants

There are only two benevolent settlements in Bleakridge, both trade missions from Mercatia. Both of these settlements are located along the southern shores of the Jeweled Sea. The smaller village is Ilira's Anvil to the east. The larger is the town of Embershore, hometown of the famed hero-turned-Exarch Ember, The Burning Shield.

There are many other inhabitants outside of civilization. These include:

Raider tribes descended from the Dark Age survivors of ancient wars and the Dark Empire.
Peaceful nomadic tribes that broke off from raider tribes.
Pockets of Demon cults who broke apart from the Dark Empire after it fell.
Pockets of Dark Imperials in hiding from Concordia.
A group of Reintegrated Cakelings have settled in shallow around one of the mid-region lakes.