The Giantdowns

 

For our return campaign to Birthright and the lands of Cerilia, we’re going to start the adventures in the Giantdowns.  The Downs are perfect because there’s not an established kingdom there, giving a non-regent character the opportunity to build a kingdom from the ground up.  It’s also an old land with a lot of history that is detailed in the 1997 supplement King of the Giantdowns.

The Giantdowns are located in the Northern Marches of western Cerilia which is the main continent for the setting.  The Northern Marches is a somewhat wild area that serves as a buffer between three of the four human cultures.  In this buffer area, there are several small baronies and kingdoms and that includes non-human kingdoms like Thurazor (Goblin), Tuarhieval (Elf), Mur-Kilad (Dwarf). 

The Downs themselves are an uncivilized and settled region claimed by no one but still home to both human and non-human inhabitants.  Humans, Dwarves, Oroks, Goblins, and others all survive here.  The Rjurik made the region home when they landed on the shores of Cerilia almost 2000 years ago and pushed inland.  They live there still eking out an existance in the small family farmsteads of traditional Rjurik life.  Rumors say the Dwarves make the Silverhead mountains home, but no one knows for sure.  The non-human tribes roam the full length of the downs raiding human farmsteads and each other.

The living inhabitants of the Giantdowns aren’t the only inhabitants.  The Downs themselves get their name from row upon row of low evenly spaced hills.  Adventures and grave-robbers have found tombs and treasures in those hills.  They’ve also reported seeing ancient dead walking about – meaning the living are not the only ones to call the Downs home.