Explorer’sExplorer’s GuideGuide Credits Designer: Jeff Grubb and Aaron Allston ◊ Editor: Thomas M. Reid ◊ Project Manager: Andria Hayday Box Cover Artist: Paul Jaquays ◊ Interior Artists: Daniel Frazier, Eric Hotz, John and Laura Lakey, Walter Valez Graphics Coordinator: Sarah Feggestad ◊ Art Coordinator: Peggy Cooper Electronic Prepress Coordinator: Tim Coumbe ◊ Typography: Angelika Lokotz Cartography: John Knecht and Robin Raab Page Design: Dee Barnett ◊ Border Graphics: Randy Asplund-Faith ◊ Illuminated Letters: Robin Wood Proofreading: Roger Moore, Jon Pickens, Sue Weinlein, Janis Wells, and David Wise TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. P.O. Box 756 120 Church End Lake Geneva Cherry Hinton WI 53147 Cambridge, CB1 3LB U.S.A. United Kingdom 2500 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, AD&D, and Dungeon Master are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Mystara, First Quest, Karameikos, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. 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Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material contained herein is prohibited without the express written consent of TSR, Inc. 2 Table of Contents Chapter I: Overview ..................... 4 Verge ........................................................ 49 Appendices .............................. 112 The Lay of the Land ................................ 5 Vorloi ....................................................... 49 Creating Karameikan Characters ....... 112 The Hand of Man .................................. 10 Vandevicsny ............................................ 49 Backgrounds: Human .......................... 112 Using the Maps ....................................... 12 Elves ...................................................... 115 Chapter V: Personalities .............50 Dwarves and Gnomes ......................... 116 Chapter II: History .....................16 The Royal Family of Karameikos ........ 51 Halflings ................................................ 117 Karameikos at the Dawn of Time ....... 16 The Court Major: Kits and Proficiencies .......................... 117 The Dark Age ......................................... 17 The Ministers ...................................... 62 The Karameikan Calendar .................. 124 The Thyatian Invasion .......................... 18 The Clergy ............................................... 66 Encounter Tables ................................. 126 Stefan Karameikos ................................. 18 Mirros ...................................................... 72 Recent History ........................................ 20 Beyond the Walls of Mirros .................. 79 Sidebars Ambassador’s Row ................................ 92 What a Campaign Setting Does ............. 7 Chapter III: Society ....................22 The Song of Halav ................................. 17 Classes of Society and Noble Titles .....27 Chapter VI: Devices, Clan Markings, Matters of Faith ...................................... 33 Beyond the Borders .............. 100 and Coats of Arms ............................. 29 A Society of Rogues ............................... 35 Aengmor ............................................... 100 The Shearing Ceremony ........................ 30 Atruaghin .............................................. 101 Formal Clerical Dress ............................ 33 Chapter IV: The Broken Lands ............................... 102 The King’s Law ...................................... 41 Cities and Towns ....................38 Darokin ................................................. 102 What the Numbers Mean ..................... 51 Mirros ...................................................... 38 Ethengar ................................................ 103 Time Line of Karameikos ..................... 56 Threshold ................................................ 44 The Five Shires ..................................... 103 The Black Eagle Barony ........................ 61 Dmitrov ................................................... 46 Glantri .................................................... 104 The Order of the Griffon ..................... 68 Fort Doom .............................................. 47 The Heldannic Territories ................... 104 Calling Out the Guard ........................... 72 Highforge ................................................ 47 Ierendi .................................................... 105 The Legend of Koriszegy Keep ...........85 Kelvin ...................................................... 47 Minrothad ............................................. 105 Fealty ........................................................ 98 Krakatos .................................................. 47 Ostland, Vestland, It’s Money that Matters ....................... 103 Luln .......................................................... 48 and the Soderfjords .......................... 108 The Hutaakans ..................................... 109 Marilenev ................................................. 48 Rockhome ............................................. 108 Trials and Errors .................................. 110 Penhaligon .............................................. 48 Sind ........................................................ 109 Where Adventurers Fit In ................... 113 Rifllian ..................................................... 48 Thyatis ................................................... 109 The Nature of the Immortals .............115 Rugalov .................................................... 48 Wendar .................................................. 110 Dragons ................................................. 123 Sulescu ..................................................... 49 Ylaruam ................................................. 110 The Karameikan Calendar .................. 124 This watercolor shows a view of the town of Threshold from itself at dusk. The skyline is dominated by the bell tower of the northern tip of Fogor Isle, looking south into the city the town hall. 3 Chapter I: Overview Karameikos, a very young kingdom in a very old land, lies on the southern coast of the continent of Brun on the planet Mystara, in a region its inhabi- tants call the Known World. As kingdoms go, it is a small one. A rider on a fast horse can travel from Karameikos’s capital, Mirros, to its westernmost settlement at Fort Doom in a day, to its easternmost village of Ru- galov in a day and a half, and to King’s Road Keep in the Altan Tepes Mountains to the north in two days. Yet within its bounda- ries any group of enthusiastic he- roes can find enough adventure, ountains danger, treachery, and excite- ment to satisfy them. to the In many ways Karameikos still exists as a frontier nation cut out north, of an ancient wilderness. Unin- habited forest covers a great ma- jority of the kingdom – uninhab- sea to ited, that is, by humans. A popu- lation of elves, humanoids, and the south, and eve- monstrous creatures thrive within its borders. Further, these rything else built on a wildlands cover the ruins of an- cient kingdoms and buried cities, woody slope between the lairs of fell beasts. Humans have always lived in the land now called Karameikos. the two. The earliest known people, the Traldar, were a traditional, rural folk. (Evidence exists indicating —Joshuan Gallidox, the presence of an even more an- cient civilization, now lost, of halfling adventurer, people who called themselves the Nithians. However, few present- day folk are aware of the on the nature Nithians, so the history texts do not include them.) The descen- of dants of the Traldar, the Tralada- rans, were conquered over 100 Karameikos years ago by their neighbor, the empire of Thyatis. Karameikos has had but a sin- gle ruler, King Stefan I. Stefan was originally the Grand Duke of Karameikos, ruling in the name of the Thyatian Emperor. Stefan I declared Karameikos an inde- pendent state seven years ago. He seeks to unite the native Traladarans and now-exiled Thyatians into a single unified nation, taking the best of both groups to forge one identity for all. Traditionalists in both camps resist him, which often makes the Royal Court of Karameikos as dangerous as the wildlands. Mirros, the capital of the nation, is the sole major community in Karameikos and houses the royal court. This vibrant, new city strains at the seams with refugees from other war-torn regions. It is also the home of competing thieves’ guilds, secret plots, and hidden dangers. The most civilized star in the Karameikan crown can be as deadly to the unwary as the smallest village crouched in the shadow of quency of their landslides. In central Karameikos, marauding orcs. basalt is more common, and the mountains here are This, then, is Karameikos – a dark, forested king- called the Black Peaks, so named for their ebony dom on the frontier; a nation torn by its own ori- promontories. In eastern Karameikos, the range joins gins; a country built upon the ruins of lost empires, the much larger Altan Tepes Mountains and has the a land of secrets, danger, and treachery