Bjondrig

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Dhoesone » Bjondrig

Arms of Bjondrig

Description

Bjondrig is a province of coastal lowlands, often too wet for good farming as the soil is easily inundated, and the rains are quite heavy. As a result, most of the people make a living from fishing the coastal waters, which are abundant with many species of fish.

Local politics

The most important person in administration of affairs in Bjondrig is Myghal Dasaroeve, the guild master of Bjondrig for the Stjordvik Traders. He supervises the construction of boats, the fishing trade, and the salting and sale of fish to Riveside. He appoints judges and sherrifs in the province, and it is his seal that is placed on the laws made here. The people seem content to serve the guilds more than any other group, including the temples.

The Coast of Bjondrig

Faith

The Oaken Grove of Erik has the influence here, but mostly through connection to the count, Thjobald Bjondrig and a few influential subjects of the land, not by the people's devotion to Erik. Indeed two other temples exist here, though none has any pretense to power.

The faith of Nesirie is strong among the fishermen, but the priestess here follows the lead of James Ardannt, of Haelyn's Bastion of Truth, and she wishes no conflict with the druids of the Oaken Grove. The worship of Sera is dominant in the offices of the guildhalls, but Larra Nielems has not yet tried to use the strength of the guilds to boost the role for her temples here. She is aware of the weakness of the Grove and the natural role the Northern Reformed Church of Sarimie could play here, but is retrained by several factors. First, her priorities lay elsewhere as the conflict with the elves heats up. Second, the province is small in size, and capturing it would be a small victory. Third, and it is unknown how this figures into her calculations, but displacing the worship of Erik in a province right next to Ustkjuvil where the Oaken Grove of Stjordvik is headquartered may give her pause. Many mighty druids are based there, and it is possible that Larra regards this as a sleeping dog best left sleeping, at least until she is ready to push for a serious offensive into Stjordvik. This is unlikely as long as her ally, Mheallie Bireon, of the Northlands Exchange, and Storm Holtson are at war.

Local history

Bjondrig should by most reckonings be a populous province and indeed was until just a handful of years ago. Then a ship of strange design washed ashore in the spring storms. The sole surviving occupant was taken in by the villagers of Ulcombe, and swiftly sent to the main town of Todpier where it was thought that the priests might cure the man’s strange illness. It is said that by the time the fishermen returned to Ulcombe half the village was already dead of what became known as the shivering plague.

When news of the plague reached Sonnelind baroness Fhiele imposed a strict quarantine; however the plague continued to spread inland to other villages along the coast. Faced with an epidemic spread by folk fleeing the plague Fhiele made breach of the quarantine punishable by death and had the ships of the infected towns and villages burnt by royal archers aboard the galley called the Grey (later Grim) Gull.

Initially hated for her actions many spoke against Fhiele, claiming that her half-elven ancestry made her consider the villagers’ lives worthless, or that she was unnaturally afraid of illness. When the true devastation of the shivering plague became apparent these doubters were silenced. The plague ran its deadly course before the summer was ended; to the horror of all Anuire it was found that nine tenths of the folk of Bjondrig had died of the plague or the riots that oft accompanied it. Ever since the true horror of the plague became known Fhiele’s brutal quarantine has been lauded as the true measure of a noble across Anuire; ironically within Dhoesone she is still condemned from many sides for it.

Many of the villages emptied by the plague have never been resettled, Todpier, once the county town, is said to be shunned even by the robbers that might be expected to loot such a ruin and it is said that the crew of the Grim Gull felt such guilt for having prevented the villagers from fleeing the plague that they scuttled the galley and drowned in the Tael Firth.

The surviving villages of Bjondrig are found mostly along the banks of the Northbryn upriver, and along the shore to the west. The south-east of the province is utterly deserted and likely to remain so for generations when the memory of the plague finally fades.

Towns

Five Oaks

The village of five oaks was founded by a grove of Druids who are said to have taken the form of great oaks as their years advanced that they might continue to watch over the townsfolk. Local tradition holds that a penitent who kneels before the oaks and asks for a sign of how they might atone for some wrongdoing will receive a vision of how to do so. Although this act is traditionally done by errant husbands it is said that youths seeking glory also ask the spirits of the Grove for wisdom on how it might be won – and in times of trouble receive it.

Five Oaks is noted for its large number of bee hives and accordingly for mead and honey, some of which is said to have great restorative properties. Five Oaks also has a growing trade in furs and the like, for while humans are sparse in the province the game seemingly increases in number every year.

Sites and Features

Todpier

This abandoned town stands at the mouth of the Northbyrn River, just across the river from Hollingholmen. Although the stench of the funeral pyres has long since cleared the town is empty – only a few dozen people live in the town. These folk were offered re-settlement by the baroness after the plague passed but spurned the offer, now they are thought to tend the memories of the dead and seek Erik’s wisdom of why they alone out of so many were spared. The wizard Rufus who once served Clumine Dhoesone and kept the lights of the seatower burning to warn ships of the rocks to the west is thought to have survived – the tower yet burns, though often with a dire red hue – another survivor is believed to be Seriena of Haelyn whose laments can be heard on windless days by passing sailors.

Tamspit

Bjondrig’s modern reputation as cursed is not solely due to the shivering plague. The village of Tamspit was sited on a sandbar until two generations ago and protected by a great stone barrier raised centuries before by the Oaken Grove to form a safe harbor. Ignoring the warnings of the druids the locals harvested the barrier for stone to build their homes and during a terrible winter storm the sandbar was scoured away and the entire village sunk beneath the waves.

During unusually low tides some of the higher buildings poke above sea level and most sailors avoid the area for fear of striking them. Some folk however value the plentiful fish and kelp found in the shallow water disturbing the sunken towns peace despite the rumors of occasional disappearances.

The lost treasure of Hjalsone

When the duke of Boeruine invaded Hjalstone, the jarls and tribes rose against the invaders and a great battle occurred in Bjondrig. Knowing the battle lost it is said that the jarls hid the treasures of the tribes beyond the reach of the Anuireans, swearing to recover them once the invasion was repulsed. Legend says that the jarls were slain by a band of roving knights leaving the treasure lost with only a riddle left by one of the jarls as clue to its location:

Four leagues north of Svalbald’s stand, thrice onwards to the setting sun between the standing tors, twice along the fey roads so green and once down the hole so dark and grim where Kurgrirr lairs about the hope of the free.

Nobility

Thjobald Bjondrig is the count in the province, and his power is weak. Some fourty years ago, Richard Bjondrig succeded to the county of Bjondrig. Richard was offered a pension to surrender his authority to Holt Vigirsson, the guilder of the Stjordvik Traders. His wife, Saehild of Saerskaap, was infuriated by Richard's abandonment of his patrimony, leaving little for their son, Thjobald, but the title. Today, Count Thjobald has had to accomodate himself to the power of the Stjordvik Traders in his province, as the guild today is very strong, and his own power is quite limited.

Clumine Dhoesone holds the sources in Thjobald's realm, and the sorcerer and cousin of the Baroness acts as the most trusted intermediary between the Count and the Baroness. Thjobald trusts Clumine, and regards her arcane power as both significant and employed for the good of Dhoesone. The Count's own impression of Daeric Dhoesone has been influenced by Clumine.