Gathering Storm: A view of the March of Umbria across the Dawn Way.
Our adventures begin in the thinly populated frontier lands of the Umbrian Marches and the surrounding wilderness. The Marches stretch almost 250 miles from the Spine of the World in the east (off the map) to the Shaelastran River in the west; and averages about 70 miles from the Bleak Hills in the north to the Stonecrown Mountains in the south. Summers in the Marches are hot and dry (although punctuated by occasional intense thunderstorms), and winters are short and relatively mild.
In general, the 'clear' areas of the map (those which are not marked with a terrain type) consist of a mix of grasslands, rolling hills, light woods and bushland. As one nears the vicinity of settlements the terrain becomes gradually tamer: scattered homesteads and farmhouses lie amid broad fields, with the occasional hillock or copse of woodland. The closer one gets to a settlement, the closer together the outlying farms and homesteads.
The scattered towns and villages of the area grew up along the Dawn Way, an important east-west trading route linking the more densely settled heartlands of the Old Kingdom of Yvony (West of the Shaelastran River) with rich mining settlements dotting the Spine of the World such as the great mountain city of Overlook (not pictured on the map).
Indeed, much of the Dawn Way is thought to have been built long before the oldest human settlements of the Umbrian Marches by an ancient dwarf-kingdom. The dwarf-kingdom is long gone, seemingly vanished long before the oldest human histories begin, but dwarven stonecraft endures and the kingdom’s roads, bridges, and cisterns remain in use to this day. After the dwarf-realm passed the presence of various monsters and raiders kept traffic along the Dawn Way light for many years; the dwarves withdrew into secret holds in the mountains and few caravans dared the long and dangerous trek.
Precious little is known of this period of history. Sages speculate that the Duann, humans of the Old Faith, must have peopled the Umbria at this time, though how many and for how long is uncertain. They have left little physical traces save than grassy barrows and stone circles on the hilltops but their legacy endures in obscure local harvest rituals of the rural folk and the secretive druidic order which is still accorded respect despite the arrival of new gods.
Sometimes a ploughman overturns an artifact, adventurers stumble across a ruin, or ancient songs make references which hint at the presence of other lost kingdoms and civilizations, neither dwarven nor Duann, in the Vale. Sages would dearly love to be able to identify these lost peoples and place them in the Marches’ history, but such answers remain elusive. Perhaps further clues lie buried, awaiting bold discoverers.
The more recent and better-known history of Umbria, indeed the history of the ancestors of today's Vale folk, is tied to that of the rise and expansion of the human kingdom of Yvony to the west. Once the warlike early kings and queens of Yvony had claimed, conquered and settled the central lands of the Thalamar Valley their youngest, bravest and most ambitious subjects pressed even further afield, seeking their own domains, riches and destinies in the untamed lands beyond the reach of the Lion Throne.
The fertile plains around the river Umbra were one such land, sparsely settled, infested with monsters but ripe with opportunity. It was not long before adventurers, young nobles, settlers and traders from Yvony and beyond began tentatively establishing settlements along the river, doggedly enduring a precarious existence amid the predations of orcs, giants, and worse for the mineral wealth of the mountains, the fertile plains of the valley basin and the magic and treasures of long vanished civilizations.
Eventually the strongest of these disparate petty nobles and warlords, with the support of Yvonnian knights and coin, drove the orcs, giant-kin and goblinoids from the valley. In return for swearing fealty to the throne of Yvony and a hefty annual tribute he was titled Margrave of Umbria and Defender of the Eastern Gate, a seat on the Council of Tyraleen and the legitimacy of the Yvonnian Crown.
Soldiers of the newly formed March secured the Old Dwarf Road, creating a safe passage for trade between Yvony in the west and Overlook to the east. More and more caravans traveled the Dawn Way, and the March grew wealthy on the tariffs levied on passing merchants. The towns which still dot the Dawn Way – Girdalen, Neys, Easting and the rest – grew from tiny hamlets and petty baronies to flourishing settlements. Over the years, as the martial vigour of Yvony's monarchs declined, their subjects became increasingly insular and the Old Kingdom began its long slumber, the lords and merchant houses of the Umbrian Marches became autonomous of the Lion Throne in all but name.
When the line of the last Margrave failed, the remaining settlements of the Marches came to largely look after themselves. Many of the local rulers still hold titles which they claim are derived from the Margravate (or even older, near-mythical kingdoms), and the land is dotted with ruins and the shells of burned out keeps, but no new unified realm has arisen in the Marches. Indeed, Umbria is once again in many ways a frontier land of scattered settlements surrounded by untamed wilderness and marauding monsters. Once again, the fate of Umbrian Marches will surely be shaped by adventurers.
