I have put a little bit more thought into how I am going to get a campaign going and have decided to develop my background setting a little.
I've mentioned before that I am not too keen on the whole western Europe during the middle ages type of setting and am going for something a little different.
The result is the Four Realms, a setting I have been developing for Andy of FOUR A MINIATURES. The idea we came up with was for a setting that could be used to incorporate several small companies miniatures ranges into a new and interesting world and I am hoping to get a bit of a campaign going using it as the basis.
The Eastern Realm
At present the action is based in the Eastern Realm where the Dwarves have been driven from their mountain homes by accidentally unleashing the Fallen into the mortal planes. Now they live a nomadic life on the mighty Slate Plains but must face incursions of evil types from the Mountains of Melancholia and raids from the coast living Goblins who have moved into the Debatable Lands.
Andy produces some really nice figures (some of which I will be reviewing at a later date) and I will be using both this blog to cover some of the action but I will also be including all manner of other figures to represent other forces, creatures and characters too.
As time permits I will cover the Western, Northern and Southern Realms too and eventually the Lost Lands as well but want to get the ball rolling by giving a bit of information on the Eastern Realm!
Background
Long ago the ancestors of the Dwarves lived underground in the mountains to the west in a land of subterranean wonder. Their tunnels, halls and mines were one of the wonders of the world but it was all to come to a bloody end. A team of miners digging for Mithril uncovered a mighty cavern deep in the bowels of the mountain. Within this cavern stood a massive stone tablet covered in a text so ancient not even the most aged and wise of the Dwarves could decipher it and in their ignorance the Dwarves decided to destroy it, thinking that it was the hiding place of some ancient dragons horde.
If only this had been the case but the tablet was a great seal constructed by the very gods themselves that held the monstrous forces of the Fallen in their shadowy realms for untold eons. The seal was cracked and broken asunder and with a roar the terrifying beasts broke free and wrought a bloody ruin on the unfortunate Dwarves.
Fighting broke out throughout the hold with bands of Dwarven warriors desperately trying to stem the tide of darkness that had burst upon their home. As mighty as the Dwarven army was, it was no match for the ancient beings and their minons who craved freedom to once more dominate the world and slowly but surely the Dwarves were pushed back to the upper levels of their once mighty home.
Seeing the inevitable outcome and possible extinction of the Dwarven race, the Dwarf elders ordered an evacuation of all their remaining Kin and the battered and defeated remnants of the Dwarven civilisation emerged for the first time into the daylight, homeless and despondent. Forever afterwards their mountain homeland would be called the Mountains of Melancholia.
Fortunately the Dwarves are a doughty and practical race and they migrated down onto the great plain and the remaining elders organised the Great Council where the future of the Dwarven race was to be decided. During a long night of heated arguments and debate the elders decided the best way to ensure the survival of at least some of their people, the Dwarves would need to split up and so the great clans were formed.
Each clan would move in a different compass direction and hope to find some new home to settle in. The following morning the clans bid each other farewell and set off on their quest.
200 years later they still search in vain. Some clans fell, others vanished but most still live a nomadic existence roaming the plains and forests of the Eastern Realm. They have developed a new culture and in typical Dwarven manner stoically accept their lot but they have never forgotten the terrible loss of their home and have a deep and abiding hatred of the Fallen and their mortal followers and still yearn to someday reclaim the lost hold of Dum Morak.
These Dwarven pioneers have not found the land uninhabited, tribes of humans live amongst the foothills of the mountains and on the plains themselves, Goblins occupy the coastal regions and all manner of monstrous creatures abound in the land. On top of all this the insidious forces of the Fallen march forth from their dreadful keep in the mountains to enslave and despoil all they find.
Knowing their duty, the Dwarves attempt to atone for the doom they unleashed upon the world and each clan sends powerful regiments to hold the passes down out of the mountains to try and contain the evil ones. Each of the great passes out of the mountains, the Axebite, Breakheart and Rolling Rock are fortified and garrisoned by doughty Dwarven warriors and are constant scenes of skirmishes and siege as Dwarven steel meets Abyss forged iron.
The Slate Plains
The Slate Plains
The Slate Plains are a large expanse of grasslands lying to the East of the Mountains of Melancholia. Punctuated by rocky hillsides, stunted stands of trees and streams, they are a somewhat forbidding place but the Dwarves have learned how to survive and thrive despite the hardship. Each clan has a large armoured caravan consisting of several hundred massive armoured wagons. These can be linked together to form a sort of fortress which forms a base camp for the clan to send out hunting parties for food, mining teams for ore or war parties to deal with threats.
Lookout Rock near the source of the Ironlode
From time to time smaller caravans will venture out, either to trade with some of the trusted human tribes, explore new regions or provide supplies for the fighting in the mountains. These small expeditions will also be formed up into a small version of the great mobile fortresses of the clans providing protection from the many marauding beasts and raiding Goblins that inhabit the land.
Vocanic Eruption in the Mountains of Melancholia
It is here that I will be starting the campaign as the Boar Clan of the Dwarves hear disturbing reports that the Fallen have found a new route out of the mountains and are sending raiding parties out into the plains themselves. To begin with the campaign will rotate around some small skirmishes using Song of Blades and using the figures I have before building up to larger battles as I get chance to paint more stuff!
There will be Abyss worshipping deviants, stout Dwarves, cowardly Gobbos, aquatic menaces and even some humans and if I can rummage out my 15mm scale bits and bobs, I will be able to play some games this week but I will also be trying to get some of my 28mm scale stuff going too!
At the same time I have a vague idea of getting a sci-fi campaign going too featuring both 28mm, 15mm and 6mm scale but more on that later!
All the best!
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