A Brief History of the Empire
The great land of the Empire of Cambron, often simply called the Empire, has ruled its lands for a little over 500 years now dominating the attention of nearly it's entire region. Legend has it that the Empire was founded by travelers from across the Nameless Sea. It tells a tale of fifteen great noble families surviving a catastrophe, fleeing certain destruction to land upon the northern shores.
The pioneers landed somewhere along the coast of what is currently the duchy of Merlia and proceeded to settle the land. Some set out immediately for the interior regions of the new land, while others stayed along the coast for many generations. Moving inward only when the coastal regions became overpopulated and strife ensued, causing small but fierce clashes. One way or another, twelve noble houses each managed to secure a portion of the land. Two of the original fifteen houses met with trouble and failed to firmly establish themselves. These are rumored to have been the start of the two gypsy families, the Althure and the Prydain. Another house simply vanished and is believed to have been destroyed by hostile forces. The twelve remaining houses formed twelve different principalities that eventually evolved into duchies. Barring the relatively recent loss of the former duchy of Senonia, the duchies stand today more or less where they were initially established.
When the houses arrived, they quickly learned they were not alone in this new land. There were elves and dwarves, orcs and goblins, and many more creatures new to them in this strange land. Their first contact, however, was with the elves.
The elves, being a reclusive race, had little initial contact with the settlers until the settlers had acquired a considerable foothold on the elven forest, itself. Still, the elves were hopeful that the human settlers were good-natured and would make better allies against the brutish orcs and darker forces that occasionally attempted to encroach on elven lands. Elves and humans made alliances and things remained more or less peaceful for many years.
Human expansion was not limited to the elven lands. The settlers expanded westward right up to the edge of the western mountains and even a short ways into them where the land was inhospitable but livable. There, the humans encountered mountain ogres and dwarven clans eking out an existence but always at war. Expansion continued southward right onto the verge of the plains where the humans encountered barbarian tribes that were not the least bit hesitant to fight to the last to defend their own lands. Not yet strong with years of establishment, the settlers opted to stop their expansion and opened friendly trade with the barbarians. It is rumored that the highland barbarians evolved from some of the more tolerant barbarian tribes in the area that eventually took on some of the settlers’ ways distinguishing them from the plains barbarian tribes that preferred to keep to their own beliefs and customs.
In spite of all the land now under their control, the early settlers continued to vie for dominance among themselves. The rulers of each house contended fiercely with each other and bloody conflict occasionally ensued. After many years amidst chaos, a charismatic leader finally emerged. This leader, the legendary general Vic Sidious, leader of House Cambron, was able to forge lasting alliances with other noble houses and those that would not ally with him eventually had to give way to the growing force at his command or face total annihilation. In turn, each of the remaining noble houses submitted to his rule. Eventually, having gained dominance over all the other houses, Vic Sidious proclaimed himself Overlord and that Empire has lasted to this very day.
Decades and even centuries passed and, slowly, humans continued to strengthen their grip on their lands. Skirmishes occurred from time to time among the noble houses but always whichever Overlord sat on the thrown ensured that, ultimately, peace was maintained among the houses. The Empire continued to grow in strength and power. As the Empire grew it needed to continue expanding and it claimed even more of the elven forest, eventually completely separating a small portion of the elven forests from the main bulk of it, thus forming Sylvanlost. Throughout all of this tensions built between elves and humans.
Then, several years ago, rumors began to arise of a strange and terrible plague, such as had never before been seen in the Empire. At first, outbreaks were small, in isolated areas far from one another, but soon the pestilence was spreading southward, affecting more and more of the land and leaving death, panic and chaos in its wake.
Nothing was able to stop the Blue Plague, as it came to be called, not power, nor magic, nor the strongest herbal potions. People began to look for someone to blame for their misery. Rumors began that the elves had created the plague to destroy humankind. These rumors were fueled by distrust between humans and the elves, and gained credibility by the observation that while humans were dying by the hundreds, the elves seemed unaffected by the plague.
The dwarves, who bore no great love for the elves, also took up the cry that the elves were to blame for the Blue Plague. Many dwarves, however, shunned the company of both human and elf, living in remote areas deep in the Eastern and Western Mountains. These dwarves took advantage of their isolation and closed off access to their domains, presumably for the duration of the pestilence.
After two years of turmoil wrought by the Plague, The Overlord declared war on the elves. A great army of humans marched on the Northern forests of elven lands. The duke of Paladur, who's lands bordered elven forests in the south of the Empire, declared he had always known peaceful relations with the elves and that the Overlord's troops were committing atrocities in the war against the elves that he would not partake in. With the Paladurian troops withdrawn from the war, the Overlord declared the duke of Paladur and any aiding him a traitor. Shortly thereafter, the capital of Paladur, Paladur City, was decimated by the Plague and the duke was among its first victims. While many said this was a sign of his guilt but the duke's son, Eric, continued the duke's resistance and proclaimed Paladur seceded from the Empire and had himself crowned King of Paladur.
Almost simultaneously, a strange force of invaders lay assaulted the land of Senonia, quickly taking control of its capital, Carn. Fully engaged in the elven war now and, having just had one twelfth of his forces withdrawn when the Paladurian forces left the war, the Overlord's army was hard pressed to spare sufficient forces to rapidly deal with this new threat. The invaders, who identified themselves as Tazians, quickly spread out taking firm control of most of the duchy of Senonia, and parts of Letavia, Dunoon and Paladur. Despite the war, the Overlord pulled a portion of his forces away from the elven war to deal with these invaders, finally halting their advance.
The elven war was a brief but brutal war that lasted four years. In the end, the elven city of Esren Thorel was destroyed in a maelstrom of magic taking out a third of the Empire's army that remained in the war. In spite of this, sufficient forces remained to press onward but the Overlord deemed it time to deal with both the invaders and the turncoat Paladurians and proclaimed this destruction of one of the great elven cities a resounding victory and recalled the forces back to the Empire.
A brief conflict ensued between the Empire and the Kingdom of Paladur but, always with its eye on the Tazian invaders and weakened from the conflict with the elves, the Overlord settled for recapturing most of the fallen lands of Senonia and forwarding Dunoon's border further into Paladur. Having reestablished its borders and come to an agreement with the Tazian invaders the Empire began the process of rebuilding its armies.
While little has been heard from the elves of Sylvanhome after the fall of Esren Thorel, the elves of Sylvanlost have not been quiet. It appears the ruling council they established after the separation of Sylvanlost from Sylvanhome fell victim to internal struggle and a new council was placed in power. Sylvanlost quickly turned on its once allied neighbor of Paladur and declared war on it. The duchy of Armoria, bordering Sylvanhome on the north, began keeping a wary eye on these suddenly violent elves lest they become the next target of their aggression in their war against humanity.
In the midst of the war between Sylvanlost and Paladur, the Empire and Paladurian leadership came to an understanding and forged an alliance of non-aggression. Both sides, having agreed to and signed this treaty, have permitted trade, though heavily taxed, and travel across Empire-Paladurian borders. While the Paladurian forces remain locked in war, the influx of trade through Paladur and the corridor it represents to the Plains barbarian tribes has been a great boon to the rebuilding of Empire forces.
Recent History: ArmoriaArmoria was the primary focus for game play Cambrion for many years before plot events merged characters from both the Paladurian campaign and the Armorian campaign into a combined plot line outside the confines of both the Empire and the Kingdom of Paladur.
The duchy of Armoria is renowned for it's production of mercenaries. It is the primary source of mercenary training and forces within the Empire and to such an extent that Armoria even has to import much of it's food due and raw resources to an uncommonly low number of other professions in comparison to the resources needed to support so many standing military forces. For years the Armorian campaign focused largely on the Armorian town of Chevron and the changing number of mercenary companies headquartered there. Plot began in Armoria then moved into other locations as the mercenary forces were called into action for various causes. What follows is a brief walkthrough of events of gameplay that occurred for the Armorian campaign leading up to the current campaign setting.
The Armorian Campaign opened with the players all stationed in or around Chevron each signed on with either a mercenary company, the Cambrion Knights, or the Civil Guard. For some time they remained in that location, ostensibly for establishing the feel of the campaign at hand and the NPC's and organizations they would be working with.
The first major contract fulfilled by the Armorians placed them just south of Letavia's capital city of Crossway. The Letavian duke, having seen how brutally efficient the Tazians were at expanding, was understandably concerned at seeing their border stand just a few short days south of his seat of power. A contract was established providing a long-term exchange of grain and foodstuff with the Armorians in exchange for an Armorian presence to act as a buffer between Crossway and the Letavian border. For such a long-term, ongoing contract the Council of Swords in Armoria determined that no one company should gain such a lucrative upper hand over all the others and, thus, established the contract between the duchy of Armoria, itself, and the duchy of Letavia. Each company within Armoria will be given a chance to send a number of troops to fulfill this contract for a time. All ten mercenary companies headquartered in Chevron were given the first year's service together. In spite of a rocky start with the Armorians scaring off almost every single farmer, peasant, and local anywhere near where they were stationed, the contract was adequately fulfilled and a change of companies was made at the end of the year.
En route back to Chevron to await their next contract the Armorians were routed into the heart of Armoria to deal with the menace of deadly beasts that had appeared from nowhere to attack the locals. With no large cities housing companies nearby and the Armorian forces already packed for travel nearby, it was quite convenient. When the Armorians arrived on the scene they found strange lizardmen and ratmen ravaging the local farmers and their stock. What few local forces that had existed in the area were woefully inadequate and had already been defeated. In short order the lizardman menace was ended by the overwhelming force of Armorians when they fought their way to the lizardmen's leader and defeated him. In a strange, alien honor system apparently followed by the lizardmen, every remaining lizardman sacrificed itself upon the death of their leader. The Armorians were then able to return home to the accolades of the local farmers for their quick and decisive victory over the dangerous forces.
The Armorians return to Chevron was short-lived only lasting a scant week for debriefing before being informed of their next contract. Apparently the Paladurians, traitors though they were, were willing to pay a large some of money if the Armorians would create a diversion along the northern border of Sylvanlost in the hopes of drawing off some of the Sylvanlost forces from the Paladurian front. This was, indeed, a tricky situation. On the one hand, dealing with the traitorous Paladurians could lead to the Armorian's being branded traitors. In addition, there was the possibility that any remotely hostile action could shift the attention of the elves not temporarily but permanently off the Paladurians and onto the Armorian border. By the time the Armorians had returned to Chevron for debriefing word has been received back that the Council of Swords had approved the deal, with certain conditions made against the Paladurian side of the contract, and the contracts were made between the available companies and Paladur. The thought was that the elves, already embroiled in a war with Paladur would be unlikely to declare a war against the Empire, which had just defeated the much larger forces of Sylvanhome. The Armorian forces walked the narrow line providing suitable distraction to pull a portion of the elves away from the Paladurian front to guard their northern border. Only once did the Armorians nearly falter while walking that narrow line and warfare nearly broke out. Claiming their actions were in retribution for atrocities committed by the Armorians, the elves razed the Armoria's southernmost village of Lichfield. Before hostilities could raise the situation to the level of all out warfare the Armorians resolved the situation and pulled their forces back.
The situation with the elves ended just in time as a very lucrative contract had just been handed to the companies of Chevron. A clan of dwarves, the Iron Hills Clan, was willing to pay the companies very well to come supplement their forces. There was a catch though; the company leadership couldn't discuss the purpose of the mission to the companies at the time lest word get out to the wrong ears. So, for roughly six months, the Armorians found themselves sitting in a valley nestled in the heart of the Eastern Mountains. They had already killed or chased off every aggressive orc tribe and almost every ogre or troll in the valley and there were the beginnings of rumblings of discontent when the true purpose for their being there was made clear. The dwarves had seen coming the inevitable attack by a large number of duergar, a rivaling race similar to dwarves but much hated. When the attack came, it was apparent the duergar outnumbered the dwarves ten to one. With roughly three thousand Armorian mercenaries on the scene to assist them, the dwarven forces now easily outnumbered the duergar forces. In spite of this, it took time for the Armorian forces to learn the unusual tactics of cave fighting and things eventually came to a point of balance and both sides were at an impasse. Things remained in balance for some time with each side slowly wearing the other down but to no advantage. Finally, two things happened that shifted the balance dramatically. Perhaps the two companies with the most opposing points of view, the Brightshields and Suzdal's companies arrived at information that, when put together, provided a part of the solution. The duergar attacking were comprised of nine different tribes and a large number of tribeless duergar. Two of the tribes were willing to leave if an appropriate home could be found for them. The two companies worked briefly together to make arrangements with the duergar and the two duergar tribes that were willing to leave and the few tribeless duergar willing to join with them left the war, literally, overnight. That same night a controversial deal was made between nearby dark elves and several of the companies. In a brief but important negotiation between the Armorians present, each speaking for their own company or the Civil Guard in turn, and the drow, the Armorians narrowly avoided becoming the victims of the vengeful dark elves. Instead, a bargain was struck to have the dark elves attack the duergar. The dark elven forces lead a brutal assault on the duergar's unguarded rear wreaking havoc and wiping out a little over a third of the remaining duergar forces overnight. With the duergar forces suddenly halved and thrown into chaos, it was a relatively easy task for the Armorian's and dwarves to kill or scatter the remaining forces leaving only a few troubled bands of resistance that can easily be dealt with.
Having easily dealt with the last of the duergar resistance, the Armorians were paid by the dwarves of the Iron Hills for their part in the duergar war of the Iron Hills. The festive occasion was brought to an abrupt halt when a band of heavily armed drow, escorted under the protection of the Civil Guard, arrived on the scene and lay claim to a large portion of the payment just handed over by the dwarves. Having made a last minute deal to help the Armorians at a point when the tide of battle was precarious, it appears the drow did, indeed, have legitimate claim to the gold and gems which were promptly handed over to them by the Civil Guard. Including the cost of overhead for the contract this brought a very dour mood to festivities as everyone quickly realized there would be no real measure of profit from this contract. Resources would be scarce for a time and the food far less appealing, more than likely, but hopefully sufficient money would remain to pay for training and resurrections, at least. If nothing else, the fighting here was at an end and it was time to move on, hopefully, to something more profitable. The next morning orders were sent out that the troops would be moving out within the week. The orders were sent that the troops were moving, not northward retracing their steps to Armoria, but west north west directly towards the eastern borders of Sylvanlost.
After a mere week of negotiations in Sylvanlost, a deal was struck between the Armorians, the elves of Sylvanlost and the elves of Sylvanhome. The Armorian mercenaries has been contracted to help defend the border of Sylvanhome from invading tribes of mingles humans and orcs dubbed "The Horde". The Horde appeared to be a strange amalgamation of both human and orcish customs evolved over the years into an odd blend all its own. Almost barbaric in nature, the Horde's values and mannerisms appeared different from those of the Armorians but close enough to provide enough understanding where it counts. While some in the companies argued for negotiations but many were tired of so many negotiated dealings and eager for a straightforward fight. To further complicate matters when the Armorians arrived they discovered that Paladurian forces, close allies of the elves, already had a small encampment in place and were already defending the elven border. Regardless of which side of the line a mercenary chose to stand on, straightforward conflict or a desire for negotiation, the Horde had already made several probing attacks on the border the Paladurians had been guarding. True to their word and contract, the Armorians stalwartly defended the border alongside the Paladurian forces.
Meanwhile, even as the Companies of Chevron defended the border of Sylvanhome from the Horde trouble struck in Armoria. Duke Conald died and his only successor, the Princess Colleen, disappeared. Civil War ensued covering the duchy in fear and turmoil. Fortunately for the local peasantry fighting was heaviest only in major cities leaving many of the common folk confused and concerned but alive. Still, the major cities were heavily populated and the death toll was high both among the militant and the innocent. Ultimately, the broiling waters of politics and civil war even engulfed and destroyed entire companies. The remnants of some of the once large Companies banded together forming new Companies. Some Companies disappeared altogether left only to be remembered in the writings of scribes and memories of those who served. The Companies returned from the Hordelands to a deeply troubled Armoria. In spite of the dire situations they returned to those who returned took up the call to arms and defended their lands. Along with the Armorians came most of the Paladurian forces, now in a tentative peace with the Empire, ostensibly to lend aid to war-ravaged Armoria. Ultimately Princess Colleen's whereabouts were discovered. Thanks to the valiant work of those who returned from the Hordelands Princess Colleen was liberated. The Overlord, presumably preoccupied with other matters, finally had a chance to step in and had Princess Colleen Ordained as the rightful and ruling Duchess of Armoria thus ending the Armorian Civil War. While tensions still remained between the Empire and Paladur the Paladurian forces who had lent aid had wrought a bound with a little more trust between themselves and the people of Armoria owing to the aid they gave in returning peace during the Armorian Civil War. In hopes of forging an even stronger bond Chevron invited the Paladurians to stay on as their own mercenary company based out of Chevron.
While the Civil War was officially over it would still be some time before all the confusion and turmoil finally and completely died out. As many Companies were still rounding up trouble makers and returning peace to the land the Council of Swords in Sword Point resumed its duty of parceling out mercenary contracts. The remaining Companies out of Chevron eagerly took up a joint contract in the Western Mountains aiding highland barbarians in a feud against magic-wielding dwarves. Neither side seemed to really have any clear idea what started the entire thing but once the dwarves began using magic against the highland barbarians the highlanders preferred not to get involved in the situation and were quite happy to use the mercenaries against the threat. In what turned out to be a lengthy series of rather civil conflicts a strange new race of lizardmen showed up out of nowhere attacking all sides indiscriminately using stealth, steel, and very powerful magics to quickly make themselves very clearly a threat to everyone in the area.
In the process of dealing with what had suddenly become a very confusing two front war the Armorian forces finally pieced out what was going on. The lizardmen, who called themselves the lheron, had been driven from their own home by other lizardmen and were determined to make a new land for themselves. They would obliterate the dwarves, the highlanders, and the Armorian forces even if they were in the way to do so. Their culture, rather alien to the Armorians, was definitely a harsher one and to them this seemed a most reasonable course of action and unfortunately for the natives of the mountains and the Amorians it appeared that the lheron would be able to succeed in wiping everyone out and claiming the land. Rather than fight a two-front war the Armorians made a deal with the lheron. The Armorians would split their forces sending the bulk back to the lheron homelands to help them reclaim their lands. Additional Armorian forces would be sent to wrap up the conflict between the dwarves and highlanders and the Armorians would now have two big contracts in place where they had started with one.
Thus it was that the current campaign setting wound up traveling far to the west of anything known by the Empire or Paladurian forces into strange new lands fighting strange new forces.
Recent History: PaladurPaladur was the primary focus for game play Cambrion for the first few years of gameplay. The Paladurian plot was put on hold indefinitely however plot events eventually offered an opportunity for Paladurian characters to be brought into the active Armorian campaign providing a merged plot line for both groups. Since then the Paladurian characters have been playing under what is often termed the Armorian campaign despite the fact that both groups are now actively played in the single plot line.
The Kingdom of Paladur was originally one of the established duchies of the Empire of Cambron. When the Blue Plague broke out brining widespread panic to the Empire the people began to look for the cause. The Emperor, convinced the plague had been started by the elves, began an offensive campaign against the elves of Sylvanhome. The people of Paladur, long-standing friends of the elves and in particular the elves of Sylvanlost which bordered Paladur were placed in an awkward position to say the least. The duke's son Eric was among the forces sent to aid the Empire as was required as a duchy of the Empire. Prince Eric sent back tales of atrocities being committed and even condoned by the Empire forces against the elves in the ongoing war. The duke, already unhappy with the situation and still at peace with the elves of Sylvanlost, declared he would no longer condone the actions of the Overlord and had his son withdraw the Paladurian forces from the war against Sylvanhome. Outraged, the Overlord declared the duke a traitor as well as any he found aiding Paladur in what he called an unlawful act of rebellion.
Shortly thereafter Paladur City, capital of Paladur and the seat of the duke's power, was ravaged by the Blue Plague killing most of the inhabitants. While the plague had affected parts of Paladur it seemed rather suspicious to many that only days after the Overlord proclamation calling the duke a traitor the Blue Plague would break out in Paladur City with one of the most virulent cases seen in the Empire. Many of the people in the Empire came to believe that the outbreak was a sign of the duke's guilt however most of the Paladurian people, already generally siding with the duke, very quickly had their resolve strengthened in standing against the Empire. Unfortunately the duke of Paladur was one of the very first to fall to the Blue Plague leaving his son, Prince Eric, in charge. Prince Eric continued the resistance and even took the next step and proclaimed Paladur seceded from the Empire. In time he even had himself crowned as the first King of Paladur following strong support from the people of Paladur and the elves of Sylvanlost.
Even while the offensive against the elves was occurring in the Empire and the Blue Plague was ravaging the land a strange new force, the Tazians, appeared from virtually out of no where. The Tazians proved to be a formidable force and forcefully took possession of most of Senonia, parts of Letavia, and parts of Dunoon. Paladur, with it's forces already withdrawn and not involved in the war against the elves, put up the strongest defense and only lost a small potion of Paladur to the encroaching invaders. In time the Tazian expansion ended. In spite of the hostilities they presented and the generally closed borders they kept the Tazians mere presence acted as a buffer for Paladur. The Tazian held lands closed a long stretch of land along the Paladurian border that the Paladurians would have been hard-pressed to defend should the Empire have been able to bring it's forces to bear along the entire front. So long as the Tazians remained quiescent the Paladurians only had to worry about the border along what remained of Senonia and the border it shared with Dunoon.
Further aiding in matters was the damage wrought to the Empire forces with the combined destruction of Esren Thorel taking a third of it's forces in one catastrophic event and the losses the Empire received when war-weary troops attempted to halt the expansion of the Tazians. The Empire forces, much weakened, made several failed attempts to take back Paladur before finally ceasing the attempts in favor of rebuilding it's forces. Paladur had originally managed to reclaim a large swathe of what little remained of fallen Senonia but eventually yielded some of it back to the Empire forces as well as a small portion of Paladur's western border to assaults from Dunoon.
Paladur finally began the process of rebuilding itself from the damage of plagues and war even while the nobles pursued a political campaign for lasting peace with the Empire. Ultimately an uneasy peace was finally restored and Paladur, now well and truly it's own sovereign nation, could relax a bit and move on from it's constant preparations against invasion from the Empire. The possibility still loomed but for a time at least peace could be relied on. When all was said and done not much had really changed in the daily lives for most of the people of Paladur when peace was finally restored.
The war had brought other changes as well. Most notably the elves of Sylvanlost had finally accepted that after a few hundred years segregation from Sylvanhome that no assistance was forthcoming. The Council that had ruled Sylvanlost in the absence of contact from their Queen in Sylvanhome crumbled and was replaced with a new Council that no longer claimed to rule in Her name but rather ruled of it's own right. Some said they were even doling out new titles of nobility among their own and were eschewing all faith in their elven kin from Sylvanhome. The new Council closed the borders of Sylvanlost against all outsiders including, surprisingly, Paladur which had always had a strong friendship with the elves of Sylvanlost. In a relatively short space of time it became clear that this new Council had a much different agenda then the old one and the elves of Sylvanlost began making offensive raids against Paladur. Paladur first lost control over much of the river that separated Sylvanlost from Paladur and then lost even more land nearly to the point of losing one of it's key cities of Saria. The conflict raged on for some time until finally the elven forces were pushed back though Paladur still lost control over most of the riverfront territory while it is still held by hostile elven forces. Paladur did manage to retain enough of the northern riverfront property to retain a shipping contact with Empire cities further north up the river but not much more. Peace was again restored but the elven borders still remain closed to outsides on pain of death for even the simplest infractions.
It was there that news of Paladur and the Paladurian campaign was left when the Paladurian forces played by player characters first re-emerged into the active Armorian campaign. The Paladurians were still on very friendly terms with the elves of Sylvanhome even if they seldom had opportunity for contact owing the Empire lands that separated them. When the need arose however the elves prevailed upon the Paladurians to assist them against the encroaching Horde forces along Sylvanhome's southwestern border. The Horde forces had use of Power against which the elves were particularly weak and needed assistance in defending the border. The Paladurian forces, primarily humans, were much stronger in Power and readily agreed to help defend against such threats and in reciprocation the elves of Sylvanhome would supply an equal force of elves strong in Magic to defend the Paladurian eastern border against the magics of the elves of Sylvanlost.
The Paladurians, wary of the Armorians that had also been contracted by the elves to defend Sylvanhome, did not question the judgment of the elves but trusted that elves would not have needlessly endangered them. The trust was well-placed and it turned out that the Paladurian and Armorian forces worked well side by side in defense of Sylvanhome each for their own reasons. Once the elves had established a physical barrier wrought by magic along its border and had sufficient toehold to continue the process on their own the Paladurian and Armorian forces were released to return to their homes. The Armorians, aware that a civil war was ongoing back in Armoria, were more than pleased to finally be permitted to return home to loved ones and protect their own lands. The Paladurians saw this as an opportunity to strengthen ties with Armoria, whom they now shared a border with, and provided their support within Armoria. It didn't take long for the Paladurians to establish themselves as a helpful and more or less trusted supplement to the Armorian forces. When the Armorian Civil War was brought to a conclusion the Paladurians were offered the opportunity to stay on in Chevron as an established mercenary force. It would have to adhere to all the laws of the Empire however it would not be subjects of the Empire. It was a cautious arrangement fraught with many opportunities for trouble but one that proved able to work out.
When the Companies of Chevron were granted first rights to accept a contract in the Western Mountains assisting highland barbarian tribes in a conflict against magic-wielding dwarves the Paladurian-established mercenary company, Tavist's Freelancers, opted to participate in the contract. Neither the dwarves nor the highlanders seemed to really have any clear idea what started the entire conflict originally but once the dwarves began using magic against the highland barbarians the highlanders preferred not to get involved in the situation and were quite happy to use the mercenaries against the threat. In what turned out to be a lengthy series of rather civil conflicts a strange new race of lizardmen showed up out of nowhere attacking all sides indiscriminately using stealth, steel, and very powerful magics to quickly make themselves very clearly a threat to everyone in the area.
In the process of dealing with what had suddenly become a very confusing two front war the mercenary forces finally pieced out what was going on. The lizardmen, who called themselves the lheron, had been driven from their own home by other lizardmen and were determined to make a new land for themselves. They would obliterate the dwarves, the highlanders, and the Armorian forces even if they were in the way to do so. Their culture, rather alien to the combined mercenary forces, was definitely a harsher one and to them this seemed a most reasonable course of action and unfortunately for the natives of the mountains and the Amorians it appeared that the lheron would be able to succeed in wiping everyone out and claiming the land. Rather than fight a two-front war the mercenary forces made a deal with the lheron. The combined mercenary forces would split their forces sending the bulk back to the lheron homelands to help them reclaim their lands. Additional Armorian forces would be sent to wrap up the conflict between the dwarves and highlanders and the Armorians would now have two big contracts in place where they had started with one.
Thus it was that the current campaign setting wound up traveling far to the west of anything known by the Empire or Paladurian forces into strange new lands fighting strange new forces.