1A. City-State of Khromarium: Before & Now.

Once regarded as the jewel of the Kingdom of Hyperborea, the City-State of Khrommarium demonstrates a history that predates the rise of mankind. Little doubt exists that this is the oldest city in the realm. Indeed, men of learning posit that Khromarium’s spiral towers of black gneiss were not carved by human hands; neither were they intended to accommodate bipedalism, but rather something altogether inhuman. Regardless, for untold millennia, Khromarium served as the capital city of Hyperborea, where reigned the Hyperboreans: a race of man that ascended to sorcerous, scientific, and cultural heights theretofore unseen—and as the Hyperboreans rose to prominence, they drove back the former rulers of the continent, the savage vhuurmis.

The Hyperborean kingdom was vast and powerful, and from coevals Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu it accepted tributes. In that bygone age, when Hyperborea was just beyond the North Wind of Old Earth, deities such as Apollo and Artemis frequented this paradisal land of endless summer, and Khromarium was regarded as the premier cosmopolitan city of the world. The Hyperboreans delved in mysteries, arts, and sciences scarcely essayed by lesser men. They learnt of the terrifying lost races that had descended from the stars in primordial times, they unearthed Yothic manuscripts, and eventually they came to glorify the Old One known as Xathoqqua, who taught the most erudite Hyperborean sorcerers the eldritch secrets of Saturn.

After the sibyls of Hyperborea presaged the advent of the Ashen Worm, and all the portents of its arrival were met, the Hyperboreans fled to their fastnesses beneath the Spiral Mountain Array. Khromarium was abandoned, a ghost city soon mantled in hundreds of feet of ice. Millennia later, the ice thawed and the Hyperboreans emerged to reclaim the jewel of their erstwhile empire.

They learnt that their realm had lost its connexion to Old Earth and that it was crawling with the savage races of man. Regardless, they reclaimed the ancient city and once again basked in their physical and intellectual supremacy. They took the lesser races of men for slaves, arena gladiators, and test subjects of scientific and sorcerous experiments. Over time, the Hyperboreans took to chewing lotus leaves and yielded to unspeakable perversities. Too, they even experimented in druidism, as they esteemed the heathenism of the barbaric Kelts strangely attractive. The Hyperboreans had become a lax and decadent people, consumed by their own devices. As the Hyperboreans of Khromarium lolled in stagnation, the barbarians without progressed.

Then came the Green Death. Once again, the Hyperboreans ignored the prognostications of their last remaining sibyls; hence, few family groups escaped the city before the great plague took its toll. Khromarium was left a lifeless husk. Centuries later, during the Dark Age that followed the Green Death, barbarians claimed the lifeless city.

The barbarians multiplied, fortified, and grew in power; they were the antecedents of the more civilized men of today, the likes of whom chronicle this very gazetteer. When the last of the Hyperborean race emerged yet again, they were powerless to reclaim authority, a cultural curiosity in the city from which they once ruled an empire.

Presently Khromarium is a dismal, seedy place, choked by the smoke of its factories. Some 30,000 or more individuals reside in the city, but as poverty and homelessness are alarmingly high, reckoning an accurate census is difficult. The bulk of the populace dwells at the south side of the city, close to the harbour. Twisting towers of black gneiss dominate the north side of Khromarium; this is called the “Old City”, where large groups live on the streets in tents and ramshackle dwellings, afraid to enter the towers (which are commonly held to be haunted).

Khromarium is ruled by an oligarchy of men comprising the city’s most powerful knights, nobles, and guild masters. At present (576 CÆ), Gill Sampatose, Master of the Mariner’s Guild, serves as Lord Mayor. Khromarium’s populace is largely Neutral, though many lean toward Chaos. Although the city is not without the influence of Law, justice is seldom served with any semblance of equality; i.e., the accused had best have the proper connexions, or potentially suffer abuse, shame, or death.

Khromarium has the largest harbour in the realm, the largest population of any city, and the largest representation of racial diversity. It is perhaps the only city in the realm where all the races of man might be met, though this does not diminish the enmity that some races reserve for one another; e.g., it is not unusual for a Kimmerian to bury his axe in the skull of a hated Ixian, should the two meet in a back alley. The Xathoqquan orthodoxy dominates the city, though other cults and mystery societies are spread about. Druidism is disfavoured, for many associate the old Keltic religion with the coming of the Green Death.

From coast to coast, like a great semicircle, Khromarium is walled in, protecting it from the beasts and horrors of the Lug Wasteland and the savage barbarian nations farther north. All manner of siege engines are mounted on these walls, and where the walls and towers meet the sea, these may be unleashed on enemy vessels. The watch has been doubled in recent years, and patrols increased, for Viking raiders (officially “unsanctioned” by the king in Erikssgard) have victimized various Khromarium establishments; furthermore, during Nightfall (Bat, Year 13) of the more recent cycles, Kimmeri-Kelts of the Fields of Vol have traversed the frozen Lug Wasteland to assail the city. These invasions have been repelled, but substantial cause for concern remains, as the Northerners reserve an irrational contempt for civilized men.

In immemorial times, the city of Khromarium doubtless was met by many roads. Presently much of the old North Road remains betwixt the city proper and Swampgate; all other roads have been scraped away by glaciers or swallowed by the bogs. Overland modes of transportation include horses, camels, woolly mammoths, and thew wagons. Nonetheless, overland travel is but a secondary mode of transportation, as most commerce is engaged by sea; commercial enterprises from the cities of Erikssgard, Fazzuum, Gal, Pandoros, and Port Zangerios all access this massive port, as do countless towns and villages.

The Khromarium harbour is lined with factories, warehouses, taverns, inns, bawdy and gambling houses, shops, and services (craft and merchant); these are largely controlled by the ruling elite: the knights, nobles, and guild houses. Of note, the thieves’ guild has its hands in several operations; the sorcerers’ guild is a clandestine organization with tangential political influence; and the sages’ guild, a politically neutral society, consists of the f inest, most erudite men of learning in the entire realm. The Khromarium shipyard is the largest in Hyperborea, and the expert technologies of the Vikings, Amazons, and Esquimaux are employed with success. The inner city boasts the finest arena in the realm, and all manner of contests and blood sports are engaged during festival weeks. Temples and fanes are scattered across the city, the primary deity of worship being Xathoqqua, whose effigies are found in many homes and establishments, as well.

Nominally, the City-State of Khromarium holds dominion over the whole of the Lug Wasteland, including the towns of Port Greely, Stonebrook, and Swampgate. These towns are independently ruled, however, and in sooth the city exerts little authority over its holdings. Portions of the Lug Wasteland are farmed, and the peat harvesting industry provides fuel for the city, particularly during the lean years of winter dark. 3350 to go