Thoren,
Chapter 1,
A very strange land
Very different from much of the known world, (that isn’t really all that well known at all), one could write about its mountains and cities and waters for a lifetime and not tell the whole story. Thoren or, I suppose, I’ll allow “ThorenWald” as some still prefer to call the land, is a place of fierce giant mountains, boiling seas, a never ending forest, valleys, spires, clouds, and eternal fires. It has stinking swamps and also crisp mountain air where great birds are perched surveying the landscape below. Many would argue about what exactly is Thoren’s most notable feature. Some would say this particular mountain, or that mighty river, and others may shout about the endless sky as the most striking feature of the ThorenWald. But for the people living in Thoren, most would probably agree that the Chasm is the greatest of all things to be seen anywhere.
Stretching from north to south it is an uncrossable deep gash in the world that the Norse say their god created with a mighty strike of his axe. They say he cut off the land from the rest of the world so he could claim it for himself alone. Old folk tales aside, the creation of it is well documented in the scrolls of old and taught in the universities. Where once Thoren Wald was but an extension of the lands that now lie beyond to the east, the great shaking that went on over half a lifetime of the north woods people. (Those people live quite long, mind you), and for all those years of the shaking ThorenWald was forever separated from eastern lands.
Historians will also note that it happened not long after the Long Swords showed up in numbers migrating from the Far East. Did they have anything to do with the creation of the Chasm? Well, that’s anybody’s guess.
Whatever land that once connected the two worlds, was consumed in the fires that rained red glowing rock for a very long time. That burned rock fell about such that no one could approach from any direction. Even the wingward people of myth and campfire stories who had experimented with flying for so long that it is said that some actually did! Not even they could approach the land of hellish fire that blackened the sky and shook the earth and at times rained down stones the size of a house!
The land had either fallen into the bottomless abyss or had been exploded outward to cover other parts of earth. The depths are unmeasurable although many have attempted to do so and while using some unorthodox methods. One curious bunch once came up with the idea of measuring how far they could still hear the shouts of people with high and of low pitched voices. The poor unknowing screamers would stand on a ridge or across a field and sing and shout, while others would march away until they could hear no more, noting the distance. On the faithful day, those hapless participants were tossed over the edge and observed to fall freely ever downward. The amount of time was noted when their screams were no longer heard. But distances seemed to vary greatly and no accurate measurement was taken even though many folks made the long journey downward.
Argument has ensued about how loud one would actually scream under such a condition, versus when they were happily yelling across some grassy field. Most scholars and laymen alike agree that anyone falling will scream much louder than he or she would under normal circumstances. So with all the debate it was simply said that the chasm was much deeper than previously thought. The first experiments eventually led to a temporary suspension of the voice screaming faller method because so many people were being lost, but nothing was being learned of the Chasm other than it was a very deep and very scary place. Even when King Elford of the eastern realm decided to toss in prisoners for a time, results were not consistent enough to make any accurate determination. Eventually people stopped tossing other people into the Chasm.
Various other ideas were proposed at the great counsel in Thoren including throwing in tar balls set ablaze just before rolling them off the ledge. It was thought that light at night can be seen for a very long distance, so perhaps more could be learned of the Chasm’s actual depth. But many theologians suggested that should a burning fireball fall and awaken or enrage a sleeping dragon, the people of the world might have a greater problem than just trying to figure out how deep that hole was. In the end, efforts were suspended since no matter what the actual depth was found to be, nothing that man knew or possessed would ever allow a single person to cross that bottomless expanse.
Around that time an expedition was sent into the northern wilderness to try to fine the Wingward people. Should they be found, and they could indeed fly, then perhaps they could be talked into flying over the Chasm or down into its endless depths to learn more. But alas, no trace of them was ever discovered and that effort ended like all others to learn of the great deep and burnt place.
Although the rock face was recently torn out of the earth on the Thoren side it should have looked new. What could be seen by the long-eye-pipes of the other side showed it had a tortured look about it. Scarred and burned, and even melted only to solidify once again into strange rocky dripping shapes. The dripping rocks and the icicle rocks were oddities dotting the landscape near and around the rim of the chasm.
Footing was very unsure due to all the rubble that was strewn and tossed everywhere. It may have become a place of worship for some, but there was little shelter to speak of. There were likewise no roads and the water there was foul with the smell of sulfur. Trees had still not taken purchase although an age had come and gone since the shaking. There was simply nothing inviting nor welcoming about the place and those who ventured there did so at their own peril.
The chasm could not even be approached by the sea, as for many miles from the blackness the seas seethed and boiled in a constant angry state. That’s where people first encountered “the boils.” A very strange state, indeed, a sailor on seemingly calm seas would suddenly find himself in a field of bubbles. As the bubbling continued one’s boat would sit lower and lower into the water until it was finally swallowed into the depths. It is not known how this can happen, only that it does, and in more places than just in the vicinity of the chasm. Boiling has happened along the southern reaches of Great Center Lake and was even reported to have happened a time or two on East River in the area of the great bend.
That portion of East Bend River was still tidal, subject to the rise and fall of the coastal sea. It is wide and lazy and a real bonus to the tall mast sailing ships that are used on the sea routes to Bern and the rich fishing grounds north. Because of the makeup of the river at that place and the proximity to Rusty Mountain, Iron works lie just inland. With good mooring for the ships it is a place of growing trade. And but a couple days travel up the East Bends river from Thoren City.
Although The Chasm is an unwelcoming place for most, one group finds it unavoidably attractive. For amongst its boiling pools of strange colored acrid waters and piles of rock blown outward from the inner places of the earth a treasure trove is everywhere for the trained eye. Tare minerals and metals can be found there. Potent liquids are also found. Some can eat through a leather water bag in minutes and have to be carried in heavy glass bottles. Gold and diamonds and other precious gems can make one very wealthy, should he survive long enough to carry his bounty out of the dangerous areas.
Alchemists hunt there endlessly for exotic compounds. Powders and potions used in medicine and science have also found their way into the markets of Thoren and to the Iron forges on the great bend. One rare, shiny metal that is illusive but can be collected with some quantity is said to combine with iron to create an unbreakable sword. It can be heated and folded many times to create a stronger and stronger blade and is highly favored by the long-sword craftsmen. Due entirely to their particular interest in this metal, they call “quiver” a trade route of sorts was opened from the ports near Thoren up the East Bend River, through great center lake, up past Ozman and then on wagon over an inland road to the foothills near Ginder. Although Easterners have their own forging processes, the master craftsmen and iron workers of Ginder have their own secretive processes shared with none.
The chasm may indeed be responsible for some of the strange goings-on of the land, most notably, the boils, but it could be isolating the whole of the land from the outside world. As if to say that by its creation, some ancient god decided to isolate and thus keep hidden the jewel of Thoren, the seas themselves serve as a barrier against outward contact. Like a world within a world, Thoren is effectively cut off from the rest of the world.
The folding seas can be seen from some distance and is an immediate signal for all to steer well clear. Found to be completely encircling Thoren and lying fifty to one hundred leagues off any shore the seas act in a very unusual manner. Waves form and instead of crashing onto the water around them, they spill into the back of the preceding wave turning the seas into a roiling mass of turbulence, whirlpools, and unsteady currents. Should a captain turn his ship into an approaching wave as would be thought to be the correct thing to do, where folding seas come up, the next wave will simply push the stricken ship beneath its headwaters. The sea appears to simply fold itself over the previous layer pushing that old water to some unknown place well down in the depths of the ocean.
More prevalent in the winter months than the warmer seasons, the folding seas have come about during every season and every year since they swallowed up their first wayfaring sailor. Many mapmakers simply draw up the outline of the Isle of Thoren leaving out the East lands or any other lands that are said to be. Since there is no possibility of crossing the seas too far out of sight of Thoren, why bother drawing a thing which would only serve to tantalize and perhaps lure the foolish venturer to a certain watery grave.
Philosophers have long thought that some unexplainable current issues forth from the deep places of the earth from the broken bottom of the chasm. Those waters flow in a complete circle around Thoren only to reenter the chasm on the other side. This, is, of course only speculation, however scholars point out that southern trees can be found along the sometimes nearly frozen northern shores. The water there is much warmer near the beach than just a few leagues out to sea. Around Norse, except on rare occasions, Ice never forms all the way to the shoreline leaving some open water to fish.
Thoren is full of everything anyone would ever need or want so why would anyone ever need to leave in the first place? Given the fact that the folding seas restrict travel too far from shore, no trade has developed of any consequence with the outside world. There have of course, been the occasional vessel blown by some gale to the shores of Thoren. These traders, these eastern-landers know well of the existence of quiver. It is very rare outside of ThorenWald and trades in eastern lands at a higher price than gold or precious gems. Therefore, some adventurous traders will sometimes risk it all to get to Thoren. And yes, the outside world, knows well of the existence of the great mountainous and forested land. They know that should they succeed on their journey both ways, they would become very wealthy for their efforts. For the scant few easterners who have made it to the port in Thoren City, and later departed, not a single man has ever been seen a second time.
Easterners bring silk and novelties and the latest scientific instruments and sometimes even their scrolls of written word. Speaking of which, when these traders sail to return to their home ports, the Guildsmen are ever present to share some of their written word and stories and advice as well. It is odd, but the traders from the east, as few as they may be, just may get to learn more about the secrets of the Guildsmen, than the actual people of Thoren!
Folding seas or not, sailors abound in Thoren and are likely to be the most popular of all the skills. The fast boats, the fishers, the cargo boats and the canoes all make up for a very mobile people that venture not far from shore and are kept safe through the leadership of skilled captains and the lightsmen.
Located in abundance around a lot of the southern shores of Thoren, Lightsmen build their fires large and bright every night to mark a prominent or dangerous piece of land for the sailors out at sea. They use local materials and the black oils from the north to keep those flames burning all night long. They do not maintain many lights along the great coastal swamp of the south shore but a couple stations are maintained by the city of Thoren which stands to prosper the most through this system of trade. Lightsmen populate the shores either side of Bern for many leagues and maintain a double flame where navigation lighting stops at the western side of the mouth of Bear Claw River. From there eastward to Norse and eastward from there all the way to the chasm, a distance of two thirds the length of the island continent, there are no lighting aids at all.
Someday, perhaps, rich finds of metal or oil or quiver or something else not yet known will be discovered in these lands of the north shore east of Norse, and lightsmen will take up their craft there also, but for now it remains a dark place. It’s funny to think that aside from the industry that goes along around the banks of East Bends River and the homes and farms of the people living and working nearby, people don’t have very much interest in these wild lands to the north.
Highlanders and highland folk live just about everywhere. Because almost everywhere in ThorenWald is hilly or mountainous. The highland folk are of strong stature and broad shoulders and take up mountain craft all over the land. Rock smiths mostly, but woodsmen too, they work the mountains to create the large blocks that serve to build buildings, some bridges, footpath, and roadways alike. Cut from granite and hoarsrock with chisel and stroke of hammer, the highlanders load their hewn rock onto the flat boats where they are carried off to distant places to build magnificent structures. Thoren of late is given to building ever higher with people of money and nobility seeking to live in places that overlook their neighbors. Guildsmen have long built soaring structures where they meet and worship especially in Ginder.
Rock was well used and in plentiful supply but it was not the favorite material used in construction. That material, is, of course, the Krispen Pine. A noble pine of better than average proportions it grew in patches nearly everywhere. Its long needles were used in the making of tea, for tinder to start fires, and even for hair brushes when it was properly boiled and treated with salts. It saws well and was very strong even when cut down to thinner sections.
Those thinner pieces were, of course used in the building of sailing craft of all kinds. They could be easily bent if heated properly, and their own saps in the actual heart of the wood made it nearly waterproof. Sap balls forming around spots on the trunk that had been injured could be boiled down and made into a waterproof paste that, once applied to the boards, made a boat quite waterproof. Later discovered techniques would call for a hardening over with flame, and a second layer, sometimes with colors added like rust rock and crimson to adorn the craft.
That was how the blacksails built boats of a midnight black color. They would scorch the Krispen sap with fire and allow it to keep its blackened look to mask the raiding ships for their deadly night work. Krispen do not like to be burned to a sooty blackness and will not give the same good service as those planks treated to a beautiful color.
By comparison, ships of Thoren and Bern wear sides of red for Thoren and of bluish green for Bern. Powders from crushed wormrock were blended to produce the signature hue of the Bern peoples favored colors. Sailors from Norse, preferred, of course to just leave their boats a natural wooden color, and would adorn them with metals and colorful cloths according to the message they wanted to send. Bright colors signaled friendly times, while darkened hues made the warrior in company stand ready. The darkened ships of the Black Sails allow them to sneak up on another ship or village along a river bank when the light grows dim.
Krispen grows is several somewhat different varieties. Along the windy ramparts of coastal mountain walls, it twists about, growing into and out of cracks finding purchase, wherever it may. Not suitable as side board, it was never the less harvested in great quantity because of its twisted shapes. The eye of the craftsman, once set upon a particular shape or piece of twisted Krispen could find a hidden leg for a majestic table, or a curved archway support, and a thousand other things. Some rare Krispen branches which were hollow could be used as a pipe to flow water and might appear in a village square as the instrument in a water fountain from whence flowed the town’s drinking water! Others were fashioned into musical instruments such as horns and have about as many other uses as anyone could imagine. The Foul horn, made from broad, flattened Krispen bows is well known for its ability to create bird like sounds. It is a necessary part of any hunters carry.
Tea brewed from the Krispen needles is as sweet and as fresh as the mountain breeze that created it. One can savor a thousand misty mountain mornings and can even taste a snowfall or two in that warm brew. Had the outside world ever learned about it, it is a certainty that they would have invaded the land simply to get more of it!
For the less tender in age, Krispen tea could be left to stand some time in wooden barrels, Oaken made for the best. With a small addition of honey from the cracker bee, it would over time, ferment and later drank as a wonderful spirit. It can be found in every single tavern in the land. No boy becoming a man ever passed that time without partaking of an unnecessarily large quantity of the swill. Not so much to show he had become a man, no, the ceremony was as it always has been purely for the entertainment of the older men who are present!
Krispen pine was as much a part of the culture as wind is a part of a bird’s flight. A common sight would be an elder sitting on a bench built from sturdy Krispen pine planks while smoking a pipe made from the same wood. Inhaling some southern plains smoke weed, it made for a satisfying sight to behold. Now take that exact scene, and add a pint or two of the fermented Krispen honey golden brew to it. Place that it in a smoke filled tavern, where the old fella tells a story of valor from some battle, and you have the makings of one grand evening! Having seen this many times myself I get a little misty eyed and it carries me back to another time, and older time.
Some of the Krispen, although not many, grow very tall. Felled by Highlanders they can be dragged by the large pulling oxen if the log has been cut to a manageable size. Given a saw the length of two men locally called a “two-saw”, it takes days, to a week or more to make a single lengthwise cut. Although many have tried splitting, and breaking and smoke powder to try and cut down the large logs, they are best just sawn into long lengths. These cut down logs can be dragged by a team of oxen to the largest flat boats and carried down the east and west bends rivers. The great Peoples hall in Bern, and the Kingship hall in Thoren are built with their large open expanses of these hand sawn Krispen timbers.
Some Krispen are rumored to write of the things which they have seen. Where most trees have circular rings of growth, one for each year in its life, a very rare number of these trees grow entangled and looping rings within. If sliced in just the right way, the board’s face will reveal something like a letter that the tree wrote during its life about the things it witnessed. One of these specimens can be found in the great hall of the Kingship, and others at the universities. These mythical writings are most treasured by the long-swords who can cut the log in such a way as to reveal its secrets. They do this in their mountain hideaway city of Ginder. They have been seen by some outsiders, but the exact method to make a cut in this manner is a great secret and is not known how to do outside the borders of that mountain city.
Eventually, someday perhaps, the entire history of ThorenWald will come to be known through the writings of the great Krispen pines. Hard to say exactly if enough of them survived calamity to reveal their hidden truths. I for one, very much enjoy the reading of the ancient pine script, and especially while sipping on some of its spirits. Makes for a much better story if you will.
Pines found in and around the city of Thoren have a zig-zagged writing of some of their rings. Historians will attest that the trees are speaking about the long line of Kings of Zender. Some even recount the exact number of kings who came to be, and then passed on to greatness although as with all things, scholars and teachers alike at the Universities will debate it until the end of time itself!
The great shaking pine, a Krispen of unique historical value is in the possession of the university in Thoren City. Still studied in great detail it tells of the long years of the great shaking. The rings will run this way and that and for a short span run as true as a sea bird in flight to a shore resting place. Then it will run to and fro once again and near the middle is broken and cracked for some of its length. Great teachers know this was near the middle of the great shaking because it is near the middle of the place where the actual stone cinders became embedded. At some places the lines are interrupted with a crack or a burnt piece of stone only to run on in a twisted and contorted manner telling of great trembling in the world.
The tree ends at a point where it was broken from the ground and flung some distance. One side is blackened and charred and the other side has lines telling of the tree’s great fear and its final demise. That tree can also still convey its feelings, a testimony to the great hurt it endured. Many a theologian sitting on its expanse have been overcome with fear, and sadness, and a wanting for all things to become normal again.
That Krispen is perhaps the best known of in all the world. It is a pity that it is a particularly sad tree. Other Krispen know nothing of a shaking or any other movement other than gentle swaying in the mountain winds. Having nice wave like patterns in closely held grain the tree talks of long years brushing the mountain air, running with it, then swaying back to stand tall, only to run with the wind once again. That pattern can be seen to go on for most of the tree’s rings and those trees were indeed, very happy Krispens!
A side note here. Happy Krispens make the best spirits. Brew concocted from those woods make for a cheerful crowd in the mountain pub or tavern and create many sweet dreams for weary travelers. It is a most favored drink at wedding parties throughout the realm!
