A Guide to Normar

A Guide to Normar, Regulum Ecklethorpe, 4E 3

Normar: desolate land of song and chant. Though agriculture is scarce in the barren, lifeless land, it is the spiritual heart of High Rock, named after the towering spires of Normar Heights. The peoplein Normar are known for their music, festive dancing, and a culture steeped in Druidic traditions. Few ever travel there, no doubt due to the harsh and merciless terrain. Its holds range from necromantic meccas to mathemagical citadels.

Some scholars have identified the area as Rivenspire for the crested mountains where Normar Heights can be found. Rivenspire is the more cosmopolitan name, but Normar is the name most associated with the spiritualistic lives of the Bretons who live there. Along its edges lies the Wrothgarian mountains, and the city of Orsinium, and the orcs against whom the Normari have fought for generations. Stretching in all directions from there are the infertile multi-hued wastes for which Normar is famous for. Desolate and demanding, they fiercely tear away the lives of the travellers who pass through.

These wastes, which likely inspired the famous words “oasis is ever a prayer,” hold the fallen remnants of many a kingdom. The dry sands have been known to preserve the bodies of the dead in some places, and it is rumored that those from Normar have a strong relationship with necromancy. At the very least, the region has become home to many tombs and mausoleums, including the famous Crypt of Hearts. These burial sites are used often by various nobles, although Kings and other prominent figures, such as the line long established in Daggerfall, are known to have their own family crypts.

It should also be noted that the wastes have been known to release strange aetherial-strands, which flow in numerous directions. Those skilled enough in mysticism can attune themselves to their flow, and following them has become a sort of tradition, as the beaten trails are shaped to meet them. For many esoteric reasons, a “pilgrim’s path” of sorts is begun at the Bjoulsae, and is usually only followed to Shornhelm. Some who walk the length of this journey claim that they can see other worlds. Forested worlds. Oases dotting the maps. Some appear in a haze like the mirages that are said to arise at the Alik’r desert. Scholars such as Bertrand Denselbeck however, seem to believe that these visions are very much alive. An image of the bright and cheerful world before an old war machine reduced it all to dust and ash.

Far to the south at the edge lies Camlorn, which many would argue is more connected to the Iliac. However, they do hold stock in the soothsayers and druids of Ykalon, even if they are more...monetarily minded. Famous for being the center of institutional magickal studied, the accountimancers of Camlorn are bookish and single-mindedly thorough in their transactions. Anything with magickal properties is valued in Camlorn, and they had a large museum of magickal artifacts before the Warp, which was presumably destroyed, although a curator was found in a ditch outside the former location some eight years later, and hadn’t aged a day. The nobility of the Sorcerocrat disposition take their lead from nobles in Camlorn, buying tunics and dresses and masks and suits from them, effectively outfitting their entire household every time the fashion changes. Camlorn with its its rune-carved spires and sprawling castles and marketplace are certainly a site to behold, but keeping an eye on your purse is a must for any traveller.

The heart of Normar is Shornhelm. Known for being the city in charge of keeping the Crypt of Hearts, it is a place famous for its warriors, who deal with orcs, or sell their skills as mercenaries to fight off Reachmen. Many Bretons who have fought in the Imperial City’s Arena hail from Shornhelm, and the unusually martial culture is the real military strength of Normar. Warriors in Camlorn are often forced to travel elsewhere due to the inability of Shornhelm to financially support a standing army, and the pay in the Legions or on the high-roads of Dunlain is a much better life thank fruitlessly working the barren land. Their main army is small, but composed of veterans intended to keep away the savage orcs so close to their borders. Ironic then, that the name of the city was born from the fractured helm of an orc chieftain who had razed 27 breton villages. The warriors chose to settle the land there and named the city after their victory. Not everyone wishes for a military life however, and many scavenge old ruins and sell what they find as a profit, even going as far as Camlorn to do so. Because of this, they are able to bring in trade despite their isolation from many other trade routes. Their determination is unyielding.

The northernmost city of Normar is Northpoint. Trading dust for tundra, it is an ancient town that was built along with the Dorells by migrating Nords who then mixed with the Nedic population. They would later constitute the Montclair noble family. Strange for a Nord family to have a Breton name, but the Montclair are “shorry” snakes, untrustworthy, and prone to all manner of nasty behavior. The bloodfeuds between those families and the smaller noble houses of Northpoint, have been the source of many a tragedy. The traveller may choose to avoid declaring a side when asked, but one must still be careful. For some, a non-ally is an enemy all the same.

Direnni architecture can be found around the area, as well as nordic barrows and monuments. To the west of it, there is even a barrow the locals call Tuameath that curiously is patterned in a Direnni style, although its origin is unknown. The streets of Northpoint are filled with limb-shops for their necromantic thralls, who are used to help eke out an agricultural yield in the harsh terrain. Also, the staple beast of burden in Normar, the Seanachai were supposedly first discovered near Normar, and are bred there in high quantities. Rumours of the occasional Sload abound, and many a merchant who travels by sea on their way to either Solitude or Sentinel find it best to stay in the merchant district.

Normar also is rumoured to hold a few villages of Dremora dressing in ordinary clothing, though they remain unverified. While famous characters such as Velehk Sain have existed, it is not common for Dremora to find living the lifestyle of the mortal races all that interesting, let alone actually have villages to dot the dusty terrain. Some say it could be the visions of the wastes, while some swear under blood oaths that they are really out there.

Finally, I should mention that while the heart of Normar is Shornhelm, its soul is in the forests of Ykalon, tended to by the druids who live there. The druids are recognized as authorities on enlightenment in nearly all of High Rock, having been called upon in the past by their cousins, the Reachmen for aid against the Empress Hestra. They have few actual ties to the Reach however, and simply live wild lives in solitude with the elements. The legends of them abound, ranging from transformations into myriads of creatures, and even the ability to see into the past. Some say they believe that the oaks hold the spirits of their ancestors, and that they take in their spirit to scry the patterns of the stars. Ykalon was almost completely razed in the Warp, but has regrown with startling speed. The surviving druids are lead by an upstart sect known as the “Déisiniach” (which roughly translates to “the Revolting,” in either sense of the word), who call themselves “the architects of the new Y’ffre, reborn from the ruins of the old by the Shape of Return.” This marks the first occasion in centuries that a major change in the druidic hierarchy has been observed, and seems to be the beginning of a massive cultural shift in Ykalon, uncharacteristic of the ultraconservative druids. Whatever the truth, they are prominent figures in High Rock, and often counsel and advise rulers in their dealings, even after the devastation they felt in the Warp.

From the crests of high mountains to the wastes and tundra of Northpoint, no one can deny the spiritual world that the Normari live in despite the desolation. While many Bretons can hold claim to their many services, quests, lineages, and kingdoms, few can survive and strive to conquer nature like the Bretons of Normar. However, like everything in High Rock, there is a complex culture and people lurking beneath any mundane surface, and the only norm is peculiarity in the highest form. A wise traveller will keep this in mind as they travel the vast expanses of ancient Normar.