Yesterday, someone asked for more resources about the Hold of the Sea Princes in the GHO Discord server / channel. I compiled the links below when preparing for my Hold campaign in 2020. (Some are annotated, but most are not.) If you have further sources to add, please do so!
Mortellan, Sheldomar Timeline (Nov. 2004), http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=782 (discussing Samwise’s timeline and related articles, particularly regarding the Rhola and the Toli, different justifications for the development of Keolandish, and explaining that “Keogh” is Old Oeridian for something equivalent to “allies, companions, or friends.” Thus, “The Keogh tribe of the Oeridians just means ‘The Allies.’ Keoland, or Keogh-rond in Old Oeridian, is ‘The Land of the Allies.’”).
smillan_31, Yapa Yaya: Mary Vale and the Olman of Monmurg (Aug. 2006), http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2113 (discussing Wolfsire’s article on Mary Vale, my ideas about Oerthly creolization or mestizaje among the slaves of the Hold of the Sea Princes, Wolfsire’s views on the Olman in Monmurg, my views on the indigenous Flan of the Hold, and different views regarding the relationship between the Olman and Touv in Hepmonaland and the Hold).
This looks to be ambitious. I never thought there were so many resources for the Hold of the Sea Princes. I'm sure there are more, I just can't add any yet.
I did a Keoish Intelligence Report from the Sea Princes. It is nominally set in the time period after the Greyhawk Wars, but the locations can be modified to fit any timeline you wish.
Thanks for that! It took me a while to find it (Players Guide : Sea Princes) rather than in (Geography), but that was a lovely stroll down memory lane in the old Codex of Greyhawk website, and even my quick skim revealed that Erik included interesting details (e.g., about the Battle of Jetsom Island) that I either have not prior read (or forgot).
I've saved a copy and will be sure the read it more closely. Iquander's NPC Personage, Aine DeSalaenan, is particularly interesting . . .
Artharn encouraged me to post here what I shared on the CF! Discord server a day or two ago. See below for a draft of my history of Poniard, a large town on the northern coast of Flotsom Island, which Gary Holian created and Anna Meyer includes on her map of the Flanaess.
N.B. Besides Holian's works, this draws from Samwise's expanded "Grand Sheldomar Timeline" series and "Rhola and the Toli - Battle for Jeklea Bay" article (all published here on CF!). Also, I created the Count's name, Moreth, after being inspired by Mortellan's "Unconquered Hold of the Sea Princes" OJ #32 article (although Mortellan's familial name for the Counts of Poniard is Moretto, which is a little too Earthly, i.e., Italian, for my taste.)
The paragraphs below focus on Poniard's founding and ruling family. Eventually, I'll likely submit a longer treatment to one of our online fan publications (or possibly publish on a new blog?). Anyhow, enjoy, ask questions, share comments, etc.
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Poniard’s fortune has waxed and waned over almost six centuries. In CY 7, the king of Keoland, Luschan III, of House Rhola, led a massive invasion force to seize Flotsom Island in preparation for yet another siege of Port Toli. Their landing place was a favorable north shore anchorage near the mouth of a stream, where an indigenous islander village had stood before repeated Toli raids drove its survivors inland. After King Luschan decreed the founding of a fort to protect the anchorage, he charged a cousin, Moreth [Sellark / Vilchar(?)], also of House Rhola, to oversee its construction, and left to fight the Toli fleet and besiege their city. Unfortunately, King Luschan succumbed to a vile necromantic plague, but his son, Malv III (The Explorer), succeeded him, continued the siege, and forced the Toli surrender under treaty in CY 9.
On the king’s return to the north shore of Flotsom Island, he found a small, well-built keep, “Fort Poniard,” commanding the anchorage, amidst the outworks of a large castle, with a thriving village nearby. Pleased, he ennobled his cousin, Moreth as the Count of Poniard and charged him to settle all of Flotsom Island, which hid myriad pirate coves, especially on its eastern and southern shores, and remained wild in its interior. Poniard Keep soon anchored a large castle, and its village grew quickly in its first decades, in part because the king amply resourced it to maintain a secure base from which to monitor the Toli, expand mercantile expeditions across the Azure Sea—especially Jeklea Bay—and explore the Amedio Jungle. Thus, castle and village grew into the town of Poniard.
Growth began to slow in CY 30, however, when Keoland established Port Remdi, at an anchorage near the future location of the city of Monmurg, and basically stopped in CY 42, when the kingdom completed its new naval base. Seven years later, King Malv went missing during an expedition to the Densac Gulf, and Keoland’s Great Slumbering began: over the next two centuries, the Neheli kings neglected their southern holdings, and Poniard’s population barely grew. While it was as an important waypoint between the mainland kingdom and the Amedio Jungle, it occasionally suffered population loss from hurricane, disease, or pirate raid (often from Port Toli, Jakana, and beyond).
Notwithstanding its changing fortunes, Poniard has served as the seat of the county and its Moreth dynasty for almost six centuries—even after the formal declaration of the “Sea Princes” in CY 444—thanks to the secret allegiance that then-Count Úlfur Moreth pledged to Luschan Vilchar V, the eponymous Sea Prince (and former Rholan Duke of Gradsul) . . .
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