“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter
5:8)
―
 |
| A Cold Vigil |
Long ago, we faced north, anxious for coming of the
Barbarian hordes that crashed upon our walls, wave after wave, howling,
bellowing bloodcurdling death songs, the singers eager to join their ancestors
in the afterlife. Now we peer into the south, expecting the bloodthirst euroz
to fall upon us yet, as they have, time and again. They lurk in the heights of
the Rakers, they lurk amid the tall pines of the Loft Hills, waiting for our
patrols to emerge.
We hold the wall. Like our fathers did, and their fathers
did before them, as our sons will when we have fallen in defence of life,
empire, and the cause of liberty.
So it was, so it is, so it will ever be.
 |
| Ratikhill |
Ratikhill (pop, 5,500) [LGG – 89]
Ratik is populated chiefly by folk of Aerdi descent,
with an Oeridian-Suel mix being common. Few Flan are here, though many Fruztii
and some Schnai are present, expatriate farmers from their homelands. Dwarves
and gnomes are numerous in rougher lands. Only humans prefer the coasts, where
their fishing villages are located. Ratik is well settled despite being located
so far north of the population centers of the former Great Kingdom, partly
because so many refugees fled here from Bone March. [LGG – 89]
Some farming is conducted during the short growing
season in the open lands between Marner and Ratikhill. [LGG – 89]
It is a
very much a northern town, despite its southern roots. The snows come early
here and stay long.
The climate of Ratik is wintry much of the year, with
heavy snows swollen with moisture from the Solnor falling steadily during the
height of Telchur's sway. The windswept Timberway remains the greatest focus of
the realm. It is a hunting ground that produces the pelts and furs used widely
in the dress of the nation. It also provides Ratik with its greatest bounty,
the timber and shipbuilding supplies that drive much of the economic activity
of the archbarony. [LGG – 89]
Hard work and windswept bitter cold. That hardens a
people.
They hold the line, the Rakers to the east, the Loftwood
and the Sea to the East.
Rakers (The): A southern arm of the
Griff Mountains which runs downward into the central part of eastern Flanaess
is known as the Rakers, since the tall, sharp peaks seemingly rake the skies. […]
Although infested with humanoids and fearsome creatures, these mountains also
provide a home for a number of groups of dwarves and mountain dwarves. It is
not known how much valuable ore is contained within these peaks. [Folio –
24]
The western border of Ratik is an endless range of
foothills, inhabited by dwarves for millennia. These mountains are dotted with
mines of gold and precious gems situated between citadels of stone that protect
the ways from the denizens of the deep mountains. [LGG – 89]
 |
| The Loftwood |
Loftwood: The small Loftwood lies along
the Solnor Coast between Bone March and Ratik. Its pines were once much prized
for shipbuilding. The site of a great Ratikkan victory over Bone March orcs
(578 CY), the wood was partly despoiled by nonhumans setting fires (584—585
CY). It is once again a battleground between Ratik in the north and orcs and
gnolls in the south. [LGG – 141]
Its southern border is marked by the fortified hills
separating Ratik from Bone March. These extend east all the way out to the
Loftwood, where the hearty woodsmen are allied with the archbarony. [LGG –
89]
Grendep Bay: This great arm of the
Solnor Ocean is crossed by northern barbarians when they raid southwards, and
only they have sure knowledge of the many western inlets and eastern fjords.
During high summer, great sea monsters are often seen sporting in the bay. It
is an unfriendly area in winter as well, when freezing winds churn its waters.
Sea Barons' traders here are raided by Snow and Ice Barbarian ships. [LGG –
147]
While these barriers have profoundly isolated Ratik
from the rest of the Flanaess, they also have served to protect it from
invaders for centuries. [LGG – 89]
It has not always been Aerdian, however.
The Flan have dwelt here for ages, and before them the
dwarves and the gnomes. Until the Suel came.
-423 CY
One of Zellifar's minions, the High Priest
Pellipardus, slips away from the Zolites and takes his minor family to the
Ratik area, in the North. [OJ#1]
Zellifar does not pursue, fearing that this will take
his attention away from the Three Houses of Pursuit: the Schnai, the Fruztii,
and the Cruski. [OJ#11]
-423 to -200 CY
But the Suel did not remain in the Loft Hills. They
spread north.
And then were pressed north by the coming of the
Oeridians.
For two centuries the Oerid and Suel battled each
other and the fragmenting humanoid hordes for possession of the central area of
the Flanaess, incidentally engaging the Flannish and demi-humans. [Folio – 5]
-417 CY
Finding the north all but empty, except for a few
nuisance Flan clans and some scattered Sylvain settlements, the Suel claimed
these empty northern lands for themselves.
The Three Houses of Pursuit move into the Thillonrian
Peninsula. [OJ#1]
The known history of the Suel of the far north is a
combination of legend, myth and tradition. Their earliest tales are of the
battles they fought as they may their way across the Flanaess, dogged by the
Oeridians who allowed them no habitation in the rich central lands. […] The
ancestors of the Suel barbarians hated the Suel nobles and aristocracy almost
as much as they hated foreign races. They acknowledged no masters, and after a
century of travail finally crossed the Rakers into Rhizia. [LGG – 44]
Bresht was founded to protect newly acquired Oeridian
conquests.
The walled town of Bresht was renamed Ratikhill in
honor of the new baron [….] [LGG – 90]
108 CY
 |
| Beleaguered by the Oeridian Invaders |
The Aerdi freed Johnsport in a pitched battle with the
barbarians before the onset of winter. Sensing that this would be only the
first phase of a long struggle, Aerdi commanders summoned thousands of
contingents from North Province over the objections of the herzog, a Hextorian
who had wanted to lead the forces into battle himself. [LGG – 36]
109 CY
With the defeat of the Fruztii at Johnsport, the call
went out that winter, and thousands of their kinsmen poured south along the
Timberway the next year. [LGG – 36]
109 - 110 CY
The Oeridians were victorious, despite hard Suel
resistance. And they meant to have more.
The Aerdi drove the surviving barbarians out of the
hills, controlling the land all the way to the Loftwood by the following
spring. [LGG – 36]
122 CY
But the Suel did not go willingly. Nor did they admit
defeat.
When the Kingdom of Aerdy became an empire, its
leaders determined to crush the troublesome barbarians pushing down from the
Thillonrian Peninsula and settling in the strip of land between the Rakers and
Grendep Bay. [Folio – 9]
 |
| Fortifying Bresht |
Those Fruztii thanes who chose to remain bent the knee to
their new overlords and ruled the lands north of Marner in their stead.
128 CY
The Fruztii north of the Timberway were not defeated. Nor
had they bent the knee. Nor did they admit those lost lands relinquished. They
meant to have them back.
In 128 CY, the Fruztii and Schnai allied to create an
invasion flotilla. They launched a concerted attack on Marner during the spring
that almost caught the Aerdi by surprise. In defense, General Ratik set the
major approaches to the port ablaze, forcing the armada through a narrow
approach where it was cut to pieces by the siege engines of the fort and a
squadron of the imperial navy. [LGG – 90]
130 CY
After a raiding fleet was roundly beaten, the Overking
elevated this general to the nobility, creating him Baron Ratik. [WoGA – 32]
The overking was sufficiently impressed with the
victory that in 130 CY he elevated Pelgrave Ratik to the aristocracy, granting
him the title of baron and the new lands as a personal fief. The family of
Ratik gained the status of a minor noble house within the Great Kingdom. The
walled town of Bresht was renamed Ratikhill in honor of the new baron, and it
quickly prospered from trade with Spinecastle passing through Kalmar Pass. [LGG
– 90]
This did not conquer the Fruztii spirit. They would not relent. If they could not
defeat the Aerdi they would raid them without respite.
130 – 350 CY
Can one separate the history this city from the state? If
not, then the history of Ratik and Ratikhill is very much married with that of
the Bone March. Ratik sprang from the March, after all.
Thereafter a succession of [Pelgrave Ratik’s]
descendants have ruled the fief, bravely combatting raiders so as to gain their
respect and even friendship from some, while humans and demihumans alike
prospered. [WoGA – 32]
The baron and the marquis of Bone March became fast
allies, and their descendants enjoyed a great deal of peace and success over the
next two centuries, needing only to fend off infrequent raids from the
Timberway and the Rakers until the middle of the fourth century CY. [LGG –
90]
Ratikill repurposed. Trade passed its gates and its
garrison dwindled, there being little need for legions when companies sufficed.
353 CY
No sally, no sortie, nor siege had ever dislodged the
Aerdi from Ratikhill. The Rhizians decided to cut Ratik off from its lifeblood
by encircling it. Should the Bone March fall, surely Ratik must, as well.
[A] massive invasion by a unified host of Fruztii and
Schnai threatened to overwhelm the nations and sweep into North Province in 356
CY. The Rax Overking Portillan was concurrently embroiled in a struggle over
the secession of Nyrond and had assembled an invasion force to head west, which
he was forced to divert north to counter the new threat. The attack was soon
turned back, though at great cost. So fierce was the defense of the men and
dwarves of Ratik that even the Fruztii were impressed. [LGG- 90]
450 CY
The Celestial court would accomplish what the Fruztii
could never do. Its myopic rule turned inward, and for centuries the Great
Kingdom waned, shrinking ever smaller. It was only a matter of time before
Marner realized that there could be no help from the Malachite Throne, not
then, not ever. It must look to itself and its closest ally, and none other,
were it to survive.
Ratik and Bone March gained semipalatinate status
following the Turmoil Between Crowns, which saw a shift of power from the
Malachite Throne to the provinces. Few of Ratik's riches headed south in
tribute, and Alain II of Ratik took to calling himself archbaron henceforth. [LGG
– 90,91]
443 CY
In 443 CY, Ivid I set about hunting down and
destroying the remaining Knight Protectors, for they opposed his ascension to
the throne after he assassinated the last Rax overking. He did not succeed in
destroying them, but they were widely dispersed, and some disappeared from the
courts of the provinces to go into hiding. [LGG – 158]
560 – 563 CY
 |
| The Euroz This Way Came |
In 560, nonhuman tribes from the Rakers and Blemu
Hills struck into Bone March, subjugating the land in 563 and slaying its
leaders. [LGG – 91]
When the hordes of humanoids began attacking, Ratik
had ample warning from the dwarves dwelling in the mountains. Companies of men
and gnomes hurried west to aid their countrymen against the invaders, while
couriers were sent south (and north) to alert the people there. Resistance was
so fierce that the area was bypassed, and the attackers fell instead upon the
Bone March. […]
The Baron's forces are able to defend Ratik, but they
are not strong enough to dislodge the humanoids from the mountains of the plain
to the south. [WoGA – 32]
Ratik and its baron, Lexnol III, had been forewarned
and deflected most of the invaders, but could not prevent the disaster that
befell the march. Lexnol, a skilled leader and tactician, realized that he was
now isolated and no succor would be forthcoming from the south or the court of
Overking Ivid V. He approached the lords of Djekul, who had grown less wary of
the proud Aerdi in the intervening years and were even grudgingly respectful.
With the Fruztii, Lexnol forged an affiliation called the Northern Alliance.
Ratik subsequently became fully independent of the Great Kingdom and had the
might to both hammer the orcs and gnolls of Bone March and dissuade an invasion
from North Province. [LGG – 91]
The isolated barony has since been ruled as a fief
palatine. [WoGA – 32]
563 CY
Most Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom live now
in Ratik, refugees from Bone March, where Clement was a powerful member of the
order until the province's fall in 563 CY. [LGG – 158]
580 CY
The successful alliance of the Barony of Ratik and the
Frost Barbarians has caused much consternation in Bone March (and among the
Baron of Ratik's political enemies in Rauxes). The tribes of the Bone March are
still smarting from the drubbing they received last year from the combined
Ratik-Fruztii armies, so the evil leaders of the humanoids have determined that
the northern alliance must be dissolved. Certain espionage elements in Marner
that usually work for the Overking were contacted, and an agreement was
reached. In a daring raid, the Seal of the Alliance was stolen from the
Baronial Vault. This symbolic parchment was endorsed and blessed by the gods of
both Ratik and Fruztii, and the superstitious Frost Barbarians place great
store in its continued safety. Once it is learned that the men of Ratik were
unable to keep it safe, the alliance will probably fall apart. or at least be
greatly damaged. The Seal is now being taken to Spinecastle, where it will be
displayed and its theft publicly announced. [WoGG – 29,30]
However, regaining the Seal will not be easy, for the
thieves and assassins from Marner are now riding with an armed group that was
waiting for them with the border guard.
This group includes:
- 24 ores, including some leader types.
- An evil human magic-user of high level, with
appropriate magic items. (He now carries the Seal.)
- 5 ogres, all well-armed and armored.
- A charmed minotaur which protects and obeys the
magic-user. [WoGG – 30]
 |
| In Hot Pursuit |
In 580 CY, intruders from Bone March attempted an audacious act of treachery by stealing the Seal of Marner, an object blessed by the gods of the Suel barbarians that was the symbol of the new Northern Alliance. [LGG – 36,37]
Rangers were
deployed from Ratikill in hot pursuit of the thieves.
The plot was foiled when the raiding party was
captured in Kalmar Pass before making it back to Spinecastle with their prize. [LGG – 36,37]
[The] Seal of Marner was stolen by agents of Bone
March, an effort by the nonhumans to quash the alliance between Ratik and the
Frost Barbarians. The document was recovered before it was secreted to
Spinecastle, but not before news of the theft drove a small wedge between the
Fruztii and Ratikans. [LGG – 37]
582 CY
If the theft had driven a small wedge between Ratik and
the Fruztii it also increased their resolve. The Northern Alliance sought to
drive the euroz from the Loft Hills and the Loftwood, once and for all.
The alliance between Ratik and the Frost Barbarians
against the humanoids of the Bone March has born fruit over years of
cooperation. The forces of Ratik now occupy the Loftwood and are preparing for
a major assault on the city of Johnsport, backed by a naval attack along the
coast to the east. [WGS1 – 4]
586 CY
Had they tempered that resolve, if only a little.
Infighting soon broke out between several of the
nonhuman tribes, and the sides remained stalemated until 586 CY, when Alain IV,
Archbaron Lexnol's son and heir, launched a raid into the fallen realm that was
composed in large part of expatriates of the march, it was a doomed mission.
The unusually organized nonhumans laid a trap for the force in the hills north
of Spinecastle. Horrified survivors who escaped back to Ratikhill reported that
the trapped raiders were dragged from their horses, torn apart, and eaten alive
before their eyes. [LGG – 37]
587 CY
Alain’s death rejuvenated the euroz. They began inching
forward into the Loft Hills and Loftwood once again, testing Ratikhill’s
defences.
Raids into the archbarony from Bone March have
resumed. [LGG – 37]
590 CY
Folks living along the southern reaches of Ratik have
always lived with the threat of humanoid incursions from occupied Bone March,
across the Rakers. Ratikhill has stood at the mouth of the Kalmar pass—a great
barrier against these evil waves. As Telchur’s frozen breath comes across Grendep
Bay once again, the armies from the south move through the pass, towards
Ratikhill’s great walls. To the east, the foresters of the Loftwood report that
various orc and gnoll clans are gathering. With the bulk of Ratik’s army
stationed at Ratikhill, many fear that the militia of House Bredivan may not be
able to hold the Loftwood border. [LGJ#2 – 30]
591 CY
 |
| We Stand the Wall |
Attacks against the borders of Ratik have besieged the
militia of the northern and southern nobles over the past several months. Lives
have been lost. Lumber production in the Timberway and Loftwood has plummeted.
All the while, Archbaroness Evaleigh has done nothing. The Council of Lords
pleads and demands for decisive action to no avail. The majority of the army
remains entrenched at Ratikhill to support the Bone March campaign, while the
Lords of ratik sacrifice their own troops in the country’s defence. Finally,
some of the noble houses have begun to plot more immediate and drastic action.
At the same time, the plummeting economy and lack of trade has driven the
various guild members to take actions of their own. The throne of the
Archbarony, the noble Council of Lords, and the merchant guilds appear to be
deploying for and internal conflict which could devastate the country more than
any invading army. [LGJ#4 – 30]
What will become of Ratikhill, one wonders?
Do not despair.
We stand the wall, they would say, for life,
empire, and the cause of liberty, like our fathers did, and their
fathers did before them, as our sons will when we have fallen.
So it was, so it is, so it will ever be.
“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
―
One must always give credit where
credit is due. This piece is made possible primarily by the Imaginings of Gary
Gygax and his Old Guard, Lenard Lakofka among them, and the new old guards,
Carl Sargant, James Ward, Roger E. Moore. And Erik Mona, Gary Holian, Sean
Reynolds, Frederick Weining. The list is interminable.
Special thanks to Jason Zavoda for his
compiled index, “Greyhawkania,” an invaluable research tool.
The Art:
World of Greyhawk map detail, by Darlene, from the Folio, 1980
Sources:
1015
World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983
2023
Greyhawk Adventures Hardback, 1988
1064
From the Ashes Boxed Set, 1992
9025
World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
9317
WGS1 Five Shall be One, 1991
11743
Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, 2000
Living
Greyhawk Journal, #2, #4
Oerth
Journal, #1, #11
Greychrondex,
Wilson, Steven B.
Greyhawkania, Jason Zavoda
The map of Anna B. Meyer
