Tepest

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Tepest
Culture Level Early Medieval (6)[1]
Ecology Full[1]
Climate & Terrain Temperate forests and hills[1]
Year Formed 691 BC[2][3]
Population 15,500, not including a population of 2900 goblins[1]
Races (%) Humans 99%, Other 1%[1]
Languages Tepestani*, Darkonese, Vaasi, Sylvan[1]
Religions Church of Belenus*, Church of Ezra, Church of the Lawgiver[1]
Government Aristocratic and theocratic independent settlements[1]
Ruler(s) No central ruler[1]
Darklord(s) The Three Hags of Tepest[4]
Nationality Tepestani[1]
Analog Salem Witch Trials, fairly tale Ireland, the stories of the Brothers Grimm[5]
Related Categories
Locations in Tepest
Transportation in Tepest
Inhabitants of Tepest
Former Inhabitants of Tepest
Flora of Tepest
Fauna of Tepest
Native Monsters of Tepest


"It may be a great advance in knowledge not to believe in [Satanic] witches; there is no moral advance in not executing them when you do not think they are there." --C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity


Things, Creatures & Personnages of Legend

Biology

Flora

Fauna

  • Wolves

Native Horrors

Geography

Tepest map by the MCS. Note: Since this fan-made map predates 3rd Edition Ravenloft, there are some inconsistencies with the more recent maps.


Weather

Terrain

Mountains and Hills

Tepest is described in the Gazetteer V as mostly averaging between 800 and 800 feet above sea level with a single peak in the north (by northeast) of nearly 1,500 feet.[7] The map from the Black Box edition has most of Tepest at between 501 and 1,000 feet, four or five uplands regions (southeast, south, southwest, north by northeast, and northeast) between 1,000 and 2,500 feet, and with a peak on the north by northeast region climbing over 2,500 feet but not surpassing 5,000 feet. The map from the Red Box edition displays this peak as being of far less significance than Mount Lament (4,730 feet) in the neighbouring domain of Keening.

Canyons

The Shadow Rift, the mother of all canyons

Forests[8]

The forests of Tepest are ancient. The trees are hardwoods, principally oak, beech and hazelnut, with the occasional spruce or pine. Inexplicably, the trees tend to grow strong, healthy, bent and warped all at once, often with gnarled branches that are so twisted as to recall withered hands. They grow so thickly over head as to condemn the forest floor to perpetual gloom.

  • The Wormwood stands south of the South Dnar River in southeastern Tepest and reaches across the frontier into Nova Vaasa where it gradually thins and ultimately gives way to the Elendighedmark ("Plain of Misery"). It harbours goblins, Hala's witches, Vaasi bandits (near its eastern fringes), and the three hag sisters (at is heart) who are the Darklords of Tepest.[9]

Lakes

The Kronov which never freezes

Communication

Rivers

Dnar River System

The Sydligdnar ("South Dnar River") is navigable, although not without difficulty in both directions owing to its current, with small ships between the Nocturnal Sea and the docks at Kantora. With the right winds, the Sydligdnar can be sailed. Otherwise it must be rowed. The Vaughn Dnar and the Dnar are too deep to be forded as they merge to form the Sydligdnar. Bridges consistent with small ships pose a manifest engineering problem, but none are mentioned, so ferry service for river crossings would make sense. A ferry service is known to exist between the docks of Kantora and the port of Guldstrand Beach on the sea at the foot of Egertus.

The Vaughn Dnar River is navigable, although surely with progressively smaller craft as one climbs past the Borchava River and the Trished River on the way to Liara. The Vaughn Dnar is not navigable in Tepest as its waters plunge through shallow but sinuous and boulder strewn gorges.

The East Timori Road remains on the south shore of the Vaughn Dnar from Kantora until just after the Trished River, inviting the hypothesis that at that point either the Vaughn Dnar becomes fordable or has a bridge thrown across it that doesn't greatly harm river traffic. To reach that point, the East Timori Road crosses the Borchava River, suggesting that the Borchava is either more fordable than the Vaughn Dnar or that a bridge thrown across the Borchava would do less harm to river traffic than one thrown over the Vaughn Dnar. In Liara there is at least one bridge over the Vaughn Dnar. There are four ancient stone bridges built over the river between the Tepestani frontier and Lake Kronov.

Roads

Note: Efforts, subject to continual sabatoge, are underway to cut a road through Tepest and Keening to the Strigos Road in Darkon.

Fractures

Principe one to and from Shadow Rift

Landmarks

Frontiers

Darkon

? The Forgotten Hills

Nova Vaasa

The Shadow Rift

? The Vaesen Foothills of northwestern Nova Vaasa are the foothills of the Balinoks from vanished Markovia. They front the Shadow Rift.

Population Distribution

Towns

Villages

Authority

Darklord

Temporal Rule

Legendary

Contempory

Spiritual Rule

Legendary

Contempory

Church and State

Government

Law

Law-Enforcement

Extra-Judicial

Intelligence Gathering

Military Footing

Casus belli

Past

Present

  • Repeated attacks by an unidentified party (or parties) on Vaasi efforts to cut a road through Tepest into Keening and on to the Strigos Road in Darkon. There is discussion among the Nova Vaasans of the need to civilize the Tepestani.

Future

Language & Culture

Gods and Religions

God - Focus - Domains

Inns & Taverns

NPC

Chronology


References

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Ravenloft Third Edition
Domains of Dread
Darklords
The Shadow Rift
Servants of Darkness

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp7,51-54
Ravenloft Third Edition - pp15,17-19,141-142
Domains of Dread - pp38-39
Ravenloft Campaign Setting:Domains and Denizens - p31
Darklords - pp40-41
Realm of Terror - pp79-80
The Shadow Rift - pp8-56
Servants of Darkness - p3

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp8-9
Ravenloft Third Edition - inside cover
Domains of Dread - pp26-27
Ravenloft Campaign Setting - poster map
Darklords - p39
Realm of Terror - poster map
The Shadow Rift - p24
Servants of Darkness - poster map