THE RUINS OF CAER MEJETUS 1

aer Mejetus is a monument to the hubris of one man, Mejenes,

Emperor of the Corani. He believed, despite Kuboran revolts,
and economic, political and religious tensions, that he was
destined to rule an ever greater empire.
In 465 he met his end here, not in battle, but from an infected
wound. As the life seeped out of him he raged against his doctors, his
priests, and the fates, for denying him his place in history. Heroic legionary
survivors of the slaughter that accompanied the retreat from Mejetus
carried a casket of bones collected from the imperial funeral pyre to
Coranan. There, as they were interred, he was christened the Great.
His failure left the fort to the Equani who used it to stage raids against
the gargun of Yzug and the Urdu. Today it is occupied by the tribes warcult, the Shevrach, and has a dark ritual purpose. They name it Brnid Mrw,
the Hill of Undying.

HISTORY
The Empire first occupied Mejetus in about 460; it was one of several
outposts on the west bank of the Pemetta and Suthen rivers. It was unusual
only because of the wide ford across the Suthen that gave access to Equeth.
A naval expedition brought engineers, masons and a small group of
scholars to undertake a more detailed survey in 463. Shortly afterwards a
military road was cut through the Peran wilderness from Caer Kustan. The
first full cohort arrived in the Autumn of 463 and building began in earnest.
When Emperor Mejenes arrived in late 464 the saddle of land beside the
fort was easily able to accommodate the legion he led. He was
accompanied by Urdu auxiliaries his charisma had recruited. As soon as he
arrived Mejenes ordered the ford to be improved and a bridge was begun in
anticipation of a crossing into Equeth; he did not intend to stay at Mejetus
long. Before the bridge was completed Mejenes was dead, the Urdu
alienated, and Caer Mejetus sacked.
Since then the fort has been swallowed by the forest it was painstakingly
cut free of. A barely discernible ditch and the rotting timber of its fallen
palisade are all that remain of its stout fortifications. The Equani looted and
occupied the fort when the legion left, beginning a tradition of Spring and
Summer visits. Over time it has become associated with the Equani war
cult, the Shevrach, and home to its shaman. It is this that fuels its dark
reputation among the Urdu.
While any attack by the Equani is fierce, the depredations of Shevrachi
raiders from Mejetus are terrifying. Any prisoners taken by the Equani
expects a hard death but what the Shevrachi leave in the forest around the
ruined fort displays such cruel imagination that Urdu have killed one
another rather than be taken there alive to Grch Fnos, the Haunt of Night.

THE LOCAL AREA

[1] The Ford: the River Suthen is wide and shallow at this point. Melting
snows from Mount Echephon make it difficult to cross in early Spring
because of the freezing water, rather than its depth, which rarely reaches
above the chest. During the rest of the year it is much shallower and in the
driest of summers a traveller might pick a route across that kept their feet
almost dry. A little digging in the sand and gravel will reveal the
foundations of the Corani bridge that was started but never finished.
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Finding the ruins

Cartographers in the Thardic Republic
often speculate on the location of
Mejetus. However, precise knowledge of
its location was lost during the bookburnings of the Balshan Jihad.
There have been recent rumours of a
contemporary account of a journey to
Mejetus. They hint that it includes
sufficient detail to enable an explorer to
find the ruins. It is also known that
Emperor Mejenes planned a route that
would have linked Mejetus to the heart of
the Empire. Though work on a road
certainly started records of where it
started and how far it got, have been lost.
A few Ivinian shipmasters claim to have
taken their ships up the Pemetta and
some boast of having found Mejetus.
None, though, can produce any of its
rumoured treasures as evidence.
The Gargun of Yzug avoid the old fort.
The memories they are born with
associate the ruins with pain and death.
The Kubora of the Afarezirs have legends
from the time when the Corani navy
explored the region but do not even
recognise the word Mejetus. Other
Kuboran tales mention Mejetus but
concentrate on the fall of Kustan.
Equani warriors inducted into the
Shvrach are told of Brnid Mrw, and
urged to visit it. They will not share what
they know on pain of death.
The Urdu contending with the Equani for
dominance of the valley of the River
Suthen also know where to find the ruins
of Mejetus. They avoid the ruin and
warn travellers to do the same. To them
it is Grch Fnos, the Haunt of Night, a
place of terror and pain.

WRITER
Alun Rees
MAPS
Alun Rees
CONTRIBUTORS
Anders Bersten
Neil Thompson
Andy Gibson
Playtesters at IviniaCon
& the Harnwriter Group

A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2015

THE RUINS OF CAER MEJETUS 2

The Equani and Urdu both use the ford when raiding but the Urdu
approach it along the river bank, avoiding the well-trodden path that
disappears into the trees and leads to the ruins. The rock and rubble strewn
apron below the outcrop is passable but the footing becomes increasingly
uncertain as it steepens.

The Shevrach

[2] The gateway to Brnid Mrw: As the path winds up through the
trees and scrub it becomes clear that this is no ordinary trail. The smell,
which permeates the forest for a hundred paces down wind, is what the
visitor notices first. Then they see the captured clothing and weapons left
hanging on branches by departing Shevrachi along with scalps they have
taken. Then, at a point where the path divides, it widens into a ceremonial
space. A heavy stone trough salvaged from the fort is kept full of sand and
dried river muck in which arriving Shevrachi wash, as is their habit, before
proceeding to the ruins themselves.

The Shervrach first appears in Kuboran

and Urdu oral histories in the decades
leading up to the fall of Caer Kustan.

This is also where the Shevrachi display their imaginative use of death to
terrify their enemies. The corpses hung here, whole or jointed, flayed or
burned, provide a pervasive, sickly smell of death. The sour tones of decay
and the musky scent of the animals that come here to feed add a subtle, but
unpleasant, undertone. Each tree, with its grisly decoration, is home to
large numbers of carnivorous bats, called cribog, that range across the forest
from dusk each night.
The saddle of the hill to the west was the site of the main legion camp
but the well-worn trail turns east between the rotted remains of the barely
recognisable towers that once framed the forts lost gates.
[3] The Shevrachi camp: Once the wooden walls ringing the top of the
outcrop carried watchful legionaries 15 feet above a deep defensive ditch.
They looked down on the slopes that had been cleared to provide timber
and a campground for Urdu auxiliaries. Now the ditch is clogged with scrub
and trees, while the logs of the fallen palisade can be mistaken for ancient
tree trunks, matted with moss and lichen and home to crawling and buzzing
insects of all kinds. They constitute an obstacle to anyone clambering up
the slopes, a latrine for visiting Shervachi, and home to Harnic adders.
Had the legionary strayed from his duty and looked down into the fort,
over the stables and storerooms abutting the inner face of the walls, he
would have seen the neat rows of barracks that housed the legions elite.
Today they are no more than piles of burned logs and rotted wood among
the scrub and trees that have swallowed the ruins of Mejetus.
Only the space at the centre of the fort, where the Emperors bodyguard
once paraded, remains cleared today. It is fringed by the rough hide huts
that house visiting Shevrachi, with a large fire pit at the centre. A larger hut
at the far end of the camp is reserved for high status warriors willing to fight
for the privilege of sleeping close to Tnid Csgod.
[4] Tnid Csgod, the House of Shadows: A cookhouse, officers
quarters, and the legionss administration once stood here overlooking the
River Suthen. The buildings were burned during the sack leaving only postholes and a dry stone wall atop the cliff to indicate anything was ever here.

The Equani war cult has come to lie at

the heart of their culture and is made up
of warriors who compete to join, and
remain part of, this elite brotherhood.

Shevrach may be a corruption of the

Old Jarinese phrase sedory rach; 'deadly
shades'. Urdu myths describe the Sedory
Rach as ghostly creatures of the night
that fall upon isolated hunters and rip out
their spirits. The corpse that remains is
left to wander the forests for eternity
killing indiscriminately in search of a new
soul. It is never clear from the stories
whether the Shevrachi are the ghostly
soul-hunters, or the soulless killers. Their
reputation for merciless ferocity and the
awful acts they perpetrate on their
victims makes either interpretation
plausible. Shevrachi warriors are said to
fear death as a dead man fears death; not
at all. Southern scholars who have
heard these tales see echoes of
Morgathian rites that replace a mans
soul with the Shadow of Bukrai.
The Kubora and the Urdu share an origin
in Nuthela with the Equani and have
many cultural practices in common. All
three peoples tell similar stories of the
journey to Equeth and then Peran, and
the guide that led them. He is called
Akala Strong Heart by the Equani and
Kemlar the Guide by the Kubora and
Urdu, but equally revered by all. The
threatened desecration of his barrow at
Kustan was why some Equani joined
Nebran Bndbreaker in the alliance that
destroyed Caer Kustan. However, the
Kubora and Urdu have nothing akin to
the Shevrach; its cultural origin remains a
mystery.
Every Equani tribe has its own fiercely
independent Shevrach but all are
respectful of Brnid Mrw a place all
hope to visit and raid from. It clearly
holds symbolic and ritual importance to
the war-cult as they maintain a shaman
here all year round.

The Corani found well laid courses of stone near the clifftop and used
them as the foundation of the wooden pavilion they erected for their
Emperor. The building survived the sack almost intact but time has taken a
toll. While the Shevrachi consider it a duty to maintain the structure, they
lack of skill to do it well or the inclination to learn how to do it better.
A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2015

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THE RUINS OF CAER MEJETUS 3

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A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2015

THE RUINS OF CAER MEJETUS 4

THE HOUSE OF SHADOWS

The original logs cut by the Corani still constitute the walls, though
patched and kept watertight with moss, mud and animal skins. The pitched
roof has suffered more; the skins tied in place over the original wooden
shingles struggle to keep out the rain.
[a] Durik, the Shaman: The ornate front face of the pavilion is obscured
by a crude lean-to of Equani construction. It is decorated with the scalps
and heads, often rotted to bone white skulls, of notable victims.
This squalid place is home to Durik, the principal Shevrachi shaman, and
the two nameless youths who serve him while preparing to replace him. He
considers the youths disposable and nearly a dozen have perished over his
long life. They are replaced at his request by boys brought by visiting
warriors. Some have died while hunting, or perhaps they ran away, while
the harsh winters have claimed several. At least when they freeze to death
he is left with meat for his larder. He and the youths are brought food
offerings, and other gifts, by the Shevrachi who visit Brnid Mrw.
[b] The Altar, the Throne, and the Curtain: In return for the gifts they
bring visiting Shevrachi expect guidance. This Durik obtains by communing
with his god, Ndmarw the Undying One, who will emerge from beyond the
curtain at the far end of the audience chamber when respectfully called.
Durik has listened to everything the Undying One has said over the
years, and ensures that every raid yields at least one captive for the altar
stone that dominates the audience chamber. Ritual requires that he keeps
the guttering candles of human fat lit so the stone is always illuminated.
They also ensure that supplicants have a poor view of the Throne and
Curtain in the shadows beyond the Altar.
Only warriors of great renown are invited to enter the presence of the
Undying One. They report that he sits on the shadowed Throne draped in a
bear skin of deepest, glossy, black and wearing a mask; to look on his face is
certain death. The chamber is decorated with twelve skins on which, Durik
says, the god has drawn scenes from his life before he became a god.
Durik tells the Shevrach what he was told by the shaman he replaced,
that the Curtain is the flayed skin of an enemy. It shows the outline of a
man with a black circle in the centre of his chest; a symbol the Shevrach
have adopted as their own. It is represented in their rituals by the earth and
mud in which they bathe. The circle is unbreakable, like the unity of the
Shevrach. It also signifies the dark end that is death; something that no
Shervachi fears. They know that Ndmarw will judge whether to allow them
to join Akala Strong Heart in the afterlife or stay with him in the shadows.
When a youth the old man was warned by the shaman that taught him
that he would never make the Undying One happy, and so it has proven.
Each time he sacrifices the captives as instructed; each time the captive dies
but the god is displeased. Durik believes the Undying One seeks a
particular spirit and the ones he has tasted so far have displeased him. He
continues to do his best knowing that he is doomed to fail. He understands
that nothing he does will make a difference to his fate. He will be killed by a
would-be successor as he killed his predecessor. It is such fatalism, sitting
at the root of their belief, which makes the Shevrach so dangerous in war.
No Equani has passed beyond the Curtain since the sack of Mejetus.
Durik speculates that it is the gateway to the Shadow World where the
Undying One rules over the souls he decides to keep.
A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2015

The Legend of Ndmarw

Told to the Urdu by a dying Shevrachi.
When Wetok was chief among the People of
the Great River, a scourge came out of the
late sun. They were men who wasted metal
on their heads and bodies which the People
used only for spears and axes. Their like
had not been seen since the Men who walked
beneath the Mountains had been slaughtered
by the Filth of the High Places.
These incomers came with the People of the
Late Sun to make war on the People. They
broke the pledge given by Akala Strong
Heart that all the lands up to the Brad River
were for the People. Those of the Late Sun
were ever treacherous and coveted what the
People had, just as they did before the
Passage.
When the chief of the Metal Men was killed
by a brave warrior of the People, they fled
west and were betrayed by those of the Late
Sun. The People took what they needed
from their camp and burned the rest. Only
one place did they leave untouched.
The warriors of the People are the bravest
but, when only one returned from the
Shadows, they let it be. Instead they made
sport of the cowering creature they had
found. He took days to die, his body
crumbling into the fires they built around
him. How could they know who he was?
A Moon later the dead man walked naked
into the camp and they killed him again;
and again; and again. They killed him
quickly and slowly; with fire and water; with
stones and blades. Each time he crumbled to
dust only to return again, and again, and
again.
Finally they let him walk through the camp
to the House of Shadows. When they gave
him offerings he took one of the People as his
servant. The Shevrach have learned much
from these servants. They are made mighty
by the prayer to the Undying One, to
Ndmarw:

Ndmarws Prayer
I believe in myself; nothing is stronger than
Ndmarw.
I believe in my cunning; none are as cunning
as those who follow Ndmarw.
I am invincible; nothing can overcome death
but Nidmarw.
Ndmarw will make me great and powerful
for eternity; all others are doomed.

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[c] Ndmarws chamber: For several decades after the Equani ceased to
try to kill him the Undying One recorded his memories of the events prior to
the sack of Mejetus on skins presented as offerings. While he had little
talent as an artist endless repetition and improvement have rendered the
story into drawings of a simple but effective style. Drawing continues to
bring him solace but Ndmarw only leaves this small room when called for a
ritual. An ancient brazier lights the room which is lined by layers of skins;
the god does not suffer much from the cold but the draughts disturb him.
He requires little sustenance, but the routines of eating fill the empty hours
between sacrifices, so he keeps the best of Duriks offerings here.
[d] A stairway
A well-constructed spiral stair disappears into the rock below. Ndmarw
has never confided what lies beneath to any shaman but he always ensures
that wedges keep this room secure. Shevrachi myth has made heroes of the
Eqauni who entered the House of Shadows during the sack, never to return.
Perhaps they remain deep in the rock of Brnid Mrw. Perhaps they are
awaiting the call of their god to defend him.
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An Expedition
Tales of Nidmarw are common among
the Equani and some have reached the
Urdu. From them they have passed, with
increasing distortion, to the Kubora and
thence into Rethem.
Whispers in the taverns of Golotha speak
of an Agrikan expedition to find the ruins
of Mejetus and the lost treasure of
Mejenes. The rumours are tantalisingly
vague on the nature of the treasure, but
some say the legions pay chest was
forgotten in the panic of retreat.
There are also tales of the wild cannibals
that protect the treasure and creatures
that suck the life out of travellers. The
more far-fetched rumours say the
creatures can turn into bats or snakes
and live in a magical fortress that has
been raised among the Corani ruins.

A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2015

THE RUINS OF CAER MEJETUS 6

A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2014

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