Yuku free message boards

Modros History Part Two

War and Slaves

As relations continued to sour with the lthlan, Grandroc looked for ways to reduce Modros dependence on Ithlan trade. Grandroc began buying ships and upgrading his rudimentary port into one that could support trade.

Seeing the keep and port, the Ithlan saw the future, and they knew that they must strike soon or risk being rendered irrelevant. The tribes gathered and unified into a great army. They marched on Modros with the intent of tearing its walls down and putting its citizens to the sword.

When they began their assault, however, they quickly realized their folly. For Modros, 20 years of preparation yielded successGrandroc vanquished the collective might of the Ithlan in The Battle of Modros on the 145th day of Modrosian Year (MY) 13. On that great day, over 20,000 Ithlan were taken prisoner. Only a few thousand escaped back into the desert. The military might of Modros thereby confirmed, it would be many years before another enemy would attempt an attack on the city.

Beyond new security, Modros found something else in its victoryslavery. Rather than putting the tribes to the sword, they stripped them of their weapons and put them to work. The great civil improvements were, in the first years, amazing to behold. Under the command of Grandroc and his ministers, the slaves were used to improve defences with additional city walls and improvements to the inner keep, to tap the underground springs in the headlands around Modros through the construction of an underground aqueduct system, and to improve Modros trading facilities with the construction of the first Grand Causeway, a feat of Modrosian engineering that expanded the network of paths up the cliffs from Modros port to the city proper into a massive set of switchback causeways. In order to protect against coastal invasion, the causeways were designed with collapse points that could be triggered from Modros keep. When Grandroc died in MY 37, at the ripe age of 89, the city of Modros was one of the best defended and most prosperous of the Known World.

Rule passed to Grandrocs eldest son, Lee-Dran, who was less martial and more mercantile in his outlook. His rule saw Modros enter into the two trades for which it is now famous: slaves and the drug that pacifies them, the dust called Dranrne, named after Lee-Dran himself. His discovery of this drug while on a trading mission in MY 32 was followed by almost 30 years of research by Lee-Dran and a team of wizards and sages to determine its properties and proper methods for mass production and administration. These efforts to manufacture Dranrne were extremely expensive. In order to finance his efforts, Lee-Dran began trading in slaves, sending them across the ocean to numerous cultures who sought the talents of the Ithlan laborers.

Once mastered, Dranrne allowed Modros great trading empire to encompass the entirety of the Known World. The drug was prized anywhere where slave labor was prevalent. Modros built a new city wall to encompass the lands required to grow the components of Dranrne, and it began developing the massive quarries from which it built the stone walls and the citys amazing arches and bridges into its famed slave pits, where the pacified descendents of the Ithlan tribes were born, grew, rested, and died. Bred to increase their numbers, the trade in Ithlan laborers continued, further lining Modros coffers with silver and gold.

For over 200 years these dual trades continued unhindered and the great city of Modros grew more and more wealthy. The Tlal House enjoyed its position of power in its palace and keep. Then the unthinkable happenedthe slaves revolted.

Modros History Part Four

Modern Modros

Modros continued in much the same vein for the next 60 years. Sinds rule was a long one, but eventually he became old and frail. His young third wife, Amalia, acquired from across the sea at great cost, and his two sons, Sicklemoon and Ravenloc, were observed to take a greater role in the citys politics, to the detriment of all who lived in Modros. For Ravenloc and Amalia were lovers, and Sicklemoon, as heir, felt no need to share his power with anyone.

In MY 352, upon Sinds death, Sicklemoon took the throne as Moolau and was crowned Grandroc IV. He was immediately deposed by Amalia and Ravenloc, who sent assassins to murder the new king. He escaped from the city of Modros and into the deserts of the Ithlan.

However, just weeks later, under exceedingly strange circumstances, the pair who had so suddenly taken control over Modros disappeared and Grandroc IV returned to Modros as the restored Moolau.

Twenty years have passed since Grandroc IVs return. Much of the citys wealth now pours into constant expansions of the Great Keep, with thousands of slaves disappearing in the great works of the citadel, never to return. Much of the city decays, but still the Keep, the slave pits, and the port dominate, and nothing is allowed to stop the trades for which Modros is known. There are whispers in the alleys of great evils being committed in the Keep, of undead minions joining the humanoids and monstrous creatures that make up Grandroc IVs great army, and of unholy alliances and bloody rites. Yet no one speaks too loud for fear of the terrible grip of the House Tlal.

I'm with the Duke, Fort. I like your city concept. I also think he's right about our cities being a ying-yang, light and dark contrast. The liberal use of the death penalty by Nim and Num seems to suggest that all is not shiny and fine under the surface of Daresido, but when compared to the bare-fisted tyranny, social decay and chaos of Modros, I think the characterization stands.

BTW, thanks to both Fort and Duke Geoff for the kind words.