New Readers' Introduction to Dargon
This page is meant to give you a very high-level introduction to the world of Dargon. It lists the most important people, places, events, and concepts that a new reader would want to know, since they are frequently referenced in our stories. Each entry is a hyperlink to its description in our Online Glossary.
This list is, of course, not exhaustive. This page is meant only to give you a basic understanding of the milieu, so it contains only a very small subset of our full Online Glossary.
| What is "Dargon"? | |||
| DargonZine | The Internet-based magazine of the Dargon Project. | ||
| the Dargon Project | The group of aspiring writers who create stories in a shared-world setting (of which the duchy of Dargon is the major part). | ||
| Duchy of Dargon | The isolated northernmost duchy of the Kingdom of Baranur. | ||
| City of Dargon | A medieval port that spans River Coldwell; it is the ducal seat of the Duchy of Dargon. | ||
| Dargon Keep | Castle where the Duke of Dargon lives. It is situated on a large outcropping of rock that overlooks the city of Dargon, and is built atop the ruins of Wudamund, an outpost of the ancient Fretheod Empire. | ||
| Clifton Dargon II | The current ruler of Duchy Dargon. He is a reasonably young noble, married to Lauren Equiville, the daughter of Marcellon Equiville, the High Mage of Baranur. | ||
| Important People | |||
| Adrunian Koren | The captain of Dargon's town guard. | ||
| Kalen Darklen | A lieutenant in the town guard, Kalen is second in command to Captain Koren. | ||
| Shadow boys | A loose society of homeless children who live on the streets of Dargon. | ||
| Sian Allyn | A single woman who has taken in a number of street children. | ||
| Simon Salamagundi | A retired sailor who sells his well-known fish stew from a cart down at the docks. Simon has a little pet monkey named Skeebo. | ||
| Nila | A silversmith and exile from the faraway western land of Farevlin. | ||
| Corambis | A sage who tells fortunes in the marketplace. He has a young assistant named Thuna, and is friends with another fortune-teller named Dyann Taishent. | ||
| Luthias Connall | The cousin of Duke Dargon. Granted the County of Connall after the deaths of his father and twin brother. His wife Myrande is also known as Sable. | ||
| Familiar Places | |||
| Spirit's Haven | A fine inn located in Dargon, owned by Darla Thysler, commonly known as May. | ||
| Shattered Spear | A very seedy inn in Dargon, owned by the infamous Jahlena. | ||
| Kenna | A newly-founded town located some ways upriver from Dargon. | ||
| Fennell | A barony in the duchy of Dargon. | ||
| Tench | A very small village that lies on the road between Dargon and the rest of the kingdom. | ||
| Darst Range | A mountain range that runs southeast through the duchies of Dargon and Arvalia. | ||
| Baranur | The large kingdom in the northern part of the continent of Cherisk. It is currently ruled by King Haralan Tallirhan., to whom Clifton Dargon owes fealty. | ||
| Magnus | Capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Baranur. It is located at the head of navigation of the mighty Laraka River. | ||
| Gateway | A small town based around a fortress that was designed to defend the upper Laraka. | ||
| Port Sevlyn | A town on the Laraka that was nearly destroyed in the war. | ||
| Sharks' Cove | A rough and seedy port town at the mouth of the Laraka. | ||
| Makdiar | The name of the world Dargon is a part of. | ||
| Nochturon | One of the two moons of Makdiar. The other moon, Celene, is not visible from Dargon. | ||
| Recent History | |||
| In the year 1014, Baranur defended itself from an invasion by the Beinison Empire, which stalled after the untimely deaths of the very young Emperor
Untar and his chief wizard, Mon-Taerleor. The war ravaged much of Baranur,
including all the cities along the Laraka River, and threatened Magnus itself. The war also affected Dargon. A Beinison fleet landed at Dargon itself and damaged much of the town, before being turned away by forces led by Clifton Dargon himself (who lost part of his left arm during the fighting). After the death of the Beinison emperor, the enemy forces withdrew from Baranur, but still occupied much of the duchy of Pyridain. To compensate the refugees from Pyridain for their losses, King Haralan of Baranur gave them a tract of land at the intersection of the duchies of Dargon, Narragan, and Asbridge. This territory was called Nulain, and the town of Northern Hope was established there a year or so after the war. For the next four years, Northern Hope fell victim to one disaster after another. Parris Dargon, an ambitious cousin of the current duke, hired the fabled wizard Anarr to discover the cause of the town's bad luck and bring it to Dargon. Anarr discovered a cursed idol of the Beinison war god Gow, warded its deadly curse, and brought it down the Coldwell River from Kenna. However, the idol's curse was released, and the barge carrying the idol smashed into Dargon's bridge over the Coldwell, killing many and leaving the town struggling to get people and goods from one side of the river to the other. |
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| Religion in Dargon | |||
| There are several religions that thrive in Dargon's world. The most prominent religion, that of the prophet Cephas Stevene, is monotheistic and very reminiscent of western Christianity. However, other (mostly pantheistic) religions also exist. These include the Olean, Manifest, and Beinison pantheons. | |||
| Dargon's Calendar | |||
| In Dargon, each day
is composed of bells (roughly equivalent to hours) and
menes (minutes, roughly). There
are 10 bells during the day (beginning at sunrise), and 10 bells during
the night (beginning at sundown). Each bell is subdivided into 30 menes.
Because of the seasonal changes in sunrise and sunset and local differences
in diligence in keeping time, these are very rough, and may differ greatly from
season to season and town to town. And you'll often see the word "sennight"
used to refer to a week. The calendar is divided into twelve 30-day months, plus a 5-day spring festival called Melrin. The new year begins 2 days after the winter solstice, with the following months: Deber, Janis, Vibril, Mertz, Firil, Naia, the spring festival of Melrin, Yule, Yuli, Sy, Seber, Ober, and Nober. The Night of Souls is observed on Vibril 30. People believe that the barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead thin on that night, and keep vigil by telling stories around a green wood fire all night long. |
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| The Monetary Systems | |||
| Dargon's monetary system is a mess. Only the money changers know the real exchange rates between the multiple systems of coinage in use, and they might just be pretending! The King's Standard has a gold Crown (commonly called a Cue), a silver Sovereign (aka Sov or Mint), a copper Royal (aka Guild), and a pewter Noble (aka Common). Barden's Coin has a gold Rand , a silver Sterling, a copper Penny, an iron Floren, and a lead Scrod. And the Shapka has a gold Crona, a silver Astra, a copper Sol, and a pewter Drin (plural is Drina). In addition to all this, the Baranurian Money System (supposedly minted to "standardize" coinage!!!) contains a platinum Millicentur (aka "King's Ransom"), gold Marks, silver Rounds, and copper Bits. Silver is the usual standard coin, equivalent to about $20 American. Gold is rare and expensive. | |||