Borderpoint

History

The area known as Battle Coast occupies a rather small expanse of land at the western most point of the border between the Onyx Cryptocracy and the Scapolite Theocracy. With a rather treacherous geography consisting of moors, marshes, monster-filled forests and hills (not to mention shallows by the shore that can easily wreck a boat) it doesn't seem like much. Yet, at least a dozen wars have been fought over the area. The membership of both nations in the Amethistian Empire has kept them from going to war over Battle Coast in the last several Ages but, to this day, mapmakers from each nation continue to draw the area differently. Onyxish mapmakers place the border firmly to the north, putting Battle Coast firmly within the domain of the Onyx Cryptocracy while Scapolitan mapmakers draw the border further south to mark Battle Coast as territory of the Scapolite Theocracy. Mapmakers from other nations split the difference and draw the border between those two points.

Before the Great Invasion, Battle was lightly settled with a few small communities ringing two military forts, one representing the Cryptocracy and one representing the Theocracy. When the Empire called for troops to repel Tiamat's slave-armies, these two forts were left dangerously undermanned. As a result, Battle Coast fell victim to one of the strangest events of the Invasion.

In the year 212 of the Age of the Expanding Empire a sailing vessel crammed to the bursting point with goblins crashed into Battle Coast near one of the settlements. The goblins poured out by the hundreds and quickly overwhelmed the community, setting it ablaze and slaughtering everyone. From there, the goblins spread out and wiped out other communities as well as the Onyx and Scapolite forts. Within nothing left to loot, pillage or slaughter, the goblins broke apart and scattered, taking refuge in the nearby bogs, forests and moors.

After the Great Invasion ended there was much rebuilding to do, even in the Amethystian Empire. While very little damage was done to the Empire's infrastructure, the huge number of dead and maimed soldiers led to a shortage in manpower that took decades to recover from. Since the goblins showed little sign of spreading beyond the coastal area and it detouring around the area only cost a day or two's travel time Battle Coast was left alone.

This all changed some thirty years ago when her majesty Queen Aegis, empress of the Amethystian empire somehow granted a settlement contract for Battle Coat to four separate families: the Deverin (an Amethystish family), the Valdemara (an Onyxish family), the Scanetti (a Scapolitan family) and the Kaijitsu (a wealthy family exiled from the Jade Kingdom, newly settled in the Empire). When the four families protested the error to the Queen, she ordered them to work together to tame the region and colonize it. The four families formed the Borderpoint Mercantile League. Together, they founded the town of Borderpoint and began developing the surrounding area.

The next twenty-five years of Borderpoint's history is rather unremarkable. While there were power clashes between the four families and the occasional goblin attack Borderpoint grew remarkably well. All that changed five years ago, however, when what the locals call "the Great Unpleasantness" occurred. First, a series of murders occurred. Twenty-five people were murdered by a serial killer known as "the Chopper". The Chopper turned out to be Jervis Stoot, a local eccentric who lived on a tidal island to the north of the town. Stoot was known as something of an artist who enjoyed carving incredibly detailed and life-like birds into the sides of fence posts, buildings and ships. Second, only a few short months after Stoot's death ended the Chopper's murder spree, a great fire ripped through the northern section of town, burning down many buildings, including the town Temple. The local priest and his daughter died int he incident.