I’m looking to start an ACKS campaign for my wife and kids sometime in the fall. Lacking huge amounts of free time, I’ve pretty much decided to go with Grand Duchy of Karameikos (B1-9, B10 modules, few OSR offerings tossed in for flavor). Looking at the map of the Auran Empire, it seems like the area labeled Rorn would be a good spot to slot it in. Coastline is roughly the same, and climate should be similar enough. Is there anything world breaking by eliminating Rorn? I’m hoping this campaign will be long lived enough that I can use the Auran Empire gazetteers as they come out pretty much without change, with the exception that Rorn is Karameikos.
Great question.
Rorn is an Romano-British equivalent; think King Arthur in the days after the Roman Empire left.
It was once a colony of Celdorea. When Celdorea was defeated by the Auran League, its holdings in present-day Jutland and Rorn passed to Aura. Aura extended colonies into both countries. When the Jutland barbarians came down through the Jutting Mountains they captured Jutland (which was e.g. "East Celdorea" back then). They also attacked Rorn, but the Auran-Rornish held them off. Still the Aurans decided it wasn't worth holding onto Rorn and they slowly exited their legions, leaving the colonists and natives to their fate. They've since organized into the beginnings of a feudal society. So it's got a mix of elven (Celtic), Celdorean (Punic), Auran (Roman), and Jutland (Germanic) influences.
You could probably plug Karameikos in place of Rorn without too much trouble. "os" means place in Auran, so the name is even fine.
Awesome! I had planned to reskin Karameikos as post conquest Britain, complete with title of Dux. (The whole Carpathian thing for Karameikos never really resonated with me.) Traladorians would be various British tribes, Black Eagle Barony tolerated not because he’s kin, but because he’s needed to hold off the Saxons (Jutlings) to the West. Hadrians wall turns into a line of forts, one of which would be the Keep on the Borderlands.
Never thought about making Duke Stevan into King Arthur though, this gives me a lot of food for thought. This is even better than I had hoped.
Duke Stefan as Arthur… I don’t kow. Duke Stefan as Uther Pendragon sounds more like it! If you go the Bernard Cornwell route (i.e. Arthur not being Uther’s heir; dux bellorum, but never king, etc.) you even leave it open for a PC to claim Arthur’s spot.