The most detailed part of the Hârn setting, by Columbia Games and Kelestia.com, is Kaldor, a feudal kingdom on the brink of civil war.
But this is not first major conflict the kingdom has faced, and this article written by Peter Leitch, sitemaster of Lythia.com, the main Hârn fansite, covers one of the consequences of those earlier conflicts, a small community that lives within the borders of Kaldor, yet outside the Kings laws and beyond his authority.
That community is the Fenlanders descendants of refugees from earlier Kaldoric wars who scratch out a living in the swamps that border one of Kaldors major rivers.
It is available as a freeware download from Lythia.com.
HÂRNWORLD: THE FENLANDERS, COMMENTS.
The first thing one notices about 'The Fenlanders' is it's size. The entire article fits onto a single double-sided page.
The second thing, is that the author has managed to fit a lot of information onto that page. Anyone who reads the article will find when they have finished that they have sufficient information to make use of the Fenlanders in an adventure or campaign. The topics covered include not merely their origins and current situation, but the plant that forms the heart of their economy and culture.
It is commendable that the author has taken a believable approach to the Fenlanders culture. It would have been all too easy for the author to have presented the Fenlanders as 'happy hippies' living in harmony with the Earth Mother (or her Hârnic equivalent). What the author has done is to create a people who, while free of the burdens imposed by Kaldor's nobility, live a life that is as harsh and in some respects, more dangerous than that of the average Kaldoric peasant.
It is a life defined by the cycle of the seasons, the rise and fall of the waters in the swamps and by the unending need to keep their existence secret. This secrecy, necessary to preserve their freedom, means that in the eyes of all, save the few traders who supply the Fenlanders with the goods they cannot make themselves, the Fenlanders have taken on the mythic aura of the Elves. But as Kaldor slides towards civil war will this be enough to protect them, or will it bring down upon them some ambitious lord seeking to add the power granted to them by myth to his own.
While it is primarily aimed at the Hârn setting its stat-free nature makes its use with other settings easy. That said I would recommend GMs using the D20 system to get a copy of the Hârn to D20 conversion guide mentioned in my review of 'Friends, Foes & Followers' as it contains information on the Hârnic deity mentioned in the article.
Aside from this the only other thing I can find fault with is that the scanned map segment used to show where the Fenlanders live is slightly blurry, these minor quibbles aside there are no other problems.
HÂRNWORLD: THE FENLANDERS, VERDICT.
I would like to finish by congratulating the author on producing such a well written, tightly focussed and informative article. I have no hesitations in recommending this article to any interested GM.
