Myrtana

Author: Flosha
Created: 10.06.2024
Last change: 12.06.2024

A “gothic kingdom”, “in a distant land” ruled by Rhobar II., who re-united four realms under the myrtanian flag after being united in the past by Rhobar I.

The gameworld is a location within Myrtana.

Etymology

• mýrr - old norse for: moor, swamp, bog, german “Moor”, also see myrmark (“marshland, bogland”)
• mýr - (archaic) icelandic for mass of people, crowd
• myr - alternative for middle low German mure from old saxon mura (latin murus) for “wall”.
• myr - “honey” in old Uyghur
• Myrtle, a flowering plant

• myrja, norwegian Nynorsk for “to rub, scrape, dig”.

• In earlier promotional texts called “Martiana”, the land of war, the martial land (see Mars, ancient god of war).

Summarising the etymological findings we can characterise Myrtana as a dark and distant land (“distant” in the sense of the perception of west european or in general occidental players by its foreign and strange character) full of swamps and moors, with lots of ores digged for (“ore cities”), with massive walls - that it is known for, in its almost bunker-styled fortresses against the orcs - and with many wars having taken place on its soil.

Analysis

Myrtana - as known from the Gothic intro and the Comic - is a kingdom consisting of “the four realms at the myrtanian sea”. These realms could be “within” the myrtanian sea, which is what is written in the Comic. But they could also be “around” the myrtanian sea, which is what is written in later sources.

The realms can be both “at” and “in” the Myrtanian Sea. The realms could also both be “at” and “around” the sea. But they cannot be both “in” and “around” it. They either have to be within or around the sea or some of them may be at it, others within it etc.

While the later sources of the franchise are irrelevant to us compared to the early sources, it does not mean that we despise them altogether or find nothing of value in them, if anything in there is in accordance with the early design direction and can help to shape our understanding.

When we think of the four realms as being located “around” it, we can deduce from there various details for the layout of these realms in the Myrtanian Kingdom.

• We can think of a land in the north of the sea, as there has to be a land north of the “great northern plains” (which are north of Myrtana), from which “the northern hordes” are coming from. Although this land may not necessarily be one of the four realms, since depending on the geography, it may have no direct connection to the sea.
• If the realms are “around the myrtanian sea”, we can as well assume a land in the west and a land in the east of the sea.
• Lastly we can derive the existence of a realm in the south of the sea.
• The realms “around the sea” can either surround the sea completely, in which case we can compare it to the black sea (a very fitting inspiration for a gothic sea), or the sea may be open at the bottom with the realms around it like a vast gulf and with the northern plains at the top (which may either be the northern part of the eastern realm, of the western realm or it may stretch over the land in the west and the east alike).
• Based on this idea and assuming the land in the north to be one of the realms, we could describe the realms by the following working titles:
  • Northern Realm
  • Western Realm
  • Eastern Realm
  • Southern Realm
• If the northern land is not connected to the sea and if there is not a realm for every cardinal point, we can assume the four realms to be:
  • Northwestern Realm
  • Northeastern Realm
  • Southwestern Realm
  • Southeastern Realm
• Of course it would also be possible that the lands surround the myrtanian sea in a less symmetrical manner in many possible variations (e.g. one realm west of the sea, two realms in the east, one in the south), but the above mentioned solutions are valid assumptions for a structure of the “gothic kingdom” as originally conceived via the concept of the four realms around the myrtanian sea.

What we can additionally deduce:

• Due to our explanation of Nordmar, it can not be one of the realms; thus we do not have any name for the northern realm given by our sources and are free to name it however we want.
• Based on our research of Myrtana and Khorinis, we have to imagine Khorinis to be in the northeast of the center of Myrtana, while the center is where the “big ore cities” are; Khorinis being “far away” from them - and in the north. Based on this assumption, the old “Myrtana”, the realm from where Rhobar took control of the other realms, has to be equal to either the western or the eastern realm. And if Khorinis and the Colony are in the east of Myrtana, as analysed in Khorinis, Myrtana has to be the Realm in the West of the sea, due to the existence of the sea in the east of the Colony; we know from different sources that the sea in the colony is in fact the (myrtanian) sea and if Khorinis would be far away from the center, in the northeast of the Eastern realm, which is located in the east of the sea, Khorinis would either have to be far away from the sea; or the myrtanian sea would need to surround the Eastern Realm in the south and have another arm into the land east of the eastern realm. Otherwise, - making this the more likely explanation - Myrtana has to have been the Western realm (or Northwest/Southwest) with Khorinis in the Northeast of it.
• Thus we also know that the Northern Plains are in the North of the Western Realm with a very mountainous region close to the sea in the east of it; these mountains would then be, for instance, at the tip of the myrtanian sea and the northern border - hard to pass - between the Western and the Eastern Realm.
• The Western Provinces from the novel could be another name for the entire Western Realm of Myrtana, just as the Southern Provinces (or the discarded name in an earlier draft of the story “Süd-Geronien”) could describe the Southern Realm. But we consider it to be much more likely that they are a description for the western provinces within the Western Realm (Myrtana). From the existence of these western provinces, we can of course deduce the existence of eastern provinces too.
• The “centre” of Myrtana, the place where the so called “central ore cities” are, big “royal cities” (Königsstädte), has to be imagined within either the western or eastern provinces or somehow inbetween as an additional region. If Khorinis is part of the eastern provinces, while Milten tells us in the Comic, that Khorinis is far away from the central royal cities and as in the novel a character describes himself as coming from the “western provinces”, letting this feel like a rather different and distant place, it seems most likely that the centre of the realm is to be seen as a region inbetween or at least to be somewhere in the western part of the eastern provinces to be far enough away from Khorinis. The eastern provinces may thus be the more prominent part of the realm compared to a smaller or less populated part in form of the western provinces.
• We can assume Varant to be in the South, making it the southern realm. But we also know that it has a direct land connection to Myrtana. That means, if Myrtana is in the West, Varant has to be in the West too, at least the border to Myrtana has to be. It could then either not be connected to the East at all, being divided from the eastern lands by the sea, or it would indeed be at the bottom of the sea and reach all the way south from the western to the eastern realm, with the myrtanian sea left to be imagined just like the black sea.

Sources

Das Königreich Myrtana, wiedervereint durch die Hand König Rhobars II. [I]

Im Namen seiner königlichen Hohheit König Rhobars II., dem Träger des Zepters von Varant, dem Vereiniger der vier Reiche im myrtanischen Meer, dem Verkünder des Glaubens an die drei Götter und Statthalter des obersten Gottes Ra (…) [C]

Im Namen König Rhobar II, Träger des Zepters von Varant, Vereiniger der vier Reiche am Myrthanischen Meer, verurteile ich diesen Gefangenen… [I]

Following the heavy battles in the north, every countryman now knows how to use a bow and arrows. [?]

I was a soldier in the fortress in the large plain from the north. [C]

Soon they would have reached the end of the northern plains and overrun our little outpost with ease. [C]

Die Stadt lag weit entfernt von den großen Königsstädten im Zentrum des Reiches. [C]

Das Arbeitslager bei den königlichen Minen [C]

Symbols

Two golden or silver crescent moons on top of each other; the upper one facing upwards, the lower one facing down, on crimson red.