This is a Gazetteer-ette of a people to the north of Blackmoor. The following has very little, if anything, to do with Arneson’s campaign. As a result, I have elected to remove it and all references to Frisians from the Gazetteer. They remain available here as a first attempt at Blackmoor Apocrypha (okay, second, counting the main adventure of DA4).
The Frisians appear only once in the Blackmoor material. In Dave Ritchie’s DA4, they are described as wild, bellicose pirates c. 1015 (p. 11), at which time they plagued the Robinsport area (p. 41). Since Frisians have a Roman analogue in the German-border tribe of the Frisii, I decided that they were one of the tribes to the north of Blackmoor. Given that Blackmoor's version of the Atlantic is the North Sea, I placed them on the east coast. Kristian Kramer provided the rest, in the form of an email detailing the exploits of Dutch and Frisian pirates during the Middle Ages, and how it related to the Vikings. Finally, I placed it in context. Conveniently, this is during the First Fantasy Campaign days and helps to answer some nagging questions (like, why did the Egg invade the Northern Lords?)
Stortenbeker wasn’t a Frisian, and did his deeds rather early on (1392). I’m also leaving out the bit where Holland-Blackmoor (read:Thonia) executed him for raiding Norway (1402 - it may yet happen). But I’ll make him an honorary Frisian and place him in the near past.
Pier Lüng was a Frisian (or, more precisely, lived in a Frisian island) on the Holland-Dane border. The Danes would be Skandaharians and the Dutch, Blackmoorites. I wasn’t given a date. I was tempted to make him Moorkok the Slayer - Pier is a "famous Skandaharian war leader" - but I think he’d actually have to fight on the Skandaharian side for that.
Greate Pier was a true Frisian. As of 1514 the Saxons and the Duke of Gelre had gotten into a minor war. In 1515, Gelre had kicked out the Saxons, apparently from Frisia as well. Unfortunately, at that very time the House of Habsburg inherited the Saxon part of Holland; with the notorious Emperor Charles V against him, the Duke's wars were no longer minor. Charles V quickly made inroads on Gelre, Utrecht, and Frisia, and Frisia was the first to fall: 1524. The latter part we can ignore, though. I decided the Saxon mercenaries were Skandaharian. As usual, early Blackmoor serves well as a Holland under a "holy" "Roman" "Empire". It is well known that Arneson set Blackmoor in maps of mediaeval Holland. The Duke of Gelre should be an independent ruler in the North, related to Blackmoor, beset by a foreign Empire - where else but Ten?
In other words: this chapter is my expansion of Kristian Kramer's and David Ritchie's work; Dave Arneson provided nothing but the setting. Most of it is ham-fisted historical analogy (like much of Mystara). It is an apocryphon through and through. Enjoy. :^)
This webpage has attracted the attention of ethnic Frisians, searching the 'Web for pages on their national heroes. Since I'm using their heritage for a game I think it fair that I raise some awareness of who they are.
As explained above, the Frisians are a people of the coasts and islands of the Netherlands. A Germannic tribe of "Frisii" inflicted a defeat on Rome in Tiberius's day. In the ensuing Dark Ages other German tribes marched into Gaul, and the peoples there did what they always do when faced with German invaders. Through it all the Frisians apparently managed to preserve their lands in freedom, because they next appear in the Middle Ages causing much trouble for the Dutch, Danes, Saxons, and Norwegians. (In those days every principality was its own state.) Eventually the various dukes and barons of this coastal area banded together as a union of "nether lands" for protection against the Catholic Church, England, France, and the dukes and barons of central Germany. This protection meant nothing militarily - it's a small area filled with people more skilled in naval than land combat, guarding an indefensible border with Germany - but diplomatically it prevented opportunists from playing one duchy against the other, muted internal trade disputes, and provided a united diplomatic front. In this way the Netherlands avoided the fate of Poland. But cultural unity within the Netherlands was not a desideratum the way it is in, say, Paris.
Therefore you must never say that a Frisian lives in Holland. He doesn't. He does however belong to the "Netherlands" by the nature of its geography, and can be called "Dutch" by the nature of his language (c.f. German "Deutsch").
This brings us to the Frisian language. Among recognised languages it is the closest to English. Specifically, Middle English; you could read a Frisian newspaper with greater ease than you could read Beowulf or even Chaucer. The UNrecognised Scots language in Scotland, although dismissed as an English dialect, is every bit as difficult for an Englishman to understand. I would attribute the closeness of Frisian to close trade and diplomatic contacts prior to Joan of Arc and England's ensuing introversion: the Wars of the Roses, Henry VIII's break with the Church, the economic war against Holland etc. Relatives of the Frisians provided the "Angle" in "Anglo-Saxon" before that. In my opinion, English speakers can learn as much from Frisia as a Highlander can learn from Ireland.
At any rate we have taken some liberties with Frisian history and legend in what follows. I hope Frisians find this material as interesting as I did.
According to their own legends, the three brothers Bruno, Saxo, and Friso came from the other side of Thonia, leaving because of overpopulation, and interacted with the founders of Mohacs before settling here. Few others believe any of this beyond the reasonable impetus of overpopulation. Their language is a Norlander dialect, perhaps closer to the Common spoken in Blackmoor than others. Some of the older Redwood elves remember meeting them for the first time in the northern portions of the forest, which the Frisians call the "Kreill".
Long ago, the eastern Skandaharians came to Frisia to trade. Realizing that they had found a disunited and landlubberly people, the self-styled "Northern Lords" took to raiding. At first they concentrated on the coasts, but then they sailed up the rivers up to the cities in the centre. One town was reduced to ruins as a result of annual raids.
Eventually, many Skandaharians decided to settle amongst their cowed Frisian kinsmen. While some of the settlers were productive and valuable members of the new, mixed society, their rulers were scarce better than the raiders they replaced.
Following the rise of the Realm of the Egg, the northern Kreill began to sink; the resulting swamp cut the Frisians off from Maus and depressed the economy of the Northern Lords. The Frisians took the opportunity to rebel; they formed a naval league, using techniques taught them by disaffected Skandaharian settlers and agents from the Duchy of Ten (well-versed in swamp combat, and then under the sway of the Egg of Coot). In 995, this league broke the hold of their oppressors, forcing the Skandaharians to find easier pickings further afield.
Those pickings were to be had in Thonia, both in the Northlands and in some not-so-North lands. Having endured two seasons of this, Thonia declared her intention to "restore the exiles" to the free lands of the Frisians. Whether this was short-sighted sabre-rattling, or part of a cunning strategy to divide Thonia’s enemies, remains in dispute. Certainly the Northern Lords knew better than to trust the Emperor; apart from their long history of recreational pillage, many jarls had made common cause with Thonia's avowed enemy the Egg of Coot. But the newly-freed Frisians panicked. They immediately allied with the Egg, helping to spark the Coot invasions of 997. Unfortunately for the Egg, the Frisians did not concentrate their energies upon Blackmoor. It has been claimed that the Egg sent a navy into Borkshold - but in fact, it was their unruly Frisian allies who did it. This expedition was a strategic fiasco; it caused minimal damage and brought the Northern Lords onto Thonia's side, even against the western Skandaharians. However, the Frisians did succeed in sacking Borkshold and kidnapping the more important jarls. The Frisians had learnt that they could become pirates too.
Their pirates were still fighting in the Black Sea region, under their own banners, circa 1015. It is unclear whether piracy is condoned by Frisians as a whole - most likely, it depends upon whom their pirates target. It is also unclear whether the Frisians still back the Egg, or even if they have been assimilated into that vile realm.
Many Frisians have become famed (or notorious) for their exploits upon the high seas. Here follows a list of the best-known:
Stortenbeker is a native of Maus. Maus is not exactly the most loyal base of Uther's support, and Bartertown is known to serve the interests of the Skandaharians, the Iron Duke, and the Egg. Perhaps that is why he took up ship with the Frisians as a lad. His chief notoriety came about when he led the raid on Borkshold. In decadent Mohacs, there is still a price on his head for his sack of allied Borkshold, and agreement to his capture is a condition for Blackmoor's surrender. The Egg would also dearly like to catch him for this unapproved campaign.
After the war, he formed a freelance buccaneer band called "Proviandbroeders" (Provision-Brothers) or "De vrienden van God en de vijanden van de wereld" (The friends of God and the enemies of the world - oddly, he seems to belong to the Thonian Church). The Fetch may one day send a mission to re-establish contact.
Stortenbeker should be in his fifties, assuming he has avoided the noose. He owes his nickname - loosely translated "Pour-cup" - to his legendary tolerance for alcohol. According to legend, the great mast of Stortenbeker’s ship is hollow, filled with all the gold from their campaigns; presumably a portable hole is employed.
Lieutenant of Stortenbeker.
Pier Lüng was ethnically Skandaharian, born on a Northern Frisian island, Sylt, at a time when it was under an unusually tyrannical jarl. Since Sylt is so far to the north, everything "known" of him is hearsay.
It is said that when Pier was very young he joined a resistance group of Syltian fishermen. Pier and other men of Sylt and surrounding islands went to sea. Their depredations were aimed not only at Skandaharians, however, but at Blackmoorites as well. Their emblem was a gallows and a torture wheel, which they wore sewn on their clothes.
At its peak, Lüng gang numbered five hundred and terrorized all sides of the Northlands. Eventually the City of Maus plotted against him and ambushed his fleet. Many were killed or lost at sea; 74 were captured and swiftly hanged. Pier Lüng was one of the missing. It is rumoured he lives on in the service of the foul Egg of Coot.
Born Pier Gerlofs Donia, he was a local landowner - a big man, with large eyes, wide shoulders, and a bushy beard. He looks every inch the affable northern bumpkin - except when angry. On those occasions, he wields an immense two-handed sword, over six feet long and 150 gp in weight.
One fine day in 995, a rogue troop of Skandaharian mercenaries burnt his village, and his farm, to the ground. A grief-stricken Pier raised his own gang, the "Zwarte Hoop" (Black Hope), its motto: "Friesland voor de Friezen" (Frisia for the Frisians).
He got help from the Duchy of Ten, but because his men were hopeless on land (the Skandaharians were much better fighters, and then had the advantage of numbers) he fled to the sea. As pirates they robbed and plundered Skandaharians and their (then) Thonian allies, and even won a battle against a fleet of Thonian pirate-hunters, capturing 11 ships. It was no coincidence that the Frisians ousted the Skandaharians on that very year.
Two years later, the Emperor of All made his vow to "return the exiles". While Stortenbeker launched his expedition against Borkshold, the Frisians elected Pier the leader of the fleet against Thonia. Pier built a navy of ‘signal ships’, small, agile vessels with a crew of only 30. With it, he ambushed a Thonian fleet of 36 ships. He captured 28 of them and carried away 400 men.
After that he was feared throughout the Marches; some even called him the Cross of the North. He captured, robbed and plundered scores of merchant vessels and made them into warships. He even plundered the city of Jackport. It is said that the Zwarte Hoop now numbers 600 or more.
In Frisia, Pier is viewed as a liberator. He was feared for his rough and merciless behaviour but admired for his love of freedom and justice. He once wrote a letter to one of his enemies in which he described himself as the "King of Frisia", the Duke, Count, and Baron of several cities, and the "Captain-General of the Frisian Sea".
Lieutenant of Pier, and equally big (hence the name).
Any thoughts? e-mail me :^) zimriel@sbcglobal.net
27 Jan 2001: I updated this page due to interest from ethnic Frisians.