Angrean Atlas

Stag Isles

Status: Imperial Territory | Climate: Wide Range | Type: Multi-Island Archipelago

From flat grasslands to freezing mountain peaks, the Stag Isles are one of the most diverse regions of the Empire. House Drath makes full use of that fact by leveraging the varied terrain for training its soldiers for whatever they might face. The isles are dotted by military training camps and mock towns that serve only as backdrop for exercises. The native inhabitants are tough, practical folk, and make up a large percentage of House Drath’s recruits.

"The Stag Isles produce two things: soldiers and people too stubborn to become soldiers. The second category usually raise the first."
— Major Keston Arvil, House Drath Training Command

Overview

The Stag Isles serve as the military backbone of the Empire, not through strategic position but through their unique combination of terrain varieties. Within a single archipelago, soldiers can train in jungle, desert, mountain, tundra, and urban environments without the logistical nightmare of deploying across the Empire.

House Drath has built extensive training infrastructure to match, including full-scale mock settlements maintained for urban warfare exercises and rebuilt as often as they are ruined. The mock settlements are built and rebuilt under contract to House Ilmath, whose field engineers also maintain the fortifications, siegeworks, and artillery lines that make the exercises realistic; a standing joint posting that the two Houses have worked out the kinks on over several generations. The hardy native population has a long military tradition, supplies a disproportionate share of the Empire’s recruits, and considers “Stag Isle stubborn” an accurate self-description.

Population: Moderate and resilient. The permanent population has adapted to sharing their islands with constant military activity, and many families have provided soldiers for generations.

Islands

Five islands deliberately chosen and developed by House Drath for their terrain diversity. Similar in permanent civilian population, radically different in climate and terrain.

• The Five Grounds

  Type: Archipelago Overview | Count: Five inhabited islands

  The five Stag Isles are home to multiple distinct climates. Whether a quirk of topology and meteorology, or arcane, or divine; House Drath has taken full advantage. Each island hosts one or two of the major terrain zones; the civilian population is distributed roughly evenly, reinforcing a shared Stag Isle identity across otherwise incompatible landscapes.

• Khaldaria

  Type: Grasslands Island | Function: Operational Base

  The largest island, covering most of The Flatlands and hosting House Drath’s primary administrative and training command. Khaldaria is the only island with multiple civilian towns of appreciable size.

• Vorrin Mount

  Type: Alpine Island | Function: Survival and Mountain Training

  The high, cold island that contains The Spine. Vorrin Mount’s civilian population clusters in sheltered valleys and is disproportionately composed of retired mountain instructors.

Terrain Zones

The Stag Isles’ most notable feature is their remarkable diversity of environments across the five islands.

• The Flatlands

  Type: Grassland Training | Climate: Temperate

  Vast plains used for cavalry training, large-scale maneuvers, and logistics exercises. The few civilian settlements here are accustomed to regiments passing through.

• The Spine

  Type: Mountain Training | Climate: Alpine to Subarctic

  A dramatic mountain range featuring some of the coldest conditions in Imperial territory. Survival training occurs here year-round. Rescue rates are closely monitored.

• The Furnace

  Type: Desert Training | Climate: Arid

  An unusually hot and dry region where heat adaptation and water discipline are taught. The hard way, as with most House Drath instruction.

• The City

  Type: Urban Training | Climate: Varies

  A nearly full-scale artificial city maintained purely for urban warfare exercises. Rebuilt regularly after training gets “realistic.”

• The Maze

  Type: Jungle Training | Climate: Tropical

  Dense vegetation covering several smaller islands, used for patrol training, ambush exercises, and teaching soldiers to hate bugs.

House Drath Presence

House Drath administers the Stag Isles through military necessity rather than formal authority, and the arrangement works because the benefits flow in both directions. The local population brings a long martial tradition and terrain familiarity the House cannot train into an outsider; the economy centers on supporting military operations; and House Drath maintains infrastructure that Imperial civilian authorities would have neglected. Civil matters remain with the civilian governance; anything touching “security,” broadly interpreted, falls to the House. Disputes are rare, because everyone understands the actual power structure.

Recruits from the Stag Isles are heavily represented in House Drath’s forces, drawn by a cultural emphasis on physical capability and a strong sense of institutional loyalty that begins before enlistment. The phrase “Stag Isle stubborn” functions as both compliment and curse in military circles.

Beyond the Barracks

The islanders have a civilian culture the training infrastructure can make easy to overlook. Outside the cordons, Stag Isle villages are known for a long distilling tradition (the mountain valleys produce cold-aged spirits that reach the mainland only in small quantities), an annual Horn Festival that coincides with the tundra thaw, and a folk weaving style whose geometric patterns the locals will cheerfully claim were invented before weaving. Retired soldiers make up a significant share of the civilian population, which affects the tone of most town gatherings.

Travel Information

Getting There

• By Airship: Regular military and civilian service
• By Sea: Multiple ports; check for exercise schedules
• Military Transport: For those with proper authorization

Travel Advisory

Local Cautions:

• Check exercise schedules at every port; cordoned areas are genuinely dangerous (live fire)
• The native population is friendly to those who aren’t troublesome
• Military bars have the best prices in the archipelago and the best fights as well

Despite the military focus, the Stag Isles reward the visitor with dramatic natural scenery across every terrain type in the Empire, a traditional culture that is proudly practical, quality equipment manufactured to military spec and sold openly, and surprisingly good cuisine developed to feed hungry soldiers.

Historical Notes

The Stag Isles became House Drath’s training center during the Imperial Consolidation, formalized by the Training Grounds Charter of 456 CR. The natural terrain diversity made the choice obvious, and House Drath has invested heavily in infrastructure ever since.

The native population was consulted in this decision, which historians note primarily because it remains unusual. House Drath approached the arrangement as a partnership; the isles would be transformed, but the islanders would benefit through employment, infrastructure, and martial education.

The Modern Arms Revision (3034 CR) updated the curriculum to place firearms and combined-arms tactics at the core of basic training, a change the traditionalists spent a generation losing and that the islanders now remember as obvious. The compact has held for millennia. The Stag Isles produce the Empire’s finest soldiers, and the islanders take considerable pride in that tradition.