Amarin¶
Amarin was the great kingdom, later the empire, of north-western Numenia. At its height it "covered most of the North-west, from Dalmar in the south, to Rhovun in the north, as well as from the Westmarches to Faragond", with its capital in the Westmarches. Demons destroyed it. The archdemon Asmodean's army "swept across the sea and laid waste to the northwestern corner of the continent (home of the Amarin Empire)" in the Second Rift War, and Amarin was never cleared of demons again. Its seat became the demon-blighted island of Amarin, governed as Valnyr; in the Fourth Age the same land is simply the Demonlands, and "outside Amarin" is where its demons scheme to go. Amarin survives in its coin and bar, in the ruined Imperial Mint of Vaal'Dunak, and in a buried capital that a Fifth Age portal still opens upon.
Also called the Amarin Empire; the documents spell the town names Vaal'Dunak, Vaal'dunak and Vaaldunak.
Extent¶
The 2014 archive gives Amarin the whole north-west of the continent, bounded by Dalmar, Rhovun, the Westmarches and Faragond. Later documents speak of Amarin as a place across water. The 2020 history has an expeditionary force cross "the Amarin Straits" to confront Asmodean; a Fifth Age profile places an Eldritch kingdom "to the far West, on the shores of the Amarin Channel", where Phaendar Nar'Vizerai rules a tribe of Wood Elves who worship him as a living god; and the Valnyr document states plainly that the country "spans the entire island of Amarin". The Fourth Age campaign agrees: its demons bargain for "a transit from the Demonlands to a landing point on the continent of Astia", and the mortals who come to the Demonlands come by ship.
Gap
No source says whether the Amarin Straits and the Amarin Channel are the same water, where either lies, or how the island of Amarin of the later documents relates to the mainland kingdom of the earlier ones. The name of Amarin's capital is never given.
History¶
The fall¶
The fullest account of Amarin's destruction is the 2020 history's telling of the Second Rift War, dated 2270 to 2311 MA in the calendar of the Age of Magic. A spontaneous rift opened at the wizard college in southern Halath; the demons took to the Underdark and from there the surface. Once the united races had closed the rift, "an arch-demon, Asmodean had been gathering demons to him to form an army. This army swept across the sea and laid waste to the northwestern corner of the continent (home of the Amarin Empire), and established a hold there." After the rest of Numenia was cleared, "An expeditionary force crossed the Amarin Straits to confront Asmodean and the new rift he was trying to set up there. Asmodean was slain by King Turic of Dunmir, with assistance from the last two arch wizards, one of which died in the fight." The remaining demons were cleared from north-western Numenia over half a dozen years, "though not from Halath, Amarin nor from much of the Underdark."
The Fourth Age notes remember the ruin differently, by the name of a war the histories do not list: the Imperial Mint at Vaal'Dunak was "destroyed in the Second Demon War". The 2014 gazetteers say Amarin "was destroyed" in the Third Demon War. Whether these are three names for one catastrophe or a sequence of them is a question for the Demon Wars page.
Valnyr¶
What rose on the ruins was not a kingdom but a containment. "Built from the remains of the seat of the Amarin Empire, Valnyr is governed under the direct control of an organization known as the Keepers of Valnyr." The island "is covered in demonblight and at least 9 demonic rifts are located there", each suppressed by a riftkeep, and the Keepers' rangers "cull any creature capable of being a host to a demon". Pesh, Dalmar "and many other nations contribute money, supplies and manpower". The Demonlands page carries the rest.
The Fourth Age¶
In the Fourth Age the land is the Demonlands, held by demonlords and hemmed in by the Order of Valyr. The name Amarin persists as the thing to escape: the demonlord Daennelgin "is planning to move out of the Demonlands, but to do that he needs to create a rift (he knows how to do this) and a new machine to transfer to outside Amarin." His covenant with the player demons of the Demonlands Mini Campaign promises exactly that transit, for "up to 20 separate Demons, no more."
The Age of the Dark Sun¶
The Fifth Age gazetteer of the lands around the Broken Sea closes the story: "When the Valnyr Wardens fell during the Age of the Dark Sun, Amarin was overwhelmed by demons pouring from abyssal rifts. Somehow those rifts were closed again and with the Hollowing, the area has become a battleground between Devils and Demons."
The buried capital¶
Amarin's capital city is "buried", and still reachable. Among the twelve anchored portal destinations the Sancturi party catalogued in the Fifth Age is "Amarin Capitol City (buried) - Human, Underground, Demonlands. Spread-winged eagle." It is the only description of the city that survives: a human city, now underground, within the Demonlands, marked by the device of a spread-winged eagle. The 2014 gazetteers place this capital in the Westmarches.
Coin, bar and ledger¶
Amarin's wealth outlived it. The party of the Marshford Campaign came into "12x Platinum bars (100g) - Imperial bars - Amarin Towers" and an Aurumite bar of the same stamp worth a thousand gold, which they sold for 250. Their guide to this hoard was Durham, "Amarin Empire Expert, short slightly overweight fellow", who took ten per cent, and the Amarin Trade Ledger, valued at 1,500 gold and ten per cent, which pointed them to the Pits of Turis by way of Vaal'Dunak, "Amarin Market Town, Vaults", the empire's Imperial Mint town six hundred miles from Marshford. The party also carried the Eye of Amar, a compass whose "dials allow locations to be set".
Gap
What "Amarin Towers" denotes on the imperial bars, who ruled Amarin and by what title, when the kingdom became an empire, and any date of its founding are not in the sources.
Earlier accounts¶
The 2014 compendium's version of the Second Rift War, dated 2670 to 2711 MA, names the archdemon who "laid waste to the northwestern corner of the continent" as Belphegor, not Asmodean, and does not name Amarin; the 2020 revision changed both. The 2014 and 2015 gazetteers (S384, S498, S387) are the only sources for Amarin's extent on the mainland and for its destruction "during the Third Demon War"; they also record that the Westmarches, before Amarin, "once belonged to the Gildans", a human people exterminated in the Demonic Apocalypse.