Kartakass: Inspirations, Legends, and Plothooks

[KingCorn]

A little out of space for the Dutch/Black-Forest influenced Kartakass

I always thought that Kartakass was more Austrian oriented, with inspiration for the domain coming from The Sound of Music based on the 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp.

I see it more based on the Dutch/Rural Germany, with honestly a lot of influence by Pennsylvania Dutch, specifically thanks to the presence of the Hex Signs. While those are found some places in Europe, they're very prominent on farms in Pennsylvania.

[KingCorn]

The Kludde is a monster of more of Flanders and Belgium (so perhaps better near Dementliue or Falkovnia) but it being what is basically a dragon-bat-wolf is rather fitting for Kartakass.
The creature is said to be born from the bodies of burned witches, and is said to have several abilities including shapeshfiting and sending curses.
While perhaps for fitting for the witch-burners of Tepest, maybe if you took away some of the powers the beast could in fact be the result of Strahd's Malefic Meld, sent into Kartakass to annoy Harkon Lukas (cause again, Darklords can be rather petty to each other). While dangerous to people, it has a special taste for wolfwere meat.

[KingCorn]

A small detail, but something very interesting to note. Gazetteer 1 mentions that in Kartakass, many families put a hex-sign on their farms or homes.

What some might not know is that a hex-sign is a common form of folk-art in Pennsylvania, tied to the Pennsylvania-Dutch community of Germanic immigrants to the early Americas, fleeing from the chaos of the 30 Years War.
The Hex-Sign has a very interesting symbology within it, similar to that of heraldry or a family crest. Said to invoke good-luck or to ward off bad-luck, with its own unique invocations by color and object combination.

Colors:

• Black: Protection, as well as binding between other elements.
• Blue: Protection, Peace, Calm, Spirituality
• Brown: Earth, Nature, Strength, Friendship
• Green: Growth, Fertility, Success, New Ideas
• Orange: Abundance, Success, Career
• Red: Emotions, Passions, Lust/Love, Creativity, Charisma
• Purple: Royalty, Sacredness, Religion, Intuition, Spirituality
• White: Purity, The Moon, Free-Flowing-Energy
• Yellow: Health, Love, The Sun, Connection to God

Objects:

• Hereford Cow: Protection of farm animals and pets, as well as of stores of food.
• Horse: Protection of farm animals and pets, as well as farming tools. Also said to protect a building from lightning.
• Lambs: Blessings for children, representing wonder and innocence. Usually on births or birthdays painted alongside other symbols of luck/faith/hope/charity to bless the child.
• Snakes: Temptation, usually found wrapped around tulips in marriage-hexes (perhaps to hope that the marriage will resist temptation).
• Unicorn: Piety and Virtue. Having two placed together is to represent peace and harmony amoungst all, even beasts of the wild. With a trinity of tulipis it becomes a symbol of peace and contentment.
• Bird-of-Paradise: Beauty, Wonder, and the Mysteries of life.
• Distlefink/Goldenfinch: Good Luck, Happiness. Two crossed over is a sign of friendship.
• Doves: Friendship and peace through marriage.
• Eagles: Strength, Courage, Protection. Double-headed eagles where used in marriage signs, carrying hearts to represent strength and courage in marriage/to their partner.
• Roosters: Strength, Courage, Protection.
• Pineapple: Warmth and Hospitality (I do not understand this one at all, but it is apparently real, and this is the real meaning).
• Pomegranate: Symbol of Abundance and Fertility.
• Shamrock: Luck (as in 'Luck of the Irish')
• Tree-of-Life: Tree holding many symbols, standing for the fruits of god.
• Tulips: Faith, hope, and charity. Three together represent the holy trinity and the idea of 'Faith in youself, faith in your actions, faith in you fellow man'.
• Wheat: Abundance. A rather less popular symbol compared to others.
• Circle: Infinity/Eternity.
• Barn-Wheel: Wheel of Fortune, usually with 32-spokes and a star at the center.
• Crescent-Moon: The Four Seasons.
• Daddy-Hex: Good Luck for the whole year.
• Haus-Segen: German words for 'Home Blessing'
• Hearts: Love
• Raindrops: Water, Crop Abundance.
• Rosettes: The oldest symbol, typical symbol of good luck.
• Scallops: Ocean Waves, mean 'Smooth Sailing' as a good-luck.
• 4-Point-Star: The morning-star/Star of Bethlehem, or the Christian Cross. Native Americans saw it as a sign of courage and purity of spirit.
• 5-Point-Star: Good Luck, the Compass/Directions, the Nautical Star.
• 6-Point-Star: 6-days of Creation, 6-attributes of God (Wisdom, Power, Majesty, Love, Mercy, Justice)
• 8-Point-Star: Star of Redemption, Rebirth, and Regeneration. Represents the baptism and christs rebirth.
• 12-Point-Star: Completeness, as well as the day of Epiphany (the 12th Day of Christmas)
• Triple-Star: Luck, Wealth, Success, and Happiness. Usually compossed of the 5-point-stars.

Due to the use of sea-imagery, and many references to Christianity, alot of these would need to be changed in meaning, with more local ones such as the goblin or the many Grandfather Animals becoming new motifs.
Some might instead change. Rather than the Clover being to bring good luck, it could be to ward off bad-luck or goblins (the so-called 'Luck of Forlorn'). Such symbols could also be a form of code. A barn with an Orange Heart or some-such motif could be code to mean the barn also functions as a brothel, or some other thing.

[KingCorn]

A few more Grandfather/Folktale characters:

Rat and Weasel:
Despite having dire/giant versions of them in the region, few Mora every refer to them as Grandfathers except when refering to the giant version. The title of Grandfather is reserved for beasts worthy of respect or who have vitures, and in the eyes of Kartakann's Rat and Weasel have non-at-all. Partners in crime, they represent Gluttony and Greed, and are said to spread disease and hatred wherever they went. In their tales, they either spread some ill to mankind or lead them into temptation. A scheming pair, they are rarely in stories with the Grandfathers.
The reason for this emnity is related to the habits of the animals. Dire Rats seem particularly gluttonous in Kartakass and have been known to ruin entire food stores, and fouling what they cannot take. Dire Weasels meanwhile seem to have an odd-habit of stealing left behind tools from lumber crews, or anything it can get its paws on, with their lairs often looking like a mythical dragon's hoard (though of far lesser treasures)
Because of this distane and foul-association, to call one a Rat or a Weasel is a very deep insult in Kartakass. Indeed, fur-trappers often can only sell the pelts of Dire-Weasels outside the domain as Kartakanns believe the pelt encourages greed. Just as well, Kartakann's believe that if you eat dire-rat, when you die you will rise as a ghoul or even a goblyn.
Virtues: None
Faults: Greed, Gluttony, Evil
Represents: Gluttons, Misers, Unscruppulous Merchants, Tempters, Ruiniation for Ruin's Sake

The Nisse Tre / The Goblin Tree
More of a common belief as to the origins of the creatures, unlike many who believe they come from beneath the earth, Kartakann's instead believe they grow from trees. Much like how a Death's Head Tree may bear undead fruit, Kartakann's believe that Goblyns are grown from trees planted by witches through a dark ritual. To Kartakann's, the forests of Forlorn are filled with them. When confronted with the fact that Goblyns have a tendancy to destory and defile nature, especially in Forlorn, most Kartakann's tend to shrug.
Despite the supposed evil of these trees, Kartakann's also believe that anything made from the wood of these trees have useful magical powers, in particular in weapons used against the creatures.
Virtues: None
Faults: Evil, Wrathful
Represents: Goblins, Witches, Evil's Self-Consuming Nature

The Wyrm/Wurm/Worm
The fiercest of beasts, the Wyrm (or is it Wurm?) is the greatest child of Grandmother Adder, the creature is hateful of all things, but especially man. Its breath a fire to burn the forests, its blood a deadly poison, and its claws sharper than any axe, it plots the end of the world and has saught this since the moment of its birth. However, depictions of its apperance and its lair vary greatly. Some believe it is a winged nightmare, with scales as red as blood, and hides within the heart of the Wolfwood, bound to the Grandfather Tree (a reference to Nalavarauthatoryl, the elf-dragon which plagues Cormyr), while others believe it is a sleak, wormy creature with scales as black as pitch and bruise colored flesh (a reference to the dragon Thaglor, THE purple dragon of Cormyr), leading an army of Kobolds and other monsters.
Virtures: None
Faults: Evil
Represents: Evil, Monsters, Kobolds, The End of the World

The Deer Man/The Horned Lord/Cerunnos
Protecter of the Forests and Greatest Child of Grandfather Stag, this terrifying hunter is said to stalk the many lumberjacks of Kartakass, killing any who disrespect the ancient laws of the woods. Said to be a nude man with the head of a deer and glowing green eyes, he is equal parts hero and monster. It his said he can lay low a grandfather wolf with a single arrow, or a grandfather boar with a single thrust of his spear. Hunting man and beast alike, it is said he strives to keep the balance between man and nature, keeping the last wishes of Grandfather Stag. Oddly, Sithican elves are said to have seen him, claiming he has saved their lives on many occassions.
To the Forfarian settlers in Kartakass, this is merely an Avatar of Cerunnos, Master of the Wild Hunt. To them however, he would never hunt the Grandfather Animals and instead hunts man alone.
Vitures: Vitality, Hunting Prowess, Oath-Keeping
Faults: Merciless, Inhuman
Represents: The Old-Laws of the Forests, Druids, Elves, Forfarians, Hunters, Balance of man and nature

[KingCorn]

While Kartakass is a more rural domain which doesn't have noble families, notable families could still be put in, filling some niche or being a good spokey encounter or adventure.

Cosma
The Cosma family began simply as hunters and fur-trappers, making a decent living selling to Barovian merchants. As the core has expanded and with it the new demands from the fashions of the Western Core, such as Dementliue and Borca, the Cosma family saw their fortunes explode. All of this has been managed thanks to the new head of the family, Osnath. A jolly-hearted bard and friend to Harkon Lukas, he swept the widow Cosma off her feet after the untimely death of her husband. His charm and talent for numbers drew in new clients amoung the foreign merchants, and his daring against the beasts of the Wolfwood such as Grandfather Badger have earned him respect amoung many. However, with the death of Mrs. Cosma, tensions have arrisen. Osnath's 'dandy' nature has long conflicted with the more rough and rowdy nature of the family, and his favoring of his eldest daughter Gisla amoung all his children, as well as those of the man he replaced has lead to growing tensions, and some fear their brash and proud hunters may now arrange and 'accident' for the two.
However, they will have their troubles with this, for Osnath is a wolfwere, sent by Harkon Lukas to gain control of the expanding riches of the Cosma family. Having arranged an accident of the former head of the family, Osnath sired many children to expand his holding on the family, but by chance of fate only his eldest daughter was a wolfwere, with all his children being merely human. Doting on his daughter, Osnath has grown enamoured with the riches and fashions of the Western Core, and has been mistaken for a displaced Barovian Boyar thanks to his fashions and belly (though not for his quickness to laugh and smile). A jolly yet ruthless man, his expansion on the fur trade has included arranging accidents for other fur trappers or 'unwise' merchants. For now, he makes sure to keep the family seperated in hunts, while he and Gisla arrange deals in Skald.
Osnath and his daughter now walk a fine line. Osnath's growing taste for fashion and civilization, while in line with Lukas' own, grate at the darklord as Osnath has clearly made plans to take foreign trips, and has often drunkly boasted that he will send Gisla to the finest finishing schools in Borca, and from their to the cities of the Western Core. Gisla is herself enamored with the idea, but does not seem aware of the danger she and her father are now in. As vain as Grandmother Fox, but with far less of her cunning, Gisla is not prepared for the intrigue which surrounds her already, barely able to clean up the messes of her recent hunts, much less the intrigues of court.

Karadzic
One of the oldest families in Kartakass, they claim to come from the olden times, long before the Invidian Occupation. Hermit like even then, their farm and manor rests far into the Mistwood, near the border of Sithicus. Their home, Dom-Lovca, or Hunter's Home, is nautralistic, even for Kartakass, and seems like the homes of the Sithican Elves, a grown structure of White-Birch, looking like overgrowth over an older structure of stone and timber. At the front of the house, held in place by the wood, are 3-Deer-Antlers, joined at the burrs, forming a wheel. Surrounded by a sizable orchard and good farmland, the family trades with the odd outsider but for the most part keeps to itself.
Insular, the family speaks its own odd language, a mixture of Old-Kartakann and Elvish, though they will occasionally speak Sithican to guests if asked. The family has many signs of the fey, to the point that the entire line is said to be half-elves, with the occasional human outsider brought in to the bloodline. While many believe this is thanks to mixing with the Sithican's, of which they have courted some, but their is more to this.
The family is matrilinieal, a rarity in Kartakass, and while the head of the family can take as many lovers as she pleases, she never marries, claiming she 'awaits her husband within the Court'. Upon her time, she names her eldest daughter heir. Almost everytime afterword, the Mists are said to wash over the household, hiding it for days if not weeks, before receeding to reveal none missing, save the former lady of the house. When asked, the family will merely say they 'held Court in the Forest of Myth' (note: this is a quick reference to Myth Drannor of Forgotten Realms. Yes, has nothing to do with it, but its all I could think of with little research background).
The few who leave the household bing grim stories of what happens within the Mists, telling of a strange city of wood and stone, ringing with etheral music and odd murrings and laughter. They also tell of a ring of weeping dryad-trees, each being a former lady of the household, and in the center dances a horrific antlered monster. What few Kartakanns who hear of these things believe that to be the Horned Lord, who must be the husband of the house. As for the city and the laughter, none can say, nor ever will.

[IanFordam]

While Kartakass is a more rural domain which doesn't have noble families, notable families could still be put in, filling some niche or being a good spokey encounter or adventure.

Cosma
The Cosma family began simply as hunters and fur-trappers...

Karadzic
One of the oldest families in Kartakass, they claim to come from the olden times, long before the Invidian Occupation...

I appreciate the flavor of both of these. I like that the featured storyline related to the Cosma family has ties to Harkon Lukas, and I like equally much that the Karadzic family does not. 'tis good to have a balance.