Post by Catsmate on Apr 28, 2016 12:01:22 GMT
It all started in the thirteenth century, around 1267 during the reign of James I of Aragon, when the occupants of Trasmoz Castle, perched high above the village of Trasmoz (in the kingdom of Aragon, now northern Spain), were engaged in coining, the fabrication of counterfeit maravedís from alloyed copper covered in gold leaf. To dissuade the locals from investigating the activity they spread rumours that the castle was occupied by a group of warlocks, engaged in sorcery.
At the time Trasmoz was flourishing, a small (around 10,000 people) and wealthy community with extensive mineral (iron, copper, silver) deposits and mines around it. Further it was a mix of Christians, Jews and Arab Muslims and free of church control, remaining independent of the nearby monastery of Veruela; by royal decree it paid no taxes to the abbot.
The rumours of witchcraft gave the abbot an excuse and he persuaded the archbishop of Tarazona to excommunicate the village. The village refused to repent and the dispute rumbled on for 145 years until the minor civil war of 1512. In that year monastery refused to pay monies due to the village for water and began to divert a river.
The Lord of Trasmoz, Pedro Manuel Ximenez de Urrea, took up arms against the monastery, which was supported by the Duke de Luna. De Urrea sought aid from his brother, the Count of Aranda and soon the entire kingdom of Aragon was taking sides (and some lords from Valencia as well).
Eventually the dispute was settled when in 1513 king Ferdinand II asserted that the town of Trasmoz was in the right and the monastery had to pay for the water it used.
However by then the church had deployed an even more powerful spiritual weapon against the recalcitrant village ; in 1511 a malediction was cast over Trasmoz with the authority of Pope Julius II. This involved the reading of psalm 108 and a declaration that the ruler of Trasmoz, his descendants and it's people were wicked.
The curse has never been lifted and the town has declined until today when less than thirty people live there permanently.
Gaming potential.
1. What was really going on in the castle in the late thirteenth century? There's at least one Time Meddler who'd fit right in. What could he have been up to? Was there something else mixed in the minerals mined in the area, or was he establishing a base for some other operation? Perhaps tampering with the Spanish invasion of Morocco?
2. Is the curse the only region for the decline of Trasmoz? Or is there something sinister in the hills, perhaps exposed by the mining operations, that's really behind the problems. The malign psychic influence of a mind utterly alien to humanity perhaps.
3. That civil war in 1512 has potential for enmeshing a party of time travellers in local politics. With a background of numerous factions, the threat of external invasion and military maneuverings the party could end up split between different groups trying to find their way out of the mess.
4. Pedro Manuel Ximenez de Urrea is an interesting man in his own right; a poet and playwright of humanist tendencies who wrote an account of his pilgrimage to Santiago, Rome and Jerusalem between August 1517 and May 1519 (Peregrinación de las tres casas sanctas de Jherusalem, Roma y Santiago) that was suppressed by the Inquisition in 1551. A copy was discovered in 2006.
At the time Trasmoz was flourishing, a small (around 10,000 people) and wealthy community with extensive mineral (iron, copper, silver) deposits and mines around it. Further it was a mix of Christians, Jews and Arab Muslims and free of church control, remaining independent of the nearby monastery of Veruela; by royal decree it paid no taxes to the abbot.
The rumours of witchcraft gave the abbot an excuse and he persuaded the archbishop of Tarazona to excommunicate the village. The village refused to repent and the dispute rumbled on for 145 years until the minor civil war of 1512. In that year monastery refused to pay monies due to the village for water and began to divert a river.
The Lord of Trasmoz, Pedro Manuel Ximenez de Urrea, took up arms against the monastery, which was supported by the Duke de Luna. De Urrea sought aid from his brother, the Count of Aranda and soon the entire kingdom of Aragon was taking sides (and some lords from Valencia as well).
Eventually the dispute was settled when in 1513 king Ferdinand II asserted that the town of Trasmoz was in the right and the monastery had to pay for the water it used.
However by then the church had deployed an even more powerful spiritual weapon against the recalcitrant village ; in 1511 a malediction was cast over Trasmoz with the authority of Pope Julius II. This involved the reading of psalm 108 and a declaration that the ruler of Trasmoz, his descendants and it's people were wicked.
The curse has never been lifted and the town has declined until today when less than thirty people live there permanently.
Gaming potential.
1. What was really going on in the castle in the late thirteenth century? There's at least one Time Meddler who'd fit right in. What could he have been up to? Was there something else mixed in the minerals mined in the area, or was he establishing a base for some other operation? Perhaps tampering with the Spanish invasion of Morocco?
2. Is the curse the only region for the decline of Trasmoz? Or is there something sinister in the hills, perhaps exposed by the mining operations, that's really behind the problems. The malign psychic influence of a mind utterly alien to humanity perhaps.
3. That civil war in 1512 has potential for enmeshing a party of time travellers in local politics. With a background of numerous factions, the threat of external invasion and military maneuverings the party could end up split between different groups trying to find their way out of the mess.
4. Pedro Manuel Ximenez de Urrea is an interesting man in his own right; a poet and playwright of humanist tendencies who wrote an account of his pilgrimage to Santiago, Rome and Jerusalem between August 1517 and May 1519 (Peregrinación de las tres casas sanctas de Jherusalem, Roma y Santiago) that was suppressed by the Inquisition in 1551. A copy was discovered in 2006.
5. The village has an ongoing tradition of witches, are there people there with actual psionic powers (perhaps triggered by that alien presence), or strange abilities, or is it all just a story for the tourists?