On paper, Stirland is right on the brink of finally pacifying Sylvania. In reality, things are very far from that simple. Like the Jutone ancestors of the modern Marienburgers, the Fennone ancestors of the Sylvanians were not part of the original tribal unification under Sigmar, instead being conquered by Emperor Sigismund centuries later. This original rift was only widened by the events of 1111, where warpstone meteors, the Black Death, and the invasion of the Skaven and the rise of Frederick Van Hal made Sylvania a cursed land. Mutation, disease, starvation, and predation are common to all who live there. The poor know damn well that their best defence against the horrors of the night is fealty to a Vampire that can command those horrors, rather than relying on the distant armies of an Elector Count. The rich know equally well that they would rather pay taxes in someone else's blood than their own gold. The Sylvanians might be cowed for now after the destruction of Castle Drakenhof, the deployment of the Battle Wizards, and the slaying of most of the more prominent Vampires, but it will take much more than that to win them over to the benefits of Empire and civilization.
This is the purpose that Kasmir has apparently dedicated himself to, and it's to some surprise that you finally track him to his current headquarters: a very small town on the northern edge of the marshes between the Hunter's Hills and the Aver Reach. There's a great deal of recent construction as the town takes advantage of cheap timber and the influx of settlers, and the town seems very different to the other Sylvanian towns you've visited.
"The town of Bylorhof," Kasmir says with a wave of his hand, walking the streets and nodding to those he passes. "Technically, it's part of County of Leicheberg. If you look at the roads, it's closer to being part of the County of Hornau. But realistically, it's Sylvanian - the people are Sylvanian and the Stirlandian Counts haven't drawn taxes or levies from here in centuries. But it's never been ruled by Vampires, either. Vlad von Carstein never tried, and though Mannfred von Carstein did, the Vampire he sent - Count Ranelf von Feuerfliege - was staked and thrown into Bylorhof Marsh."
"What makes this place so different?" you ask, consulting a mental map. "It's on the wrong side of the Ghoul Wood for them to escape the attention of the Von Carsteins that much, surely."
"Have you ever heard of Manhavok?" Without thinking you make a gesture to placate the God of Floods, and you frown as you try to remember where you learned it. "Yes, that's the one. God of Floods, only worshipped in Stirland, which always struck me as odd. Everyone knows the gesture and most people know the prayer, even if they grew up in the hills far from the gentlest tributary. But I think I know why. The ancient Fennones would worship the bogs, which isn't as strange as it first sounds. Bogs gave them bog-iron and peat and bog-wood and all sorts of berries, and in return the Fennone would give them their worship and the bodies of their dead, which the Vampires later took advantage of. Bylorhof never forgot the old ways, and they still worshipped the God of Bylorhof Marsh, Bylorak, even after the Vampires came. In secret at first, and openly after they struck down Count Ranelf. I think there was once a 'family' of Gods that were worshipped, one for each bog and marsh and swamp, and one for Manhavok for when waters encroached on dry land unexpectedly."
You frown to yourself as you remember the shrine to Stromfels under Wurtbad. It seemed strange to you at the time that there'd be a God of Shipwrecking so far inland, but for an ambitious acolyte, Manhavok might have represented some substantial Godly real estate that Stromfels might have been able to subsume, and considering the entire household got buried under flood-silt, perhaps Manhavok objected. "It makes sense," is all you say.
"The first clincher for me is Mannfred," Kasmir says. "After the Battle of Hel Fenn, the Imperial forces searched for Mannfred von Carstein's body. Martin of Stirland sent search parties on a regular basis for the rest of his life. Even today our forces keep finding necromancers dredging Hel Fenn. Some people take this as a sign that Mannfred escaped and is licking his wounds somewhere, but everything about him in the history books tells me he's not the type to lay low. If he was out there, we'd know about it. So I think that nobody can find him because Hel Fenn is holding him, just as Bylorak is holding Count Ranelf."
You nod to yourself. It doesn't take much to bring a Vampire back. If it hasn't happened yet despite all the foolish Necromancer acolytes doing their best to make it happen, it's reasonable to assume it's because something is stopping them. "You said the first clincher. What's the second?"
"Ever been to Hel Fenn?"
You think for a moment. "Visited Mikalsdorf once, but didn't pay much attention to the surrounds. Why?"
"It's not a fen, it's a swamp."
You shrug. "Cartographers mistake? Can't imagine many would be willing to double-check."
"That's the thing, I went digging through all the archives I could. Even the earliest maps record it as Hel Fenn, and so does every one since. Always one L, always two Ns. Something's making that name stick. Nobody's ever tried to 'correct' it to two-L one-N Hell Fen. Nobody's ever relabelled it to a swamp. Which makes me wonder where the Fennones got their name. Their foremost God, perhaps?"
You think through the rest of your knowledge of the Vampire Wars. "And Grim Moor?"
"Is a bog," he says with a smile. "Is it too holding tight onto Konrad?"
"Another God hidden in a name?"
"Morr, perhaps? Or something like 'Gremmer' that was transliterated into words by outsiders."
"All very interesting, but what's it in service of?"
He waves a hand. "Sylvanians have no patience for outsiders coming in with outsider Gods. They'll accept our help, and they'll definitely accept our gold, but at the first sign of trouble the priests flee and the Sylvanians will have no choice but to go back to their old habits. What do they care for Sigmar, who overlooked their tribe? What do they care for Taal when their forests are so hostile, or Rhya when their crops so often rot, or Shallya when there's no mercy to be found? But Bylorak succeeded where all others failed. Bylorhof never paid a drop of blood to the Vampire Counts. So if we can re-establish their Old Gods, perhaps they can succeed where ours have failed."
