Basic Information
Vineta is a semi-mythological place. Its existence is reported in a legend
It is a legendary sunken city in the Baltic Sea and also known in Polish as Wineta. It is sometimes held to be identical with Jombsorg.
The legend
It is said in the legends, that Vineta sunk in a storm tide for the reason of decline of decency, for the "pride, sinfulness and extravagance of the inhabitants".
There was a warning portent three month, three weeks and three days before the flood in sky in the form of a bright, colourful light. The lights were shifting over the sea and formed a mirage of the town with all its towers, buildings and walls.
The towns Magi advised to leave, because when you see towns, ships or men double, the meaning is doom.
Lacking any humbleness, the Vinetan people refused to leave.
A couple of weeks later, a mermaid emerged from the sea and called three times with her high voice:
„Vineta, Vineta, du rieke Stadt, Vineta sall untergahn, wieldeß se het väl Böses dahn.”
English translation: "Vineta, Vineta, you rich town, Vineta shall go down, because it did a lot of evil.''
Until today, you may hear the church's bells from the depth of the sea.
Historical sightings
- around 965 Ibrahim ibn Jaqub reports of a city called „Weltaba“
- 987 Harald Bluetooth dies in Jomsburg
- 1075 Adam of Bremen mentiones Jumne/Uimne
- 1158 Wineta is mentioned
- 1170 Vineta is said to be already sunken.
Background
It is said, that Vineta was a trading town of the westslavic Wends.
Historian discuss four different locations of the sunken city.
- Koserow/Damerow on the island of Usedom
- the surroundings of Ruden (Baltic Sea Island)
- the city Wollin on the island Wollin
- Barth (a city)
Sources
In German
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vineta
In English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vineta
Game and Story Use
- Strange monstrous entities may walk abroad the coast which come from the sunken city.
- What are the Polish cognates of Waite, Gilman, Eliot and Marsh?
- a treasure is hidden in the sunken city
- the sunken city resurfaces
- So was the town rich and wicked and somehow deserving of its fate, or was it the victims of evil mermaids? Evil mermaids, I tell ya!
- Nah. Didn't you see the lights in the sky? It was space aliens!
- What's really causing the bell-like sound to rise from beneath the waters of the Baltic Sea?
- If your campaign is set around the end of the first millennia AD, it could be an on-screen event. The PCs are on a mission that takes them to Vineta. While there, talking with the locals, there's a bit of a buzz about a mermaid sighting and some vision in the sky. On the second day of the PCs mission, the city goes down. Time to break out the rules for earthquakes, flooding, and holding your breath!