Any advice on a (WIP) homebrew nation? [input wanted!]

[Captain NeMo]

Hey all, this is the updated version of one of the nations of my homebrew setting. It's the first one I've really thought about and judging by the fact I've done little else (lazy, lazy DM) I guess you could say I'm going for the bottom-up method. Not 100% sure this is the right forum for this, but I'm hoping so. Anyway, looking forward to hearing what you think.

p.s Does anyone think I'm mad for intending to write similiar amounts for 20+ other nations' basic descriptions (without going describing in detail individual towns and areas)?


Endelhast-Kingdom of the Iron Wolf

Government Type: Constitutional monarchy, hereditary (male/female eldest)
Ruler: King Ardel Rynforth (human fighter3/aristocrat4; LN)
Important Figures: Shamnook Foxwood, mayor of Endeldor/adviser to the throne (gnome sorcerer 3; LG) Marmaduke Palms, councilmember (rogue 3; LE) Hanthen Cor (cleric 2; N) Fanulgang Nunk, ambassador supreme of Gemmel (rogue 2; NG)

Population: 141,000 (42% human, 29% gnome, 9% elf, 7% Halfling, 9% other
Note: it is expected that there are around 20,000 further residents unaccounted for.
Capital: Endeldor (12,000)
Major Towns: Nemshack (4,500); Riverguard (4,000); Tinth-Port (2,100)
Towns/Villages of Interest: Lorim (800); Colok (550)

Language: Wooden-Coast (common), Gnomish
Alignments: Vast majority good-neutral. Chaos/law axis varies
Magical Prevalence: Less than standard, prejudice against it by most peasants. About ¼ a percent of the population have ever cast a spell (whether divine or arcane) and another 1% has got the potential to cast spells, although most never do..

Provinces: Northern Borders, Heartland, Gemmel, Chenth
Major Geographical Features: Lontallow Moor, River Sarn, God's Beard, Farl Mountains, Worg's Course, Darkbranch Forest, Dabbel Lake
Other areas of Interest: Lorim Keep, Glory Path, Field of 1,000 Scarecrows

Coinage: PHB standard
Imports: Furs, exotic beasts, weapons
Exports: Lumber, vegetables, livestock

Military: 3,000
Navy: 12 warships, 3 war galleys, 5 sailing ships (modified)

Foreign Relations: Endelhast is but a dwarf of the previous kingdom’s glory. Unclear borders, lack of unified government and small population ensure it is no major player in foreign politics. It has, for the most part, chosen to abandon faraway contact, exploration and even settlements. Their closest neighbor and ally is the nation of Quain. Their relationship has been odd, to say the least with countless squabbles, on-and-off treaties and even an outright war between them in generations past. Quain’s history of magical experimentation and recent desire to explore far and wide has been much to the disapproval of Endelhast whilst Endelhast’s internal politics and reclusive nature infuriate the rules of Quain.

The northerly Dwarven kingdom of Thorl maintains an inactive alliance with Endelhast. Due to their mutual need for skilled craftsmen peoples from both nations frequently emigrate to the other nation to find work; commonly, bands of dwarven stonemasons, jewelers, doctors and warriors will find work in the south and farmers, carpenters, alchemists and sailors will move to Thorl for employment. Raider war bands around the northern borders of Endelhast (and the southern borders of Thorl) will often be rooted out by the joint efforts of the two nations so they can easily remove the mutual threat.

As far as more exotic nations go the mercantile islands of Zaraven have taken minor interest in Endelhast as a potential new market and territory to conquer. Aside from the tales of sailors and explorers each knows little about the other, however.

Internal Culture: Endelhast is known as the Kingdom of the Iron wolf for several reasons: the first of which is that it’s first king, Rynforth, is said to have had the strength, ferocity and even some of the features of a wolf. The second is that it has an unusually large wolf population, both feral and semi-domesticated. The emblem of Endelhast is a mighty iron shield adorned with wolf pelts, claws and markings and its military is filled with titles and ranks relating to wolves. Both feared and revered, wolves are a center of cultural identity.

Like any medieval society, Endelhast has numerous taboos and prejudices; although the majority of these are atypical of “civilized”, humanoid society, there are a few specific rules governing day-to-day life that are worth noting. Age is very important for the purposes of rights and ability to find work. The age of adulthood is regarded as 18 years for humans and 25 years for gnomes (other races set their own age of adulthood depending on their culture of origin). At this point, a person can marry, drink publicly, enlist in the military, own property and do a number of other, more minor things. Gender can also inhibit day to day activities although it mainly affects careers. Women are encouraged to pursue homely tasks such as tailoring, craftwork, cooking and shop keeping and men would be outright ridiculed (in more rural areas, at least) if they didn’t have a more masculine career like that of a sailor, soldier of blacksmith. To get married individuals must have permission from their parents, local professional (such as a doctor or banker) and a clergy member who will perform the service. If both people are over the age of 28 then they do not need their parent’s permission but must still have the blessing over a friend and the clergymen.

Due to its reclusive nature, Endelhast has had little chance for its population to be interspersed with many exotic races. The majority of the population consists of gnomes and humans who share a mutual respect for themselves and a love of the agricultural lifestyle. Depending on the region other races can be found, and in some cases they are quite common; elves sometimes dwell in the forest-bordering villages of Chenth and dwarves in the keep-towns of the northern borders. To a certain extent, you can find pockets of Halfling communities in the coastal regions to the east.

Whilst giants and goblins are (with some good reason) unwelcome and kobolds unheard of, vaguely civilized humanoids are usually treated with awe and curiosity rather than outright hostility. Beasts of magical origin are ruthlessly hunted down when possible due to past destruction wrought by creatures that spilled over from Quain.

The Endelhastian Calendar is the simplified version of the Quain astronomers system and is used by most people of the Wooden Coast. Much like our own, modern day calendar it has a year around 365 days long broken into 12 months or 52 weeks. Because even such a simple system can be difficult to keep track of, many people keep track of the time of year by the numerous festivals and holidays throughout the months. Of course, there are many others but for the sake of brevity they can be addressed as needed.

New bloom: Unsurprisingly New Bloom takes place in the early to mid spring depending on the weather as a celebration of new starts and beginnings. This holiday is celebrated differently from place to place but wildflowers hunts are common in small villages. If a new monarch needs to be crowned (for whatever reason) it will usually be put off until this period to reinforce the feeling of new beginnings.

Rynforth’s Day: The savior of the old people and sovereign of the new kingdom; the warrior known only as King Rynforth led the peasant’s revolution and defeated the old aristocracy. After finishing a 4 year war at the battle of Lorim Keep he was paraded through Lorim and back to the capital to be crowned King. If current conditions permit, the current monarch will have a parade trough Endeldor in honour of the occasion.

Birthing: Many families hope for new arrivals to be born in early summer so that the earliest (and most vulnerable) months of it’s life are in favourable conditions and not in the harsh winter. Birthing takes place on the last day of the first month of summer. Any deities of fertility known and revered by the people are worshipped thanked for the safe deliveries.

Garlengdum: A holiday of gnomish origin, Garlengdum is also known as the fool’s day because of the tradition of playing jokes on one another on the day. It has a dualistic purpose as a day to lighten people’s spirits in the time before the harvest and tough winter as well as to give the thanks to Garl Glittergold for protecting the gnomish people. Garlengdum is celebrated in the late summer (right before autumn) by most people although the gnomes are obviously more enthusiastic about it than others.

Winterfest: Great feasts in winter-time are a staple of fantasy cultures and Endelhast is no different. Once the harvest has been collected and this livestock it is decided how many of the animals can be afforded to keep over the winter. Any that cannot be kept (usually the old or lame) are killed or, uncommonly, traded. Those that are killed make up part of the great feast to celebrate a good harvest.

The government system is fairly simple compared to some other foreign ruling bodies; a basic look (from top to the bottom) starts at the monarch and council. The monarch (usually a king, although powerful queens are far from unheard of) has certain powers over the nation and army but is usually kept under tight supervision of the council. No major decisions can be made by the monarch without support of the council and in recent times there have been major power struggles between monarch and council as well as within the council itself. Secondary powers at this level are close relatives to the monarch and any personal advisers they might. Often one or to of these secondary authorities may have a position on the council. Note that an individual councilmember is effectively a powerful noble. The council as a collective, however, has enough political power to overrule any decision by the ruler…thankfully they are usually too busy squabbling amongst themselves to unite against the ruler. Ower down the tiers becomes slightly more complicated with numerous overlapping titles and ranks. The mayor of each individual town is probably the next most influential person followed by the numerous bureaucratic officials that influence city life. The lowest of the tiers comprise of barons of small collections of villages and/or hamlets who rarely deal with anything outside of their territory.
Illiteracy is quite common among poorer people’ whilst the wealthy pay for the private tuition from scholars and scribes the peasants must make due with home-schooling the most basic skills. Priests of a more good-natured bent (particularly those whose patron values knowledge) may set up classes for poorer children in reading, craftwork and other simple skills. There are no large schools in Endelhast and certainly none teaching the arcane arts. Simple training for warriors is offered in larger cities and in villages based around an active fortification but this is not much more than how to wield and a sword or other martial weapon with some ability in combat. Because of this lack of educated individuals Endelhast’s economy relies on logging and farming as backbone industries and the lack of skilled warriors means that it’s military is quite poor. It is quite possible that Endelhast’s only reason for not having been conquered is it’s relatively safe location along the wooden coast.

The most commonly worshipped god’s are Fharlangh, Kord and Garl Glittergold. Churches to each can be found in all large towns and holy places are scattered throughout the wilderness. Druidic traditions are hated or ignored by the people and only unpredictable arcane magic is more reviled by the general population.

Warfare: The Shield of Endelhast is a tiny remnant of it’s former glory. Small in number, there are barely enough men to patrol the troublesome border spots without thinking of foreign battles and bolstering the town guards in times of need. Little conflict involving them takes place outside of Endelhast aside from when a group is sent to help suppress attacks on Thorl’s borders.

The Shield of Endelhast is also includes the small fleet that patrols the coast and river Sarn although most of the ships’ crews are civilian sailors trained to use ballista’s and not actual warriors. Actual numbers of men (women are rarely, if ever, allowed to join) are around 3000 with about ⅔ of which being human and the remainder being mostly gnomish. Other races are rarely allowed into the SoE (officially…) and so make up a tiny fraction of it.

At the present time there are approximately 1250 medium warriors, 550 light skirmishes, 920 bowmen, 10 officers and 200 miscellaneous soldiers, mainly consisting of siege weaponry engineers and heavy cavalrymen; humans make up a good deal of medium warriors and cavalry due to their obvious size advantages whilst gnomes make good skirmishers and engineers. Organization consists of “hunts” of soldiers numbering at about 300 led by a commander referred to as a “long fang”. Each of these hunts are grouped into “packs” of 3 in times of need with the tenth being the slightly larger and more experienced hunt headed by the general of the army.

History: The beginning of the new empire is marked as the same day as the battle of Lorim keep, some 327 years ago. Records of the old empire are few and far between since most libraries and repositories were badly damaged during and after the 4 year war (along with everything else). Those records that still exist are highly valued and held secretly because of their worth. Most people do not understand nor car for the intricacies of history and most are merely taught that the old empire was bad. The average peasant or careless aristocrat are happy with this explanation as it allows them to go back to enjoying themselves without having much thought provoked. The details, for those whom may care to learn of the history of Endelhast, can be found in the "Histori Desroud III: Wolfe etek Wor”-or in common,: “Undecorated History Volume 3: Wolves of war”.

“The 4 year war had been brewing for many years due to unrest in both the peasantry and lower aristocrats. Lower nobles had been unhappy with the meager power they had compared to others and were keen to grab wealth for themselves. Naturally, after goading from the lesser aristocrats the peasants realized how badly they too were treated by the upper nobles.

A month of riots and small uprising throughout hamlets was the first and most obvious sign that a civil war was on the verge of spilling over, so to speak. Tax collectors from larger cities were beaten and stoned by villagers before being hung from trees for any who wished to try their luck. Amusingly, a great deal of barons had helped arm their peasants so that they could kill their very own tax collectors all in the name of stirring up trouble. Soon people refused to do the job or demanded costly escorts to assist them.

Of course this was far too costly and ridiculous to be considered but something had to be done. Soldiers and mercenaries were stationed in villages and told to make an example of up risers which only caused greater resistance by the commoners. Gangs were formed; villages isolated themselves and even started to fight against one another. Those that were loyal to the upper aristocracy brawled with those of the lower and now it was not only between different tiers of society but also between fellow brothers.

In the midst of this, the warrior Rynforth arose to lead peasants in coordinated attacks on other areas. His bravery and skill soon became legendary along was his strength, ferocity and feral appearance. Wealthy individuals saw Rynforth as a perfect leader for the small armies they were each amassing for themselves and approached him with false stories of how they wished to overthrow the corrupt government. It is not known whether he originally intended to pursue the course he did, for it was known Rynforth was a....simple man but soon after gaining loyalty from fighting men he attacked and slew his patrons.

Taking his acquired force he conquered dozens of villages and towns from others whilst gaining loyalty from other leader’s soldiers. His dominance was primarily in the south, however, in between the God’s Beard forest to the west and the Lontallow moors to the east. At the time it was not a terribly valuable or coveted area with little natural resources and more bandits and dangerous wildlife than was worth taking care of. This was to the base of his “kingdom” for the next three years as he underwent the task of conquering the entire empire of Endelhast.

A decisive move to expand his territory was in a arc towards the south-most borders. He made sure to lead all important battles personally and favoured fighting on foot rather than horseback like his enemies. This was thought as crazy, especially considering he wore little to no armour, but even on foot Rynforth was the height of a man on a barded, well built warhorse.

Although I would prefer not to digress from the main topic at hand, an odd occurrence in the winter of the second year of the war seems to be of great note. After several days of marching away from a battlefield Rynforth and his army were exhausted and many of them badly wounded. Due to enemy fortifications in the area they were forced to head through the Darkbranch forest to avoid any further battles before they were prepared. As they marched through the thick forest fierce growling could be heard in the distance and according to accounts dozens of yellow eyes shone through the forest like windows into hell. Soldiers there had described the mist as being inconsistent and swirling around in odd, strangely defined patterns. As the hundred’s of soldiers cowered in fear demonic, otherworldly laughter boomed through the forest causing the men to drop to their knees and cover their ears. Rynforth was enraged at these creatures and dashed off into the wood with a snarl and roar similar to the one heard before. The accounts say that he did not return to them for several days, and when he did he was drenched in blood yet had very few cuts of his own.

But fanciful tales aside, the campaign to take the south was enacted with unrelenting fury. No one was masquerading under the idea that this war was about helping the peasants, and those that did did not do very well for themselves. Rynforth himself is quoted to have said that all the peasants must be helped, but only if it is by giving them a weapon to defend themselves with. The gnomes of Gemmel who had become increasingly drawn into the war since it began did not trust Rynforth but assisted him in traveling across Gemmel to reach Central Country so that the war would end soon.

The war failed to end for another one-and-a-half years but from then on until the final battles it was relatively easy for Rynforth to take the next quarter. The main opponent to have emerged from the dozens of warring houses was that of the Capolats. Led by the three siblings Sem, Harold and Haley Capolat. The country was now approximately divided in half between the warriors of Rynforth and those of the Capolats and each would be hard pressed to quickly take the other half from each other.

Nevertheless, after many battles I shan’t delve into here the Battle of Lorim Keep came in the early summer of the fourth year although it was still snowing at that time. Rynforth took it as a sign of encouragement from the god’s and forced his men to march 40 miles a day to arrive there on time. None argued.

One might ask why, pray tell, the final and most decisive battle of the war was not at the capital of Endelhast, Endeldor. The answer is that both Haley and Sem had come from leading a battle against the angry Thorlian King, Degrek Shinsplitter near Lorim. They were supposed to have arrived to aid Harold in the battle but were delayed by several days. Soon after the siege went underway Harold committed suicide by jumping from the walls of the city instead of risking facing the wrath of Rynforth. When the soldiers heard of this, the battle had effectively been won and the tiny garrison stationed there gave up almost immediately. That should have been the end of the war, but there were still some 15,000 soldiers heading towards the capital from a battle in Thorl that Rynforth had to deal with.

The march towards Lorim took about a week because of the snow and fatigue of the soldiers. The side of the iron wolves (as they had come to be known) numbered at about 3,000 and was outnumbered 5-1 to the Capolats. No one on the side of the wolves expected to win aside from Rynforth who believed that greater beings were watching over him. Fanatical to his patron’s and completely fixated on finishing the war his bravery and leadership kept his warriors following him. Unfortunately, I was but a boy at the time and cannot remember much of the mood of the kingdom, but every source I’ve gathered information from tells of the high emotions running through the kingdom. Although many were still divided, they knew how close to an end the war was and were thankful for it.
It would be days, if not hours before the fighting ceased.

Near midnight the Capolat siblings were met in battle. The force was spread between several areas with Sem taking position in the relatively small keep with a small portion of warriors and Haley commanding a force of cavalry, ballista and archers on the rocky hills. Rynforth had not a single horse amongst his men aside from those being used to carry siege equipment and his men wore nothing better than leather or chain mail armour. He took his men and positioned them to the south of the keep, just out of range of the archers and too far away for their unpredictable ballista and catapults. His orders were to take up a defensive position for his siege weapons, with his medium infantry protecting them as they advanced into range. Meanwhile his remaining warriors (himself included) would advance towards the soldiers positioned on the hills as quickly as possible. The plan was not terribly clever or even effective, but as Rynforth had proven in the past he was an able commander and could pull off even the most ridiculous plans.

The ensuing carnage resulted in him personally killing Haley and her warhorse and an estimated 600 others. Of course, reports are expected to be greatly exaggerated-especially because the only people who survived to tell the tale were on his side-but divine workings have been hinted at throughout Rynforth’s entire documented life. The battle ended with the death of Frederick Barneln, commander of the Capolat’s first great sword regiment and was announced by the eerie cry of a wolf. In the aftermath, Rynforth was paraded back to Lorim via the main path (which has since been renamed the Path to Glory) and back to Endeldor to be crowned.

I'll add the rest of the history sometime this week, hopefully a summary of the 4 year war will keep you happy until then.

Cheers,

Jodjod

 

[Captain NeMo]

Bump. Really looking for some feedback here. If I get any positive (or, any at all...) replies I'll try and get the other 2000 words typed out for you lot to examine.

 

[Captain NeMo]

Okay, (probably) my last bump before I let this die. C'mon, you know you want to read it all.