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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clay_More" data-source="post: 4402509" data-attributes="member: 9813">Okay, just wanted to share some of my thoughts and ideas about the first country I ever came up with in my Balmortis setting. It has actually been the country of origin for my players throughout many years of playing, but it has changed dramatically over these years. Since I started when I was quite young, naturally my initial ideas were somewhat childish, the country being a very dull, straight-forward, medieval-inspired country. It had goblins in a swamp and barbarians to the south, it had a king and some nobles and a lot of pan-flutes and merry damsels. It was basically medieval England, Cormyr, Gondor, whatever.It did though have one idea that I enjoyed, the idea that it was a rather young nation compared to most others. I expanded upon this idea and decided, since the country has always been firmly based on the worship of a deity called Thakulion, that it should be the result of a crusade.The church of Thakulion can be found in virtually all human countries in Balmortis, it even exists in some orcish societies. Thakulion is a very strict deity, called the Prince of Scars. His church believes that pain is the great sacrament, that it prunes the soul. The faith is extremely hostile towards other faiths, even the faiths dedicated to the two deities that are Thakulion's brothers. I will post a long description of Thakulion at some point. Some seven hundred years prior to the present day, the church embarked on a campaign to gather followers from virtually all countries of Balmortis. After a council held by the patriarchs of the church (the head of the church in a country is a patriarch), it was decided that a country should be formed that could be shaped according to the teaching of Thakulion. After careful consideration, it was deemed that the most appropriate location would be Laumakis, a peninsula in northern Balmortis that has been in goblin hands for centuries. Starting from the southernmost nations of Balmortis, a crusade was formed, calling all the faithful under its banner to wage war against the goblins so that a new nation might be formed. The patriarch of Achlein was responsible for starting the crusade, with the blessing of the council of patriarchs. The small army started moving north through other nations which had congregations of Thakulionites. It even moved through the Barbarian Plains just south of Laumakis, even though these lands have virtually no Thakulion worshipers. At this point though, the army had grown to such a size that it was almost impossible for the local, fractured tribes to resist the invasion.At the border to Laumakis, the army made camp. The majority of the army consisted of poorly trained commoners who would be a poor match against the goblin hordes of Laumakis. Fortunately, the council of patriarchs had planned for this and had hired a number of professional mercenaries along with a small fleet of ships that would provide a steady flow of goods to the camp. In addition to the Thakulionites themselves, the army was escorted by a large following of auxiliaries, a mix of slaves and mercenaries that it had picked up along the way. Using these auxillary troops, the camp was also successful in establishing a logistics line back to some of the nations that supported the crusade. Some nations were actually happy to see the exodus of the most hardline Thakulionites, as they have a tendency to be very zealous in their practices compared to most religious people. The army spent four years in the camp south of Laumakis, time spent training the commoners into a well-disciplined army. Since only rather radical Thakulionites had joined the crusade, the army already had a moral quite uncommon in an armed force, and the extensive military training only improved this morale when it was also supplemented by "esprit de corps".The crusader army, hailing from a variety of nations, didn't have a uniform fighting style. A gathering of the most competent professional mercenaries hired by the army worked together to develop a fighting style that would be potent against the massed, loosely-organized goblins. The core of the army would consist of heavy infantry in tight formations. Equipped with a chainmail, a large shield and a warhammer, this infantry was drilled extensively to work in a number of dense formations that would provide mutual protection. A smaller number of troops were trained to be archers, meant to accompany the heavy infantry to provide ranged support from the rear. An even smaller number of men were trained to be heavy cavalry protecting the flanks of the heavy infantry. The auxillary troops were trained to act as skirmishers, light infantry moving ahead of the army to harass and hinder the enemy, armed with a mix of light armor, melee and ranged weapons. While this composition has a number of weaknesses, it was deemed that none of these weaknesses would come to play when fighting the goblins.After the four years, the army marched across the border to Laumakis along with its huge host of auxiliary units. As expected, the goblin tribes raised armies of their own and constantly fought the crusader army as it made its way north. The crusader army proved to be highly efficient at dealing with the goblins, despite suffering occasional setbacks. When the army took a goblin village, it would burn it to the ground, killing all residents. The army eventually took over the vast majority of the Laumakis peninsula, with the exception of the Black Swamps located to the north-east. An especially ferocious tribe of goblins managed to survive the onslaught of the army by hiding in the swamp. An army consisting mainly of heavy infantry, while potent, has a great weakness when it is confronted by rugged terrain, as it has a tendency to break up the dense formations, making them far more vulnerable to enemy raids. Eventually, the crusader army had to settle with the land that it had conquered. One of the commanders of the army, General Latiff, oversaw the construction of a series of forts that would box in the goblins while the remainder of the army could focus on building up the holy nation of Laumakis. These forts, later named the "Bird Forts", since they were all named after common birds, would become the main line of defence against goblin incursions. In relative safety, the country could be built up from the ground. Villages, cities and castles were built by siege engineers across the country.In the early years of Laumakis, a flaw was noticed in the plan of the patriarchs. While they had recruited the most capable military leaders they could find, they had little experience in the daily management of a country. The church leaders naturally did their best to lead the people, but not all of the people living in the country were devout Thakulion followers. Many of the axillary troops that had come along on the crusade were of different faiths and as such, had problems respecting the somewhat inept leadership of the church elders. Even though the church banned virtually all religions from operating inside the country, it still didn't help on the problem of lacking leadership. Eventually the patriarchs had to swallow a bitter pill and request assistance from the nearby island nation of Montelival. Montelival is a very old nation with a long history of a powerful nobility. Essentially a meritocracy, the nobility of Montelival are trained from birth in the arts of economics, politics and different sociological studies. A number of Montelival nobles were invited to Laumakis to form a nobility which could manage the country. The nobles would be given a large tract of land in the country if they only swore to adhere to the edicts of the church. A fair number of nobles agreed and were given lands to manage in Laumakis. The son of the monarch of Montelival, Thaddeus Loreas, was crowned as the king of Laumakis. Despite his title, the king of Laumakis holds far less sway over the country than a king normally does. The vast majority of the power is held by the extremely powerful church.While zealous and aggressive, the church of Thakulion has grown a bit more defensive over the years. Right after the country was formed, it experienced several centuries of almost constant warfare. First there were a number of campaigns aimed at the goblin tribe inside the Black Swamps. After the goblin wars came several military campaigns against first the barbarians in the south and then the dwarves on Cimakath island and the trader nation on Rosvald island. Despite occasional successes, the Laumakian forces never saw any decisive victories that managed to provide them with additional territory, with the exception of some colonies they were able to establish on the shores of the Aukmar continent to the north. After an invasion from the south which almost resulted in the loss of the capitol of Laumakis, it was decided that the country would work on establishing a number of "buffer regions". The skilled diplomats of the nobility started an intense campaign of negotiations, intimidation and promises to assure the loyalty of the countries in the immediate vicinity of Laumakis. The plan was to create a number of buffer regions around the country which would provide a first line of defence against possible invaders. A few barbarian tribes to the immediate south of the country agreed to mutual protection pacts. To the west, the country has an arrangement with the merchants of Rosvald island who command a sizeable fleet, and to the east the country has an alliance with Saymore and to some extent Montelival.This is the basic history of the country. I tried as much as possible to create alot of opportunities for adventure inside the country. There are a number of factions all squabbling over control, the strongest being the Thakulion church naturally. The royal family, while powerful, is not fully trusted by neither the church nor the nobility. It does though have a decent amount of popularity amongst the inhabitants of the country, especially amongst the lower class. The nobility, even though they virtually all hail from Montelival, have become "native" over the course of several centuries and are not a unified mass. Most of the southern nobles, who are used to constant skirmishes with barbarians and other invaders, are hardliners who constantly argue that the country should commit more of its armed forces to aggressive campaigns. The majority of the northern nobles, on the other hand, have stuck to their Montelival heritage and pursue the scholarly education that granted them their position in the country to begin with. The northern nobles have a greater tendency to adhere to old traditions native to Montelival. The Thakulion church is by far the most powerful factor in the country as it controls not only a large portion of the populace, but also the majority of the armed forces. Unfortunately, the church is also fractured, even though it always works towards presenting a unified front to the nobles and the populace. In addition to the church itself, there is an order called the War-Heralds who are the military arm of the church, along with various orders of monks. In addition to the publically known orders, there's two secret orders formed by the church, both of whom has an agenda of their own. The least secret of the two orders are the Vanquishers, a special sect of fanatical War-Heralds that hunt down and eliminate all arcane spellcasters and clerics of other deities inside Laumakis. The other order is the Brothers of Herexia, a very clandestine and sinister order that has only one purpose; to find and implement new weapons to aid the church against its enemies. The Brothers of Herexia have in their arsenal a number of potent diseases that can be employed against a civilian population, a small cabal of powerful psychics, several ancient artifacts of less than good origins, various trapped beasts and other potential weapons. In addition to all of the above mentioned organizations are naturally the various guilds of the country as well as several spy networks from other dominant nations.To wrap it up, my basic idea was to create a country vaguely based on a combination of a standard medieval nation and a zealous religion. Thakulion is partly based on the bad parts of historical Christianity (and no, I'm not an anti-Christian, I always thought that Christianity has a good and positive social impact in contemporary society) mixed with some more mythical, fantastic elements. The whole concept should create ample opportunity for adventures taking place inside Laumakis itself, with many factions all fighting a subtle battle for dominance. The country also has possibilities for some more outwardly adventures, ranging from skirmishes with goblin tribes around the Seven Stones in the Black Swamps or with the barbarians of the southern plains, to more sinister operations inside traditional enemies of the Thakulion church, such as the Black Kingdoms or the two elven nations.Anyways, just wanted to hear how my ideas ring in the ears of others (and geez I hope I didn't go overboard on the description).</blockquote>

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