Captain NeMo
First Post
Here's a homebrew nation of mine, tell me what you think.
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, Tiver 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.
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”.
Excerpt from Chapter 1: Overview of the War and the Deeds of Rynforth
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, Tiver 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.
Major Holidays said:
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”.
Excerpt from Chapter 1: Overview of the War and the Deeds of Rynforth
Histori Desroud III: Wolfe etek Wor said:
