Aredhen (A-red-hen)

Aredhen is a vast but sparsely kingdom at the northen edge of the Heartlands. Famous for its hard winters and the challenges of its jagged geography, the nation is a critical junction of intercontinental trade due to its location. Its Caéled people feel a strong kinship with their western neighbors, the Caraegweni.

Contents

Music

Below: Aredhen is a chilling and grey land for most of the year. The countryside is characterized by ramshackle villages and backwatery thorps found in the nooks and crannies of an endless array of sharp ravines.

Acaratus Concept Art - Nodian Wasteland by Klaus Pillon

Location and climate

Aredhen's geography is exceptionally jagged -- every square league of its vast area broken by ravines, cliffs, chasms and plateaus. Famously hard to travel and even harder to settle, the sparsely populated nation thrives mainly on trade. It is situated at a crossroads of three continents.
Aredhen is the primary gateway between the Heartlands and The North, having several hundred kilometers of border with the lawless frontier known as the Blasted Steppe. Moreover, Aredhen is the closest neighbor of the twin city-states of Karnimrith and Barag-Lis as well as being very close to the Rubian Desert and the exotic realms beyond. The major travel routes of the nation are littered with trading posts and the populace is accustomed to foreign travellers and exotic goods.
Aredhen's climate is wet and cold -- much colder than that of its western neighbour, the Summer Kingdom, which flourishes in magically lengthened summers and mild winters. Aredhen has no coastline. Its map is dominated by the great Lormari River in the south -- with impenetrable Ellondoth beyond -- and the Black Mountains to the north, with the Gap of Aredhen leading to the Blasted Steppe.

Societal structure

Aredhen functions as a feudal hybrid of constitutional monarchy and electorial oligarchy. The king of the royal family holds great power but many high-level decisions are made by an elected council of high lords. Municipal power is distibuted by feudal principle -- based on bloodline and ownership of land.
The nation's monarchy has reputation of inaction and indifference. The high lords of nobility wield great power. Even lesser nobles are often very influential thanks to their great wealth, amassed at the expense of the much poorer peasant class. Merchants are many in Aredhen, and their guilds are powerful. Clergy have very little influence or wealth.

Hierarchy of noble titles

1. King, Queen – Governors of the realm, overseers of dukes
2. Prince, Princess – Children of the royal family have remarkable power and station
3. Taern, Taernissa – Governors of the teyrnirs, overseers of banns
4. Bann, Bannessa – Governors of bannorns, overseers of comts
5. Comt, Comtessa – Governors of comties, overseers of minor lords
6. Lord, Lady – Nobles with castles or smaller holdings, sometimes also governors of single settlements
7. Ser, Serah – Nobles without castles or holdings, typically officials, scholars or knights in service of others

Religion

Aredhen is not known as a very pious nation. Clerics are uncommon and temples are found only in larger cities. Worship is not regulated but temples are heavily taxed by the crown.
Despite being sister-states with common cultural history, Aredhen and Caraegwyn differ quite significantly in religious tradition. Spellbound Caraegwyn, the Summer Kingdom, is widely regarded as a holy land of both Iona and Alar, whereas in Aredhen the two most popular deities are Etro and Amon-Kir.

Magic

Druidism is common. The only college of magic is found in the capital city.

Economy

Aredhen is a modestly wealthy, self-sufficient country with very few trade commodities. Their only notable export products are granite and horses, the latter of which are widely recognized as of truly exceptional quality. With little land that is easily farmable, the nation has a rather low population density.
Aredhen thrives on the wealth brought by international and intercontinental trade.

Technological level

Technology in line with most other nation's of the Heartlands without access to some of the newest advances such as Arcanosmithing.

Infrastucture

Aredhen has a network of well maintained highways and roads, zig-zagging though they are due to the nation's broken geography.
Like its western neighbor, Aredhen controls a large portion of one of the most significant trade routes in the north: the Fading Road, which goes from the shore of the Great Sea all the way to the Rubian Desert to the east of the Heartlands.

Geographic location on Amanor

DETAILS
Civilization type
Kingdom
Founding Date
1742 ER
Government System
Elected monarchy
Power Structure
Feudal state
Current leader
?
Leader title
King / Queen
Capital
Giedroych

---

DEMOGRAPHY AND POPULATION
Caéled
Grey elves
Wood elves
Notable minority populations
City gnomes
Mountain dwarves
Demonym
Aredheni
Languages
Common
Caéled

---

Religions
Empyreal Faith
Old Faith

Deities

• Amon-Shikaar
• Bahamut
• Corellon
• Etro
• Melora
• Morad

Location

Heartlands

Neighboring Nations

• Caraegwyn
• Ellondoth

Below: The land of Aredhen is scarred by ravines and cliffs, making travel difficult without the aid of construction or magic.

Fortress with bridge by Sparth

Cancelled comic project - page 3 by Johann Blais

Sheep flock by Stefan Koidl

Above: The cold and windy Gap of Aredhen is a bare region. Sheep herding is a traditional occupation for the people that dwell there in the shadows of the surrounding mountains.

Military

Noble families maintain professional troops that form a powerful standing army. Peasants are free to enlist for war efforts but are rarely conscripted. The Aredheni favor light cavalry, light infantry and archers. Aredhen has a very small navy with only a few port cities by the Golden Sea. Magicians are rare in armed engagements and are mainly wizards and druids.

Foreign relations

Allies with Caraegwyn. Trades with Egea and the Dwarf Sovereigns.

History

Aredhen was founded in 1742 as an electorial monarcy by an alliance of Caéled clans that occupied the lands of modern Aredhen. The foundation occured some 20 years after the re-founding of Caraegwyn by Arthur I Pendragon, and was meant to create both a political and military counter-balance to Caraegwyn.