Kingdom of Eos
Overview
Eos is the most powerful singular domain in the Free Realms. It is an absolute monarchy with some delegation to trusted relations or meritorious experts. The capital of the kingdom is currently centered around the great fortress, Faradan's Folly; but the main cultural and economic center is the city of Brigden Ford. The kingdom is known for its productive agriculture, mining and quarrying, and the production of arms, armour and siege engines. The kingdom is overwhelmingly human, though there is a small minority population of half-elves and dwarves in the kingdom's four cities.
Government
The King is well-regarded, Euwen the Fair is four generations the successor of the founder of the Kingdom, Elsin the Great. He presides over a period of growth for his lands and people, and a period of fragile calm between the majority of the Free Realms. Named by his noble retainers in private as Euwen the Quartermaster, the King is focused very much on ensuring safe and reliable transportation and communication between the various cities, towns and villages of the realm. The King has overseen the building of nine bridges spanning across the three major rivers; and countless lengths of well-built roads to connect everyone together. Generally, the King appoints governors for settlements and territories in a feudal manner, so matters of governance in a county will fall to the Count or Countess, while matters in one of the four major cities will fall to a noble like a Count, Countess, Duke or Duchess. The King relies on a small cabinet of advisors headed by his most trusted lieutenant known as the First Minister for larger matters of the realm.
Religion
The King himself is a practicing devotee of the Church of the Divine King with a particular veneration of Tawnos the Tinkerer, the last of the line of Urza the Orange Sage. Outside the Royal House, though, the practice is more generally devoted to Islik himself. As a result, however, the population is generally distrustful of elves and orcs and anyone they believe cleave to the tenets of the Old Faith. They are much more tolerant of dwarves and anyone who holds to the Imperial Cult, but they don't have much interaction with other religions.
Military
The Eosian military is split up between the Royal Host and the Lordly Banners. The former is a force created by Elsin the Great and modeled on the more merit-based command structure of the old imperial dwarven legion. Loyal solely to the King and his Family, the Host is often at odds with the Lordly Banners -- the personal troops of the various nobles who owe fealty to the King. Lordly Banners, including those of the King's House, consist of minor nobles, landed knights, their retainers and men-at-arms, and any troops levied by conscription. These two troops are roughly equal in standing strength, though the Royal Host has a supplemental force of engineers trained in siegeworks and fieldworks. The Royal Host occupies well-designed and well-built fortresses on major trade routes, along the borders of the realm, and in three enormous fortified bridges across each of the three major rivers in the realm. When faced with external threats or when the kingdom intervenes on behalf of other Free Realms, it is the Lordly Banners that march to war first. Winning battles in glorious actions in defense of the good and the orderly outside the Kingdom is among the most direct means by which a noble or a raised knight may find themselves in better conditions and with greater opportunity.
Magic
Magic is generally restricted to the license of the Crown, with the vast majority of sanctioned practitioners being agents of the Arcanum. In fact, the kingdom has a long-standing contract with that powerful guild of arcane practitioners. Euwen's great-grandmother, Erin the Grim, sacrificed herself in defense of the fledgling guild during an embassy to the far-off home city of the Arcanum. In recognition of those heroic acts, the guild has granted Eos and its rulers a much-discounted rate of service. As a result, the Arcanum's Tower is built directly into the edifice of Faradan's Folly. The Arcanum's agents have been close advisors and even regents to the throne in times of an interregnum. Agents of the Arcanum are also permitted to enforce the laws regarding magic within Eos, though they must be accompanied by mundane law enforcement officers of a certain rank in such duties.
History
The current rulers of Eos were once a middle tier noble family known for its pragmatic approach to both commerce and warfare. At that time, the most powerful aristocrat was Archduke Faradan the Third, and he was an ambitious and unscrupulous leader looking to consolidate power. He had forced a marriage between his house and that of the second most powerful noble family in the land, a move which was deeply disapproved due to the incompatible religious worldviews between his teenage son, Faradan the Fourth, and the betrothed, Lady Annalyne of Brigden Ford.
During the Tournament of Flowers on the wild plain of Charrow Heights, the Archduke's young heir was killed during the Grand Melee. It turns out that the one to do it was the bachelor uncle of the Lady Annalyne. An old warrior, Lord Richtor of Brigden Marches, had done it on purpose to free his niece from the rumoured predations of the elder Faradan the Third. This sparked conflict that grew into open warfare between the house of Archduke and the House that gave Lord Richtor and Lady Annalyne sanctuary: that of Elsin the Fourth, soon to be known as Elsin the Great.
Elsin and Richtor broke the forces of Faradan upon the walls of Elsin's newly-completed home fortress, the Greenwall Holdfast. They were able to sally forth and challenge Faradan directly. Richtor had already been mortally wounded, but Elsin was able to slay the Archduke in honourable comabt. Following the battle, the nobles of the surrounding lands came together and declared Elsin the Great as the new King of the Eosian shieldlands. Greeenwall was renamed Faradan's Folly, and a new era of stability began.Culture
The people of Eos are stoutly law-abiding and industrious. While they aren't insular, they do not seek out much interaction with foreign cultures. They are generally patriarchal; and while they are not scandalized by women asserting their own independence, but they are much less tolerant of men shirking their masculine duties unless they take to the Cloth of the Divine King as a monk, scholar, preacher or priest.
Assets
In addition to the settlement adjacent to Faradan's Folly, there are four main cities in the Kingdom of Eos: (1) Brigden Ford, (2) Grand Fork, (3) Tannith Vale, and (4) Istvan's Reach.
Brigden Ford
At nearly 500,000 inhabitants, Brigden Ford is the largest city, the cultural and commercial center of the Kingdom. The Arcanum operates their largest tower here with upwards of twenty trained arcane practitioners. The Royal Host operates a large military operation here. They guard the three local bridges across the Brigden River -- Old Bridge, Big Bridge, and New Bridge -- each is fortified to an equal or greater degree than the city itself. Commercially, Brigden Ford is known for its bustling market district and its very large number of foreigners housed generally throughout the city rather than segregated in a specific quarter. It is due to this integrated population that they level and intensity of racial and religious friction is quite high, and as such, the city has a numerous and well-run City Guard with a full complement of criminal investigators called the Constabulary.
Grand Fork
With just under 200,000 inhabitants, the city of Grand Fork is the third largest by population, but by far the largest city by total area. The city was built as a grand dwarven fortress controlling the confluence of the Rennon River into the larger Brigden River. When the Old Empire pulled away from the borders of their former empire, they left the city in the hands of a friendly Duke Rennon, who occupied the great keep and its tall, well-built, and interconnected defenses. Grand Fork is a hub for transportation and warehousing. A large majority of its inhabitants are members of guilds responsible for producing military equipment, tools and other useful and rugged finished goods that befit the character of Eosian production. As a result of its history, there is a large population of dwarves from the Old Empire, the Commonwealth, and even the realms of the Delve-Kings.
Tannith Vale
Furthest northwest, the city of Tannith Vale is unique in its lack of fortifications. Formerly a small town, it was originally founded to be adjacent to a great and protected forest. Now, it the forest has expanded over the past two hundred or so years, and now the city is surrounded by the trees and wilder lands. That forest has been inhabited by wood elven tribes that have lived here since time immemorial. Now, Tannith Vale has a population of just over 100,000 people with only a slim majority of its people being human, the rest being some combination of half-elf and elf. Tannith Vale is the only city where the worship of the Divine King is not even close to being the majority of the population, instead the Old Faith is most common. Tannith is known for its timber products and fur trade, though it is also a hub for trade goods that the wood elves access in exchange for that timber and fur. The Lord-Mayor of the city is a wood elven woman, the Countess Beryl Oakenhart, the sole surviving noblewoman of a holy day massacre perpetrated by a death cult. Lady Beryl who sits as regent for her toddler son, the Hadrik the Half-Elven.
Istvan's Reach
Istvan's Reach was once the capital city of the realm before Eos. Due to historic warfare and economic challenges, the city has seen better days. Formerly ruled by the family of the last Archduke, Faradan the Third, the city is ruled by the heir-apparent to the Throne, the younger brother of the King, Prince Elias "Woodhand" of Greenwall. Located in a previously rich area due to large mining operations, those mines have since been exhausted of their ore and precious stones. The city was once home to nearly four hundred thousand people, but it now contains roughly 250,000 people. Here, the Church of the Divine King operates a Fortress-Monastery for the Knights of Ashnod, and a Seminary College that trains most of the Senior and High Priests of the Divine King that operate in Eos and its immediate neighbours. Despite its economic stagnation, Istvan's Reach plays host to the second largest Tower of the Arcanum, and it the home to two of the three largest domestic mercenary companies.
Demography and Population
The last Royal Roll was completed during the later years of Euwen's father, Eric the Grey, when he was still a boy. The kingdom at that time had two million and three hundred thousand inhabitants, overwhelmingly human with some one hundred and seventy thousand counted as half-elves, ninety thousand dwarves, and some twelve thousand counted as other including half-orcs, halflings, and gnomes.
Territories
The Kingdom of Eos proper is situated within the southern central region of the Free Realms. Historically, they had been landlocked, but enjoyed very good relations with the port city-state directly to their south. Recently, King Euwen was appointed the Regent for the infant Prince Tallo of that city. He has since brought the child, his consort-mother and what remains of his household to live with him at Faradan's Folly. The leaders of the other Free Realms fear this may be a power grab, with Eos annexing a vitally important commercial and military interest with direct access to Boundary Bay and the trading lanes on the Sea of the Saviour.
Foreign Relations
The Kingdom of Eos enforces the peace in the Free Realms with diplomacy and the threat of military intervention. While they cannot force their peace upon the entire realm simultaneously, they can defeat any two or three other realms on multiple fronts fairly handily, though that would come at the expense of capacity in the following years. Also, the Kingdom can rarely intervene in defense of minority populations within other realms, as they do not have the capacity to enforce morality on matters that are internal to neighbouring realms without eroding their commercial and political interests.
Maintain the Right and Juste.
Maps
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An Eosian Temple of the Divine King
The Temple of the Divine King in the city of Brigden Ford is relatively new. While not the largest of the temples or churches of Islik in the Kingdom of Eos, it is well-known for its highly active clergy and pointed observance of every single holy day.
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Capital
Alternative Names
Eos
Demonym
Eosian
Leader
Leader Title
Head of State
Head of Government
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Mixed economy
Currency
The common currency is the Silver Shield of the dwarven Commonwealth and the Old Empire, though coinage of various other realms is accepted if money-changing is not available. Negotiation on the value of other silver coins is often very hardnosed, though any form of gold coinage or bullion is thoroughly accepted with much less scrutiny for its religious connections to the Divine King.
Legislative Body
Laws tend to be decreed solely by the King with the advice of his cabinet and First Minister. He does consult annually with a convention of the various noble houses on matters of external relations, taxes and levies, religious matters, and matters of security and warfare. That being said, the standing laws established by the successive monarchs have largely stood the test of time with only minor revisions based on such input.
Judicial Body
The King himself is the final word on all matters of justice and law interpretation. Euwen the Fair is widely known as a superlative legal mind, but he is still but one man and he has required help in keeping the application of law consistent across the realm. As such, he has delegated much authority to twelve Royal Magistrates situated in four locations across the kingdom.
These magistrates are responsible for most of the standard matters of law, whether it be contract disputes or criminal proceedings. Local governors of towns and smaller settlements are empowered to make minor rulings as delegated by the King, but petitioners may appeal such rulings up to the a Bench of Magistrates in the closest major city. It is rare for decisions of the Royal Magistrates to be overturned, but in such circumstances, the first step is convening the Grand Bench where all twelve are gathered to hear the case and have their opinion be counted in a collected vote. In the even rarer circumstances where opinion of the Grand Bench is tied or unable to decide, the King himself must decide.
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Deities
Location
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Comments