Borderlords

The self-proclaimed rulers of the Midkingdoms, these are a motley aggregation of bandit kings, robber barons, ambitious adventurers, mercenary captains and would-be warlords. Anyone with a strong enough following and enough power and personal charisma to keep them together long enough to seize a plot of land and declare a border can lay claim to the title of Borderlord; however, that hardly means that many of the wannabes survive very long.

As one can imagine, the borders and alliances between successful Lords shift constantly, as do the identities of the Lords themselves. Constant backstabbing, power-struggles, retirements, disappearances and plenty of good old-fashioned murders thin the ranks at a rate almost constant with the influx of eager new pretenders.

The Borderlords who last are often those who have managed to seize production of resources or dug themselves into a strategic location and then secured it through tenuous alliance with the more stable of their neighbours. A monopoly on all trade on a certain route, or all trade of a certain manner of goods, is a better claim to power over time than simple ferocity; the life of a Borderlord is a wary dance of threats, braggado, conniving and wheedling amid the social morass that makes up the lawless Midkingdoms.