Krudh
Look, Krudh's never been tha best place to live, but havin' Bloody Duerte in charge aint improved anythin'
Krudh has long been known as the most troubled of the Marcher Kingdoms, poorly developed and full of warlords, bandits, and petty kings. It has recently been unified under the boot of a particularly brutal warlord, and as he finishes stomping out any possible resistance to his rule, it is likely that his eyes will turn towards the better developed lands of Berbot Berbot and Gnok.
History
The Eastern Marches are well known as some of the last undeveloped and untamed lands in The Great Inland Sea, and while Berbot and Gnok have become more developed in recent years, Krudh has lagged behind. Krudh's history is full of violence as the petty kings, warlords, and raiding parties from The Western Marches have each attempted to carve out their own piece of the region. Kingdoms stable enough to begin developing their lands properly have historically been short lived, so Krudh's roads are narrow and poorly maintained and it's farmland is largely limited to small plots maintained by homesteads rather than large well developed fields.
The latest warlord to rise to prominance is a Galacian named Oliver 'Bloody' Duerte, who has managed to unite Krudh under his banner through intimidation and liberal use of violence. Bandit leader, king, and warlord alike were offered titles if they bent the knee to him and under his direction they have made good progress in driving the tribes of orcs and other monstrous humanoids across The Western Wall and back into The Western Marches. As this process comes to a close, Duerte is well aware that he is in control of larger numbers of men at arms than ever before, and has begun to eye his neighbors and their better developed and relatively peaceful lands.
Society
Life in krudh has always been heavily dependant on which warlord, bandit, or king claimed ownership of a particular area at any moment in time. Today, while Bloody Duerte has united the territory and ennobled a number of counts to rule the counties of his fledgling nation, little has changed. The vast majority of the newly titled counts are the same kings, warlords, and occasionally even bandits who had enforced their rule over their freshly appointed lands before they bent the knee to Duerte, and many families who had hoped for improvement under their new king have found themselves sorely disappointed.
The Bloody King
Oliver 'Bloody' Duerte is a galacian man who arrived in The Eastern Marches at the head of a good sized mercenary company with the intention of carving out his own kingdom without the interference of any of the major powers. Quickly discovering that the lords of Berbot had no intention of tolerating such a disruptive presence and Lechia took an active interest in the goings on in Gnok, he settled on the poorly developed and fragmented region of Krudh as the site of his future kingdom. Against a hardened and experienced mercenary company such as Duerte's 'Caballeros Sangrientos', few of the warlords or petty kings stood a fighting chance.
A small number of the more powerful or prideful lords refused to bend the knee to him, and he used them as examples to the rest of the realm, re-earning his title in the process. Fields were burned, settlements put to the torch, and in the end, the lords and their families crucified and left out in front of their former keeps or manors as demonstrations to the other would be oppponents to his rule. While Duerte was quick to live up to his name when dealing with anyone resisting him, he also saw the sense in maintaining some sort of stability, allowing anyone who bent the knee to him to keep their lands and ennobling them as counts under his rule.
Krudh had long been plagued by raiding parties of orcs and similar creatures from The Western Marches, and the first command that duerte issued to each of his new counts was to raise men at arms and drive the invaders back across The Western Wall. Now, as duerte watches his nobles form their men at arms into a proper fighting force with some assistance from the experienced officers of the 'Caballeros Sangrientos', he can't help but look to the lands of his neighbors with an avaricious eye.
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