The Great Dale
Sandwiched between Narfell and Thesk, the Great Dale is considered a vast wilderness by most. The land is speckled with lonely farmsteads and clanholds, guarded by druids and rangers who enjoy their solitude and protect their homes with a vengeance. Few foreigners have reason to journey to the Great Dale, and that's just how its inhabitants like it.
Structure
The Great Dale is a political nonentity. Its borders are defined by its neighbors and the will of the Circle of Leth to protect its forests. There is no national government, and the people like it that way. Two people could claim to rule the Great Dale, were they so inclined: the Nentyarch and the Lord <> of Uthmere.
The Nentyarch already leads all the folk he cares to govern through the Circle of Leth and harbors no desires to become a druid-king. He is already in charge in the ways that matter, and he is happy to avoid the politicking and headaches that come with overt rule.
The Lord of Uthmere...
In the open lands of the Dale, politics - such as they are - work like this: The Nentyarch tells the druids what to do; the druids advise the clanlords and the leaders of homesteads, and those individuals run their lands as they choose. The leader of a small clan is hardly an autocrat or a tyrant; he might be the king of his hold, but one who rules with the consent of his kinsfolk. The Nentyar rangers or Leth druids often serve as impartial arbiters when neighboring clan-chiefs can't come to an agreement about matters of mutual concern.
Culture
The people of the Great Dale are honest, hardworking folk who simply want the outside world to leave them alone. For the most part, they've gotten their wish, since few people see much reason to travel here. If it were not for the Great Road connecting Uthmere to the east, there would not be any traffic through the region at all.
The people of the Great Dale are a mix of old Chondathan, Nar, Theskian, and more recently, Impilturan blood. The clan-holds possess the oldest bloodlines of the land, with more than a little of the ancient Nars. The folk of the Great Dale place little importance on race or ethnicity - a good neighbor is a good neighbor. The older families do not always get along with Impilturan homesteaders pushing eastward from Uthmere, who see miles of empty land and believe they're free to settle where they wish. This has led to bloodshed, but for the most part, the Impilturan colonists have found land that doesn't encroach on the holds of the earlier Dalesfolk.
The people of the Great Dale dress simply and for the weather. They favor homespun linen fabrics in the summer and leathers and furs in the winters. Although sunlight barely reaches the floor of the great forests, the ground underneath them is well protected. The canopy of these elder woods is a blanket in the winter, a shade in the summer, and an umbrella when the rains come.
History
The Great Dale was once part of the Narfell Empire and it was originally settled by human folk fleeing the fall of Jhaamdath. Later, the war between Narfell and Raumathar caused the abandonment of the area. In the 1370s DR, it was a frontier for the expanding tendencies of the kingdom of Impiltur.
Demography and Population
It is a mostly human land, of some 300,000 inhabitants circa 1485 DR.
The people of the Great Dale are almost exclusively human. The only exceptions, other than the odd wanderers are the few non-humans who have settled in the few cities of the land, the only place in the region that can lay claim to the label "civilized." In the wild eastern part of the Dale, that word is synonymous with "worthless" and "weak," carrying overtones of conniving and deceit. Using it usually leads to an all-out brawl.
While the Dalesfolk don't like outlanders at all, they don't care much for one another, either. The forests and fields are dotted with tiny enclaves of isolated clans. The common tongue here is Damaran, a legacy of ancient Narfell, but the Nar heritage of the Great Dale is long forgotten. The "old" Dalesfolk are descended from Chondathans who came to this land more than a thousand years ago, while the "new" are generally Impilturans who have settled the western reaches of the Dale for several hundred years. The Circle of Leth is the only unifying force in the region. If it were not for the druidic hierarchy, the two cultures sharing the Great Dale would be at each other's throats.
Territories
The Great Dale was a large gap between the Forest of Lethyr and the Rawlinswood. This area was created in ancient times by an arm of the Great Glacier. The Dalefolk legends say that a great dragon divided the forest with his breath while others stated that Silvanus and Shaundakul held a contest to decide whether wood or wind would rule this land when Auril the Frostmaiden intervened to set winter over both. One long road crossed the Dale connecting Uthmere with the Cold Road, known by the name "The Great Road" or simply "The Road" (since it was the only major road of the area). The climate was harsh with furious winter winds.
Military
No one has tried to invade the Great Dale in centuries. The Great Road could be a path of Thayan aggression against lands farther west, but the Great Dale is hundreds of miles from Thay, and even the Red Wizards would have difficulty sustaining an army so far from home. Even if invaders were to attack the Dale, most of its people would let them pass unmolested, as long as their armies stuck to the Great Road. Any troops who entered the woods, however, would have to contend with the full fury of the Nentyarch and the Circle of Leth.
It's hard to imagine why another nation would want to conquer the Great Dale other than out of some kind of mad land-lust. The riches of the land lie almost exclusively within its mighty forests, and the danger involved in extracting them would be ridiculously high. It is simpler, safer, and far cheaper to barter with the locals - and that's just what most of the Great Dale's neighbors have done over the years.
Religion
Chauntea, Mielikki, and Silvanus are worshiped widely in the territory. The people of the Great Dale understand that while they may seem alone, they are always surrounded by their chosen deities - nature gods all. The farmers who work the open fields favor Chauntea. Silvanus appeals to most of the druids and rangers, although Mielikki comes in a close second. Women are especially fond of her, and when a person of the Great Dale is in need, they appeal to her kinder nature first. People who live along the Great Imphras River or near the headwaters of the Easting Reach often prefer Eldath.
Laws
In the countryside, the Great Dale is almost lawless. While most folk don't steal from or injure their neighbors, they expect only what justice they can carve out with a blade. Many people do not venture away from their homes unless armed, even if only with a quarterstaff or a club, but a well-worn longsword or longbow is preferred by travelers in the wilder reaches. Bandits and marauders are not very common, but the lands of the Great Dale are filled with wild animals and monsters. Only a "civilized" person would even consider walking around without a weapon at his side.
Outside of settlements' walls, justice is either swift or left undone. Wrongdoers who are caught are punished on the spot by their captors. The favored method of execution is to bind criminals high in the branches of a tree, where they either die of thirst or are eaten by animals. It's not unusual to see sun-bleached, picked-over skeletons hanging in the trees along the perimeter of either forest. These are an object warning to those who would intrude on the peace of these woods.
Agriculture & Industry
Three different kinds of people inhabit the Dale: farmers, herders, and the druids and rangers. Most of the farmers live under the trees in the western portions of the Dale and are often of Impilturan descent. They grow crops of all sorts but prefer hardier grains such as wheat and corn that can stand up to windswept springs and early frosts. The farmers usually end up with plenty for themselves and enough left over to barter with traveling merchants or their neighbors for things they can't grow or make on their own. Most Great Dale farms are homesteads of one or two families.
The herders keep their flocks in the open stretches of the central and eastern Dale. Their homes are often made of field-stone fitted together by hand and chinked with mud, half-buried in a hillside to stay below the winter winds. These goatherds and shepherds are more likely to be "old" Dalesfolk and gather in clanholds of five to ten related families.
The rangers and druids patrol the forests, keeping out strangers and protecting their beloved woods. They warn off wayward souls who wander into something they know nothing about. People who are out to maliciously harm the forests, however, receive the harshest treatment. The rangers of the Great Dale save their greatest fury for those fools who attempt to set up logging operations within their domain. Both rangers and druids prefer to sleep under the sheltering canopy of the Rawlinswood or the Forest of Lethyr. When traveling, they may spend a night or two under the stars, but they prefer to minimize their time in the open. These followers of the Nentyarch hunt and gather their own food. They sometimes call on the farmers of the land to contribute food or shelter, but they prefer not to trouble the Dalesfolk.
Trade & Transport
Uthmere has the only real economy in the Great Dale. Its lord mints coins that are used throughout the city but rarely beyond. The people of the wilds prefer barter to money. As the locals like to say, "Coins are too easy to lose." Uthmere makes most of its money on mooring fees charged to merchants who rise its harbor. In effect, this is a toll for the Great Road, as the only easy way to get to it from the coast is directly through Uthmere.
The people of the wild lands produce herbs, alchemical ingredients, and wooden goods of the highest quality. The Great Dale has no mines within its borders, and the only forges are in Uthmere, Bezentil, and Kront. With the exception of simple iron items such as horseshoes or nails, the Dalesfolk must import metal items and tools.
Arrows, bows, woodcarving, herbs, alchemical items, magic items
Gold, silver, iron tools
Comments