New Falonia

A colony of the Imperium of Karadia on the small edge of the great island of Northport, most of which is currently covered by a glacier, inhabited by aggresively hostile creatures. An object of the on-going rivalry with the Eagle Empire, as it lies in the middle of the western ocean, between both empires. This makes control of it vital for the long-term trade rivalry connecting the two heavily developed continents.

Map: Click

Demographics

New Falonia according to last population census.

Species

Human dominated, as they make for 85% of the general population: 49% are baseline humans, 20% are northerners, and the rest are varcubi. The rest are half elves (mostly low elves) and various drakons.

Professions

Out of 25,000, about 1,000 are soldiers of an Imperial Army (from the 3rd. Independent Infantry Brigade), 5,500 are adventurers, about a hundred of them officially part of Imperial Army's Auxilliary. This abnormally high number is caused by extremely dangerous flora and fauna outside of the capital city's walls. Approximately 10,000 are slaves (mostly former convicts) used for work in more dangerous environments (especially mines, construction and, agriculture) while the remaining 8,500 are various craftsmen, artisans and administrators.

Religions

The Imperial Religion is overwhelmingly dominant, with about 20,000 worshippers. The others follow various religions of of Lana, with 560 khardics being only monotheistic religion.

Government

New Falonia is considered a legate province of the Imperium of Karadia, overseen by a military commander at the rank of legate. He is the closest the colony has to a governor. Both civilian administration and the 3rd Independent Brigade respond to him - because of that the Imperium tends to sent legates of noble origin with some achievements with civilian administration also.

Defences

The city of New Falonia is protected by a modern set of magic-resistant reinforced concrete. Despite three consecutive sieges by Eagle Empire, one attack done by rawrs and seventeen attacks by wild archdaemons and beasts from the deep part of continent, the ramparts weren't breached.
Nearby lands are doted with several smaller forts defended with stonework walls. Worth noting is Finentar, a fortress guarding entrance to the northern plateau, near the face of the glacier, which is considered second best defended location on the island (ex aqueo with Earland in the Eagle Empire colony to the west). Fort Ostan is much smaller, but it protects vitally important center of railways. Village of Pirr is the biggest of several villages... and is best defended of them all, as its housing most of the colony's mining industry.

Industry & Trade

Most of the local industry is militarized. The islands produces enough food to feed itself (though barely, which was seen during the recent sea blockades). The majority of arable land is redirected into alchemical ingredient production to supply hospitals with medicaments, there is also a small aether refinery, a shipyard, and an industrial-level metalworks.
The island itself exports mostly trophies taken by adventurers from local fauna (extremely dangerous ones) and unique types of wood, especially important are Freezeleave and Icebark Oak.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure of the colony at this point mostly includes a rather limited set of dirt roads connecting the most important installations outside of the capital of New Falonia (after which the colony is named) plus, where needed, wooden or stone bridges assembled by military engineers. The town itself is developing quickly, with shipyards (mostly for repair, not construction), modern sewers, magic-powered street lighting, and indoor plumbing making it an idealized town using the most modern achievements of the Imperium.
Worth noting is a railway connecting the city with northern fortress of Finentar and the mining village of Pirr, with the third line leading to the bridge over the ravine separating New Falonia from the rival colony of Earland set up by Eagle Empire. The objective is to expand it all the way to said colony's capital - after the Imperium wins the colonial contest and annexes the entire island, which is unlikely to happen soon.

Guilds and Factions

The most important organizations in the New Falonia are Imperial Army, Imperial Army's Auxilliary and Imperial Adventurers Guild. The whole colony is under military command, because of which the non-military organizations are at best secondary in value.
Important ones include The Imperial Magic Guild and The Imperial Temple, an autonomous district inhabited by varcubi, and the local khardic religious community.
Of the groups hostile to the Imperium the only notable one is the rawrs, a barbarian tribe that considers the entire island their sacred homeland. Imperial attempts at negotiations ended up rather poorly (if you can use 'rather poorly to describe its delegates being eaten in a cannibalistic feast). For now the tribesman are mostly a minor nuisance, as while fierce, their technological level barely surpasses tools from wood and stone.

History

New Falonia, along with the whole island of Northport, is mysterious place. It remained frozed and under glacial coverage for a majority of Imperium's history. The Imperium was aware of the island being beneath it (believed to be origin of rawrs tribe, but was completely uninterested in it.
It began rapidly unfreezing less than a century ago, with the process constantly accelerating: it started retreating with a speed of 'merely' ~one kilometer per year, while in last year the Imperium estimated the glacial retreat to be nearly seven kilometres. All of this is with absolutely no justification according to climate experts, with the same glacier actually expanding very slowly to the west and east of Northport.
The Imperium was first to take advantage and settle the southernmost part of the island, creating what currently is the city of New Falonia, named after Imperium's founder. It expected a half-frozen and barren wasteland, but that was soon proven to not be the case. The continuous thawing of the glacier began freeing an exotic ecosystem that was frozen together with the island in unknown days past.
The whole effect is clearly magical. An unkown magic-user covered the entire island with a powerful freezing magic of immense magnitude, covering everything in a kilometer thick ice cover. The fauna and flora freed from beneath the ice turned out to be extremely hostile, with literally every predator actively hunting humans.
The list of said predators includes pyranha-like bunnies operating in hundreds-strong packs, capable of tearing and devouring an elephant in minutes; and wolves that can grow up to seven meters in length and leading packs of several unique subspecies of wolves (with limited magical abilities), organizing them in almost military way, betraying some degree of intellect. Such hordes twice managed to wipe out entire villages.
Merely fifty years ago the Eagle Empire managed to temporarily gain control over the northern seas, and decided to settle a currently uninhabited part of the island to the west, effectively denying New Falonia (despite it not being captured) most of its strategic importance. From then the whole Northport has been in a constant military stalemate, regardless of the current political arrangement between both empires.
The Imperium launched extensive attempts to find the reason behind the sudden thawing of the glacier over Northport. A third expedition three months ago managed to reach the glacier itself and the furthest extent of it's retreat, suffering 90% casualties. The Imperium learned little from the survivors - many of them were grotesquely mutated, and all were completely insane. Their rantings contained often repeating phrases 'wingless dragon' (formless according to one of the survivors) and 'doom of the ancient'. Uncovering the truth was unsuccessful.
At this point the Imperium believes a high-ranked eldritch-type archdaemon (or maybe even demigod) is sealed within the glacier, actively engineering its own prisonbreak by causing the glacier to melt. Imperial specialists are currently researching rawr lore, suspecting their chief dragon god to be the being imprisoned under the glacier.
The military build-up is underway, with the Imperium is estimating that less than a year is left to the disaster. This seems to be further supported by a growing number of disappearances and encounters with unknown types of daemons in the countryside and especially on the northern plateau. It is unknown if the Eagle Empire's colony is aware of the threat, however no attempts are being made to warn it.

Geography

The majority of New Falonia is relatively flat with a heavily post-glacial landscape. This includes many small lakes and low hills. The entire province is forested, with a great number of caves, which is considered anomalous by geologists. Three major rivers come south from the frozen north, with a high risk of floods every spring. This is caused mostly by the region's disturbed climate, and the ice which unfreezes each year as the glacier in the region is retreating extremely fast.
The ground itself is believed to have undergone major terrestrial sculpting in the past. The only civilization known to accomplish this degree of sculpting is the First Empire. The ravine separating the colonies of the Imperium of Karadia and of the Eagle Empire is artificial. Such is also the case for the Northern Plateau, which was artificially raised to exactly one hundred meters above the sea level and eighty meters above the areas bordering the south).
It is almost permanently cold, with thick snow coverage remaining for most of the year. It is considered an area off-limits, with a garrison in Finentar being seen as the northern border of the colony (and not letting anybody past it). Three attempts to reach the glacier were made to date. Two ended with the expeditions retreating halfway. The third was even worse disaster.

Natural Resources

The ground is relatively fertile, enough to organize agriculture and sustain the colony, but not to organize major exports. There are expansive resources hidden in the rocks beneath, with major deposits of iron, coal and several rare metals detected and already partially exploited. The forests are composed of unique types of wood, and inhabited by a variety of beasts that are also unique to this area (though recently some have started moving to the Dragarian Isles, crossing the sea by unknown means.

Alternative Name(s)

Northport, Northern Land.

Population

25 000