Graefsher
The Graefsher is a long strip of land along Northern Hain, connecting the Hainish heartlands to the realms of Andrig. This region is the battleground of Hain - the wall of castles, militias, and walled gardens ready for an invasion from the North. Towns here are rare; instead, it is farmland, forests, fortifications, and burial mounds. The grave-mounds (and other markers of the dead) are as common as the living; more common, in parts. The landscape is beautiful despite the sorrow: misty woods, baleful swamps, and rainy green farmland.
While Graefsher may seem like normal Hainish pure-land (still lightly mutated like everything in Stildane, but not in very obtrusive ways), centuries of constant Ederstone warfare has radically transformed the ecosystem and landscape. More than anywhere else, though, all mutations here have been shaped by trauma and conflict - mutated life here springs to life around tragedy and war in the same way that desert life jumps from the soil when rain falls. What was previously a mundane landscape can suddenly become deeply alien when enough blood is spilt, and locals have very careful rituals for putting that life back into hibernation.
The local culture here is one of bluster, pride, and militant optimism. To some, this is bravery and healing; to others, it is a sad state of denial that their home is a broken battleground and that they are disposable fodder trapped on the frontlines of a possible future war. Perhaps it is simply a sign of the close bonds between the local peasantry and the Hainish military; serfdom is overwhelming here and there is only one town for freedmen to even work in, so the only form of social mobility in Graefsher is to become a soldier in a lord's warband. Luckily for them, the lords of Graefsher recruit heavily for soldiers to be sold to other lords needing men for their warbands. Taxes here are often paid in corvee labor to build up the region's fortifications and infrastructure, and peasants deemed "ideal for service" can pay a fraction of their taxed labor in training. The peasantry has a firm division between "in the garden" and "on the wall", so the speak - peasant veterans or soldiery strut around with a sprinkle of lordship, confident in their superior social and economic position compared to everyone else. Local peasant hierarchies can be quite firm; military families who remain in Graefsher often end up as either freedmen or as wealthier community leaders, and they expect total obedience from those who do not fight.
These military farmers can be quick to rebel if their status and position are infringed by the nobility, but can also be the enforcers of the nobility if anyone else tries to rebel. Noble concepts of honor and stoic bearing are common among the peasantry here - nobles see this as a cute kind of "dressing up like your parents" scenario, while peasants from other lands see them as a mix of uptight, pretentious, polite, and romantic depending on your disposition.
Beyond a pride in military service, locals are known for their disdain of travelers, heartland-Hainish "softies", foreigners, merchants, and Kobolds. Kobolds are simply not welcome here; the Graefsher prides itself on being more anti-Kivish than Gennorholn, and the people of the region are eager to find Kivish to demonstrate that. While Kobolds moving along the roads and sticking to traveler's inns might not even notice the local hostility, the cruelty behind the local courtesy may come out if they try to leave the traveler's paths. Outsiders in general are not advised to go tromping around local villages without care - mob violence against outsiders is extremely common if a traveler oversteps any number of unspoken lines (such as courting a local person, claiming to be a better warrior than the local soldiery, not performing Uvara "correctly", or being either too nice or too rude to the local "gardener" population).
This mob violence is usually non-lethal, thankfully, but includes humiliating and painful experiences such as "tarring and feather", "getting put in a bear costume that you can't see out of and getting beaten badly with sticks", and "getting tied to a post while children throw garbage at you until a court of teenagers agrees to let you go". The locals have enough sense to avoid killing outsiders that might attract attention or legal action - even Kobolds - but there are a few fringe cases where malnourished and desperate wasteland refugees traveling along have dissapeared. Some have theorized that the local xenophobia is a way to feel powerful in a landscape and society that promises that one day, Kivish invaders will horribly kill, enslave, or mutate you or your children. Others argue that plenty of places in Northern Stildane cope with this, and don't react with this level of spite.
Geography
Graefsher is 133 miles long and extends 50 - 70 miles inland. It runs from the Hainish border with Andrig in the North to the Lanlok Pass in the South. The Lanlok pass is a small gap where the Halmenter Mountains reach the sea - a 2-mile stretch of passable land leading to the Hainish heartlands, with 1 mile of that being briny marshland that floods entirely at high tide during the wet season. The Lanlock Pass is strategically essential - the only other easy passage is through the Orvidi Pass near Zinduhl (that shuts down in winter). Lanlock Pass is defended by layers of fortification, and is generally regarded as the Gate to inner Hain.
Eastern Graefsher - divided into the fiefs of Nomineik, Sholnmar, and Yeinshtotten - are mountainous terrain, rough and sparsely populated. Monsters there are more common on average. Western Graefsher - divided into Skondered, Hoshlen, and Harhoven - are the parts that are more traditionally associated with the region, all farmland and forest.
Breaking down each major fief:
- Skonderen, ruled by House Hunain and their vassals, is the most militaristic, xenophobic, trauma-ghost-infested part of Graefsher. This is the first line of defense, and everyone knows it. It also contains the roads into Andrig, and has a weird rivalry with the peoples of Dovenar and Nidever. Known for particularly powerful Ketarun Cats.
- Hoshlen, ruled by House Hunain's vassals, is a farming basin with many old Hainish ruins scattered about. Known for its large lumberyards.
- Harhoven, ruled by House Neshelna and their vassals, is the most commercial part of Graefsher and the center of Northern administration. Has more pastures, smelters, breweries, and artisans. The Harhoven Eastern fringe is contested territory with the Delent
- Nomineik, ruled by House Neshelna's Vassals, is made up of a series of thin and winding mountain valleys that have housed refugees and resistance fighters during the Scourings. The most established and fortified of the Eastern provinces.
- Shnolmar, ruled by House Neshelna's Vassals, is a rough and tumble land of mountain margraves and fringe communities - a frontier that faces the Scouringwoods and the Bladed Wastes.
- Yeinshtotten, ruled loosely by House Neshelna's Vassals, is a largely-autonomous prism area that churns out metal and stone for the surrounding lands. They keep to themselves and are usually forgotten in broader politics.
Climate
Graefsher is entirely humid temperate forest and farmland. For the most part, it looks normal for its biome; not especially irradiated or unusual. But, in war, this land comes alive in strange life. New plants burst in mutating life along battlefields, monsters buried deep underground emerge, and animals and plants that previously appeared normal suddenly transform.
Most of this side of Graefsher's ecosystem is hibernating during the current age of peace, but it does come alive sometimes during minor politics skirmishes, rebellions, or bandit problems. The big monsters and strangest wonders need more blood to awaken, though. The small ones can still be dangerous if provoked, but luckily they seem drawn to and partially pacified by sites of mourning. Beyond monsters, plenty of old - sometimes mutated - ghosts linger around the barrows. So poking around the old barrow-graves can be dangerous, especially for those who disturb them.
The most common disturbance here is a local monster possibly unique to Graefsher: Wights. Wights are a local term for any undead, but there is a particular variety of common undead-adjacent monster it tends to refer to. Unburied bodies - especially those who are uncared for and left to rot - sometimes get back up and start hunting the living. Unlike Revenants (Ederstone-exposed dead who haunt the living that remember them), Wights can only barely mimic their living behavior and only do so to hunt more effectively; there is little sentimental about them. No one is certain how Wights are made, though the Darzan University recently found that it involves a magical parasite delivered by flies and fly larva. Given these ghoulish horrors, locals are always sure to bury or burn the dead - even the corpses of their hated enemies.
History
Graefsher is a land of immense history that can usually be summarized by: "And then war destroyed the land".
Prior to the Kivish Scourings, Graefsher was the home of Hain's wealthiest and largest tribes. After the rise of the Andrigan kingdoms in the 300s ME, the Southern tribes began seasonally migrating to Graefsher to trade. In 451, the Empire of Andrig made their seasonal migrations into a system of imperial tribute and diplomacy. Many of these Andrigan structures survived the fall of the empire, and eventually these migrations helped the first Hainish federation form. After 500 ME, regular invasions from the North drove the tribes Southward and razed the wealthy cities and towns of Graefsher. The region went from the realm's core to a perpetual battleground. For 500 years, the region was wartorn, constantly raided, and infested with beasts. Finally, over the 1000s ME, the united Kingdom of Hain secured the lands once again for farming and settlement.
Over the 1200s and onwards, Hain looked Southward for expansion while it fortified the North. While every Clan had some part of the Northern border that it guarded, no group particularly focused on Graefsher until the region's vassals were redistributed in the 1400s - after two more Scourings razed the land. Of the new great Houses that emerged from this period, House Neshelna and House Minsken were given control of the North. Under these two houses, a proper reconstruction effort in the North began from 1440 to 1680 and many of the structures, traditions, and political divides we see today were made.
During the brutal Scouring of 1680 - 1750, Graefsher was brutally occupied and systemically depopulated. House Minsken was entirely wiped out; the modern provinces of Skonderen and Honshlen were reduced to wasteland. One minor knightly family, a newly-titled house of soldiers known as the Hunains, coordinated a rebellion with the local Ketarun Cats and waged a bitter war of attrition behind Kivish lines - and were elevated all the way to Elector-Princes after the war. In the Southern part of the region, the most bitter battles of the war were fought; while the region was occupied by Kizen, the Kivish never fully controlled Harhoven as completely as the rest of Graefsher. Hainish knights used this incomplete control to their advantage when their cavalry cut through Kivish lines in 1728 and began a daring trek through occupied territory that eventually captured Kivish General Saldva. This victory, in turn, emboldened Kivish rebels in the North and created disorder that the Hainish army exploited to turn the tide.
After 1730, life slowly returned to the region. Conflict over settlement was not uncommon. Freed slaves of the Kivish sought often land in Graefsher as part of Hain's promise of freedom, and these groups often clashed with House Hunain's aggressive Hainish culture and strict expectations of obedience. House Neshelna and Hunain both had to beg the other houses for funds and resources to rebuild, and this also stirred some minor conflicts -House Hunain relied on royal funds and became deeply indebted to the ruling House Devhauzen, while Neshelna relied more on variety of patrons and had to fight off other Houses that wanted to poach their vassals and lands. By 1800, things had largely stabilized and settled into a clear order.
While modern history has been relatively quiet, there was a period of some conflict from 1870 to 1935; in 1870, House Dezuren used their power over the monarchy to seize the Lanlok Pass area for themselves - as well as all toll money through it. Houses Geinmen and Neshelna responded with punitive measures, and things became tense in Harhoven. After House Dezuren began demanding ship tolls moving between Telgen and Vruhafen (for moving through the waters off the coast of the Pass), Neshelna and Geinmen hired bandits and pirates to begin undermining Dezuren's control. When House Neshelna seized the monarchy in the election of 1885, they took the Pass for themselves - angering the other two houses. While House Neshelna lowered the tolls and eased tensions, the Neshelna Queen took personal offense to House Dezuren's Elector-Princess during the conflict. During her reign from 1885 to 1930, the Queen stomped on any Dezuren ally she could find, and even let that vendetta poison her relationship with House Hunain. After her death in 1930, Houses Dezuren and Hunain sponsored a minor rebellion in Southern Graefsher, which was put down.
Since 1930, things have been relatively calm, even if the lords of Hunain and Neshelna have been prone to minor feuds over the last century.
Ancient History
Modern History
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