Histories of the Northwest Reach

It has been nearly two centuries since residents of the Old Nations first began their journey to the Northwest Reach. Some came to escape the Sanguine Plague that had devastated the overcrowded cities for decades; some came to escape the racial or religious persecution that had dogged them all their lives; some came because they saw an opportunity for fortunes to be made; some came because the law considered them property, and they were given no choice. Together, they built new towns, new farms, new roads, and new fortresses to make the frigid Reach their own.   The Northwest Reach was not empty before their arrival. For longer than anyone could remember, the orcs and humans had lived on the plains and plied the coastlines; the goblins and kobolds inhabited the mountains; the fae were one with the forests. The newcomers from the tallships were sometimes greeted as allies, sometimes considered with suspicion, sometimes attacked as invaders. Regardless, more and more people came from the Old Nations, and more and more frequently the original inhabitants were pushed aside. Some assimilated. Some fled further north. Some stood their ground, and payed for it with their lives.   -----   It has been sixty years since King Magnus I of Dalaan set to the task of unifying the Reach under his banner. Armed with long pikes and the Reach's first muskets, and supported by a small corps of skilled mages, his Royal Legions cut a bloody path through the defenses of the other kingdoms for over a decade. In the wake of his conquests, Magnus crowned himself High King of the Entente; he instituted a common language and a common currency, built great roads and great watchtowers to defend them, and brought about an unsteady peace between the young nations of the Northwest at the tip of a spear.   The peace did not last. Magnus had not been dead for long before the far reaches of his fledgling Entente began pushing back. Rhûnn's people ejected Magnus's appointed governors and garrisons, relying on harsh winters to support their decision. Aeldai followed suit, the elven settlers instead siding with the indigenous peoples of the land they now inhabited. The kobolds driven out of their old homes in Anthoral returned from the mountains, with an elder dragon leading them. Magnus's successor, High Queen Lucienne, was not the ambitious conqueror her father was, and the Legions were so overextended that they only barely carried the day when Breccard, too, attempted to secede. The remaining protectorates of the Entente have hung together for the time being, but the squabbling of the kings, nobles, governors and mayors is constant, while their people simply attempt to continue with their lives.   -----   High Queen Lucienne has reigned for decades. The Entente, the free states of the Reach, and the indigenous peoples have maintained a precarious equilibrium with one another for most of that time, to the satisfaction of no one in particular. The Northwest Reach remains a dangerous and volatile place, where the path of history remains uncertain.