Norgantho Province
The most eastern province of the Empire of Turelion, Norgantho is the province that experienced the most brutal assimilation into the Emperor's rule, a fact which has shaped its recent history and its relation to the Empire ever since.
Initially, these underlying tensions in the province were driven by the constant threat of attacks by the original, pre-imperial inhabitants of the Worfal Tundra who refused to comply with Imperial rule and were eventually eradicated, then heavy levels of taxation placed upon settlers who had moved to the region in hope of finding a place they could afford to own land of their own, and then increasingly repressive measures imposed by the Satrap to keep the rapidly discontented population in check. More recently it has boiled over into an all out revolt, which has led to the formation of the rebel nation Nova Norgantho, which has managed to seize most of the Worfal Tundra from Imperial rule, leaving only the city and hinterland of the provincial capital Vorcastle remaining as the last vestiges of Norgantho Province.
Structure
Like all provinces with the Empire of Turelion, the administration of the Province is overseen by a Satrap, who is theoretically responsible for management of all areas of Norgantho. To aid them in this, the Satrap of Norgantho Province has a staff of provincial officials and administrators who oversee the bureaucracy of all things, from the state of the road network to the taxes levied on fish imported to the province.
History
To begin with, Norgantho is the only province that no longer has its native inhabitants living within it. When the Emperor's armies navigated east of the Destra Wetlands, they discovered that the peoples who dwelt in the major geographical area that makes up the province, the Worfal Tundra, were fiercely defensive of their autonomy and refused to be brought into the Imperial fold. As the area was one of the last of Machestaro I's conquests, the patience of the first Emperor was waning and his armies were tired and longing to return to the relatives they had left behind and the parcels of land and the large pension they had been promised in return for their services, very much coloured how he approached this final hurdle. Rather than trying to bring the people of the region into line, Machestaro instead decided to systematically slaughter as many as his armies could find and drive the others into the Spears of Astartes mountains to the north or the Sand Hills to the south, to either die or otherwise cease to be an issue for him.
Having accomplished the clean slate that he had wanted, after only two years of campaigning, the newly formed Norgantho Province was used as a place to settle large numbers of his armies' veterans and poorer citizens who were transplanted from across the newly formed Empire to a region where it was considered they might be able to 'have a chance' at making something of themselves. The largest sub section of these settlers, over 60% were taken from the urban poor of what is now the Imperial Capital Meltaro, who were made promises about being given their own plots of land etc, many of which were never fulfilled.
After centuries of the population of Norgantho Province feeling as if they had been exiled because of the low wealth and social status of their ancestors, along with consistently high taxation and the resentment of knowing many of the promises made to them were never fulfilled, the whole area became a hotbed of discontent, which led to the establishment of the breakaway state of Nova Norgantho in the year 490DW. Despite the theoretical superiority of the Province's armed forces, many of whom ended up deserting to join the rebel cause anyway, in a few short years Nova Norgantho ended up managing to secure the majority of the land that once made up the province and declared itself independent from the Empire of Turelion
In response, to mitigate any risks to the Imperial system, the Satraps in post since the revolution have kept military spending extremely high, and are constantly striving to increase the province’s military capacity, whilst the Imperial Inquisition has heightened its activities across what remains of the province so heavily to weed out dissent and rebellion, that Norgantho Province is very much a police state.
Demography and Population
Because all but a handful of the Province’s indigenous population were slaughtered or driven out during the initial takeover, the vast majority of the population, around 95% are regarded, as most of the Empire's citizens are of being ethnically Turelite.
As the poorest province in the Empire, Norgantho is deemed to have 90% of its population bracketed by the Imperial Bureau as being ‘lower class’, with 7% being classified as ‘middle’ and 3% as ‘upper class’. Most of the remaining population of the province since the revolution are employed in Norgantho's armed forces, on the whole not because they are ardent imperialists at heart, but because the province's army provides a steady wage and regular meals.
Territories
Once the territory administered as Norgantho Province encompasses all of the land of the Worfal Tundra, an area of steppe south of the Spears of Astartes, north of the Sand Hills and east of the Destra Wetlands. Since the war that led to the establishment of Nova Norgantho, the geographical extent of the province is now limited to a peninsula on the Worfal Tundra's north-eastern tip. The border between the province and Nova Norgantho is defined by the line of the Northern Norgantho Defences.
Military
Like all Imperial Provinces, Norgantho has access to its own standing army of Provincial troops, who are dispersed across the province in garrisons, ready to be called upon as needs be. For the most part, these troops act as town and city guards and police forces for the areas they are stationed to. In times of crisis, the Satrap can mobilise units in the Provincial Army from their garrisoned stations to become mobile units that can be deployed were necessary. The Provincial Army has units of infantry, cavalry, artillery and Firewings at its disposal, as well as a dedicated naval force to protect its coasts. The Command Headquarters for Norgantho’s Provincial army is in the Provincial Capital Vorcastle.
Because Norgantho Province is deemed to be at greater risk of unrest, both through internal discontent and through conflict with Nova Norgantho to the north, additional funds have been released by the Imperial Treasury specifically for the hiring of mercenaries and the recruitment of additional troops into the Province’s forces. This means that of all the provinces, Norgantho has the largest standing army, most of which is concentrated around the provincial capital Vorcastle. Money has also been released to the province for the construction of the Northern Norgantho Defences, a series of fortifications and walls that stretches across the provinces border with the vast majority of the Worfal Tundra, which is controlled by Nova Norgantho, in the hope of keeping incursions from the Rebel Nation at bay.
Religion
Because it is a constituent part of the Empire of Turelion, the dominant religion which is followed across all levels of society is that of the Imperial Church of Astartes.
Indeed, Norgantho Province actually has one of the highest recorded percentages in true adherents to the church's teachings out of all of the Empire's provinces. This is primarily driven by the constant fear of war with their neighbour Nova Norgantho and the fact that the province's military is by far the biggest employer in the area still under its control.
Trade & Transport
Norgantho used to share the title of the most poorly connected province in the Empire of Turelion with Greltor Province in the west of Euristan, but since the revolt of Nova Norgantho, the province has experienced a glut of infrastructure creation, courtesy of the Imperial Treasury. This infrastructure includes an abundance of new roads connecting the provincial capital, Vorcastle with the various forts along the Northern Norgantho Defences as well as the villages sitting in-between. The port structure of Vorcastle has also been expanded to allow for greater imports by sea from the rest of the Empire and its trading partners and a network of Firewing ports have been constructed to both provide easy access from other Provinces to Norgantho and to provide aerial support to the front.
The rational for most of this expansion of infrastructure is based on the far from altruistic desire to make Norgantho Province more connected, but to ensure that troops, both Provincial and potentially Imperial can easily move to defend the Northern Norgantho Defences and eventually take the fight southward to reclaim the Worfal Tundra and crush the Rebel Nation.
However, Norgantho Province has always been well connected by maritime routes to the rest of the Empire, especially through the port structure of Vorcastle. The reason for this is that Vorcastle in particular is used as the last calling point for ships bound for the Imperial Colonies on Zastral to the east, which provides a useful supply of income through harbour tariffs and taxes for the Satrap and Provincial Government.
Education
Given the origins of most of Norgantho Province's inhabitants, and the fact that many in the other provinces cruelly refer to it as 'the pauper's province' education has never been high on the agenda for the Provincial Authorities. There is only one House of Learning, which is located in Vorcastle, and the number of schools across the province to educate children up to the age of 18 are through to be fewer than 6 in number. It is considered to be the least educated province in the whole of the Empire of Turelion.
Type
Geopolitical, Province
Capital
Alternative Names
The Exile’s Province, The Pauper's Province
Demonym
Norganthians
Power Structure
Semi-autonomous area
Economic System
Mixed economy
Official State Religion
Parent Organization
Related Ranks & Titles
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Related Ethnicities
Related Myths
Comments