Imperial Jarldoms of Skaldengrod
Structure
The Jarldoms of Skaldengrod are a despotic Empire ruled by the Highest King, an ancient Storm Giant, from their dynastic seat of power in the Palace above the Clouds atop Mount Jotnar. The Empire is ruled in strict adherence to the Ordning, with the Highest King's authority regarded as near-absolute.
Beneath the Highest King is a class of hereditary nobility, made up largely of Storm and Cloud Giants, many of whom at the highest rank have direct dynastic ties to the throne. These nobles are typically referred to as "Princes" or "Princesses," in deference to their ties to the royal lineage and claims on the throne. Beneath these nobles are ranks of lesser nobility, comprised generally of Fire and Frost giants, with Stone Giants ranking below them. Hill Giants and lesser giantkin are generally not regarded as within the normal structure of the Jarldom, and their generally dim intelligence means they are broadly left to their own devices provided they don't cause too much trouble.
Each of the Empire's nobles hold extensive lands as their personal fiefdoms, which they rule similarly absolutely (but for direct intervention from above). Many of these territories have significant populations of humanoids, which are treated as serfs or even property or livestock with virtually no legal or political rights, and are essentially entirely dependent on the goodwill of their Giant masters. Some giants treat these humanoids with benevolent neglect, while others rule over them as cruel tyrants exacting heavy tribute and demanding total obedience, backed up with threats of extreme violence.
Culture
The Imperial Jarldoms are inherently hierarchical, demanding strict adherence to the Ordning, the Giant's religious and social structure, in which social strata are clearly delineated and often physically and culturally separated.
At the lowest rung of society in the Jarldoms are those individuals who fall outside the Ordning, whom the giants refer to as the "lowerfolk." Aside from Dragonborn, whom the Ordning demands be exterminated, those considered "lowerfolk" who the giants rule over include not only the traditional array of goodfolk, but also communities of goblinoids, orcs, duergar, and drow, as well as uncommon peoples like Aarakocra among the high peaks. Goliaths occupy a special status as those "preferred" among the goodfolk, on account of their distant relation to giants, and their communities are accorded slightly more respect and preferential treatment relative to the other smallfolk. Regardless of their species, smallfolk living in the Jarldoms share certain broad cultural perspectives.
At best, in most cases, the lowerfolk hope to escape the notice of their feudal giant overlords and live in a state of benign neglect, while at worst they are taxed to destitution or worked as livestock, are conscripted as fodder for the giant armies, or subjected to random raids or targeted terrorism by roving bands of giants or their absentee overlords. Most exhibit a general tight-lipedness, fearing the Jarldom's secret police will report their disloyalty to their overlords and bring their wrath down upon them. Their communities are generally insular and suspicious of outsiders and change, having concluded the best course of action is to avoid drawing attention. While the giants generally take very little interest in the smallfolk's religious affairs, organized and public religion other than worship of the Ordning is seen as dangerous, as the smallfolk have found dedicated temples often make too tempting a target and public religious movements too often stoke giant paranoia about public uprisings for the devoted to ever feel truly secure demonstrating their faith. As a result, although worshipers of virtually every major world faith can be found in Skaldengrod, religion is often practiced (if at all) very privately, or in extremely tight-knit circles. Invariably, there are also some smallfolk who go so far as to worship the giants who still walk their lands, or who ascribe to the Ordning, serving their will gladly either out of genuine devotion or out of hopes for personal advancement.
Standing apart and socially, politically, and literally above the lowerfalk are the Giants, adhering to an entirely different culture perspective from their smallfolk serfs. According to the Giants, Annam "Alfather" - creator of the world, conceived of them as masters of the world and his divine instruments, giving them their great size that they might look down upon the world and their strength that they might rule justly. He crafted the first giants from the marrow of the mountains, filling them with hot blood from volcanoes and tempering them within glacial ice, before breathing life into them with gales of hurricanes, and from these giants sprang the other cheif deities of Annam's pantheon, each serving as the patron and virtuous ideal for a different branch of giantkind. Through his children, Annam created a hierarchy - an Ordning - so that all his creations would know their proper place under his rule. United in Annam's purpose, the Giants built Aesira, their fabled world-empire, where they lived and prospered for millenia according to Annam's code. While Aesira fell ages ago, the Giants of Skaldengrod consider themselves its direct successors and living legacy, and continue its strict adherence to his Ordning, believing that through restoring the might of Aesira they might one day reclaim Annam's favor.
The Ordning establishes clear castes among giantkind, broadly based on the size and strength of the respective giantkin. It sets forth distictive ethics, and has fostered distinctive cultures in each caste, all while laying down strict rules about how each caste must interact with others and its members' purpose in Annam's wider order. At the very top of the Ordning, sitting at the Alfather's knee, are his favored and eldest children the Storm Giants, largest of all giants. Each Storm Giant is considerd sacrosanct, acting as a holy seer, meant to be interpretting the Alfather's will through his signs and guiding the world according to Annam's will from their cloudtop castles and deep ocean fortresses. Cloud Giants serve as their strong hands from their floating cities, acting as guardians of the Storm Giants' pure connection to Annam by acting as crucial intermediaries between his holy agents and the mundanity of the lower world. Beneath the Storm and Cloud Giants are Stone Giants, the guardians of Giant cultural memory and who are tasked with beautifying the world to the Alfather's contentment. Next down the Ordning came the twins, Fire and Frost Giants. Fire Giants were the engineers and craftspeople of ancient Aesira, while Frost Giants tamed the empire's every frontier and was its devoted defenders. Finally came the black sheep of the family, the Hill Giants, who remind the lowerfolk of their place beneath the Ordning and the greater giants of why they stand at its top.
Beneath all these true giants fall the giantkin like Ogres, and Trolls, but giants invariably view them as either even less virtuous than Hill Giants, who share much of the unappealing character of Hill Giants while lacking their redeeming strength. Generally, Giants regard the lowerfolk beneath the Ordning with at best some mix of disinterest, paternalism, and pity, and see their dominance over them as complete and absolute, often reacting quite negatively should the lowerfolk fail to recognize this natural order. Given that even lesser giants can live for multiple centuries, and that greater giants regularly outlive elves, giants take a long view of history and are disinterested in what they view as the fleeting problems of their shorter-lived subjects, planning not in terms of months or years, but in what many other species would consider generations.
As much as giant culture in Skaldengrod is shaped by the quest to reclaim its legendary glory it is also shaped by traumatic memories of an inheritance lost and a painful awareness of how far giantkind has fallen (aside from the hill giants, who don't care and don't understand much about either aside from how it relates to their next meal). The giants in the Jarldoms view themselves as the last remaining outpost of the once-great Aesiran empire, the sole fire burning against the darkness long after all the other lights have gone out, upon whose fate rests the very existence of giantkind. For many giants, the memories of their global retreat and the losses incurred as recently as the Wars of the Concordance are only generations removed, and still felt keenly. The giants in Skaldengrod have watched their compatriots worlwide first be driven from power, and then into hiding or on the brink of annihilation. Giants reproduce slowly, a fact further complicated by the fact that successful conception requires complex rituals to achieve Annam's favor and according to strict rules set down by the Ordning, resulting in low birthrates.
As a result, and despite their expansionist ambitions and claims to absolute power, the giants of Skaldengrod are surprisingly paranoid and defensive. They are reluctant to risk giant lives, as doing so might threaten their grip on power and dominance over the population or leave them vulnerable to exploitation by the dragons. This insecurity drives them to a policy of general isolation from their subjects, prefering to dwell in isolated fortresses and interfering only so far as necessary to exact sufficient tribute and maintain their authority. Although generally indifferent to their subject's internal politics, the giants maintain a strict prohibition on magic amongst the lowerfolk aside from closely sanctioned and monitored uses, tightly policing their serfs for developing magic users or forbidden exercises of magic using their secret police. Practicing any sort of unsanctioned magic can be severely punished, ranging from imprisonment, to slavery, magical exploitation as an Oarsman in a Jarl's Dragonboat, to outright execution, and retaliation against any accomplices, witnesses, relatives, or even entire villages can be similarly severe. Finally, giants have a deeply ingrained hatred and mistrust of dragonkind, stemming from the giants' belief that the Dragons are intrinsically responsible for the fall of the Aesiran Empire and the ongoing decline and destruction of giantkind worldwide
Public Agenda
The public agenda of the Jarldom is opaque, as the Highest Throne is often reticent to engage in direct contact with its neighbors, purusuing a self-enforced isolation, exerting its authority distantly through the strict hierarchy of the Ordning. As a result, many theories about its agenda and motivation are speculation based upon the few facts known about the Highest Throne's internal workings and existing policies.
Still, the Empire's public agenda is generally broadly summarized as the protection, advancement, and restoration of giant supremacy over Kethenicaea. While some suggest the Jarldom's rule over the so-called "lower" peoples would be benevolent, and although it is true that the mercurial temperments of the the highest orders of giants can result in tremendous boons and prosperity for communities of other peoples who have earned their grace and protection, it is also undeniable that the smallfolk presently in the Jarldom often live under brutal tyranny enforced by often arbitrary terror or callous cruelty, their fortunes tied to the whims of their Giant overlords. The Jarldom views itself as the successor state and seeks to restore the ancient Aesiran Empire, the fabled world-spanning empire of giants, centered in the modern day Aesiraq desert, and intrinsic to this goal is a reversal of the general decline and extermination of giantkind worldwide.
Secondarily, but seen as critical to achieving this goal, the Imperial Jarldom also puruses a policy of everlasting and existential war of extermination against Dragonkind. Specifically, it is locked in a state of constant cold-war with its largest neighbor, the Tarak-Lung Dragonate, which ocassionaly boils over into dramatic and incredibly destructive violent conflict along their shared border. Even when active fighting is not ongoing, it appears the Empire views itself as in a state of perpetual war with the Dragonate, with the bulk of its resources and energies devoted towards this conflict. The marcher-lands between the two exist as a blasted no-mans land, with some independent freeholders struggling to eke out an existence beneath the notice of the two great powers, or relying on them for protection against the other. The area suffers frequent raids from both sides, is heavily fortified and militarized, and is regularly devastated from the fighting which rages back and forth whenver one side decides reigniting hostilities is advantageous.
Although there are scattered colonies of giants and giantkin worldwide which exercise independence, the Jarldom views itself as the sole legitimate political representative of giantkin and claims overlordship over them all (whether these communities recognize its authority over them or not), occasionally even attempting to assert its authority by force.
Assets
The wealth and power of the giant lords of the far north is legendary.
When the giant armies muster, the world quakes. The Imperial armies are made up of two distinct parts- a professional cadre of troops loyal to the Empire, and a much larger force made up of troops conscripted from their serfs and various minions. At the heart of the professional core are the giants themselves, with the bulk of this force made up of Frost and Fire giants. While some of these giants are organized into standing legions which act according to the Empire's orders (often led by a Cloud Giant or rare Storm Giant general, but more often by a minor Frost or Fire giant officer or petty noble), others may be privately raised by Fire or Frost Giant nobles for their own ends. These private forces are those most frequently responsible for the empire's worldwide expeditionary raids, sometimes at the behest of imperial orders themselves, but more often the result of private adventurism on the part of local giant nobles. These raids may utilize the infamous Dragonhead Ships through which the giants can ply the air or seas, or take place through the Giants' knowledge of paths through the Underway long lost to history. Stone, Giant, and Cloud Giants play little role in the empire's formal military structure. At best, Stone Giants are relied upon for strategic wisdom or ad-hoc defensive engagements, while Cloud and Storm Giants occasionally serve as commanders for the Empire's largest armies, or contribute small units of elite troops in times of immense crisis.
While Giants serve as the elite core of the Empire's army, the bulk of the army is made up of conscript, slave, and feudal troops drawn from the Empire's many subjects. The vast majority of these are poorly trained peasant levies, conscripted from the cities and villages under the Giants control or pressed into service after being captured on raids. These are typically humans and armed with little more than cudgels, spears, and bows, and are lightly armored, but which can be deployed in large numbers as fodder troops. The Jarls also employ dwarven and elven auxiliaries conscripted drawn from their subjects, though these tend to be more specialist troops which are entitled to greater privileges, the Jarls finding them more effective when serving in cohesive units of their peers rather than mixed in amongst the levy. These troops are folded into the larger authority of the Heimrang, the gendarmerie and secret police force the giants use to maintain their control within humanoid settlements. The Heimrang also include
History
The Jarldoms are atually the last remnant of the once-powerful Aesiran Empire. During the Aesiran heyday, the Jarldoms were little more than a far flung backwaters and frontiers of the empire, featuring distant garrisons and outposts far from the center of power. It was this remoteness which spared the Jarldoms from the brunt of the catastrophe which brought down the rest of the Empire. In the dark age which followed, the Jarldom attempted to retain contact with other fragments of the Empire which survived the fall, trying to link together with them as a continuation of the Empire even after its decaptiation. The Empire's institutions continued even after the destruction of Great Aesira, which created the modern-day Aesuraq desert, provincial governors and distant officers carrying out their orders as though nothing had happened, or simply persisting in their duties without.
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Predecessor Organization
Parent Organization
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