Norslov
Norslov is the northernmost province of the Triamic Empire.
Geography
Norslov is cold and dry, located in the broad valley known as the "Wight Valley," the stretch of land between the Silent Mountains and the Wight Mountains.
Structure
Norslov exists as a series of counties that answer to one provincial figurehead--the prince. Historically, the Slovi princes are descended from Silven royalty, though there has been enough mixing with the local culture that the Slovi princes ally closer to House Sheyla than to Silven.
Assets
Norslov's most robust industry is mining; to the point where most of the current towns are sustained by their mines. The ample goat pastures also provide textiles and goat-based dairy.
History
The Wight Valley
The region now occupied by Norslov was once the peak of the Wights' civilization. The terrain still displays some of the echoes of this--primarily in ancient cities shaped from stone (and at higher latitudes or elevations, ice!) and their shaping of the land and waterways.
As the Imperials and Valeans to the south expanded, the Wights generally congregated northward. Following the devastation of the Great Plague in 533 BEC, the Wights were known to only inhabit the Wight Mountains, Wight Valley, and Northern Silent Mountains. For half a millennium, they lived that way in relative harmony with their southern neighbors, even contributing to the defense of the rest of Estana during the Black Powder War.
Lake Vassor Aggression - 167 EC
In 167 EC, Silven broke the Manea Pact by seizing Lake Vassor, which sat in the northern Silent Mountains near the border of Silven and Wight territory. The Wights, being culturally pacifistic, sued the Triamic Empire for aid. The Triamic Empire drove Silven back, but ended up seizing Lake Vassor and the surrounding mountains for themselves, driving the Wights to further condense into the Wight Valley and Wight Mountains.
Two-Pronged Massacre - 269-274 EC
Donovan the Mad, in a fit of paranoia, declared war on Et'ens and Wights, as population groups. As such, he deployed his army to seize the Wight valley from the "white devils." Any Wights caught were slaughtered. The Wights as a population fled west into the mountains.
Silven assisted with the resistance to Donovan by fighting back (ironically, in the name of the Manea Pact), using the Wight Valley as an entry point. Thus, the Wight Valley became a militarized zone that fluctuated between Silvenni and Triamic control.
Following Donovan's defeat in 298 EC, Silven retained control of the valley under treaty with the newfound Triamic Republic. They renamed the region Norslov, declaring it a principality in their own burgeoning empire.
When Silven was itself annexed into the Empire following the Silven-Imperial War in 346 EC, Norslov came with it as its own distinctive province.
Following its inclusion into the Empire, a call went out to help populate the depleted region. Rumors that there were precious ores tucked away in the mountains drew prospective miners, both to seek their fortune and to simply raise their families in frontier simplicity (albeit among scattered communities of Silvenni that had already taken up residence). The Kaelic Temple's Order of the Horn spent a few decades establishing a temple presence in the area, given the high population of heathen Silvenni.
Demography and Population
The Slovi people are distinctive, with a Kaelic flavor mixed with Silven values, both added to a base local culture that is fiercely independent and self-sustaining. This leads to culture that is highly tough and individualistic, but also fiercely protective of their communities.
The population distribution is very sparse, with small, tight-knit communities separated by leagues of ruins and empty land.
Banditry
Norslov is frozen much of the year, and so requires trade caravans to sustain them during the winter. As one might expect, having common caravan routes means common banditry. Most of the areas in the north rely on local militias to keep an eye out for raiders, but winter weather can make it difficult to be effective. Fortunately, the Slovi people have a reputation for being able to kill a man as soon as they can hold a pickaxe, so local populations are bothered by the bandits less often than inter-provincial traders.
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