Hinterlands
The name of the Hinterlands describes it well. It is at the edge of civilization on the sub-continent of Azermathia. A true backwater of villages, smaller farms, and little comfort. Still, there are few laws or societal norms on this true frontier and its appeal to many, especially those with an adventurous bent, is there for those wishing to make their own fortunes.
Structure
The Hinterlands have no centralized government. Each village in the Hinterlands has its own ruling body – either an elected official (generally appointed by a wealthy member of the village and confirmed with a show of hands) or a wealthy land owner that has de facto become the government. Most important decisions are made through consensus. The village simply makes a point to meet once or twice a Moon, and citizens propose new rules, ask for assistance resolving disputes, or bring grievances. This system, although simple, works well in the small Hinterland communities. Most villages do not, in fact, have books of law. Instead, precedent and “common sense” determine what is right and wrong. Crimes are punished through fines, lashings, public imprisonment, exile, and execution – with execution being the common punishment for murder, horse theft, and arson. Each village also determines its own taxes, asking for each citizen to provide to the town for each expense on a per project basis. A wealthier member of the community is expected to contribute more and a poorer member will often contribute labor, rather than gold.
Culture
Hinterland society values what some have called the “Frontier Mentality”. Hard work, honesty, and community spirit are the cornerstones of these beliefs. Sprinkle in a strong sense of independence, a do-what-it-takes attitude, and slightly stubborn streak, and you can describe about 90% of the Hinterland population. Whether the open spaces and animal noises common to the Hinterlands attracted folk with this mentality, or the difficult life of living far from civilization mandates this kind of spirit, it is difficult to tell. Regardless, the people of the Hinterlands may seem uncultured to high society in Karradone, or backwards to those in the Soulmeliti court, but they are among the hardiest and generally happiest humans on Tarien.
There is little distinction between the classes is often blurred in the Hinterlands. Few have much wealth, and those that do will not flaunt it. The eldest woman typically heads her extended family, with the most respected women in the community sitting on the Women's Council, which helps guide the directions of each village and town. Women typically choose their husbands during Beltane – often taking advantage of young men’s inexperience with mead to seduce them haylofts and barns. By the Midsummer’s Eve, most of these seductions result in marriage. Surnames pass through the women’s side of the family. Being a land of farms and artisans, families are generally large. Typically, property passes to the eldest daughter, who even after she is married, has her family in her parent’s house, taking care of them after they become too old to care for themselves.
History
Captain Azermathian Alliance first saw the Clay Steppes in 525 AC and declared them inhospitable. Instead, he recommend colonization of the Redstone Basin, which began in 538 AC when Yatians colonists laid the first stone to what is now Drakkar's central market. Anderi fundamentalists, fleeing persecution were added to the region’s mix, building the walls of Warwick before their homes in 570 AC. While Yatians and Eldorians had built fish salting factories in Rathgar as early as 542 AC, no one considered moving inland toward the Clay Steppes to live. There simply was nothing there. The Goblin raids that destroyed Rathgar in 550 AC reaffirmed everyone’s belief that lands beyond the Steppes were unfit for human life. Despite the fact that Theo du Marche and Miles Ravenwood returned to Rathgar in 616 AC with both and army and a fleet of fisherman, no one ventured inland.
However, in 650 AC, emboldened by Ravenswood’s success in Rathgar, a second son of a Drakkarian noble, Jarred Telriech, took a small group of settles a hundred miles up the Redstone River and founded Pembrooke. With the open spaces of the plains, and without concern for the goblins of the Grey Peaks, Telriech constructed long, low, barns to house horses and cattle. The community met with mixed success. Although self sufficient as farmers, roaming packs of wild dogs and lions continued to thin his herds. In 659 AC, he had enough, and returned to Drakkar to seek help. In secret, he met with the royal huntsman, a man known only as Gunther, and for a stake in Pembrooke’s ranching profits, enticed him to leave the King’s service. While King Munson Haddarack of Drakkar was unhappy to see his huntsman go, he was so certain that Telriech would fail, that he took no action. A decade later, however, Gunther had not only assembled the finest horsemen in the region to protect the herds, a group known as Gunther's Riders, but he had bred sturdy Drakkarian horses with twin horned antelope to create the fiercest mounts in Azermathia. With these beasts, now known as War Stags, his Riders fended cleared a fifty mile radius of Steppes from Pembrooke free of predators and the herds began to flourish. When Telriech died, thrown from a horse, in 680 AC, he was the wealthiest man in Azermathia.
A young man – or perhaps more of a boy, named Logan, tired of life on the ranch and ran away in 664 AC. He followed the Whispering River, living off the land, until he came to the foothills of the Jasper Mountains. One day, lightly delirious from a strange fever he had acquired, he collapsed along the river banks. Blinking, he could not believe what he saw. Shining and yellow, lying in the river bank, were nuggets of gold. Logan stumbled back to Pembrooke with his treasure only to die in the small church to Anderi only a day after his return. Word of his treasure, however, spread like wildfire on the Steppes. Soon, prospectors and their entourages flocked to the foothills, building the town of Logan. Like most boom towns, Logan’s population exploded and was filled with vice. Taverns and whorehouses outnumbered shops and homes two to one. After the gold was gone by 704 AC, few remained. Those that did eked out an existence farming the rocky soil, until iron was discovered deeper in the mountains in 726 AC. To this day, Logan remains a mining town, with rough taverns and tough residents. A small vein of Adamantine, the first ever found outside of the Underground Kingdom of the Children of Kharl, found in 730 AC sparked another burst in population and construction, but after being mined dry in 737 AC, most of these buildings were vacated. Residents returned to the steady supply of iron found in the Jasper Mountains.
Unhappy with life in the religious strictures in the Kingdom of Warwick, Anne LaTarkin, daughter and only heir to King Madrick LaTarkin, fled the palace in 674 AC. Unbeknownst to the King, who for years had ignored his daughter, seeking only a suitable replacement for himself to be chosen as her husband, Anne had long been a leading member in the Warwick Liberation Front. Rather than continuing the terrorist activities that had earned the Front a sour reputation with the Church, she pleaded with the group to leave Warwick and settle along the forests of the Redstone River. After her renouncement of her own royalty in 696 AC, she lead a group of two hundred settlers up the river, to where it begins to turn north and established the town of Farthington. Under-armed and under-supplied, over half of the settlers died within the first her. Anne’s father was torn – should he let the heathens suffer, as obviously was the will of Anderi, or should he send reinforcements save his estranged daughter. In the end, a father’s love won out. He sent five hundred soldiers, laden with tools and food supplies, into the wilderness after his daughter. The soldiers arrived, and Anne, too proud to accept charity, refused to let them help. Meanwhile, in Warwick, the Church was aghast that their King had sent god-fearing men to risk their lives for heathens. Archbishop Randolph IV excommunicated King Madrick. Word of the Church’s displeasure spread and by the time it reached Farthington, Anne was convinced that the soldiers were sent out of familial love rather than religious duty. She conceded and soldiers built strong walls around Farthington and helped sow crops in fields that to this day, still produce over half the cranberries consumed on Tarien. Strangely enough, shortly after the bulk of the soldiers returned to Warwick - a few dozen had decided to remain in Farthington and make it their home, Archbishop Randolph IV died mysteriously in his sleep. Shortly thereafter, Archbiship Martin I reinstated the King and even traveled to Farthington to give it Anderi’s blessing.
While Pembrooke, Logan, and Farthington were settled from people migrating from the Redstone Basin, Haverston was formally founded in 655 AC by a settlers from Rathgar, seeking to escape the grime and politicking of the city. Originally a camp for rogues and highwaymen (the camp was destroyed by Goblins), the founders envisioned the village as a summer retreat from the city. A dozen sprawling mansions line the shores of Lake Havers, designed with pillars and indoor patios often seen in the homes of the Eldorian elite. Continued difficulty with Goblins, however, led most of the wealthy to abandon their homes, and by 675 AC, few were left in the village except for the farmers and fisherman who had once serviced the nobility. Unwilling to leave their homes, most remained. In 689 AC, the villagers gathered together declare their independence from Rathgar. Few in the city took notice.
Trade between Rathgar and Haverston continued, with Haverston providing a resting point for merchants traveling from Farthington. In 693 AC, a innkeeper named Samwell Gryphon, who had lost his inn in Rathgar to a fire, picked the meeting points of the Havers and Redstone Rivers as perfect spot for an second stop along this route. He named the “town” Gryphon’s Crossing and declared it open to any who wished to settle. His seven sons scattered to the far corners of Azermathia, posting signs that called for settlers in what he described as a “Utopian” land. They came in droves. Within two years, Gryphon’s Crossing became the largest town in the Hinterlands. Artisans and farmers alike settled in the nook between two rivers, and soon a wall was erected to protect against goblin raids. After his death in 697 AC, the townsfolk renamed the Havers River in his honor.
Despite its large population base, however, Gryphon’s Crossing almost vanished in 715 AC when, in the dead of night, a mysterious raid occurred. Riding beasts, and short in stature, many mistook the Kyushu raiders as Goblins. Few who made such a mistake lived to tell about it. Fortunately, Malakar Markhiem was visiting Pembrooke at the time, learning about how to breed War Stags. News of the massacre spread quickly, and concerned for the safety of Havers, he gathered Gunthar’s Riders, and every able-bodied man, rode to meet the Kyushu in combat. The first battle went poorly. Although seemingly disorganized, the Kyushu raiders moved in small units of five or six warriors, each mounted on a similar beast. According to his diary, Malakar found the Rhino’s to be the most frustrating. “With their thick hides and natural weapons, few could kill a Rhino. Instead, the men focused their efforts of their painted riders. Once bereft of a leader, the animals seemed content to avoid the conflict and simply graze.” Finally, after a year of hit and run tactics, Malakar’s men chased the Kyushu to the northeast, through the gap in the mountains that now bears his name, and into the Bertagin Savanah.
Upon returning to Gryphon’s Crossing in the fall of 716 AC, Malakar called for a conference of local leaders. Men and women from Pembrooke, Farthington, Logan, and Havers gathered to discuss how best to protect their homes. The Hinterland Accords, signed in 717 AC, called upon the people of this wild region to donate annually to a common defense, giving birth to the Republican Army. Malakar was appointed Lord General of the Army, and with his own funds, constructed the fort, named after him, to the south of Gryphon’s Crossing as a headquarters. At first a volunteer army, its size was too small to hold off even the scattered Goblin raids that plagued the region. In 725 AC, General Wadsworth Wadsworth, Lord General of the Army, again called for a summit of local leaders. In order to improve defense, it was mandated that every able bodied man must serve a tour of two years in the military before being allowed to marry.
Demography and Population
The Hinterlands have two races that compose 99.99% of its population: human and Goblin. Typically, people think of humans as the citizens of the Hinterlands and the Goblins as the vermin of the Grey Mountains that ought to be exterminated. As such, the two races do not intermingle. Goblins in fact, do not even think of themselves as residents of the Hinterlands, but rather as members of their own tribes. Of the other races prevalent on Tarien, most in the Hinterlands have never met them. In fact, many believe that far-flung races, particularly the Elynthi, Flind, Orks, and Soulmeliti are children’s stories or myths from another age. Tales of Nerridseem extreme, though a few educated Hinterland residents do realize that the Nerrid have a consulate in both Drakkar and Warwick. Even these men and women are often misguided, believing the Nerrid to be civilized Kyushu who have forsaken their barbaric ways to live in civilization. As terrible as the Goblin raids can be, the Kyushu raids, though fortunately less frequent, are worse. A misbehaving child will often be threatened to be “sent to the Funnel” – a threat that most do not take lightly.
Territories
In general, the Hinterlands are hot and humid. Seasons are not particularly distinct in temperature – though rain patterns vary over the course of the moons. From late Fall through early Spring, rain from the coast falls lightly every morning, its mists rising from ground with dawn. In the summer, however, thunderstorms roll across the plains every afternoon like the chimes of a Church bell – dumping sheets of rain to the ground. These patterns influence agriculture greatly, often limiting the crops that farmers can grow. All along throughout the Hinterlands, one will also find the Redstone River. Used to transport people and goods quickly downstream to Drakkar and Warwick, the river gets its name from the strange, smooth, almost metallic rocks that line its river bed. With the river of in this hot climate, comes the danger of crocodiles, of course. While these great reptiles generally avoid more populated areas, they still pose a danger to any in or near the river. It is speculated that throughout the Hinterlands more people are killed by crocodile attacks than Goblin raids.
Despite the climatic similarities throughout the Hinterlands, the geography does vary. If one traveled through the Hinterlands, one would encounter three distinct geographical features. Beginning in Drakkar and heading east, one first encounters grasslands. The flat, hard-packed red earth, sparse with grasses and dotted with lump-like hills, the Clay Steppes are a desolate place. Few animals – other than the packs of wild dogs, vultures, small panthers, and herds of wild horses and small antelope live in this expanse. The sun bakes ground of the red soil hardening to create a surface like that of a bowl or cup, thus giving these Steppes their name. Despite the dryness of the earth on the Steppes, rainfall is plentiful. In fact, rain from summer storms often collects in rapidly pools at the bases of hills. The sudden rains and hard earth make the pools as hazard as they fill quickly. Many a traveler has been killed in these flash floods.
Further to the west, as the Redstone River bends to the north, just past a ridge of hills that mark the end of the Clay Steppes, the soil turns from hard and red to rich and black. No one understands the change – unless it has to do with an ancient eruption from Mount Levanter in the Grey Peaks in the age before humans settled in this land – but the moist soil has led to a thick sheaf of trees, clinging to the western shores of the river from the Sinterian Sea south to the Jasper Mountains. Rain patterns in the Eastwood – as this forest is known – mirror those of the Clay Steppes, although they are less severe. The soil and vegetation in this area soak up the moisture – sometimes creating bogs – an ideal environment for growing rice, peat, and cranberries – the three major exports of the region. Bamboo – a favorite of the hippopotamuses and large swine that live along the river, also grows in thick clumps. Predators in the area are decreasing as human’s continue to colonize but leopards and black bears still rule the forest night.
Finally, the edge of the Hinterlands is divided into two sharply contrasting climates. To the north, the ragged stone of the Grey Mountains climb toward the sun. Snow on the high peaks is visible year round – though never found at any time of year below an elevation of 12,000 feet. The mountains, flush with the humid breezes that blow of the Darsiac Ocean to the northwest, have lush forests of cypress and pines along their eastern slopes. Due to the Goblin problem, few have traveled beyond the first ridge to investigate the mountains’ western edge. To the east and south of the mountains, forming a gap between their southern peaks and the lower, rolling Jasper Mountains, is Malakar’s Funnel. With a climate only slightly cooler than the Bertagin Savannah into which it leads, Malakar’s Funnel marks the edge of civilization – a border that is pushed a league or two back as new colonists arrive every few years. Precipitation here mirrors that of the Clay Steppes, though the frequency and amount of rainfall is markedly reduced. Although slowly dwindling, the tall yellow grasses of the Funnel still provide a summer home to herds of giraffe, elephants, buffalo, rhinoceroses, and antelope – seeking to escape the dry season in the Savannah. With the great herds come the great predators – prides of lions and packs of wolves. Occasionally, even a stray dinosaur will wander into the funnel. Cut off from their own kind they, however, they often do not survive long.
Military
Living at the edge of civilization, most citizens of the Hinterlands understand the importance of defending their homeland. A small standing army, known as the Republican Army, based at Fort Malakar, near Gryphon’s Crossing, is charged with the defense of the Hinterlands. Funding for this army comes from the Soldier's Tax – a flat 2 gold crown tax per family per summer – collected at the Harvest Festival. Wealthier families will often increase their contribution, out of either benevolence or for the purposes of influence. Each male child in the Hinterlands is expected to server two years in the Republican before he marries – and those that find military life appealing often stay for up to a decade. While the military in theory has no political influence, the defense of the Hinterlands against roving bands of Goblins and the beasts Gray and Jasper mountains is dangerous – and important duty. Combined with the fact that the military is the only centralized, organized group in the Hinterlands, its officers are often treated exceptionally well – akin to nobles in other lands – and career officers often retire to large estates and become influence in local politics.
Religion
Humans of the Hinterlands have a strong sense of faith – though few would be considered zealous like a Mennethite or even devout like Soulmeliti. Instead, most pay they respects to the Mother and the Father – Chetria for the crops and Anderi for the sun under which they grow. None of the festivals, even have a strong religious connotation. Beltane and the Harvest Festival belong the Nature Goddess, while Yuletide and the Midsummer’s Festival celebrate Anderi. Of the remaining of Tarien’s gods, Tiras may be blamed for Goblin raids, but the rest are rarely mentioned.
Foreign Relations
The Kingdoms of Drakkar and Warwick border the Hinterlands. Both maintain large standing armies as a result of their animosity toward each other and both could swallow the Hinterlands in a single gulp. Should one kingdom do so, however, it would attract the ire of the rival kingdom and surely lead to war. As a result, the Hinterlands have remained relatively free of border disputes with their neighbors. In fact, the remote location of the Hinterlands, and their proximity to the Goblins of the Grey Peaks, makes them relatively unattractive to Drakkar and Warwick. The Citystate of Rathgar, also independent of the feud between the two kingdoms, looks upon the Hinterlands as a friendly neighbor. Wealthy citizens of the Hinterlands often send their children to Rathgar to be educated. Much of the grain and other agricultural products grown in the Hinterlands make their way to Rathgar’s markets, as well.
As of the rest of Tarien, it scarcely is aware of the Hinterlands existence. With no centralized government, or standing navy, the Hinterlands pose little threats to the Kingdoms of Prydith's or the Eldorian Empire’s nautical supremacy, and these giants of the political world leave the Hinterlands well enough alone. The challenge, of course, again lies with the Kyushu Horde – as the occasional Kyushu raiding party make’s its way up Malakar’s Funnel to pillage the Hinterlands. Typically, these parties vanish back into the long grass of the Savannah well before the Hinterland Army mobilizes. Nevertheless, some of the most dangerous duty in the army is a routine patrol of the Funnel after a Kyushu raid.
Agriculture & Industry
Agriculture is the largest form of employment in the Hinterlands. Most people live in family farms – working to grow enough food to feed their families and have enough extra to sell to merchants for trade in Warwick and Drakkar for a few coins. Most farms are tended solely by an extended family – although the children of artisans may be hired as farmhand from time to time. Corn, squashes, carrots, turnips, and grains are staples for these small farms along the Clay Steppes, while rice, cranberries, bananas, and peat grow well along the Redstone River and after dried - fetch the highest prices in foreign markets. Regardless of what is grown, none of the farmers in the Hinterlands make enough gold to be considered well-to-do.
The ranches on the Clay Steppes, however, where some of Tarien’s most unusual mounts are bred, bring in enough gold every year to rival a minor Eldorian nobles estate. After years of crossbreeding antelope, zebra, and wild horses, the animals at these ranches vary greatly. Some ranches specialize in War Stags – foul tempered yet loyal beasts that look like a cross between an Eldorian Warhorse and a two-horned antelope. Both fast and strong, and armed with natural weapons, these mounts fetch incredible prices – over a thousand gold crowns a piece, in Drakkar and Warwick. Due to the beasts’ temper, it makes them difficult to transport via ship. Since they are mix of animals, like a mule, they are sterile. Huge oxen, with thick curved horns, are also popular beast on Hinterland ranches. Domesticated from their wild cousins that roam the Bertagin Savannah over half a century ago, these animals are prized as beasts of burden. Herds of cattle also ranch freely on the Clay Steppes, and although not as exotic as War Stags, they are prime economic force. Cheeses from the Hinterlands, though considered plain by many, are a staple in markets across Tarien.
Trade & Transport
The Hinterlands have very little trade with the outside. Other than their cheeses, which seem to find their way to Eldorian and Prydithen markets via Rathgar and Drakkar, they are generally self sufficient. War Stags do occasionally make their way to Warwick and Drakkar, but the secret of breeding them has never left the Hinterlands.
While one would think that avoiding the winter snows has charm – the oppressive heat of the summer in Clay Steppes, and thick humidity in the winter, with the never ending monsoon – makes you beg for a blizzard.
The Grey Mountains
Maps
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The Hinterlands
Wedding Day
Marie touched the rare powder to her face, covering the black and purple bruises on her left cheek. She grimaced at the touch. She was used to Goblin raids, and would not be caught cowering like some prissy city woman while the men drove them off. It began with ringing of bells at Anderi’s temple. During raids, the priest rang them to warn the village – pulling furiously on the chain so they clanged quickly and rancorously. She had leapt from bed – thrown a cloak over her shift, and ran toward the town square. After a few steps she did have to stop – realizing that she held the lilacs she had set aside for the next day rather than a pitchfork, but still made it into the square fast enough meet the wolf mounted Goblins head on.
Still she wished she had moved faster last night. The club had just glanced her cheek as skewered the goblin with a pitchfork, but its mark was plain for any to see. And her head – she could feel the blood pulsing through her face and winced every time the bells tolled at Anderi’s temple. The pain, she supposed, she could live with – it would dwindle as the celebration grew throughout the evening. She smiled – it hurt. At least her grandmother had given her the rare, white facial powder that she had purchased over a decade ago. The merchant had claimed that it was the same variety used by princesses in Karradone, but Marie doubted it. She rubbed a bit between her fingers – it felt more like oil and chalk to her. Whatever it was, it was a blessing from Anderi. No woman wanted to look beaten – no matter how tough she was – on her wedding day. The bells tolled again, this time deep and slow. Marie took a deep breath, snatch her flowers, and walked out the door.
Founding Date
717 AC
Type
Geopolitical, Settlement
Capital
Training Level
Trained
Veterancy Level
Trained
Demonym
Hinterlandian
Government System
Democracy, Direct
Power Structure
Autonomous area
Economic System
Market economy
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Official Languages
Related Traditions
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Magic in the Hinterlands
Few in the Hinterlands show any propensity toward sorcery. Those that do rarely pursue their gift, as local superstition claimed that sorcery is a gift from Tiras. Many sorcerers have been driven into exile for practicing freely in the Hinterlands. Some have even burned, bound to great pyres and gagged so that they could not work their magic to save them. Wizardry, the art of studied magic, is even rarer. With no mentors, young men and women have no place to study – even if they had the desire. The miracles of Anderi, however, are more commonplace that the mysteries of the arcane. Although not the most powerful in Anderi’s service, the priests of the Hinterlands often use their powers to bless children and crops, heal the sick, and drive off wild animals and marauding goblins.
A Typical Hinterlands Homestead
The Lost City of Levantar
According to legend, lies the ruins of a city from another age northeast, past the Firmont. From where these tales arise, no one knows, since no one has returned from its fiery slopes. The last expedition, led Roderick of Rathgar in The Firmont Erupts in the Gray Peaks720 AC[/history, left on a fine spring day, the snows still blanketing the mountainside. Thinking that the snows would quench the fires of the mountain, Rodrick and his five companions set off on foot, the route believed too treacherous for horse or mule. When a plume of flame erupted from Chetria's home two weeks later, those in Gryphon's crossing that saw them off began to fear the worst. The mountain continued to billow from the peak for weeks, turning the Redstone River acrid and unfit to drink. By the time Chetria's anger subsided, it was past Midsummer's Eve and though a pair of Gunther's Riders attempted to follow their path, the party's tracks vanished as river spilled out from the mountains.
The legends, however, of a city made from glass towers, sparkling in the dawn light, persist. Storytellers spin yarns of of magical carriages, carpets that move those standing on them from place to place and streets illuminated even in darkness. Tales of strange voices speaking in tongues on street corners and doors that open when you approach them describe but a few of the wonders to be found. Should someone find the city, they claim, the bounty of treasure would be endless. In hushed tones around campfires tell grimmer tales. They speak of strange shadows, shaped like people, painted on mirrored walls, the glass towers themselves have become twisted into obscene shapes, and an eerie silence hangs over the city as not even birds have made their nests in its remains.
The truth, of course, may never be known as Chetria guards this secret with the power of the Firmont.
A Crocodile in the Redstone River
Magnificent creatures. A holy terror bearing down on the enemy; lances matched to horns in the tall steppeland grass. But insanely wild. Even domesticated, if you truly give them their head, you'll never recover it.