Kilbarrow
Structure
The province of Kilbarrow is significantly less autonomous from the central authorities of the Osnarian Quintarchy than the constituent tribes are. A Governor is chosen by the Great Magnate upon the former Governors death or loss of favor from the Great Magnate. This Governor has until this day been of Sudeley stock, and more often than not closely related to the ruling Great Magnate.
The Governor is entrusted with carrying out the direct orders of the Great Magnate, and to cultivate a favorable environment for future orders to be swiftly implemented.
Responsible for carrying out these orders are the Osnarian unifiers, essentially a military detachement of enforcers, overseeing the compliance with the royal orders.
Due to the rebellious spirit of the Kilbarrian people, these orders often are targeted abductions or forceful control of the populace, ensuring their loyalty to, or at least hesitance to move against, the Quintarchy.
Culture
The Kilbarrians have due to their relative independence from the feuding Osnarian tribes enjoyed a distinct development prioritizing the freedom of the individual and a lax but efficient governmental function. This spirit lives on in the Kilbarrians of today, although the Osnarian overlords have gradually replaced the Kilbarrian laws and regulations with new, far-reaching and repressive laws in order to try to integrate them into their empire.
History
The province of Kilbarrow first emerged as what could be considered somewhat of a central authority in the centuries immediately before the fall of Syntrios. The clan of Drugain had wrestled control of the various migrating tribes of the area and bound the coastal villages to themselves, creating an increasingly powerful regional power. A few centuries later, Kilbarrow is one of the constituent parts of the Empire of Alexander, the Kilbarrians partaking in the violent conquest of the Sherran plain and the subsequent enrichment.
In the years following Alexanders death, the Empire fractured and Kilbarrow was once again an independent regional power. The Drugain Clan adopted a live-and-let-live approach to the nascent coastal raids committed by the coastal communities of Kilbarrow targeting other nearby nations and settlements, in exchange for some of the plunder. This monetary flow was later increasingly reversed as these nations and settlements started to pay the Kilbarrian authority to keep their nations from being raided by Kilbarrian nationals, the Drugain Clan then paying out a part of this to the now jobless raiders.
This steady income, essentially for doing nothing, facilitated a strong state building with the Drugain Clan spending heavily in public works such as a strong road network, modelling themselves on the Syntrian state they had ravaged long ago, as well as a stringent but fair guard force for their citizens. This age - the Kilbarrian golden age, stood for a long time.
The prosperity, however, led to Kilbarrow becaming increasingly disconnected from their neighbors, and while Kilbarrow tended their domestic treasure, their former kinsmen in the north started to unite. The Sudeley Tribe under who would become Charles I conquered the other tribes, and then turned their eyes on the last remainder of the Empire of Alexander, Kilbarrow.
The Osnarian Quintarchy, as the united tribes now called themselves, quickly overran the defenses of the shocked Kilbarrians, and dethroned the Drugain king Brendan XI from his throne, humiliating him by forcing him to become a commoner under the heel of the Osnarian authorities. Before the Osnarians knocked down the gate to the last large coastal town, Liscannor, several hastily renovated ships left harbor to find refuge in other lands.
Kilbarrow has since then harbored a strong independence movement known as The Gunports, often laying out traps and ambushing the Osnarian unifiers, trying to dissuade their occupiers from believing that the Kilbarrow land ever could be tamed
Type
Geopolitical, Province
Alternative Names
The Osnarian Province of Kilbarrow
Demonym
Kilbarrian
Leader
Parent Organization
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