Rowwess

Rowwess (ROW WESt)suffered a military coup over the Loridan monarchy. Their military general, Corr Stennick, had built a military out of mercenaries and brigands hungry for Loridan gold. His coup was quick, executing the royal family, their children, and siblings, and cousins to end their right to rule. Two children of siblings managed to flee. Some three years later, in the village of Bagga, stands a monument marking the resting place of "Our Prince". It is said the young heir died during an epidemic. The fate of the other heir is unknown.
General Stennick was a military strategist who thought only he should rule. He proved to be terrible at it. His army of brigands grew and he could not keep them in line. They stole and took whatever they wanted, crushing businesses and food stores. Rowwess trade collapsed and his disorganized attempt to recover offered little hope to towns and villages. To stop the steady flight of refugees he locked border towns and major routes out. The brigands allowed caravans in if they could pay the bribes, but they would not allow anyone to leave. All trade collapsed. A few years later a bad drought hit the region and famine set in quickly. The weakened nation was ripe for the picking and the famine had left few fatted animals to survive by the approaching Tempest season. 
The northwestern mountains held tribes of hungry Gruumsh Orcs which began to descend from the mountains on raids. Their success only encouraged them to march south and take the land. As word of the orc invasion spread people fled anywhere south they could run. The southern border towns were overcrowded and riots led to the brigand military being overrun. The border-town began posting the heads of brigands on sticks along all the roads, their colored uniformed bodies laid beneath them for vultures and vermin. At every nearby crossroad, the dead marked which heading led to freedom. The exodus of refugees west and south of Rowwess was not met with much sympathy by their neighbors, Burgonna or Riverhill.
The eastern reaches of Rowwess was in complete disorder, and Stennick would receive his comeuppance at the hands of the mercenaries he hired. Rowwess became a brigand nation without rule. Only walled towns have survived and the people that remained were as hard and desperate at the brigands who had swamped to the land for Rowwess gold. Small areas are under the thumb of the local petty "Barber Kings". The western lands more under orc rule. It is estimated that more than 75% of Rowwess citizens died within a ten-year span after the fall of the Loridans. Famine and epidemics plagued them for several years.
While maps still have Rowwess, anyone in the region calls this land the Barbaries (BAR BURn fEES). Sadly, only after the complete collapse did stability come, in a more brutal form. But 20 years on, the first small trade caravans left Rowwess. They traded with the small villages on the edges of their neighbors. Military forces began building in them to make certain they came and left peacefully. In the Riverhill town of Marshedge, a number of Rowessan survivors ambushed the mostly orc caravan in the market, killing all of them. Marshedge has never seen further trade. And Riverhill is still quite unfriendly to anything leaving the Barbaries.
The burgeoning trade faired better in the southern neighbor, Burgonna, which encouraged trade. Trade prevents wars. So the Burgonna King made certain that food and basics were brought to the edge markets for sale or barter. The sale of weapons or refined iron is forbidden to anyone from the Barbaries. The Barbaries have taken to mining and clear-cutting forests. Both are building better trade, although the routes within the Barbaries are dangerous for anyone moving items of value.
Rowwess is a hard and often brutal territory. Most avoid it, but whenever civilization withdraws, the wild of the unknown creeps forward. The lands draw adventurers seeking prize monster kills and lost Rowessian gold. Along the mountains is the famed Tomb of the Nightlords, the Citadel of the Monkey Wizard, and the Ahkadian Bridges of the Dead.