Thread:LightningS9/@comment-28358106-20170418021946

Whitemarch, as a provincially collective realm, is a naturally bordered nation situated on the rocky northern shore of the Aeserian Sea. Framed by mountains on three sides, it shares a large swath of no-man’s land to its north and eastern borders with two currently warring countries, Etrugia and Nilhasse. The south border is a rocky granite cliff with an almost nonexistent beach of hard granite slabs, while the mountains to the west immediately drop off into the sea as well. The central seat of power, the walled city-state of Whitemarch that lends the realm its name, is located in the south central section of the peninsula. Whitemarch as a realm is a smaller and less populous nation than its two northern neighbors, Etrugia and Nilhasse, and it has far fewer areas of tamed land. The entirety of Whitemarch falls under its defined physical borders, but “Whitemarch", as a Capitol, is really the central city-state with surrounding cantons. Dozens of smaller settlements and a many larger towns populate the cantons, and are still considered extensions of the city-state’s law.  Outside of the city cantons, the outer provinces are technically politically separate states, each with their own rule of law.  The Realm, as a whole has two different groups of Provinces, really political states, that exist: the Chartered Free States include an alliance of the forest province of Arenesse, home to the last dominion of Free Elves; Hrungnir, the subterranean kingdom-colony of Dwarves beneath the Capitol itself; Iveria, a large pine forest next to the granite cliffs of the Iver Mountains to the west that is home to a Harpy queendom; and the North Free Ranges, the vast swathe of steppe land between Arenesse and the north of the city where Centaurs make their home. There are other provinces and states that are not members of the Charter that govern themselves; Frossenbjan, the mighty mountain kingdom on the northeast mountain ranges; 'Arsa Uaine, the ancient realm of the Dryads and Faeries, ruled by an enigmatic Titania; Lilydale, the secret valley of the Unicorns, and several cities who govern within their own boundaries. While each of these provinces rule with their own laws according to their own traditions and needs, they are all independent, and Charter allies are all beholden to Whitemarch under its Free States Charter, a decree of agreement that requires open trade between all member provinces while unconditionally agreeing to come to each other’s aid. Each province of the Charter alliance pays a minimal tithe to the central government to cover provincial improvement and aid, but by and large, each is left to their own economic and political devices. The realm as a whole goes under the collective name of Whitemarch, because the Capitol is where the seat of power lies.

A Short History

For over a thousand years, the only major cities that were ever truly in the nation known as Whitemarch were Arenesse, where the Elven city and its rulers reigned, and the Fatherhalls, a series of linked Dwarven settlements in the north mountains to the east of Arenesse that was populated by a particularly hard-line conservative kingdom of Dwarves. Even though they regarded the entire isthmus as theirs, the Elves allowed humans to settle in the non-forested areas, although their relationship humankind was less than cordial. Of all the settlements, the one that became the largest was a city named Shod Toran, to the south center of the land. This was the city that, much later, was to become the Capitol. Although the Elves allowed the humans to grow in influence, they were less understanding of the Dwarves, who settled in the northern mountain passes without permission of the Elves, who in turn saw it as a violation of their sovereignty. Petty wars bristled between the two races for hundreds of years, exacerbated because of the Dwarves’ associations with the sparse but growing human settlements. The Dwarves became staunch allies of the Humans, who appreciated their ingenuity and willingness to trade, despite the Dwarves being banned from living within the city proper due to the mineral rights that the Shod Toran Ministry claimed there. The Dwarves also helped humans in the outlying settlements clear areas of land to further expand their influence. Periods of disputes plagued the nation for generations, and while they did not tear the populace apart, they did nothing to foster unity. Etrugia and Nilhasse, the nations to the north, cared little for the southern region or its inhabitants, largely ignoring it, regarding it as a wild place of primitive demihumans and a landscape too untamable for mass settlement. For their part, aggressive overtures by the Elves kept the perception consistent and deterred any potential interlopers. When the current Demon Lord took power, all of that changed. Monsters became Mamono, forever tilting the course of history of the continent. Roughly ninety years prior to the present day, the two nations to the north of Whitemarch, Etrugia and Nilhasse, became deadlocked in a power struggle for royal ascension to the Etrugian throne, having previously been political allies through intermarriage between their royal houses. When it was discovered that the Etrugian king had fathered several bastard children through Mamono mistresses while not yet having produced a human heir, the royal families of Nilhasse claimed the lineage was theirs, a claim denied by Etrugia. When frantic searches failed to find even a bastard human heir to Etrugia, war broke out between the nations. Allies of both nations took sides as Etrugia and Nilhasse annexed smaller countries. Because the war weakened Nilhasse’s ability to fend off potential incursions from the Radical Faction of the Demon Realm to the east, the Order offered to come in and set up a provisional peacekeeping force, further dividing the continent and setting the pace for the mass migration of Mamono to escape the war. It was during this period roughly eighty years ago when Mamono began traveling to Whitemarch en masse via the north passes. Chaos threatened to tear apart the larger settlements, as a deep lack of centralized leadership and inwardly-turned land barons and petty rulers failed to unify cities under a common cause. Mamono, while not yet directly targeted, were dragged into the escalating war while actively being driven from their homes. The open persecution of Mamono began when Nilhasse adopted the Papal Bull of 866, effectively making it a satellite state of the Order. Dealings within Shod Toran’s weak and corrupted ruler, Prime Minister Maramal, were brokered with both Etrugia and Nilhasse, offering to be the neutral bank for both countries as they stored the stolen spoils of war. In addition, many members of the Ministry were taking payments from both sides to use hired mercenaries to round up civilians from rural townships and press them into drafted service for the armies of both countries. Meanwhile, the Dwarves found themselves in a precarious position. Assaulted by the Elves on one side and faced with gradual extinction from the Mamono incursion on the other, the staunchly conservative Dwarves attempted to cut their losses, holing up in the Fatherhalls while their brethren in the south would be left to their own devices with the humans. A large clan of Centaurs that populated the central plains became more and more hostile to outsiders, as they were continually pushed away from their ancestral lands by the Elves, who were seeking to expand their territory for the first time in millennia to escape the hostilities. Complete disruption of the continent seemed inevitable. It was around this time that a powerful figure emerged. A Demon, calling herself Adelaide, appeared to one of the last true free rulers of the city, the Duke of Wardenleigh, a man by the name of Lord Richter Ferdinand Grey. Claiming to be the second cousin of the fourteenth Lilim, Adelaide proposed to Richter that she usurp Shod Toran’s government with the intention of using its seat of power to unify the disparate provinces into a collection of allied free states. Richter had been fighting the Prime Minister of Shod Toran over the conscription of the civilian population, understanding that without people to produce the crops that kept his armies fed, they opened themselves to mass invasion from the north by starving their own forces. The Ministry had been using mercenaries to round up the civilians, selling them as conscripts and buying time against an invasion, but Adelaide convinced Richter that the country would collapse without intervention and armed revolt was necessary. Using his own army and the soldiers of any sympathetic barons who would aid their cause, Lord Grey ousted and imprisoned the members of parliament that had been selling off civilians. As he did so, Adelaide quickly appointed allied officials of the noble houses who had helped in the rebellion into formerly corrupt offices to help the nation recover, lest it fall to pieces. Then she embarked on one of the most remarkable and ambitious diplomatic quests ever conceived. To begin, she knew she would have to secure the city against further incursion. To achieve that, she entreated the Centaurs of the wild regions to help her in keeping the peace by appealing to their noble natures, explaining her plan of national unity and desire to protect the civilians from further harm as well as invasions from the north, and promising to return their land that had been overrun by the Elves. The massive influx of Mamono fleeing persecution went a long way in convincing the Centaurs that the cause would be a just one. In bringing the itinerant Mamono into the country’s borders, Adelaide opened it up to more politically nuanced groups as well---the Cathars, a former splinter sect of the Order, broke off from the Inquisition during their retreat from the border war. A group of pacifistic Order Paladins, Mages and Priests, the Cathars practiced nonviolent involvement as healers and protectors within the Order’s ranks. When they refused to commit to the purging of Mamono from Nilhasse and refused to aid in the forced recruitment of civilians, the Inquisition marked them for death. Fleeing to Whitemarch, only about two thousand Cathars survived from the original five, but Adelaide welcomed them with open arms, commissioning the few remaining Dwarves within the city to build a Cathedral Ward for them. It was then, a full two years into the rebellion, that Adelaide’s plans for unity truly began to take hold. She funded her endeavors using the treasure stored by the warring countries, and offered the Dwarves of the Fatherhalls a proposal: they would be allowed to build a great Kingdom directly beneath the city, and their payment for this service would be twofold: first, they would have the protection of the human armies above them, as well as the Elven and Centaur forces to the north. Second, they would even be paid for the quarried stone they brought to the surface, as the city was crumbling from neglect. Thus, they would have claim on any minerals beneath the city that were previously denied them by the Ministry, as well as have the perfect spot to build a new kingdom. The Dwarves were so taken by this proposal that they charged nothing for the stone, and even offered to design and build new buildings for the Regent free of charge. In truth, the Dwarves were so secretly pleased with the prospect of having the Elves do their fighting for them that they wanted to build the city as a monumental reminder to their rivals. They named their new subterranean kingdom Hrungnir, Dwarven for “The True Land.” Keeping her end of the bargain, Adelaide then set about convincing the Elves that if they did not join forces with the Capitol and its allies, they too would fall prey to the incursions of other nations who were now turning jealous eyes towards the South and its rapidly aligning Provinces. The Elves, seeing the shifts in the wind, carefully agreed to the terms of alliance under the proviso that they return the lands they overtook from the Centaurs, as well requiring an unconditional nonaggression pact with the Dwarves. When Adelaide invited the Harpies of Iveria to join as well, they readily agreed, having been on friendly terms with the Elves since the current Demon Lord came to power. In an act of doing away with the old and introducing the new, Adelaide, now the de facto ruler of the city, renamed it Whitemarch. The name came from the old Dwarven name for the ring of mountains surrounding the isthmus, “Rathathurir Hrungthunch,” which meant “Ring of the White Kings.” To solidify the tenuous alliance, she invited members of the Dwarven, Elven, Centaur, Harpy, and Human leadership to a summit in which a treaty agreeing to mutual protection would be ratified. After weeks of negotiations and arguments, the Free States Charter became a pact of alliance between the independent Provinces: Arenesse of the Elves; the new Dwarven Kingdom of Hrungnir; the North Free Ranges of the Centaurs; Iveria of the Harpies; and the city-state of Whitemarch with its outlying cantons. The Charter outlined a mutual protection pact that centralized war powers into the Capitol city should a threat arise, as well as trade agreements and mutual rules of law. While the Charter was ratified, not all of the independent provinces joined its cause. Frossenbjan, the frigid kingdom in the northeast mountain ranges, still maintained its fierce independence, ruled by Queen Glitrende and her husband, mighty King Einar. 'Arsa Uaine, a sacred grove that takes up a large swathe of land on the east ranges, is ruled by Catriona Ey Eilish, a cryptic Titania Queen who doesn’t wish to involve her people in the political affairs of the outside world. Now effectively a neutral nation in the lengthy civil war, Whitemarch is powerful enough to heavily discourage any kind of outside incursion into its territory. With a largely self-sufficient economy, it requires little interaction with any outside nations, with some exception. While officially a Mamono-neutral nation, it remains open to most kinds of Mamono and humans alike, always keeping the population balanced between the two.  