Lands Beyond the March

Animals? Wildlings? Do you really think the Vardanians built walls three hundred feet high to keep out a bunch of tribesmen? Do you think they would leave a hundred thousand men up north on guard just for a few animals? The Vardanians know what powers live beyond the marshes. Millions have bled to keep the gate closed. Pray that it stays that way.

— Anis Moaranon to King Henrik Andrael

What lies beyond the Northern March? What strange lands and creatures can be found in the realm ruled by winter? The people of Vardania know nothing beyond rumours or legends. Even those stationed on the northernmost of outposts have rarely seen anything past a days ride from their camps. The North is wilderness, home to a people as savage as its winters. It is the grave of Adrain Crowseye and the doomed Ninth Legion. A place that begins in a field of tears and ends in the depths of oblivion. Or so the legends say.
There was one who knew more, however. One who braved the danger of the unknown, the icy bite of winter and the savagery of the Northmen. Nearly 35 years ago a student of the archives of Aurasio ventured north into the unknown. Seven years later he returned. Wounded, starving, marked by frostbite he collapsed on the doorstep of a Vardanian garrison. Within the hour he was dead, leaving only the clothes on his body and a single book. A book which contained hundreds of pages on the north, its lands, landmarks, creatures and people.
The unknown Archivar, he had only left a single insignia in the form of the letter C under his last entry, would go down in history as one of the great explorers of Vardania. His work for many the first true look at the lands beyond the March.

Quea Septima

Youngest of the great Vardanian fortifications, it consists of a series of fortresses ranging from the flanks of the Dawn Wall to the shores of the Great Divide. On a length of over 800km, they are connected by a triple layer of walls over 35 meters high and reinforced by a complicated net of outposts, army camps and layer upon layer of barricades, traps and kill zones.
Built by General Gerion over 500 years ago, razed by Ernul the Breaker during the Scarlett Winter and rebuilt under Aemelian IV., the Quea Septima remains the foremost bastion against northern incursions.

Field of Tears

by dimarinski

At the foot of the Quea Septima begins a stretch of land 12 kilometres wide and as long as the Wall. Its a barren stretch of land, where nothing but short, pale grass grows. Few larger plants, no trees, the flat plain broken by small stretches of grey, cracked stone and shallow expanses of muddied water.
A large set of traps and barriers make crossing it a deadly endeavour. And those that avoid them find themselves in the sights of some of Vardanias deadliest weapons.
Storms of steel and fire have ended the ambition of many a northern King. The earth is filled with countless scraps of bone and metal. The land a grave for hundreds of thousands. On the other, there is another, a wooden wall. Tall, dark spruce, tightly packed from one end of the horizon to the other.

Great Marshlands

This is what many imagine when hearing about the north. An endless expanse of swamp, where gnarly and deformed trees grow from murky black water, their sickly branches clawing at the sky. The ground here is not to be trusted, a single false step and even fully grown men disappear without a trace. Mists of sickly green and corpse-like white waft over the ground. Sometimes they get so thick that one may see no further than his own nose. And shapes dance within the fog.
No one lives in these lands, even hunters only venture here in the most desperate of times. Safe passages there are few, three main ones are known and used by the Barbarians to march on the southern walls. Anyone straying from them, drawn by alluring whisps or simple stupidity, need only look closer into the murky water to see what fate awaits them.

Crin's Fist

Near the coast, where the marshes recede an give way to barren plains one may stumble upon a curious sight. From the ground erupts a massive arm, 12 meters high and at its peak crowned by a fist. Made from metal and stone, now coloured by rust and plant life, it is among the oldest structures in this ancient land. The seers claim that it is the fist of Crin, an ancient giant who terrorized the tribes before being turned to stone by an unknown hero.

Crow's Hill

From the mist covered swamplands, the Crow's Hill rises suddenly and jarringly. Mostly Barren, with only a ring of about a three dozen trees on its top. Here a swarm of crows nests, larger and smarter than their southern cousins. They have lived here as long as man has and have given the hills its name. For anyone coming from the south, it is a welcome sight as it marks the border between the swamp- and woodlands.

Bay of Bones

A bay protected from the raging northern waters, its black sand is littered with tens of thousands of bones, hence the name. For the most part, they are small, stemming from fish and bird. There are however about two dozen or more remains that dwarf everything around them. The largest of them are three times a man's height and one can only shudder when imagining, what kind of creature they belonged to.

Further North

Beyond the Marsh, the woods become lighter. Larger patches of plain and even further north, chains of barren hills break the otherwise endless blanket of trees. However one shouldn't assume this land to be any friendlier. The earth is hard as stone and ice cold winds blow from east to west.

Men of the North

by caroline soucy

These are the lands the Northmen or Barbarians, as the Vardanians call them, settle. Roads cut through the woods, the few usable stretches of land are covered in fields and longhouses dot the region. Despite southern beliefs, cities do exist here. While not as large as the ones south of the March, they are surrounded by high walls of wood and stone and contain thousands of people.

Teutonii

From the shores of the God's Eye, a large lake with crystal clear water, to the highlands in between the mountains of the Dawn Wall, stretches the land of the Teutonii. Most savage of the northern tribes they rule no cities. Rather they house in hundreds of fortresses nestled among the hills. From there they constantly raid the other tribes of the area.

Cherusci

Living in the land between the Bay of Bones and the God's Eye are the descendants of those tribes that once lived in Vardania. The Cherusci or Southern Lords as they are mockingly called by the others are the most advanced and numerous of the Northmen. Several cities exist here, some count over ten thousand souls.

Ambroni

Among the hills of the far north, the Ambronii have made their home. Mining the mountains for copper and tin, the Bronze Lords, while being the most peaceful of the northern tribes are not to be underestimated. They merely prefer to trade with the others but have given the Teutonii many a bloody nose over the years.

Dead Land and Beyond

Beyond the lands of the Ambronii, the great pines and spruces begin to disappear. The further north you go the smaller and sparser the trees become. By the time one passes the mountains they start to become sickly and eventually only dead stumps dot the otherwise utterly barren plains and hills. This is the Dead Land and no human lives here. No animal grazes and no birds fly in the sky. Only the winds icy howl accompanies any traveller unfortunate enough to enter these lands.
Here great gaps and breaches have opened in the titanic bulwark that is the Dawn Wall. Behind them is the great unknown, the Outer Lands.

There were humans here once. Among the barren hills, there are the ruins of cities. Grander and more complex than anything else found in the lands of the Northmen. Some are built in like those in the far south. Others show symbols similar to those used by Barbarians in the past. But then there are cities built in ways so totally alien, one cannot help but ask who once lived in them...and why they are gone now. The northerners do not speak of them.

— p. 330, chapter 17

Maps

• 

  Beyond the March

Alternative Name(s)

The Far North, Outer Lands

Location under

Outer Lands

Owner/Ruler

Kings of the Iron Fist

Related Ethnicities

• Barbarians
• Nauretani - Vanguard of the North

Contested By

• Ambroni
• Cherusci
• Teutonii

Characters in Location

• Aelia

by Valeriy Zrazhevskiy

On Barbarians
Naturally one might ask how a land as unfriendly and barren can repeatedly produce hordes of several hundred thousand Northmen. The answer: It doesn't. None of the Barbarian Tribes, with the exception of Ubar Sin's men, has originated in the Far North. They have come from the Outer Lands, a process that is mirrored in Anidara where tribesmen (among them the Ferans) have invaded from the south.
In periods of cold climate, they do not settle. Rather they just march through, aiming to settle in greener lands. Every few hundred years, however, warm periods will make the north a more fertile land. Then the Barbarians will settle down for a while, be it to recover from the migration or gather strength for an attack.
However, the southern passes into the unknown have been calm for millennia, whereas the north seems to birth horde after horde. The scholars of Vardania have come to a frightening conclusion as to why: something is driving them south.

The Northmen are not savages. They built cities that hold tens of thousands, roads, bridges and more. They craft weapons and armour of steel. Field powerful and disciplined armies. They are not a singular group but rather amalgamations of hundreds of different cultures.

— page 300

Lost Armies
While on the defensive for the better part of 3000 years, there have been southern attempts at conquering the north. However, all of them have ended in disaster. Elder King Vendrik Marten and his army disappeared in 942 DA. Three hundred years later General Gordian led the 9th Legion (over 50.000 strong) north in an attempt to establish a new province. After about four weeks contact between his forces and the March broke down. Over a hundred armies (large and small) have been swallowed by the mists, never to be seen again.
Hollow Hills
Nestled between the Dawn Walls western branch and its main body, is a series of hills that stand out even among the desolate landscape of the north. Completely devoid of any vegetation and formed from a strange, pale stone, around three to four dozen of them dot the land. Humans do not settle here and even most animals seem to avoid it as much as possible.

Whenever a tribe marches south, some stay behind and get absorbed by the next wave, coming from further north. Through this way myths, culture and gods are given from tribe to tribe. There are thousands of stories among the Northmen and their seers take great care to preserve them all. Some are as ancient as the great cities and even older. The Dwarf. The Skineater. The Red King

— page 171

Hold of the Red King
The ruins of a great fortress at the shores of the God's Eye. Similar to Crin's Fist it is an ancient structure and despite its age still towers high above the surrounding hills. According to the seer's, it was once home to the Red King, a mythical figure from the Age of Twilight.