Kingdom of Dassen

The Kingdom of Dassen lies to the west of the Shining Land of Shahalesti, its western border defined by the craggy Old Dragon Mountains defended by hundreds of small dwarven birthing communities. Dassen’s people, an assortment of humans and elves, cherish their land, to the point that superstitious cavalrymen even put dirt in their boots so never have to stop touching the soil of their homeland. King Steppengard rules a patchwork of eight feudal holdings, many of them controlled by distant relatives with claims to the throne of numbing complexity. To assure that he never has to worry about untangling these claims, Steppengard has had a huge family with eighteen children, all of them legitimate on the word of his oath. There are no mighty cities in Dassen, only thousands of farms and towns growing out from the nine castles of the king and his dukes. The largest city, Bresk, lies on a major river beside Steppengard’s castle, and is a hilly community built both above and below ground. Originally known as the Eight Lands, when Dassen was unified fifteen years ago a ninth region was carved out, which became the holding of King Steppengard. Today Dassen is divided into nine regions, forming a loose ring around the central highlands, the Toraest Steppes. King Steppengard rules over the eight feudal lords and ladies, as well as lands held by dozens of minor dwarven clan chiefs who govern their own small birthing communities in the mountains. As a country, Dassen has had trouble remaining unified. Originally an alliance of eight kings, for three centuries the nation was bound by the rule of the Book of Eight Lands, a lesser artifact that traced the lineage of each of the nobles in charge of the different lands, and kept clear who was the rightful ruler of the overall nation, by bloodlines. The book, heavily guarded by whoever was the current king, also provided magical protection to those nobles, to ensure that each ruler was free of compulsions and ensorcellment. Five decades ago the current king was slain by the next in line, which set off a civil war that purged many of the bloodlines, as the nobles used the book as a sort of to-do list of who to kill to gain power. Twice Dassen stabilized, but twice more it fell again into civil war again. While it was a chaotic time, it kept the Acheron Empire and Shahalesti from conquering the land, since keeping control of it would not have been worth the effort. Fifteen years ago a new king, Steppengard, came to power. He had no siblings, and had formed alliances to keep the nation stable, but to further ensure that there would be no more wars he established the Council of Nine. All major matters of policy must be voted on by the council (often by proxy), which gathers at Steppengard’s castle in Bresk. Each Lord and Lady has one vote and the King’s vote counts as three. Cooperation is ensured by an agreement that the rest of the Lords will combine forces to march on a Lord who breaks faith with the Council. The Book of Eight Lands still grants its boon to the current rulers of each of the old kingdoms, and to the king of Dassen himself, but it no longer officially dictates the line of royal ascension. Steppengard had a large family, with eighteen children as of the new year, to ensure that he would be able to pass down his throne without further wars.