Grarjord
Grarjord, the northernmost province of Etharis, is a land of pines, tundras, glaciers, and the forbidding cold. To survive, the warring Valikans must fight not just each other but the unforgiving environment, rampaging elementals, and the ongoing threat of coldfire. Since the Schism, the six Valikan Clans have been divided into two nations: Thrull and Kandar. Both of these factions are in a deadlock for control of Grarjord.
The six clans of the Valikan subsist in one of the harshest regions in the world. The southernmost part of Grarjord is still temperate, holding vast pine forests bounded by snow-covered mountains. Beyond the forests stretches the tundra known as the Pale March. Minor tribes survive here, hunting reindeer and other wild game.
At the northern edge of the Pale March lies a restless ice sea where dwell leviathans and otherdeadly creatures. Further northeast, closest to the North Pole, is Volgen, a frozen land where originates a strange and deadly phenomenon known as coldfire. In recent years, the coldfire crisis has connected Volgen to the mainland via an icy land bridge.
Often the entirety of the north is called Grarjord by southerners, and southlanders still refer to the lands of the Valikan clans by this ancient name. But with the political divisions of east and west growing ever sharper, the northern clans now define their homelands as Thrull and Kandar, with only the southern reaches between Thrull and Nordenland still clinging to the name and history of ancient Grarjord.
The Free Lands
The open tundra, steep peaks, and thick forests of Grarjord are nominally under the control of Thrull, and folk here acknowledge the authority of the Rune, Sýr, and Völgr clans, and of the Keeper of the Three Tribes in Tyburn. In reality, the folk of Grarjord enjoy a modicum of independence that hearkens back to the earliest days of settlement in the north. Many minor clans gravitate to this territory to avoid the militaristic posturing of Clan Völgr farther north, and the clashes between warriors of that clan and the folk of Kandar are constant across the Thrull tundra. However, the struggle for resources is no less acute here than elsewhere in Thrull and Kandar. The relationships between clans in Grarjord is often defined by raiding and blood feuds.
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Region
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