Ardhéa
The problem with Ardhéa, if I may speak so bluntly, it that it is filled with Ardhéans.
The province of Ardhéa, often referred to by Laparans as Provincial Ardhéa to differentiate it from the vast Ardhéan Desert immediately to its south, sits on the borderlands between the two great peoples. Once the home to innumerable conflicts, the province is now wholly converted to the Laparan way of life, despite its dominant majority Ardhéan population, whom their desert-dwelling cousins view as soft and lacking the important spark that separates their people from the humans that surround them on all available sides.
Geography
The lush hills of the province, with their abundant wildlife and numerous natural springs, give the traveler an approximation of what the great desert that shares a name with the province may have looked like before its major rivers were drunk dry and the land scorched during the Sundering.
Situated in the narrow strip of land between the Outer Sea it its west and the Pindus Mountains to the east, Ardhéan is known for a fair, temperate, climate with four distinct seasons, but no dramatic extremes in weather, making it the ideal grazing grounds for the herds of sheep that the desert nomads traditionally keep. This climate makes the region home to vast, uncultivated, fields where sorghum and millet grow as grass around the short, stout trees that produce the region's indigenous shuttlefruit.
The province's numerous springs, and their accompanying streams, combined with the plentiful rainfall the province receives provides adequate water to the region, despite its utter lack of any major waterways. The six largest springs had become the site of semi-permanent settlements by the time that Laparans built their cities in the region in 19BFE. The largest of these cities, the capital of Springfort, lies in the southern reaches of the province, commanding the approach from the vast desert to its south and protecting the lands to the north.
History
The province draws its name from the Ardhéan people the approaching Laparans met for the first time prior to the founding of the empire. At first, the nomads looked upon these newcomers with little interest, assuming they were just another band of wanderers that would soon pass through the region. The Laparans, however, had no such designs and began to build fortified camps in the most strategically advantageous positions in 19BFE. Claiming the springs as their own by right of settlement, they denied the approaching Ardhéans access to the water and triggered the beginnings of conflict between the two peoples. In 13BFE, a contingent of two hundred legionnaires and some four hundred auxiliaries was stationed in the province under the command of Dorian Agallon for the express purpose of protecting settlers from the savage natives of the region.
In 24AFE, a confederation of Ardhéan tribes attacked the soon-to-be completed stronghold of Springfort, but were defeated in a bloody battle in the shade of the city's walls. Governor Manuel Papalias soon ordered the immediate disarmament and settlement of Ardhéans within the provincial boundaries, but was lacking in the number of soldiers that would have been required to enforce his decrees. The message was clear, however, and more traditionalist tribes emigrated out of the region, back into the deserts, while those who had been acclimated to a semi-nomadic life settled down into farming communities scattered throughout the province.
In its duration as a province to the distant Laparan Empire, Ardhéa has seen three major invasions from the south: the first Ardhéan War was launched in 108AFE, during the reign of Dimitrios the Great, the Ardhéan Rebellion of 437 saw the region seized for a second time, and a number of Ardhéan mercenaries loyal to Gregorios II Angelos took control of the province in their push northward during the Angelos Restoration. After each siezure, the province was returned to imperial administration, and there is tension caused by the conflict between the Laparan elite at the head of the province and the Ardhéan people who populate it.
In 649AFE, Leon Argenteros, Lord High Marshall and Regent for the basileus Basil III Nikolaides, appointed Sargon bit Hadad the province's first ethnic Ardhéan governor.
The Loyalist Governor
For the first time in its history as an imperial province, Ardhéa is governed by a native Ardhéan, Sargon bit Hadad. A native son of Springfort, bit Hadad was educated in the Achenaean city of Zara before returning to his native land. The governor has begun talks with nomadic tribes in the desert, notably the liberal Lord Avalon about incorporation of the Ardhéan Confederation into the Empire of Achenae.
Springfort
The largest city in the province, Springfort, serves to protect the majority of the province from incursions from the deserts to the south. Construction on the city began in 19BFE, occupying the site of the largest natural fresh-water spring in the province, and was completed nearly fifty years after.
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