Greyhawk's Expanded Domain

During the war years, and shortly after the Pact of Greyhawk, the rulers of the Free City found themselves responsible for a larger area of territory. Boundaries expanded in all directions, for a variety of reasons.

The Free City now controls almost all of the Cairn Hills, right up to the eastern fringes, as a result of a treaty concluded with the Duchy of Urnst in 584 CY. Urnst, increasingly aware of the need to support the County and Nyrond, simply felt that it could not continue to maintain garrisons in the Cairns when it needed more troops close to the Nesser River.

This agreement with the Free City allows the Duchy a 20% share of revenues from mineral and gem recoveries from the portions of the Cairns that were formerly under Urnst's control (after expenses and tithes). The Directors of Greyhawk regarded this as an excellent deal, and for once, Count Karll of the Duchy may have acted unwisely.

As something of a consequence to this, Greyhawk's control has spread to the southeast, right up to the Abbor-Alz. Local communities such as Greysmere (see the Atlas) accepted affiliation with Greyhawk readily enough. Even though war was far away, few felt immune to it in such small and isolated communities, no matter how insular. The protection of a great city such as Greyhawk, in return for paying acceptable taxes, seemed very desirable.

In return for its protection of these communities, the Free City has acquired some extra wealth, although apart from the Cairn Hill mines, this has been offset by the costs of paying for garrisons and patrols. The Directors accept the balance, however, because it provides extra employment for Greyhawkers in the expanded militias. This is crucial at a time when the refugee problem is becoming serious; these extra jobs help ameliorate that problem to some extent.

The Directors have pushed hard to bring Hardby completely under their control. The paranoia of wartime has made them desire complete control over the Selintan, north and south. A cunning strategy was used to virtually annex Hardby. A garrison of Mountaineer Militia was assigned to the town, to protect lands around the Abbor Alz, and Hardby was glad to accept them. They were disciplined and well paid, and the taverns and hostelries liked the booming business.

The Mountaineers were followed in 584 CY by the Hardby Marines: tough seamen sent to patrol the upper reaches of Woolly Bay. Their placement was justified by the northward march of the humanoids of the Pomaj; the Despotrix could not refuse their presence. Hardby is now technically ruled by the Despotrix, but is effectively ruled by the Commanders of the Mountaineers and Marines. The Atlas provides further details.

Greyhawk's influence has also spread west, almost by default, and southwest. West of the Selintan lies Gnarley Forest and the lands of Dyvers, and Greyhawk's influence here has been through increasing patrols, understandings reached with the rangers and woodsmen of Gnarley, and rapprochement with the surviving cities of the Wild Coast. There is no formal treaty change, and no stated aim of displacing Dyvers, but the influence of Greyhawk grows to the west.

In truth, this is mostly a side effect of the increasing alliance with Narwell and Safeton. These cities are still hideouts for nefarious and treacherous bandits and worse, but the Directors reckon that they are better neighbors than the humanoids of the Pomarj. Greyhawk has reluctantly stationed garrisons within these cities in order to save them from downfall. This is a financial drain the Free City could well live without, but the Pomarj tribes are closer than any other hostile power, and the only nonsignatories of the Pact of Greyhawk within a thousand miles, so this expenditure is seen as a necessary evil. Borders are not absolutely fixed in some cases; that with the lands of Dyvers is unfixed by formal treaty, and in the Wild Coast there is a fluctuating buffer zone occupied by varying populations of Pomarj incursions, exceptionally desperate bandits and ne’er-do-wells, and isolated communities of a few folk trying to stay alive with nowhere else to go.