The Duchy of the Fellands
Proper Name: The Duchy of the Fellands
Population: 30,000 (Human 80%, hobgoblins 10%, gnomes 5%, orcs 5%)
Ruler:High Priestess Xavendra
Government: Occupation of Iuz
Capital: Groucester
Other Settlements: Perdition, Senningford
Resources: Foodstuff, silver
Religions: Iuz, Nerull, Ralishaz
Law: NE, CE
The hills low in the southwestern clutch of the Bluff Hills are cast in the color of blood while wildflowers bloom yearly on the plains. Even as Iuz’s armies walk these foothills, the people of the land defy their presence. This fierce spirit of independence is what drew men here long ago, and it infects the hearts of even the most unlikely souls. The Fellands have a long history of bloodshed coupled with a savage lust for freedom. Over the years many empires, from Aerdi to Tenh have tried to subdue these proud people. Tried and failed. Only time will tell if Iuz is to learn those same lessons.
Settlements and Locations within the Duchy of the Fellands:
Bluff Hills
Fellreev Forest
Flanhome
Fort Skagund
Groucester
Little Hills Fort
Senningford (Synford)
The plains and foothills are not particularly foreboding with regard to agricultural production. While it requires discipline, farmers produce bountiful harvests regularly. The hills are full of wild game, though this has suffered somewhat over the past twenty years. However numerous streams and rivers that run south to join the Zumker on its journey to the Lake of Unknown Depths continue to provide some means for those who rely on it. There is an intangible sense to the place, something that haunts the dreams of residents and many visitors for years after leaving this fierce region. Those who work the land say it best: “one may only be her partner, she will have no master.”
Many wonder what attracts men to this rueful landscape. Even bearing its spring quilt of wildflowers, no one would call the Fellands beautiful in the same manner one speaks of the quiet valleys of Furyondy. Its style is frank and honest, blooming in the sunrise and haunting at twilight. The soil has a deep red tone to it; so much so, that local sages call the bald patches of earth “blood fields.” It is rumored that these were the sites of horrendous battles, fought eons ago, so violent and bloody that the earth here has refused to blossom again. The Fellands has always been a place of war and death. The land attracts men of its own character – harsh, brutal and free. Since the late 200th century, it has been a place of unrest: a hiding place for bandits, murderers, those not wishing to be found, and those who wished to be left alone.
The people of the Fellands are an odd match. Farmers and herders rub shoulders with highwaymen and cutthroats daily. Everyone respects another’s space, so long as theirs is not sacrificed. This independent demeanor makes actual rule of the Fellands a tricky business, which would help explain why so many have failed at the endeavor. The people here do not care for kings or gods, only sky and breath and shelter from the storm. When threatened these seemingly disconnected people come together like a hive of angry bees. This makes the current occupation of the Fellands unnerving, that so many have succumbed to Iuz’s rule. Even much of the resistance fighting has ceased, though not because any success on Xavendra’s part. Rather many old timers believe a strange storm is brewing, and they are preparing themselves for a new season of war.
History: In name, the Fellands belonged to Nyrond when they split from Aerdi in 356 CY. The lords who held grants of land there seldom visited and so long as taxes were paid, there was little cause to seek out those who refused to honor them. These men had long become adept at hiding from the foresters and sheriffs the lords’ employed. When Nyrond broke from Aerdi, Tehn was quick to dispute the territory, which led to a small series of skirmishes between the two nations. His hands full with the armies of Aerdi and those led by the religious zealots of the Pale, the King of Nyrond sought a treaty. Within twenty years the garrisons left here had largely been forgotten. The keeps became the strongholds of bandit lords was the whole of the Rift Canyon area grew infested with such. The few attempts by Tehn to enforce its claims to the Bluff Hills failed miserably. Patrols either found nothing or were wiped out in carefully staged ambushes. The Tehn continued to claim possession of the Bluff Hills until the Duchy fell to Iuz in 583 CY.
There have been more rulers of the Fellands than in any other domain of the Combination of Free Lords (now call the Bandit Lands). Most have a tenure of three to four years at best. The longest sitting lord was a man named Felgrin, who was also the first such lord born in the Fellands. His supporters called him the “blood earth king,” for it was well known he came from farmer stock. Felgrin’s approach to rule was simple: give every man space. So long as they acknowledged his control of the domain and did not act against him, they were permitted to do as they pleased. There was no taxation; all income came from raiding against Tehn, the Pale, and even the neighboring free lords. This is not to suggest Felgrin’s reign was a peaceful one. Those who spoke out against him, even in whispers, were often dead before the sun rose on their rash words. A village who refused to house a raiding party was summarily destroyed. Though a brutal man, Felgrin was not one for pointless bloodshed. He treated all equally. When he discovered one of his raiding parties had spent an evening pillaging and looting a town in his care, he personally delivered the heads of each offender to the people of the offended village. No one is exactly sure of Felgrin’s fate. He disappeared leading a raiding party against a Palite village. Many believe he was captured and burned as a heretic. Others feel the shackle of leadership grew heavy on Felgrin, and during the fighting he simply walked away.
The western Bluff Hills, the eastern Fellreev Forest, and lands between were part of a warrior realm based in the town of Groucester. The Fellands were conquered by the forces of Tenh in the spring of 578 CY, and ceased raiding eastward for a time. This realm was absorbed by the Grosskopf clans in 581 CY, following a marriage between their ruling families.
The invasion of 583 CY brought with it new leadership in the guise of Xavendra an oddly refined and graceful cleric of Iuz. Lacking the fiends that provided most of her security, the cleric has had to accept former bandits into her circle of leadership in Groucester. (She reports to the regional capital at Rookroost.) The bulk of the bandits working with her have turned to dark religion and evil debauchery. Xavendra, a quietly cruel priestess of Iuz has governed here some six years now; so long the people of the Fellands have almost grown used to their occupation by the distant demigod. Yet even she is not immune to the temptations the earth whispers here. Xavendra has a well-known distaste for orcs, and some suspect she may make a play for independence (despite being a cleric of the demigod) should Iuz’s full attention fall elsewhere.
Bandit Kingdoms
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