Heralds of Summer's Return
The Heralds of Summer's Return are an underground resistance movement spread across Irrisen. They seek the overthrow of Irrisen's government and eventually, that of Baba Yaga herself. They have pockets in Whitethrone and most other major cities, as well as numerous smaller settlements. Unfortunately, while they have these many pockets, they are small in number and have only a very loose central organisation. They rely on guerilla tactics, scoring occasional small victories here and there, but have not yet managed to be a true thorn in the side of the Jadwiga.
History
Hoarwood Forest was once a verdant woodland of proud, tall trees, bursting with life and home to a vibrant druidic culture. Now, it clearly illustrates the consequences of Irrisen’s eternal winter. Hoarwood’s original provincial capital, the city of Vonosh, is no more. In 3444 ar, descendants of Queen Jadwiga in Vonosh plotted to overthrow Queen Morgannan, and slew her daughter, Duchess Anisya. In retribution, Queen Morgannan executed the residents of Vonosh—every man, woman, and child, regardless of guilt or innocence—and razed the city to the ground in a storm of fire and ice. Morgannan then decreed that a new capital be carved from an enormous oak tree to the east of the ruin that had been Vonosh. The great oak was sacred to the Ulfen druids of Hoarwood and their followers, and the druids and peasants resisted in one of the greatest uprisings in Irrisen’s history. Weapons and witchery managed to overcome the Hoarwood Rebellion, and the blood of the insurrection’s ringleaders was fed to the roots of the mighty, sacred oak, killing it. But though the open revolt was utterly crushed, a nascent underground resistance movement had been born—the Heralds of Summer’s Return.
Once the rebellion was put down, an army of artisans spent 4 years completing the construction of the new provincial capital, named for the province itself. But at the city’s dedication ceremony, hosted by the new duchess Osilla Morgannan, the Heralds of Summer’s Return made their first defiant, albeit suicidal, attack. In the mêlée, Osilla lost an eye, and her first official act as Duchess of Hoarwood was to order that every peasant in the province would suffer the same, an order that her troops grimly carried out to the last child.
Although the first act of the Heralds of Summer’s Return ultimately failed, the movement itself did not die. With no real organization to speak of, they have carried on clandestinely to this day, engaging in sabotage both petty and grand and fostering the hope that the White Witches might someday be defeated. This loose association of idealists and freedom fighters has made little progress toward achieving their ultimate goal over the last 1,200 years, but the oral traditions of the original Ulfen people enslaved by the White Witches have kept the embers alive, ready to burst into revolutionary flame if given the opportunity.
Founding Date
3445
Demonym
Herald
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