Hrim
First officially settled around the 13th century by the Hrim Expedition, the area now known as Hrim sits on the Greysky Peninsula subcontinent. The geography and wildlife is diverse but extremely poor for settlement, being mostly swamps, forested mountains, taiga, tundra, and glaciers. Primary population clusters center around a smattering of small towns along the coast or near resource oases in the wastes, while roving groups of bandits and outlaws inhabit the space between settlements.
The people of Hrim's communities, despite the cruel nature of their environment and the harshness of those who dwell in the wastes, are considered some of the happiest people on the continent. Each small community is tight-knit and resolute in the face of most challenges. While the region is unified in its culture, it has no official form of centralized government or foreign relations. While all inhabitants of the region support one another in a given community, they are united in their reverence for their unwilling leader, Gerrion Relactia; a drow which the people view as an embodiment of chaos and everything that Hrim represents.
Early History
The Greysky Peninsula was considered a wasteland long before writing was established in Sinderlan. Tales of the region's folly are still well ingrained into Sinderlan cultures. Occasional brave souls were said to venture alone into the wastes, never to return after being bombarded by blizzards, assailed by wildlife, or disappearing entirely. As the Final Kingdom expanded its borders and brought more Duchies into its hegemony, the Greysky was left to its own devices, stopping at the edge of the Lister Mountains. The edge of the peninsula was mapped some time in the 1000s, after which sailors regularly sailed along its arctic northern tip to reach western Sinderlan.The Hrim Expedition
In the 1200s FFC, a drow named Locasta Hrim is said to have assembled an expedition out of the Final Kingdom. He believed that the peninsula hid tremendous opportunity for the Final Kingdom and saw it as the last great frontier of Perradin now that the Didacy had settled the south pole. According to legend, he assembled an expedition of over 100,000 people to settle the land with the grace of the Queen of the Horizon. Slowly, over the course of centuries, the people dispersed onto the peninsula. Many are said to have died in the first months, but the Kingdom continued to send supplies and the settlers were bolstered by the Gift of the Throne. By the 1500s and the end of the War of the Starfall, the expedition had settled half the land of the peninsula, mainly its mountainous region. The Lizardfolk Riots of Throne and the additional instability across the Kingdom following the destruction of Velnor resulted in many abandoning the Kingdom and Didacy, heading for the Greysky to find a new life away from the two warring parties. Hrim, disturbed by the nature of these new expedition members, became worried that the mission of the expedition would be corrupted by their presence. After the formation of the The Monarch's Bulwark in 1544 and their subsequent quest for order in the Kingdom, the Queen of Reborn Doctrine issued the Hrim expedition an ultimatum in 1570: to hand over the refugees who had fled the Kingdom to the Bulwark or to leave the Kingdom. Hrim, seeing the horror inflicted by the Bulwark and the Queen, refused to surrender the refugees, officially separating the land of the expedition from the Kingdom.The Abandonment
After Hrim's decision to separate his expedition from the Kingdom, the Bulwark departed for Throne and their inquisition ended. In an instant, it is said that all the expedition members formerly loyal to the Kingdom withered and shrank as they could no longer benefit from the Gift of the Throne. Some are said to have died on the spot as they became emaciated and sickly; many others perished in the ensuing months due to exposure to the elements. Supplies, now no longer being donated by the Kingdom, were in short supply. Panic beset the peninsula as many fled to the coast in hopes of establishing fishing towns to sate their hunger. Hrim, distraught by the consequences of his decision, went into self imposed exile in 1571 fearing that the people despised him for his actions. He was never seen again. Despite the hardships, the people of the peninsula stood by the decision Hrim made. The refugees, thankful for their reprieve from the Bulwark, were filled with renewed purpose to find a home for themselves on the frontier. The original expedition members, horrified at how quickly the monarch abandoned them, were filled with an intense disdain and even hatred for the Kingdom. This became culturally ingrained, and endured long into the 91st century. The people began collectively calling the region Hrim in honor of the individual and his ideals which led to their awakening to the horrors of the Kingdom's actions in the 16th century."Quiet" Existence on the Edge of Perradin
After the Abandonment, the towns established by the Expedition fractured. Their unwillingness to leave coupled with their new frail nature in the face of the elements resulted in each town feeling uniquely trapped. Each community broke ties with any family left in the Kingdom, as well as most ties with one another to focus on solving each community's unique problems. Over centuries, this led to the each town becoming exceptionally tight-knit. The different climates resulted in different methods of survival. Coastal towns took to a form of piracy which focused entirely on benefiting the community, forming bands called Fetchers who raided Kingdom trading vessels for essential supplies during winter months. Taiga and mountain towns took to assembling small rudimentary greenhouses for subsistence farming. Border towns began raiding Kingdom towns in Tarburland and Symphon for supplies in times of need, which would occasionally result in casualties on both sides. Over the centuries, Hrim became the default location to exile criminals to. With no centralized way to combat this, Hrim became a dumping ground for violent and exceptionally cruel criminals from the Kingdom and Didacy, later the Didacian Consulate. The criminals would regularly form into large roving gangs, scouring the wastes for any unlucky enough to be caught in their wake. They began regularly raiding towns and settlements for supplies and individuals who they would use as slaves. This necessitated each town to form local militias to ensure the safety of the people and to liberate any captured citizens. The militias, typically numbering in the dozens, were trained in local combat traditions. In solidarity with other towns, militias would occasionally band together to fend off large multi-town assaults led by the gangs. In the 5400s, the King of Stability began sanctioning small military operations into Hrim, under the pretense of bringing peace to the bandits inhabiting the wastes. However, these were mostly used as a preemptive measure to subdue militias along the border to mitigate raids. While few, if any, were killed in these operations, they usually resulted in the destruction of critical infrastructure. These were often met with violent counterstrikes into Kingdom territory, but with little success against the Kingdom's highly trained military, rarely getting more than 50 miles beyond the border. The Monarchs of Throne insisted on a permanent open border policy, which many in Hrim viewed as an insult to their abilities. The ebb and flow of the antagonistic relationship between towns, bandits, and Kingdom kept the Hrim region in a constant state of chaos for the next four millennia. Despite occasional bloodshed, everyday people of the peninsula were content to ignore the rest of the world while the world did so in kind. Communities flourished internally, and even in the face of supply shortages, the people felt they were the most free people of Perradin.Recent History
In the mid 8800s several Crag, Consulate, and Duchy of Symphon forces attempted to mount a large scale joint incursion in the region of the Hrim town of Wick. In response, a drow named Gerrion Relactia led a brutal counter attack. She became famous in the region as her exploits against the forces of the outside world gained her a reputation as an embodiment of chaos and the Hrim way of life. Her ruthless nature against incursions, unorthodox strategies, and constant drive to better Hrim society through the breaking down of social barriers between communities led to the people comparing her to Vortallax, the Goddess of Churn and Change. Despite her protestations the various towns of Hrim came to view her as an informal leader and came to allow her to negotiate on behalf of the entire Hrim region, a position she has publicly expressed disdain for given that it contradicts the entire ethos of Hrim culture. In this unorthodox position, she negotiated a nonaggression pact with the Didacian Consulate and a peace treaty with the Crag. The Duke of Symphon, however, refused to negotiate with her, and continued his unofficial incursions into Hrim which Relactia was able to repel until giving up at the start of the Fourth Wine War in 9011. In 9047, Relactia surprised the various towns when she issued a call for local militia to send approximately 80% of their available forces and for all port towns' Fetcher crews to mass on the southern coast. Shortly after, she announced that she had made an agreement with Reginald Pelk of the Crag to wage a short and focused war on the Final Kingdom's Duchy of Portshilia in an act of retribution and a warning to cease incursions into their territory. This marked the first time Hrim had ever engaged in full open warfare in its nearly 8000 year history. After the capture of Balsearenta in Dying Light 9047, many in Hrim believed the war to be at its end. However, Reginald Pelk announced the expansion of the war into Illuma, Tarburland, and Sindar, bringing Hrim with them. Many within Hrim found themselves fearful for what this expanded war would mean for their people.
Founding Date
1200s FFC (Hrim Expedition Started)
1570 (Segmented from Kingdom)
1570 (Segmented from Kingdom)
Type
Geopolitical, Band
Demonym
Hrimians
Leader
Government System
Anarchy
Power Structure
Autonomous area
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
Comments