Iron Hills government
Even though only a relatively small portion of the land is inhabited, the Iron Hills Barony claims dominion over all land touched by the magical dampening effect the region is famous for.
Outsiders debate whether the Iron Hills Barony counts as a republic or lordship. Either way Baron Fergus is in charge, blurring the line between a militant republic and a benevolent dictatorship. Fergus is loved and feared by most of the Iron Hill folk.
Essentially, the locals are expected to manage their own affairs and they usually do, but Fergus mediates disputes. If there is a crime or threat and the locals don't respond quick enough, Fergus will either personally intervene or else order one of his lieutenants to intervene and forcibly make the problem go away.
If there is a larger more complex issue affecting the Iron Hills Barony, Fergus will call a meeting and invite public discussion though his word is more or less law. Even a vote is called, once Fergus' opinion is clear, he is virtually guaranteed to have a majority of the Barony vote with him.
Structure
Other than a modest tax which supports the limited mining infrastrasture, pays the few permanent soldiers, and other limited government expenses. There are few formal rules, but many informal norms.
Vigilante frontier justice is the norm. Locals who are causing problems or aren't pulling their weight are ostracized and shunned for minor offenses, beaten up or tarred and feathered for middling offenses or killed for serious offense. It is actually fairly rare for outright force to be needed and this more often than not involves transients passing through or newly arriving immigrants who don't understand the rules.
History
The Iron Hills Barony, like most of the Borderlands has seen a wide array of government turnover in the past few centuries.
Before the current administration, the Iron Hills Barony was ruled by a Baron with a iron fist who ruled with naked forced and treated the local farmers and miners as slaves in all but name. He even had some goblin subjects were slaves in name.
The current ruler, Baron Fergus helped topple the old Baron about twenty-five years ago and became the new Baron by almost unanimous demand.
Fergus freed all the goblin slaves and allowed them to stay as paid workers about two thirds of the goblins took him up on this offer. Fergus does not tolerate the locals abusing the goblin minority and punishes those who violate his edict here greatly.
This is about the only time Fergus has made a controversial ruling that a large portion of the populace disagrees with, but the status quo remains for now. It's not clear whether Fergus' eventual successor will be so even handed with the goblins.
Demography and Population
The total population of the area is just under 40,000 mortals,
69% humans, 9% dwarves, 9% goblins, 4% gnomes, 3% satyrs, 2% tengku, 4% Other
The Borderlands region in general attracts a lot off outcasts and cast-offs from the rest of West Colassia and the Iron Hills has a disproportionally high share of riff-raff among their population, especially among the non-human minorities. Almost every dwarf and gnome here was disowned by the clan of their birth.
Less than honorable people are tolerated here, but less than honorable behavior is not. There is a strong culture of vigilante justice here. Murderers, rapists, and thieves are punished very harshly and magical healing is hard to come by here.
Military
The Iron Hills Barony only has about 200 full time soldiers (all elite class) but the overall populace is very well armed. Pretty much every young man has a martial weapon and knows how to use it and the women here are pretty scrappy too.
About a quarter of the total population, or about 10,000 able bodied adults form what you could call an informal militia but many of them outclass what other nations consider "militia" with many of them having the skill level and equipment quality of men at arms or even elites.
While they are tough and scrappy, they are also willful and anti-authoritarian. Getting the populace to fight in a coordinated fashion of follow complex battle plans is like herding cats.
The Iron Hills Barony has a magical dampening affect around the entire area. Since most major miliary offensives rely heavily on magic in some form or the other, this has given the locals an unjustified sense of being untouchable.
Religion
Some of the locals are very impious and some are very pious. No religion is banned but there is generally biased against organized religion and given the overall anti-magic sentiment here, theurgists are viewed with some suspicion but not as much as suspicion as arcane mages.
Foreign Relations
The Iron Hills Barony is disliked by both nearby dwarf kingdoms Meckelorn and Stahlheim. Respectable dwarves do not trade with the Iron Hillfolk and the Order of the Stone's pilgrimage routes all swing around the Iron Hills.
On the down low, many respectable dwarves view the Iron Hills is a convenient place to offload their least favorite citizens here and more than a few honorable dwarves have skeletons in their closet involve under the table deals involving the Iron Hills Barony.
Given their anti-authoritarian bent, The Iron Hillfolk's relationships with the human nations of West Colassia aren't much better than they are with the dwarves. They are also in almost dead center of the Border Baronies Region meaning it is difficult to trade with major West Colassian powers even if they wanted to.
Almost all of their trade is with Border Baronies, and they usually have good relations with their neighbors though they distrust the ruler of of Altudaredia and every other Border Barony that relies on magic to stay in power.
Agriculture & Industry
About 30% of the locals are miners or have craft or service jobs primarily to and for miners. Iron and salt is generally what is mined for but they have a small coal mine and a occasionally run into veins of other metal.
About 50% of the locals work out of small family farms, often with a crafting job on the side. More than a few people float between mining and farm work as need taking whatever work they can get.
The remainder of the population live on the edge of the Barony hunting and foraging.
Founding Date
1812
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Leader
Head of State
Head of Government
Government System
Despotism
Power Structure
Autonomous area
Economic System
Market economy
Major Exports
iron, salt
Major Imports
luxury goods, textiles
Location
Official Languages
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
Comments