Geoff, Grand Duchy of

Ruled by His High Radiance, Owen I, Grand Duke of Geoff

The Grand Duchy of Geoff was recently liberated (in early CY 602) from the giant, ogre, and evil humanoid tribes who had in earlier years swept down from the surrounding mountain ranges to conquer it in CY 594, during the height of the Greyhawk Wars. With the help of several factions, including foreign adventuring guilds, the Knights of the Watch and Dispatch, and military forces sent by neighboring countries such as Gran March and Keoland, almost the entirety of the country has been freed.
Before the wars, Geoff was well known as a source for wool and furs. Animals, both wild and domesticated, once freely roamed the countryside. Most of these were captured and eaten by giants and orcs, though the deer population had grown following the loss of their foremost predator (humans—the orcs and giants preferred cattle and horses). Roving packs of wild dogs ranged widely throughout Geoff, creating yet another hazard in an already frightful realm. Geoff's roads, predictably, sunk into disrepair. Few bandits inhabit Geoff, as the giants were dangerous and nothing was left worth stealing.
The giants' gains were hard won. Geoff's archers, predominantly sylvan elves and half-elves, picked off the first giant forays, allowing the full evacuation of the capital and much of the southlands. Eventually, Geoffs defense broke. Cavalry and pikemen were little match for seemingly countless bands of giants and nonhumans.
The few larger towns and cities of Geoff suffered greatly under the giant occupation being severely damaged, and their populations enslaved. These faired better than the smaller villages, however, which were often completely destroyed and depopulated, leaving ghost towns behind. The few who survived the attacks and escaped enslavement either fled to the east, or retreated within the various expansive forests of the duchy to seek refuge with the elves. The Hornwood, Oytwood, and Dim Forest became staging areas for guerilla attacks and rescue missions for many years, led by skilled human and elven rangers.
The Grand Duke of Geoff, Owen I, barely escaped both an assassination attempt and the giantish siege of his capitol city of Gorna, and fled the country for the city of Shiboleth in Gran March where he established a court in exile. There, the beleaguered Duke began slowly rebuilding his devastated army, and called upon his allies for aid, as well as sending agents to various other countries to seek out willing adventurers and ex-patriots. Unfortunately, the armies of his allies were committed elsewhere until the close of the Greyhawk Wars in CY 595, and thus little progress was made until after the Pact of Greyhawk was signed.
Eventually, by CY 597 the eastern city of Hochoch in Geoff was retaken with considerable help from the Knights of the Watch and the army of Gran March. Grand Duke Owen then moved his court there to continue the reclamation efforts, and begin making assessments of the condition of his devastated country through scouting and occasional raids. It was in CY 601 when real progress began to be made, through the efforts of various adventuring guilds, patriots, and heroes. Grand Duke Owen began focusing his efforts more and more towards promoting these guilds' activities, as their success was just the morale booster his army needed, plus, his political arrangements with both Gran March and the Knights of the Watch were becoming more than he bargained for, as Gran March had all but annexed Hochoch, and the Knights of the Watch enforced martial law, and both groups had designs on the newly liberated lands of Geoff.
Over the course of the last few years, the towns of Geoff began to be liberated. Many threats other than giants were found to be contributing to the hordes that invaded the duchy. Various adventuring groups struck a series of devastating counterattacks on the scattered tribes of giants and humanoids that had taken over the once tranquil cities, towns, and villages of Geoff. A band of powerful cloud giants known as the Sakhut were determined to be at the root cause of the organized invasion, and one or several bands of heroes managed to infiltrate their way up into the highest headquarters of these giants. Their final fate is unknown, but the Sakhut no longer appear to be functioning as an organized threat against the duchy. Whether the giant threat has been permanently vanquished or merely pushed back for the time being is yet to be seen.
Geoff's isolated position accounts for some unusual weather. Morning fog is common near the Dim Forest, giving northeastern Geoff a reputation for secrecy and hauntings. Rain is plentiful, though thunderstorms are short, violent affairs. Winter brings significant snowfall, especially in the west and mountains.

History

Geoff is among the oldest nations in the Flanaess. Settled by migrating Suel and Oeridians who befriended the native Flan tribes, the land has benefited from its geographic isolation for centuries, seeing little war or bloodshed. With the help of the sylvan elves of the forests and the gnomes of the Stark Mounds, the Geoffites erected Gorna more than nine hundred years ago. In 316 CY, the region was peacefully incorporated into Keoland, its nominal leader gaining the title of Grand Duke of Geoff.
As the ambition of the Keoish kings grew great, the councils of the grand duke urged their leader to distance himself from the philosophy of the Wealsun Proclamation, which announced manifest destiny upon the entire Sheldomar Valley. Though the dukes of Geoff did not openly oppose the measure, Duke Arnod II failed to supply any troops for the king during the Small War with Veluna, claiming that the royal messenger bearing the mustering order (a minor Keoish noble named Dartun Dasco) had never arrived. Thereafter, relations between the court of the Duke Arnod and King Tavish III grew cold.
The discovery by a Keoish spy of a desiccated, poisoned corpse beneath the grounds of Eagle Peak (the duke's castle) in 450 CY triggered a series of events that would end in war between Geoff and Keoland. When divinations revealed the body to be that of the missing knight, Dasco, the king ordered his armies across the Stark Mounds, intent to teach Geoff the price of ignoring Keoish edicts.
The result of this was the bloody Battle of Gorna, which saw the defeat of the Keoish force. Some claim that powerful magic employed on behalf of the duke by the archmage Vargalian had a dire origin; many of the slain Keoish warriors remain in the Stark Mounds as undead swordwraiths to this day. The defeat was profound, and it resulted in great humiliation for King Tavish III. In the following years, Geoff continued to pay tribute to the crown, but with confidence that never again would the nation fear an attack from the east.
The nation, however, lay exposed to a deeper threat from within its own borders. In 497 CY, the unthinkably rich Count Granus of Pregmere made a play for the capital, using as his army a well-paid force of mercenaries and, it is whispered, the secret support of the Knights of the Watch and certain forces within Gran March. Grand Duke Rohan III was slain in early fighting, which encouraged three other counts to join the fray, challenging Granus's claim upon the entirety of Geoff. Keoland, who stood duty-bound to quell the fighting, watched from afar, still aching from the defeat suffered in the Stark Mounds. At the end of the battle, the heir of Count Granus took the title Rohan IV. With a surprisingly gentle spirit and even-handed philosophy, he pacified his wounded nation.
Throughout the next eighty years, Geoff lived in relative peace. Raids by giants, ogres, and orcs from the Crystalmists were a continual nuisance, but the creatures never worked in concert and were easily laid low.
This pattern changed dramatically in 594 CY, when the orcs and giant-kin of the Crystalmists worked together, systematically invading and destroying western villages in a series of calculated attacks that appeared to be orchestrated by an unknown entity. By Harvester, the entire nation had fallen to the giants. The duke, wise Owen I, fled to Shiboleth, where he was greeted by friendly nobles of Gran March.
Those Geoffites who could not escape the nation began a guerilla war against the giants, striking from secluded hideouts in hills and woodlands. Aided by gnomes and elves, these humans gained only minor victories. By 597 CY, most resistance cells had been discovered and slain, the few survivors retreating deeper into the woodlands of the east.
A vicious, violent push into Geoff came in 599 CY. Orchestrated by leaders of the Knights of Dispatch in Hochoch, the action saw a great deal of fighting in the Oytwood, where a small army of lesser giantkin was defeated with great bloodshed. The push was taxing, however, and the soldiers of Hochoch mounted only small raids in the west, awaiting money and manpower to support a reinvasion of the destroyed duchy.
The duchy is now under secure leadership once more, and the people who escaped the devastation during the giant invasion have mostly returned to rebuild their lives and their former home. Others have come as well; men and women from the east who see possibility of a new life in the building of a new frontier. Their is a great deal of work that still lies ahead, and the land will forever bear the scars of its vicious invaders. But the people of Geoff are hard working and diligent, and hope kindles in their hearts once more.
The only place that remains unreclaimed is a region bordering the far west of the Hornwood. This region is still defended by the giants that came down from the Barrier Peaks and the Crystalmists. They call this land "Tjalf," which means "toil" in their language, an accurate representation of the life of the few surviving humans in the region. It is said that these giants are led by a fire giant named "King" Mogthrasir and that he rules from a stone castle at the far western end of a long mountain valley. It is presumed that Mogthrasir is content to rule here from this petty realm for now, but that he is also plotting a future invasion against the people of Geoff cannot be doubted.

Government: Feudal monarchy with minor fealty to Keoland
Capital: Hochoch
Major Towns: Gorna (pop. 2,000), Hochoch (pop. 10,000), Hocholve (pop. 0), Pest's Crossing (pop. 800), Pregmere (pop. 300)
Provinces: Six high counties, numerous elven lordships among nomadic woodland tribes, a few dwarf and gnome lordships in Stark Mounds
Resources: Cloth, copper, silver, gold, timber, gems (I)
Coinage: [Modified Keoland] griffon (pp), lion (gp), eagle (ep), hawk (sp), owl (cp)
Population: 70,000—Human 79% (FSO), Elf 9% (sylvan 90%), Halfling 5%, Dwarf 3% (hill), Gnome 2%, Half-elf 1%, Half-orc 1%
Languages: Common, Flan, Keolandish, Elven, Halfling
Alignments: NG, LG, CG, N, LN*
Religions: Pelor, Ehlonna, Allitur, Phyton, Fharlanghn, St. Cuthbert, Obad-Hai, elf pantheon, Norebo, Beory, gnome pantheon
Allies: Sterich, Keoland, Gran March, Bissel
Enemies: Valley of the Mage (distrusted), nonhumans and giants in Crystalmists

  Location in the Flanaess