Northwind
Capital: Iron Gate
Ruling House: None Currently
Northwind is the oldest kingdom in Marin, bordered to the north by the Witherlands, to the west by Taemar and Ibethiel, and to the south by Terresol.
While most outside of Northwind believe the fabled "Northwind Curse" only affects its ruling family (with each historic ruler only reigning for a few years before dying in a grand fashion), the curse seems to affect all facets of Northwindian life. Historically, its capital has always been the city of Irongate.
Northwind's curse takes the following forms: its poor economy and little to no natural resources, its general lack of order, constant war, terrible climate, disease, famine, slavery, the fear of leading Northwind due to the curse, the terrifying flora and fauna, and its evil geography.
"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
and the vermin of the world inhabit it
and its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit
and it goes by the name of Northwind."
GEOGRAPHY
The Krags
The Krags are a series of stalagmite-like mineral formation found all along the countryside. They can range from being meters tall and up to half as thick, to as small as a sewing needle. They usually form at the bottoms of cliffs due to acid rain. Acids and solutes in Northwindian acid rain can melt away limestone and talc deposits in rock. This mixture trickling off of cliffs forms Krags, surprisingly strong spires of stone. Carnivorous plants usually grow between these Krags, eating any animals unlucky enough to fall off cliffs into them. These plants use their digestive fluid to melt down the flesh of these animals for consumption, while the calcium of the uneaten bones is melted into raw calcium to strengthen the Krag spires.
The Far Gone
More commonly known as "the Cursed Forest", it covers the northern coast of the Sea of Emin is believed to be cursed by Northwind's inhabitants. It's position and danger denies Northwind a large part of its coastline. This is a region enormous trees that form dark woods as far as the eye can see, but also of fog, whispers, and evil ravenous things hidden in the dark. Here, fear to tread.
The Rustlands
Defined by a rugged geography of reddish rocks riven by Krags, canyons, and countless small rivers. The Rustlands are one of the regions of Northwind most affected by acid rains, and life in the region has adapted to such an environment. Its sparse forests are home to one the sturdiest plant strains in Marin, the Ironbark tree, and the rest of the frontier is plagued by all sorts of parasitic and predatory fauna such as packs of direwolves, fellhounds, and even the dreaded carrion insects of the beelands. This results in the Rustlands being one of the less populated areas of Northwind in spite of its abundant streams and wildlife, for in Northwind, desolate often means safer.
Scattered across the Rustlands there is a series of ruined keeps known as The Black Gates believed to be the remains of a massive wall once stretching from the Ibbish mountains to the coastline. The architecture of these forts bear similarity to the "Sun Gate" of Terresol and the ancient sewer networks of the Iron Gates, hinting at a common origin dating to the Age of Magic. These ancient ruins serve as the seat of power for the warden-clans of House Koern, the closest thing the Rustlands have to a ruling nobility, although their nature as rangers means that its scions rarely spend much time in these holdfasts.
This region borders the contested territory known as the Gray Hills.
ECONOMY
By and large, the soil in Northwind is worthless. With the exception of the Gray Hills, a region occupied by Terresol several generations ago, agriculture in the region has abandoned due to the twin scourges of erosion and bandits. Therefore, inhabitants of places like Irongate, Burgh, or Windfell, rely heavily on imports to feed their people. What Northwind does have, and which none can take away from it, is a middleman position between the iron-rich Witherlands and the southern kingdoms of Terresol and Araedia.
Irongate, as well as many of the town and cities that exist in Northwind, make a living off commerce. Safe trade routes are about the only commodity that can yield secure and steady profits, all the more so considering the rampant banditry that plagues the region. There is one other trade that blooms in Northwind however, and it is that of slavery. Free from the societal dictates of the Southern Pantheon, men are free to remove freedom as they see fit. Even the most profitable of southern ventures can hardly boast about bringing the same returns as the ones who indulge in the wanton use of slave labour.
CULTURE
"Northwind runs on the spite of mutually assured destruction. People survive because they're willing to drag their ennemies down with them."
― Rian Koern
HISTORY
For the past thousand years Northwind has not been so much a kingdom as a collection of fragmented micro-fiefdoms squabbling among themselves for power. Before this "age of warlords" the region was the cradle of a massive empire that extended beyond Northwind's current borders. It was allegedly a time of technological sophistication, colossal monuments (some of which have remains that can still be found in Terresol and Taemar) and a dreaded aristocracy of vampire lords. Due to the centuries of chaos that have plagued the region as well as the deliberate destruction of historical documents, these claims are all but consigned to myth and speculation.
The rise of John de Burgh, whom many consider to be the last of the warlords, has caused Northwind to become unified for the first time in almost a millennia. He has pushed a nationalistic rhetoric that calls back to a supposed age of myth: an age long before the warlords and the empire, where gods walked among men, and where Irongate was ruled by a divine figure. To this end, he has gone to great lengths to revive the ancient and quasi-extinct faith of Athmore, while at the same time purging any trace of Southern Pantheon influence from northern lands.