Just over a hundred years ago, the king defeated the forces of the House of Sleth at the battle of Snowpan, forcing them to sign the Treaty of the North. Before that the Sleth had ruled the north for centuries. The king divided the lands of the defeated Sleth in half, giving the western half to one of his generals in gratitude for their loyal service. This created both the house and the Barony of Karna.
The Sleth were allowed to retain control over the remaining half, however, to weaken the Sleth’s power further, of the rest of the defeated families, the king made the three most powerful, the House of White, the House Hargen and the House of Runenar, official houses of the kingdom. The Barony of Sleth was allowed to keep its peculiar religious beliefs and they were not forced to adopt the kings laws or convert to the Kingdom’s official religion (known as the Bond). While the Sleth’s capital of Coldhome is the only place in the Barony to be connected to the royal network (a centralised version of the internet controlled by the king), the rest of the Barony relies on a telegraph system, its wires buried deep beneath the snow.
The present ruler Baron Slaymar Sleth is the son of Baron Isham Sleth whose army was defeated by the king. He continues his family’s tradition of imposing brutal punishment on anyone ruled to have acted dishonourably.