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Overview
North Province's northern border is the Teesar Torrent, stretching from the independent county of Knurl in Bone March to the hills of Bellport and the Solnor Coast. The southern border is more tenuously defined, as the ambitions of the province often exceed its actual grasp. This informal boundary currently extends from the northern verges of the Gull Cliffs at the Solnor Coast (including the city of Winetha) and continues west through the Principality of Delaric to the Adri Forest, some three days south of Edgefield. That domain is defined by a triangular region between the Gull Cliffs, the northwestern Grandwood, and the southeastern Adri.
North Province enjoys few of the rich natural resources abundant in the rest of the Great Kingdom. Only a small fraction of these lands exhibit the fecundity of the river basins in the south, and these tracts are generally clustered around the banks of the upper Flanmi. The rest of the soil of the province, particularly along the extensive coasts, is especially rocky and more suitable for grazing than tillage. Mineral resources are also few, but the ores drawn from the extensive hills between the cities of Bellport and Johnsport are key to the economic wellbeing of the country. The vast Adri Forest in the west also provides a rich source of forage and pillage, though its denizens resist such efforts. Coastal cities like Kaport Bay and the port of Atirr thrive on fishing and whaling, industries whose products are in high demand to feed and supply the masses who labor inland in the central cities and towns. In its favor, North Province has an extensive system of dirawein, magical highways built by ancient Aerdi that allow quick transport over long distances. One dirawein runs south to the Great Kingdom and is carefully watched.
The people of the land differ somewhat from their brethren elsewhere in the former Great Kingdom. While the Aerdi of the south are more commonly an Oeridian-Suelmix, in the north they are more typically Oeridian-Flan, often displaying darker features and hair colorings. A sharp and worrisome increase in the numbers of orcs and other nonhumans has been noted in recent decades. These races are considered inferior by the Aerdi gentry but are widely employed as laborers and mercenaries throughout the northlands.
Grenell of House Naelax rules North Province, and he is an utterly ruthless and cold-blooded monarch. Grenell’s temporal authority is augmented by his dominance of the church of Hextorin the north, of which he is the titular head. The line of succession in North Province is unclear, with many potential claimants to the throne; Grenell has no children of his own. Fawning Naelax princes abound in the debauched court of Eastfair.
While the attention of Grenell is turned to the south, that of his humanoid allies remains to the north, for the orcs and gnolls of the Rakers greatly desire the destruction of Ratik. While the presence of the rapacious orcs threatens to send North Province into chaos, they may also be one of the most important factors holding the nation together. Every prince and lord in North Province realizes that crossing Grenell may bring down his wrath in the form of a raid from his orc allies, who are organized as shock troops with no love of humanity and its culture (though they have benefited greatly from human arts of warfare and command).
Hextorian Doctrine — House Naelax's Conquest of the Flan
When the Aerdi moved north from their initial holdings between the lower Flanmi River and Aerdi Coast about eight hundred years ago, they were less interested in the vast lands of the Flan between the Adri forest and the Solnor Coast than they were in the south. After they conquered the kingdom of Ahlissa and absorbed it into the growing realm as South Province of old Aerdy, they won domains for the Cranden and Darmen princes in the vanguard.
Other Celestial Houses, such as Naelax and Torquann, desired their own homelands and looked to the northlands. By all accounts, the Flan of these lands were vile and decadent. Worshiping dark powers and draconian overlords, they preyed upon their neighbors for centuries. These gentler folk were quick to ally with the Aerdi when their armies marched up the Flanmi River and conquered those Flan kingdoms in the fifth century OR. Most of these lands were soon consolidated as North Province of the Aerdy, with the Naelax in the primacy. After eradicating most of the vestiges of the previous Flan culture, they founded the court at Eastfair in 503 OR (–142 CY), and began setting up a state heavily steeped in the dogma of Hextor.
Naelax's Revenge — House Atirr & the Fall of House Rax
In 134 CY, the early Rax overkings inaugurated a series of actions that would ultimately lead to the downfall of their house some three centuries later. In that year, the ill-tempered Overking Toran I deposed the scion of Naelax from rulership of North Province, appointing in his place the leader of the smaller but rapidly rising House Atirr. Citing the failures of the Naelax in supporting the heroic efforts of the Aerdy military in Bone March and Ratik, Toran reduced the house to a secondary role in the province. House Atirr ruled the province from its capital on the coast, eschewing Eastfair. The land experienced a brief renaissance under this enlightened leadership. However, this demotion was a slight that the Naelax would never forget. The Atirr ruled for nearly a century, reaching heights under the Herzog Atirr Aeodorich, a former head of the Aerdi admiralty and hero of the Duxchan Wars. House Naelax finally regained the throne of North Province in 223 CY, after the untimely death of Herzog Atirr Movanich. Some say this was accomplished by paying off the heavily indebted Overking Zelcor I, who had no aversion to procuring his own berth over a decade earlier.
The Naelax grew powerful after the mid–250s CY, when their primary rival, the Heironean church, achieved independence in far-flung provinces such as Ferrond and the Shield Lands. Many of them withdrew from the increasingly decadent Great Kingdom, and no longer would these two rival orders contend equally for the attention of the Malachite Throne. Indeed, many tragedies seemed to befall House Rax over the next two centuries, while the power of the Naelax waxed greater. Many of these tragedies were surely of Rax’s own making, but some appeared to be inflicted upon them, and whispers in the court suggested that an old debt in the north was being repaid.
North Province — An Unlikely Humanoid Alliance
House Naelax reached its nadir in North Province with the rise of Herzog Ivid I of the North in the 430s CY. Over the intervening two centuries, the Naelax had grown to be the strongest individual house in the kingdom, and by this time an undeclared war was raging between Rax and Naelax. Unusual for Aerdi up until that time, the Naelax employed orc and goblin mercenaries to augment their forces. When Ivid I finally assumed the Malachite Throne by 446 CY, North Province remained his closest ally and the chief possession of his cousins.
The importation of orcs and goblinoids began in earnest after the fall of Bone March, when Herzog Grenell, cousin to Ivid V, made a pact with the orc and gnoll chieftains who deposed Marquis Clement. It has become the suspicion of many that Grenell plotted the downfall of Clement in some way, for he was quick to ally with the nonhumans who soon took over the nation. Now, nearly 10% of the population of North Province consists of humanoids, primarily orcs of the Death Moon tribe. These brutish forces cause much trouble in North Province, and they often work at cross-purposes with Grenell’s plans (as well as their own).