Nornlund

Nornlund The Failed Kingdom

As far as most folk are concerned, the county of Nornlund may as well be a different world. Despite its proximity to Kithonia and Hallangd, Humans and giants seldom go there Technologically, it lags behind the rest of the world, and gunpowder is treated as a frightening marvel. For Nornlund serves as a reminder of the pettiness and stupidity of mortal men. Nornlund’s nobles were petty and cruel men who fought terrible wars against each other and assassination was common place and thus its people suffered terribly on a daily basis. They were set apart from the more educated human societies of Kithonia and Derwynd and have little in common with them even today, the few Nornlunder's that still live are travelling bands of Gypsies who view outsiders with suspicion.

Its fall began before the Oppressor war in earnest, if one takes a cold logical look at it, the country suffered from the wars of the border princes in which every noble house claimed rulership over the country and committed to the cause of killing his rivals. The rivalries were bitter dreadful affairs, with murders and brutal ambushes prevalent as much as open war was. Children of lords were murdered in their beds, families burned in their homes and during the bloodiest of these times the Oppressors had made their move on Atern.

Other kingdoms pleaded with Nornlund to see sense but to no avail and the border prince wars spilled over with attempts to claim lands in neighbouring countries. This only lead to ill feeling and when the first Oppressor aligned fleet landed in Nornlund, they were caught unprepared and without allies. With no unity between them, bands of hired mercenaries carved Nornlund asunder, its riches plundered and its noble lineages wiped out. Their resistance was poor, as armies fielded alongside each other had no trust and infighting and no-cooperation damned them to brutal defeats, even worse a few houses sided with the aberrant forces and added to their numbers.

Over the course of the war, this once proud kingdom, was torn asunder time and time again, borders drawn and redrawn. Mercenary scum flocked to it for constant work and allegiances were ever shifting and by the wars end Nornlund was not much more then a country of petty warlords only in power until someone else took power from them, worse still, the living remnants of the oppressor army retreated there to add to the instability.

To this day Nornlund remains under the control of these warlords and no country has decided to move on them having had enough of war for the last 25 years but it has to be said, its neighbours may look toward it in the future. A country for the taking if one has the means and audacity to take it.