The Norkinian Empire

The Norkinian Empire is the second-oldest civilisation within Inner Patriam, second only to its main rival of Thenithria.

The Norkinian Empire began much like Thenithria as a series of coastal Drunathaen colonies along its southern and western coastlines. Although frigid with little ability to grow crops, through trading of minerals, superior lumber, and bountiful seas for fishing, these series of Drunathaen city-states grew into powerful individual naval powers. However, the Nuokaenian clans which had inhabited the lands of Norkinia long before the Drunathaen, continued to raid and attack the Drunathaen settlements, alongside any attempts to further expand deeper into the continent or establish land routes between the other Drunathaen city-states. With a culture of fear of the Nuokaenians, the Drunathaen city-states set about constructing titanic stone walls to act as impenetrable barriers between what they deemed to be the untameable savage-lands of the Nuokaenians and the specks of civilisation that they had created. Large underground tunnels and structures were built into the central-lining mountains of Norkinia in order to allow for the continuation of the Drunathaen city-states’ highly-profitable mining industry.

Over the course of a few centuries, more and more Nuokaenians began to abandon their semi-nomadic lives and migrated to the Drunathaen city-states. Their expertise in the “lar’bygrval” (land beyond the walls) and generations sent in climate-hardened warrior cultures, made these Nuokaenian migrants the perfect candidates to lead expeditions deeper into Norkinia, primarily to obtain the much-sought-after Norkinian lumber that the best ships in the world were typically constructed from - owing to their incredible toughness and seeming-inability to rot even when out at sea for long periods of time.

Overtime, the Drunathaen city-states began to gradually expand beyond their Great Walls and deeper into Norkinia in search of more lumber and mineral deposits as increasing numbers of Nuokaenians abandoned their former lives and migrated into the city-states, many of which becoming renowned mercenaries and would fight across the continents.

Following several centuries of slow integration of the Nuokaenians, the various Drunathaen city-states began to adopt parts of Nuokaenian culture and language, laying the foundations for the modern Noruen language and Norkinian culture.

Around 1700 years before The War of The Five Nations, Norkinia had unified into four separate kingdoms. Those being the Kingdom of Druokon, the Kingdom of Sjursen, the Kingdom of Sarin, and the Kingdom of Svoll. The Kingdom of Svoll had risen to become a paramount power of the region and, from their capital of Hasteinsvoll, projected power and influence as far as the southern reaches of Aeloen and the frigid tundra of Aungmar.

However, despite the Kingdom of Svoll’s immense power and reach, the kingdom has failed to subdue the other three Norkinian kingdoms. That was until the reign of King Haeduron IV of Svoll.

King Haeduron IV was crowned at a rather early age, his father having succumbed to an unknown illness while Haeduron was only 17, and although still a child by Patriamic metrics in-part to the longevity of Patriamic people, King Haeduron rose to the occasion and implemented a series of reforms to root out mercantile corruption, divide the Svollic forces into two distinct categories - one as a semi-professional seasonal army that would operate during the “raiding seasons” and the other being made of independently-operating raiding fleets which would pay a percentage tax of their looted valuables back to the crown in exchange for subsidies for supplies, shipbuilding and maintenance, and replenishing forces.

By the time of Haeduron’s coming of age at 25, the Kingdom of Svoll had become a formidable military power and even threatened the powerful Empire of Hiwotsukeru that sat upon the northern peninsula of Watol. With the raiding seasons beginning, King Haeduron assembled the largest army of any Norkinian kingdom had ever mustered at that time, and marched south to conquer and annex the kingdoms of Druokon and Sjuraen, while leaving the more isolated and weaker Kingdom of Sarin to the north of Hasteinsvoll in the hopes that the Lords of Sarin would bend the knee following Haeduron’s conquest of the south.

King Haeduron sallied into Druokonic territory with a rapid determination, cutting through the disorganised and primarily raiding-focused skirmish forces that the kingdom maintained, before reaching the capital of Hasteindruokon. Although initially laying siege to Hasteindruokon’s ageing Great Wall, King Haeduron sent forth a huge fleet of raiders from Hasteinsvoll to the north and Hasteinalaein to the west across the Norukaren Sea in Aeloen to land in Hasteindruokon and open the gates of the city’s Great Wall from within. The raiding fleets arrived within a day of one another and numbered almost six hundred ships in total, and despite a small naval skirmish with a handful of Druokonic ships that had remained docked at Hasteindruokon since the beginning of the siege, the fleet made landfall at Hasteindruokon’s port, at some parts tying ships together like giant wooden spines stretching out into the sea to allow for Svollic troops to clamber across the many ships like a bridge to reach the coast.

King Haeduron’s plan worked brilliantly, the raider forces swept over Hasteindruokon and quickly made their way to the gatehouse of the city’s Great Wall, and following a short scuffle with the guards on the wall, the raiders opened the gates and Haeduron’s main forces flooded through. The city capitulated and with it the entire Kingdom of Druokon.

Believing himself and his family to be executed and the city razed by Haeduron, the King of Druokon pleaded with the young King Haeduron to spare his family and the city in exchange for taking his life. King Haeduron refused, instead offering the King of Druokon a vision of a new world, one in which a united Norkinia ruled undisputedly. With this vision, King Haeduron the King of Druokon a place at his side as an equal to the Kings of Sarin and Sjuraen within a ruling council with King Haeduron becoming the High King of a united Norkinian Kingdom. The King of Druokon accepted, becoming “the Lord Governor of His Majesty’s territories, The King-Defender of House Druokon and its territory”.

With the rapid defeat of the Kingdom of Druokon, with a military second only to the Kingdom of Svoll itself, King Haeduron sent messages to the Kings of Sarin and Sjuraen to meet atop Mount Nuro-Orgoth, where an ancient Nuokaenian blood temple stood atop near the centre of the continent, to discuss the terms of a unified Norkinia without bloodshed. Although reluctant to attend but unable to mount a realistic defence against the now-unified forces of both the Kingdom of Svoll and the newly-created House Druokon, the Kings of both Sarin and Sjuraen accepted and travelled to Mount Nuro-Orgoth, meeting both Haeduron and the Lord of House Druokon there. Discussions and debate took place over the course of four days between the Kings of Norkinia until an agreement was reached. Haeduron would be crowned as High King of Norkinia while the other three Kings would retain their territories and the ability to tax and govern their territories while paying a percentage back to the Royal Household in Hasteinsvoll. In exchange for this, resources would be spread evenly across Norkinia to allow for all regions to rapidly develop and grow while King Haeduron would institute his military reforms as he had done as King of Svoll across the newly-created Kingdom of Norkinia.

The Kingdom of Norkinia thrived for almost three centuries following its formation, establishing colonies from Watol up through Aeloen and the northernmost reaches of Northern Kallonia to the frozen forests of Aungmar. A revolt led by a would-be usurper in House Druokon led to the establishment of what are now known as “The Imperial Reforms'' instituted by High King Bjarn I which disestablished the old confederated system of governance of the Kingdom of Norkinia and replaced it with a unitary governance led exclusively from Hasteinsvoll while maintaining significantly limited power for the three “Imperial Houses” of Druokon, Sarin, and Sjuraen. These reforms led to the creation of The Norkinian Empire as a political entity, however the Norkinian ‘Emperors’ continued to style themselves as “High King” rather than as an emperor.

Over the centuries, the Norkinian Empire came to stagnate in its expansion, blocked by the powerful Kingdom of Thenithria and the mighty Empire of Hiwotsukeru from expanding any further west into Inner Patriam. However, the rebellion within Thenithrian territories provided an opportunity for Norkinia to seize further power and influence over the region for later expansion and colonisation by Norkinian forces. High King Haerothon II, an ageing and sickly old man, came to believe that his destiny was to conquer all of both Northern and Southern Kallonia for himself. High King Haerothon assembled a large Norkinian army and called upon all the senior Lords of the empire to rally to the Imperial banner and sail to Northern Kallonia, and although initially successful, High King Haerothon was killed alongside much of Norkinia’s paramount Lords and seasoned military forces following a series of goading attacks from Prince Anathaen of Thenithria that baited King Haerothon into a deep, sloping, and forested valley and ambushed High King Haerothon’s army with over twice the number of men the Norkinians had. High King Haerothon and the best of Norkinia were wiped out and, even facing all its problems, Thenithria had seemingly beaten Norkinia in one fell swoop.

High King Haerothon’s son, now High King Bjarn II, recalled a formerly-exiled war hero by the name of Roljar of Sarin, and tasked him with reforming and regaining Norkinia’s forces and military strength while continuing his father’s invasion of Thenithria, albeit this time more successfully. In exchange for his services, High King Bjarn II promised the return of Roljar and his house’s titles and land alongside the legal restoration of Roljar’s honour.

Roljar accepted the offer and thus began The War of The Five Nations.