Skollar

Skollar
Capital City:	Auttenäg
System of Governance:	Monarchy
Leader(s)	Queen Illiania Andrelsdotter
Primary Religion:	Ishallas, a Collen-centric take on the Thracian Pantheon
Languages	Unstraang, Norsk
Majority Races	Human and Barbarian
Strong Minorities	Canid, Ursine Mongrel, Half-Fae, Paleteth
Real World Influence:

Overview

Founded centuries ago by a Norsk warlord with a distinctive vision, Skollar was once a major power in the far north. Recent events have greatly diminished its geographic reach, however, leaving the nation a fragment of what it once had been. Skollar is a proud and martial society ruled by the young Queen Illiania Andrelsdotter, who has held a tenuous but determined grasp on her power since the violent death of her grandfather in 2002. She rules her small kingdom with the assistance of Jarls, localized lords with substantial autonomy and influence, and with the assistance of the Grey Witches, a quasi-religious order of seers.

Skollar is located in the coastal fjords in the farthest northwest reaches of Eurus along the eastern boundary of the Nordehavnsund (also known as the Norsk Sound). It is surrounded entirely by lands controlled by the Norsk. The region it is located in known also as the Grey Coast, named for its perpetual mists and frequent precipitation. It features fjordland, tundra, and high timber along the norther curve of its coast, and more jagged cliff country in the southern portion of the fjord. The central and eastern expanse feature rich farmland, lowland fen, and a broad agricultural river valley.

Though the largest city is Kjesthoven in the rich valley, the capital is located at the fortress of Auttenäg amongst the southern cliffs, where it is close to the religious center of the Grey Witches domain. The Grey Witches hold tremendous social power, devoted to the craft of divination and the worship of the goddess Collen and an interpretation of the Thracian Pantheon that emphasizes the role of magic in being the underlying structure of the world. Skollarians also may venerate the Norsk pantheon, or may venerate a creation myth associated with the figures Banswuar and Brisbig. Skollarians are adamantly opposed to all forms of undeath, are virulently against Damphari, and the more extreme may view even ordinary resurrection to be a form of necromancy.

A recent expansion by Nordehavn, compounded by weakening of Skollar from within, led to the coopting and conquest of much of the former nation, leaving only what was once the province of the Grey Coast as the sole redoubt of Skollarian monarchical rule. Though many of the common folk found little enough changed, the Grey Coast region is overpopulated by those who would not tolerate the encroachment of Nordehavn. Many Skollarians fled the north entirely to escape Norsk conquest, and have taken up residence in places like Warwick as refugees.

Culture

Culture found in land

Religions

Ishallas, a Collen-centric take on the Thracian Pantheon is the primary religion of the Grey Coast, which is all that is left of Skollar since the major Norsk invasion. However, those who grew up in other areas when Skollar was larger largely followed the Norsk religion, and it is still venerated, though somewhat secondary, in what is left of Skollar today.

Social Structure

How the society is structured

Customs and Holidays

What days matter to the people

Politics

Government

Nordehavn Map

Organization of the Land

How the power structure is divided regional (i.e. Duchies, Baronies, Lordships, etc.)

History

Major Modern Events

In 2004, the previous king, Ulf Magnusson, was slain by crown prince Andrel Ulfson in response to what was seen as a dangerous creeping madness in the old king. Andrel fled the country and took on a pseudonym, leaving his wife Signe and two daughters behind. The elder daughter, an adult, pursued her father in an effort to regain honor lost in the assassination, leaving only the younger daughter, Princess Illiania, to ascend to the throne of Skollar. Her ascension began a period of slow decentralization as Jarls gained more autonomy and independence.

By the year 2010, the young queen Illiania was deeply influenced by her court and by a group of foreign mages led by a Thracian leader named Horace who had presented a case for utilizing an ancient, mysterious "road" to open up a trade route through the Wastes and connect Skollar more with new opportunities for commerce and foreign relationships. In 2011, her older sister Nylessa, first daughter of the crown prince Andrel, returned from a long and singular adventure and attempted a coup.

Nylessa believed that her father intended her to rule, that the "road" through the wastes was a dangerous and unwise investment, and that power needed to be strongly centralized in the hands of the monarchy. The coup was diffused diplomatically, and as concession Nylessa was made Jarl of the family's lands while Illiana retained the throne, the sisters were moderately reconciled, and the thracian "Road" through the wastes project was summarily abandoned for the safety of the realm.

In late 2011, a war leader of special prominence arose in Nordehavn, occasioning an unusual version of the Allthring (a gathering of Norsk lords and landowners) that promotes a singular Earl (cheiftain) above all as a War King. The occasion of this undertaking appears to have been an effort at major westward expansion. Some Jarls of Skollar were offered moot and place in the Allthring to stand down, which would grant them even more independence than was already had in the hands of the Skollarian monarchy, while others remained loyal. Ultimately, most of the lands of Skollar (which once stretched far around the Norsk Sound and all the way East to the Goblin Wastes) were dominated by the Norsk. The capital city of Nordster was sacked, then ultimately claimed by an ambitious Skollarian noble as his own minor feifdom when the royalty and much of the pupoulace had fled the city's ruin.

The last refuge became the Grey Coast, a substantial province of Skollar that was the religious seat of the kingdom's mysterious seers, the Grey Witches. Because of their formidable reputation for seeing the future and reading minds, the Grey Coast was simply left alone by the invading Norsk as the rest of the country was fractured and absorbed into Nordehavn. Now, Skollar is a dense exclave entirely surrounded by Nordehavn and existing in tenuous detante with the more powerful web of alliance and threat that are represented by the democratic-esque system surrounding them.

Geography

The physical lay of the land