Barony of Gnollheim

**Ruler**
 **Ruling House**
 **Resident Houses**
 **Seat**
 **Settlements**
* Steckmount
 **Beliefs**
* Northern Pantheon (secondary)
 **Founded**

The **Barony of Gnollheim** is the westernmost barony within the County of Karumetsa. It's capital city Nerick rests at the base of a small range of mountains that was once the site of a Gnoll tribe. Ever since, it's people have been plagued by Gnoll attacks.

## Culture

Gnollheim is about as generic as they come when it's pertaining to Lordaeronian warriors. The people are instilled with a rivalry against the races of the Mongrel Horde owing to the repeated Gnoll attacks it has faced since uprooting them a millennia before. Many adventurer's come from Nerick, the capital, as well as miners in Steckmount. It's a largely militaristic barony, with recruits sent in from abroad to train against Gnoll attacks, but also general training and sparring with veterans of the duchy itself.

## Economy & Resources

Gnollheim does most of it's trading with the fellow baronies of Karumetsa, getting short food trips from Granholm or news and fresh recruits from Zollern. Most revenue comes from the adventurers that set out from Nerick, the lumber harvested in the small forests around the barony, or some ores mined in the nearby mountain range or caves.

## History

### Founding

The Barony of Gnollheim was founded by early pioneers and settlers of the Duchy of Zollern when they stormed and evicted a native tribe of Gnolls. In their place, the tribesmen of Zollern erected the town of Nerick atop the Gnoll's home, deciding to call their expansive territory that would soon become a barony 'Gnollheim'. Winthrop Flats was constructed just north-east of Nerick in flat plains not long after, and Steckmount became a mountain settlement with scarcely eighty folks living within.[1]

### Recent History

Descendants, or perhaps new folk looking to make a home, fought off Gnolls from Nerick once more after Burchard Hillegas and his forces retook the Duchy of Zollern after over two decades of living in exile. After fending off the foul creatures, the rally fields and training grounds are back in use and the training of a new generation of recruits has begun. In Steckmount, miners have resumed activities.

## Settlements

### Nerick

Nerick was once some unnamed Gnoll capital village, home to many Gnoll families. However, it was trampled down by the new tribal rulers that came to settle the land and turned into the militarized city we know it to be today. Rally fields and training grounds, a small jousting arena, and other facilities are the main attraction of the Barony of Gnollheim's capital, and many young lads are sent here to become soldier levies of the Duchy of Zollern. Born and raised natives of Nerick often become adventurers and leave to find their fortune, instead. Either way, Nerick has continually had skirmishes with repeat Gnoll attacks. Somehow, the people of Gnollheim have never truly eradicated the attackers each time.

### Winthrop Flats

Alfred J. R. F. Winthrop, explorer extraordinaire, founded the city of Winthrop Flats after coming to a disagreement with the hiking party that first founded Steckmount. He trekked north at first, but found himself irritable in the harsh winds of Nordenschlag. He journeyed south and east, eventually settling not far from Nerick on a flat expanse, deciding to stake a land claim. The town was just miles away from actual fertile soil and never boomed, but Alfred Winthrop kept the town alive by donating his spoils from his adventures. Eventually, his descendants ruled when he died, but it's largely hypothesized that the last Winthrop died during the Scourging of Lordaeron.

### Steckmount

Steckmount is a small mining settlement founded up in the peaks above the city of Nerick. It's not a popular destination, and it supports a stable population of about eighty or so folk within it. Generally, adventurous folk come to do cave-diving or mountain-climbing or trail-hiking, but ultimately, there is not much to be found. Regardless of such truth thus far, a rumor persists that somewhere within the mountains surrounding Steckmount, a secret Gnoll treasure has been hidden, and forever left unfound, just waiting for some lucky traveler to find it.

## Houses

House Hillegas rules the Barony of Gnollheim, in just the same fashion as they do the Barony of Granholm. However, House Hillegas isn't as protective as Gnollheim as they are Granholm, for it is little more importance than simply a training ground for recruits, upon which, the Duchy of Zollern has aplenty for its largely militaristic nature. Records dating back to a time of normalcy have been lost, and it is unclear who the former barons were, and none have yet stepped up to take the mantle, indicating that perhaps they did not survive the Scourging of Lordaeron.