Heimark

## The Forging of Heimark (1-20 AoVL)

After the destruction of Aefhwen, a young knight, Galareon of Maethelgar, rounded up the survivors, built rafts, and sailed the tides into the unknown. They floated for thousands of miles just on the current of the seas until they found land. Many thought at times that they would die during the journey, including Galareon himself.

They landed in what is now current day Heimark. Heiburg was the name of their first settlement. It was inland a bit at the mouth of two connecting rivers, and protected from the sea by the massive island of the Westnigh. Early Heimark was tumultuous, as much of the folk were left shaken by the perilous series of events that brought them to Exscillon. The land was cold and foreign.

Months later after a drunken brawl, Galareon left the settlement, pledging that he would come back when he was worthy of of leading them. He meditated for months in the jungles of Nomzamo, living off nothing but scavenged mushrooms and fresh spring water. He had a dream where Samaradin told him he must forge a blade to unify, binding it in the blood of the land. Not any blade, but a blade for a king.

The next day while drinking out of the spring, he saw a glint at the bottom of the water. He dove down and found a chunk of metal. It was xalinite, though he had never seen anything like it. After deciding he did not have the means to mold this metal, he left Nomzamo, heading south all the way to what is now Novosad. There he made first contact with the Undiwanei. It was a curios meeting, a group of hunters that had been tracking a pack of wolfs through a snow storm came upon a beast of a man, covered in blood and pelts. They were in awe, as if admiring a particularly muscular beast of burden. They brought him back to their stone castles, and there Galareon stayed, slowly learning their tongue.

One day Galareon took out his chunk of xalinite, and traveled deep into the forest where the Undiwanei smiths forged their magic blades. There he learned of dionium, an exotic mineral that could be added to ordinary metals to increase their effectiveness. The Undiwanei smiths marveled at the chunk of xalinite. They had never come across such quality metal. There deep in the forest Galareon and the Undiwanei smiths grew a great pyre of ironfir wood and forged the first grandite steel sword. The Unification Blade.

Galareon left Novosad, with two Undiwanei chroniclers in tow. He knew that forging the blade was not enough to win the people, he had to bind it to the land in blood, as his vision had instructed. He told his company of the Ingelrandus of **Heimark**, great orange bears of supernatural intelligence. They ravaged early Heimarkan settlement's, and it took an entire company of men to take down. The Undiwanei laughed as Galareon told them that he is to kill one, and bathe his blade in its blood. They doubted the existence of the Ingelrandus, and had no doubt that he would die if they were real. None the less they followed him on his quest, as witness.

The hunt lasted days, in complete silence. Galareon lured and Ingelrandus to a narrow rocky pass, using the scent of deer blood and chicken urine. There he fought the beast, the narrow pass of mountainous rocks severely hampering the beast's mobility. After a fierce battle he slew the Ingelrandus, and bathed its blood, binding his blade to the land. The Undiwanei could not believe their eyes, they clearly underestimated the resolve and skill of the human. As Galareon was donning the pelt of the felled beast he noticed a rustling of leaves from a bush. He investigated and found a tiny Ingelrandus cub. It must have been following the older beast that he killed. The cub imprinted on Galareon, and he took it with him back to Heiburg, along with the two Undiwanei chroniclers. His people watched him walk into Heiburg like a god. The Shroud of Galareon, a cloak made of Ingelrandus hide, hung from his back and The Unification Blade slung across his shoulders. On either side of him where the two Undiwanei, and in his arms, his Ingelrandus cub companion. The people listened to the chronicles of Galareon's feats, and made them their king. And thus the the powerful nation of **Heimark** was forged.

## Current Day Heimark (~900 AoVL)

Heimark has been in the midst of a series of brutal civil war between the clashing houses of Maethelgar and Mildenhall. Majority of Heimark is under Maethelgar rule, though some lords of the Westnigh Isle are sympathetic to the plights of Lord Ephraim Mildenhall. Bronhold, the seat of Eadwine Maethelgar, is the only thing standing between to the factions from clashing.