Workhold

The **Kingdom of Workhold**, or Umryr, is a kingdom located in the continent of Edelmaa. Workhold is a heavily militarized realm, known for its professional and fearsome warriors. The Kingdom took a drastic turn to militarism after the Borian War, when King Jiri went hiding and the Hawk Administration was established. Hawk Administration serves as the government of Workhold. It is split into three positions: Viceroy Mick Baathúr, Prime Minister Solomon Tyrus, and Warmaster Hamina Beyard.

## History of Workhold

### Creation of Workhold

Workhold was originally a fief inside the Kingdom of Edelmaa ruled by the Niskain family. The small fief's purpose was to be a living place for the Adelian refugees that came from Olia. This fief was very loyal to the Kingdom until bad rumors of the 33-year old King began to circulate. This lead to the shattering of the Kingdom when many nobles seceded and formed the Noble Alliance to oust the king. The fief then decided to try out its luck and with the help of the Scale family and the nobles of the Golden Coast they conquered all of Edelmaa. This is known as the Unification Wars.

### **Tri-partite**

The people were now under a new King and a new realm entirely. And also the people, which the majority was Waldisians, were now under foreign rule. They were ruled by Adelians, who to them were still foreigners although they had been there for centuries. King Levi still managed to keep the people happy and created the so called Tri-Partite government. One representative to the three Stands. The King to rule all and the royalists, the Noble Marquess to rule over the Nobles and the Stone Marquess to rule over the Peasantry. They would personally rule over their respective classes with high autonomy.

### **Tri-partite Stone Marquess**

These titles however, were hereditary and were given to other Adelians. This was met with some criticism and the criticism never went away, for a good reason. It did not work. The first Stone Marquess, Samuel Perickard was horrible. Only thing of note during his reign was the construction of the Olav Castle, his personal stronghold which was to be his family's hereditary home. Samuel eventually 'deserted' the peasants in 121 and left Olav Castle and moved to the richer Noble regions. Samuel's sons Octavio, Abe and Konrad stayed behind and governed the peasantry. Abe was the only competent ruler and managed to make the peasant life a bit easier with tax reforms. However, Abe was not the Stone Marquess, his clumsy older brother Octavio was. Octavio was dumb and did not know a thing about ruling. Konrad was very young and as his father went away so did his mentors. Konrad's new tutor was to be Tönö, a wealthy peasant man from the city of Meta-Gudur.

### **Tri-partite Noble Marquess**

The Noble Marquesses did not really do anything. The first Noble Marquess was Miro Varjangaria who established the powerful Varjangaria family. All Miro did was annoy the peasants and fight to the tooth and nail for the privileges of the Nobles. He was often arguing with Samuel Perickard about what to do with the peasants. He usually won Samuel Perickard during these arguments, because Samuel was a bit weak-minded to argue about state affairs. King Levi did realize his mistakes, however, the acted too late.

### **Invasion Period**

Workhold was invaded and occupied by Empire of Jimrock from the years 70 to 90. These years were dark times and they were ruled by the terrible ruler Eltil Ûng, a friend of [[Jimer|Jimer Adletur]]. In 90, the descendant of the hero knight Veyr Berghof, Samuel Berghof (not same as Samuel Perickard mentioned above) would rise up and defeat the tyrants in the legendary Adelian Revolutionary War. During this war, King Levi died and his son Henrinion was crowned king. Henrinion was a tyrant king, who did not like undisciplined vassals. He was cruel and powerful. Nobody dared to question Henrinion. During the Revolutionary War all people of Edelmaa would finally band together and the stigma between the Waldisians and Adelians would die out as they finally fought side-by-side.

After the Revolutionary War ended in 93, the Kingdom was yet again shattered in 121, when Samuel Perickard deserted the peasants and the nobility pushed Henrinion to lower the position of the peasantry. The Serf-proclamation was signed and all peasants lost much of their assets. This was devastating for the peasants and rumors about a revolt began to circulate. In 20 May 170, King Henrinion died and with him the reborn kingdom.

### **The Great War**

The Great War was a key turning point in the history of Workhold, as during this war the people would yet again be divided and a new king would be installed. The war was bloody and saw the deaths of possibly hundred thousand victims. The war was originally fought between the Peasant faction and the Royalists until Jiri Baathúr joined the conflict. Jiri Baathúr struck swiftly and aside the set back at the Battle of Ravaged manor field, he defeated all before him. Jiri Baathúr was crowned the new king of Workhold after all opposition was destroyed. This began a more centralized era in the region of Edelmaa.

### **King Jiri**

Jiri firstly brought in many advanced technology from Olia, such as the Olian plough which was superior to the Edelmish one. Life under Jiri was somewhat pleasant for the common peasant, not so much for the nobles who lived under constant fear. They knew that Jiri was ruthless more so than the late king Henrinion. Jiri killed disobedient men like sheep. Many tried to voice their opinions to Jiri, but did not have the courage to. Only way Jiri ever got to know the true minds of his vassals was through espionage and plotting. Jiri was planning to bring in mandatory female and male military service to Workhold after the population had recovered from the last war. Jiri's intention was to invade the northern region of Glissaria and possibly some lands in Olia. However, these plans were cut short when his kingdom was invaded in 293 in the war known as the Borian War.

### Borian War

The Borian War yet again shattered and divided the people of Edelmaa. On the other side were the Borians, the descendants of the losers of the Great War, and on the other side was King Jiri and the legitimate Kingdom of Workhold. The War was intense, however, King Jiri ended up coming out on top and he defeated the Borians. Jiri managed to annex the Kingdom of Hefaia and he allowed the Kingdom of Olav to live alone. This war was the last major act of King Jiri, as succeeding the war, King Jiri secluded himself inside the castle Cainwall.

### Realm Divide

After Jiri's seclusion into the Castle Cainwall, the realm began to shatter. The centralized government set up by Jiri was crumbling into feodalistic and heavily autonomous provinces. The only thing that keep the realm from completely falling apart is the Hawk Administration set up by the Three Hawks of Jiri.

## Geography

The territorial boundaries of the Kingdom of Workhold are largely the same as the continent of Edelmaa itself. Workhold was originally a small fiefdom in the Northeastern corner of Edelmaa, until their rapid expansion in military conquests. Workhold was at its largest in 169, before the Great War, when all of Edelmaa was under Workhold's control. The Olav Castle remains as a nasty stain in the map of Edelmaa, being a small independent Kingdom inside the Kingdom of Workhold.

Workhold also has three big islands; Ili-Fien, Ili-Hefien and Baathúr island.

## Kings of Workhold

* **Levi** - The Founder King also known as 'the Good King'. He is a hero and a respected man to this day.
* **Henrinion** - Henrinion 'the Great' freed Workhold from Jimer during the Revolutionary War. His death ignited the Great War.
* **Hanren** - Weakest king Workhold has had to suffer through. Many failures during the Great War can be attributed to Hanren's idiocy.
* **Lyon**- A great King, organizer, financier and leader, but became the King too late to the war and subsequently died shortly after coronation leaving the crown to be usurped by Jiri.
* **Jiri** - Jiri 'the Second Good King' was truly considered to be the reincarnation of Levi, until after the Borian War when Jiri began to go mad and began the Realm Divide.