The Thrydings

## Overview

From Auror to Silvermont City stretches a vast flatland with occasionally rolling hills further inland. This plain is dotted with small fortified settlements, grainfields, and bursting vegetable patches. When the Haufla made their great exodus from the North, not all stayed in the Freefolk Republic hoping to re-take their home. Many were invited to make a new home here, in the Thrydings that most Haufla call home. While easily mistaken as a green and tranquil land with warm smoking hearths, the Haufla must contend with the trolls and giants that wander here. The Thrydings are a breadbasket of the Empire, and without them the Northern provinces would surely starve.

## History

As the Haufla made the Great Trek south when driven from their ancestral home, the Yawning Steppe, Saint-Emperor Augustus invited the Haufla to settle the Thrydings. At the time, it was a rocky land filled with the towering brutes known as giants, the ancient trolls, and savage human tribes that resisted civilising influences. In the hundred years since the first Haufla settlements sprung up in the Thrydings, they have populated it greatly and cultivated lands thought barren. Springhill is the site of first settlement, its walls and houses cobbled from stones cleared from the land. Struggling to expand the frontier, an agreement was struck between the Emperor and the Haufla for their protection; the Silvermont family and their knights would be fed and clothed by the Haufla, and in return they would protect and rule over them. The Silvermont family has expanded the frontier with its knights, driving back the ruinous giants, and is greatly regarded for their hands-off approach. So long as tithes are made, the Haufla are left entirely to govern their own affairs. Unlike Freefolk Haufla which tend to be rebellious, the Thryding Haufla are Imperial patriots content to carve out a new place to call home in the Empire.

## Peoples

### Thryding Haufla

The Thryding Haufla are down-to-earth and informal people. Their life is of the earth, spent tilling the fields and feasting with friends. Most live in fortified settlements known as folds. Each fold will have several clans, with a number of families in each clan. Two or three adjacent folds are gathered into a Thryding, which is watched over by a single elected sheriff. When problems arise, the local Elders will meet spontaneously and spend much time deliberating, eating and making sure everyone's voice is heard before a decision is made. Once every few years, the sheriffs and elders of all the Thrydings will meet in Springhill to resolve matters of great importance. They are deeply religious, but in a humble quiet manner, preferring to pray quietly as they work than to gather in churches - Sunday services are a quick affair followed by all-day feasting.

A typical fold will be sat upon the only hill in miles, looking out over flat farmland. The village will be walled off, with smaller houses constructed into the stone wall. A number of large well-to-do houses will be built into the hill, homes with large circular doors and up to forty in a family. Two or three clans will be established, with a number of clanless and non-Haufla freefolk or servants living in the wall. A small shrine or chapel to Aurorae can be found adjacent to a large field used for feasting, festivals and sports. Each fold will have a house or tower housing a knight and their family. The center of the village will be the meeting hall, where anyone is welcome to stay. It is usually used for feasting, but at times of importance may be used for meetings which are infamously informal.

Family is of great importance to the Thryding Haufla. Each clanned Haufla can speak at length on their ancestors back to the first that set foot on Springhill. The clan is the division of importance; each clan is wholly responsible for making sure its members are fed, clothed and working in some manner. While humans might find the closeness and sheer size of a Haufla family suffocating, the Haufla revel in having as many to make merry with as possible. The clan elders hold enormous influence over their clan members. Some Haufla are clanless, having no kin to call their own. If they cannot make a living of their own, the clanless may appeal to a clan to be a servant for a period of seven years while they gather the resources necessary to strike out on their own. The more unfortunate have for several generations been clanless, working here and there but never setting down roots - a most shameful fate. The clanless often join traveling circuses and musicians, bringing Haufla party spirit across the Empire.

### Bolo Roseapple

Bolo is the High Elder of Springhill, and is thought of the grandfather to the Thrydings. He is just a little too plump, and his hair is just a little too thin and grey, but a smile is always found on his face. He was born clanless to a couple of the first settlers, but made a name for himself after discovering the roseapple, known for its sweet crisp flavour, and found in pies everywhere. He is often traveling between Springhill and Silvermont City, giving him ample opportunity to go from fold to fold ensuring everything is in good order. He is getting long in the tooth at 89, but no-one could imagine the Thrydings without him.

### House Silvermont

Their blue-and-silver banners fly brilliantly over their ancestral home, Silvermont City. Originally a farming settlement in the hills, it has swollen rapidly in size since the discovery of a rich deposit of silver and iron. They are well regarded for many generations of even-handed and distinguished governance. Though they have a love for peacemaking, the Pleuterran house has a fearsome reputation for their knight-errants, which wander from Thryding to Thryding keeping wild things at bay. The family is known also for their otherworldly beauty and platinum hair. Lord Silvermont, while overlord of the Thrydings, is content to let them govern themselves. On occasion he does act, it is in consultation with Bolo and the other elders. His heir-apparent, Leo, was seen in New Haven prior to its fall by the Newhaven Novices