Uranagso

**Uranagso** is a nation in maligon

three independent human castles joined together during the last war, known for their brutal treatment of serfs and decadent nobility.

While many nation’s borders changed in the last war, two nations were formed in response to the continent wide conflict. Despite being a nation for only seventy five years, the three castles that make up Uranagso are ancient. The three original fiefdoms built by human nobility breaking from Gesurb and even more mysteriously, Verennicicpt powers settling in Maligon to harvest the resources. These histories are kept censored and suppressed from all but a select few. The valley and the Uranagso forest from which the eventual nation was named are rich with lumber. The soil itself is littered with minerals and ores of precious metal, displaced somehow from the lumthonom mountains. The true wealth of the three castles comes from its labour force though. Centuries of retaining serfs and servants have wielded an impressive workforce, Uranagso one of the only places across Maligon that supports and endorses slavery. During the last war, Uranagso allied with Tryb and Eautipet. They attempted to court Their neighbour Labremulyor, but were rebuked as the Lord commander of the Whitekeep considered the three castles guilty of weakness, decadence and a lack of honour. The lords of the castles waged war at little risk to themselves, geographically split from their allies by the mountain range, choosing to raid Kalev and Caraniv for territory. King Khabarov Vladislavovich of Kalev made a treaty with the Gnoll shamans, ogre queens and orc warlords to protect the armies of the bear, and this signalled the end of Uranagso’s flippant war making. When the surrender of the loosely allied forces was made, Kalev sought to punish them, Ratifying their castles as a single nation, Taking half their forest on the eastern border and establishing the City of warmharvest in newly made bendattan at their north eastern border. Now the three castles sit, united by law but with nothing but hatred for each other. The lords of each castle Waiting for an opportunity to make sport of the other two castles, destabilize the maligon nations and sow discord around them in a petty attempt to end their discontent.

Northriddle is the castle town with the most direct connections to Verennicicpt and the cursed epoch. The castle building itself a remarkable building, representative of the world’s first superpower at it’s pinnacle. It reaches impressive heights of two hundred and fifty feet, capped with elegant turret roofs of alternating shingle tiles. It is supported at its south by an outcrop of the Lumthonom mountains, which has been excavated to make extensive catacombs beneath the castle.

North western families from Verennicicpt built the original castles during the age of the dragon queen of Gesurb to expand their influence, but the names of these families have been lost to time and the call of dynastic aggrandizement. The Current rulers of Northriddle have held the position for three generations, Lady Marie-Pierre Van Der Werff and her young half brother, Samuel. Van Der Werff is in her mid thirties, both her father and stepmother dying in a coach accident travelling to Tryb. While a forceful woman with strong convictions, she relies also on her relatives from the connected families within North for her power base. Koning, Courtial, Le Tonnelier, Trémaux and Gerlandsje-Heslinga are just some of the families that appear on the branches of the Northriddle tree, That Lady Marie-Pierre indulges and that could have claim to the Van Der Werff throne.

Northriddle’s walls encompass the tall castle, several separate manor houses, cramp dwellings for the serfs and the small but bountiful vineyards that produce the Veriux red wine, prised across the cog. It is difficult for a traveller to gain admittance without an invitation for one of the many social events hosted for the nobility. Foreign dignitaries are subjected to a probing and often humiliating genealogy assessment by court archivist Constantin Sharpe in his chambers at the foot of the castle before being allowed to speak to anyone of rank. One of the only paid positions for a member of the serfdom to achieve is that of a wall guard. Although it pays only coppers, it is considered a great honour by the beleaguered townsfolk who waste no time overstepping their authority to their former peers. A hundred or so guards are employed at any one time, and each twenty man has a singular Captain, who will be from the stock of the lowest nobility. Brutal enforcement and obsequious service are encouraged to impress the hierarchy watching above. The interior of the palace’s ground floor is a ballroom surrounded by small courtier closets for private and performative conversation. The garden to the west is dominated by an impressive but somewhat sinister appearing hedgemaze.

Grimburn was the last of the castles to have its cornerstone placed in the valley, closest to the merec wilderness. Its first lord Declan Makalalrum broke free of Gesurb’s strict dragon knighthood to establish a competitor. Makalalrum is venerated as a champion of Etolik, and a saint in some of the more martial sects of Etolik worship. He is said to be a believer in the leveler of death, and was willing to execute his closest associate as readily as a pauper. The castle itself is large and square with a crown steeple of interlocking stone. Touching the four corners of the keep are farmland and hovels for the indentured tenant farmers and surrounding the whole estate is a mighty wall, ten feet high and six feet think of solid stone. The interior of Grimburn are draughty high halls of old stone and minimal comforting furnishings. They suite the harsh nature of their owner, Saoirse Drummond, a human famed for being vicious huntswoman and keen duellist. Having killed her uncle in a trial by combat to gain her mother’s throne, she has comfortably controlled the precipice of the Merec wilderness and stood above the schemes of her enemies for thirty years. It is a common sentiment of the Grimburn populace that if she was in power rather than her ailing grandfather during the last war, Uranagso would have burned Kalev to the ground.

Grimburn has itself a terrible secret though, revealed when small moon Lyene, when it rises full over the castle. Spectres of its bloodthirsty past return on mass, walking through the walls and palaces coming to the throne room to stand by the weapons on display that had killed them. While the earliest reports go back to Saint Makalalrum; Drummond has contributed to the number of spirits greatly. During her short reign, Saoirse’s Mother built a grand chapel to Etolik to atone for the sins that must have caused this phenomena, but it did not abate. Hushed whispers tell of seeing the Lady of the cause performing some ritual on the battlements to appease the spirits, but this is hearsay.

Grimburn is home to the only public tavern in Uranagso, a large coaching house built into a gate on the outer wall. Known as ‘the King’s blade’ it is owned by Andrak Peterie, a dwarf of wild mood swings who will not have a bad word said about lady drummond in his presence. This makes Grimburn unfortunately the most welcoming place for travellers in Uranagso, but even the most desperate for shelter will avoid staying more than one night in the Blade. The potency of the Ales and ciders that Peterie sells to unprepared visitors though makes this harder done than said.

While Grimburn and Northriddle profit of the fruits of their serf’s labour, Atasac profits off the selling of slaves themselves. While most governments of Maligon have a prevention of slavery written into their laws, The Boyars of Atasac have a grand network of connections to command great prices for the transportation of ‘sentient cattle’ to those willing to pay. Rumours have it that much of their wealth comes from sending slaves to Verennicicpt, to what dark masters and dark purpose we do not know. Perhaps because of this inhumane brutality wielded on mass, Duke Vladan Ristovski goes to great lengths to present his castle as central Maligon’s hub of culture. Ristovski has a fleet of ‘purse holders’ and bookkeepers sent across the land to purchase art, luxury foods and bring back performers to his castle complex.

Due to these extravagant imports, Atasac looks little like aware else across the cog. Ristovski demands that even his lowest groundskeeper dresses in court worthy clothing and has his designers and aesthetic consultants cover every inch of his castle with clashing and mismatched tapestries, sculptures and expensive objects. The effect is one of disturbing artifice, and those who have spent time in Ristovski’s presence have expressed discomfort in the insecure attitude of a powerful man being so eager to impress.

A budding wizard, keen conversationalist and poet, the Slaver noble is eager to make himself the centre of attention, and not his foul trade. A select few however have commented on a streak of darkness from within the duke. One cardinal of the holy family of Ragnnlolth claims to have been awoken in the dead of night by a noise, and after peeking through the Cliffant hardwood door, seen Duke Vladan laughing manically, beating a statue until both of his fists were bloody. Atasac has many buildings connected by balcony bridges, with a grand stables in the middle. The effect is like an overgrown snaking manor house, with more additions and no clear centre. The Duke is known to walk from building to building above and separate to his subjects, receiving guests, eating and sleeping in different opluent rooms every day.

The forest in the centre of the castles is home to many imported Jusadal rabbits, an invasive species that has overtaken many native small mammals. The wolves that make the heraldry come from the Uranagso speckled wolves of the forest and hills, pack hunters favoured by the lords as a symbol of predatory supremacy, Ravens are very prominent too. Uniquely though for much of Maligon, Uranagso suffers from wandering arcana beings and undead. Many have origins tied with the dark castles, for the intrepid monster hunter to discover.