Principality of Carinthia

## Carinthia

A principality in northern Magnia, ruled from Svorza by the Brother Princes Otto II and Casimir V of House Barcley-de-Tolly, their coat of arms, a scarlet griffin on a field of white.

Carinthia is situated around the Riverland Delta and between the eastern shore of Turokh's Eye and the Kotlov Mountains, down to the border of Vichin in the south. Much of Carinthia is forest, swamp, and wetlands, dotted with small fishing of crannogs, between which peasants, merchants, and travellers sail up and down the many rivers and streams in narrow rowing boats.

## Culture

Carinthia has a relatively low population density, most of the country being marshes and swampy lowland, and its peasants live peaceful lives as traders, sailors, or fisherfolk. The townsfolk and nobles of Carinthia, on the other hand, have a reputation for being hot-blooded and quarrelsome, and infamous for switching sides as soon as the tides begin to turn.

## Economy

The country is fertile and rich in natural resources, watered by the great Riverland Delta. There is especially an abundance of fish, birds, deer, wolves, boar, bears, and even mountain lions. The numerous rivers of the country are used for trading and transportation and most towns have no marketplace, but preferer to do all their trade by the riverside, as merchants are passing by. Their main exports are pelts, amber, madder root used for red dyes, waltnus used for brown dyes, and honey.

## History

### Early History

Carinthia is first mentioned in 1014, as a federation of various tribes gathered around a Duke, when Eyke I led an army of the mountain clans of Thyssen to invade the Carinthian lands. Eyke was slain in battle the same year by Loran, youngest son of the current Carinthian Duke, while Eyke's own son, Estyr, was sailing up the Kurow River towards the capital of Kurow with a fleet of ships. The invasion failed, but Estyr returned with a new army the following year. At the time, the allegiance of Carinthian nobles were divided between the current duke, his sons, and several other lords, and the duke was killed during a dispute in July 1016, which broke out during dinner, between two of his bannermen, while his entire army was camped at Kurow. Loran was chosen as the new duke just in time to face Estyr of Thyssen, who laid siege to the city until he and Loran struck an agreement after 6 months. Loran would retain the lands around the Kurow river, while Estyr would rule all of the Riverlands.

Estyr was responsible for the construction of a castle where Svorza stands today, which he made his seat. Loran died not long after, and Estyr was made king of all of Carinthia, subsequently marrying Loran's widow, Emma the Oracle. In 1025, while Estyr was in Thyssen attending a Folkmoot after his brother's death, the Kingdom of Vichin, fearful of the prospects of a combined Thyssen-Carinthian Kingdom, took advantage of the King's absence to attack Carinthia. However, Estyr, who had been elected King of Thyssen as well, returned and repelled the Vichinians in 1026.

### Emergence of House Barcley-de-Tolly

After the death of Estyr I in 1035, a civil dispute prevented his successor Estyr II from travelling to Carinthia for 3 years, and the Carinthian nobles grew increasingly estranged to their foreign King, whom they had yet to meet. In 1037, Carinthia broke from Thyssen and chose for their queen Emma the Oracle, niece to the first King of Carinthia and widowed wife of both King Loran and King Estyr I. Emma forged a strong alliance with Adda Ambrose, who was made Queen of Thyssen in 1047, and it is commonly believed that the two had a lengthy affair, until Adda's death in 1082. Emma died nine years later and left no heirs, which began the Carinthian Civil War between the emerging rulers the Menkhu Sweyn Barcley-de-Tolly, known as the Griffin, and Ratibor Gottschalk, who had been raised in Kurnow and was a follower of the newly established Cister Cartian church.

In 1083, Gottschalk established himself in Svorza and fought several decisive battles with the support of Vladislav I of Vichin. According to a Cister Cartian priest "Gottschalk hit the land with mighty force, attacked everyone, and caused great fear among the pagans". In 1087, he subdued Kurow and integrated it into his realm and in 1093, Ratibor and his sons were killed in battle. In 1102, Sweyn's niece Henrietta was involved in a revolt in Svorza. Gottschalk was slain, his head cut off and sacrificed to the Gods. His wife was chased from the city, and several Cister Cartian monks were stoned to death. Afterwards, a Folkmoot was held and Henrietta Barcley-de-Tolly was crowned Queen of Carinthia. Under her reign, Carinthia pursued a policy of expansion and began to rapidly gain territory from their hitherto unsuspecting neighbours. She attacked and captured Heath between 1125 and 1128 in response to Vlodomyr II's attempts at expanding Orkmont and plundered livestock, money, and clothes from the towns of Turokh's Eye. Her successor, Ratibor I continued her expansion, managing to raid all the way up the Thane River and even attack the Thyssen capital of Kastamir in 1134.

### Conversion of Carinthia

In 1142, attempts were made by the church of Vichin to convert the Carinthians to Cister Carta. The Monk Bernard travelled to Kurow, accompanied by two clergymen, but the Carinthians were far from impressed and soon threw him out of town. He was only saved from death by a Menkhu priest who declared the man insane. A second attempt was made in 1145 by Bishop Otto, who instead of travelling alone as a humble priest, accompanied himself with 20 clergymen, numerous servants, 60 warriors in the newest plate armour, and a baggage train of supplies and gifs. This turned out to be much more succesful and he returned again in 1148 to found 12 new Cister Cartian churches in the realm.

The nobility assembled in Arkona on June 10th 1168 and officially accepted Cister Carta. The Menkhu priests, who had been the most powerful class before the conversion, and several unsuccessful assassinations were made against Bishop Otto. Many of the priests were later burned alive and in 1173, Otto had the temples of Oyun and Payrun torn down in Rook after a violent uprising.

### War of the Griffins

In 1234, King Casimir III the Brief died and a Folkmoot was called in Svorza. However, this was opposed by several southern lords who thought the Folkmoot an archaic custom, and that by the laws of Cister Carta, the House of Barcley-de-Tolly had been chosen by God to rule, making Otto I, cousin to Casimir III, King of Carinthia. This was not accepted by many noblemen and a lengthy conflict broke out between the two factions, known as the Red Griffins, in the south, led by King Barnim I, and the Green Griffins, in the north, led by Queen Alberta the Bear. Although Alberta was a Griffin, and would have benefitted most from the views of the south, she was philosophically opposed to an absolute monarchy.

The Red Griffins mounted several unsuccessful campaigns to topple Alberta between 1236 and 1259. Seeing an opportunity to seize power, Wolgast of Rook marched on Svorza, but in 1237, he was driven out by Alberta and forced to hand over his lands to her. She won a decisive victory at the Battle of the Rollicking Stream in May of 1266, where she killed Barnim I's Admiral Sweyn Hammerhead and laid claim to Arkona. When Barnim died in 1279, his eldest son Castimir IV took his father's seat in accordance with Cister Cartian law and after the disastrous Battle of Swenn Heath in 1280, when Alberta's army was hit by the Weeping Plague, the aging Alberta agreed to partition the Kingdom. Casimir would retain the south, from then on known as Kingsfield, and Alberta was forced to yield Arkona, but continued to rule as Queen of the Riverlands until her death in 1294, when her daughter Maryetta was chosen by a traditional Folkmoot.

During the early 14th century, the Golden Horde of the Westerlands attempted to conquer Carinthia. In 1314, a temporary coalition of the Kingdom of Kingsfield and The Riverlands, under Maryetta, opposed the Golden Horde and fought a brief skirmish war, ending in 1317 with the Battle of Pyor. The coalition had been established by a treaty of alliance, in which Maryetta had agreed to grant Pyor to John of Kingsfield, son of Vyachlaw II, but after the war, she sold the island to Anton Nagy to prevent any further advances into Carinthia, and to pay for the costly damages during the war. Enraged, John marched on the Riverlands and decisively defeated Maryetta. He then forced her to sign a treaty, recognizing Griffin overlordship and succession in Carinthia, and ceding all her territory. From then on, Carinthia became a unified absolute monarchy under John Barcley-de-Tolly.

### The Vichin-Carinthian Commonwealth

King John, whose father had briefly ruled Greater Vichin by right of marriage, from 1300 to 1305, allied himself with the Golden Horde between 1327 and 1333 to claim the Vichinian throne from King Vladislav IV. He gave up, however, when Vladislav's son, Casmer III the Great purchased his rights to the Vichinian throne to settle their dispute in 1335. Instead, John's children sailed across Turokh's Eye and robbed the Golden Horde and their supply routes in 1343, provoking a counter-attack that destroyed many noble strongholds and massacred 10.000 Carinthians. John was killed and his remaining son and two daughters called for Vichinian aid, but after the death of his oldest daughter, her sister Emma II concluded a treaty with Anton Nagy II to safeguard his supply routes in exchange for financial credit. Her brother Florence was furious and left for the Westerlands to fight the Horde.

Meanwhile, the Vichin Civil War was raging in the south. Casmer III's nephew Louis Martel of Magiore had inherited the throne in 1370, but he died in 1382, leaving only his daughter Mary, whose husband, Sigurd of Thyssen, was not popular in Vichin. The country clashed in a bloody civil war between loyalists and several other factions, until her mother arranged for Mary's younger sister Hedwig, to marry Florence Barcley-de-Tolly, who had just emerged victorious from a war with the Horde. Florence assumed the Vichinian throne in 1386. His sister Emma in Carinthia allied with him against the Horde, only to change sides again in 1414. After the fall of the Horde during the Golden War of 1420, Florence had his sister blinded and imprisoned for life, and assumed rulership of both Vichin and Carinthia, wishing to merge the two states together in perpetuity. However, this had yet to take effect when Florence died during the Western War, and in his stead, two distant cousins, grandsons of Alberta the Bear, assumed dominance over Carinthia and shared the ruled between them, after they were recognized as princes by The Kingdom of Corveaux in 1430.

## Administrative Divisions

The Principality of Carinthia is divided into two, each ruled by one of the Brother Princes:

* **Kingsfield,** ruled by Otto II.
* **The Riverlands,** ruled by Casimir V.

The two regions are divided into four and five baronies respectively. Because there are no officially defined borders between any of the baronies, the barons often fight amongst each other.