Breckish League

The flag of the Breckish League

The Breckish League is located in central and eastern Tretch

The **Breckish League** was a nation-state in central and eastern Tretch and often considered the successor state of the Breckish Empire. Since being founded following the Breckish Civil War, the League was dominated by the merchant class and its two satellite organizations, the Breckish Colonial Company and the Blackguard.

## History

While Tinger's secession from the Breckish Empire in 9507 AR was widely considered the first step towards its dissolution, it was the Sylvan Queendom and the Kingdom of Garranagrad's withdrawal in 9515 AR that triggered its collapse. The heartlands of the Empire, the lands and peoples that would later become the **Breckish League**, struggled through most of the Breckish Civil War continuing to use the Imperial titles. As the war dragged on, and both the Queendom and Garranagrad scored numerous early victories, domestic dissatisfaction would grow into open unrest in Stubin, Howell, Pondswattle, and Fallsea. Beset by enemies on all sides and disorder within, the Breckish Empire's disintegration was swift.

The last emperor, Ethaniel Torma, was deposed in 9521 AR by an alliance of his former advisors and the Breckish military leadership. It was during that same year that the Empire reorganized itself as the **Breckish League**, governed by a provisional council of the coup's architects. Emperor Torma was placed under house arrest in Breckeep but would die of sickness in 9522 AR. The provisional council sped to work, suing for peace with the Queendom and Garranagrad, communicating with mercantile guilds in all the remaining major cities to build a network of loyal High Magistrates, and electing the inaugural First Craftsman from among their number, Jerrodayne Maycott. The **Breckish League**'s first official acts of state were to sign the Treaty of Ease in the Sylvan city of Cavernetch, formally ending the Breckish Civil War.

### Early years

The years immediately following the war were difficult ones for the nascent **Breckish League**. Relations with their former adversaries were virtually non-existent and much of the Threnveldt and Howling Plains were in ruins. What trade that still operated was confined within the League's borders or with predatory terms from Tinger and Corlsport. It was during this period that the Blackguard became the state's most active appendage, ensuring that the major cities would support High Magistrates appointed from Breckeep, that the Free Cities would be incapable of truly bankrupting the League's most important guilds, and restraining the influence of criminal organizations such as the Looking Glass, the Family, the Longscale, or the Alhembra.

### Years of abundance

After its first few difficult decades, the **Breckish League** was blessed with a period of plenty beginning in 9591. The eighth and ninth First Craftsmen had been very effective leaders, and had managed to complete numerous infrastructure projects improving the ports of Fallsea and Howell, as well as expanding the network of mills along the Forrily and Thalweg rivers. It was during this period that the military's influence in the League's government began to wane. The voices of the guilds based in Breckeep, Stubin, Pondswattle, Howell, and Fallsea became the true power of the nation and First Craftsmen were forever after chosen from their number. Court historians would name the years between 9591 and 9666 AR as the Breckish Years of Abundance, a time where the pendulums of power would shift from the military to business interests and a national identity independent of the Breckish Empire's took root.

### The Gnomish Diaspora

The Sylvan Queendom expelled most of its population of Gnomes in 9666 AR, an event remembered as the Gnomish Diaspora. While some of those displaced would find new homes in Ten Tulips and Pondswattle, many more would requisition transport to Yulia from the Breckish city of Fallsea. It was during this time that the League took advantage of this crisis and openly welcomed the Gnomes with promises of cheap passage to either Lithrock or Tinger. Due to this, the League's relationship somewhat improved with the Queendom, and the first high level talks since the end of the Breckish Civil War began with an exchange of ambassadors and construction of a Sylvan embassy in Fallsea.

## Geography

The League consisted of four major regions, each with distinct climates and characteristics. The city of Lakeshield was considered a nexus of the Tiber Basin, Threnveldt, and Howling Plains regions.

### Coastlands

The smallest region in the League, the Coastlands encompassed the lands of Fallsea, as well as the forested areas to the north and south of that city. Given its small size, it was the densest region in terms of population.

### Howling Plains

The largest region of the **Breckish League**, the Howling Plains were home to the ranges that supplied the League and most of Tretch with horses and other livestock.

### Tiber Basin

Encompassing the lands surrounding Lake Tiber and including the capital of Breckeep.

### Threnveldt

The second-largest region in terms of geography, the Threnveldt was a verdant mirror to the Howling Plains. It boasted a bustling river trade along the Forrily as well as the majority of all productive farmland in not just the League, but Tretch as a whole.