The Norrstates

## The Feudal Kingdom of the Norrstates

The Norrstates are a feudal kingdom in the Norr region, which is located in the far north of the Far Shores. They are a united kingdom under the King in and of the Norr, who had all the clans of the Norr people swear fealty to him. The Norrstates consist of a plethora of smaller states, all swearing fealty to the king.

## Political Geography

### Subdivisions or Provinces

Norrstate, Waldegard, Vardstaðr, Grømråde, Oljefjell, Villslett, Østhalvøy, Havmarike, Vesturstrønd

### Capital City

Norrstad

The Norr and its states.
### Etymology

**The Norr** (region) refers to the North, as well as a region within the north of the Far Shores in the local language. The name can be compared to real life names like "the Netherlands" or "the Ukraine", as the article needs to accompany the word Norr at all times.

**The Norr** (people) refers to the people of the Norr. It is specifically referring to the Nordic/Rus esk people which make up the Norrstates.

**Owezara** is the family name of the ruling dynasty. In english it would translate to something like "downbringer".

**The bringer of Ice** is the name of a mythological figure, often depicted as winter itself.

**Norrstad** translates to "City of the Norr" and refers to the people, as well as the location.

**Palestad** translates to "White City" or "Pale City", refering to the stretches of ice along it's coasts, as well as the white castle at its outskirts.

**Waldegard** is the name of a Knyazhestvo in the south. It translates to "Forest town". It was formerly known as "Walderiche", which translates to "Forest realm".

**Vardstaðr** is the name of a duchy in the center of the Norrstates. It translates to "protecting city".

**Grømråde** is the name of a princedom in the east of the Norrstates. It translates to "green area" or "green field".

**Oljefjell** is the name of a county in the center of the Norrstates. It translates to "oil mountain".

**Villslett** is the name of the territory the King of the Norr gave the horse tribes. It translates to "wild plains".

**Østhalvøy** is the name of a duchy in the east of the Norrstates. It translates to "eastern peninsula".

**Havmarike** is the name of a Margravate in the west of the Norrsates. It translates to "realm of merman".

**Vesturstrønd** is the name of a Barony in the west of the Norrstates. It translates to "west coast" or "west beach".

### History

The Norr was recently united by a big farmer named Æthelmund Owezara. This happened without him wanting to do so. The Norr was in a time of peace and unity, the horse tribes had subsided their hatred for the Norr for the time. The tribes did not fight each other and the winter had been really mild, so that excess resources could be used for development. Æthelmund had been a general and had fought many battles in his past, he was respected within his tribe, but also within other tribes, as he never had acted unreasonable and always with respect to his fellow Norrmen. After the last conflict he travelled to the south edge of the Norr, setting up a farm estate to spend his life in a more peaceful manner. He gathered quite a following and many farmhands and servants worked at his estate, when Beonard incited a rebellion within the estate. They all rallied and captured Æthelmund, tying him to a chair, discussing the future of the Norr. They came to the conclusion that Æthelmund had the capabilities of a new king and forced said role onto him. Æthelmund was conflicted, at one hand he was happy and proud about his people thinking so highly of him, wishing to bring back past glory to the Norr, but at the same time he couldn’t be bothered to take all the responsibility of ruling a country onto his shoulders. The people did not care for his concerns and made him king anyway. This position was solidified when a smith from the south came to Waldegard to trade and forged a sword and a crown for the new king. The crown was cursed, not being able to be taken off, not even in death. Only if there ever were a worthy successor could the crown be passed on, but until then, it would stick to Æthelmund’s head. Æthelmund, now King of/in the Norr went all around the Norr and had the different tribe leaders swear fealty to him, making them dukes and duchesses. Their lands would become Norrstates. The Norrstates are a feudal country, with the King of the Norr ruling over the entirety of the Norr, wether people live there or not. The different Knyazhestvo’s, Duchies and whatever else are their own entities, but they are still apart of the Norrstates.

### Culture

The people of the Norr are an old, secluded and hardy group of humans, living in the far north of the Far Shores. The Norr were disunited tribes for the longest time of their history, whilst having some conflicts in between them, they mostly remained friendly with each other, their biggest obstacle were the horse tribes living in the great plains of the Norr. These Horse tribes and other raiders strengthened the bond between the Norr people.

The Norr don’t follow any religion, they follow a code of conduct instead. As most resources were spent to either just survive the winter, or to combat outside threats, little knowledge was written down. This is the way of the Norr.

#### The Way of The Norr :

* Kinship: Only together can we master the hardships of life, none shall harm another of the Norrfolk and always care for others.
* Defensiveness: One shall not strike first, but always remain capable of defending thy neighbour and kinsmen.
* Migrating: Come the change of the season the people of Norr shall help their kin and friends migrate through the homeland.
* Communal: Those who have more wealth in life shall always strive to share it with those of lesser status.
* Loyalty: One shall always obey and heed the word of their king, chieftain or ruling noble.

This creed is laid into every Norr child's cradle and it is the leaders responsibility to have his followers upholding the way.

The symbol of the way is a Pentagon symbol, or the number 5 in general.

Other than that, little has been written down. There have been a few legends and historic happenings been passed down orally. One of these, which is likely to be true, tells of a long past united kingdom in the Norr.

### Legends and Folklore

#### The Bringer of Ice

The Norr has a harsh climate, but also gives protection, there are nearly no other people in the Norr, but the Norr people themselves. The winter is nature’s way to kill off anything weak. In the future there will be a long and plentiful summer, when this happens, the final trial for the Norr people will begin. A powerful rider will come on a dead horse, followed by the dead enemies of the Norr, frozen to the core, trying to bring eternal winter, bringing an end to the living. If the Norr can defeat the Bringer of Ice and his frozen riders, they will never have to face hardship ever again.

Similar to this story is a legend passed down by the northern horse tribes:

The Horse tribes are the rightful people of the Norr, they have inhabited these plains since their god created the world. The Norr are just invaders, trying to limit their freedom and defile nature. At the end of days, a pale rider will come, he will resurrect all unrightfully killed and ride over the world, cleansing it of all evil. The spring after will be full of green grass, a warm breeze and wide, untouched plains.

#### The old Kingdom of the Norr

Way back, when the Norr were still disunited, a young boy rose through the ranks and had the Norr people follow a false deity. He united the Norr, making it a prosperous kingdom. But this kingdom was built on false beliefs, they were sacrificing humans and cattle, thinking some false god would help them prosper. Of course, nature showed them that there is no God and the foolhardy people were caught up in a famine. Disgruntled by the disappearance of their comfortable life, they ended up in a civil war, murdering and sacrificing each other in the belief that their false God would help them. Fools, the kingdom crumbled and a great hero brought an end to the chaos. Eskil from the Rope clan. He had the last remaining rebels that believed in the false deity cornered and eradicated. Those who survived gathered under the leader of the Arrow clan. He got all of the followers of the false god together and travelled away, never to be seen again. This brought peace to the Norr, until the leader of the Rope clan was killed by fools who sought to place Eskil as their leader, acting in such a shameful way was unacceptable in the eyes of Eskil. So much so that he killed himself to redeem his followers, with his last words being to follow the way of the Norr, handling things oneself, not to place hope in supernatural beings.

#### The creation of the Horse Tribes

Many years ago, there were two rivalling Norr tribes, their territories had been split by a river for ages, but someone of clan 1 had an idea, if you stomped onto the earth, it would be more compact, taking longer to thaw up and also be harder to be swept away by the river. So the clan conjured a plan to alter the river, by compacting their side of the river, So they went and stomped onto the earth every night, until winter. The river froze over like every year, but when spring came around, things were different, the compacted side stayed frozen for longer and the spring rains in combination with the river being deflected, had the river change course, digging itself into the bank of the other clan. This sparked a conflict between the two, where many people died. They made peace eventually, but their disdain would last. The clan which had lost some land also came up with an idea, they would use the horses of the area to trample and stomp onto the earth even more, so that the river would flow back into the other direction. So they proceeded to do just that and in the spring the river flowed back to the other side. Now the other clan saw this and also started getting horses to help with the compacting. This went so far, that they were torturing the horses, whipping them to keep on stomping in the effort to outcompete the other clan. One day the horses had enough, they were visited by an incarnation of nature, which told them to disobey their owners. They would rebel and not move, no matter what. The next day the horses did not move, no matter how hard they were wipped or beaten. Both clans were frustrated at this and killed all the horses and their blood coloured the river red. In the night, out of the mud of the river, humans emerged, they were bigger than the people of the Norr and wore black hair, long, just like a horses tail. They saw the corpses of the horses and shed tears. The next day, both clans showed up at the river again, this time with new horses. But they were surprised to see a group of other people standing there. These men proceeded to massacre both clans as revenge for their cruelty, they freed the horses and rode off to live in the plains. This is how the horse tribes came to be.

### Flags

Flag of GrømrådeFlag of VardstaðrCoat of Arms of the family of OwezaraFlag of WaldegardFlag of VillslettFlag of the Kingdom of the Norrstates