FROM THE ASHES OF WAR RISES...
THE FREE KINGDOMS OF THULE:
FENBERRY, HAUSBERG, PHILLIPDOM, THESSIA,
THE LAKELANDS, AZURIA, & THE HULDERLANDS
Thule is the largest continent of Sublanarya and takes up the majority of the northern realm. Unlike the paradise of old Saesun, Thule has been in a constant state of political upheaval for thousands of years. Between invasions by all manner of monsters, colonization from across the sea, and the proclivity of the natives toward war created a constant landscape of change.
It is believed that the first human inhabitants of Thule have either been native to the land or migrated there by navigating a bridge of ice across the polar ice cap from an undiscovered native land (theories among academia vary wildly). The indisputable facts are that when the iaurdin first "discovered" old Thule, there were tribes of primitive humans from the hills of modern Albyon, hunting primitive halfings, to the frost-bitten coast along the Dead Sea where the battled great white walruses. During these primitive years, elves avoided much contact with them but there is evidence of dwarf tribes trading with early humans and, less nobly, using them for slave labor. This all changed when the Dark Age sent catastrophe after catastrophe into motion.
The Giants of the Hold enslaved the civilized races of Thule, the iaurdin colonizers and the native dwarves and hulderfolk, but treated humans as they had since time memorium: as targets for rock throwing contests, prey for wild hunts, and food for their giant hounds. With the giants more preoccupied with trying to build a small, burgeoning empire, humans were forced to migrate away from the east but avoided much of the conflict. It was during this time that the earliest villages and towns began to sprout up, some of which still stand today, though they have been razed and raised back up many times over the centuries. But, as the giants were overthrown and the humans of Thule's society began to thrive in their own iron age, a threat nearly wiped them off the map.
A witch-cult to the hag goddess Skoraxia led by her son the reborn god Kalibos led a horde of cruel and barbaric raiders that attacked settlements all throughout the land. The peoples of Thule were forced to fight off this new threat and forced it back into the lands to the east. As part of some final plan or perhaps in desperation, the witch cult transformed their horde into horrible and dangerous beastmen. The fecundity of this new race allowed its numbers to swell and when let loose across Thule razed every settlement across the continent. The old Hamutian Empire and the Zafarians were only able to stave off the beastmen by their command of the seas and control of impenetrable fortifications. Thule became an abattoir with the beast-men hunting men for food and sport and the witch-cult rounding up victims for mass sacrifices to their monstrous gods. Many Thule peoples in the western lands escaped by seeking amnesty in Saesun and elsewhere. It was only the arrival of the Holy Imperium that the tide turned. The results left the eastern land, called the Hold, unlivable but Kalibos and his horde were defeated. Humans of Thule returned to reclaim their ancestral lands and used their knowledge gained from abroad to create kingdoms of their own.
By the Age of Restoration, it was called "the Land of a Thousand Kingdoms" by scoffing elves. The territory map was a complex map of over-lapping lines, color-coding and shading that would leave any cartographer or historian either drooling or in tears at the task set before them. Between the many wars and complicated monarchical lines of succession, the land became embroiled in many civil wars between neighboring lords. And yet, when the elves conquered the western most lands of Thule, a push for unification changed the landscape to something far more stable than that of the Land of a Thousand Kingdoms. Today, there are seven kingdoms that make up the league of small nation states called the Free Kingdoms of Thule.
The Free Kingdoms of Thule are made up of seven nation states, from west to east, Fenberry, Hausberg, Phillipsdom, Thessia, the Lakelands, Azuria and the Hulderlands.
The Giants of the Hold enslaved the civilized races of Thule, the iaurdin colonizers and the native dwarves and hulderfolk, but treated humans as they had since time memorium: as targets for rock throwing contests, prey for wild hunts, and food for their giant hounds. With the giants more preoccupied with trying to build a small, burgeoning empire, humans were forced to migrate away from the east but avoided much of the conflict. It was during this time that the earliest villages and towns began to sprout up, some of which still stand today, though they have been razed and raised back up many times over the centuries. But, as the giants were overthrown and the humans of Thule's society began to thrive in their own iron age, a threat nearly wiped them off the map.
The Free Kingdoms of Thule are made up of seven nation states, from west to east, Fenberry, Hausberg, Phillipsdom, Thessia, the Lakelands, Azuria and the Hulderlands.
