North March______________________________________________
The North March, the Dark Frontier, the End of Man, the Last Hold; this province has many names and many faces. Some might say it lacks that certain spark or fire that fills the other provinces. Some would say it’s missing that intrigue of court life, given that only one noble of any standing reigns there. Still, the great March Boyar Stefan Dostoy is considered one of the great warriors, and rulers, of Kislev.
His realm is harsh though, only in the Farside can you find such a desolate stretch of paltry farmland, near barren steppes, and such biting cold almost the whole year ‘round, but the Boyar and his people remain strong, and make up for their lack of wealth, power, or resources with sheer personality. They are considered an amazingly happy and colorful people by all, especially considering their less than pleasant circumstances.
The people of the North, called the Tanssijat, a word in their lilting and flowing language meaning The Dancers, consider themselves lucky for the chance to live among such people as they do, and in a land as fine as what they have. Their philosophy is simple, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. It is known they hold festivals and holidays every week, and it is said they practice a good many more in the dark places of the night. It is also said that nowhere else have people so readily fought back the tide of Chaos, though it is so near, and so readily accepted it as part of their world. They’re matter-of-fact about Chaos, it is there, it is powerful, it has its draws, but they’re not interested.
Nowadays, the Tanssijat are more to spend a day singing and drinking than fighting and dying, but they’re always ready for the latter. Perhaps the most telling sign of this is their nightly ritual. As the children huddle in their hammocks against the chimney and near the warm embers of the fire, and the elderly sleep below them on low beds, and the unmarried daughters and other women scramble into their lofts, the father sings a short lullaby. It goes like this,
“Hyvästi, hyvästi, rakkaani ja minun rakastaa,
Anna Ursun pitää sinut hyvin,
mutta jos emme tapaamme jälleen, että minä rakastan sinua silti” “Goodbye, goodbye, my love and my loves,
Let Ursun keep you well,
But if we do not meet again, know that I love you still”
1. Osasto, it is an old word, from an old people, in an old place. The Tanssijat were originally from Norsca, like the Gospodar, and the Ropsmenn, but while those tribes had contact not only with each other, but the fledgling Empire, through trade, and even distant Bretonnia and Tilea.
The Tanssijat are different, they come from a place often called the Beast’s Land, named for the Beast of Dazhd, a monster that frightens the goddess and her light away. It is night most of the year, what food they had was not grain or even fish, but the meat of great reindeer and even strange things touched ever so slightly with the Chaos taint. They were herders and nomads then, but then came Barag the Immolator, a Daemon Prince who butchered thousands to reach the holds of Kraka Drak and the rest of the Dawi Norsk.
They left, and never returned, finding a place to their liking just below the line of Chaos power in Kislev, just below oblivion. In time, they learned farming and the other marks of civilization, but they never forgot their realm of Night. One of the last vestiges of this ancient society in the state is its name. Osasto, a place of guard, a warded realm, or simply a ward.
2. One may see the names of the land’s other inhabitants, and think, this man is not a local, or at least does not want to seem one. The first would be correct, he is a foreigner, as have almost all March Boyars, because the town holds so much strategic value that they inevitably place a great general as March Boyar.
3. This is not to say the running of the North March, though that is not nothing, but the stipends and other money funneled into the town to keep it strong through any attack, as it acts like a stumbling block for the foe.
4. It is the last piece of civilization you will find if you continue north, that is unless you plan a visit to the Gulags and happen by Igragrad.
Union of The Ropsmannia_______________________________________
Ah the Ropsmannia, where it all began, where a few brave souls travelled from Norsca’s southeast coast, across the treacherous Sea of Claws, to land with firm tread on a different shore. That it is of course, the romantic ideal of the colonization of this broad triangular region, a place where men have helped shape the Old World, the base of Kislev herself! You can see the daring bronze statuary, mail garbed explorers, their first foot boldly thrust into this new frontier, cloaks elegantly clasped flow in the strong sea breeze of their new home…..oh, if only, eh?
When the first Ropsmenn stood on the shores of what is now Kislev, they were not thinking of the great stride they were making for a realm-to-be, or this rugged land they would tame. They were thinking of Survival. For the last few decades the Ropsmenn Princes had bowed to the King of Skorlm, a trading town that was increasingly friendly with the Empire to the south, and while this brought Skorlm great prosperity, the Ropsmenn could never forgive Sigmar’s Heirs for the wrong done them at His hand all those years ago. Those massacres are as much a part of Ropsmann lore as Sigmarite.
Their pestering finally grated on the King enough to declare the Ropsmenn as new chief intermediary between Skorlm and the Empire, knowing they could never accept. The attacks began soon after, and Prince Kir the Claw-Rider was soon racing his people to their ships and escaping to the as yet unclaimed lands to the East. Of course there’s no such thing as unclaimed land, but no one today remembers that people’s name or their story. Of greater interest are the fates of the people of Eisigbucht. Eisigbucht was the greatest of all the Talabeclander colonies in modern day Kislev, a small sea port, but a port all the same, and the only one they had. Yet, to the present time, one day it was Eisigbucht, the next it was Erengrad, no explanation.
After these rocky beginnings I do try to play down their importance to Kislevite history, after all, Vermund the Fox, Ingjald the Red, and Igor the Terrible all dwelt inside the Ropsmannia’s bounds, and for all but Igor, would live their entire lives there.
By this time you are certainly aware I have been focusing on history, instead of culture, government, politics, and geography. This is because, among the deep complexities of this realm, even above the others, it is best told from the beginning, as I have done.
1. Despite holding the title of Voivode, most of the Voivodes hold office in the Sejm, which they often use as their chief title.
2. There are two kinds of Castellan, Minor and Greater, Greater Castellans not only rule larger communities, usually, but also may sit in the Upper Chamber of the Sejm, known as the Senat.
3. The name taken by Grand Duke Jerek for his position as Magnate of the Selmat Confederacy.
4. The Wolnystan, or Free State, has its own Sejm, the Mollsejm, or Little Sejm, whose seats are made up with duly elective representatives of various parties, guilds, and districts in the city-state, making it the most democratic city in all of Kislev, despite not holding that designation to itself.
5. In Petragrad it is easily determined why it is often referred to, in conflict with the Free Town of Opolensk who also holds this title, as the “Nuln of the North”.
6. The entire Voivodeship is split into folwarks, large agricultural estates, controlled and regulated by the town nobles.
7. In the Grand Duchy, rather than training a substandard guard and keeping strong walls in repair, they follow the philosophy that ‘it matters not the strength of the wall, but of the men who man it’.
8. The Confederacy follows the same system of garrisons as the rest of the realm.
9. Suzdek Tartovar, younger brother of recently deceased Erengrad magnate Markyn Tartovar, has designed and built many of Kislev’s great monuments, including the statue depicting Kir the Claw-Rider at his landfall near Wiezanorski, and the statue of Prince Vermund the Fox in Erengrad, and the Arch of Ursun in Kislev.
10. When Prince Kir of the first Ropsmann came to Kislev, one of his people’s chief fears was that their god, Perun, would abandon them, so it came as a delight and a surprise when while riding over his new domain, he spied a great tree in the distance, and thinking it a fine spot for a rest, travelled there. Upon nearing the tree, a bolt of lightning set it aflame, and to his amazement, it burned without blackening. For years afterward it burned on, as a symbol of Perun’s might, but still, nothing lasts forever, and finally the flaming tree fell. Still, its branches burned on, and a few of the largest were taken by Shamans of Perun who built a temple to house them.
11. The Selmat are a Far Eastern tribe of great antiquity and advancement who supposedly migrated to Kislev to escape the Hung. The Selmat Confederacy claims descent from this noble tribe, despite their appearance as any other Kislevite, and so they dress in the manner of their ‘forebears’ and hold themselves with the dignity of the Imperial Household. In 1672, their land would change drastically, when the Union of Wojtaszyce, a town now abandoned to a great plague, was signed and the Grand Principality of Erengrad and the Selmat Confederacy became the Union of the Ropsmannia.
12. The Bliznieta, meaning the Twins, are a pair of fortalices on the Lynsk, they have largely absorbed the closest village, and these village-fortalice relationships are quite profitable for both sides.
13. The Grand Chancellor is the Grand Duke’s number 2, were the Grand Duke to die childless, the Grand Chancellor would step in. As such, he has a small court of his own.
14. Voivode Illarion Stazik was a paranoid, old lecher who died from some change of humors, probably on account of his drink. He left Plowce in the care of his young mistress Halina, but the Voivode’s cousin, Deputy Chancellor Oleski, also claims the throne.
15. The democracy of the Commonwealth of Pomezenia is conventional in neither the pure form of the Myrmic democracies nor the watered-down farce that towns like Rahkov espouse. The people elect bodies, like the Wheat Merchant’s Guild (a perennial giant in local politics) to appoint certain members of the State Council, including the Doza (rather like the Tobaran Doge), from among their members. The current State Council has wheat-merchants as Doza, Treasurer, and the Commisioner of Trade, with a local Molypan (means literally “small lord”, a petty lord of only local power) as Minister of Politics, a wheat-futures-merchant as Minister of Law, and an appointee from the Guard Company (the private contractor watchmen that patrol the city) as Hetman.
16. Boris Straghov has been Guildmaster of the Brotherhood of the Bear, a Templar order dedicated to Taal, for over twenty years, and is, for all extents and purposes, retired. Returning to the town of his youth, the town of his mother’s birth, he has settled comfortably in the role of an elder statesman, occasionally rising to speak, but normally knowing to hold his tongue while the younger Templars fight for the scraps of power he’s been shedding for years.
17. When Prince Kir landed, he landed near the location of modern Wiezanorski, or the ‘Norscan Tower’, named for its crude but massive carven stone lighthouse, engraved with the image of thousands of monsters, gods, and heroes of all description. This same lighthouse was built by Kir’s successor, Arvad Reaversbane (known for destroying the entire fleet, and the entire bloodline, of the Kings of Skorlm when they attacked the fledgling colony) in honor of the achievements of his father’s family, and as a light to guide future enemies, if any should seek his people’s death again, so that, in his words, “it can lead’em right to my axe!”
Hetmanate of the Rubitia_______________________________________
Duparozhi! The classic battle-cry of the Kossars, a whooping, ululating yell that signals the doom of an enemy by saber and club. But what does it mean? It literally means, ‘For the Dupa!’, but it really means ‘I am a Dupa Kossar, member of the Hetmanate of the Dupa, and I have come to serve my Hetman’. This briefly sums up the great bond that is just in the living for Kossars. Just being a Kossar, it gives you this strange and unbreakable loyalty between you and your Hetman, and between your Hetman and his Otoman, the grand leader of the Host.
The Rubitia was once just another part of Kislev, chiefly administered, through local frontmen, by the Vara Princes, and indeed was referred to by many as the Oriik (slave-state). But then the Compact of Pinsk was signed in secret by Tsar Alexander II, portioning the Varamaa into the neutral Dobryrion, the old Vehnk lands he declared as Lesser Lesia, and then there was Oriik. He had already decided the Vara were too dangerous to leave as the dominant power anywhere, but unlike the Ungols posed no immediate threat as a civilization, therefore he was obliged to simply give over the rulership of this land to another party, some party who would work for its reward. He found his party in the Dupa Host of the Kossars, who made an oath to serve his house and the empire for as long as the land was theirs.
The word Rubitia means ‘land of the chop’ referring to the unerringly wooden manner of their architecture, often made with simple, unchanged logs, though cunningly fastened together with slots and splints. This also refers to what these log fortresses mean to the Dupa especially, for the other Kossar Hosts live in the Rubitia as well (Kuban, Zova, Uzba, Baik, Mirekrayu, and Suri), for it these fortresses in which the Kossars hold their Rada, or councils, and decide what weighty matters affect them.
1. Kobrin is the last part of the Rubitia controlled by the Vara still, and since the Surmavimm line took over, things have gotten that much more hellish for the Kossars in the city. Anti-Kossar propaganda is ordered in massive amounts from the printers of the town, sent all around the Rubitia and the rest of Kislev.
2. The two Hosts (Kosh) that coexist inside the city of two hosts (Dvakoshate), the Kuban and the Suri, may live together, but not in harmony. In fact there are parades in the town near every month, and each parade is really a chance for the two sides to outdo each other on some petty level, more garish colors, more flags, more ribbons, that sort of one-upmanship. Because of this, float-building is a lucrative field.
3. Because every Kossar boy of a certain age is eligible fighter material, technically the entire non-foreign, older male population of each town is its garrison.
Federated States of the Western Marches__________________________
While the North March calls itself the Last Stop, the Western Marches are the true Frontier, beyond them lie Trolls, Dolgans, Baersonlings, Chaos Warriors, and all manner of beasts just waiting to tear the fragile realm apart. Here there is a sense of urgency in living, a sense that any day could be your last, and they do live, like the Tanssijat they dance and make merry, but unlike them, when the last drop of vodka is gone, and the lights are out, it is time for a different kind of living.
The peoples of the Western Marches are different from most of Kislev only in the fanaticism with which they approach their faith. They have their own gods, though many still choose to worship the state deity of Ursun, figures like Baeg the Warden, Rajek Wrathhand, and Stolbog-of-the-Lights who they feel protect them from the horrors just outside their doors. They treat their gods very seriously, and instead of the matter-of-fact approach the Tanssijat take to Chaos as an entity, they treat Chaos like a stain on their very souls, something that must be either hidden away from the gods or expunged.
This mentality is most unfortunate given the amount of Chaos they encounter, and it has led to Chaos cults going detected but unharmed for years at time while the finders seek to simply save their own immortal souls, as well as great bodies of the Marches’ youth going out on great expeditions to destroy the menace once and for all. So, while they are great warriors and a fine bulwark against the threat of Chaos, they have often failed in keeping hold on their sanity. It is said that more fall from the mind down that from the body up in the Marches. A chilling statistic indeed.
1. Meaning, Great Harbor in Kislevan
2. A title with an equivalent meaning to Warlord in Ropsmówić, the Hadur of Maja Uvemny is called such for the dictatorial powers given him by the townspeople.
3. Veltapastro-Sevalya-Kozdramask, new name came from travelers who, when asking for directions would simply say, “Vel…etc.etc…sk” so become Vel’sk.