This is some background fluff for my rather battered, veteran army of several major battles, one of which involved carving up a horde of Norsemen, thus another reason for me to dub them Nordlanders.
Granted it was a semi-historical battle with real Norse acting as Varangians for Byzantines and my guys as some REALLY lost German mercs working for the Persians, but you get the picture.
Cornelius Van Haus is a minor Baron of Nordland (his family originally came from the area around Marienburg many centuries before, thus the "Van" instead of "Von" in his name.) His lands border the Wasteland, deep within the forest. He has no qualms about using the family gold to hire his "cousins" that make up his artillery train, which he calls his Marienburg Guns. He also doesn't hesitate to hire Marienburger Landsknechts to fill out the ranks of his personal guard. Some other minor landless nobles have pledged themselves to his house, and so when he rides to war, it is often with many landhungry knights in the vanguard. The chapter master of the local Temple of Manaan has also aided him on occasion with a retinue of knight bretheren from there as well (Cornelius has mastered the local politics enough to ensure he always has the best troops to get what he wants). The rest of the army is recruited from the village of Hausberg, his patrimony.
Currently the Baron's meddling in regional politics has caused a such a stir in the area that several other nobles (from Middenland fortunately) have banded together to crush him, after he launched a punitive raid on a nearby village. Not without cause of course. Local Middenland farmers have been encroaching on his lands and he needed to push back, at least until they rightfully purchase the land they decided to build on! Also, it is rumored that Middenland gold may be influencing the ever more frequent highway raids on Hausberg and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, his antics have caught the attention of both the Elector Count of Nordland, AND the Elector of Middenland. It may be some time before he starts a general war between the two provinces.