Far North

The Far North is a vast icy wasteland, covered mostly by a region referred to as The Chilling Fields. Said to be larger than the sum total of all the land settled and claimed by humanity, the distant Far North looms above the Empire like a hungry troll faced with a feast of helpless goblin flesh.

Wild and hardly touched by the civilisation of its more southerly neighbours, the Far North is not a nation but rather a place of such variety and such persistent cold that only the most prepared of mercenaries seek to enter its vastness from the more relative safety of the Empire. For within the immensity of the Far North, the only faces that might seem familiar are those of the tribes, and even though these would seem to share some kinship with the people of the Empire, most would never consider such an association kindly.

Here lie the many claimed lands of unknowable variety. Orc hordes and troll tribes are just the most familiar of what might be encountered as, the further within the misty lands a mercenary goes, even the touch of the sun can become a story believed only by the credulous.

Geography
Unlike the Empire, the Baronies and even Ishma, it is not known how large the Far North actually is. There are some scholars who would hold that such geographical certainties cannot truly be applied to the lands that lay to the north of the Empire and certainly there is not the concept of nation that exists elsewhere. Indeed, the concept of mapping and defining would be an alien and even terrible aim for many of those who dwell in the Far North for once something is so defined it reduces it – makes it captive to others.

It is even said that even if the time and skill were available for such expeditions then for every dozen that so sought to achieve such a mapping then there would be thirteen different maps so produced. It is entirely possible that the Far North is changeable, that its geography changes from year to year for it is a place of endless discovery – where stories dwell and give birth to tales (which in turn spawn rumour).

Inhabitants
In the Far North dwell beasts of myth and tribal heroes of legend. Valleys are stumbled across where fickle tribes resemble no other or terrible beasts make their lair. Unlike the Baronies however, the Far North is not a dark and desperate place, it is a ‘land’ of song, tale and delight – of harshly preserved freedoms and derision for the night that seeks to sneak about the people there. Optimistic and carefree, the Far North is almost childish in its denial of fear and woe. Here giants walk and adventure is glorified above all else.

(OOC: It is a very ‘High Fantasy’ realm, where deeds are done for glory alone and where evil has a very defined physicality to it.) Mythical beasts roam the varied lands, from the hard and desolate plains that abut the Empire to the snow of the further reaches, the hills and valleys that lay between – near everything can be found in the Far North.

This is still, however, a primitive place – the tribesmen are no less sophisticated than their southern neighbours but their ways are both more direct and poetic than can be found elsewhere. It is not a place where lost kingdoms and ancient kings are to be found – that is the Baronies. It is not a place where dark cities or enlightened churches can be explored – that is the Empire.

Most importantly, it is not a place of certainties. The Far North dwells very much upon the now and generally has little to do with the past. Nothing is written down and tales spun over generations take on new life with every telling. Every tribe has different tales of its past and apart from what is described as the ‘Heart and Soul’ (the core of common lore) these stories vary differently amongst the numberless tribes that roam or settle in the vastness of the Far North.