Free City States of Harlbourg

(part of the Autia setting)

Nantic coalition of city states, mostly Nantic humans, but lots of minorities including goblins, harpies, snake people, and giants. Basically your typical D&D clusterfuck, but upgraded to Victorian/steampunk era.

General:

Neighbour to the empire of Alkor, The Free City-States of Harlbourg put up a fierce resistance. Along with their technology and numbers in soldiers, they have teamed up with the tribes that live in the plains, deserts and forests for their magical potential and powerful beasts. They're not unlike revolutionary America if it were still fighting the war against Britain.

The Reconquista/Resistance war has involved many countries and is effectively the Land's first World War due to the amount of combatants. It is a known fact that while Belkan officially supports the Alkorian's reconquest, due to their highly militaristic and often battlelust-y nature, they have sent a chunk of their army to serve as mercenaries for the Harlbourgs to gain great honour.

People:

Harlbourg is primarily home to Nantic humans, but also includes many "monster races" such as goblins, harpies, snake people, and giants. The monster races mostly live in the southern barrens and in a number of large, untamed forests scattered throughout the nation.

Religion:

Harlbourg follows a fairly standard interpretation of the Nantic pantheon. Gaelhalla (magic, femininity, fertility, the moon, love), Weir (forests, agriculture - sometimes worshipped instead as Wyrn for hunters and some fey creatures), Gayin (industry, commerce, labor), Shomdar (oceans, fishing), Liik (collector of the dead), and Vanille (justice for common folk). Alcar and Grumm are occasionally worshipped, but have fallen out of favor as war gods with focus instead on Vanille and a group of demi-god revolutionary figures known as the Founding Fathers.

Magic:

Harlbourg follows standard Nantic magical traditions for the most part, but also sometimes relies on the strange magic of the forest fey and the southern monster tribes to give themselves the edge.

Military:

The primary enemy of Harlbourg and more recently Alkor's allies among the Aesanaerian tribes. Due to the massive land borders they must defend, plus the decentralized nature of the state, they rely heavily on volunteer militia bolstered by mercenaries from less civilized nations, and magi-tech equipped private armies from the wealthier towns, cities, and noble families. No standard uniform exists, but blue is seen as the national color, while purple is popular with those worshipping Vanille. Knightly orders dedicated to Vanille are particularly common in Harlbourg, but they prefer to keep out of politics and focus on vigilante actions against those that harm the common folk instead. The militias are surprisingly well equipped, almost every family has at least one privately owned firearm, usually several. Crossbows and magi-tech guns are sometimes used by militia members who are particularly rich and poor respectively. Swords are seen as archaic by militia members, but hatchets, clubs, and long knives are brought along in case fighting becomes up close and personal.

History:

Once a part of the Nantic Empire, and later the Alkor Empire, "East Alkor", as it was known at the time, was a prosperous, but politically overlooked region. Angry at constantly paying taxes for wars they didn't benefit from, and egged on by intellectuals making impossible promises, a widespread revolt swept through "East Alkor". Unable to decide on a new form of government, the leaders of the various rebel factions met in the small town of Harlbourg and signed a series of defense and trade treaties, leading to the formation of the Free City-States of Harlbourg. Despite its massive economy, Harlbourg has yet to emerge as a leading power in the region. It has alternated between fighting and allying itself with several nations in the region, particularly Belkan, Alkor, and Aesanaeria, though alliances with Alkor are rare. Harlbourg also frequently has to deal with internal fighting between different city states, as well as political factions like Utopia and Swabonze. Although internal power struggles are frequent, they rarely lead to open warfare, though assassinations and riots are common.

Economy:

Harlbourg is a wealthy nation, with rich farmlands, a large industrial base, and many merchant fleets. The lack of one central authority to direct the economy is sometimes a positive, sometimes a negative.

Miscellaneous:

The City-States are known for their secret military police mounted on mechanical horses assassinating those who want to rally the states into one power.

Each city-state have one or more order of knights, which are mostly if not entirely made of females.

One of the Burgomasters of Harlbourg was known to be a bit of an asshole. A travelling witch turned him into a giant cat to help correct his behavior.

Unfortunately the witch forgot that cats are also jerks. The Burgomaster in question retains both his position and his cat form to this day, and is notorious for knocking valuable objects off tables, shredding important documents with his teeth, and leaving dead fish, rats, and birds in random places around the council chamber.

Attempts to remove him from power have failed since he sparkles threateningly whenever someone reminds him his term ended years ago. Also his main rival was defenestrated by a pack of rabid cat lovers.

Government:

Harlbourg has a highly unstable government that consists of a Congress made up of representatives from each city state, with the number of representatives from each city state roughly aligning to population and wealth (mostly wealth). However, Harlbourg is not a true democracy. Most representatives are appointed by the leaders of each city state, and most city states are oligarchies lead by deeply entrenched wealthy families.

Congress has many different political factions pulling Harlbourg in different directions. Some want a central government, some want a free for all, some want war with Alkor, some want trade with Alkor, some want rights for the common folk, some want debt bondage and slavery, etc. As a result, Harlbourg has a reputation for being a place with weak leadership, lots of infighting, but also lots of potential for the ambitious to become wealthy, powerful, or both.

Geography:

Harlbourg has 36 city states, plus a number of contested, uncivilized, or sparsely populated regions. For the most part, the nation is relatively flat and covered in a mix of forests and farmers fields, though there is a section of dry grassland and desert in the south.

Image:Harlbourg Map.png (too big to put on the page, but useful for visualizing the geography of the region)

- Bostol: This sprawling multi-cultural slum is one of the larger ports on the northern Autian coast. It produces a range of cheap goods in its industrial sweatshops, but is also famous for its massive warehouses where cheap goods are sometimes stored for years while trading companies wait for a rise in prices. Fairly multi-cultural, though not so much as Yorkburg. The main minority communities are goblins, Lindgrubians, and refugees from fighting in the northern parts of the Union. Surrounding Bostol is a wide stretch of farmland and coal mines, though a large forest southwest of the city has resisted all attempts at clear cutting due to its large leprechaun population. Luckily the leprechauns also make it difficult for Alkor to invade Bostol by land. Bostol is politically fractured, and riots and assassinations by various factions are common.

- The Three Sisters: A trio of frequently overlooked city states, the Three Sisters each contain ports that serves as hubs for local farming, fishing, and industry. They are generally uninterested in nation building, and collectively have even fewer seats in Congress than their small size justifies.

- Florian County: The northeast section of Florian County falls within the boundaries of Harlbourg, while the southwest section stayed loyal to Alkor. The scene of constant skirmishes between rival militias for over a century, many of the most experienced skirmishers and marksmen in Harlbourg hail from this region. The area is otherwise sparsely populated, farmer's field, quarries, and coal mines now partially reclaimed by nature.

- Harlbourg: Once a small town, Harlbourg was the site where many of the treaties the bind the The Free City-States of Harlbourg together were signed. It is now a small city that serves as the meeting spot for Congress, as well as assorted failed nation building projects and half finished monuments. The surrounding area is a mix of good quality farmland, hunting preserves, and estates of wealthy representatives.

- Hermannton: A small, dreary city that is barely more than a market town. Hermannton is home to small pockets of fey creatures, but is otherwise not noteworthy.

- The Twins: Refers to the city states of Mermaid Rock and Tillsbury Hill. Like many Harlbourg cities, both were partially depopulated during the Revolution as loyalists left to live in Alkor, however, recovery has been slower than most cities due to the rapid growth of nearby Bostol and White Eagle. Large stretches of Mermaid Rock have become rundown, and are now home to semi-feral harpies. True to its name, the semi-abandoned harbor is home to many merfolk. Tillsbury is more prosperous, thanks to the construction of large temples to Vanille and Gaelhalla. It has a reputation as being a radical minded city and a stronghold for the Utopian Movement.

- White Eagle: A wealthy, old money city, White Eagle was one of the initial strongholds of the Revolution, where powerful industrialists spread dissent to further their own ambitions. White Eagle is the strongest voice in favor of making Harlbourg into one unified country (ruled by them obviously). Some of White Eagle's leading families descend from Belkan exiles, and many believe that the city is too sympathetic to the Belkan cause for its own good. In addition to being an industrial powerhouse, the large coastal cliffs around White Eagle are also a popular breeding spot for giant eagles.

- Ironside: A hilly region home to many iron mines and forges, the people of Ironside are often stereotyped a large and dumb. Some believe they are of partial Nadian or Balorian descent. They are strong supporters of war with Alkor (or anyone else for that matter), and have a long history of losing wars against the fey of Vermin Woods.

- Dead Fish Coast: A stretch of poor performing industrial city states. Outdated and corroded industrial equipment combined with a willingness to experiment with new chemical manufacturing techniques and poorly designed sewage systems have led to frequent pollution spills. There are occasional skirmishes with merfolk and other ocean dwelling nations. Poor folk like goblins, semi-feral goblins, and Shaobon humans make up a significant portion of the population. Generally support for nation building or the War is low here, even among those who volunteer for the army, people are just too cynical to care.

- Yorkburg: One of the largest port cities in all of Autia, and the largest in Harlbourg, Yorkburg is notoriously independent and open minded, but also somewhat lawless. Immigrants and refugees from all over the world are common here, including goblins, Bridge Tribes, harpies, Lapus elves, Shaobon, Jinsanic, Ercaenmedian, and Sorgos humans, southern dwarves, spirit animals, and Amazons. Violence is common between radical factions like the Utopian Movement, Swabonze, Code Libertas, the Unicorn Men, Barbed Lash, New Belkan, Probemen, and the New Patriots, not to mention a wide range of ethnic and nativist street gangs. However, most people that live here just want to get on with their lives as best they can, and many have little interest in violence, having left unstable or oppressive homelands specifically to avoid it. Despite its many factions, most true power in the city lies with a small group of old money investors and bankers with strong ties to Westphallica, and a knack for playing the city's lesser factions against each other. Yorkburg is extremely diverse in terms of wealth, with wretched slums existing right next to the gated communities of the wealthy. Industrial towns and farmland surround the sprawling city for dozens of kilometers.

- Sprocket: A grimy industrial city dedicated to producing low quality weapons and other equipment for Yorkburg. It has a large goblin and half goblin population, and perhaps as a result is generally stereotyped as callous and greedy. The surrounding area is full of coal mines, quarries, and struggling farms, many of which are home outlaws from Yorkburg and Sprocket looking for a place to lie low for a few months. The wealthy industrialists that rule Sprocket support the possibility of war with Alkor since it allows them jack up prices on their goods. However, they strongly oppose paying taxes to support the continued existence of the National Army.

- Hollow Glen: Not really a city in the traditional sense, Hollow Glen consists of a marketplace, a few neighborhoods of townhouses, a highly exclusive university, and dozens of sprawling manors, all located within a heavily forest valley centered on a small lake. Home to some of Harlbourg's wealthiest nobles, many of Hollow Glen's residents dream of turning parts of Harlbourg into a new version of Westphallica, where the rich answer to no one but each other, and the rest of the population is kept small but loyal to keep out invaders. They strongly oppose any attempts to bring Harlbourg together as one nation, and are thus strong rivals of both White Eagle, and anyone seen as being too pro-war. It is a stronghold of Code Libertas, a group of assassins and political operatives that target anyone who will raise taxes or restrict freedoms in the name of patriotism, or nation building, or any other reason really.

- Mabe: A small but rambunctious city, it contains a number of casinos and two large amusement parks. It is a common meeting place for the ultra wealthy from Hollow Glen, Yorkburg, New Haberfordshire, and Svannah. Officially these are business trips, though Mabe's red light district is exclusive and discrete. Aside from tourism, the construction and maintenance of paddle steamers is the main source of good paying jobs. The surrounding area is mostly small farms and swamp hovels.

- Fox Bridge: This small city, more of a town really, is mostly build around the University of Fox Bridge, a popular university with wealthy young people from Yorkburg and New Haberfordshire hoping to move away from their hometowns. Although not as exclusive as certain other academies, Fox Bridge has a solid reputation, and more importantly for many, a reputation as a "party university" with easy access to cheap bars and brothels, and co-ed boarding houses and a city watch that are notorious for looking the other way for a few coins. The area surrounding Fox Bridge is mostly quiet farmland, though this close to The Outer Forest sometimes strange fey are encountered.

- New Haberfordshire: A wealthy, old money city, the noble families here own pretty much everything in Harlbourg worth owning aside from what is owned by the nobles of Svannah and Hollow Glen, and the bankers of Yorkburg. The nobles of New Haberfordshire, like many people in Harlbourg, weren't particularly fond of the Revolution, and still maintain business ties and have relatives in Alkor. It is commonly believed they would gladly rejoin the Empire of Alkor if their status was maintained or enhanced. Despite this, along with nobles from White Eagle they form the backbone of the National Army officer class. New Haberfordshire is a proud bastion of Nantic human prejudice and non-humans and even non-Nantic humans are barely tolerated here. Newspapers deride the possibility of war with Alkor as a waste of Nantic lives (a common sentiment in many Nantic nations, but rarely so strongly expressed), however, in the war between Belkan and Ercaenmedi, most newspapers favor Belkan, since Nantic blood runs truer in Belkan than in Ercaenmedi. The countryside of New Haberfordshire is a mix of established farms, estates, and protected forest. Trouble with the fey occasionally occurs when landowners try to clear patches of old growth forest, particularly along the borders of The Outer Forest.

- The Outer Forest: This expansive forest covers almost a third of Harlbourg, and marks the grey zone between the Fairly Lands and human civilization. Much of it is empty, but small little fiefdoms of different fey races are everywhere, as are human hunters, hermits, woodcutters, and isolated farms. It is seen as a strange and otherworldly place by urban residents of Harlbourg, particularly in the north where relations between fey and humans are generally poor.

- Kaine: This small, isolated city makes its living mostly from fishing and lobster catching. It inhabitants are typically dismissed as being a bit weird. Despite their reliance on fishing, they somehow have managed to maintain good relations with the local merfolk and lobsterfolk populations. Mostly Nantic humans, but a few dwarves, half goblins, and assorted fey. Kaine is cut off from the rest of Harlbourg by the Outer Forest, but small farms and pastures dot the hills surrounding the city.

- Ludcroft: Much like Kaine, Ludcroft is a small, isolated port city with few ties back to the rest of Harlbourg. Seen as even stranger than Kaine, Ludcroft has a haunted reputation, and people are generally reluctant to go there unless desperate. Although perhaps just the illusion magic of the neighboring gepids, all sorts of stories are told of hostile fish people, towering squid faced beings, strange ghosts, and derelict ships found empty drifting at sea.

- Dobsenshire and The Southwood: Dobsenshire is a small city dedicated to lumber and the fur trade, located within The Southwood, a relatively tame portion of The Outer Forest. However, skirmishes between fey and lumber crews remain frequent.

- Yarow and The Ridge: Yarow is a small, crumbling city of Eldrian origin. It has strong ties to Unkor, but chose to join Harlbourg during the Revolution rather than remain neutral. Its economy mostly runs on trade with Unkor and mining. The Ridge is hilly region of The Outer Forest whose thick forest conceals many unnatural landforms believed tied to the unnaturalness of Eldr. Some rare metals can be found here, but mining is limited due to the strange fey, undead, and Eldrian monsters found here.

- The Border Forest: A quiet forest home to small pockets of fey, and a few lightly travelled roads connecting Deep Grass, Dobsenshire, Hoogivs and Unkor. A couple of inns and hamlets can be found here, but it is too far from major settlements to attract too many visitors. It is generally pretty safe, but bandits and hostile fey are not unheard of.

- Deep Grass and the Itruvian Plains: The small trade city of Deep Grass is a strange place where Nantic humans rub shoulders with hill giants, tribal goblins, ogres, fey centaur, and other less civilized peoples who inhabit the Itruvian Plains, a region of dry, hilly, grassland. A fairly lawless region, the tribes here don't really consider themselves a part of Harlbourg, nor do the Aesanaerian raiders who frequently travel through the region.

- Ikrit Desert and the Namath Crater: A small desert lying along the border of Harlbourg and Aesanaeria, it is traditionally seen as the best way for Aesanaerian raiders to bypass pointless skirmishes with dirt poor tribes in the southern Itruvian Plains, and target the more prosperous trade towns in the northern Plains. A large enough raiding party could even threaten Deep Grass or Svannah. Although usually seen as lifeless and empty, the desert contains several oases, cave systems, and dried out forests which are home to hostile snake people and harpies tribes. A few haunted ruins can be found in this region as well.

- The Serpent Woods: Named their most feared inhabitants, the xenophobic and isolationist snake people, the woods are in fact home to several other races as well, mostly feral goblins, but also fairies, hags, harpies, and a few unusually intelligent clans of hill giants and ogres.

- The Dry Swamp: The northern region of The Serpent Woods is generally known as "The Dry Swamp", since the only time people visit it is during the summer months, when it is mostly dry. However, during the spring and winter much of it is in fact waterlogged. Few people visit it since it is a stronghold of the snake people, and also full of large alligators, but it remains popular with smugglers.

- West Gibbon County: A rural region of poor quality farmland, hills, and swamps, it is often joked that every inhabitant is his own uncle or aunt. This is ironically true in the case of the current Count, the horribly inbred heir of the ancient Gibbon family. Skirmishes with Alkor along the border are common, as are skirmishes with the snake people of The Dry Swamp, and the drunkards from their rival counties of North and East Gibbon. The capital city of Gibbon is a crumbling ruin of a once moderately prosperous market town.

- East Gibbon: One of the few city states without a city, or even a town, East Gibbon broke from the rest of the former County of Gibbon during the Revolution. They consider themselves loyalists to Alkor, but not even Alkor particularly wants them as they are even more backwater than West Gibbon. Despite all this, they still get one seat (out of 560) in Congress, though lacking any central government themselves, they sometimes send no representatives, and other times send several who fight among themselves on who is the actual representative.

- North Gibbon County: A bit more wealthy and open minded than the other city states with the word Gibbon in it, North Gibbon is still mostly poor quality farmland. It has large immigrant populations of goblins, Shaobon humans, and Jinsanic humans, mostly those escaping near slavery in Svannah. Shaobon shamanic magic practices are not uncommon here. The capital city of Riverside is visited by paddle steamers frequently, and handles imports and exports from North, East, and West Gibbon, such that they are.

- Svannah: Although the farmland is not of particular high quality, the plantations here are highly profitable thanks to their large size and exploitive labor practices. Desperate immigrants from Yorkburg are sometimes tricked into signing bad contracts, but more often slaves purchased from Afrolia and the Union are smuggled through Yorkburg and up the river via bribes. Svannah is a major player in the textile and tobacco weed industries, as well as the several key agricultural industries. The exploitive practices started back during the time the region was still part of Alkor, but accelerated greatly following the Revolution, when the independence granted to each city state in writing labor laws essentially allowed them to legalize slavery. The nobles and landowners of Svannah fear reabsorption into Alkor, and support war with Alkor, as long as someone else pays for it. They are also strongly opposed to any nation building efforts that may end slavery in the region, and thus are strong supporters of Code Libertas.

- Shireford: A small city in the midst of a boring patch of farmland, Shireford is mostly famous for being ruled by Burgomeister Jans Nyan, bastard son of a powerful noble from Hollow Glen who was transformed into a giant cat. However, Jans only rules the city itself, while the rest of the land is essentially owned by his family, whose other proxies rule each town and village. A strangely cosmopolitan city in an otherwise backwater area, one can encounter tribal goblins and giants, former slaves, rural hicks, and bored university students just by walking around the marketplace. Unlike most southern city states, worship of Vanille is popular here, and three different all female knightly orders based out of the city sometimes stir up trouble in Svannah.

- Brownford: No one much likes Brownford, a wretched, foul smelling city famous for its tanneries, swine farms, and slaughter houses. More than one noble from Svannah has had dreams of demolishing the whole place while passing it on a trip to Mabe. The surrounding area is mostly small farms.

- The Moors: A hilly region of bland pastureland, the Moors would be a pretty dull region if it weren't for the occasional skirmishes with fey from the Vermin Woods. The capital of Moorside has a couple of decent breweries, but is otherwise very forgettable.

- Gabbleton: A large region of endless farmland, the inhabitants of Gabbleton are often mocked as being farm hicks and inbreds by city folk, though the farms and ranches here are more prosperous than many along the coast. Gabbleton itself is a dull market town that barely has the population to qualify as a city.

- Bannickton: Like Florian County to the north, Bannickton was the site of heavy fighting during the Revolution, and almost constant skirmishes since then. Historically an overlooked farm region, it has become a mustering point for National Army formations gathering to defend Harlbourg from an excursion by Alkor, or perhaps even invade Alkor instead. The City of Bannickton has become a hotbed of scheming and assassinations as different political factions try to either ignite or avoid a war with Alkor.

- Phillipsbury: A somewhat traditionalist city state reliant on farming and coal mining, Phillipsbury continues to maintain strong trade relations with Alkor, even when fighting them. Like Florian and Bannickton, this region is now host to multiple large formations of the National Army. A known bigot, the Mayor of Phillipsbury (a hereditary, unelected position) dislikes the presence of non-human and non-Nantic humans in his city state, and is not keen on fighting Alkor. Perhaps trying to create a distraction, his has commandeered several regiments of men lead by political rivals and sent them into the Vermin Woods to seek vengeance on the satyr bandit who at different times has seduced both his wife and all three of his daughters.

- The Vermin Woods: A large stretch of old growth forest that has resisted any and all attempts to clear cut it and turn it into farmland, thanks largely to its high concentration of portals to the fey worlds. A wide range of fey can be found here including fairies, goblins, satyr and fauns, dryads, lycanthropes, leprechauns, and harpies. The name comes from the tendency of wealthier humans in northern Harlbourg to dismiss fey as vermin.