Kingdom of Mladovo

Once the largest kingdom southwest of the Iron Mountains

Founded by one of the first tribes of Northmen to come through the Iron Mountains en mass. The often fractious Mladovians eventually founded a kingdom that stood for hundreds of years.

• Name:
• Periods:

  • The Settling: 882 - 1092 AE
  • The First Kings: 1092 - 1996 AE
  • The Fall: 1996 AE - 152 AH
• Head of State: None (last was Queen Ester I, 7 days)
• Land Area: 0 (80,000 km² at peak)
• Population: 0 (200,000 -300,000 at peak)

  • Mladovians: 98% at peak

In 882 AE several years of warmer than average winters had opened up several large passes through the Iron Mountains. For decades before the Mladovians have been passing through the passes during the High Summer to hunt in the south, but it was far too dangerous during the spring and impassable during the winter. With the passes opened thousands (est. 12,000) Mladovians left their villages and resettled in the hills south of the mountains.

While the hunting was far more plentiful and the winters less frigid these settlers found themselves in a hostile land. Other humans along with goblins and orcs lived among the foothills. In twenty years there were less than a third of their number remaining and by 914 AE the only Mladovians remaining were enslaved by other people.

The constant struggle between the Montuk and Brund drove the Mladovians further through their best hunting grounds. Their villages were burned and their people slaughtered by one side or the other. Even without a warm summer in 938 AE the remaining Mladovians migrated south to the same valleys were their previous settlers were killed. It is believed that nearly 50,000 Mladovians began the journey; although less than 35,000 survived the journey.

The landscape had changed little since the first settlers, but this time the spirit singers of their people journeyed as well. Although the spirits of the woods were different from those of rock, ice and snow they found new songs to call them forth. For a hundred years they fought against the other humans as well as the orcs and goblins of these lands. They even clashed a few times with the elves when they expanded farther south.

By 1092 AE the Mladovians controlled all of the lands from the Iron Mountains to the Rakarian Valley for several days ride east of the Isaurus Ocean.

The people prospered in these warmer lands with its rich soil, woods, and plentiful rainfall. The villages of their ancestors soon became towns and then the first cities. As the cities gained in power they began to clash with other Mladovian cities for the best land and resources. These City-States became known as the Household Kingdoms as most of the cities were ruled by a single family.

In 1100 there were over a hundred (100+) small cities each vying for control over the best land. By the year 1200 there were less than thirty (30) cities, but each of them have grown in power and size. At the end of 1300 AE only eleven household kingdoms remained; although a few controlled more than one city. These eleven small kingdoms remained relatively stable as none of them could conquer their neighbor without making themselves vulnerable to their other neighbors. It was an uneasy peace, but it was peace.

In 1503 AE a rebellion broke out in the city of Kutterang leaving the city mostly destroyed and its lands burned. The survivors fled from their lands into the Rakarian Valley. Although the valley was rich in resources and temperate weather it was considered cursed by the Mladovians as the spirits that lived there were violent and hungered for blood.

Bartan was the name of the man that that led the rebellion and he was a spirit singer of immense power. He led his followers into the Rakarian valley and calmed the spirits of that land. Where the Zaber River and Doursse River empty into the bay he found the last survivors of the lost ruenlak_people. He swept them aside and settled his people in their city.

The city grew and the one-time rebels prospered. They had no history with seamanship, but hashan from across the sea built a small village nearby and traded with them. In 1547 Batan has an iron crown fashioned for himself and named the Iron King.

From this valley protected by the spirits he subdued, his soldiers went out and conquered the other cities. In 1596 his son Lortag, the Second Iron King, conquered the last of the Mladovian cities and proclaimed the “King of Kings” and his realm the Kingdom of Mladovo. The city of Heimmelstang was built upon the ruined city of the Ruenlak complete with a large castle at the top of a nearby bluff.

For over four-hundred (400) years a line of kings ruled a prosperous kingdom. They had opened trade with the Holy Irillian Empire (Second Empire) when its legions had pushed back the elves of Ellendar. Merchant caravans moved through the Elfenwald forest fetching a high price in Valparia for Mladovian and Hashan goods.

The fall of the Empire marked the end of an age. Ellendar had cut off the trade routes between the kingdom and Irill and the hashan seemed far less reluctant to trade. They accepted the high taxes Mladovo imposed when their goods were selling handsomely in Irillian markets, but with those markets closed the burden was too high.

Unrest grew and in 73 AH rebellion began to break out in the cities furthest from the throne. The current king, Bartan III, was weak with no ability to sing the songs and call the spirits, instead he sent soldiers to kill the rebels.

The rebellion grew and within thirty (30) years it had spread to every major city. Fields burned as one side or the other sought to deny food to their enemies. Banditry and murder rose to such levels that in the more remote villages the royalists and rebels fought together to hang them.

The rebels were not defeated, but the cause that bound them ceased to exist in 132 when Bartan IV the Undying was killed by his wife who proclaimed herself the Queen. Her rule was short when a mob broke in and burned the castle - her still on the throne giving orders. The city of Heimmelstang burned as the fire raged out of control. Less than twenty (20) years following the burning of Heimmelstang the Mladovo ceased to exist as a nation as the last cities were sacked by orcs and goblins.