Eastern Provinces
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THE EASTERN PROVINCES
From the Southern provinces, moving north and east past the capital you reach the Eastern Provinces, all of which lie on the coast of the Great Pelagic Ocean, north of the capital. That is the last similarity any of the Eastern provinces share. The character of the Eastern provinces is totally different from the lands to the south. The Eastern provinces are known as the Bitterlands, for their climate, terrain, and the conditions there during the Desolation.
TANNER
Directly north of the capital is the province of Tanner. This moderately sized province is roughly triangular. The southwest border is the mighty Timbor river in the north and Celegia in the south. The eastern border is the Great Pelagic Ocean, while the Northern border is the foothills of the Broken Mountains. In the southern corner, Tanner has a lovely coast along the Elysian sea, with the many beautiful estates that are characteristic of the Sea.
North of the Sea coast are many farms and orchards, taking advantage of the abundant rain to grow crops requiring plenty of water, such as rice and succulents. Along the banks of the Timbor, Tanner is a busy and crowded place, with many fishermen and traders using the river. Innumerable water towers dot the edge of the river, pumping huge amounts of water out into the plains to the thirsty crops. Enormous numbers of cottage industries dot the riverbank. These take raw materials floating down the Timber and turn them into finished goods to be sent into the Maw at the river mouth, as the locals ominously refer to the capital city.
Moving away from the river, east toward the ocean, the fertility of the land falls as the soil becomes less able to support growth. The demarcation point between the Elysian Sea and the Great Pelagic Ocean is a nondescript patch of ground known as Cape Hazard. The water takes a sudden grim turn, growing darker, deeper, colder, and far wilder. The ocean coast is a grim and rocky place, with the constant prevailing wind blowing in out of the depths of the Great Pelagic. Even on a calm day, the jagged and rocky coast is beaten by a vigorous surf. On a stormy day the waves can reach 40 feet, and hit the rocky coast with brutal regularity.
The coastal region is afflicted with thin sandy soil which the heavy rain leaches of nutrients. Even the Wardens have difficulty wringing real fertility out of this area, and the local stories are that the area is under a powerful but fading curse, and will one day blossom again. This story has not one shred of supporting documentation, and is almost certainly apocryphal.
In the very northeast corner of Tanner are the Brackish Moors of Arubis. These are the second largest swamps in the Empire, but the grim, salt poisoned expanse of the Bracken Moors are far more hostile than those in Istis. The hale and hardy plants and creatures that survive in this cruel environment are some of the most dangerous in the Empire. Add in the many poisonous things, the abundant quicksand, the abysmal weather, and the total lack of anything of commercial use and you really have to wonder that anyone lives here at all, but they do. These hardscrabble cousins of the Langourous can claim relations with the Langourous legitimately, but they have certainly lost that "languid" edge over the years.
The herbs and mushrooms they harvest are too strange and unpredictable in their effects to be useful as are the ones used by the Langourous, so even that potential export is lost. Arubans are tough, mean, paranoid, usually mind-altered, and hostile toward outsiders, so it is little surprise that they are largely left alone in their salty paradise.
The current Ordinate of Tanner is the Honorable Gary Hyndman Stix.
FRIPPE
Directly to the north of Tanner is the province of Frippe. Frippe is a small and mountainous province that lies completely within the eastern end of the Broken Mountains. The Great Pelagic is the eastern border and the other three borders are the line of foothills to the north and south and the headwaters of the Retro river to the west.
Frippe has an unrelenting mountainous topography that is amply blessed with scenery and stone, but little else. Most areas of the Empire have been mined out years ago, but not Frippe. The quarries of Frippe are the Empires largest and most reliable source of seigestone, that heavy, durable, magic absorbing mineral so vital to large scale fortifications. Seigestone is the most valuable commodity that is still being wrenched from the ground of Frippe, if you don't count the gems.
Even after 600 centuries of steady mining efforts, Frippe is still producing a fine trickle of good quality stones, the only province that is still practicing any extensive mineral mining. (As opposed to quarries.)
The mines in Frippe are mind-numbing in their depth and complexity, and a good portion of them show signs of unhuman workmanship. The majority of the mines here still have ore in them, but they have been mined so deeply that no amount of protective magic or magical mining techniques will keep a miner alive in them. In the deep past at least four different nonhuman races have worked these mines extensively. Indeed, the deepest parts of the mines MUST have been done by things other than human, as conditions are so dark, cold and deathly at those depths. The stories that the hardy miners of Frippe tell about their mines do not bear repeating, but suffice it to say they are colorful and dire.
A relative oddity of Frippe is the prevalence of underground housing. Many private homes are dug out of cliffs or are converted mining galleries, and many villages and towns are underground, although there is nothing here nearly on the scale of Tuggston.
The natives of Frippe have real difficulty feeding themselves due to the general lack of arable land, and Frippe became practically uninhabited during the Desolation. Later, during the years when Celegia began to absorb the Eastern Federation (1000 years ago) Frippe was the borderland between the two titans and many a pitched battle was waged in the mostly vertical terrain.
Today, Frippe is primarily noted for its mines and the skill of its artisans in making extremely fine goods, suitable to be enchanted. Frippe exports a steady supply of these types of goods, turning a small quantity of raw materials into a large source of cash. All in all, Frippe is the home of an astonishing wealth derived from these industries.
Astoundingly enough, since the advent of the Gates, Frippe has begun to export rare mushrooms, which are grown in the huge abandoned sections of the mines. This agribusiness promises to be Frippe's largest someday, and may be the eventual salvation of this most inhospitable land.
Another increasing source of income is safari style hunting expeditions. The wildly tumbled mountains harbor an amazing array of wildlife. Hunting expeditions can now travel through the Gates and arrive quickly and ready to hunt. Surprisingly enough, Frippe has a substantial population along the coast, which is truly a sight worth seeing. The Broken Mountains march right up to the edge of the Great Pelagic and stop abruptly in the highest cliffs in the Empire, 9000 feet sheer into the ocean. Some of the wizardly aeries clinging to these cliffs would make an eagle dizzy!
Frippe also exports small amounts of odd minerals, feathers, and skins. In recent years Frippe has even begun exporting appreciable amounts of high quality metals, and persistent rumors circulate that the miners have found a new vein for the first time in 5000 years. If this is true, then the Empire has clamped a lid of secrecy down on the place with amazing efficiency.
The population of Frippe is relatively small compared to other provinces, and the quality of life here is not extremely high. Frippe has been experiencing an emigration of its population in the last century or so, which has apparently been caused by the Gates. In the Capital, the Peacock Throne was completely surprised when this phenomenon was first noted and has been carefully monitoring the Gate traffic in and out of Frippe to see what exactly is happening here. This effect of the Gates was the first effect that was completely unexpected, and the long term implications of the Gates ability to move so many people are still being guessed at. T
he current Ordinate of Frippe is Sir Ronald Trask Thacker-Ames, the Fifth.
PELLANIA
Directly to the north of Frippe is the last of the Bitterlands, Pellania. Pellania is the most heavily populated of the eastern provinces, but is the least crowded. The populace of Pellania is spread evenly across its scrubby coastal plains and along the broad and gentle river valley of the Retro river, which forms the entire northern and western border of the province. The character of the land in Pellania is far more gentle than Frippe and most of Tanner, so Pellania sometimes bridles at being classed as a "Bitter Land" but the title is deserved if one looks at the history of the place.
It is said that you can dig anyplace in the Empire and find a ruin, and there is a lot of truth to that claim. In Pellania, you don*t have to dig. Over the course of the ebb and flow of the Empire's history there have been more battles, bloodshed, sacks, pillages, and lost civilizations in Pellania than anywhere else in the Empire. In the records of the empire it is discovered that there are at least nineteen large lost cities in Pellania, where no city stands today. At least sixteen independent kingdoms have arisen here and every one has subsequently been absorbed into the Empire, most recently after the Nightmare Wars.
Pellania also has the distinction of housing two of the Empire's three high quality harbors, Coffax Bay and Halloran*s Bay. The only ships that take advantage of these harbors are coastal fishing boats that rarely venture past sight of the shore, out into the unforgiving expanse of the Great Pelagic. Nonetheless, the advent of Gates has meant a boom in these harbors, as the exotic saltwater fish can now be sent while fresh to the cities in the northwest, where the only fish for centuries have been freshwater varieties. The extent of this boom is unknown, as it is only now beginning to gain true momentum.
The traditional industries in Pellania are crops of wheat, barley, and hops. Unsurprisingly, Pellania also makes lots of beer and ale. (Almost every Pellanian brew is known as a bitter, which only irritates the Pellanians further.)
Pellania is also well known for ranching. Huge gorgon ranches in Pellania are renowned for the quantity and quality of the metal they produce, as well as raising many fine draft and riding horses. The grazing is not right for Destriers, so few are raised here.
The Retro river has a strong impact on Pellania, giving a firm and defensible border around the entire province, when combined with the Broken Mountains to the south. This strong border is one of the reasons Pellania has a historical tendency to "drift" from the central authority. Perhaps this is the reason Pellania has been blessed with no fewer than four Imperial Fortresses, all within the river.
The Retro is often overshadowed by the mighty Timber and Pested, but it is a very large and heavily developed body in its own right, with some of the riverworks even predating the Empire! A very profitable trade route, the Main North-South Way, lies in Pellania. Large quantities of goods going north are floated there on barges along the Retro, moving nearly a thousand miles due north on the strong and steady flow of the river. This trade route has been greatly improved in recent years by Pellania*s abundance of Fortresses, which happen to be placed so that they greatly speed travel along this northern route.
Pellania has quieted in the more recent history of the Empire, and very little of its historical "gentleman rebel" flair remains in the modern era. Pellania suffered greatly in the Desolation, and many sages theorize that the spirit of the place may have been broken in that terrible travail. Other sages feel that the Pellanian flair is merely dormant, awaiting a better time to issue forth and prevent the central rule from ever growing weak or complacent.
The current Ordinate of Pellania is Her Ladyship, the honorable Vivienne Kaufman-Kurtz.
OVERVIEW
The Eastern provinces as a whole are the smallest region of the Empire, leaving aside the Sea provinces. They are well developed, despite their surface lack of redeeming features. Some of the most difficult living in the Empire can be found here, especially in the bad areas of Tanner and anywhere in Frippe. Perhaps for this reason, the Bitterlands are historically known for producing far more than their fair share of great thinkers and heroes. These dour, hard¬bitten figures include the ancient Magus Alarale, the more recent Wizard-smith Austus Orlacht, and the current General of the Seventh Legion, The Iron Duke. Many of the great Emperors have also come from the eastern provinces, especially Pellania, which sometimes leads certain vainglorious Pellanians to consider themselves destined for greatness. The contribution of the Eastern Provinces to the Empire is far greater in these terms than the mere economic picture would suggest.