Avandor Dominion

Avandor is the shining beacon of civilization in northern Antandides since the recession of the Lattaneran Empire (or so they believe). Hemmed in by the chaotic Freedlands to the west, the staunchly independent City States to the south and the almost horrific Iboria to the north, its not hard to see how the people of Avandor take such a warlike stance on most matters of state. To date Avandor has succeeded in nearly doubling its holdings, gaining ground on Iboria's borders and conquering a significant amount of the Freedlands and pushing the Kalit Lake and the westmost adjoining rivers.

History

In the distant past Avandor was known as the Physian Province, whose capital was the city of Avandorium. For hundreds of years it was considered a backwater province, vulnerable to barbarian raids and few on mineral riches. It did however have an abundance of timber and pelts. Enterprising aritocrats made alliances with various trading companies, including the gnome clans that would later coalesce into the West Enders. With these alliances the province became one of the most powerful and influential in the empire.

When it became apparent that the empire needed more than one head to function, the Emperor named Physia the capital of the new Northern Empire and appointed an Archconsul. By this time the governing of the northern province had passed largely to families of mixed heritage and so the position was given to a man named Hanared Elphias. Hanared and his decedents did an admirable job for nearly three centuries but the pressure of barbarian raids ensured that the province continued on a slow decline. When dragons re-awoke in 800 CA it was more than the northern forces could bear, spread thinly as they were along the borders. The Northern Empire was force to abandon much of its northmost territory and could no longer assure the safety of their southern provinces which later became the City States.

Everything finally came crashing down with the defeat of the northern armies at the hand of an ancient black dragon named Na'azh and his orc cultists. With the army slain there was no one to oppose the orcs as they marched on Avandorium, and while the city walls had resisted larger hosts of landbound enemies before, there was little they could do to counter Na'azh who simply flew overhead and rained acid on the defenders. The only survivors were those who fled, supposedly including the Archconsul's child Edengar, who was said to be brought up in a nearby castle by one of Hanared's most trusted subjects. For almost a hundred years the descendants of Hanared were raised in obscurity, according to legend biding their time until finally Erabis appeared to Yoriah the Blessed and commanded him to take back the lands of his forebears and restore order to the chaos that had befallen the Northern Empire.

From 892-894 CA Yoriah gathered men, raised an army, and fought his rivals. Everyone he met in battle either bent the knee or were destroyed and it seemed to all that he was indeed chosen by Erabis and blessed by all other gods as well. During these wars of subjugation, Yoriah makes pacts with a large tribe of orcs called the Urkon, whom he uses to augment and train his own warriors. With such a powerful force at his command it is not an enemy but time that finally undoes the divine conqueror and he dies at the age of 57 leaving the work of finishing his dream to his four sons (Yoriah II, Vagmund, Alectus, and Borfred). This is however, delayed as the brothers show no intention of cooperating and compete fiercely over their father's lands. In the end it is Alectus who prevails and has his brother's summarily executed as traitors.

Alectus goes on to secure most of the lands that were previously part of the Physian Province and feels that for now his father's dream is achieved. For nearly a hundred years after his descendants fought to keep it secure against the incursions that had brought down their ancestors long ago. Heroes of renown are born in this time, a few from Hanared's line, now sanctified as the house of Valadrian. Many of the dragons and their kin are either slain or driven from Avandor and the savage orcs and humans are brought to heel or routed and driven out.

However, dreams of expansion continued to burn bright in the hearts of Hanared's offspring and mere security was no longer enough. In 1042 CA Caelius Valadrian began planning an expansion to the south, meaning to bring the riches of the City States into his possession. Avandor moved against Lacaeta first. Their armies were vast, but years of fighting pitched battles in the field against savages had not prepared them for a siege against a city as large and as powerful as they now faced, and Lacaeta shut their gates and waited out their foes, sending skirmishers in at night to kill their officers as well as riders to other City States and even to Lattanera for assistance. When the emperor heard that Avandor was moving south he immediately reacted by sending his forces north along with the threat of unspeakable retaliation should Avandor not stay where it rightfully belonged. Thus was Avandor first truly defeated and they withdrew licking their wounds. It would be nearly thirty years before they tried to expand their borders again.

During those thirty years the throne again came under contention. The king at the time Florus Valadrian had a daughter and two younger sons Gallius and Vatio, the sons both seemed incapbale of both marriage or siring even natural born heirs and the daughter Elevia had been wed to an orc named Sorvan Raudoram (of the Red Hand) by whom she concieved and bore a son that he named Bal-Votauk (the Inmost Fire) by his father's people, but was properly sanctified as Temecleus Valadrian by his mother's. Because of Sorvan and Elevia's reportedly happy marriage, rumors began to abound that their marriage hadn't been because of the honor that Sorvan had won in battle as was claimed but rather because the two had already been lovers in secret and the wedding arranged so that the Valadrian family wouldn't be disgraced by a bastard. Oddly none of this came up because of Temecleus's orc heritage, and this is because by this time the Valadrian family, along with most other nobles already had traces of orc blood in their veins, it was just rarely as pronounced as it was in Temecleus's case. Temecleus was raised as a full fledged member of the Valadrian family, and in time he married and had a son of his own. His uncles on the other hand had still had no children and it was clear that favor was beginning to shift to Temecleus and his heirs. However Temecleus's uncles were not about to sit by and allow the throne to pass to their sister's son so they conspired to have Temecleus, his father, and his son killed. The plot was carried out but it backfired due to Gallius also poisoning Vatio so that he could eliminate all potential rivals, which in turn meant that Temecleus was never poisoned as Vatio hadn't yet accomplished the deed. When the half-orc learned of the plot he rallied his supporters and dragged his uncle before a council of Erabisian judges (something that astonished most people who assumed that he would simply kill the man in retribution). The judges unanimously condemned Gallius to prison and Temecleus, now the heir apparent, sent his uncle to the dungeons without protest. However, when King Florus finally died, the crown was not on Temecleus's head for a day before he dragged his uncle from his cell and set about having him slowly and publicly dismembered.

Not long after he called his war council together and began planning the conquest of the Freedlands to the west, claiming that like Yoriah before him, he had had a vision from Erabis that the time was right to conquer the more of the Northlands. But for all his piety and supposed visions, the idea of such a costly and potentially devastating war did not sit well with Temecleus's advisers who warned the king that the people were likely to revolt if he started conscripting them to fill the ranks of the army needed for such a task. In frustration Temecleus then put the following ultimatum before his advisers and his people, either men must be sent to bolster Avandor's forces or they would be taxed to pay for mercenaries. While the nobles were loath to pay the taxes required the commoners were more than happy to buy their way out of service when they could afford it. So the conquering armies of Avandor then consisted of noble youths and a few experienced knights augmented by mercenary soldiers as well as those peasants who simply could not afford the war tax. As such the conquest was mixed affair of costly victories and painfully slow expansion west until the armies found themselves at the impassible tributaries of Lake Kalit. Temecleus however was satisfied as he had expanded Avandor by a quarter of its former size and let his soldiers come home.

For ten years Avandor found itself satisfied fighting to keep a hold of its Freedlands conquests, but then came the disaster of the Godsmeet and once again Temecleus called his people in the name of Erabis. While he was expelling Midwife and Reaper Ashtrans from his lands and trying to sow seeds of righteous anger among his peopel, Emperor Felix Remelius gifted him with the perfect excuse when he actually executed Erabisian priests who refused to acknowledge Ashtra as the greater of the two gods. Now with the deaths of these men in addition to the priests murdered at the Godsmeet, the people of Avandor were more than willing to march south against the obviously corrupt emperor to save people of Lattanera and shine the light of Erabis in the south.

Government

Like many of the nations in Antanides, the Avandor Dominion is a monarchy, ruled by the presumed descendants of the Archconsuls who governed the Northern Empire in the name of Lattannis. The royal family has close ties to the faith of Erabis, using their credo of manifest destiny to help keep order among their citizens and justify their expansion efforts. It is currently the time of the Valadrian dynasty, which has been radical in the fact that the family has obvious traces of orc blood which they owe to the Urkon tribe that slowly gained societal prominence. Though they look and often are fearsome, the Valadrians are also renowned for their learning and diplomacy, traits one rarely expects from half-orcs