Balendor

The Kingdom of Balendor (Northern Gnomish: Rioghacht Balendracht, Cape Gnomish: Rhiaeth Balenn Túr) is gnome-dominated kingdom and imperial estate located in the northwest of Ovaicaea. Pre-dating the Old Empire by several centuries, it is the heartland of the gnomes.

In prehistoric times, the region wherein Balendor lies was dominated by giants, and during the period immediately after the fall of the Old Empire, large parts became part of the Orc Khaganate. At various points in its history, the region has fallen under the sway of strong gnomish kingdoms, unifying around 1000 BE.

Balendor was ruled by a monarchy under the Mac Corrigan clan from its inception up until the fall of the Old Empire. When the young king Patrick perished in battle, the ruling council declined to nominate a successor and ever since the kingship has been held in commission by the Ayroch of State, a council of 21 lords styled Ayrs. The council of lords led the kingdom through difficult times following its vassalage to the orcs, and eventually pioneered the country's war of liberation in the early to mid 800s. It became a founding member of the New Empire.

Today, Balendor is one of the most prestigious and wealthiest states of the empire, and plays a major role in determining internal and foreign politics.

Name
Balendor is the Tudescan name for the country in the Baiar dialect, which has come into use in Western Common. Its originates from Old Gnomish Balenenn Túrr, meaning "land of broom and hills" in reference to its geography of craggy western hills and eastern moors where broom and heather predominates. In modern North Gnomish, this is rendered Balendracht, and in the peninsular dialect of South Gnomish it is Balenn Túr.

History
The land now called Balendor covers a wide area across much of northwestern Ovaicaea, representing the core historical range of the gnomish race and its cultural sphere of influence. Gnomish hunter-gatherers emerged into the vast Karkuz Plateau and Odkar River valley over 50,000 years ago, migrating from the West Mountains. There is some evidence that they engaged in intermittent conflict with native kobolds, out-competing the small reptilians for resources, partly due to the gnomish predilection for magic. Their range expanded dramatically with the extirpation of the giants 13,000 years ago. Certain societal institutions, like that of the youthful ranging warbands, developed during this time as defensive measures against predatory giants, and now were turned outwards as a tool of expansion and colonization.

In the early Bronze Age, they adopted elven methods of agriculture and settlement, herding cattle, horses, and sheep, and building enclosed villages and hilltop forts to fend off attacks. Gnomish culture at this time was extremely tribal and violent, with raids and skirmishes a frequent occurrence; at the same time, this period laid the ground for the gnomish tradition of heroic poetry. During the Bronze Age, the gnomish tribal kingdoms became a vital source of tin, salt, timber, and limestone, and received widespread trade with the civilizations of the south. Copper was supplanted with bronze, not just for ornamentation, but for tools, arms, and armor. By the Late Bronze Age, the gnomish tribes had formed into two large confederacies or empires; according to legend, one was led by clan Mac Teyrn, the other by clan Mac Corrigan, or at least by the tribal predecessors to the modern clans. Elven scholars, skeptical of the gnomish myths, conjectured the clans to have been founded by a family of cattle-rustlers (mak Tigernos, "sons of the raiders"), and by a family of famed warriors (mak Coriganos, "sons of the spear"), whose rivalry developed into expansive tribal alliances.

While the exact identity of their leadership is hard to discern, it is clear that two distinct gnomish material and ethnolinguistic cultures developed during this time. Gnomish civilization was so influential in the local area that the moon elves, or lunara, who emerged beyond the West Mountains into the Odkar Valley, adopted a dialect of the Proto-Gnomish language, which developed to become Old West Sylvan. During the Iron Age, the southern dialects of the Gnomish language constantly evolved due to increased contact with the Soltran elves, diverging widely from its archaic form primarily by a consonant shift that turned labialized velars into labial plosives, such as /kw/ or /gh/ being replaced by /b/ or /p/. This southern dialect continued to affect West Sylvan language development, such that western moon elves effectively adopted southern gnomish language and culture, while the eastern moon elves in Vilyafaana retained an archaic dialect of proto-Elven up until around 800 BE.

Constant cycles of war and peace predominated in the early Iron Age, between the two gnomish kingdoms and an expansionist lunaran confederation along the Odkar Valley. Around 1000 BE, the two kingdoms united and conquered the lunaran confederacy, driving them either back east or southward into the lake country. This has been traditionally marked as the beginning of the Kingdom of Balendor, as the Mac Teyrn recognized the supremacy of the Mac Corrigan as high king or Ard rhi, who in turn recognized the Mac Teyrn chief as their war duke and marshal of the armies, the Towisakos. This latter title would evolve into the current Taoiseach, the chief minister of the government. The eastward-fleeing lunara brought their north gnomish-influenced dialect with them, and effectively supplanted the natives of their original homeland, resulting in an isolated form of Lunaran that retains many archaisms, which is still spoken today in Skyshroud.

Significant records from the Kingdom of Balendor appear in the start of the Middle Iron Age, around 700 BE. Prior to this, there exist religious inscriptions, funeral stelae, and some record-keeping of debts and goods going back to the Late Bronze Age, but it's only in this 8th century high period that significant records emerge about daily life, including the first written gnomish poetry. It is under these records that the country is overtly referred to as Balenenn Túrr. Two immense works of epic poetry were written during this gnomish golden age, which collect key aspects of gnomish oral lore and legend. One is the Balendrine national epic Lai of Corrigan, which serves as the core literary source for the oral legends surrounding the emergence of the Corrigan-Teyrn rivalry. The other, Glittering Gold, is the gnomish creation myth interlaced with the heroic epic of Garl Glitter-Gold; it tells of the gnomes' creation by the fae, their expulsion from paradise, enslavement by the kobold race, their revolt from under ground led by the hero-god Garl, and finally the mythic war with the giants in which Garl dies but is raised to godhood. This latter epic, while altered by centuries of poetic license, does seem to refer to events prior to the Bronze Age. Leading mythographers and gnomish history scholars have examined it as a peculiar lens into the depth of folk memory, and its effects on oral lore.

Government and military
Balendor is in a kingdom of political paradoxes. It is widely referred to as the Kingless Kingdom, as the throne has been vacant since the death of King Patrick in 412. The rights, duties, privileges, power, and authority of the Crown has been exercised in commission by the Ayroch of State, a committee formed from the twenty most illustrious lords of the realm, plus the Archdruid. The Ayroch was previously the royal council, advising the Ard rhi or High King on all matters of state. After the death of the king and the brief war of succession, the council took it upon themselves to exercise royal power collectively. It is unofficially chaired by the Taoiseach as chief minister and Steward of the Kingdom, hereditarily under the clan Mac Teyrn, but their leadership is nominal. Effective governance by the Ayroch relies on compromise and shifting alliances between the Ayrs.

Balendor is a fragmented land of many clans, each residing in or ruling a traditional domain called a tuath, which is the basic geographic and governing subdivision of the realm, akin to the shires or counties of feudal nations. Within a tuath, a clan chief has judicial and religious authority: they can issue summary judgement in criminal or civil matters, in accordance with the law code; they can raise warriors at will from their kin; they have certain rights to tax those under their supervision and to gather natural resources; at the same time, they have obligations to conduct some religious rites in their territory. The nature of distant communication makes this decentralized style of government necessary for rapid response to local crises, and also figures into the gnomish value of individual freedom.

Nevertheless, the Crown has certain rights and powers, which have increased since the Orc Wars out of necessity to provide for the common defense, including the right to build fortresses on common land, and monopoly rights on gold and silver mines. The central government is best described as a cooperative venture between the Crown and the Oireachtas, the national legislative assembly of all the clans. Powers devolved from the Crown, such as the power to levy taxes and declare war, are held by the assembly, and together they are able to wield power to govern the entire realm. The Crown nominally acts the chief lawgiver, chief judge, and controller of the army. Historically, these roles were exercised by the King as first-among-equals among the lords. With the demise of the royal family, these powers were vested in the Ayroch. Three Ayrs each act as an executive directory in charge of each of the seven ministries of government:


 * the Ayrs of War, including the Taoiseach, command the army both in peacetime and in war, maintain the standing royal army, and oversee the royal navy.
 * the Ayrs of Treasure administer the expenditures of the royal treasury, collect taxes, and record government income both in coin and in kind.
 * the Ays of Justice, including the Archdruid, oversee the criminal and civil courts, and act as the final court of last resort within the Realm.
 * the Ayrs of Diplomacy receive foreign dignitaries, negotiate treaties, and act as ambassadors for Balendor.
 * the Ayrs of Giving manage the poor-relief programs, including food and money distribution, medical care, and Crown-owned farms, ranches, mills, and bakeries.
 * the Ayrs of Commerce promote trade and commercial activity, including subsidized programs for merchants, manufacturers, lumber yards, ports, and mills.
 * the Ayrs of Roads administer the extensive system of royal roads and the postal service, and one time maintained the ancient teleportation circle network.

The Oireachtas is the deliberative assembly of the realm, composed of one representative sent by each tuath, elected at the clan assemblies by all free gnomes with property of that tuath. The assembly handles most deliberation and lawmaking duties, representing the interests of the people in the laws that govern them, possibly a notion descending from ancient tribal government, or possibly an enduring elven influence. Since time immemorial, the assembly of the clans has held certain rights, due to its nature of representing the whole of the people who consent to the governance of the Crown. The Oireachtas has sole right to levy taxes, typically through annual expenditure bills. The assembly also has sole right to declare war.

While the Crown may maintain a standing army, the condition of a war in defense of the nation has unique features. In such a situation, the Crown is then authorized to forcibly levy one able-bodied warrior from each household, and equip them with spear, axe, shield, helm, cloak, and a horse, as well as to demand the service of one champion from each clan or tuath, who must furnish their own (usually higher quality) weapons, armor, and transport (typically a chariot or a pair of horses). This army, dubbed the Furious Host, is expensive to form and maintain, and is only to be deployed in cases of extreme national crisis. When the Furious Host is called, certain ancient rituals are performed, previously, by the King but presently by the Taoiseach; the Host is sworn to an oath of vengeance against the nation's enemies, and is given license to forcibly seize food or supplies as needed from friend or foe alike, to lay waste to fields as they deem necessary (including scorched earth defensive strategies), and to take no quarter in battle. Ominously, the entire nation is then declared as one great fianna until the enemy is vanquished.

Society
Balendrine society is mostly pastoral and nomadic, based on the same tribal lines that gnomes have existed under since the Age of Bronze. Each person is member of an kin-group or clann. Typically each clan has its traditional domain, with at least one major fortress or citadel to act as the clan center. The surrounding lands are stewarded by the clan chief and the landowners; these lands are used for farming, harvesting resources, and settlement, but most importantly for grazing cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, goats, and other livestock. Gnomish society is based heavily on ownership of land and livestock; in ancient Balendor, wealth was measured primarily in heads of cattle. Cattle raids were frequent occurrences, and often form the basis of heroic legends. Due to this dependence on property, and traditions of lordship, patron-client relationships, and kin groups, Balendrine society is stratified.

Modern Balendor has adopted some aspects of dwarven-influenced feudalism, in that clan chiefs and some lesser lords are given titles of nobility and constitute a formal aristocracy, with mutual obligations of protection and military service. However, land ownership is not legally the sole monopoly of the King, and the clan lords are not tenants. Within a tuath, individuals may own extensive tracts of land, smallholdings, or no property at all. Most people are tenant farmers on the estates of large landowners, but are not bound to the land as serfs. Each clan or tribe is obligated, on oath to the Crown, to raise soldiers for the defense of the realm. In peacetime, the tribes each maintain a standing militia to fend off raiders and bandits.

One of the most remarkable and archaic institutions still widespread in gnomish society is the fianna, oathbound secret societies of armed youths. The sons of the prominent families of a clan are educated in heroic poetry, athletics, and hunting from a young age; then, in the year they turn 16, they are initiated into a warband, guided by an elder warrior, traditionally a widower, on the Winter Solstice. In ancient Balendor, each boy would sacrifice a dog in a forest grove, and after a sacrificial banquet they would drink a drugged mead that would send them into an ecstatic trance, from which they would emerge as "dogs of war". This practice appears to have declined some time in the late Iron Age.

After the initiation, the boys play a game of dice to decide their leader from among their peers, to whom the boys swear an oath to kill for or die for, and who in turn swears an oath to lead them courageously or he forfeits his life. Then then participate in a ritualized wolf hunt to test their survival skills, including skinning their quarry and fashioning its pelt into a cloak. From this point, they take on aspects of the wolf, and live off the land in the wilderness half the year, and spend the other half nearby but still aloof from host villages as rangers. After four years in the wild, they are permitted to re-integrate into society, undergoing a ceremony typically capped off by an arranged marriage to a suitable bride from other prominent families.

From the Bronze Age up until the foundation of a unified Balendor, it would be typical for a warband to venture out to raid other clans' villages, pillaging them and stealing cattle, gold, and women. This violent tradition was outlawed by the early Kings of Balendor, and replaced with mock-battles between clan warbands. The overall institution has endured as a way to train young noble men for war, teaching group cohesion, survival skills, and battle tactics. Nobility is expected to fight and defend those under its charge, fashioning a kind of warrior aristocracy distinct from, but in some ways similar to, the knightly order of the dwarven and human feudal states. To this day, the gnomish warrior elite are strongly associated with dogs and wolves, and the wolf features into the iconography of many noble families. It is believed that the early emergence of this phenomenon played a powerful role in the rapid expansion and colonization of gnomish steppe cultures from their urheimat around the Odkar River basin, into the Karkuz Plateau, Dorei Valley, and Balen Peninsula.

Despite the endurance of "barbarian" institutions, Balendrine society is renowned for its technological advancement, and certain freedoms that feudal society does not recognize. The sexes are legally equal and have equal access to property, the courts, and various social institutions, with the exception of the all-male fianna. Clan or tribal assemblies are open to any free-born gnome with property, enabling more than just the nobility to participate in politics, in a limited form of local democracy. Magic is highly revered, with particular emphasis on nature magic among the priestly class, and learned wizardry among scholars and lords. Magical ability is a legal requirement for a clan chief, and the royal Mac Corrigan were famed for their special transformative blood magic.

Balendor's cities are centers of learning, and host arcane schools, bard colleges, artificer workshops, and scholastic universities. Gnomes have long bent magic to fit within artifice, and are often at the forefront of magi-tech developments. Among their greatest inventions were the teleportation circles, experiments in teleportation magic and alchemy that used a king's blood to power devices that could instantaneously transport a person or objects from one point to another in space. This invention, at the start of the Old Empire, revolutionized travel and communication throughout western Ovaicaea. They were suddenly deactivated with the death of the last Blood King, and their exact magical mechanism still remains unknown. Gnomes are also known for smithy and infusing ordinary objects with magical power, rivalling dwarves in their knowledge of enchanted arms and armor.

Music, poetry, and storytelling are also highly respected among gnomes, and the gnomish religious establishment gives high ecclesiastical positions to lyric poets. The gnomish priesthood, collectively called the Gorsedh, is divided into four distinct grades: draoithe, filid, ovates, and bards. Bards place themselves in the courts of nobles and act as advisors, historians, genealogists, and entertainers; they comment, through satire and song, on the lord's actions in a public setting, and a bard's commentary is legally sacrosanct. Ovates are seers and prophets, with special access to mountaintop oracular shrines, and practice ancient shamanic rituals of divination. The filid are a clade of poets, magicians, judges, and teachers, who hold combined religious and judicial authority, and are a higher rank than bards and ovates. Draoithe are primarily high priests and judges, but also research scholars, sorcerers, doctors, and royal advisors; druids are the highest rank of the priestly class, equivalent to the prelates and hierophants in the dwarven ecclesia.

Social status
Social status in Balendor is constrained by written law and tribal custom. While more egalitarian in some ways than feudal society, it is still stratified into legal classes into which one is born, with strong emphasis on kin groups and patronage. Social class determines legal privileges and rights, as not all gnomes are equal under the law; while more egalitarian than some states, gnomish society in Balendor still greatly preferences the military and landed aristocracy.

Balendor's law code categorizes all people into the following social classes:


 * Ayroch, a class of the 21 highest secular lords of the realm, titled Ayr, who collectively are hereditary members of the regency council, along with their tanists (chosen heir) and immediate family.
 * Petty Kings, styled Ri, along with their tanists and immediate family. These are clan chiefs in charge of a tuath, with stewardship rights over the land and its people. These have certain rights over the land they steward, such as the ability to collect rents, impose taxes, exploit natural resources, and levy their clan members into military service at will. They also have obligations to the Crown, such as paying taxes and providing soldiers for the royal Furious Host in times of war.
 * Clergy, or nemheadh ("holy ones"), those who are consecrated to the gods. This includes the aforementioned bards, ovates, filid, and draoithe or druids. These members have functions of judges, advisors, scholars, and healers, but primarily service the community in religious rituals. Many are trained also as poets and in peculiar aspects of knowledge, such as history or genealogy. The lower-ranked bards would otherwise be classed with professionals were it not for the unique value gnomes place in poetry and music, and their legal classification with the clergy. The ecclesiastical institution the nemheadh participates in is called the Gorsedh, though the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The head of the Gorsedh, the Archdruid, uniquely possesses the rank of an Ayr.
 * Knights, the martial aristocracy composed of those within a clan who are wealthy enough to furnish their own armaments and horses, and have a position within a Ri 's retinue. They are foremost the companions of a petty king, and leaders of militia in times of war, as well as patrons of arts and crafts in peacetime.
 * Professionals, including craftspeople, artisans, merchants, and artists; as well as jurists, doctors, lawyers, musicians, poets, and scholars who are not part of the clergy. These professionals depend on the patronage of a lord.
 * Freeholders, called bóaire ("cattle master"), who own and inherit land and livestock. Their inherited property cannot be alienated without approval from their peers in their kin-group, as the land is the inheritance and livelihood of the clan. They can, however, rent out their property to tenants.
 * Free gnomes, who own little or no land but are otherwise free tenants of landowners, or citizens of the towns and cities. Free gnomes have certain rights, such as the right to own property, the right to recourse in the courts of law, the right to marry, the right to vote in clan assemblies, the right to serve in public office, and the right to travel freely. Free gnomes generally can petition for exemption from the clan levy, though free gnomes typically serve the militia as the sergeantry.
 * Unfree, such as serfs and foreigners. These people, including all non-gnomes, have few legal rights. Serfs can be traded from tuath to tuath at the prerogative of the Ri, and are bound to the land on which they live and work. Unfree residents generally do not have the right to trial or appeal to the courts of the Realm, cannot marry free gnomes, and cannot vote in local assemblies or serve the public. The right to travel varies on if the unfree person in question is a travelling foreigners or a resident, as serfs generally cannot leave without legal penalty. Slaves were once a part of this system, but slavery was abolished and all slaves were converted to serfs in one of the last laws promulgated by King Patrick in the year 410. Over time, most serfs have been freed and have become free tenants under the patronage of the knightly or ecclesiastical nobility.
 * The fianna warrior bands generally live apart from society. Though typically the sons of knightly and tanistly nobility, they live under the barest protections afforded to free gnomes. They are fed and hosted by a knightly lord for the autumn and winter months, keeping order on their behalf, and then venture out ranging in the wilderness in the spring and summer.

Although distinct, these social ranks are not exclusive castes, and some social mobility is possible. Rising upward can be achieved a number of ways, such as by gaining wealth and land, qualifying for a learned profession, showing conspicuous valor, or performing some service to the community. A free gnome can further themselves by becoming the client of one or more lords. The lord customarily grants property, in livestock or land, and the client is obligated in turn to serve their lord through payments in kind or through work. A client can increase their wealth until they can afford clients of their own, thus becoming a lord.

Economy
Balendor's economy is fundamentally agricultural and pastoral, with strong sectors in mining, commerce, and shipbuilding. The main crops grown are wheat, oats, flax, and barley, using an open field system. Sheep, goats, pigs, and especially cattle and horses are husbanded across vast plains. Most land is divided between privately-owned acreage and common pasture stewarded by the clan chiefs, with as much as 20% of land being held in common. The economy is strongly based on livestock and their products. Cattle is the main form of wealth, providing milk, butter, cheese, meat, and fat, as well as bones and hides for fashioning tools, artwork, and leather goods. They are a highly mobile form of wealth and economic resource which can be quickly and easily moved to a safer locality in time of war or trouble. The nobility owns great herds of cattle, and the system of clientage is employed to assemble warriors to guard them against rustlers and wild animals. Horses are also important, though more as a status symbol than for its economic value; horsemanship has been a marker of nobility and warrior prowess for thousands of years. Nearly every free gnome household owns a pony or horse and is trained how to ride.

While coin is issued by the royal government and kept as a unit of account, and is widely used in foreign trade, money is seldom locally used in Balendor. Instead, goods and services are often exchanged for other goods and services in a barter economy on the local level, within a tuath. However, foreign trade has been a part of gnomish economic activity as far back as the Bronze Age, when gnomes exported horses, cattle, and tin to elven and dwarven caravans. Money finds its use in enabling foreign trade, especially luxury imports from Eldunari and the southern merchant roads. The northern estuary and fjords have enabled safe harbors for sea trade since that time as well, and Balendor actively engages in trade along the arctic coast to Odkarkuz and Skyshroud, and southwards along the coast of Eldunari. Gnomes are renowned as some of the most skilled sailors in the west, with gnomish longboats the finest and fastest in the world, and gnome buccaneers are some of most feared pirates in the north.

A trade-based economy temporarily eclipsed pastoralism. In the aftermath of the Orcish invasion in the early 400s, the Balendrine economy was devastated. The best grazing pasture was annexed to the Orcish Khaganate, and most of the cattle and horse herds were seized by orc khans. Many lords were thrust into poverty, thousands of refugees flooded the rump kingdom, and banditry and lawlessness filled the land. Over a million gnomes died from rampant plague, massacre, internecine fighting, and famine. It took centuries for the kingdom's population to recover as the people adjusted to a more intensely agrarian and commerce-based economy. Towns flourished in the peninsular region, which formed the heartland of the rump state. A new class of merchants began to emerge in towns and cities, stimulated by the influx of rural wealth into the urban areas as lords sold off their excess stock. While the Balendrine economy has returned to its roots since the reoccuption of much the Odkar basin, foreign trade remains a major source of wealth for the merchant class.

Today, Balendor is a major producer of gold, tin, salt, limestone, wool, linen, beef, and cheese in the Empire, and a net exporter of raw tin, coal, lumber, enchanted items, dairy products, and finished sailing ships. Balendor is the largest producer of gold in the Empire, at over 9 tons a year, much of which is sold to the Imperial government or to the other kingdoms for minting into gold coins. A thriving domestic economy trades in livestock, meat, grain, textiles, honey, apples, and alcoholic beverages of all kinds. Other major items of commerce include fish, game, silver, metalware, and armaments. Balendor is the Empire's primary source of tin and coal reserves, the latter of which is strategically critical for steel production for the Ovaicaean imperial army. Gnomish craftsmanship and magical skill has enabled the production and export of enchanted weapons, armor, tools, and other items to markets as far afield as Tolossia, Mocryae, and Etusa.

This extensive trade has made Balendor very wealthy; its lords are some of the richest in terms of portable wealth, its merchants are flush with coin from extensive trade, and most free gnomes have some modicum of ability to participate in the wider economy. Much of this can be attributed to its territorial expansion in the early 840s at the expense of the defeated Orcish Khaganate, and from the realm's enormous reserves of gold and tin.