Kingdom of Loria

INTRODUCTION

  Nestled between rolling hills, wet marshland, flowing rivers, jagged rocks, and scorched cliffs sits the Kingdom of Loria, a mysterious land that hides many secrets.   When man began to spread across Tarkan, some crossed the Border Hills and founded the city of Loria in 67 AR. After a while, they began to found other settlements near Loria, and united them all under the banner of the Kingdom of Loria, in 110 AR.  

TERRITORY

  Loria claims a rather small piece of territory, consistent with its relatively small population (only about two million). This territory stretches from the Spined Wood in the north to the Hallar Hills in the south, and from the Fell spine in the east to the Brimwater Lake in the west.   In all, Loria has only about 100 cities, towns, and villages within its borders, not including the 30 odd settlements just outside its borders. Only about 70% of Loria's already small territory is actually settled.  

TRADE

  Loria does most of its trade with Westgate and Northreach. Neither of them are very happy with this arrangement, seeing that they are mortal enemies with one another, but both are too busy with each other to do anything about it.   Loria exports weapons and armor to both sides in this conflict, but without the either side knowing it. It also does a small amount of trade in metal products, such as tools, simple machines, and construction equipment.   Some peddlers from Loria do trade in Westgate, and a handful do so in Eticia. These peddlers always do good business, but intense guild regulation makes it difficult to get into the business.  

GOVERNMENT

  Loria is a monarchy, but does not have the feudal system found in Westgate or the Baronies. Instead, smaller provinces of land in Loria are ruled by elected barons, who do swear fealty to the king, but do not necessarily function as vassals.   Instead, these barons act as representatives to a Parliament-like council (you may have noticed that this is a very common type of government in Emmerraine) which oversees national affairs. The King or Queen acts as head of state, and could disband the Council and assume full power if he so wished. However, this is unlikely to ever happen, as it would be an extremely unpopular move.