Rendia

The Rend

The Rend is a rugged, hilly patch of land with small rivers snaking through the landscape, and frequent storms bashing the hillsides. There are occasional patches of forest, in the spaces between the valleys around rivers and lakes.

The Rend, due to its uneven terrain, isn't easy to farm on a large scale, but it is great for herding animals, and for building defensive structures, and therefore this is a nation of wool-wearing, meat-eating, fortress-building hardmen.

Government

The Rend calls itself a kingdom, and there is a king of Rendia, but he isn't much of a king. The king holds the only duchy here for himself, and the rest of his lands are ruled by counts. who rule cities and the surrounding lands. Villages are taxed independently by the king's tax collectors.

Politics

The Denodrians, who make up their northern border, occasionally raid their lands, but never in very large numbers, and the king is always able to send them packing without too much trouble.

However, the kings of Westingham, with whom they share their longest border in the west and south, is too powerful for him to ignore, and as such, they have long been forced to pay tribute to him.
The worst neighbors prove to be the orcs in the mountains to their east, while the Rendish have become masters of their hilly highlands, they are no match to the orcs when it comes to the mountain lifestyle, and the orcs frequently come down to steal their sheep, and their daughters, and their favorite loot is Rendish steel.

Men of Steel

The rend, besides its reputation for being windy and rainy, is also very rich in iron, and a variety of other metals, and there are many mines where these men gather metal and work it into some of the highest quality steel on the continent, second only to that of the dwarves. This is why the traditional image of a rendish man is one clad in full plate armor, and a long rendish blade to go along with it.

While the kings of Rendia generally do their best to avoid fighting any wars, they do rent their soldiers out to other nations, to fight for them, and thus it is that mercenaries make up their primary export, as they prefer to keep their steel and wool to themselves, only really selling sheep on the side, as a secondary source of income.

Economy

This has all led Rendia to be a poor nation of wealthy people. They have a lot of everything they need, they produce more than enough food to sustain their population, wool and woolen clothes are cheap, even steel and bronze are produced in large quantities, and are therefore not expensive for the average household, which is why you will see even the most modest of farmers, having a wide array of bronze pots and pans, a steel sword hanging above the door, and a fresh set of clothes for every day of the week.

However, they do not have a lot of money, because it is their opinion that all the resources they produce are for their own people, and while they will sell to the occasional merchant who passes through their lands, they do not make an effort to export their goods. Other than excess sheep, and mercenaries.