Carinthia

The Carinthian Redoubts
Politics and Religion
Capital: Pressburg Redoubt Religion: Orthodoxy Government: Monarchy Emperor: Ferdinand II
Population and Economy
Population: Human Languages: Tax Revenue: Resources:

The Carinthian Redoubts are a series of underdark strongholds built by the old Carinthian Empire during the cataclysmic final years of the Necromatic War. As the Empire's surface holdings were conquered or laid to waste by the clash of Imperial and Necromancer Sorcery, the remnants of the Imperial Army and a portion of the population sealed themselves away in the Redoubts. Although aware of the defeat of the Necromancers, the Redoubts have only recently begun to venture back to the haunted surface above them.

History

War of Independence

As the Alfar Empire fell further and further into internal political turmoil during the late imperial period, its once complete control over its outer provinces began to erode. Corruption and incompetence left the provincial administrations ill-equipped to properly manage or maintain order, and Alfar governors increasingly turned to local notables for assistance. While humans and other races had in the past been promoted into the imperial aristocracy, in the late period what had been a rarity became almost commonplace as non-Alfar rose to the highest ranks of the provincial governments and frontier legions.

The meteoric rise of members of marginalized populations within what was still very much an Empire dominated by the Alfar ended with predictable results. As the Alfar turned on each other their subject races turned on them, raising banners of rebellion across the frontier and in many cases succeeding against an Empire now generally unable or unwilling to respond with the force necessary to restore order and maintain its outer borders. Long lived Alfar nobles fighting and intriguing against each other in the Imperial Heartland were almost universally of a single mind in thinking that dealing with the frontier was a simple task to be taken care of after claiming the Imperial Throne. The loss of Kyrenia Province was just one of many blows to the Empire caused by the combination of these factors.

During the early days of Alfar expansion, the Empire waged a number of wars against the Kyrenian League, a collection of city states ruled by a band of god-blooded sorcerer kings. The last of the Kyrenian Wars saw the sorcerer aristocracy wiped out and the Kyrenian cities destroyed by the vengeful Alfar. Scantly populated for most of the Empire's history, the region was eventually colonized largely by human immigrants from the Empire's central provinces. Kyrenia Province, or Carinthia as it was called by its human population, was a model frontier region that proved to be both peaceful and productive.

But as Alfar power waned the human aristocrats of Carinthia increasingly saw themselves as being needlessly shacked to a decrepit and incapable distant power. They would find a leader in Conrad Scheyern, a minor aristocrat who had risen through the ranks in the legions before returning to his homeland. Having traveled extensively, Conrad took an exceptionally dim view of the Empire and eventually organized his like-minded counterparts amongst the provincial aristocracy. Careful planning and the almost criminally negligent actions of the Alfar Governor allowed for the secret formation of rebel military forces. In 4989 of the Imperial Era the Carinthians rose their banners in rebellion against the Alfar.

The Carinthian War of Independence was short and decisive. The Provincial Government's garrison units collapsed in the opening weeks of the rebellion, many of their troop were already rebel sympathizers and others simply deserted. The few units of Alfar regulars in the region were quickly routed by Conrad's well-trained regiments. An army dispatched by the Alfar Imperial Government was destroyed, crushed in an unequal contest that proved how deeply the decay within the old empire ran. The advantages still maintained by the Alfar in their superior magic and powerful warstriders was absent in these contests, as the bulk of those forces were kept close to the various competing factions in the heartlands. And in a contest of pike and shot their poorly maintained frontier legions proved no match for the rebels. No further expeditions were launched to recover the province, and another crack had appeared in the myth of Alfar invincibility.

The Formation of the Empire

With the defeat of the Alfar, the next task facing Conrad and his victorious coalition was the job of organizing their new nation while maintaining the ability to defend it against what they believed was inevitable further conflict with the still overwhelming might of the Alfar. The constant threat of an outside force eventually led to the decision that the new state would need a strong central authority, rather than leaving affairs to the individual noble estates. In 4995 of the Imperial Era, Conrad Scheyern was crowned Conrad I, Emperor of Carinthia. Most of a working government had already been inherited from the old Alfar provincial administration, and the work of converting it to serve the needs of the new Dynasty was relatively easy.

Ever mindful of his precarious strategic situation, Conrad turned his attention to regions of the Alfar Empire frontier on his border that had been largely isolated by the creation of his own empire. Carefully weighing the risk of attracting Alfar attention against the benefits that might come with new conquests, over the course of his reign Conrad made a number of additions to his realm. Although he never again made the daring actions that had led to his creation of an Empire, Conrad I was an effective ruler who founded a nation as well organized and prosperous as the Alfar Empire had been at its height.

His successors would continue his policy of expansion, each adding additional territory and exploiting new resources. As the decline of the Alfar Empire accelerated, Carinthian expansion increased as successive Scheyern Emperors saw less threat in risking the attention of the region's increasingly distant and impotent former masters. The largely unchecked expansion of the Carinthian Empire into often abandoned and lightly populated border lands would last for nearly two hundred years, ending only in the sudden outbreak of the Necromantic Wars.

The Necromantic War

Although the Necromantic War had been raging across the known world for several years, the sudden arrival of a vast Necromancer host on the borders of Carinthia came as an unpleasant surprise to Emperor Ferdinand I and his advisers. In their arrogance, Carinthia's leaders had dismissed even the possibility that the Necromancers would dare challenge their vast armies. The first battles of the war revealed that the the Necromantic armies, fueled by the power of the Chaos Node, were more than a match for the Imperial Army. Ferdinand himself was killed as his troops were driven back across the Carinthian Plain before regrouping and mounting a fierce and stubborn defense.

The invading necromancers were amongst the most extreme of the various factions in the greater necromantic armies, and they were more than willing to fight the Carinthians with every horror they could unleash. Plague ravaged the land as the dead rose to do battle with the beleaguered survivors. Entire towns and cities were lost, their dead populations marching into battle as the Imperial Army stubbornly continued to fight on. Ferdinand's son, now Emperor Conrad III, proved to be an exceptionally capable general and under his leadership the advance of the necromancers further into Carinthia was for a time checked.

It seemed however, that final victory remained an impossibility. As the war dragged on for year after apocalyptic year with no end in sight it was very much apparent to the Emperor and his advisors that in the end, their nation faced extinction. While on the defensive and behind its fortifications the Imperial Army held its ground, there was no way to take to the offensive against the seemingly limitless arcane powers and undead armies of the necromancers. As Carinthia's last cities came under assault, the Empire began work on a final desperate project. In the foothills of the great northern mountains, Carinthian engineers and mages hastily began the work of converting a series of old mines and scarcely remembered underground passageways into a final refuge for their nation's surviving population.

Even as cataclysmic magical forces left Carinthia's former surface domains ruined and warped beyond recognition, five underground redoubts were completed. Most of the remaining forces of the Imperial Army along with many war scarred refugees disappeared into the underground. The last messages sent by the Carinthians to the Alliance of Light reported that the Necromancers had laid siege to these last strongholds. Lack of further communications left the rest of the world to believe that Carinthia had at last been overrun and destroyed entirely, save for a few scattered bands of survivors wandering through the cursed borderlands of their devastated nation. While the Alliance was eventually successful in its efforts to defeat the Necromancers, the Carinthian Empire had ceased to exist and was for many years believed to be extinct. The occasional rumor of survivors still lurking in the underdark was not of any particular importance in a world preoccupied with the task of rebuilding from the horrors of the war.

But while the rest of the world moved on, three of the five original Carinthian Redoubts had survived. Sealed away deep underground, protected from the poisoned and cursed surface they had abandoned, they thrived. As the long decades passed the Redoubts grew from refugee camps and ramshackle barracks into thriving towns the equal of any that had been abandoned on the surface. But the inhabitants of the Redoubts never forgot that they had been driven from the surface, and the surviving Scheyrens never forgot the once sprawling empire their ancestors had built.

Now, nearly a hundred years after the Redoubts sealed themselves away, the first Carinthian soldiers and battle machines have begun to venture out from their underground strongholds to explore the still dangerous lands lost by their ancestors. Backstory recalled for consultation.

Geography

Pressburg Redoubt

Surface

Cursed Hills (5)

Gold Mine(10)

Cost: 15

Output: 325 Gold

Underground

Underdark Lightfield (20)

Pressburg Redoubt (50)

Earth Node (50)

Gold Mine (10)

Adamantium Mine (10)

Cost: 140

Output: 1,875 Mana, 1,000 Gold, 250 Adamantium, 30 Books, 3 Food

Upkeep: 4 Food

Draft: 1 Noble, 7 Common

Kassa Redoubt

Surface

Cursed Hills (5)

Cost: 5

Output: 75 Gold

Underground

Underdark Lightfield (20)

Kassa Redoubt (50)

Gold Mine (10)

Adamantium Mine (10)

Cost: 90

Output: 1,000 Gold, 625 Mana, 250 Adamantium, 30 Books, 3 Food

Upkeep: 4 Food

Draft: 1 Noble, 7 Common

Rust Redoubt

Surface

Cursed Wilds (3)

Cost: 3

Output: 25 Gold

Underground

Underdark Lightfield (20)

Mana Seep (5)

Rust Redoubt(10)

Gold Mine (10)

Cost: 45

Output: 500 Gold, 250 Adamantium, 100 Mana, 10 Books, 3 Food

Upkeep: 1 Food

Draft: 4 Common

Military

Carinthian Imperial Army

Total Points: 25,500 Gold-Equiv

Army: 15,787 Gold-Equiv

Army Air: 6,440 Gold-Equiv

Mages: 3,150 Gold-Equiv

Stockpiled Gear: 120 Gold-Equiv

Monthly Overviews

Carinthia Monthlies