Name: Grenn Albraght
Age: 37
Appearance: A broad (fat) and tall man usually wearing padded leathers and other clothes of utility rather than wealth, adorned with bear or wolf pelts at the collar. When on business he likes to wear an iron gauntlet covered in oiled wrappings, to enforce his image as a warlike brute.


Known for: Brother of Markholder Cheorge Albraght. Leading the mercenary band the ‘Iron Sovereigns’, being ruthless and efficient in that regard. Generally considered a brute and not fit as an ambassador. What certainly doesnt help is his fondness for the 'velvet glove' an iron gauntlet he wears into battle on his left hand.
Dirty little secret: Occasionally brawls in some of the shadier fighting pits of the capital every now and then. Has given the order to torch several villages in the Driftmark.
Skills: Tactical commander of small company. Due to that function he knows how to set a trap and how to expect one. Ruthless pragmatist. Good fighter/brawler, subterfuge, appearing stupid.
Motto: ‘ Shake with your right hand, keep iron in your left.’

Name of the Province: Driftmark
Name of your liege: Cheorge Albraght



Position: In the west, south of Belintash, north of Dieuporteille.

Specialty: Driftmark is a region that was once the natural western border for the Emperiat, its marshes proved an obstacle for most armies of any size, and the same went for the river Tarugal that flows north to south in the Empire. The region is known as a staging and, more often, dying ground for several rebellions. Most of all it is bordered by vital roads and the Tarugal river that connect the Emperiats border regions and are used for trading of precious metals from Belintash throughout the Emperiat. Apart from that mercenaries from the Driftmark are (in)famous for their skill in battle and dubious loyalties.

History: Driftmarshes, as the Mark was called 3 generations ago, is a marshland where the Tarugal flows. Once this region bordered the original expansion of the Empiriat due to the dense woods and inhospitable terrain. It knew very few inhabitants at the time, as only small villages of determined (some say grim) farmers dotted the edges of the Driftmarshes. These farmers were constantly harassed by bandits and bands of brigands who preyed on merchants on the roads or traders that sailed the Tarugal. Many picked up and left for safer regions like Andaluja or Belintash when the region came the refuge for rebellious or insurgent armies. Central in the numerous insurgencies and rebellions was the town of Tarugerdam. A trading port on the banks of the Tarugal river, near the shortest road between Belintash and Dieuporteille. Several times was it sided with the enemies of the Emperiat, was it sacked or was it taken, but for 2 generations it is now in the hands of the Albraght family that declared for the Emperiat in time of turmoil. In return for their aid in crushing the Baradal rebellion they were granted the regions around Tarugerdam and where declared the ‘Markholders of Driftmark’ Under the Albraghts the roads are made safe(r) by tireless patrols of mercenary bands (some say the very same brigands that might’ve raided the same roads in the past) and city militias. The other cities of the Driftmarshes have been coming in the grips of the Albraght family by marriage, embargos and blatant threats of so called ‘non-protection’. The Mark is still plagued by remnants of rebellious armies, separationist towns and the ‘unnatural wildlife’ (this is still under construction, but we might insert Elves or Dryads or the like that are under threat of genocide, or just say that there are monsters in the marshes that are part rumour, part reality) but Cheorge Albraght is determined to change the Driftmark. This is both literal and figuratively as currently large sums are being invested in making parts of the marshes habitable, and providing better infrastructure (to exact toll upon).

Name:
Chugo Bey
(Bey being his title of nobility; his people do not take surnames)

Age:
39

Appearance:
Chugo stands out amongst a crowd; he callously flaunts his wealth by often wearing jewelry and fine silk robes dyed in beautiful patterns. His head has balded and his features have a way of seeming sharp and cruel. His common scowl and withering, critical gaze has a way of terrifying people, though with a smile he can put on a guise of kindness that makes him look like any boy's grandfather.


Known for:
Chugo is many things: a cousin of the Khan, a Bey of the Khanate, a true nomad born upon the grasslands, a former captain of a band of Khargat sellswords, a slave trader. He has familial ties to several of the largest clans, a close ear with the Khan, a variety of connections established throughout the realm during his travels as sellsword or merchant, and he is a pragmatic man that sees from the perspective of both those who would maintain peace for trade and those who would push for war so as to take slaves and glory. He is also notoriously greedy and easily persuaded by coin, a fact that many shadowy factions thought would give them an ear with him! For all of these reasons, he was the perfect man to send to the capital to advise this new king.

Dirty little secret:
What is life without a little pleasure? A life of scarcity upon the steppe does not lead Khargats to see temperance as any sort of strength, and so Chugo will indulge. Be it in fine wine or fine women, Chugo never says no. This lifestyle has led him into precarious positions more than once!

Skills: Ah, connections. Wise men say that knowledge is power, and Chugo lives by that principle. But rather than read books to know of philosophy or meaningless facts, he seeks to know people. That sort of knowledge can come in far more use; whether you need a thief, a murderer, or a new slave to wash your clothes, Chugo knows just the person. His contacts are numerous and spread throughout the realm, just as many of them respectable men as shady vagabonds.

Motto: A man's worth is determined by the highest bidder; a people's worth by how many they can conquer.

Name of the Province People:
Khargat Khanate

Name of your liege:
Elbek Khan (long may he ride!)


Position:

As nomadic pastoralists, the territories inhabited by the Khargats has of course varied over the years and continues to do so. Originally the Khargat tribes came from cold and dry steppes beyond the northern mountains, but climate change, tribal wars, and invasion by other nomadic groups drove them into what is now Emperiat. In their wanderings large hordes have ventured through the territories of more or less all of the northern provinces and even a few of the southern ones.

When they first invaded the realm they came into contact with the predecessor state of what is now Belintash, and conquered a large swathe of its lands along the mountain border. To this day they hold those grassy foothills under a tight grip and it is that region that is their stronghold. Those hills alone cannot and do not offer enough fertile land to sustain all the Khanate's herds and people, but if ever they went to war it would be in those hills that the hordes would fall back if they had to and defend most fiercely. In this region are also the mountain passes hat the Khargats first used to invade the south, and so the region is of strategic importance as it allows exclusive control over what few trade routes exist to the northern lands beyond the Stormpike range.
Specialty:

The first thing that comes to mind when one mentions the Khargat tribes has always been great hordes of smelly, wild, and barbarous horsemen. Khargat warriors have a (not underserved) reputation for being vulgar, merciless, and undisciplined and yet still they inspire terror. Before the days of Khargat subjugation they were seen as devils that could vanish like smoke on the open plains only to reappear without warning and defeat armies ten times their size through the use of strange tactics and unparalleled horsemanship. Though the mythical aura of terror and invincibility that shrouded the Khargats is now gone, they are still hardened warriors and their military support has played a major role in every largescale war in the past six or seven decades. Khargat horse archers and lancers maintain a fierce rivalry with the Knights of Dieuporteille; the two parties each vie for a place in the empire's vanguard and the reputation for the greatest cavalrymen.

The next thing that might come to mind concerning that Khargats are their traders, whose caravans are a familiar sight to near every major city of Emperiat and then many foreign places in the faroff corners of the world. The Khargat merchant tradition is as old as their raiding and slaving one, and so they have a way of turning a profit no matter what goods they peddle and how far. The Khargats have almost monopolized the slave and spice trades in Emperiat, but furthermore have large stakes in the salt, silk, livestock, and precious metal and gem trades. As such, being on the Khanate's good side brings much benefits in the form of wealth and luxury goods, though brutally taxing Khargat trade routes is an equally viable way to profit from these caravans.

Lastly, the Khargats have always been nomads and pastoralists. They travel in the company of friends (thousands of them) and their camps are great, sprawling seas of white yurts with massive herds of livestock everywhere to be found. The sheer volume of livestock that the Khargats control is staggering, and between all their roaming hordes they probably have as many horses, goats, cattle, and sheep as most of the other provinces put together. While much of the products of these herds go toward sustaining themselves, they still are the largest supplier of meat, leather, and wool within the empire.

History:

In the days of old, the great hordes of Khargats had kept to their ancestral lands north of the so-called Stormpike Mountains, though their trading caravans wandered to the farthest reaches of the world. They came back with salt and gold, yes, but also with tales of all the exotic lands that they had discovered. As a result, they knew of the lush lands south of the mountains, ripe for plunder, and yet hardly any of the southerners so much as knew that there was a land beyond the reaches of the seemingly impassable mountains.

So when tides of Kharigits surged out out of the mountains, they descended upon the unprepared and unsuspecting southerners like locusts unto a field of wheat. Countless thousands of the steppe nomads crossed through the mountain passes and into the south. They came looking for blood, glory, slaves, plunder, and grazing lands. When the great hosts of pagan savages rode down the mountain slopes with the bloodied scalps of their enemies hanging proudly from the sides of their horses, words could not describe the terror that they brought. With no home but the saddle and no desire to occupy conquered lands for long, they did what was pragmatic and simply razed every settlement that they came across.

Emboldened by their success, as time moved on they dared to launch raids and forays deeper and deeper into the south. (to be continued)