The Raeoran Barbarians

The barbarians of Raeor are not exactly a nation as such, but more of a group of tribes united under the banner of a single war chieftian.

History

For thousands of years after the horror of the Battle of Eternal Night, the human towns and villages of the north were abandoned by the mighty Garèan Empire. Now becomming increasingly warming and storm ridden, the deserts of Raeor region and the Valthoun Coast area were useless and empty of anything that the brused Empire really wanted. Although they gathered hundreds of fresh slave from the area it soon became forgotten.

Humans left there simply had to learn to adapt to the environment. Over the next thousand years or so they changed, their skin growing dark in the constant searing heat from the sun. They chose to bred selectively, killing the offspring who were weak, deformed or simply too small. They bred for power, often choosing to have several daughters and only the strongest son was allowed to live. Without good supplies of anything better than iron, they learned to make crude tools out of flint. They built simple villages and soon became organized into clans, and finally by 500 years after the War of the Age, they had finally prospered.

When Garéan scouts from the south entered the Raeor sands, they soon became forced back by the attack of these Raeoran Barbarians. Captives were taken for slavery but all of them showed high concentrations of magical energy. The king concluded that the entire northlands were poisoned through with magical energies, as well as other poisons from the battles and even dangerious debris from several spells. The Garéan Empire decided to seal the entire Nysale Pass to the north off with a long chain of fortresses. Several times now the Barbarians tried to break out, but they were only just beaten back.

Government

The barbarians meet every few years to elect a high chieftain, often from one of the stronger clans. This does nothing other than provide the tribes with a new a warleader.

Each tribe is basically it’s own military force. A small tribe might have a few hundred members, while the largest tribes have numbers into the thousands. Altogether, if threatened, reports suggest that the area could gather anywhere up to a hundred thousand fighters. It should also be mentioned that the Garéan goverment now believes that there are several hundred thousand more Barbarians than there really are.

Foreign Relations

It is the Garéan Empire that is seen as the offical enemy of the Tribes, but generally its any Human nation that the tribes see as hostile. The tribes really want the break free and leave the north, but the Garéans does not want hundreds of thousands of barbaric, magically-altered humans wandering about in their lands.

Religion

Generally speaking, there is no real oganised religion within the Raeor region.

Land Ownership

The bulk of the Northland tribes are scattered in tribal villages. Each village controls a large amount of territory around the village itself and surrounding farmlands. Its believed that most of the tribe is spread through this outer territory and not within the actual village itself. Because of this, even a small village of say 500 barbarians can muster a fighting force of 5000.

People

Estimates believe that the total number of barbarians within Raeor come somewhere between 100,000 to 150,000.

Economy

The overall economy of Raeor is extreamly poor. Some brave caravans ship sand and ore from the Raeor desert into northern lands but that is about it.