| The Barony of Dun Artan
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Duchy: Guardian
Leaders: Currently under Ducal authority
Population: 163,500
Lordships: Caer Cathartha, Boulder Heights, Rayder Pass, Thundering Falls
Known For: Furs, Granite, Marble, Rebellion
Major Towns and Cities: Caer Cathartha
Characters of Dun Artan: Here
Description: Located in the mountainous interior of Guardian, the barony of Dun Artan has traditionally been a thorn in the side of the isle's dukes. The numerous hollows, valleys, caves, and mountain passes make it an ideal place for anyone to hide from trouble - and there's plenty of trouble to get into on Guardian! Dun Artan produces some of the deadliest warriors on the Isle, but its main export is the stone quarried from the hillsides. The fortress of Caer Cathartha, a fastness originally built as a base for summer expeditions against the rebels of the interior, provides the barony's rulers and the oft-visiting dukes with protection and shelter from the harsh weather (and inhabitants) of the region.
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| History
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Dun Artan received its first major influx of settlers after the Battle of Tel Girade, when those least inclined to accept the rule of the Barca fled to the fens, marshes, and highest mountain valleys of the island. The same terrain that made the region so inhospitable also protected the new residents from most forms of ducal interference. In return for a regular tithe of their young men for military service and the payment of taxes, the former rebels and their descendants were largely free to live according to their own rules.
Dun Artan, as the largest refuge on the island, eventually became the chief center of an alternative tradition to the culture developing in the Barca-dominated lowlands. As the population of the isle rose, so did pressure on Guardian's scarce resources. Conflict became ever more frequent, with the "tribes" and "clans" of the wilderness willing to play a full part.
Indeed, conflict became the measure by which many defined themselves, with inter-clan feuds and raids into the wealthier lowlands ever more common. Notions of service to a distant Keeper receded in importance, with membership in the Legions and the Knights each closely associated with Barca ideals and loyalty to the dukes. Few routes off the isle were open to the residents of the interior, so the rest of the Empire became a half-forgotten foreign territory to many in Dun Artan.
The barony's own history is a litany of feuds, raids, and rebellions against lords, barons, and dukes. The nature of the clan structure - which contributes so much to this violence - has tended to mean that rulers and families can rise and fall, yet the overall situation remains largely the same.
There has been a slow blending of cultures. The Absalons, once steadfastly conventional supporters of the Barca, have in recent generations produced more than their share of leather-clad, long-haired warriors - some even openly sporting tattoos. Even the Barcas themselves, perhaps as a result of their summer visits to Caer Cathartha, have begun accepting elements of a Dun Artan or "tribal" culture - Marcus with his broad-axe, Asha with her tattoos, Adrian with his leathers and axes...
But that blending stopped cold with the current Duke, who, during efforts to bridge cultural gaps, witnessed a dishonorable tribesman assassinate Baron Ragnar Absalon in the castle at Caer Cathartha itself. The Duke ordered the tribesman crucified, and the tribe, the Nitesci of Caer Cathartha, were almost entirely wiped out by General Wilhelmina Conway and her legions in the summer of 508.
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| Politics
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The most violent in all the Empire, Dun Artan politics often seem dominated by rebellions and punitive expeditions. For many natives, however, the endemic cattle-raids and localized feuds are far more important.
Dun Artan is divided into four lordships, and the citizens of those lordships divided into those more settled and willing to accept Barca rule, and those less so. By local standards, Caer Cathartha is comparatively settled, while Rayder Pass and Boulder Heights tend to be the most overtly hostile to Barca authority. Clans from all four of the great lordships, however, have been involved in significant fighting in recent years, and the patchwork of allegiances can shift swiftly.
Within lordships, political activity and identity are bound up with the clans and tribes into which the more fractious natives are divided. These broad kin-groups tend to shift and slide through various alliances and associations as circumstances and opponents change - two clans might fight side by side against a common neighbor, remain neutral in a dispute between the Baron and the Duke, and then take up arms against each other over the division of spoils from a joint cattle raid. Disputes and relations within clans often follow the same pattern, though serious violence is much rarer.
In truth, the barony's internal politics have always tended to be extremely fragmented - something which has often suited barons and dukes alike. With the defeat of their ancestors' alliance at Tel Girade and a deep lack of trust in "higher authority", the clans and tribes have usually found it very hard to unite around anything.
In recent generations, there has been a slowly-growing movement among some leaders and bards to promote a greater sense of common culture and joint purpose. Placing the Keeper as the ultimate focus of any true Guardian's loyalty, these visionary souls have sought to elevate judgments of right and wrong and political purpose above issues of clan feuds and the ownership of cattle and watchtowers. Inter-clan marriages and agreements have formed a web of political ties across the barony, though this remains a loose association possessed of political and cultural influence rather than a formal alliance seeking control. Indeed, the highest-ranking family closely associated with the movement is House Artos, which has significant power only in Thundering Falls.
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| Succession of Barons
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508 – Present
- Under Ducal Control
506 – 508
- Baron Ragnar Absalon (b. October 1, 487; d. March 28, 508)
504 – 506
- Under Ducal Control
??? – 504
- Baron Egil Absalon
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| Geography
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Though roughly the same size as the medieval kingdom of Scotland, Dun Artan has about half its population. It's a rugged, severe land of harsh mountains that rear above the tree line, hanging valleys, sheer cliffs, and ferocious beasts.
The highest point on Guardian lies within the Lordship of Caer Cathartha, though it is Rayder Pass that has the most land above the treeline, where the cold makes human habitation extremely difficult.
Throughout, Dun Artan is well-watered - even if for much of the year, precipitation falls as snow and sleet. The main streams and rivers form awkward barriers, forcing travelers to detour around fast-flowing courses and sudden gorges. Small lakes and intermittently-flooded meadows are common throughout the whole barony, with many bodies of water providing good fishing for man and beast alike. Major roads feature paved causeways, hump-backed stone bridges leaping waterbeds, and shored-up roads cut directly into cliff-faces, while here and there one might find caves converted into tunnels that burrow through hillsides - but the barony covers tens of thousands of square miles of inhospitable terrain and such feats of engineering can only ease a minority of routes.
Towards the West, the land starts to fall away towards the Fen March, though in many places the merging rivers and streams fall in crashing cascades over high cliffs to create the riotous, thundering waterfalls for which the Westernmost lordship is named.
This power of water has helped to riddle parts of the barony with caves, caverns, sink-holes, and underground water-courses. Wild beasts, fugitives, miners and shepherds all make use of these for their own purposes.
Forests are found only in Thundering Falls and Caer Cathartha, though for the most part the trees are pine, and in many places are too shallow-rooted and wind-blown to be of much use as a resource for commerce or construction. In the rest of the barony, trees tend to grow only in sheltered hollows and vales, and rarely attain any noteworthy height.
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| Economy
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Dun Artan's external trade is dominated by the export of granite, marble and other heavy stone that it provides in seemingly endless abundance for construction work elsewhere in the Empire. Furs, some hard alcohol, wool, and cloth are also transported to the lowlands for sale among the rest of the Isle, but its quarries provide it with most of its currency.
Dun Artan houses much the same mix of professions as other baronies within the Empire, but in very different proportions. Here, most land is fit only for intermittent grazing at best. As a result, for most of the year great portions of the population are free for non-agricultural tasks - mining, craftwork, and the perennial raiding for which the barony is infamous - and rely on imports from the lower lands and Green Fields for anything beyond bare subsistence.
Raiding is in fact an inherent part of the economy among the tribes. With so much of the their food-supply on the hoof, the hardy mountain cattle and sheep are frequent targets for bandits and rival clans. Tribute arrangements are often reached, in which prospective victims of raids pay protection fees - so-called black rent - in return for safety from raiding for a period of time.
Grain and most foodstuffs are imported, as are most wooden products. The wealthier elite, especially among the more Barca-influenced portions of Caer Cathartha, often make a point of bringing in luxury goods that demonstrate their ties to the broader Empire.
The focus of crafts is also somewhat different to what might be found in other areas. As a comparatively precious resource, wood is often heavily carved and highly decorated. Buildings are almost all fashioned from stone, with the locals having developed appreciable expertise in sealing gaps and defending against the chill outside. Cloth is used as a canvas for fine embroidery and elaborate weaving, with tapestries and rugs the media for artists who might elsewhere paint. Similarly, the scarcity of paper helps to foster the prevalence of bards, loresingers, and tale-tellers in a culture where parchment and vellum are the only locally-produced source of sheets upon which one might write.
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| Culture
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The culture of Dun Artan is divided between those who accept the authority of the Barca rulers, those who may or may not accept it, and those who most certainly don't. It is a place where rebellions start, a wild place, and even the most peaceful of the people of Dun Artan have adapted to their surroundings.
Those who live in villages in the shadow of mountain strongholds, the vast majority of the population, are a strong and hardy people. They have to be, to live in the cold, rugged mountains and valleys of Dun Artan. Many warriors come from this area, known as they are for their strength and their fierceness in battle. Some, they say, have berserker-blood in their veins. There are also many craftsmen, skilled in working the stone dug out from the sides of the mountains.
The tribes account for somewhat more than five percent of the population of Dun Artan. They are those who have never fully accepted Ducal authority, who live high in the mountains off what game can be found, what few goats they can keep, and what they can either trade for from the rest of the population or, as often as not, what they can steal from those wagon trains of supplies that must cross the high passes. Theirs is a culture of honor and strength, too, but also of fierce independence: they are those who, from the very beginning, did not want to accept Barca authority, and they are those who, to this day, refuse to do so.
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| Bestiary
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Dun Artan owns the highest mountains on Guardian, and the beasts who live there are those best adapted to such a climate. There are mountain lions, large black bears, and rough-skinned boars. Eagles and hawks are found here in abundance, preying as they do on smaller creatures such as the swift rock rabbits, mountain mice, dark tree squirrels, and adorable little chimpunks. Moose and elk dwell in these mountains as well.
Even if there is not always an abundance of wildlife fit for eating to maintain Dun Artan's population, this is the part of the Empire from which the warmest furs come: beaver, ermine, fox, rabbit, and the like.
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