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Structure of the Utgard Alliance

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:37:44 +0000

Structure of the Utgard Alliance

Note: The information below is outdated and does not yet reflect the current state. It should be updated asap.

The Utgardian races have each their own way of living and handling things. Every race has its own way of choosing their leaders and dealing with other things like punishment. However, form every race a leader, or sometimes more then one, is chosen. This leader will take a seat at the council of Utgard, where they discuss matters concerning the entire nation. The council is the ruling power of Utgard. They take the important decisions and also control the armies of Utgard.

Tellurians

Tellurians live together in so-called clans. The clans consist of Tellurian families who helped each other at some point and remained together after that, often swearing mutual oaths of trust and bonding. Most clans will have some record of their founding, and most Tellurians will gladly tell the history of their clan. Tellurians are very proud of their clan and the achievements of their clan. This results in a friendly rivalry between clans, with every Tellurian trying to do the best he can for his clan. The result is a hard working race that does not quickly give in.

Every clan is very self-sustaining, with most of the clans living in their own private district in the city, every clan having its own treasury and every clan having its own resources, like farms. Some of the more wealthy clans even have their own mines or breweries. Although this would suggest Tellurians to be a very solitary people, sticking to their clans, the opposite is true. There is a lot of trading going on between clans, trading food for ore or weapons for tools. Inter-clan marriage is also very common, with marriages reinforcing the bonds between clans.

Every clan has its own leader, usually the eldest member of a clan. There is no distinction in power or position between the families of the clan, with every family being equal. The only exception to this is when the leader of a clan dies. Normally, the new leader will be the next-eldest member of the clan. However, should it happen that there is more then one tellurian of about the same age, the leader is chosen from the family with the closest ties to the founding families of a clan.

There is a single clan from which the leader is also the leader of the entire Tellurian race. This leader is simply called the Royal Clan, and the leader of this clan is the High King of the Tellurian. The Royal Clan can trace its lineage back to the very first Tellurian, the ones created by Gataur at the birth of Heimr.

The clans of the Tellurian do not change a lot. Although inter-clan marriages happen often, this usually leads to a Tellurian becoming a member of a different clan. The clans themselves continue to exist, and only rarely is a new clan created, usually only when a group of Tellurians decides to leave a city to found their own city or village. As this is a rare event nowadays, new clans do not emerge often.

Utgardian Trolls

The trolls live in small groups called tribes. Before joining Utgard, trolls were very nomadic creatures. The tribes are remnants of this nomadic past, where a few trolls would group together to hunt and live. These trolls would then remain together until they came in contact with other trolls, when there would be a chance the tribes would merge and form different tribes. This behaviour is still seen in the savage troll tribes, the Trallmalu. The trolls have continued to live like this for at least until the spiritual revolution. It is thus very strange and shrouded in mystery why they ever built a great city.

After the spiritual revolution and the great civil war, many of the Utgardian trolls started to settle down, building small towns or joining the other races in their cities. The towns they founded were usually founded by a single tribe, thus the tribes continued to exist, but in a different way. The tribes nowadays are more constant then those of the old days. To the Utgardian trolls, they act more like a family, although this concept still does not have a lot of meaning to them. However, contrary to the old tribes and also contrary to the savage tribes, the members of a tribe usually do not mate with other members of the same tribe, instead choosing mates from different tribes or even different races.

Utgardian tribes are instead together for hunting, storytelling, spiritual worship and general companionship. They are not ruled by females, but instead the wisest amongst them is chosen as leader of a tribe. This is usually a witch doctor, which is unsurprising as the Trolls believe the witch doctor's contact with the ancestors give them a great amount of wisdom. From among the tribe leaders the wisest is chosen to lead the entire race and take seat at the council of Utgard. Choosing these leaders is done by intricate rituals involving ancestor worship. Trolls believe their ancestors in spirit form have infinite wisdom and can thus judge best who is suitable for a position. This done for more things, for example, a Troll court trial is more a ritual of ancestor worship then a court trial in human terms. Not everyone is happy with this practice, but those that need to appear before a troll court are seldom happy with anything.

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 31-08-2009 20:37

About the War

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:54:14 +0000

About the War

Short description of the War

<< toc >>

History

The beginning of the War
Recent events
Significant earlier events
- Destruction of the troll capital
- Destruction of Darthoridan
- Enslavement and release of the Ogres
- Forming of the Caldera Wasteland

The Reasons for War

The primary reason for the continuous War between Asgard and Utgard is a rather grim one. They fight not for honour, not for glory, but simply to utterly eradicate the other side. The hatred amongst the races is such that they live for the destruction of the other side. Both sides believe that Heimr would be a better place without the other side, there even exist that believe in myths claiming that a new world will come after the destruction of the other side.(1) These cults fuel the hatred among their followers and among others, believing with all their heart that they are doing a good thing for their side.

Of course, other reasons also exist for the war. Control is one of these reasons. Control of individuals, but also control of groups. Both Utgard and Asgard are nations formed out of necessity, races that were fighting each other turning towards a more powerful common foe. If the war were to stop, these nations might fall apart once more and earlier racial enmities might come up again. Keeping the War going at least means you know who your enemy is, and it means you can control those of your race whom otherwise would act against you. For example, it is unknown what the cults mentioned above would do if the war were to end. They might disappear, but they also might turn on everyone still alive.

With control comes power, another reason to keep the War going. Those in control are unlikely to give away that control easily. While not every individual in a place of power sits there because he desires that power, there are many that do and those do not easily give away such power. Should the War end, the control and with that their power also comes to an end.

Another reason is profit. , for one, wants to keep the war going because it keeps their economy running. Without the war, there would be no reason for such a large military industry in the three realms and Utgard and Asgard would have to depend less on Midgard's supplies, meaning Midgard's economy would collapse and with it the entire country. Midgard is of course not the only one to profit from the War. Merchants all over Heimr profit from the War to somewhat the same degree. As long as the War keeps going, there will be demand for war supplies like weapons and healing.

Other groups and individuals also have an interest in keeping the War going. Often also for simple reasons like those mentioned above, but some of the more powerful individuals and groups want to keep the War going for more esoteric reasons.

Hatred

While the races were not created with an inbred hatred for each other, the War has caused so much grief amongst the individual races that they now hate each other with a passion and will go at length to move against the other side. Over the course of time, many events have fueled this hatred, from the enslavement of the to the sacking of , each of the races has a multitude of stories about the vileness of the other side. These stories are taught from birth to the children, indoctrinating them with hatred for the other side. While not impossible, it is rare to find members of the warring races who do not loathe the other side. These individuals are usually brought up somewhere away from their native birthplace. They are usually shunned or pitied by other members of their race, those who have had a "proper" education.

How the war is fought

Waves

Over Land

Magic and the war

Over Sea

Sea battles

Logistics and Supply Lines

Logistics for Asgard
Logistics for Utgard
- Foraging

The Role of Midgard in the War

Midgard, as a neutral agent in the war, was formed from several tribes in a response to the overwhelming force of and . Utgardian tribes reached the settlements of Midgard first, quickly put down any resistance and occupied the fledgling nation Midgard. At first Midgard started selling weapons to during this occupation at almost slave-rate prices, hoping the brutes would win the war fast and protect them from the strange and fear inspiring magic of . However, the magic of Asgard proved stronger than expected and Utgard was driven from human lands the next wave of attack. At that point Midgard would have been violently put down and cast into slavery as just another barbarian Utgardian race, but Midgard simply surrended to the occupying Asgardians, having lost all their defence against Utgard anyway and started fueling their side of the war... for a price again. This convinced Asgard that they where dealing with more than savages here and although the and considered humans to be misguided children, they put aside these matters for later worry as Utgard was still not defeated. The next wave send Asgard back home, and Midgard became Utgardian occupied land once more, repeating the cycle. Meanwhile Midgard slowly grew stronger and bolder, paying one side to protect them against the other, and selling military information, next to weapons and food to the enemy to regain funds. Still they where weak though and information weapons and food was more often confiscated or simply stolen from them than bought. Midgard was almost utterly destroyed several times during the beginnings of the war, before gaining enough footing and leverage to start actually gaining from the war.

Today, Midgard has grown large enough, with help of Human, , and other immigrants, to supply both Asgard and Utgard at the same time. The lands of Midgard now border the two other kingdoms and supply lines from Midgard are almost a constant.

The is the oldest and second most powerful of the of Midgard and they have learned much from both Utgardian and Asgardian crafters. Now they craft weapons finely tuned to the wishes of these kingdoms and although most soldiers still favor "home-brewed" weaponry, Midgard supplies weapons cheaper and faster. Apart from weapons, Midgard also sometimes supplies food, shelter and entertainment for the passing armies.

Midgard no longer allows Utgard nor Asgard to actually occupy Midgardian lands, instead the kingdoms pay Midgard a hefty sum (but far less than what would cost them if they marched trough Midgard by force) to let their armies walk trough Midgard and arrive at the enemy border completely fresh and resupplied. This forces Both Utgard and Asgard to strategically choose their attack points. They could walk straight trough Midgard and avoid crossing the great rivers with their armies or slough trough the Lhengard, keeping their armies fresh and ready for battle, but it will cost them money.

Killing fields

Killing is a crime in Midgard, so in the earlier years of the war, Utgardian and Asgardian armies that would meet each other on Midgardian soil would either ignore each other or technically commit a crime by attacking each other. The later, of course, happened far more than the former, almost in all recorded historical encounters. Ofcourse no charges where ever made, no Midgardian guard house was stupid enough to try and arrest an entire army.

To legalize war in Midgard certain killing fields where appointed. To venture trough Midgard with an army, the army must pay Midgard a relative small price and take an appointed route trough these killing fields. Within these killing fields it is legal for any Utgardian soldier to kill any Asgardian soldier and visa versa. Any route trough Midgard takes any army trough at least four of these killing fields giving the enemy four windows of opportunities to ambush the army with an army of themselves.

Because lorekeepers and other fortune seekers on fast horses follow the armies on their trip trough Midgard and sell this information to the enemy, it is a rare occasion that armies stumble unto each other without at least one side knowing about the other it's approach. This results in pre-planned pitched battles on large open fields or any other environment that has been appointed as a killing "field".

Killing fields often switch locations to give the environment time to heal after a battle. Small proto-villages follow these killing fields around and sell goods and wares to passing armies.

Illegal killing, past the fields, still occurs frequently but if this is found out by Midgard a fine must be payed by the attacking army in the form of a higher price to march trough Midgard, next time.

The Role of Mercenaries in the War

Both Asgard and Utgard occasionally employ mercenaries to fight for them. Most of the time these mercenaries are based in Midgard, simply fighting for the highest bidder. Most of these mercenary groups either operate close to one of the two borders, or are permanently stationed near one of the killing fields.

These soldiers of fortune rarely actually fight, simply giving weight to the army to get the enemy to run or surrender is often enough. Ofcourse, true Asgardian don't surrender to Utgardians or visa versa, knowing they won't have to expect mercy. But surrendering to mercenaries often means being captured and ransomed or sold into slavery. Stories exist of individual soldiers actually running towards mercenaries and letting themselves get captured instead of facing the murderous true enemy, from whom they cannot expect mercy.

Sometimes mercenaries are paid to fight each other. More often than not, little actual combat happens, after manoeuvring and skirmishes make it clear who has the upper hand. But occasionally combat between mercenaries does happen and it is not unheard of for these sort of rivals to honour gentlemen agreements not to unnecessarily kill each other and to not claim any other condition but "go home", after a surrender. More often than not though, such competitors would rather kill each other when given the chance; granting themselves a stronger position on the mercenary market.

Religion in the War

Consequences of the War

War industry is everything

(1) See , a Troll Death cult.

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03-08-2009 22:54