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Towering over one of the many islands in the Reik by Essel, the massive promontory known simply as The Stone can be seen for miles around. A winding path coils up the steep, craggy face from the small, seemingly insignificant jetty at its base to the severe walls of the squat citadel crowning the rocky mount. Captains give it a wide berth when they pass, the more superstitious among them making an offering of salt and steel to Grandfather Reik to safeguard their passage. No pennants fly atop the grim battlements, though the occasional gleam from a guard’s helmet attests to the troops patrolling the ramparts.
Unknown to most, the Stone is a secure prison containing dangerous criminals that, for various sensitive, political reasons cannot simply be executed. Some have powerful friends and family, or are themselves nobles whose crimes, if publicly acknowledged would cause scandal and shame to the great and good of the Reikland. Others are political hostages, held to ensure the compliance of wayward relatives. And, of course, a few simply know too much, their precious secrets safeguarded in The Stone against their future need. No-one really knows about the conditions within The Stone’s walls; no-one really wants to ask.
Etelka III of House Toppenheimer, Grand Baroness of Sudenland, Elector Countess, Baroness of Pfieldorf, and Baroness of Geschberg, is based in Pfeildorf. Aged 51; her named heir is her adopted son, Baron Olaf Sektliebe, a source of much consternation amongst her 12 children.
The Land
Far to the south, almost out of sight and often out of mind of the rest of the Empire, sits the Grand Province of Sudenland, ruled by the Grand Baroness Etelka Morella von Toppenheimer. One of the newest Grand Provinces, Sudenland was created by Magnus the Pious in 2305 IC from the ruins of lost Solland, devastated in Gorbag Ironclaw’s invasion of 1712, and the southern half of Wissenland, something Wissenlanders in both provinces still resent.
Shaped like an arrowhead, Sudenland lies between the Worlds Edge Mountains to the west, the Upper Reik and Averland to the east, and Nuln to the north. The Black Mountains and the Dwarf kingdoms including Khazid Hafal, Karak Gantuk, Karak Hirn, and Karak Anghazhar form its southern boundaries. It rises from rich farmland in the area of Pfeildorf for about 100 miles to the south, then climbs gradually through lightly wooded hills into lands dedicated to cattle and sheep-raising in the foothills of the Black and Grey Mountains. There mining takes over, with rich veins of copper, tin, and gold — though the Dwarfs claim the gold is stolen from their lost mines and tombs.
As Sudenland is seen as a backwater, most trade with outsiders is conducted in Pfeildorf at the great Marktplatz where the Söll and Upper Reik converge. The rivers are crucial to Sudenland’s economy, with ore and finished goods travelling by barge from upriver ports as far as Mendelhof and Kroppenleben. This makes them rich targets for river pirates, and so the Grand Baroness maintains a strong force of Riverwardens.
Sudenland controls a State Army consisting of, in addition to the Grand Baroness’ household cavalry and the town militias, a light infantry made up from the Road Wardens and Riverwardens, as well as axe-and-hammer wielding infantry from Vennland to the south. In times of crisis, the Grand Baroness can invoke treaties to summon contingents from the Dwarf Holds, though the Dwarfs successfully demanded clauses ‘keepin’ us out of your silly civil wars’. The Margrave of Vennland commands the State Army in the Elector Countess’s name as ‘Sudenmarshal’.
The People
Largely descended from the Merogen and Menogoth tribes, modern Sudenland represents a blending of two ancient tribes forced together when Magnus the Pious tried to fill the vacuum left by Solland’s loss. The two ancestries diverge significantly: the Merogens resemble their Wissenland and Nuln kin, while Menogoths are shorter, with sun-bronzed skin, and brown hair and eyes.
Sudenlanders are regarded as a quiet, thoughtful lot, as if their past weighs on them. Once known as the Grand Province of Solland, the region was devastated in the Orc invasion led by Gorbag Ironclaw in the 18th century. The people slaughtered, the royal family sacrificed to Orc gods, the lands and towns burned, the Runefang lost — it’s as if the shock of that still weighs heavily, something the province’s refounding and renaming did little to ease.
Magnus’s reforms did little to make things better, as Wissenlander and Sollanders had sometimes clashed over control of the Söll and its rich adjacent farmlands. Wissenland still resents having its southern half torn away from it, while many who live there and whose ancestors were originally Wissenlander still resent being ruled by a ‘foreign’ house. Along with the echoes from Solland’s destruction, this leaves the Grand Baroness an unsettled land to rule.
Though Sigmar’s cult is spreading thanks to itinerant Reiklander clerics, most rural Sudenlanders worship Rhya, particularly in the western, newer portion of the province. East of the Söll, the further one goes into ‘Auld Solland’, worshippers of Söll, the Menogoth god of vengeance and, some say, an aspect of Solkan, become more prominent. Söll’s priests agitate for the restoration of Solland as a Grand Province. Riots between Rhyans and Söllites are a regular headache for the authorities. The landscape is dotted with standing stones and stone circles, some still in use, though temples are now more common. East of the river old Sollander castles and abandoned towns destroyed in Gorbag’s invasion haunt the landscape. Deep in the foothills and vales of the south, it’s said that loyalty to Sigmar and other common deities is rare, and that the locals have pledged themselves to more ancient, obscure gods.
Significant Place
Kreutzhofen
Far off in Sudenland’s west, deep in the foothills where the Vaults and the Grey Mountains meet, the village of Kreutzhofen serves as an important way station for trade with Bretonnia and Tilea, due to two key geographical features. First is the Montdidier pass leading to Quenelles in Bretonnia through the Loren Forest, a route that only recently opened up after years of negotiations with the Wood Elves of Loren. Traders passing to and from Montdidier are both protected by and carefully watched by the Elves, lest they leave the road.
The other is the Alimento tunnel, a great cavern and river system that is the source of both the River Söll in the Empire, and the Cristallo river in Tilea, which leads to Miragliano. For over 150 miles, traders travel by boat under the mountains from one country to the other, stopping for rest and resupply in the Miraglianese cavern town of ‘Alimento’. Both routes have brought prosperity to Kreutzhofen and profits to the Grand Baroness by allowing her to bypass the Merchant Houses of Marienburg and Nuln. This has left some of the houses unhappy, and they would not be averse to something hindering — or destroying — trade along those routes.