Hyrkania (HYRK) - Provinces #50 through #57 - Player Kingdom

HYRKANIA (Medium Kingdom) -- Savage horse tribes of the interior steppes, uncivilized in all by the arts of war at which they excel, the Hyrkanians move upon a shifting sea of unrest as turbulent as the fiery ponies upon which they ride. The Hyrkanian tribes war constantly amongst them- selves but when united under a great chief they destroy armies as swiftly as their horse-archers can race across the endless flatlands which encompass them. Trained from childhood in horse and bow, the Hyrkanian cavalry has been called with good reason the finest horse- archers in the world.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, my savage lord, of the ways and history of thy people. Thy people were born of ancient Lemuria, one of the mightiest empires among the ancients. Long ago, perhaps six thousand years, the civilization of Lemuria perished in the rage of the Great Cataclysm which shook the world, tore down great mountains, rose up the oceans to swallow whole continents, and forever changed the face of the earth. Lemuria, like Atlantis, was drowned in the ocean leaving only a few survivors remaining to sail to the mainland. In the mainland our Lemurian fathers were immediately enslaved by an evil and ancient culture whose children's children were to form the kingdom of Khitai.

For thousands of years we toiled in brutal servitude, becoming almost as the beasts of the earth in bondage to that hated race. But one day began a time of slaying, of longed-for revenge, of general uprising throughout the land until everywhere the masters fled into uncharted lands or died beneath our swords of vengeance. These refugees were later to form the kingdoms of Stygia and the since fallem empire of Acheron. Oure forefathers stood amidst the ruins of cities, of a civilization in which they had never been allowed to share, and were dumbfounded. Forsaking in disgust the empire they had laid to waste, your Hyrkanian fathers moved west to their present land and became gradually a new people, a people of horse and bow upon the vast steppes of the eastern continent.

Some traitorous few of our people remained behind to join with their former masters in rebuilding the empire of Khitai. Moving westward, we left them and our mongrel kin, the Wigur and the Kuigar, behind us. One of our Hyrkanian tribes pushed south around the Vilayet Sea and began what is now Turan. Turan is kin to us but of late they have grown arrogant, calling themselves foremost of Hyrkanian descent, as if they could command us. We will never be slaves again! Each year our people have continued to drift west. There, around the north of the Vilayet Sea, we are ever drawn to our future and our destiny. Heed well now my words, my Liege, as I report to thee of the length and breadth of thy land.

Hyperborea (HYPE) - Provinces #45 through #49 - Player Kingdom

HYPERBOREA (Large Kingdom) -- Cold and heartless, Hyperborea is ruled by grim, gaunt, albino nobles and by the sorcerously powerful witch- women. Safe within their high stone keeps on the snowy Hyperborean plain, the Hyperboreans wield power far beyond their meager resources and small army. Fortress of arcane power in the north, Hyperborea is a spiteful foe to Aquilonia and quite possibly the most dangerous Kingdom of the Hyborian Age.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, O Lord of the blood, the history and the greatness of thy people. In those days ofold, the cold, bleak lands upon which Hyperborea now stands were doubtless more mild and productive. It seems each winter is colder than the last.

The first kingdom of Hyperborea was called Hyperborea the Eldar and rose into being some three thousand years ago. The Eldar Hyperboreans were the first to build with stone. The huge stone keeps which they erected upon the snowy plains gave them a tremdenous edge over their wandering Hyborian kinsmen. And in time Eldar Hyperborea became a great empire. Most of the Hyborians that they vanquished chose to migrate to the south rather than live in the thrall of our imperious nobles. These migrations were to cause major turmoil in the south and speed the fall and reformation of many a kingdom.

During that thousand year reign, blond savages in the north became increasingly more numerous and warlike, but they were ever thrown back from the stone keeps of our kingdom. The Nordheimers then began to vent their aggressions upon the Hyborians to their south, further stimulating the migration of the Hyborian tribes southward. Constant warfare with the blond Nordheimer weakened Eldar Hyperborea, until at last - - in a wave of invasion from migrating Hyborian tribes - - the empire fell, and over a period of five hundred years the new kingdom of Hyperborea was driven back by the Nordheimer savages to its present western boundaries. Later, a surge of vitality arose from the younger and revitalized Hyperborea and once again we began to hold back the warriors of that race which now inhabits the kingdom of Asgard.

These last five hundred years thy Hyperborean people have grown frigid and cruel, turning increasingly to the ways of sorcery to battle the continual onslaughts from Asgard, and to protect against the rising power of Turan in the east. Perhaps sorcery is the only way to battle the ice which has continued to creep into the land and into the hearts of thy people.

Over the last one hundred years Hyperborea has become increasingly arrogant. We of Hyperborea now look upon the world with a contemptuous eye and know ourselves for a superior race. Once fair of form and feature, the Hyperborean nobles are now for the most part albinos, grim, gaunt, and filled with hatred for the world around them. Perhaps hate is now the fire which provides the only warmth in our cold land. Thy people hate and are contemptuous of Asgard, they hate (while secretly fearing) the Hyrkanian kingdoms, they have till now lived in only uneasy peace with Brythunia, they admire the evil of Zamora while still coveting its lands, and seethe with a malicious hatred for the power of Aquilonia. This legacy is thy inheritance; to such wert thou born to rule. Heed well my words, Great One, and I will report to thee of the length and breadth of thy new kingdom.

Darfar (DARF) - Provinces #42 through #44 - Player Kingdom

DARFAR (Small Kingdom) -- The sharply filed teeth of the Darfar savages haunt the dreams of even the boldest warriors who have faced them in screaming battle. Actually composed of a various mix of tribes, the Ghanatan and the northern Tibu tribes foremost amongst them. Darfar gains its name from the scattered cannibalistic grassland tribes which most often provide the drive and leadership for empire.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, O Lord of Darfar, that thy people are an ancient and terrible race, descendants of great warriors and hunters. Thy kingdom consists of a loosely forged alliance between three major ethic groups, the fierce Ghanatan warriors, the Black Tibu horsemen, and the mixed savage tribes of the Darfar grasslands. The Ghanatan and the Tibue are of mixed black and Stygian blood. Of the Tibue tribes, not all have sworn allegiance to Darfar and some serve Tombalku. The entirely black Darfar grassland tribes are barbaric. They file their teeth, eat human flesh, and dress their hair with mud to build up hornlike coiffures.

The Stygians have raided into Darfar for thousands of years, but have remained unable to conquer the land. In recent years the raiding has increased and many are the people of the Darfar grasslands who toil as slave sin Luxur, Khemi, Zamboula and among the more southerly Hyborian kingdoms.

Yet still the travail has not been enough to forge the three races into a completely unified nation. Thy people see themselves as first members of their tribe, and only secondarily as members of the Darfar kingdom. A great monarch is needed to arouse the passions of the people into a powerful force. Heed well my words, Great One, as I report to thee of the present state of thy kingdom.

Corinthia (CORI) - Provinces #37 through #41 - Player Kingdom

CORINTHIA (Medium Kingdom) -- Secure behind high mountain passes lie the city states of Corinthia. Notable for their highly disciplined battle phalanxes and fearsome weaponry (halberd and pike), the Corinthians swiftly move towards unity as a Kingdom. A great general is all that Corinthia needs to lead their heavily armoured pikemen down upon a surprised Hyborian world.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, my Lord, that the history of thy kingdom goes back into the shrouded veils of time unto the founding of the ancient and nearly forgotten empire of Acheron.

Early Corinthia was subjugated by the evil which was Acheron. Of whence the Corinthians came prior to this, little is known. Perhaps we are descended from the ruins of the Valusian culture which, like so many others, was wrecked in the throes of the Great Cataclysm. The citadels of the mighty were dragged beneath the oceans, and out of the ocean there rose up new lands. Much later in time Corinthia broke free of Acheron, that evil which perished in flames brought down from the north by invading Hybori tribes. And after, she remained independent for over a thousand years until she was also overrun by a migration of Hybori tribes.

Amid the waste of Corinthia and her ruined cities, the Hyborian rulers and their Corinthian slaves wandered for well over five hundred years in puny tribes, small kingdom falling upon small kingdom in a never-ending succession of carnage and destruction. In time, however, the blood of the two cultures began to mix, and through intermarriage the peoples became as one. Finally, there arose a new kingdom of Corinthia, one of the last of the Hyborian kingdoms to emerge.

On this day, Corinthia is nestled in a ring of mountains as a loose confederation of smaller kingdom states. Thy Corinthian pikemen are renowned as the best infantry in the world, both disciplined and courageous. History has taken us through bloodshed, turmoil and war one hundred times. Now we look to thee for our guidance and our welfare. Heed well now my words, Great One, as I report to thee of the length and breadth of thy new kingdom.

Cimmeria (CIMM) - Provinces #32 through #36 - Player Kingdom

CIMMERIA (Medium Kingdom) -- Grim. Moody. Grey skied. The land of Crom amid hills and mountains. A warrior race, the Cimmerians are descendants of ancient Atlantis and only slowly coming again into the ways of civilization after contact with the Hyborian Kingdoms. In battle the Cimmerians are unmatched in the darkly wooded hills of their homeland and few are the invading Aquilonian, Pictish, or Northeim warriors who return from that grey land! A legacy of hatred runs strong amongst Cimmerians for their long time enemies, the Picts.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, my Lord, that thy people are descended of the might of Atlantis. Atlantis, whose gleaming spires the oceans drank in the Great Cataclysm which shook the world many thousands of years past. Long lost is Atlantis, and among her children not even the legend remains, only war and unending war with all their neighbors.

Lo, for five thousand years ther has run a river of blood between thy people and the Picts. Amongst the ruins of ancient Valusia, the forefathers of the Picts and Cimmerians crashed upon one another to destroy each other's kingdoms and return both cultures to savagery and barbarism far removed from the works of their fathers. The sires of Cimmeria were driven back from the coast by the seemingly innumerable hordes of the Picts, whose legions to this day go uncounted, into the grim, moody, grey-skied hills where they chose to go no farther.

Thy people have made this land their home, and even Acheron, its empire growing to full power and falling over twenty-five hundred years, never once boasted defeat of thy Cimmerians. Other Hyborian kingdoms have been slow to encroach upon the unappealing Cimmerian hills, and after tasting harsh defeat, have bypassed this grim land and its even grimmer people. It is true, however, by Crom's will or against it, that over the last thousand years thy people have become more civilized - -  slightly - - by their contact with the Hyborian kingdoms.

Thy Cimmerians worship Crom, a god suited to their grim disposition. Above all, thy people retain the soul of the savage, instinctively knowing what more civilized men have forgotten. It is easier to take a civilization by force of arms than to build one . . . Heed well now the words of thy counsellor as I report to the of the present state of thy kingdom.

Brythunia (BRYT) - Provinces #24 through #31 - Player Kingdom

BRYTHUNIA (Medium Kingdom) -- The land of plains and horse, the Brythunians have become a culture of hunters and farmers, ranging their wide, flat lands ahorse and unfettered. The Brythunian army carries forward this heritage with a large contingent of disciplined cavalry regiments. Split and scattered into small, widely dispersed fiefdoms, Brythunia awaits only a powerful leader to weld it together and send its riders thundering out of the plains and onto the road of empire.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, my Lord, that thy people are descended of many lands and cultures. Three thousand years past, in the toppling of ancient and evil empire of Acheron, refugees fled eastward into the largely unpopulated plains which now form the Brythunian Heartland.

For a thousand years the refugees wandered, learning gladly of the freedom and unfettered gallop of horses under a spacious sky, while retaining much of their old heritage. They kept faith in the god Set and the arboreal religion of Wiccana, worshipping a female goddess in sacred groves. During the next thousand years the survivors of Acheron built up rude and independent kingdoms across plains and absorbed into their midst another great migration of refugees fleeing to safety from the fall of the first and Eldar Hyperborian empire.

Around them civilization was dawning, the Eldar raising the new kingdom of Hyperborea, and from the Zhemri tribes to the southeast Zamora was founded. The kingdoms of Aquilonia and Nemedia were already towering in the west. During all those years and the thousand more until the present, the world was a torrent of migration and conquest. The first rude castles which had been raised by nobles of Acheron were laid to waste once again as a horde of Hyborian tribes washed their blood into this land to give it the name of Brythunia.

In recent history, thy Brythunian people have raided and invaded Zamora repeatedly, defeating them more often than not upon the field of battle. Yea, but the Zamorans have grown wise in the ways of intrigue and have yet to be conquered. On this day, Brythunia is still a land divided into smaller kingdom states, for the nobles of Brythunia are ever loathe to give up their independence. Still, Brythunia does see itself as one nation and all rally together for the common defense.

Yet the councils of the nobles are ever divided. Who of the more powerful nobles has the strength to rule all? Thy dream, Great One, is to unite they people on the road to empire under the will of one High King. To do this thou must steep thyself in the knowledge of the land and its people. Heed closely as I counsel thee with the knowledge that I possess.

Border Kingdom (BORD) - Provinces #21 through #23 - Player Kingdom

BORDER KINGDOM (Small Kingdom) -- On the fringes of the great Salt Marsh within the Border Kingdom, a new power is quickly developing. Strengthened by a surprising volume of trade (which travels northward to avoid high Nemedian Tariffs) and by a harsh but brilliant leadership composed mostly of exiled Aquilonian and Nemedian families, the young border Kingdom lies poised on the brink of empire ... IF only the fledgling Kingdom can stave off the early territorial appetites of its larger neighbors.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, my Lord, that thy Border Kingdom, while new in the eyes of others, is an ancient land, long settled by the pure blooded Hybori tribes who are thy people. All of the Hyborian kingdoms speak a legend of the past, when the tribes left the curel Northland wastes to skirt a vast swamp as they migrated south.

Five hundred years ago, the last Hyborian tribes were driven from the north by the wild giants of the Nordheim hordes. They in turn drove the tribes before them southward and took this land to be their own. The Hyborian Tribes which originally settled our land were soon united under renegade nobles from both Nemedia and Aquilonia who, with pride, first called this land the Border kingdom.

Honed by over two thousand years of warfare with the Nordheimer reavers and arcane Hyperborea, thy people of the Border Kingdom have become a hardy and warlike race. For centuries, the Border Kingdom has thrived in its bleak land, with hale mountain men of Virunian, excellent marsh warriors available from the hunters and farmers of the Great Salt Marsh, strong farmers of the Lowland Fiefs, and all under the protection of the mounted Noble Warriors.

But history is a mist which has passed. Today all this falls under thy single command. Upon thy shoulders rests our destiny. Heed well now my words, Great one, as I report to thee of the length and the breadth of thy kingdom.

Asgard (ASGA) - Provinces #17 through #20 - Player Kingdom

ASGARD (Medium Kingdom) -- Blonde reavers of the icy north, the mailed warriors of the Aesir are held in check only by their equally ferocious kin the Vanir to the west, the grim Cimmerians southward, and by arcane Hyperborea to the east. Loosely organized, the clans await their forging to a cause, or a great captain of men, to spur them over the ice towards bright and bloody conquest!

NATIONAL HISTORY

Hear me, my Lord, for if thou art indeed to sit upon the throne, as the High King of Asgard, thou wilt wish the knowledge of the rich history of thy people the Nordheimer. Long ago, thy forefathers lived far, far to the North. There, the days were long and nightfall was a cruelty of months' duration. And in that land there were creatures unknown by living me of this generation. Great Snow Apes fell upon our fathers from out of that winter world only to be dispatched in a great slaying which is said to have lasted a month and a day, until the reek of death filled the land. From out of the Southlands there came more tidings of war.

War chiefs of the ancient Hybori tribes, girded for war and leading hosts of fierce warriors, came upon our people. It was from these that out people fist learned the value of sword and axe. Praise be to Ymir! Torn by war, the ancient Nordheimer gathered their families to begin the long trek south, passing over the ashes of destruction everywhere in a world where every man's hand was turned against another. In vengeance of a thousand years and a thousand years more, thy people have driven the Hybori tribes (which they found to the south) before them and made for themselves a new land.

Of all the Hybori peoples whose lands once bordered the lands of the Nordheim, only Hyperborea remains. That country's Albino nobles have firmly resisted all Nordheim onslaughts upon their huge stone citadels. In time the Nordheimer began to war amongst themselves, two great clans growing strong to dominate the rest, the red-haired and the yellow haired Aesir. Thy people are of the Aesir, and it is from that name that the kingdom of Asgard is derived. Thine Aesir have since become hunters and gatherers, more artistic and less brutal than our Vanir kin to the west, with whom we still war constantly.

It is to thee that the clans look for guidance. The original Hybori have perished or been driven southward. Shall more blood be spilled upon the snowy plains of Hyperborea and Vanaheim? Shall we test the spirit of those descendants of Atlantis who have come to call themselves Cimmerians? Speak not yet, Great One - - first heed thou my words as I report to thee of the present state of thy new kingdom.

Argos (ARGO) - Provinces #12 through #16 - Player Kingdom

ARGOS (Medium Kingdom) -- The major sea power of the Hyborian Age, proud Argos sweeps the western sea from Vanaheim to the Black Kingdoms. Wealthy beyond its size. Argos seldom lacks for funds either to war or to weave far reaching webs of intrigue as the situation dictates. Natural enemy of Zingara and secret supporters of the Barachan pirates, the Argosseans may very possibly prove the ultimate rulers of the Hyborian Age.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, my Lord, that the seafaring kingdom of Argos was founded upon the ruins of the ancient and evil empire of Acheron. Long ago, forbearers of the Zingarans and Shemites, together with a mix of Hyborian tribes, threw down the southern portion of Acheron in a tumult of fire and sword. Less than a hundred years later, these, our forefathers, had united to form the first rude kingdom of Argos.

The first Argossean fathers learned much from the culture which they had destroyed, and soon they began to rebuild the cities they had shattered, learning the love of saltwater and wind upon the few sailing vessels which remained undestroyed from the sack of Acheron. Thy people of Argos throve naturally upon the sea and, from the mist of time to this day, they have become master sailors and traders. Zingara is a jealous neighbor and has ever considered the land of Argos to be rightfully hers. She has become a rival sea power as well as a constant threat.

On this day, the coast of Argos is fringed with vast trading cities through which the wealth of empires flows by day and the ransom of kings by night. To this thou wert born to rule, and rule proudly. Heed well now my words, Great One, as I report to thee of the length and breadth of thy kingdom.

Amazonia (AMAZ) - Province #11 - Player Kingdom

AMAZONIA (Small Kingdom) -- The female warriors of Gamburu are unmatched in the Southern world. Their fleet footed warriors are rightly feared for their ferocity and for their prowess with both the Javelin and their bronze bladed shortswords. A dream of empire calls them to seek dominion over the vast interior grasslands and the endless, forgotten jungles beyond.

NATIONAL HISTORY

Know, my Liege, of the history and ways of thy people: For as long as history has been recorded thy sisters have been a fierce, warrior race, proud and strong, taking men bested in battle as slaves -- slavery being the natural and proper station in life befitting menfolk. Our mothers in the dawn of time wandered first into Gamburu (ancient even in that misty time) to rebuild the crumbling remnants of the city which they found there. From strong walled Gamburu the first fleet footed Amazonian daughters marched, striking a lesson of fear into the brutal hearts of ignorant tribesmen a thousand miles distant. The time of lessons is now past. Rather it is a time to conquer! All Amazonia awaits now thy commands. Whither shall thy spear stab forth? Ah, but such questions may only be answered from knowledge. Heed well my words, Great One, as I report to thee of the length and breadth of thy new kingdom.