Northern Crown Territory

Northern Crown Territory

The Northern Crown Territory is the highland heart of the Northern Crown kingdom. It lies between the Dreadhorn foothills and the edge of Gloamveil Forest. The land is cold, dry, and open to wind. Frost is common, and crops fail often. Rivers are empty scars in the ground. Scarcity is not treated as a crisis. It is treated as law.

Land and Survival

The uplands are bare ridges, broken stone flats, and long dry channels where water once ran. Soil is thin and easily ruined. Only tough brush and thorn grow without protection. Trees are rare outside guarded groves and border-managed strips. Near Gloamveil, clearing stops at marked boundaries. The forest is not open land.

Settlements exist only where survival can be enforced. Towns cluster around controlled water sources and are built for defense first, comfort second. Access is watched. Disputes are settled by authority, not need.

Food Control

Farming is limited and tightly managed. Small walled plots grow hardy grain and roots. Dried insects and fungus are common food, especially in bad seasons. Stores are sealed and guarded. Theft is punished hard. Taking food or water without approval is treated as an attack on order, not hunger.

During severe shortages, the state takes what it needs. Compensation, if it comes, is decided later. Survival always outranks fairness.

Roads and Movement

Travel follows raised roads built over old river paths. These routes exist to move control, not people. Leaving them is dangerous and often fatal. Anyone who misses a stop risks dying between ridges with no help.

Roads are watched because they matter. Raiders, deserters, and goblinoids hide in broken channels and ruined crossings. Attacks are common. The Crown maintains patrols and warning systems, but coverage is never complete. A closed route can isolate whole regions.

Rule and Authority

The Northern Crown rules through inheritance, oaths, and courts. Noble houses hold long-standing claims that define who survives and who does not. The state keeps its own reserves and enforces its will through law rather than force alone.

Faith shapes public order. Fate governs oaths, inheritance, and judgment. Death controls burial, quarantine, and what is allowed to remain behind walls. Life runs healing and relief, but only within limits set by scarcity.

Magic is rare and feared. Those who use it are watched closely. Any unapproved use near vital resources is treated as sabotage until proven otherwise. Accusation alone can ruin a house if it cannot respond in time.

Border with Gloamveil

The forest edge is a hard boundary. Cutting stops at marked stones. Trade with Gloamveil exists because both sides need it, but trust is thin. Escorts go missing. Bodies are often left unclaimed.

The dead near the border cause problems. Disputes over responsibility delay burial. Delay leads to corruption. What is left unattended does not stay quiet.

The Necromancy Crisis

Necromancy is not rumor in the Northern Crown. It is a known condition.

Old forts, road stations, and dry channels are full of dead from past wars and closures. Cold and dry ground preserves remains. Burial cannot keep pace. Sealed spaces fail over time. When they do, the dead are still there.

Outlaw mages and corrupt officials use the dead as labor and guards. When control breaks, the dead remain. Some noble houses hide this behind claims of “private security,” making punishment slow and political.

Crown Response

The Crown does not purge openly. It controls.

Patrols follow fixed schedules. Ruins are sealed instead of cleared. Burial law is enforced harshly, but resources are often short. Accusations of necromancy lead to raids and public trials, even when proof is thin.

When a site cannot be reclaimed, it is closed and written off. Routes are changed. Towns adapt or die.

Daily Life

Most people live under rules, watch, and fear. Homes are built to close fast. Light is guarded. Darkness is treated as a threat. Outer settlements suffer the most and are watched the hardest.

The Northern Crown exports skilled labor, metal goods, and law. It depends on outside timber, medicine, and trade routes to survive. Control points, not cities, are the real seats of power.

When those fail, the dead do not stay buried.