Western March
Western March Kingdom
The Western March is a human frontier monarchy built to survive pressure. It holds the western passes and ridge roads near the Bloodhollow Highlands, the Bleedsap Timberland, and the approaches toward the Nightscar Crags. The crown’s claim is simple: the March exists to keep routes open, keep raids contained, and keep famine from turning into flight. Most outsiders describe it as a kingdom of forts that happens to have towns attached.
Territory and Borders
The March controls hard ground. Its border is a chain of pass-forts, watchtowers, and patrol roads. These defenses face raiders, shifting camps, and the constant danger of mass movement when food or water fails elsewhere. The inner border is just as strict. Travel between districts is tracked, especially near cistern yards and storehouses. Old pre-Drying roads still cut through the region, and many are unsafe without escort.
Monsters and Persistent Threats
Monsters are not rare in Oblivion Vale. In the Western March they are part of the long-term map, and they shape road use, fort placement, and timber policy.
Giant Pressure in the Bloodhollow Line
Several giant types appear in the March because the ridges, quarries, and storm-exposed high ground support them.
Hill Giants raid ruined farms, dry gullies, and village edges for food, casks, and livestock. Their raids scatter supplies and bodies onto roads, which spreads secondary violence between towns and patrols.
Stone Giants treat quarries, mines, and deep tunnel works as their property. They smash pump lines and fort walls when humans dig too close, and some take workers to force stone labor.
Fire Giants seek ore, charcoal, and steady cooling water. They raid well networks and timber quotas, then enslave crews to keep furnaces running. Their presence triggers smoke, burns, and work-law crackdowns as towns try to keep industry from collapsing.
Frost Giants move through cold passes and hoard ice caves and melt pockets as private water. They break cistern roofs and steal stored water, then retreat into high routes that are hard to pursue. Some towns pay tribute for temporary safety, which creates anger and blame inside the March.
Cloud Giants hold high ridges and storm layers and use rain catchers, fog nets, and sky cisterns. They tax caravans in water first, not coin, and they can force hostage terms to secure future payment. Their control of “water from above” is a political threat as much as a physical one.
Storm Giants are rare, but they are a known coastal and storm-front power. When they appear near sea routes or cliff lines, they can break trade by sinking barges and demanding tribute in salt and service. This matters to the March because the March depends on imports that often ride those thin routes.
Giant activity creates a constant planning problem. Fort commanders must decide whether to hold a pass, abandon a road segment, or divert escorts through longer routes that cost more water and time. Each decision becomes a ration argument in the inner towns.
Road Predators and Crossing Control
Two local threats are tied directly to travel infrastructure.
Bridge-Crushers haunt old river crossings and canyon spans. They break supports to drop wagons into exposed channels, then force payment by trapping supplies. Some gangs cooperate with them for timed collapses. This has made bridge repair a guarded military task, not a civil one.
Bog-Haulers dominate marsh pockets and drowned cuts where travel is slow. They pull people under mud with leech ropes and vent choking bog vapor that blinds and ruins breathing. Patrols avoid their ground because rescues fail fast, which leaves certain routes unused for years.
Government and Law
Power is split between the crown, fort commanders, and landholders who control timber rights. The crown rules by emergency authority as much as tradition. The key legal tool is the March Writ. A writ can seize food, water, animals, wagons, and labor during crisis. It can also impose curfews, travel bans, and forced relocation from exposed villages into fort towns.
Justice is fast and public. Water theft, seal-forgery, and well sabotage are treated as crimes against the realm. Trials often rely on witness marks, ration tallies, and the word of wardens. Mercy exists, but it is usually purchased through service.
Water System and Ration Control
The Western March survives on deep wells under fort-towns, guarded cistern yards, and a distribution network built from timber pipes reinforced with metal bands. Every settlement has ration hours. Many have a second ration line for soldiers, escorts, and state labor crews. Cistern yards are treated like armories. They have fences, keys, and posted rules.
Aquifer notes and well maps are restricted records. The crown treats them as military secrets. Inspectors audit cistern levels, test seals on transport casks, and track losses. When shortages hit, rations tighten first in the outer villages, then in the trade wards, and last in the garrisons.
Economy and Controlled Resources
The March exports what it can pull from hard land:
Ore and stone from the highlands
Worked iron, charcoal, pitch, and hardware
Lumber and resin from Bleedsap
It depends on imports for survival:
Grain and dried staples
Salt and preserved goods
Medicines and plague supplies
Bleedsap resin is a controlled commodity. It is valuable for industry and fort work. The crown stamps legal resin casks and seizes unstamped loads. This creates a constant conflict between timber barons, patrol captains, and black-market crews.
Military and Security Culture
The March army is built around:
Garrison infantry for walls and gates
Pass-rangers who live on patrol routes
Road escorts for supply and water trains
Fort doctrine favors layered gates, sealed tunnels, and kill zones that deny mass charges. Patrol service is a social expectation. Many families treat a season on the roads as a duty tax. Desertion is punished harshly because it risks everyone behind the walls.
The March also maintains quarantine patrols during bad seasons. These patrols stop refugees, inspect goods, and burn contaminated loads. This work keeps the realm intact, but it also builds hatred in the borderlands.
Faith and Public Order
Life, Death, and Fate temples exist in every fort-town, but their roles differ.
Life runs heal houses and ration triage. Life priests are respected, then blamed when they must choose who is turned away.
Death controls burial discipline, burn crews, and boundary rites. Death officials often support strict cordons.
Fate is present through oath practice and witness marks, but it has less open control than in the legal northern courts.
Faith provides real blessings at times, but no answers. This keeps fear high and makes people cling to rules, even when rules are cruel.
Magic Policy
Magic is rare and treated as a risk. The March allows licensed adepts when they serve defense, repair, or containment. Unregistered magic is treated as sabotage or treason in practice. Accusations spread fast after a well collapse, a spoiled storehouse, or an unexplained sickness. Many suspected casters vanish into forced service, exile, or quiet execution.
Society and Internal Tensions
The March is held together by scarcity discipline. Most people live under curfews, ration lines, and patrol checks. Status comes from usefulness. A strong escort captain can outrank a wealthy landholder in daily influence. At the same time, timber barons control jobs, fuel, and construction materials, so they cannot be ignored.
The main internal tension is a three-way struggle:
Timber interests pushing quotas and profit
Fort commanders pushing security and seizure rights
Temples pushing relief, order, and moral authority
In famine years, this tension becomes violence. The crown survives by choosing one side at a time, then switching before any group can replace it.
External Relations
The March treats dwarven trade as vital and resented. Dreadhorn goods keep forts supplied, but pricing control and gate restrictions create anger. The March is hostile to goblinoid road-camps and wary of woodland warbands that test the edges of patrol range. It also distrusts neighboring human courts that promise aid but demand tariffs, rights, or oaths in return.
Present Condition in 3A 3192
The Western March is stable only in appearance. It endures through force, records, and controlled movement. Every winter-dry season pulls more villages into the fort-towns. Every raid justifies tighter law. The kingdom survives because it is built for siege conditions, even when no formal war is declared.