The Haslanti League

From Thirdexalt

On the edges of recognized civilization lies the Haslanti League. Few travelers dare go beyond it, into the lands where theendless snows howl across the ice and where ancient ruins are buried and the Fair Folk wait to steal the breath and warm blood from those foolish enough to venture so far into the wilderness.

A loose confederacy of nine city-states located along the shore of the frozen White Sea, centered on the capital city of Icehome. The League owes its success to the White Sea itself, building iceships with complex sails and finely made steel runners that travel across the ice to carry trade goods and communications. The Haslanti also produce air boats, huge hot-air dirigibles heated by kerosene, which are capable of acting as mobile supply depots and troop transports during war or supplying the League’s remoter settlements in times of peace. Throughout the nation’s history, the Haslanti Council of Oligarchs has proven willing to change with every passing wind, and the League’s future has been harnessed to its ability to catch each moment’s opportunity. When the nascent League warred with the Guild and was cut off from convenient food or travel to the South, the Haslanti built their fi rst iceships. While pitiful when compared to the ancient air chariots that have long since fallen into disuse or been destroyed, the hot-air dirigibles of the League were made by mortals with mortal tools. And during the Wyldfog War, while simultaneously hunkering down to resist Fair Folk attacks, the Haslanti established the high-speed communication system that now links its cities.

Since its inception, the League has withheld tribute from the distant Realm, presenting suitable excuses coupled with polite refusals to the Imperial representatives who manage to reach the capital of Icehome. Similarly, the Haslanti have treaties with a number of Northern tribes, and they frequently cooperate to drive back the Wyld barbarians. The League cities themselves are designed with the region’s harsh winters in mind. All buildings stand at least two stories tall. In the winter, people use a dwelling’s lower doors, which lead to a warren of tunnel-like covered streets. In the summer, they use the upper doors and walk on the roofs of the covered streets. While reindeer meat, fi sh, trapped game, cheese, lichen and mosses serve as base sustenance for the nation, it is the frequent mammoth hunts that provide the ivory that is used to raise the Haslanti cities and build their foundations. While practicality rules the League, the Haslanti themselves worship spirits of ice, dream and fate and are guided by their dreams. A typical Haslanti regards his dreams as vitally important to his future and will discuss them with everyone he knows. In fact, lying about dreams is considered more unacceptable than lying about waking life, and concealing one’s dreams is socially improper and likely to induce distrust in all Haslanti who know the tight-lipped dreamer. The Haslanti League is currently in a state of controlled but vigorous activity. With the alliance with the Outwall tribes currently diverting to the north the Wyld barbarians who are the principal threat to the city-states, the League has the capacity to pursue its own projects. These projects range from excavating the ruins of a First Age metropolis near the city of Crystal (where it is buried deep in a glacier) to general expansion and planning war against Whitewall. The importance of Whitewall’s jade mines to the Realm is one of the main factors protecting it, and the Realm’s activities in the North in the near future will doubtless affect the League’s decisions. Down the northwest coast toward the West, the frozen White Sea becomes true water, with open sea breaking through the ice. Cormorants hunt up and down the coast between the fishing villages and small towns, where the sailors go out in longboats to hunt narwhals and whales, and where divers swim with trained dolphins to bring back fragments of First Age treasures from the seabed. One town along the coast, Liriel-Anneth, is said to house an entire First Age artifact, but it is full of shadows by day and snakes by night, and no sane man sets anchor in its docks.

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