The Campaign Builder's Guild

The Sovereign State of Hrondain has had a turbulent, bloody, and regularly violent history. It is considered to be the spiritual home of the wide-spanning Hrundic religion, which is the main reason for its sustained independence. It is also one of only three nations which lie along the Great Border, which is the point at which the Core is considered to become the Rimworld - where, rather than fading gradually in and out, magic and technology workability levels drop and rise vastly on either side. Nobody can explain this phenomenon, but it has made for a very interesting nation.

 History

 The first Hrunds

It is unknown when the original Hrundic people arrived in what is now known as Hrondain, however, their legends claim that it was at least two thousand years before the current date. Records of Hrund-speaking peoples in the area predate that by almost five-hundred years, meaning that there were Hrundic groups in the area at least 2500 years ago. Legends state that they displaced other humans already living there with the power of their gods. These original Hrunds seem to have been magically and technologically quite advanced - they possessed ironworking techiques, and quite possibly steelworking techniques as well, and had a strong shamanic class. They built settlements here and lived in a tribe-based society, fighting one another and other groups on a regular basis. They sometimes worked the gold which was relatively easily found in the streams running down from the Báa Mountains, and gold jewelry from the period has been, on occasion, found in the tombs of dead goblins.

 Arrival of the Dayn

The Dayn Empire forcibly united many 'barbarous' peoples of the time, including the Hrunds, and around 2200 years ago, they arrived in Hrondain with steel weapons and thick armour and all sorts of unpleasant tactics. Their subjugation of the Hrunds was quite rapid. The enslavement of around half of the Hrunds created large diaspora communities, ignorant or aware of their heritage, in such faraway places as Baddan-Reb (halfway to the Rim) and Da'han. This in itself contributed widely to the spread of the Hrundic religion and its later conversion to the 'New Hrundicism' accepted by millions across the world today. Other Hrunds were kept as serfs in the Dayn province of Rundynn (Daynicised Hróndén). However, as was the practice, towards the end of the Dayn Empire the Grand High Empyratt ordered the expulsion of the Hrunds from Hrondain, offering it as land to the ever-encroaching goblins of XHabÁ.

 Goblin Nation of XHabÁ  

The XHabÁ goblin group grew extremely rapidly due to a rise in available prey in their territories. Due to this, XHabÁ goblins began moving into Hrundain in search of new meat. The Dayns called their offering of Hrondain the 'Goblin Nation of XHabÁ', as was often their translation for the XHabÁ's full name for themselves. Of course, the XHabÁ were not really a nation, not in the human sense of the word. Despite this, the XHabÁ in Hrondain had numerous chieftains - including BÁbuu, infamous for his unification of thousands of goblin families under one banner and his subsequent raids into the crumbling Dayn Empire.

 Humanist Invasions

Five hundred years ago, the Humanist Movement began calling for an invasion of Hrundain to reclaim the land from the 'savage goblins'. The initial invasion was a great success and drove XHabÁ goblins back nearly a hundred miles from the current borders of Hrondain. However, there were few settlers willing to plunge into the uncultivated, swampy wasteland of Rimways Hrondain or try and eke out a living in rocky, Coreways Hrondain. A few monasteries and tiny farming communities were set up by new-Hrundicists (most of whom had little or no actual Hrund ancestry), and some of these remain to this day. However, the goblins soon started returning to Hrondain. Seven more attempted Humanist invasions of Hrondain occurred, none of which were much more successful than the first. However, the final invasion did clear Hrondain for the First Hrundic Return. It left Hrondain as part of the greater nation of Annam-Ashé.

 Hrundic Returns

At around the time of the sixth Humanist invasion (about two-hundred years ago) an Old Hrundic revivalist movement arose amongst the diaspora communities of Baddan-Reb, Da'han and Ashé. These movements found it hard to connect due to language barriers, but their liturgical language had remained (to some extent at least) a variant of Hrundic. Whilst there were large dialectal differences, these were worked around. The revivalist movement had been studying a prospective Hrundic nation, especially due to recent prejudice by other peoples and the growing economic problems in Baddan-Reb. The idea of having it in Hrondain itself - recently rediscovered as the home of the Hrunds by archaeologists - seemed a comparatively easy one to achieve - at least from a political point of view - and so quite a few Hrunds joined the next humanist invasion of Hrondain. Whilst life in the Rimways Hrondain was hard, they began setting up farming communities, and this was called the 'First Hrundic Return'.

The second return came with the seventh Humanist invasion, which was more like a wave of settlers - most of them Hrunds encouraged by various different rumours of gold in the rivers and easily farmable land (whilst in reality, the task of making the land farmable at all was a cripplingly difficult one). This seventh invasion truly broke the back of the goblins, at least in Rimways Hrundain. Despite the difficult work, this actually seemed possible - the Hrunds might finally have a new nation! These efforts were led by the recognised prophet and Ashé-Hrundic revivalist known as Maadán Hreind, who worked towards an actual nation by setting up communities and helping fund the setting-up of councils which all answered to one central body - the Great Council (of which he himself was a main leader).

The third and final return began with the declaration of independence in the (at the same time) newly declared capital city of Hrund-u-Bár, deep in the midst of the still-undrained swamps of northern Hrondain. This declared the state of 'Hrondain' sovereign from all other nations as the spiritual and physical home of the Hrundic people. It also set out the borders of Hrondain (about the same size as they are currently). This was about seventy years ago. This declaration of independence was not quite so rebellious as one might think - Maadán Hreind did a rather secretive deal with the government of Annam-Ashé to allow this move to go ahead. It now shared a northern border with Reb, a Coreways border with unclaimed territory (dubiously 'goblin lands') and was otherwise enveloped by Annam-Ashé. The new Hrundic state offered benefits and safety to any Old Hrund who chose to live there, and soon, immigrants were pouring in. These immigrants set up new communities, drained the swamps into man-made reservoirs which were then used to irrigate the drier lands Coreways, and effectively turned Hrondain into a semi-modern state over the course of twenty years. Since then, it has only become more and more modern. It is only recently that the great Cathedral of the Holy Five has been completed in Hrund-u-Bár, replacing an earlier minor temple that could not accomodate the New and Old Hrundic pilgrims that visited there on regular occasions. The smaller, but equally as important, Sacred Temple of the Eighty-Five Prophets was recently completed well into Core Hrondain. Hrondain's economy relies strongly on agriculture, gold-sifting in the streams, and tourism/pilgrimage.

 Economy

As mentioned, Hrondain's modern economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and gold-sifting, although the government has been making an effort to industrialise the Rimways areas, with mixed measures of success. Most of Hrondain's technological goods are imported. There is an immense drop in quality of life in Coreways Hrondain, mainly because of the difficulties of electrifying these areas. Life is much simpler here, but it is hard to escape - houses in these areas only sell to a certain type of person, generally religious hermits, so it is hard to get any money to move elsewhere. All Hrondain's Rimways settlements are electrified and provided with gas and water by the government.

 Demographics

Statistically speaking, Hrondain is made up of about 78% Old Hrunds, 12% Ethnic New Hrunds (New Hrunds born in Hrondain, often descendants of Humanist settlers with their own distinct languages and ways of worship), 8% XHabÁ goblins (most of whom live on the two Goblin 'reservations' in Coreways Hrondain) and 2% 'other' (mainly non-Hrund immigrants). The official language is stated as 'Hrund', however, there are at least seven different mutually-unintelligible dialects of Hrund spoken in different areas in the nation. The 'common' Hrund spoken between different linguistic groups relies a lot on the restricted 'core' Hrundic vocabulary, with many variations in pronunciation and loanwords from (primarily) the Ashean languages. XHabÁ is spoken by goblins, primarily on the Reservations (most goblins living in cities are either integrated or non-XHabÁ immigrants). Finally, several other languages are spoken by the 'ethnic new Hrunds', who are primarily Ashean and Rebbin and thus generally speak languages of those nations, sometimes slightly archaically, amongst themselves. Almost all of these minority languages' speakers are bilingual in some form of Hrund.

 Education

Almost all humans living in Hrondain are literate in the common Hrund language, either in Ashean or Hrundic characters, and education is compulsory for humans up to the age of 15. Further education is mostly taken by gifted pupils in specialist colleges throughout the country. The most interesting of these colleges are the two magical colleges, situated in Corewards Hrondain. Basic laws of magic are part of the school curriculum in most areas (it is not totally standardised), and graduates of these schools often become quite powerful. Despite this, a qualification in Arts of Magic is often seen not as a useful skill but as a mark of intelligence - magical skills are rarely required in Rimways life.

I think you would need to differentiate the education system from culture to culture with an additional contrast of these systems with RL one's as a basis point.

Also, Education is hugely in correlation with technology and industry. When I say this, I mean it would be good if you could outline your worlds technological progress along side basic textbook knowledge and from this contrast the progress of industry and education in general. This way, things would be a lot more in perspective rather than just assuming certain things here and there.

An evocative and detailed history, and I'm enjoying the juxtopositions of high-tech and barbarianism with the shamanic elements and tribal influences.

I seem to be pestering you about names today, but is the Goblin Nation "XHabA" or is my browser not displaying some compound letters/symbols correctly?  If that's the name, I find it more than a little odd - capital letters halfway through make the name sound unbelievable, at least to me.

That said, I love the name "Hrund-u-Bár," and the city in general could be really intriguing - on the frontier, built in a swamp, etc.  I'd love to hear more about it.