De Glace, Free Province of
by Michael Berry
Area:
4,088 sq. miles
Population:
AC 1000 - 19,712
AC 1014 - 12,187
Ethnic Groups:
AC 1000
Thyatin 30%, Kerendian 20%, Alphatian 10%, Averoignian 10%, Flaem 5%, Boldavian 5%, Kaelic 5%, Ethengarian 5%, Belcadiz Elf 4%, Belcadiz Human 3%, Hattian 2%, Other 1%
AC 1014
Thyatin 40%, Kerendian 20%, Flaem 6%, Boldavian 6%, Averoignian 6%, Kaelic 6%, Belcadiz Elf 4%, Hattian 4%, Belcadiz Human 3%, Ethengarian 3%, Alphatian 1%, Other 1%
Selected Villages: (population values are given for AC 1000 and AC
1014) Parabiago (900/400) is located on the west bank of the confluence of the Red and Vesubian Rivers opposite the towns of Nyra and Erendyl. A ferry crossing connects Parabiago and Nyra. Parabiago is the largest settlement, and the administrative center of the province.
Concorezzo (134) is a small village approximately 32 miles southwest of Hightower. The village has been completely rebuilt after being destroyed during Thar’s invasion. The village, one of only three villages (greater than 100 residents) in the region, serves the isolated homesteads and towers that dot the barren hills of the Free Province. The other two villages are similar to Concorezzo in size and provide basic services for the isolated homesteads and towers of the region.
Government:
Propraetor appointed by the Council of Princes, for seven year renewable terms. Seat in Parabiago.
Administrator:
AC 1000 - Propraetor Sophie Depuix (born AC 932, M14, AL-N) appointed AC 988, passed away AC 1012
AC 1014- Tegus Borjigin (born 963, F12, AL- Neutral) Appointed in AC 1013
House:
not aligned to any house.
The De Glace Free Province (GFP) has traditionally been independent of the Council. As long as taxes have been collected and the peace kept the ruling Princes have not meddled in the administration of the province.
Territory: The GFP consists of the hills to the west of the Vesubian River to the south of Glantri City and between the Isoile and Red Rivers. It also includes the eastern half of the Glantrian Alps.
Food:
Surplus pre-Great War/Subsistence post-Great War
Trails:
The area of the GFP is some of the most isolated in Glantri. No major trails run through the territory. Numerous small poorly maintained trails link the small communities. The GFP is a favorite destination for those who want to be left in peace and the Propraetors have respected the wishes of the people and not attempted to improve trails in the region. The lack of trails keeps travelers and caravan traffic on the east side of the Vesubian River and south side of the Red River.
Economics:
Prior the Great War the vast majority of the provinces population lived in the hills around Glantri City, Hightower, and Westheath. The province provided large bounties of fish and cattle to the neighboring Captial and dominions. However the GFP was devastated during Thar’s invasion in 1007. Much of the population of the region was evacuated in advance of Thar’s advance on Glantri City and most did not return after the war. Most elected to stay in Glantri City or moved relocated further north. The statisticians in the Glantrian Bureaucracy believe few returned because their homes, towns and villages, were looted and destroyed. They also believe that the refugee population was disproportionately impacted by the great plague that ravaged Glantri in the late stages of the war and many later died thus obviously not returning the region to rebuild. The economy of the GFP was shattered as a result.
The rest of the GFP was self-sufficient and isolated by the lack of trails from civilization which is just the way the people there wanted it. In the years following the war that mentality has taken hold in the whole of province. With the loss of so much population and labor, the GFP no longer produces a surplus of fish, or cattle. The GFP produces strictly at subsistence levels. The Glantrian Alps, along with the Colossus Mounts are the most inhospitable mountains in Glantri. What little natural resources that come from the Alps are various fine furs and occasional monsters captured to be sold at the Capital.
Notable People:
Propraetor Tegus Borjigin is a newly promoted Propraetor who served previous as the Quaestor Provinciae Thules in the Colossus Mounts Free Province. He had hoped to be promoted to Propraetor there but was bypassed for Joséphine Fortescue who had come from outside the traditional Bureaucracy and had never served in any function in Free Province administration. The two years serving under Fortescue were difficult ones of Borigin who believed he could be a better Propraetor. When the position of Propraetor came open for the GFP the Council recognized that Tegus had a legitimate grievance in being passed over and he was promoted to Propraetor and to administer the GFP.
Tegus is just marking time and filling his résumé as far as he is concerned. He makes sure the required taxation is collected and sent to the Council and otherwise spends his time hunting in the hills of his Province. He knows the people of the region are not interested in capital improvement projects and he obliges them by investing little time or effort on their behalf. The Council is happy with the situation there and has not pushed any programs to settle or improve the region, recognizing that the people of the region, including many wizards and mages, simply want their privacy and to be left in peace.
Zorasteria (M9) is typical of the residents of the GFP. She is an Alphatian wizard and scholar who used to live in Glantri City. After the Great War she left the Capital and moved to the hills of the Free Province seeking quiet and privacy after living with years of hustle and bustle in Glantri City. She found an abandoned, ransacked tower some 8 miles north of Concorezzo and took it as her own. Here she lives alone with her cat, Simone. Her daily routine consists of meteorological research and her only human contact is when she makes weekly trips to Concorezzo to get news of the world (though always several weeks or months out of date) and to stock up on supplies like vellum and staple foods.
Her tower is a typical wizard’s keep, much like the one illustrated in book ‘The Principalities of Glantri’ by Bruce Heard (GSoM press, Glantri City, AC 1000).
Visitors to her tower are unheard of in the area, locals know better to intrude on each other, and those that are passing through usually have learned the hard way not to intrude before reaching her tower. She has had none since she arrived and that pleases her to no end. Any that did come to her tower would find the front door magically locked and would have no answer to repeated knocking or yelling. Any who bypassed her magic and entered the tower would be dealt with in the harshest possible way.
Notable Sites:
Parabiago is the only real settlement of note left today in the GFP. It was heavily damaged during the Great War but ultimately spared as Thar’s main force was heavily engaged to the northeast in the Duchy of Hightower with the Glantrian army sent to relieve Blackhill. Much of the damage caused by the raiding humanoids has been repaired including the only notable site within the town, the ferry which crosses the Vesubian River to Nyra. Parabiago is half the size it was before the war when it counted nearly 900 residents. Many of the residents of the village actually prefer the way things are now; they have taken up larger residences in town and enjoy the peace and quiet of a midsized Glantrian village.
Mt. De Glace is the highest peak in all of Glantri, and of the whole southeast corner of Brun. Often shrouded in clouds with glaciers covering its slopes, it is the destination of three sorts of people. The extreme sports mountain climber who has no desire to grow old, the adventurer in search of arctic high altitude horrors that also has no desire to live to old age, and occasional scholars from Glantri (often in cahoots with the first two groups) who try to study the unique environment of Mt De Glace and the dangerous inhabitants of the mountain.
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