The people of Nyrond have long dwelt in the wide plains of Old Aerdy West between the Franz River to the west and Harp River in the east. Most of the humans of Nyrond are of Oeridian heritage. But, there is also a strong Suel influence in the south and a mix Flan from the region’s original inhabitants. High elves dwell on the fringes of the Gamboge Forest, with their wood elf cousins abiding in the deeper reaches of the woods and in the Celadon Forest to the southeast. Gnomes and dwarves populate the warrens and caverns of the Flinty Hills, lending mineral wealth to the kingdom’s economy. The modern day kingdom stretches from the waters of Relmor Bay to the open fields east of the Gamboge. The Kingdom of Nyrond is a vast land with much potential.
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Nyrond’s foundation in CY 356 marked the beginning of the historical decline of the Great Kingdom. The ruling Aerdi House of Rax was divided. Its junior branch proclaimed the sovereignty of Nyrond, together with other satellite states, which swiftly gained their independence. These included the Urnst states and the Theocracy of the Pale. Nyrond allied with the states of the Iron League, and the old Almorian Lands, against the Overking as the House of Rax in Rauxes degenerated into insanity.
Nyrond’s people were of the same Oeridian stock as the folk of the Great Kingdom, but Nyrond became a bastion of good, powerfully opposed to its evil eastern neighbor. Nyrond was renowned for the skill of its artists and the richness of its court. Nyrond’s became famous for mages of great power. However, it was the kingdom’s armed forces that guaranteed Nyrond’s strength. Its armies were victorious on every field, and its navy dominated Relmor Bay and the Sea of Gearnat.
Shortly before the Greyhawk Wars, a decade ago, a series of incidents occurred which were to threaten Nyrond’s military supremacy. Nyrondese naval vessels and troops began skirmishing with the forces of the Great Kingdom. Ahlissa, the Great Kingdom’s South Province, gave succor to pirates raiding Iron League and Nyrondese vessels. This brought on confrontations, which eventually led to war. Nyrond fought many battles, emerging from the war greatly weakened. In the end the cost was simply too great. Nyrond swelled with an influx of Tenhas driven south by the hordes of Stonefist. While Nyrond drove the invaders back into the Phostwood the kingdom’s losses were startlingly high. Nyrond’s full coffers and large population could have absorbed that, but the eastern campaigns, waged to aid the folk of the Flinty Hills against the marauders from the Bone March, began to drain the country. Massed Aerdi armies invaded Almor, and even Nyrond’s own lands, exhausting even Nyrond’s resources.
The great battle of Karndred’s Meadows occurred towards the end of the war. King Archbold of Nyrond was trying to reclaim as much of the kingdom’s land as he could. Nearly five thousand of Nyrond’s best soldiers fell in a single day against the demented, fiend-driven armies of the Overking. Nyrond fought them to a bloody standstill, but the losses were enormous. The cost is still being felt today, and Nyrond’s future looks grim indeed.
Nyrond today is a very different land from Furyondy, where a hardy kingdom is striving to recover. Nyrond is a tottering kingdom, where morale is very poor. The Nyrondese have very good reasons to fear the future.
Nyrond is a fractured and divided land. Parts of it are thrown into chaos verging on anarchy. The morale of nobility, armies and the common people are likewise all poor in most places. Hunger verging on starvation threatens part of this land. Nyrond’s once bulging coffers are bare. The burdens of taxes and tithes are appalling.
Nyrond lost nearly 60,000 dead in the wars, but over twice this number have fled the nation. They have gone seeking work and food simple safety. Many of these emigrants have included some of the kingdom’s finest artisans and magi.
The war against the Great Kingdom cost the Nyrondese armies dear, with almost 70,000 casualties, and it exhausted Nyrond’s coffers, although its navy remains strong. Territory has been lost around the northeastern portion of Relmor Bay, and while the remains of Almor which hold those lands could be retaken by any moderate army, Nyrond has not the strength or will to do so.
Internally, the murderously high levels of taxation, which the King is forced to exact to maintain vigilance against Iuz on the northwest as well as the Bone March humanoids across the Flinty Hills, has made the peasants and common folk rebellious. Tax riots have had to be quelled in and around the major northern trade town of Midmeadow. Some farmers plead that they cannot even afford seed to sow their fields, and many livestock have been killed for food. The vital silver mines of the Flinty Hills still yield their treasure, and this, with aid from Urnst, is all that keeps Nyrond going.
Further, Nyrond has suffered an exodus of many of its best artisans, mages, scholars, and skilled folk, who have left for the richer Urnst states or for the Free City of Greyhawk. King Archbold and his advisers engage in desperate diplomacy from Keoland to the Theocracy, but with so little to offer, Nyrond’s influence is weak. Its major supporters are the Urnst states, who fear Nyrond’s fall, which would leave them with Iuz to the north and anarchy to the east.
King Archbold III of Nyrond appeared to suffer a stroke in the fall of 585 CY. Divinations revealed that he had been poisoned. Following a short investigation, the guilty party was revealed to be his younger son, Sewarndt. Fighting erupted, but Archbold’s eldest son, Lynwerd, won the day and the throne in Fireseek a year later.
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- CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
Nyrond. Great Library of Greyhawk, GreyhawkOnline.com. (view authors)