The Kingdom of Arad (Herregor Supplement)

The Rise of Herrod

The people of what is now called the Kingdom of Arad crawled out of the muck of the last dark age about two-hundred and fifty years ago. It was originally a small collection of fishing villages and thorps along the coast and nestled amongst the clearings of Luksgrove and the Hills of Arn. These disparate settlements were united by a local warlord by the name of Herrod of Pem.

Herrod began as a sometimes brigand, sometimes mercenary that plied his trade along the coast. He hired out to the more affluent villages in the region and soon found himself mediating disputes between the towns. No one is quite sure of the date, but at some point during this period Herrod ceased to be a mercenary and became the accepted law and defacto military leader for what was becoming a booming region of local trade.

He eventually settled on the coast of Dawson's Bay, North of the town of Brokeshire which was becoming the hub of trade for the region. A keep was built in his honor and he eventually came to be known by the honorific of "Duke". His men still patrolled the region and kept the peace, and he became the first true ruler of the area since the fall.

A Dynasty is Born

Time passed, towns became cities, and Herrod of Pem passed on. Brokeshire was rechristened Pembroke in his honor, and his son took the mantle of leadership for the area and his father's name. By his thirtieth birthday he was crowned King Herrod Pembroke, the Nation was christened "Arad" (some say it is a bastardization of "Herrod") and the royal line was cemented.

Border Skirmishes

It was during the reign of Herrod IV that Arad saw its first real threat. The young nation had always had amicable relations with the dwarven settlements to the north, but sometimes misunderstandings occur. A mild winter lead into a wet spring that year and it saw the proliferation of a new form of mold that attacked the wheat crops. The dwarves of Bottengard relied heavily on trade with the humans for their wheat and much of their other produce. As crops failed, prices skyrocketed.

Tempers flared and the dwarven kingdom withheld several shipments of wool textiles and steel implements that had already been bought and paid for. The misunderstanding was not sorted out and the two countries went to war. It was bloody and brutal, but thankfully short lived. Both nations gave and lost ground. The humans took the southern range of the Candor's Edge known as Nul's teeth, and the dwarves took the flatlands North of Gulriver.

Relations between the two nations have been rocky ever since, though trade has resumed albeit now goes through the halfling cartels as an intermediary.

Seeds of Democracy

In the last two generations Arad has seen a shift away from a traditional monarchy. King Darrik II, the grandfather of the current King Herrod VI, came into some trouble financially during the early parts of his reign. Several members of what is now the Society of Free Merchants stepped in to provide financial aid to King Darrik. Like all canny businessmen the full cost of their help was not readily apparent. This circle of men soon oversaw the formation of an elected parliament to advise the king. Since that time the power of the parliament has grown and currently rivals that of the king himself.

The current King Herrod VI, being a shrewd businessman himself, has orchestrated additional changes into the parliamentary system that has taken the reigns of the government, establishing the King as the speaker for the parliament and the individual that calls the agenda. This has had the dual effect of placing more power back into the hands of the Monarch, as well as legitimizing the whole of the Parliament as the true head of the nation.

As an interesting side not, the current joke within the Parliamentary Halls is that if King Herrod does not produce an heir soon, the next King might just be elected.

The Modern Landscape

In these modern times Arad is rapidly becoming industrialized. Pembroke has become a manufacturing hub, huge factories belch black smoke into the skies as goods from all over the country pour in to be refined and processed.

An important discovery was the oil found near Blackstone about a decade ago. A whole industry has sprung up around its procurement and new ways to make use of the substance are discovered every day. Firearms produced in Pembroke are becoming synonymous with quality. In particular the new bolt action rifle produced by the Gildenhammer Firearms Company has proven to be quite superior to the more common breach loading rifles produced by some other manufacturers.

Finding an alternate fuel source has done little to slow the build of hostilities along the Northern border in recent years. King Herrod wants to avoid open warfare more than anything, but there are still forces in the country that have not forgotten the aggression of the stout folk and their stubborn insistence on gouging their southern neighbors for steel and coal to this day only fans the flames.

The only thing that has prevented open warfare in recent years is the formation of the dragonborn nation in the Northeast. Even this may not be enough, however, as the diplomatic envoys from Turath Nor have become a common sight in Pembroke. several members of Parliament have begun talks with the strange Tieflings, and they are overjoyed with the magical abilities demonstrated by the horned folk, as well as their willingness to teach them.

The rumors surrounding the pacts that must be sworn to learn the Turathian magic are discounted as mostly false.

• Castle Pembroke and The City of Pembroke: Castle Pembroke is seat of the royal family and the home of Parliament. The city proper is the largest city in Southern Herregor and the seat of trade in the nation of Arad, as well as a cutural hub and melting pot for all sorts of travelers from all over the world.

• Bedcastle: Once a small fishing village, Bedcastle is now the hub of most of the nation's refinery operations. This has combined to make the city both very polluted, and very wealthy. In addition, as the wealth of the interests involved in the town has increased, so too has crime and corruption.

• Blackstone: It was near Blackstone that the origional oil derricks were sunk into the ground. Tar still coats much of the landscape, and fouls the marshes around the town. There is a lot of oil related industry in the area, but things have shifted towards Bedcastle as more oil is found further north.

• Grinley: This logging town is the heart of much of the lumber proccessing for Arad. It's fed by the many logging camps and thorps that dot the edges of the Westerwood and Luksgrove, and it's also the first place to hear when another tiny settlement is swallowed by the great dark expanses of the ancient forests.

• Portswich: Portswich is a small, isolated town on the southeastern tip of Herregor. The only real significance to the village is how stubbornly it has hung on in the face of both the pirates that put to ground their, and the summer storms that blast the coast. It also has the reputation as the port of choice for merchants plying their trades in the south who would rather avoid the duties (and inspections) levied by the officials in Pembroke.

• Durvenhome: Durvenhome has the distinction of being founded by dwarves instead of men, and still boasts a sizable population of the stout folk. As Arad came to be it swallowed this small dwarven outpost with little complaint from the locals. Though the human residents still sometimes look sidelong at their dwarven neighbors with the rise of hostilities towards Bottengard, the dwarves that call this village home have been nothing if not loyal.

• Tolwich Keep: Tolwich keep has squatted, staring across the Gulriver at Dungard for nearly 90 years now. In more peaceful times it was used to levy tariffs on goods passing in and out of the country. Now its not used as much. If war comes again, most folks know the first shots will be fired here (and some say those shots are traded already).

• Dorwich Keep: This keep defends the mouth of the pass that splits Nul's Teeth and the Candor's Edge mountains. It's really a town these days, though the keep still dominates the settlement. It is an important line of defense between the Nation of Bottengard and Arad, as well as being the closest fortification to the newly anointed "Dragon's Lands".

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