User Guide

The Final War (404–418 AC)
When Thjorgard was forced to sign the peace treaty with Thronheim,
Leip required a yearly donation of 1000 pounds of Elemental Thjorad
to be paid to the Thronish Jarl. By 400 AC, the Thjoradric industry was
in a slump. The Thjoradric miners were barely mining enough
Elemental Thjorad to pay off Thronheim. By 404 AC, the people had
had enough.
The people of Thjorgard, led by a man named Geitlif Strongpick,
deposed their Jarl. They quickly named Geitlif the new Jarl, and he
promptly sent a message to Thronheim. They would no longer pay.
Thronheim responded by sending an army to lay siege to Thjorgard.
Geitlif was prepared for this and used the tunnels that snaked through
the mountains of Thjorgard to ambush the Thronish army. After a year
of enduring the hit and fade strategies of Geitlif, the Thronish army
finally left Thjorgard.
Thjorgard and Thronheim did not stop fighting. They fought off and on
for another fourteen years, until they mysteriously stopped in 418 AC.
Rumour has it, and this author believes, it was the closure of the
mountain pass between Thronheim and Thjorgard that prevented
more fighting. Since the end of the last Thjoradric War, nearly a century
ago, Thronheim and Thjorgard have become close allies. Several
Thronish Jarls have married into the Thjorgardian Jarls’ families and
vice versa. They have forged a peace that looks to last forever.
Introduction ✦ 16
Thjorgard and Thronheim had three more wars, and during that time
Thronheim was razed at least twice. Eventually, Dain’s grandson Leip
forced Thjorgard to sign a peace treaty that lasted until 404 AC.
The Late Wars (350–400 AC)
Thronheim was not the only clan interested in the valuable ore known
as Elemental Thjorad. Thjorgard was invaded by Frosgard in 350 AC,
under the leadership of the Jarl Olaf the Fat. He was bent on conquering
all of Chedian under his iron fist. He commissioned a special sword,
believing that no one could stop him while he carried a magical weapon
known as Jorhgamesh. While his army marched toward battle with the
Thjorgardian army, Olaf the Fat wandered off alone. He was beset by
highwaymen. They killed him and stole his sword. Without their Jarl,
the Frosgardian army was decimated the following day. Most of the
survivors were taken as prisoners. The ancestors of those survivors live
in Thjorgard to this day.
Several years after the death of Olaf the Fat, a warrior from Sturmford
raised an army with the intention of taking Thjorgard by force. He
claimed to be the grandson of Sven Bloodaxe, the legendary warrior who
was ever victorious in combat. After several attempts to take Thjorgard
by sea, he was caught in a storm and drowned when his boat sank.
Not all wars were fought on the battlefield. A rich Thjorgardian
merchant tried to buy for himself the Jarlship of Thjorgard. The Jarl at
the time, Roderik the Stout, was, by all accounts, a fat slob. He was
more interested in enjoying the wealth of his position than in providing
for his people. Ragnar used the money he had made from trading in
Elemental Thjorad to influence some of the people close to Jarl Roderik.
Unfortunately for Ragnar, one of Roderik’s confidants exposed the plot,
and instead of being the new Jarl, Ragnar found himself on the end of a
noose.
15 ✦ Introduction
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