Alleria is an old kingdom with a rich history of trade with the people of Silverthorne. Legends among her own people tell of a time during the magriocracies when a large band gathered to shrug off the shackles of magic users. They fled their villages and fields for the better life they could find elsewhere. After begging passage through Gateway in exchange for trade concessions for all future generations, the ragged homeless entered the broad and sheltered valley of Alleria.
Rounded by mountains along three sides, and ocean on the forth Alleria was quickly cut off from the rest of the world. While Lassa was just beginning to extend her reach into the outer realms of the Silverthorne region, Alleria was already developing tradition and trade of her own.
That first group of settlers quickly became the blue blooded aristocracy of this new country and offered sanctuary to any seeking freedom from the oppression created by magic wielders. Many took up heir offer and moved farm and family to the gentle hills and fertile river valleys of Alleria.
Over the last five hundred years Alleria has developed some of the greatest poetry and music heard in the cities of Silverthorne. They invented the symphony and are dabbling in a new form of art which they call opera. It is a mixture of music and the stage acting which is found in many guilds of players in Dorchak and Vaunephasauk.
Due to the initial pact the first travelers made with the Dwarven nation of the Crescent mountains no trade may leave Alleria except by first passing the Dwarven export tariff. Since it is difficult to get Dwarves to leave their mountain homes and come to Allerian cities to partake of their tariff most merchant trains pass through Gateway and into Silverthorne.
With Silverthorne’s heavy need for grain in light of their recent war this is advantageous to both sides. Even though Alleria does not export large amounts of goods by sea, they do maintain a fleet of some size to protect their shores from the ravages of the Corsair Isles pirates. In the past they have lost several fleets in attempting to root the pirates out of that nest of corral reefs and shoal waters, so now the fleet coasts slowly up and down the coast, protecting the shores of the nation.
Many nobles of Silverthorne visit Alleria on something of a pilgrimage to experience the lifestyle of true oldblooded nobility. They find the entertainment and lifestyle which those good gentry live with to be most to their liking and often try to return some of that culture and good breeding to the lands they hold in Silverthorne.
However, many of the merchants who visit Alleria do so only once. Though the border is open, the rights of those without noble blood are severely restricted within her borders. By comparison Silverthorne appears to be a den of leisure and iniquity for the peasant class. In Alleria it is not uncommon for example for farmers to be used as target practice with a Baron’s longbow. Labor in the fields lasts from sunup to sundown, regardless of age or gender. Every fortnight provides an afternoon of leisure, provided their is not a market day or a barn raising to be done. Punishment for failure to attain the quota of work set forth by the noble of the region can result in anything from whipping to death. The life of peasantry is counted cheap among Allerians and often not counted at all.
Alleria claims not to practice in the slave trade, but peasant families are bound to the land. Those who flee their feudal lord are hunted down and executed. Those who seek to rise above their status, either to join a guild or craft, must first be branded with their master’s chop to insure that any profits they generate while working in another profession return to his holdings.
While to the nobility this is only their due for providing the land and suffrage which allows these people to live, many visitors from Silverthorne find these conditions loathsome, not to mention the discovery of a lack of buyers among a poor and downtrodden multitude.
The current king of Alleria is a man by the name of Ivan VonXierdan, the fifth king of that name. Ivan rules from the capital city of Provone where he lives in a near perpetual celebration of life with his three wives and dozen mistresses. His offspring are difficult to tally due to his rapacious nature, and may number well over fifty when all is said and done. His current favorite among them is Marribelle vonAvoni daughter to his second wife.
Spread among the two other major cities and acres upon acres of farmlands several hundred noble families vie for dominance. Within the countryside the hundred thousand or so inhabitants of Alleria easily outnumber their betters at one thousand to one.
Provone as capital has perhaps the largest population, though far smaller than Silverthorne or even Dorchak. Close to half the population lives there, maybe fifty-thousands altogether. Gusterach, twin city to Gateway, located on the eastern side of the pass numbers another twenty thousands among its teaming walled populace. And last of Alleria’s cities is Valshul on the seacoast, where the fleet is maintained by the labors of diligent shipwrights and the craft of hundreds of tireless hands. The city of ships holds perhaps another thirty thousand most of whom are engaged in one way or another with the military upkeep of Alleria.
The remaining hundred thousand inhabitants of the nation could all probably fit within the walls of Silverthorne city, if they could but leave their lands without finding death. Due to Alleria’s small size however, she is already quite densely settled. Her mistrust of magic has limited her ability to deal with disease and sickness in a way that has not happened within Silverthorne. The expensive potions of alchemists cannot keep up with the plagues that regularly sweep through heavily populated cities with the travelers from foreign lands.
So Alleria keeps on, much as she has for the last hundred years, slowly choking on the filth of her own refuse and her inability to change. If this is the fate that awaits older kingdoms, than Toevass would due well to take a close look at Alleria and advise our king accordingly. Of course I am just a wanderer with humble opinions that Toevass would never listen to.