[hider=Clan Varvudda][center][h2]Clan Varvudda[/h2][/center]
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Jarl: Jarl Evar Varvudda
Government Type: Jarldom
Location: Askan - One of the long peninsulas jutting off southeastward of the southern landmass.
Clan Description: Due to its proximity to the traditional centers of Drathan influence, Askan falls squarely in the middle of the orbits of the High King of the Fanghall and the wizard masters of the Bay of Teeth. The rulers of this land have traditionally used their position at the threshold of the Crooked Island for their own profit, usually by playing off the two civilizations or by serving as intermediaries betwixt such disparate cultures. Clan Varvudda is no exception to this rule. The wizard lords on the northern periphery of the Drathan world have an insatiable appetite for fair-skinned concubines and savage reaver mercenaries for their endless conflicts with rival Dratha; Clan Varvudda has been happy to meet Drathan demand in exchange for plenty of silver teeth.

The wealth of Clan Varvudda has not gone unnoticed, as the High King has always levied substantial taxes upon the Jarls of Askan. For decades, the Varvudda Jarls simply grumbled and paid their dues. But when Vizier Ghozirad and his flotilla of Salished barques landed upon the shores of Askan some forty years ago, the fortunes of the Varvudda Jarls were spent fortifying the Kingsport and Fanghall while the Salished hosts plundered Sentinel unmolested. Aigoth Stone Foot and his own host eventually drove the Rainlanders back across the Chain of Fire, but not until Askan was thoroughly despoiled. The current Jarl, Evar, had not even been born when the Salished attacked, but his father's furious lamentations made the situation abundantly clear. As Evar Varvudda understands, High King does not mean to protect Clan Varvudda but to hold them ransom. With his father's health seriously degraded, Evar Varvudda now serves as the Jarl of Askan, and he will ill tolerate seeing his clan ransomed any longer.

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Clan History: Ancient sagas of the local Crooked Islanders attest that the Drathan peoples have long had some presence in the land of Askan. Long ago, a diaspora of lesser wizards left the Drathan homelands in the Ashlands in search of even less hospitable - and less contested - lands to rule. Drathan holdings spread north across the Chain of Fire, and at some point appeared as far north as the Crooked Isles. Zar Maliif, situated on one of the southernmost peninsulas, became a modest Drathan holding whose economy revolved around capturing native peoples and selling them as slaves to other wizard lords. For several centuries, Zar Maliff was likely the most advanced and populous settlement in all of the Crooked Isles but in a single afternoon, Zar Maliff was destroyed. When the nearby volcano Fyrghaalig erupted and a plume of toxic smoke and ash roiled down across the plains to the coast, all living beings in the city were snuffed out.

Native peoples soon settled the ruins of the Drathan city, and powerful warlords arose to dominate the deceased wizard's palace - a small cone volcano carved into a citadel by a century of slave labor. Under the warlords of Clan Varvudda, Zar Maliif rose from the ashes of the eruption to become Sentinel and to this day serves as the seat of power of Clan Varvudda.

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Important Holdings/Territory/Possessions: Sentinel is likely the oldest continuously inhabited (excluding the fortnights following the eruption of Fyrghaalig) settlement in all of the Crooked Isles, and is also possibly the wealthiest. It is named for the 100 foot-tall tower of volcanic pumice-stone that serves as the residence of the Jarl. Carved from a dormant cinder volcano centuries ago by Drathan slaves, the Sentinel itself sits upon a fluvial island located at the mouth of a braided, shallow river. Situated in the southernmost reaches of the Crooked Isles, Sentinel is sometimes known to outlanders as the "threshold of the Crooked Isles" or, more pejoratively, "the ass-end of the civilized world". Of those few outlanders that travel to the Crooked Isles, most go no farther than Sentinel. It is an enclave of the outer world, frequented mostly by foreign traders buying furs, walrus ivory, or slaves.

Beyond Sentinel, there are a smattering of unremarkable hamlets and pitiful keeps across the Askan countryside occupied by petty lords owing fealty to the Jarl.


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Regional Geography: Askan is, compared to the rest of the Crooked Isles, relatively hospitable. It is a rugged, windswept land with extremely variable topography. Flat coastal plains transition quickly to rolling hills and then to jagged peaks dominated by active volcanoes. Trees are uncommon in this realm, and the land is covered mostly in short, dense grass interrupted by the occasional tuft of brush or copse of scruffy, wind-stunted larches. The soil is rich and black from the ash from the numerous cinder cones scattered across Askan, making the land reasonably suitable for farming hardier crops. The peasants prefer starchy, unpalatable ashroot and graze sheep and cattle in order to maximize the extraction of calories from the land before the onset of the long, brutal winter that is scarcely mitigated by this land's location near the southern edge of the Crooked Isles.

Settlements:
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Relation to other Factions: TBD[/hider]