[hider=NS for the Great Chiefdom of Qritland][b]Nation Name:[/b] Great Chiefdom of Qritland

[b]Population:[/b] Approximately 1,750,000 people.

[b]Year it Was Founded:[/b] Year 79 of the Astric Calendar, year 0 of the Qriythonic Calendar.

[b]Flag:[/b] [img=http://i.imgur.com/B76DZcC.jpg]The tri-cross, with each part of the cross representing one of the three tribes united and established under Talorg in year 79 of the Astric calendar, bound together by the societal principles of Talorg (purple), within the island society of Qritland (the circle), ruled under the dynasty of the High Chief (the golden eagle.)

[b]Location on the Map:[/b] The green island south of Atera.

[b]Capitol:[/b] Baltun. The location of the residence of the High Chief and his/her family. Is surrounded by a small village, with the actual building within which the High Chief rules from and lives in being made of wood and excessively decorated with silver ornamentation. The Chiefs convene at a nearby meeting hall every half a year to officially review the status of the island, however a meeting can be called at any time by the High Chief in the event of an emergency or the announcement of a decree. The High Chief frequently tours the island to examine the status of things, as is his official duty as ruler in addition to deciding policy and dictating the direction the nation pursues.

The actual place of governing and the meeting hall for the chief’s is located at the top of a stone hill fort. The village surrounding it isn’t particularly impressive compared to some of the mining towns to the south, with only a few thousand people actually living there.

[b]Capitol Location:[/b] [img=http://i.imgur.com/yKFwRe7.jpg]

[b]Society[/b]: Qritland has always been composed of numerous sparsely populated farming communities, with the wealth of an individual traditionally measured in their livestock rather than the amount of land they possess. Only several generations ago, the power of an individual was measured in their strength and the number of warriors he could persuade to follow him, but after the conquests of Talorg of the Qriythons, a more formal dynastic system was established, and along with it the idea of the noble class and the rule of the family. By strong-arming the entire population of Qritland to his will through masterful political maneuvering and a highly efficient military strategy, Talorg managed to permeate these systems into each part of the political hierarchy, from the High Chief to the petty landowner. Talorg’s forced alteration of traditional Qriythonic society managed to stick despite the fierce independent spirit possessed by the majority of peoples within Qritland.

The hierarchy of post-Talorgian Qriythonic society is organized with the High Chief in the highest position, with the chiefs of different tribes, the latter of which control large regions of the island, subservient to the High Chief. The High Chief passes down the entirety of his titles and possessions to his eldest son, however the eldest daughter is allowed to compete for rule of the Great Chiefdom through one-on-one combat, with the woman deciding the arms used and the male heir deciding the location and time where they will compete within the month after being challenged. Nobody aside from the eldest son or daughter may legally compete for the title of High Chief. If both the eldest daughter and son die in combat, the next eldest son is next in the succession. After him is the nearest relative of the late High Chief. Below the High Chief is the Chief, who governs his realm through the same laws as the High Chief. Below the Chief is the Reeve, who rules over a scirship which consists of approximately one town. Below the Reeve is those who make up each individual scirship, the commoners, who decide amongst themselves who owns what within the scirship itself, with the Reeve settling any disputes that may occur. Because of this, the types of scirships have a great deal of variety, ranging from collective communities to a highly privatized, almost capitalistic, population. Typically, as long as the Reeve receives his taxes, he cares not how the community is organized.

Direct disputes between individuals within different classes (for example, between a Reeve and a commoner) are almost always settled with one-on-one combat, a remnant from the pre-Talorgian Qriythonic society.

[b]Military:[/b] Warfare was not made particularly different by the arrival of Talorg, besides the fact that armies were organized not unlike those within feudal Europe, with the king (High Chief) calling on his vassals (Chiefs) calling on HIS vassals (Reeves) to provide troops for the realm. Troops are hand-picked from a group of volunteers within each community, which, after a test or two to determine their strength, are recruited into the army lead by the leader. Not much has changed besides who the leader is.
Since almost everybody in Qritland possesses arms with which they can fight effectively, armies usually expect their soldiers to provide their own gear, with the flag of each army emblazoned either on the shield, its colors on the individuals clothes, or its colors painted on the skin. Tattoos are almost always associated with war or martial skill, and one can typically pick a seasoned soldier out of a crowd by the number of tattoos he possesses.

There is no permanently established military force, soldiers are always recruited from the population. Horses aren’t particularly common except among the nobles and postmen, and because of this all cavalry comes from the nobles or their relatives. Cavalry isn’t very common however, given that since horses go relatively unused by the majority of the population, horse breeds in Qritland are either mediocre or poor compared to the horses of other nations. And since Qritland is mostly isolated there isn’t much opportunity for growth in that regard.

Despite the fact that there is no permanent military, the people of Qritland are famed for their ruggedness and ferocity, and because of this they are a force to be reckoned with, at least on their home territory which consists mainly of highlands and forests. If one were to attempt to fight them on an open plain, they would be screwed.
Tactics are not very advanced, mainly amounting to either guerilla warfare (of which they are quite skilled in), charging at the enemy, or maintaining a defensive shield wall. In addition to this, Qriython warriors almost always favor shock and awe warfare tactics, relying on the illusion of larger numbers through skillful troop placement alongside ferocious war cry’s and numerous perpetually thumping war-drums to demoralize the opponent.

Within the realm of warfare, everything is based on merit. The ideas of nobility and dynasty never seeped completely into warfare despite the attempts of Talorg, and the commanders and officers of armies are always placed into their position based off of skill. However, the nobility always directs the broad and general military strategy, and albeit the fact that they have advisors to help them with this task, it does not always lead to the most intelligent strategic moves.

Soldiers are most often armored lightly with iron mail or leather or not at all, and even among the nobility heavy armor is very seldom seen. Qriythonic warfare has always relied on ease of mobility, and the very idea of heavy infantry is completely foreign to them. Archers are fairly few in number, but their quality is not to be teased. Qriythons with possession of bows are almost always highly skilled in them from years of hunting, and are highly prized in the army for their combat prowess.

The primary weapons used in melee are the iron spear or lance and the wooden or iron round shield, with swords being relatively uncommon compared to spears and of lower quality. Axes are far more common than swords, and are also of better quality, meaning that most soldiers have an axe to go with their spear.

[b]Government:[/b] Feudal monarchy, heirs are the eldest male, however the eldest female heir can compete in combat for the throne with her brother. Female chooses the arms used in combat, the male heir chooses the location and time of combat, however the match must take place within the month. The ruler of Qritland is the High Chief, the island is divided into five tribes, and they are divided into numerous scirships ruled by Reeves. The distribution of land and labor is decided by the community of each scirship, however each scirship must regardless pay the Reeve his taxes. The Reeve settles any disputes within the community of each scirship if they do not resolve themselves. Feuds between individuals within a class are settled through argument and discourse, however if an agreement cannot be reached, one-on-one combat between the two primary instigators of the conflict will be used to settle the conflict. Conflicts between people within different classes (IE: a Reeve and a commoner,) will almost always be settled by one-on-one combat, with the exception of conflicts with the chief’s or High Chief. Each tribe is allowed to have its own laws of succession, however all except one follow the same laws as the dynasty of the High Chief, with the one other being based on an unquestioned matrilineal succession.

[b]-People of Importance: [/b]

-Gartnait of the Qriythons, Son of Galan, High Chief of Qritland; 33 years of age.

-Drest, Son of Gartnait, Heir to the Great Chiefdom of Qritland; 8 years of age.

-Bridne, Daughter of Gartnait, Heiress to the Great Chiefdom of Qritland; 7 years of age.

-Eithne, Daughter of Gartnait, Heiress to the Great Chiefdom of Qritland; 4 years of age.

[b]Economy:[/b] Most people within Qritland are farmers and herdsmen, the latter of which being the wealthy within society. The crops produced roughly include; wheat, barley, oats, rye, kale, cabbage, onions, leeks, peas, beans, and turnips, however the majority of food comes from livestock, meaning the meat and milk are fairly common even among the lowest classes within society. Fish and seafood is very uncommon, given the fact that the waters around Qritland are infamously ridden with rocks. There is very little coastline from which to establish ports or launch ships, and as such the Qriythonic are very unskilled on the waves. Iron is common in the foothills of the southern highlands, while the southern highlands themselves are known for their large deposits of silver, around which mining towns have sprung up. These towns, bordering on being actual cities, are the largest in all of Qritland, with their populations ranging from thirty to fifty thousand people, an unprecedented number considering the size of the region. The need to transport food from the northern valleys and plateaus has created several valuable trade routes, really the only valuable trade routes on the entire island, going through the passes between the plateaus north of the iron-rich lowlands.

Qritland is almost completely isolated from foreign trade, considering both the extremely rocky, foggy, and cliffed coastline and the general intolerance of the Qriythonic peoples to other ethnicities and races, a sentiment bred through thousands of years of isolation. Foreign trade is abysmally small, if it exists at all. If it does exist, it’s to buy the high quality Qriythonic silver.

[b]-Tariff:[/b] Considering the abysmally small amount of interaction with the outside world, Qritland has no tariff whatsoever.

[b]Religion:[/b] The religious beliefs of Qritland are fairly homogeneous, however they are polytheistic and not represented by a single doctrine, and as such there are some variations on the myths presented within individual communities. Qritland has a highly developed polytheistic mythology, with numerous deities, none of which hold absolute power over one another. There is no real sense of dualism within the Qriythonic pantheon, with different deities usually being focused on their own interests, however, within the mythology of course, the gods do favor those who pursue trades that they represent, in that one who works as a metalsmith may be given blessings by the deity representing smithing, whom of which happens to be named []. When people die, the afterlife they are sent to belongs to that of the deity that favors them, and if no deity happens to favor them, they go to what is generally described as an endless realm of starless nights and foggy air, where people without a trade wander for all eternity.

Fortunately though, within the Qriythonic pantheon there are a couple hundred gods, all representing numerous concepts, so it is rather difficult to not be favored by a deity. The afterlife of each god is remarkably different from that of another, so those more religiously inclined tend to focus on the afterlife that suits them rather than the craft that they favor.

[b]Technology:[/b] Qritland is not a technologically advanced nation, but nonetheless is still reasonably on par with many of the other nations across the world. This is with the exception of shipbuilding and horse related technologies, both of which are very poorly developed. Qriythonic ships are not worthy of being called ships, a more apt name would be a half-assed, barely floating collection of fishing rafts. Or river boats. Qriythonic horsemanship has not developed anywhere past the use of the saddle. The stirrup and the horseshoe, the latter of which being essential for the usage of horses on the highlands, have so far eluded the Qriythons.

However, despite these shortcomings, the Qriythons are quite skilled in the adaptation of water and wind power for everyday usage. Every town with the exception of the most poor has a windmill or a watermill, as well as a sawmill if they are by a river. Water power is essential for the mining towns, many of which require it so that they may pull ore and move people deeper within the earth.

Other innovations which the Qriythons possess are the grindstone, the wheelbarrow, and an innate knowledge of soap making, which tends to make up for their lack of baths, aqueducts, or other sanitation technologies. One field that Qritland has been traditionally poor at is engineering and architecture. Most buildings are simple stone or wood constructions designed for practical use only, if you search for great innovations in the field of construction, Qritland is not the place to go. Qriythons have no knowledge of road-building, their roads are heavily beaten dirt or mud paths, only a couple of places have any stone roads whatsoever. This makes communication across the whole of the island somewhat difficult, the ruling class has countered this however with an advanced postal system, however it is open only to Reeves, Chiefs, some scribes, and the High Chief themselves.

The population of Qritland is largely illiterate, as the system of writing used by Qritland is rather complex and requires advanced training or guidance by somebody knowledgeable in the Qriythonic writing system. Most people at the Reeve class or above have at least one scribe with which to record their exploits. The training of scribes is done through a system of apprenticeship, much in the same way that other trades are learned. The Qriythonic alphabet is composed of symbols comparable primarily to the Runic Norse alphabet. Their number system uses base twelve, they aren’t particularly skilled in mathematics, and writing is primarily done on stone or wood, depending on the need for permanence.

[b]Domestic Issues: [/b]The tribe of Epiae is having a succession problem. The chief Galan has recently died and when his son went to take his position, his sister challenged him for succession. And while the male heir won in the end, he was fatally wounded, and died before he could formally assume his position. Because of this, the sons and daughters of the late Chief Galan have been killing each other off and threatening the stability of the dynasty. Besides this feud however, the island is all quiet for the moment.
Issues Abroad: None, but not for long, given that a messager is about to arrive at High Chief Gartnait’s door…

[b]World Influence: [/b]2. Qritland has no naval capability and remains in almost complete isolation, however if either of those were untrue, then the nearby realms would probably be screwed over by more raiding on top of that already coming from Atera.

[b]-Relations with Neighbors:[/b] None.

[b]Major Cities: [/b]

-Lhannethy: The trading center of the southern highlands and the nexus of the metals trade, Lhannethy is the largest city in Qritland, having over 50,000 people within the borders of its scirship. Because of its immense size relative to other Qriythonic settlements, it has been the center of many border disputes as several other towns suddenly found themselves being absorbed by the Reeve of the Lhannethy scirship. Lhannethy is home to the most pronounced metalworkers across all of Qritland, and is the most concentrated source of manufactured goods on the entire island.

-Atath: The first town captured by Talorg and his tribe during the conquest of Qritland, Atath has grown from a small village into an important stop on the silver road heading from the southern mines towards Lhannethy. Atath is located on one of the three known places where the coast is suitable for landing. The beach is gravelly and rocky, and is not a very good spot for any sort of dock or peer, however compared to the cliffed coasts or the coasts filled with deadly, dense crag-like rock formations jutting out of the water, it is like a sandy tropical beach. Atath is one of the only places where fish can be found, and as such has an important place within the fabric of Qriythonic trade.

[b]Landscape: [/b]The northern half of Qritland is hilly, but compared to the highlands to the south it is like plains. The northernmost half of the north has many more rivers than any other area of Qritland, however it also has the most forests, as well as fairly poor soil for agriculture. The southernmost half of the north is also hilly and peppered with rivers, but has two plateaus on opposite sides of the island, one of which has a lake and is home to the Cremagi tribe. The southernmost part of the northern half of the island has fairly arable soil, and as a result the areas where the forest has been cleared away are fertile enough to feed the population of the island adequately enough. The two plateaus ensure that there are only two ways to reach the southern side of the island, either through between both of the plateaus or travelling along the left edge of the western plateau, skirting past the cliffed coastline.

The entire island is notoriously foggy, the coasts especially, and this combined with the fact that there are very few (possibly only three!) spots for coastal settlements on the entire island AND the fact that along the majority of the coastline are the most notoriously rocky outcroppings imaginable make Qritland one of the worst possible spot to sail. Until only recently relative to world history has the island actually been discovered by outside nations, but even then it is an island of mystery.

The southern half of the island is partially lowlands and highlands, with the contrast between the two easily noticeable. The lowlands are damp and heavily forested, many parts of the region are actually composed of swamps. Despite these downsides however, the land is absolutely rich with iron, with some veins actually visible from the surface. Because of this, the region alongside the southern highlands have a larger population than those to the north because of the immense mineral wealth. It was very early in Qritland’s history that the traditional food-metal trade route between the north and the south (respectively) was established. Past the lowlands are the heavily mountainous highlands, of which are home to the more rugged and hardy Qriythons. In addition, they are also home to great silver deposits, of which is the primary component in the more decorative metalworking of which the people of Qritland are exceptionally skilled at.

[b]History: [/b]For much of its history Qritland has been made up of a patchwork of different tribes, all competing with one another for dominance. People lived under the rule of no person, the only law was either dictated by a person’s words or his spear, with the latter being used much more commonly then the former. The times before this order are no longer remembered either in song or writing, with the runestones of the forefathers of the modern Qriython either too worn or indistinguishable from the modern alphabet.
However, this ancient order was sharply interrupted by the invasion of Talorg and his legendary sea tribe from the island of Pitath. For millennia Pitath was a peaceful island occupied by one of the only branches of seafaring Qriythons known. Records carved into stone tablets, having been recorded by Talorg himself, state that great reptilian birds flying from the east drove Talorg and his tribe from his island, with them leaving on their boats, landless. In a discourse between Talorg and the nobles of the tribe on one of the legendary Pitathian longboats they agreed that in order for their tribe to survive, they would need to acquire new land. The island of Qritland beckoned immediately, with its heavily divided politics showing great vulnerability towards invasion.

The entire population of the island was brought with Talorg on the longboats, and as such they managed to easily subdue the local tribe after they landed at the lowland river bay just to the north of Pitath. Much of the local population either lived in the mountains or was used to the turbulent regime changes that happened often in the pre-Talorgian highlands, and as such Talorg and his tribe managed to easily establish themselves in the new land.

However, the soil of the highlands did not compare very well to that of Pitath, and soon Talorg and his tribe found themselves lacking in food. Not only that, but Talorg was a man of soaring ambitions, and, comfortable in the knowledge that he was the most accomplished master of warfare ever known in his tribe, decided to continue conquering further. His silver tongue spoke to his fellow tribesmen of the possibility of ruling the entire island and conquering the rest of it, supposedly just as easily as they established themselves in this new land. Talorg’s inspiring words combined with a lack of food as well as a lack of trade coming through their new settlement pushed the majority of his tribesmen who hadn’t joined him already to pursue Talorg’s cause. Talorg even managed to convince some of the conquered locals to join him.

Since the immediate north was composed of swampland unfit for farming, Talorg and his warband, which is told to have numbered at a thousand men (an incredibly unlikely number, considering the conditions it was likely closer to one or two hundred), proceeded southwards, further into the mountains. Luckily for Talorg, the local tribe was busy with a conflict to the west, and their warband was not present to protect the local towns. There was nothing to protect the villages, excluding one which had a small hill fort, so the lands fell easily. When the army of the local tribe turned back, defeated in their attempted conquest, they found their lands occupied by a foreign army. They attempted to assault the hill fort where Talorg had taken refuge. The local tribe, whom of which outnumbered Talorg and his warband by a factor of 1.5, charged in rage at their would-be conqueror. Talorg anticipated this, and promptly ordered his men to form a loosely-knit shield wall, with additional men rallied towards the flanks. While the pincer formation commonly used by Talorg in his wars of conquest might seem like an easily perceivable tactic in more modern times, in pre-Talorgian Qritland this tactic was an unprecedented innovation, bordering on tactical genius. Only until late in Talorg’s conquests did his enemies begin to adapt, and by that point it was too late to oppose him.

The army of the tribe fell apart in opposition to Talorg. Talorg now had the territory of two tribes under his belt, approximately equal to ten scirships. However he was nowhere near finished. Recruiting from his conquered population to bolster his numbers, Talorg continued onwards to conquer the rest of the highlands, officially making him the chief of the largest tribe in Qritland, with about a quarter of the island at his whims. It was at this point Talorg realized that simply conquering the whole of Qritland would not be enough to cement his rule; the tribal system of the island in its then-present form was absolutely unsuitable for the management of the entire island. He decided to use the traditional system of nobility from his former home of Pitath to create a more manageable system of governance, giving power not according to the brute strength of an individual, but instead by the right given to him by the blood in his veins. It was at this point that the first iteration of the post-Talorgian feudal system was implemented.
Talorg divided his conquests among several of his tribes’ noble families, with five of them being given control of numerous scirships. In addition, he also bestowed several other scirships to wealthy members of the locals, giving him additional support and lowering some of the unrest festering from his conquests. The implementation of these new forms of government was seen by many as strange and a foreign import from Pitath not fit for Qriythons, but the people begrudgingly accepted it, as they were allowed much independence in their individual communities. Talorg’s imported system of rule took the pressure of managing the entirety of the highlands off of him, and allowed him to push onwards with his conquests.

Throughout the lowlands Talorg encountered victory after victory fairly easily, the tribes in the lowlands were even weaker than those in the highlands. It must be noted however, that Talorg, in likely any other scenario, would have had extreme difficulty in conquering the highlands, there is a reason that the population is nicknamed ‘the stone men’. Much of Talorg’s early successes relied on a combination of luck and surprise.

However, conquering anywhere past the lowlands was to be more difficult for Talorg. The northern tribes had long since recognized that Talorg and his tribe were becoming dangerously large, to the point where he represented enough of a threat to the traditional Qriythonic way of life so as to unite the majority of the north in opposition to his ambition. The northern tribes united into the ‘Qriythonic Coalition’, a loose union of tribes dedicated to the resistance of Talorg and the upstart nation which he had constructed. However, the coalition was not ready to make an offensive, as the two plateau tribes recently had a major war and needed time to lick their wounds. This also gave Talorg the time he needed to consolidate his forces for a major offensive.

While he ordered for the noble families to gather men from their scirships for the construction of a great army, he also travelled searching for skilled masons to construct a series of broch forts to block the narrow valley where many of the hills leading out of the plateau were located. In addition, he also ordered the nobles to bring most of their forces to reinforce these brochs, while also sending a sizable portion of them to a point near the western coastal pass where the enemy would also likely attack from, or would likely expect an attack from. He ordered the forces in the west to take shelter in the forests just to the south, so as to make sure they can watch the pass while also ensuring they were not seen. The movement of the western troops was kept especially secret, as it was a critical part of Talorg’s plan.

The coalition, despite knowing of Talorg’s accomplishments, did not fully acknowledge his strategic skill and tactical innovations, primarily because of the fact that he came from a somewhat ‘foreign’ background, at least comparative to mainland Qriythons. Some tribal leaders, as a result, believed that he, because of his admittedly very minor ethnic differences, was not as powerful a leader, and that he had little actual control over his nation, being that his subjects were weaklings because they did not earn their position through a competition of brute physical force. This racism was to be their downfall.

A year after the standoff between Talorg and the Qriythonic Coalition began; the north’s armies were ready for an assault on the territory of the southern upstarts. Noticing the distinctive lack of defense along the western pass, they assumed Talorg to be gathering his forces for a push into the plateau valley at which point they brought the bulk of their army for a push southward from the west. When they reached the pitifully few broch forts, they easily seized them, and readied themselves for a full assault on the south. However, in the middle of the night after the northern army had made camp, the slowly rising tempo of a great many war drums slowly coalesced amidst the silence of the night, otherwise only interrupted by the scream of the grass as the wind from the south gusted northward. As the heavy tempo of the drums rose in volume exponentially, a large portion of Talorg’s army emerged from the forests, their true numbers rendered invisible by the darkness and the cover of the nearby forests.

To say the least, the northern army was caught by surprise. It was a slaughter, with the Talorgian armies emerging and charging from every direction out of the woodland, decimating the army within an hour, and then promptly annihilating it. Many of the chieftains from the north were killed in the attack, alongside a sizeable portion of the north’s veteran warriors. With great haste Talorg and his army proceeded northwards, bringing to heel the small towns skirting the tops of the western cliffs. By the time the north was alerted to the defeat of their army, Talorg and his forces were already at the northern edge of the western plateau, having pushed through nearly as fast as the soldiers who escaped the slaughter at the valley.

Securing what was north of the plateau’s was easy at that point, the coalition, just as Talorg gambled, was too disorganized by this sudden loss of leadership and numbers to make a dedicated assault on the now weakened broch’s sealing off the valley. Talorg nonetheless moved with great swiftness, as the possibility of the coalition rallying a still larger force was still a possibility. At that point, tales that Talorg had never lost a battle combined with the fact that he was invading at that very moment compelled several tribes to immediately surrender on Talorg’s arrival, even offering additional forces as a show of good will. Talorg gladly accepted these and continued onwards with his plan.
The two plateau tribes had managed to get reorganized by the time Talorg had finished with his annexation of the north, which in itself attests to the swiftness at which Talorg maneuvered his armies. Unfortunately, this had the side effect of exhausting his forces somewhat, and while they were still easily kept under the thrall of Talorg’s masterful charisma, a high morale cannot fully annul the effects of physical exhaustion no matter how strong the confidence of the force in question.

Admittedly, Talorg’s strategy from here on out somewhat faltered, and although he won every battle, he still took far more losses than he had in the preluding parts of the war. Talorg had been hoping that he would be fast enough in his invasion that he would be able to seize the territories of the entire alliance at least into one of the plateaus, however this is not what occurred, and Talorg was forced to do what he was hoping what he would have not had to. Attempt to break through the line that had formed along the northern part of the valley and proceed into the plateaus from there.

Talorg camped his forces just outside the valley in preparation for the coming battle. He sent runners to deliver messages to the forces manning the broch forts telling them to proceed north and join Talorg’s army in the battle as quickly as they could. However, he could only hold off from beginning the battle for so long before the enemy would grow suspicious of what Talorg was planning, and as such he managed to stall the enemy for a week before actually facing off with the plateau tribes’ army.
Unlike the slaughter at the western valley, Talorg no longer had the element of surprise on his side, and thusly he was forced into a direct face off with a force of fairly equal size. Talorg had to rely on the more brutish battle tactics more typical of the average Qriython in order to succeed.

The battle was evenly matched, and lasted over the course of a day. However Talorg’s forces managed to pull through in the end, with reinforcements from the south managing to sandwich the enemy army. It was the most costly victory that Talorg had ever endured, however it was nonetheless a victory. The army of the two plateau tribes was routed and did not manage to rally together once again, and as such Talorg managed to succeed in absorbing the entire territory of the plateau tribes, thus ending the Talorgian conquest of Qritland and unifying the Qriythonic peoples under a single state.

After the conquest was complete, Talorg further distributed his conquests among the noble families, including some of the new ones that grew out of the former clans that recognized the value of converting to the Talorgian system and being recognized not as clansmen but as nobles. Furthermore, Talorg recognized that a single tribe could not manage the entire island, and as such, he divided the island into three tribes, one being the north, the other being the lowlands, and the last the highlands. He also established the inheritance laws through which the Great Chiefdom is now generally governed. However, after he finished the implementation of these reforms, he promptly died from illness.

After the death of Talorg, his descendants have accomplished little aside from the maintainance of peace throughout the island as well as the implementation of the postal system for communication between the High Chief, the Chiefs, and the Reeves. The tribes also naturally divided themselves apart based on pre-Talorgian tribal lines, with the current number of tribes on the island currently numbering at eight.

[b]Strengths:[/b] The island of Qritland itself is highly defensible, and almost immune to naval invasion with the abysmal lack of coasts suitable for landing and the extremely treacherous waters attesting to this. The actual land itself is no less defensible, with both halves of the island separate by two large plateaus, of which there are only two main passes suitable for an army of reasonable size.

The people of Qritland, the Qriythons, are rugged, armed, martially skilled, and fiercely independent. They are definitely not strangers to the ways of warfare, with everyone, young and old, having at least some minor skill in combat. Because of this, if an army managed to actually invade and annex the entire island, it would cost more than it would be worth due to the fact that attempting to pacify the region under a foreign rule would be an almost insurmountable task, of which solving would amount to committing to genocide against the entire population of the island.

The island is self-sufficient, its people have never relied on foreign trade for anything, being cut off from the rest of the world pretty much describes the entire story of Qriythonic civilization. The Qriythonic food comes from the north and the metal from the south.

[b]Weaknesses:[/b] The fierce independence of the Qriythons is both a weakness and a strength. While it is easily known why it is a strength, the weakness is that Qriythons are extremely stubborn and do not know when to stop persisting. This makes it difficult to deal with foreign powers. In addition, the Qriythons have grown to be fairly intolerant of foreign cultures and beliefs, this does not help to improve their capacity for diplomacy and trade.

While Qriythonic technology is relatively average compared to the rest of the world, they are behind in several critical categories. The Qriythons have no ships, traversing the sea, for the majority of the population, is an activity viewed as strange, abnormal, and uncomfortable. Lakes and rivers are different, the Qriythons are capable of creating small ships for travelling down rivers, but if those ships attempted to cross the treacherous oceans surrounding the island, they would most likely sink in minutes. Horses and horsemanship aren’t applied to the greatest effect, with horses used either for couriers and postmen or for the entertainment of the Reeve and his or her family. They have little practical application within the army, however this is partially because they can’t be used very well, as almost the entire island of Qritland is hilly (and the Qriythons lack both horseshoes and stirrups,) forested, or mountainous.[/hider]

[b]Pictures (APPARENTLY YOU CAN'T PLACE HIDERS INSIDE HIDERS INSIDE HIDERS):[/b]

[hider=A view looking over the western plateau][img=http://i.imgur.com/oRfboaZ.jpg][/hider]
[hider=A view inside the valley between the eastern and western plateau][img=http://i.imgur.com/ip2CSFv.jpg][/hider]
[hider=A view of sheep in the hilly north][img=http://i.imgur.com/Trifr6R.jpg][/hider]
[hider=A view of the southern Highlands][img=http://i.imgur.com/UX5OUuu.jpg][/hider]
[hider=Highlands][img=http://i.imgur.com/5mnXASz.jpg][/hider]
[hider=Highlands][img=http://i.imgur.com/S8P0pcP.jpg][/hider]
[hider=A view of some lowland swamps][img=http://i.imgur.com/Q4mqzTG.jpg][/hider]
[hider=A view of the hilly north just before winter][img=http://i.imgur.com/GLzlsOY.jpg][/hider]
[hider=A depiction of Talorg in his younger days on Pitath][img=http://i.imgur.com/R8dQlV8.jpg][/hider]