Hurnyng

=THE LAND= Hurnyng sits upon the northeastern edge of the world. In the summer, the climate is cold and dry. Winter brings powerful, daily snowstorms and a coldness that will destroy a man used to a more moderate land. The sea born winds ravage the whole country stopping only when they reach the mountains to the south and the hills in the west.

The soil is fertile enough for only the heartiest of crops. But there are more than enough farms to feed the whole nation. Much of the food not grown on a farm comes from the rivers and the sea. Hunting is not a lucrative profession. Most game is too difficult to find. The majority of the wildlife is too powerful and vicious for the average hunter to best.

The forests are sparse and usually interrupted by hills. In fact, hills dot much of the landscape. The remaining areas are grasslands. The central plains are a rough land, but the most hospitable to people.

PROVINCES
Hurnyng is divided into five provinces: Gurthing, Blyrdæl, Hrindyg, Glytsed and Fewyrthæng. There are five major cities, one in each province. Each city serves as its province's capital. The capital is the seat of government and base for the military. The total population of Hurnyng is 1.2 million people, 450,000 of which live in each of the five cities. The rest are scattered around the countryside in towns and farms.

CITIES, VILLAGES AND TOWNS
After The Civil War, many villages were empty and eventually consumed by nature. The men all had died in battle and the women and children were killed at home as the war swept over the land. The people that survived had fled into the great cities. Their descendants never left and the cities became even more populous.

The villages that did survive eventually grew into modest towns. Hurnyng never had villages again. Famine followed the war and people no longer had the means to spread out to take a better life from the land. People no longer left the towns and they got just got bigger.

HOMES
A typical home in Hurnyng consists of one room shared by the whole family. There is no furniture. People use a variety of furs and blankets to set up sleeping spaces, eating spaces and sitting spaces. A fire pit sits in the middle of the room and the smoke exits through a chimney.

=PEOPLE=

The people of Hurnyng are large, with pale skin and snow white hair. Their eyes vary between deep blue and dark red. The men grow beards to protect their faces from the cold. The women also wear beards, but their facial hear is taken from bears and sewn into a halfback of sorts. Thus, outsiders often have a difficult time telling men from women. It has been said that the women grow their beards too, but this is just a misconception. They remove their facial protection when safely indoors. Unless you have been invited into a home in Hurnyng, you would not know better.

CLOTHES
A typical poor peasant wears leather clothing with layers of fur over top. All items are usually poorly made.

People with wealth, noble and otherwise, wear similar items. However, their garments are well made, even and sport minimal, but expensive, adornments.

FOOD
Most people spend every waking moment farming and hunting. It is highly unusual for people to leave their homes unless it is their business to be on the road. It is too difficult to have enough food to live on for one week. Accumulating money and provisions for travel is nigh impossible.

Storing food for any amount of time longer than one season was not an option. Not enough could be grown. Anything beyond the bare minimum was claimed by the local lord. As such, a bad year could make times tough for the approaching winter. If there was another bad year after that, famine could be expected. With life as difficult as it was, there was indeed famine at least once per decade.

LIFESPAN
Thanks to disease, illness and injury, half of all people do not live past twelve years of age. The rest live to thirty or forty if they're lucky. The oldest manage to live into their fifties through sheer luck.

They celebrate their birthdays, or Feasts as they call them, as religious events. The Feaster goes to their local chapel and receives the God-King's blessing. The blessing is administered by a Drur, or holy man. The Drur gives the Feaster a loaf of bread and some meat to take home and share with their family.

CLASS STRUCTURE
Most people own very little. They have what they need to survive and not much more. Due to a great disconnect from their betters and the rest of the world, they do not know that they are missing anything. This is just how life is: miserable and unchanging. Few people are able to amass any sort of wealth. These people are the unskilled laborers and farmers. They make up the lower class. They are routinely harassed and robbed by wardens who pay up to their superiors, the town and city reeves.

The middle class consists of merchants, artisans and low level government workers and officials. They earn enough to live comfortably, but wealth is still not possible. They are also subject to extortion by wardens.

Town reeves, wardens, successful merchants and guild leaders are the upper class. They all pay up to the town reeves. They in turn pay their city reeves.

The richest and most powerful class is that of the nobles. They are the city reeves, provincial governors, national councilors and the God-King himself. Nobility is the only class that one must be born into. However, there is no concept of succession. Sons and daughters never take over a parents role based on their relation. These positions are appointed by the God-King.

When the earthly shell of the God-King dies, a new god king is selected by the god. The god makes selection known through trials of combat.

A candidate for the office is one that can raise the money and man power to defeat all other candidates. To lose the race for the throne is to lose your life. Interestingly, one does not need to be a noble to be God-King. But usually only nobles have a chance.

There is a law that the actual killer of the God-King is prohibited from taking the throne. This law exists to prevent assassination and subterfuge. This way, one man can not end the reign of a God-King. He must raise an army and prove his leadership skills to claim the throne.

DEFINITIONS
Wardens are charged with traveling through their territory to collect money, food and goods as taxes. They keep their share ands turn over the rest to their town reeve.

Reeves are the leaders of a city or town.

Governors rule over an entire province. Councilors report to the God-King and help him govern the nation.