Northern Coalition of

Councils
The humans of the northern taiga were a divided group of petty kingdoms
that stretched across the width of the old world. Elves traded with the
southernmost cities for slaves, yet for the most part the humans were isolated
due to geography. To their southwest the great elven nations, to the south endless
swamps, to the southeast a mountain chain.
For centuries the humans fought, politicized small deeds, and formed
convenient alliances. Despite this, left to their own devices they prospered and
grew. Petty kingdoms traded between fewer and fewer hands, and communities
once tribal rivals were linked by worn roads to become trade rivals. The petty
kingdoms amalgamated as simple technologies made the north a smaller place.
True kingdoms of size and worth stood in their place. Centred around trade hubs
great cities began to rise up, in some ways literally, as arches and domes became
known. Where once there were single storied log houses and timbered hearthhomes now three storied stone-holds stood. Slavery was abolished in most of the
kingdoms save those that still made profit off elven superiority in the west. Elves
taught men the rudiments of magic and medicines in return. With the advent of
real cities, wide roads burrowed through old forests and clung to mountainsides,
knowledge was spread faster. Creativity was given greater license and some cities
boasted infant universities. The technological advances garnered by human
slaves sold to elves were transmitted across the north to free cities. Roaming
healers named chirurgeon plied their skills, and surgeons centred in cities taught
theirs.
Over a decade the humans watched the southern swamps drained, great
carved rivers in their place. Their magi saw a power unbelievable in scope,
filtering the waters. These rivers contained magical energy that gave life in more
ways than one. The elves had taken the swamps that helped enable the taiga and
replaced them with arable flatlands kept clean by magic and strange deep rivers
that began to carve unnaturally steep canyons. The humans pressed south and
agriculture soared. The elves never bothered to claim these new lands, the
humans never bothered to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Wars and skirmishes were fought over the next century between the human
kingdoms. Those who had claimed these magically enriched lands now had to
defend themselves from others of their kind. Warfare reached new heights,
artillery in the form of massed yew bow bearing archers became feared. The

abundant timber of the north yielded siege equipment and simple rope-tension
bucket-mangonels gave way to counter-weight trebutchet. Turtles became siege
towers, walls simply became thicker and higher.
Metal was in abundance in the north but the elves taught nothing of it's
smelting. The humans learned themselves, but slowly. Soft wrought iron was still
primarily used at this time.
One day the human king of the westernmost taiga woke up to thousands of
freed slaves on his borders. He received an emissary from the elves shortly after.
Through elven magic the human kings of the north were contacted and word of a
great war against monsters and a hysterically powerful single human mage known
as the Despot became public knowledge. When the extent of the war was fully
comprehended by the kings, the slaves were made welcome and many were
conscripted into militia and turned around, albeit with supplies, training, and the
promise of true freedom in success. It seemed that their old trade allies the elves
had been beaten back on a scale the humans found difficult to accept.
The kings seized on the opportunities offered by the elve's desperation.
Elven state magic would be unconditionally taught in every great city to all those
able to learn. Human armies marched west and south to garrison the elve's last
nation and hold a line for the elven refugees escaping to their ancient island
home.
Gnolls assaulted hastily erected defences with a bestial savagery unique to
their kind. Former slaves would lose their lives protecting their former masters.
The militia were beaten back as the elven refugees were shuttled across the
straight. Finally large levies of trained soldiery marched to relieve the militias.
Gnolls were beaten back by clouds of arrows. The hastily erected fortifications
were abandoned and siege engineers reshaped the elven cities to match their
needs. Fortified, the bulwark of humans and remaining elven forces decimated the
gnoll veterans. At those moderate losses the Despot jerked the leash and
consolidated the gnoll.
The grovestalkers had spearheaded the assault westward from the Despot's
forward command, apparently an old massive elven fortress he'd taken a few
years back. They had driven a wedge between the two great elven nations left,
leaving the southern nation to fend for itself. The Despot moved his troglodyte
south and brought these grovestalkers up north in response to the new human
threat.
These creatures were bred to water, and could live in salt or fresh just as
easily. Their faces likened to the nightmarish fish caught in the dark depths, yet
armoured with carapace on their torsoes and arms. Possessed of large upper arms
and strange claws with pads that could grip allowing them to climb trees with
ease. A long twining triple tail grew in place of legs, prehensile and strong like a
python. They traversed the rivers and moved along the coastline below the elven
navy. Together the grovestalker and gnoll launched a new offensive and one by

one the last elven villages and cities had to be abandoned until only the capital
with high walls and deep moorage remained.
The city would be sieged for nearly two years time. During this
grovestalkers would attempt to take the port on several separate occasions;
gnolls would batter themselves against the walls. Yet the city stood. With the port
open, relief would come from the elven navy in a constant flow from the human
civilizations. Troopers could be rotated and engineers maintained and even
bolstered the cities machinery. The gnolls were ineffectual at siege-works, and the
grovestalkers seemed reluctant to commit to land based assaults. The elves
feared that the Despot would bring his destructive magic or storied deep dragons
again to bear. Instead his attention was fixed on the south and the Sraht during
this time; it would seem the humans were never his goal.
In a mad act of suicide the Despot destroyed most of the remaining elves,
shattering their island in it's wake. Without reason, though given rise to endless
tavern conjecturing, the Despot lost the war himself. The siege was broken and
the gnolls left in disarray. The grovestalkers were killed where they fought back
and eventually retreated en masse via waterways. The vicious gnolls were given
no such leniency and are now presumed extinct. The troglodyte found more caves
to hide in and with their armies broken were left to whatever it is they do
underground in places humans do not care about.
The elves were grateful and taught the humans much over the next few
decades. Many returned to their last nation and a joint civilization was created
between the allied races. The humans found brothers in the Sraht tribes and
cultures were learned, spread, and eventually tolerated. The elven belief that their
people should always give voice to their leaders spread like wildfire in the wake of
the tyranny of the Despot. Kings were dethroned and councils made in their stead.
The eastern kingdoms proving the most recalcitrant were thrown down by
combined arms. The north became a coalition of these councils in each great city.
The humans, now the most numerous peoples, began to retake the vacated elven
lands.
Now is a time of peace, and exploration is not so lofty a goal.
These are the Northern Coalition of Councils.
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The humans of the north appear as a Scandinavian phenotype. They are on
average 6' in height, rarely shorter than 5'10 even in the women. There is no dark
hair expressed, red being the darkest, blonde being typical. Eye colour is a fairly
uniform grey with hues of amber the only alternate. They are generally more
healthy than you'd normally expect and a lifespan averages around 70,
considerable given their level of technology. This is in fact, due to an innate
cellular use of magic, not enough to be called a well but a distant primordial
version of a lifeblood Myriad. You can push them farther and they'll survive a bit
more, but they're still human.

Their surgeons and chirurgeons have spread across the old world; teaching
and learning from and about all races. Above ground their architecture is
considered the greatest in wake of the near annihilation of the elves. They are an
amalgamated analog of welsh and roman cultures for the most part.
Iron armour is expensive but common, as are iron weapons. Yew longbows
exist in the hundreds if not thousands spread across the north. There is at least
one company of longbowmen for each of the great cities. Shortbows are more
common, crossbows are as yet undiscovered.
One thing to note since it is so unfamiliar to the aforementioned real world
analogs, there are no horses. The Sraht may have traded a dozen as exotic pets to
rich councillors or merchants since the war, but there is literally no cavalry in
existence in the coalition. Nothing is capable(or willing...) of acting as a mount in
the taiga. This has drastically altered their approach to warfare comparable to our
conception of it. Ranged is superior with no light cavalry to harry flanks and break
archer blocks. Ranged versus ranged manoeuvres are studied, trained, and
debated in place of heavy cavalry charges. They are drilled to run, shoot, and run
again; trained to break formation to minimize losses and tighten after an incoming
volley. Some are equipped with shields or even pavisse. Lightly armoured
skirmishers wielding two-handed weapons are used for their speed and killing
power while heavily armoured infantry carry greatshields and train to operate in
phalanx with fewer numbers of these committed to the field.
Magic on the battlefield is something of a long standing new innovation.
State magic is difficult to use in combat, often a long scientific incantation
involving various components and done in specific places. During the past
decades of peace since the Despot's war there has been research done into
countering destructive magics, but the time and cost are often better spent
learning or adapting state magic freely given by elves. To put it as a coalition
catechism, Sum mage's always tryin' ta shoot a fireball, n'some archer's always
shuttin'em up.
Human siege warfare has eclipsed even the elve's understanding of it, due
namely to their reliance on magic to accomplish the same feats. A siege engineer
can turn trees into deathly force. A team of siege experts can produce any
number of methods to demolish various fortifications. Beyond that they have
multiple utilitarian uses, bridge-making to aid deployment, collapse of dikes to
flood an enemy encampment. They are a scientific counter to magical prowess,
not quite matching but on their way.
Agriculture previously involved uprooting large swaths of forested land. With
the elimination of the swamplands an agricultural heartland was created. High
yield crops are harvested on rotating fields with portions(usually quarters) left
fallow. In some ways the ease of harvesting magically enriched farmland has
stunted advancement. That being said, with the destruction of the elves that lived
in the region, it is anyone's guess if these magics will prove sustainable.

Trade, road-building, and diplomacy have taken on new levels when over a
dozen newly made councils are vying for power short of bloodshed. Elves are
courted for their knowledge and the prestige lent by their presence. With so much
land vacated the humans are in an ostensibly golden era of peace. Their wars are
conducted via trade and missive. An exodus has begun as populations are
encouraged to settle to the south in strategically located elven ruins. Where
before there were tens of millions of elves in innumerable cities and villages, there
are barely a hundred thousand spread across the continent, though centred in the
Myriad Isles. The elves can never hope to repopulate and trade the locations of
their dead cities and resources for wealth closer to the isles and political favours.
The Northern Coalition was initially against the proposal to explore across
the ocean. It was the westernmost city that decided to acquiesce to the elves in a
bid to garner elven good graces for other matters. While the coalition is spread
thin they are only peripherally interested in this expedition... This only proves how
short sighted humans can be.