"Never say die!"

@Edwin Voskamp's AD&D Game: Freehold Background

Current State of Affairs in Freehold

• Home Page
• Being a History of the Rise of Freehold
• Current State of Affairs in Freehold
• Being an Overview of the Protector's Guild

Freehold covers an area of 5,000 square miles (a rectangle 100 miles North to South and 50 miles East to West). This area supports 32,000 family farms with an average 5 people per farm. The Kingdom has a population of nearly half a million people.

Freehold is organized, administratively, as follows:

• Every twelve farms are drawn together in a Freehold Steading under the rulership of a knight: a Protector's Guild member of the Black Circle. The Guild member is responsible for high and low justice in their area (about 2 square miles). The Guild member often has assistants from the White Circle and a small town that has the basics of life - a blacksmith, a tanner, a cooper, a wainwright, a temple, a trading post.
• 250 steadings are controlled from each of the Freehold Towers. under the rulership of a lord : a Protector's Guild member of the Red Circle. These towers have a larger town around them, with those more advanced in their practices seeking out the cities, along with some specialized functions - playwrights and jewelers, for example.
  The rulers of the Towers report directly to the council and are free - even encouraged - to make their own decisions on matters that effect their holdings. They have assistants from the Blue Circle who assist them in matters and prepare themselves to advance to the next level.

Freehold is currently expanding at a rapid pace, and has no force that can stop it. It is currently in a golden age, where the benefits of civilization - from enough food, to lower infant mortality, to high culture - is available at different levels to all of its citizens. The farmers compose nearly a third of the population and engage in back breaking work, but have certain access to culture and certainly are safer and happier than peasants trying to scratch a precarious living out in another area - a fact the council is always ready to point out.

Many find themselves disaffected with the order of Freehold. Most just do not desire a life so safe and organized. Freehold is willing to allow those who do not fit in to leave the area, and those who wish to return are allowed to do so. It is said the the Archmage who rules the council sought his own path for many years, wandering the mountains. Eventually he grew tired of this, and returned to Freehold to serve directly on the council with his classmates.

To the South

To the south there is still plains for the Freeholders to expand into. Twenty-five miles past the last tower, the Forest of Loran springs up from the ground, green and sere. Inside Elves have set up a civilization that - according to the Elves - predates that of Man by centuries. Indeed, it is said that some of the eldest Elves state that they remember the founders of the Protector's Guild. If the Elves do remember, they choose not to speak on that era of history, or any other for that matter. While the Elves are to a certain extent a degenerate, old race, the areas that they control are not to be trifled with. There are enough young, vital Elves to make desecration of their forest a fatal misadventure. The High Elves founded a town among the trees on the North border that spills out into the plains and also has a fair amount of trade with the humans. Some Grey Elves live here, but are rare.

Elven Forests

Entering the Forest via established trails will lead to a city of Grey Elves two days ride in the forest. It is rumoured that continuing farther south will lead to a kingdom of Wood Elves, as the forest changes from redwoods to a jungle. Few dare the arboreal realm of these mysterious Elves.

East to The Mirandim

A road runs East from the town where it enters the Mountains of Morandim. The pass is called Ellehir (elvish for "Leafy Way") and leads to a separate set of Kingdoms run by a group calling themselves The Mirandim. The Dwarves of Morandim find this name endlessly amusing for some unknown reason.

To the North

Fifty or more days' travel to the north lies the snow wastes. After two days of travel, civilization begins to become thinner, with tribes of near-wild nomads occupying the land north of the grip of Freehold. Some Freeholders have moved past the northern boundary of Freehold to set up their own holds. Some of these holds number in the thousands, but they are scattered and disorganized. The ruling council of Freehold neither encourages nor discourages these forays.

Even further to the North, mountains begin to push up from the land and become high, snowy wastes inhabited by barbarians. The barbarians are a hearty breed who have nothing to do with the "flatlanders".

East to The Mirandim

Mirandim became jumping point for other kingdoms expanding East from Freehold. While the other Kingdoms retain some of the order of Freehold, none of those willing to leave Freehold are willing to do the things that made Freehold as powerful as it is. As a result, the new Kingdoms are a much more wild place to be. Individuals powerful enough to clear territory by force can clear and hold it, but often no one is able to step into their shoes and territory is overrun by the Goblins and Orcs that have been eradicated from Freehold.

Twenty days of travel to the South and East are the true wilds, where humans are few and far between if they exist at all, and mystical creatures hold large areas under their dark sway.

To the West (the Sea)

Sailing the Sea of Fire (called the Sunlit Sea by the natives) to West leads to a moderately populated archipelago. The archipelago (called Earthsea) starts one day's sail west of Freehold. Hopping through the islands of Earthsea for 20-25 days brings one to the other end of the archipelago.

From there it is a day's sailing to the Western Kingdom called Shinbun by it's natives. Earthsea itself is a place in a constant state of tension. Pirates have set up a chaotic kingdom in the Southern reaches of Earthsea and their ships foray northward seeking treasure and plundering. The natives tend to be well armed, and their larger islands are fortified with siege engines that command large straits and can choke the flow of traffic between islands if they desire.