The Free Marches was a loose human and hobgoblin federation in western Central Balebu. It was named after its location at the southern edge of the Balebian human territories.

History

The Old Marches

The Andan Drummir Province's southwestern corner saw the most violence of all its border regions, as vast armies of cling-clang regularly came from the south and attempted to invade. For this reason, the region became known as the Marches, and the Human Legion maintained an important military presence there. These units became known as the Marcher Brigades. As a corollary, the whole region grew to appreciate stratocratic organization and war-readiness. Many nobles built fortresses whose only purpose was war, the entire population regularly trained in the use of weapons, and soldiers were held in high esteem.

When Olive Timfur took up arms against the Andan overlords, the Marches were torn. Many hobgoblins had fought side by side with humans in the Marcher Brigades, and the whole region wasn't strongly connected with the rest of the Trensandor Empire: there were few good roads, and no ports, in the area. Thus, the Marchers supported Timfur's fight for independence and military sovereignty, but did not embrace her more radical ideas like human racial superiority. Instead, the Marcher officers and people continued as before, and soon the Drummir Kingdom collapsed and the Marchers were completely free of any claims of suzerainty.

The Marches did not see many immigrants from the Second Wave, because there were no good road connections and they were far less welcoming to newcomers than their northern neighbors. Accordingly, culture in the Marches underwent far less western influence and remained faithful to its Drummirian roots. Goblinoid-style customs remained in high standing throughout, Andan military doctrine dominated, and the vast majority of influential people remained female.

Politically, the Marches were almost as fractured as their northern neighbors. Many villages found themselves completely free and did not trade far beyond their neighbors, and there was no centralized leadership left. Many fortresses even went in disrepair. However, there remained numerous people in influential positions, notably former military officers or public officials, who still controlled armies and estates of considerable sides. These warlords, who called themselves Marcher Lords, soon came to dominate the local political scene. Because of the constant threat of invasion from the south, the Lords were encouraged to federate, forming ever-larger dominions. Simultaneously, whole armies were raised by allied Lords and settlements which pushed their way south and claimed more land for the Marches.

The Free Marchers' Table

Federalization of the Marches reached a point where six large Marcher Lords' dominions controlled most of the territory by themselves. Due to the continuing war for the south, all six decided to ally and form a vast army to counter a huge cling-clang force coming their way. Together, they defeated the would-be invaders and pushed far south, all the way to a landmark hill and marshes region. On the ruins of a cling-clang fortress they called Moat Clailin, the six lords officially founded a new territory, the Greater Marches, and the Free Marchers' Table at the same time. The Table, located in Moat Clailin, would be the place where the great Marcher Lords could regularly meet and discuss affairs that concerned them all - mostly military matters, of course. Thus, the Free Marches as a coherent polity was born.

Over the next decades, the Marchers continued regularly fighting the cling-clang, though they never managed to claim much land south of Moat Clailin. The rebuilt fortress became as much the seat of government as a symbol for the continuous war against the southern enemy. And, though the Table was not formally a government, its authority was recognized throughout the Free Marches, and all lords who'd defeated cling-clang and thus claimed the title of Marcher Lord - even those who called no more than a village or two their own - were allowed a voice in Moat Clailin.

When the Brimmer Kingdom emerged to the north, many Marchers were happy to trade. In fact, barely a difference was felt: the volume or quality of trade goods did not really increase after the northeners decided to have a king.

Armies from the Ochebana Empire invaded the Marches' eastern neighbor, the Lespen Alliance, in 565 b. OW. The Marcher Lords were slightly worried, but also respected this military achievement. An Ochebanian officer was allowed to speak at the Table, and both sides agreed to a friendly peace. However, just a year later, the Ochebanians invested Peteran and began conquering the Brimmer Kingdom. This worried the Marcher Lords greatly, because they saw the Ochebanians as good conquerors and thus a major threat to their own sovereignty. Though some argued that the Free Marches should ally with Ochebana, the Table instead decided to go to war and promised King Brofur the Brimmr they would send aid. But the Brimmers were defeated before the Marchers' relief army could reach them, and the Marchers now faced Ochebana's army marching on them from the north.

After a two-year war, the final Marcher Lord army led by the Muirdechs was defeated, and the Free Marches became a semi-autonomous part of the Ochebana Empire. Marchers siding with the Ochebanians had been key in their victory, and the Ochebanians wanted to use Marcher armies and experience for wars against the cling-clang, so they allowed the Marchers to retain quite some autonomy. They were only subject to military obligations to the Ochebanian Warden of the Marches, in a system very similar to that of the Table. In fact, Moat Cailin was the Warden's seat, and the physical table was kept for discussions among the Marchers.

Geography

The Free Marches lied in western Central Balebu. They neighbored cling-clang to the south, and various humans to the east and north, including the Brimmer Kingdom, the Lespen Alliance, and the Ochebana Empire.

The Free Marches were a famously intricate system of feudal-style bannerman relations, which resulted in a very fractured political map. The major states were the Tern Marches, the Upper Marches, the Eastmarch, the Lordsmarch, the Northmarch, the Westwatch, and the Greater Marches.

The Free Marches and the seven largest polities, 570 b. OW.

Culture

The Marches had a Drummirian and highly militarist culture. Most villages trained their young adults as soldiers, and most "nobles" were economic lords who had their status because they commanded the respect of their Marchers and owned fortifications. The concept of "land ownership" as such did not exist. Many villages sent their most promising men as professional soldiers to the nearest Lord Marcher, and women - who were generally of higher status - were sent either to train as elite ranger-type soldiers, as officers, or as effective "nobles". Most of these ladies trained in fortress-monasteries which were relics of the Human Legion's training sites.

Role of the Aristocracy

The aristocrats evolved relatively quickly out of the old Andan bureaucratic-military elite. They were mostly landowner-protectors, who fought and led armies in war. The arts and poetry were also an important part of their job description: they were enlightened elites.

Heraldry

Nearly all Lord Marchers had sigils prominently featuring the color green, and all Marchers wore green as their base color, with certain unique patterns, armor styles, or adornments marking out their allegiance to one Lord or another. This color was chosen because the Human Legion's base color was green, and the Marcher Brigades - which did not belong to any of the three divisions - had used plain green flags.

The emblem that is generally accepted as representative of the Free Marches, consisting of three golden bars in a starburst pattern on green field, was actually the ensign of the Great Marches. Ochebanian historians canonized the banner as that of the entire Free Marches because they saw it fly predominantly in the larger battles towards the end of the Marchers' war for independence, and because Moat Clailin - the "seat of government" - flew that banner. An altered version, with the added sword and hammer of Ochebana, was used for the empire's Marches Province.