Category:Borderer



BORDERER Border Kingdom - The Haunted Land The Border Kingdom is strange and twisted in a manner few other places can equal. It's a buffer state between Nemedia and Brythunia and the more savage people of the north, the Border Kingdom was the last Hyborian nation to be founded. The desolate landscape is not as barren of life as one might think and bizarre, frightening things haunt the moors and scraggly forests. It’s a lawless place full of savages with deserted, disconsolate marshlands. The Border Kingdom is the home of exiled nobles and rebel heirs of the greater Hyborian kingdoms.

Although the Border Kingdom is Hyborian, it is home to strange people, religions and ideas assembled from the surrounding kingdoms. This country acts as a trade route for merchants avoiding strict Nemedian taxes.

Description
Bounty hunters, barbarians, poachers, outcasts and other people who thrive in an unrestrained wilderness dwell here. Criminals of all sorts find refuge here and have hidden here for generations. Many of these have raised decadent families alone in the wild, creating in-bred hamlets and villages that eventually deteriorate into something less than human. Of course, the humans with their own vices are sometimes worse than the sub-humanoids.

Very few inhabitants of the Border Kingdom are friendly. Most are paranoid. Outsiders are usually threats, so most are killed and looted quickly to minimize the potential danger a stranger brings. Out in the wild, a horse means more for survival than companions. Without a horse, the odds of surviving travel through this forbidding land are remote. Some inhabitants eschew the relative safety of the settlements, preferring the freedom of the roads. Some are merely bounty hunters but others are wandering tribes of gypsy-like clans.

Clothing
People in the Border Kingdom dress in whatever clothes they have brought with them or in whatever clothes they can trade, buy or steal from the caravans. Typically they dress similarly to the natives of whichever kingdom is closest to their homes. Most garments are worn until faded and tattered to uselessness. Inhabitants of the Border Kingdom have more to worry about than clothing, fashion is not a high priority.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
Cannibalism, inbreeding, necrophilia, demon-worship, strange customs and religions seem to abound in the Border Kingdom.

Wild, feral natives live in the swamps and fens around the wilderness of border kingdom. They live on anything they can find, including any human prey. They wield the most primitive of weapons.

Religion

 * Shamanism
 * Animism
 * Spirit Worship
 * King Bull
 * Ymir
 * Mitra
 * Ishiti

Although the Border Kingdom is Hyborian, it is home to many strange religions and ideas.

Ishiti - She is a snake goddess of Set, a demon who appears as a serpentine creature with the head and torso of a beautiful woman and below the waist she bears a scaley form much like a snake. She is worshiped by some scholars of the Border Kingdoms, but not publicly.

Government
There is no real law or order in the country, and although there is notionally a king, most of his population consists of bandits and savages. Sometimes merchants desperate enough to avoid Nemedian taxes use it as a dangerous route between Aquilonia and points east.

Economy and Common Professions
While much of the land is inhospitable and fit only for raising goats or sheep, some areas permit subsistence farming. Most of the larger towns exist on the trade routes, where robber barons earn a living extorting revenue from the traders that pass through in exchange for safe passage, although some desperate barons will loot the caravans regardless of any promises made. The merchants put up with this because the extortion and bribery is still less than the tariffs and taxes of Nemedia.

Nemedia, of course, resents the lost revenue and raids the Border Kingdom in the self-serving belief that the robber-barons owe Nemedia for the avoided tariffs and taxes. Bounty hunters is a widely established profession for this purpose. Caravans caught using the Border Kingdom routes by the Nemedians are usually treated harshly, as are the barons themselves should they find themselves in Nemedian hands.

The Border Kingdom is, unfortunately, always going to have an unfavorable trade balance because they have little to offer the surrounding nations. Some ore is mined out of the Cimmerian mountains but the Cimmerians take their toll on those who intrude within those depressing peaks.

Virtually everything offered for sale in the Border Kingdom is made locally or stolen. There are few stores for shopping. Most people are fairly self-reliant and do not shop for goods. They are more likely to trade with their neighbors or rob a caravan than go shopping. As in the Westermarck, the Border Kingdom mostly operates on the barter system. They have no centralized government to mint coins and the value of a coin is directly proportional to the amount of metal in it. There are a handful of trading post stores along the main caravan routes, although these are uncommon.

Common Professions:
 * Bounty hunter
 * Hunter
 * Highwayman
 * Peasant
 * Shaman
 * Smuggler
 * Warrior

Sex Roles and Marriage
Youths in the villages and itinerant homes across the Border Kingdom flock to the towns for romance and excitement, creating a bustling environment in most of the Border towns. Although most of these towns are dirt poor, they do sport pubs and other forms of public entertainment for the caravans. Other than the caravans, people in the Border Kingdom tend to remain close to home for most if not all of their lives. Going out too far is dangerous.

Slavery
Other than the caravans, people in the Border Kingdom tend to remain close to home for most if not all of their lives. Going out too far is dangerous. Kidnapping and slavery are common.

Influences
Architectural Influences: The architecture of of borderers originating from hyborian kingdoms would probably build villages that resemble the architecture of settlers during the colonial era and/or similar to archaic Slavic villages. Log cabins and forts sturdy enough to keep savages and beasts out is likely the norm.

Buildings made from borderers deriving from Nordheimers would probably be influenced with pitched roofs steep enough to let snow and rain slide off. (see #nordheimer)

Building with a borderer concept in mind is fun as it offers a variety of sizes and concepts for your base: For a savage borderer character a small shack made of reeds, a cave dwelling or perhaps a dugout hillock is fitting. Playing a nomadic character can also be a fun variation where your home is a simple wooden wagon/wagon camp is another option (see the first image down below).

More Information
RPGS: Misc:
 * Return to the Road of Kings (Border Kingdom - The Haunted Lands, p 58-65)
 * Faith and Fervour (p 94)
 * Hyperborean Heresies (Sorcerous Religions, p 49-50)
 * conan.com/howards-hyborian-age/