The river kingdom
The River kingdom Flodens reike | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
480 BC–474 AD | |||||||||
The river kingdom prior to the ascension of Emanuel the first | |||||||||
Capital and largest city | Imerbürg | ||||||||
Common languages | Urmål The good old tongue | ||||||||
Religion | The holy chronicles | ||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
Drottin of the rivers | |||||||||
• 480 BC - 462 BC | Fylrik Stjärnkhrone I (first) | ||||||||
King of the rivers | |||||||||
• 463 AD - 474 AD | Emanuel the first (Last) | ||||||||
Historical era | Gryningstid Mellankhönunga tiden] Khönunga åldern | ||||||||
• Conquest | Unkown 480 BC | ||||||||
• Declaration of the kingdom of Imeriata | Unkown 474 AD | ||||||||
Currency | Khörnomynt | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Imeriata |
The river kingdom was one of the largest Imerian states through most of the pre unification era and was ruled by the ancestor of the line of high kings that now rules in the absolute royal federation. With it's base of power in Imerbürg did the river kingdom control all most of the trade over Storfloden and the inland expanse of the kingdom were built around this river meaning that it was closely connected and more centralised than other Scanderan kingdoms at the time as the king could easily send messages and troops where he needed through the river system.
The kingdom also encompassed the southern islands and it had a large hand in the trade between innanhafet and the shoreline between utanhafet and Scandera making the realm grow rich and powerful and both it's land forces as well as it's naval forces were powerful and also held a large army of Karmän mercenaries and dragonriders.
Central government
The central government was strong by the standards of the time and the crown held large power all over the land but there were also a nobility that aided the crown in raising their forces as well as governing the realm meaning that the crown still had to rely on a nobility to govern it's land. The crown did however lose it's centralised power later on as it had to deal with a more feudal system and tribal leaders to keep control of Imeriata after Emanuel's conquest.
Military
The main military force of the river kingdom was based on the heavy huskarl warriors that was kept by the noblemen and richer farmers as well as the large fleet of longships and briremes that were kept by the nobles and given to the king in the times of war. These heavy formation were also backed up by light conscript farmers armed either with a spear and shield or with a crossbow and the commoners were required by law to train with crossbows once every week.
Also did the richer provide the army with specialised troops like ballistas, war mammoths, wyvern riders, and cavalry while the crown paid for mounted mercenaries from the northern iceplains as well as infantry from Karmanjaka.
Once battle were joined so did the heavy infantry line up in a large four man thick wall of shields with spearmen in the rear and maces in the front, cavalry and commoners formed up on the sides while Crossbow skirmishers and a line of Karmanjakan light infantry formed up in front of the battle. Wars were generally fought by having the infantry advancing under covering fire by the crossbowmen and the ballistas to keep away enemy infantry, cavalry as well as making wyverns and mammoths stay away.
On the flanks did the cavalry fight in smaller skirmishes trying to make one another give ground so that the cavalry could flank the enemy shieldwall, mostly however were the combat determined by the two large lines of shields clashing into one another where heavy noble infantry and berserks did their best to tear up the enemy formation before their friends arrived to take advantage of the battle.
The later formations also included forward triangle formations to charge the enemy shieldwalls and break it up which was used by Emanuel the first to great success during his war of conquest.