Archerus

Kingdom of Archerus
History of the Province:

Archerus is a kingdom with perhaps the longest and most interesting history within the Earthborn Empire. This Kingdom fulfills the unique role as a shield kingdom to protect the core of the Empire using the Archerian mountain ranges. Archerus absorbed territory from neighboring kingdoms during the Wettan Attacks in order to put the entire mountain range under one government. Archerus operates an additional administration called the Westwatch which patrols the mountains to this day. After the wettans had completely destroyed the kingdoms of Ukra and Dynash, Archerus was able to stop them, as their high mountains froze and slowed the wettan advance, as well as provided natural chokepoints to funnel them through, making their overwhelming numbers irrelevant.

Because of these events, Archerus has a unique and some would say isolationist culture that focuses on their tradition as protectors and watchers, alone on the high mountains. The Archerian people are thus adapted to cold and hardship and gladly take on responsibility and burdens, taking example from their favorite god Thor, patron of their country.

Thorhold, the capital city of Archerus, located high in the mountains, was named after Thor, and the ruling family, House Thorson, as well. The Thorsons were full-blooded Archerian, but the line of kings fell into madness with each king more mad than the last. At some point, the people, led by House Coterel, overthrew the Thorsons, and the survivors escaped into Serth. Over the generations, the Thorsons mixed with the local Serthi, and became more dark skinned, eventually making their way into inheriting the throne of the kingdom of Serth. The Thorsons are the only royal family that has ever held the throne of two different kingdoms.

House Coterel ruled fairly for several generations, until one tyrannical king earned his house an imperial order to strip the house permanently of the royal titles, but the House retained control of the throne, and become known as stewards, though colloquially, Archerians still referred to and treated Lord Coterel as a king.

Archerus shares a lot of culture with the people of Serth, including architecture. Despite the Serthi being adapted to almost opposite living conditions, hot and completely flat terrain, the two peoples both held horses in high esteem and used similar forms of weaponry and combat (the center-grip shield is a symbol of Archero-Serthi culture that binds the two groups) prior to the Thorsons' flight. The Thorsons brought Thor worship to Serth, and the reverence of horses and the sky, and thus the weather. This connects to the shared architecture as well: for Archerus, the tall slanted roofs help slough heavy snow off, and for Serth, the same structures kept the pounding rains sliding right off, and the elevated structures kept them above the deep snows and floods typical of the respective areas. The Westwatch is also permitted to operate within Serth's northwest border, as there are no mountain ranges separating it from the Ukran forests. The tradition of wettan hunting is more strongly associated with Archerus though.

Points of Interest:
Thorhold- The capital of Archerus, heavily isolated from the rest of the empire, a stone and wood city with strong defenses. It has had to battle off hordes of wettans in ages past and has a special killing field to this day facing a pass through the mountains.

Tyburgh- A trade city on the border with Mitrion. It has modest walls and leans toward imperial culture.

Westgard- A major fort plugging the end of a long series of fortifications lining a lengthy chokepoint, headquarters of the Westwatch organization.

Scythisster- A twin city to Scyssithister, established to help the Westguard communicate with Serth

The Black Temple- A ruined temple floating over an active volcano, a relic of the mythic age, a location no man dares enter, but is prominent in the skyline of southern Archerus and central Serth. Myths point to this volcano as being used to incinerate infected corpses of wettans as well as those living bitten by them.

Events in Chronicles of Auire:
Events of Chronicles of Auire:

Steward Waltyr Coterel declared himself king and threatened to go to war over the seat of the Emperor.

The wettans are widely predicted as coming back very soon.

Part of a series on The Earthborn Empire.