Editing Sylvania (section)

==History==
The land now known as Sylvania was settled by a tribe of humans known as the Fennone, strange and secretive folk who largely shunned their western cousins and the dwarfs of Zhufbar. Sylvania was one of the last provinces to officially join the Empire, doing so during the "Drive to the Frontiers" that occurred several centuries after Sigmar's initial reign. Originally, it was considered part of [[Stirland]], but always privately considered itself to be a separate entity.

The Fennone, unlike other human tribes, were fascinated by magic, and the first nobles of Sylvania constructed their castles in close proximity to Waystones and other nexuses of magical energy. In particular, they developed a fixation upon [[Shyish]], the Wind of Death, and developed their own unique style of [[Necromancer|necromancy]], to some degree independent of the art pioneered by [[Nagash]]. This first revealed itself in the year 1111 IC, when the Black Death first began to ravage the empire; when [[warpstone]] meterorites rained down over Sylvania on [[Geheimnisnacht]] of that year, the Sylvanian count Frederick van Hal, later known to Imperial history as the Arch-Necromancer Vanhel, raised a vast army of [[undead]] soldiers to repel the invading [[skaven]] forces that sought to exploit a land rich in warpstone and where 9 out of every 10 souls had perished from the plague.

Whilst Sylvania had always been home to [[vampire]]s and [[ghoul]]s, it was after 1111 IC that their presence in Sylvania became well-established. Ironically, during the Night of the Restless Dead in 1681 IC, Sylvania actually fared better against the sudden outbreak of [[undead]] violence than neighboring [[Stirland]] - partially from practical experience in fighting the dead, partially from their willingness to figh fire with fire and necromancy with necromancy. In fact, Sylvania fared so much better than Stirland that they were able to officially win their independence from Stirland in that year.

Sadly, that would be the last real victory Sylvania would ever know. They came under the rule of the Von Drak family, a bunch of bastards so cruel and capricious that when they were killed and replaced by [[Vlad von Carstein]], he was seen as a legitimate step up. Not even the reveal that he was actually a necromancy-practicing vampire bothered the Sylvanians; he was still better than the Von Draks! In fact, they liked him so much that when Vlad decided to launch a war of conquest against the Empire, the living Sylvanians voluntarily marched to war with him alongside their own dead. Unsurprisingly, after Vlad and Isabella fell during the siege of Altdorf, this goodwill did not last long. Vlad's successor, the mad vampire count [[Konrad von Carstein]], was not so well-liked, being a total fucking nutter, but [[Mannfred von Carstein]] was seen as a second glorious undead leader in the vein (pun unintended) of Vlad, and once more the living marched with the dead to try and conquer the Empire.

Needless to say, once Mannfred was officially defeated, the rest of the Empire was not very happy with Sylvania, and tried to once again place it under Stirland rule, establishing a new living aristocracy made up of impoverished noble houses, younger siblings, and bastards of the Stirland line. Unsurprisingly, these turned out to be bitter, resentful and ineffectual assholes who were so incompetent that the Sylvanians collectively decided that they'd rather have the vampires back - they were better leaders. The series of brutal, Witch Hunter-led massacres led by Gottlieb the Stern in 2158 IC, known to the rest of the empire as "The Cleansing of Sylvania", only further fueled the locals' indignation and independent spirits.