Averland
| Averland | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Elector Count as of 2520IC | Marius Leitdorf (deceased) | |
| Province capital | Averheim | |
| Runefang | Mother's Ruin, also known as The Sword of Ruin | |
| Specialties | Wealthy and well funded armies, defensive battles | |
| Commerce | Agriculture, Animal Husbandry | |
| Primary military colours | Yellow and Black | |
Averland is a southern province of The Empire, named after the river Aver that borders the territory, nestled in the foothills of both the Worlds Edge Mountains, and Black Mountains. Officially known as Grand County of Averland, the province was first settled by the ancient Brigundians and consists of expansive stretches of open plains and fertile land suitable for agriculture and horse breeding; the later of which are considered some of the damn best horses money can buy, and are sought after by the knightly orders within the Empire. Averland might be the perfect place for a holiday home, if it weren't for the fact that the main exit of Black Fire Pass opens into the province and has been under constant incursion of Greenskin hordes and Orc Waaaghs since the time of Sigmar, and probably would see your holiday home blasted into wooden splinters and holiday bitches dragged off screaming into the mountains. Grom the Paunch and Gorbad Ironclaw are two examples of Greenskin warlords that successfully ransacked Averland throughout its perilous history.
Culture[edit]
Averlanders are considered a little eccentric by the other provinces as they tend to wear their emotions on their sleeves and all seem to have bats in the belfry, which is suggested to have been caused by small amounts of inbreeding across the province. Still despite this, Averlanders are noted as generally being friendly and fun companions to hang out with, telling jokes and laughing while being very generous and sharing the ale and wine with guests and friends. Though they have known to become very annoying if you upset them, and they are also very superstitious. The annoying kind of superstitious, the ones who talk about star signs and black cats being bad omens. They also like Dwarfs due to similar senses of humour and having a tendency of getting fashionably shitfaced. A part of this kinship extends back to the olden days when the Brigundians buddied up with the dwarves on raids against the goblin and orc tribes, and supplying cavalry to their armies.
While Averland suffered immensely from the Invasion of Gorebad Ironclaw, they got the lucky reprive of routing the goblin forces, unlike Solland, which got absolutely REAMED by the orc invasion, so much so that the province was pretty much destroyed and its lands were split up between Averland and Wissenland. This merging of the provinces has had an effect on the culture of Averland as the heraldry was changed to a sun to honour Solland and multiple surviving noble houses still fly Solland heraldry and colours. The addition of extra noble families with aspirations of reclaiming former glory adds to the already backstaby nature of the current political scene with the outside influences and traditions of Solland seeping its way into the Averlander culture.
Averheim[edit]
The province capital, located along the south of the River Aver, has been a major city since the time of Sigmar. The Burgundian chieftan Siggurd decided to one day build a giant fortress, known as the Averburg, on the highest point of the city in an impressive fit of dick swinging, informing everyone -both the surrounding tribes and the Greenskins- that he and Sigmar were better than them. The Averburg has been updated and expanded over the centuries and its walls have yet to be breached, but the same cannot be said of the city it overlooks. During his invasion of Averland, Gorbad Ironclaw's forces assaulted the city and leveled practically everything up until the Plenzerplatz, the main square, at which point the Grand Count, his personal guards, and any remaining soldiers that could be rallied to fight managed to turn the tide of the battle and expel the Greenskins. A massive pillar of slain orc skulls was erected on the exact point at which the battle turned in favor of the defenders, a pillar that remains to this day as a permanent monument to the bloody victory. Averheim was rebuilt quickly, but the slaughtered population could not be replaced so easily, and the city is still smaller than it might have been had the orcs been routed earlier.
Despite this blow to its population and infrastructure, Averheim is still an important city in the empire as a major regional river port and as the hub of much of Averland's expansive and highly lucrative cattle industry. Multiple merchants guilds also inhabit the city, and a fairly notable part of the population are from noble houses, who control parts of the city and administer their estates from within its walls. The city is the de jure owned and ruled by the Leitdorfs, who were until recently the ruling family of the province as well, but since Leitdorf's death without an heir, the control of both the province and city has been up in the air as all the noble houses play a complex political game within themselves and with each other to decide who will be the next Elector Count, and whether the new Count will also inherit the other vacant Leitdorf titles.
Military[edit]
Due to provincial wealth as well as necessity, Averland's military is very well equipped, as Averland is the doormat for any orc or chaos warbands that stumble through Black Fire Pass and needs its soldiers to be able to react and deal with threats quickly, or the local populace will wake up with an orc in their house and an axe in their head. Due to the very important task of making sure a repeat of Gorbad doesn't happen, the armies of Averland have become very good at fighting defensively and in sieges (oh look, army with a yellow colour scheme is good at siege fighting) and so makes a wide use of cannons, handguns and spear and halberdier state troops, with cavalry units within the state military forces and from local Knightly Orders harassing the flanks of the enemy. Despite these versatile armaments, Averland doesn't care much about how it's state troops choose to arm themselves, only that they get the job done: fanciful uniforms, with complex patterns, expensive folds of cloth, and red and green accents alongside the yellow and black, are fairly common amongst elite regiments, and armor is more likely to be mirror-bright or glossy black than rusty or simply serviceably dull even in wartime.
The commanders and soldiers of Averland alike are known for great bravery during battles. This is partly through the aforementioned emotional tendencies and historical incidents and partly due to the common joke, made by the soldiers of the other provinces, that Averlanders are cowardly dandies. This twofold stubbornness, born of fierce defense of personal honor and all-too recent-memory of the sack of Averheim, sometimes causes Averlanders to make tactical decisions that tend towards the "glorious last stand" school of military thinking. The Mountain Guard, the Empire's first line of defense in case of invasion through Black Fire Pass, is made up of Averland's best mountain troops, including the Bergjaegers, scouts trained by halfling communities that migrated into the province, and the Order of the Black Lynx, an order of foot knights formed during the rule of Marius Leitdorf.
A fine example of Averlander military culture is the Order of the Black Bear, which displays many of the proud traditions of the province: Masterful horsemanship, victory through suicidal bravery, wearing ridiculous outfits, violent defense of personal, regimental, and provincial honor, and consuming copious amounts of alcohol. A drunken mosh of secular knights known for their good-natured brawling in peacetime and ferocious charges in battle, they hold regular tournaments to unleash their manly energies after their original hobby (hunting halflings for sport) was outlawed. Before every tournament, the Grand Master wrestles a bear, which often leads to new Grand Masters getting mauled by said bear. They don't seem to care all that much, since another member usually takes the spot and carries on. When not getting hand over fist hammered on ale and playing with grizzlies, the Order spends most of its efforts hunting undead on the border with Sylvania, breaking Greenskin forces in the mountains, and fighting each other, as well as anyone who lends credence to a certain rumor about the founding of their organization.
Mordheim[edit]
Averlander mercenaries were not part of the original Mordheim ruleset, unlike their kin from Reikland, Marienburg and Middenland, but instead they debuted in Town Cryer #10. This means that, like the Ostlanders, they use a somewhat different array of heroes and henchmen.
For Heroes, an Averlander band must contain a single Captain, who is the band's default leader; that, they share in common with the vanilla Human Mercs warband. Their other Hero choices are 0-1 Sergeants (old veterans), 0-2 Bergjaegers (veteran rangers who can set traps), and 0-1 Youngbloods (youthful would-be mercs).
For Heroes, they can take Mountainguard (warriors with +1 Weapon Skill, but costing +5 crowns each), Marksmen, and 0-3 Halfling Scouts.
An Averlander band is speedy; all their heroes can take skills from the Speed table.
Gallery[edit]
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The old flag of Averland, before Gorbad came through.
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A map of Averheim by the local Bureau of Travel, which suggests that Averland is in fact a popular holiday destination.
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The Von Kragsburg Guard, a notorious Averland regiment commanded the "Dirty Duke" Berthold von Kragsburg that's seen mercenary service through most eastern Imperial territories.
| Provinces of the Empire |
|---|
| Reikland - Averland - Hochland - Middenland - Nordland - Ostland - Ostermark - Stirland - Talabecland - Wissenland |
| Cities: Altdorf - Averheim - Middenheim - Mordheim - Talabheim - Nuln |
| Lost Provinces: Solland - Drakwald |
| Independent Provinces: The Moot - Marienburg - Sylvania |