Introduction

Three River Principality is a Nordic empire, built in a inhospitable environment to the north of the world. Separated from the rest of the continent by a deeply carved mountain chain, it spreads length-wise from the ocean to the east to great lakes to the west. The climate is particularly rugged, the fauna is wild and dangerous and the flora does not allow for much farming.

This hostile environment probably explains why the nation is based first and foremost on the concept of survival. The empire, inhabited by barbarians and poets, has the highest mortality rate and lowest life expectancy of the continent, with great discrepancy between its technological level and that of other nations. Yet it still prevails, unforgiving and predatory, day after day, month after month and year after year. Even though its army is small and ill-equipped, it is feared by Rosa Gallica, located at the subtropical border with Arenite tribes.

Ruled by an invisible, elusive and almost sacred Queen - no one knows if she has truly existed - regent princesses succeed each other in a lengthy ballet of governing virgins. They are at times the puppeteers and at other times puppets themselves of a political system as pure and bloody as the empire it organizes. Far from declining, this type of mystical right monarchy reinforces itself year after year. It's nested in its capital, B. Sapphire, and closely supervised by the Royal House Ministry.

Nornes : Urd, Verdandi et Skuld sous l'Yggdrasil


I - Ecosystem & Development

Three River Principality inherited its name from the three half-frozen rivers that cross it. They flow from their source in the mountains, located at the north-west of the hemisphere, travelling thousands of kilometers to throw themselves into the eastern ocean.

It snows on average 75% of the year on this territory. If wood, mineral and coal resources are abundant, textile and food resources are scarce and are cruelly missed by the locals.

Nevertheless, hunting and fishing do provide a diverse and regular food supply - in fact more than enough to feed the inhabitants who survived the cold and bear attacks.


1) Environment & Rural Areas

The warmer areas towards the south allow more extensive farming and are becoming more and more urbanized, whereas northern areas remain spotted by small villages of hunters, growing scarcer with distance. The areas to the north are resistant to both colonization and exploration as the climate is harsh and the predators too dangerous. A sort of natural border has emerged.

The rustic architecture, using wood or stone depending on the surroundings, is often only a product of necessity. Traditional village life is organized around hunting. The hunters' house is often as big as the council house, used as a town hall. Apart from these two buildings, the villages are that are big enough to have a Volva - a prophetess that perpetuates myth and legend - reserve the best location for her house. She is the one who can discern the invisible, take essential decisions, and more pragmatically, heal the sick and most common injuries.

The villages that are the furthest away have little contact with the rest of the empire. Potential taxes are often less profitable than the wages of the tax collector, especially since his authority is eroded with distance. The weather erases paths and carves new ones; some villages disappear from the maps, others emerge and flourish. The empire does not rely on these villages for sustenance, however they remain essential to its growth for various geographic and demographic reasons that will not be detailed here.


2) Industrialization & Technology

In the areas to the south however, urbanization is gradually spreading. The climate with salient seasonal changes is at its best in summer and allows rudimentary farming. Resource extraction is becoming more organized and more modern.

If the Principality's technological level is very low, it's mainly due to the allocation of a diminutive budget, shortcomings in education (still very recent) and a lack of innovation due to the embryonic nature of capitalism. Some technological research is carried out often against the will of the other nations, leading to frequent military raids against Rosa Gallica. This explains why the Principality owned rudimentary guns early on that were rapidly produced by the thousands.

The Principality was long-resistant to progress. One example of this is the railroad, built ages ago between the capital and the second largest city of the empire. More than just an improvement, it was a breakthrough: at that time, there were very few railroads in the world. The first locomotive was in service for six, maybe seven years at best however the citizens were against principle and purpose and used it very little, if at all. The locomotive quickly stopped its round trips, and grass rapidly grew under the tracks. Almost half century went by before railroad transportation resumed in the Principality.

Ironically, the Principality is also reticent when it comes to others peoples' progress. Rosa Gallica's border with the southern mountain chain is a perfect example. It's a dangerous and particularly desertic area, withholding many abandoned factories - remnants of recent and constantly reactivated conflicts. This almost oniric snow-beaten and vacuous landscape is akin to an introduction into the next world.

Today, there are more than a dozen highly-developed cities to the south of the Principality that boast secure administration, factories and road systems. Some of these plants were built on the ruins of Gallic factories. Industrialization, like technology, feeds on the corpses of slain enemies.


3) The Capitale : B. Sapphire

Amongst the cities that are spreading to the south, the biggest is certainly B. Sapphire, the capital. Nested at the heart of a fjord, near the ocean on Sapphire Bay, the city named 'City of Mist' was the first to develop, and unify the other cities. B.Sapphire was the first brick in building the empire - it structures and administers it.

It takes its name from its location near the ocean, in a basin. Weather and environmental conditions favor the formation of mist - even fog - all year round, more especially in winter. The Citadel, a group of towers built in the city heights, often pierce the layers of fog. The traveller who sees the Citadel from afar has the uncanny feeling that its towers spring out from the mist.


The Citadel is the power stronghold. Made up of half a dozen high towers, it holds the six power centers - five ministries and the Regency. The towers are regularly renovated and extended. Bridges between them enable civil servants to move easily from one to the other. As the ministries are in constant competition, the towers are of varying sizes and more often than not covered by scaffolding. Building is constantly in progress, just as the young Principality is constantly building its legitimacy.

Sapphire Bay is one the the major reasons for the capital's extension. Its attractiveness and fish-laden waters enable very rapid development of fishing and harbour activities.

B. Sapphire became industrialized and modernized much faster than the rest of the empire. Both the best and worst can be found there; the blue-grey suburbs are similar to the grayish Gallic suburbs.


Coming :

II - Culture and Religion

1) Skuld

2) Verdandi

3) Urd

III - Politics and Economy

1) Queen

2) Black Maid

3) Capsicumel