Nelltherius

Nelltherius is an expansive and aggressive kingdom north of the Nine Kingdoms, and they are the ones responsible for conquering each of the Nine Kingdoms and enforcing martial law upon them. Before Nelltherius came to exist, the land was populated by various tribes, constantly waring with each other. Their brutal conflicts scarred, making the remaining farmland even more valuable.

Then, in Year 687, one of the larger tribes, the Nel, began absorbing the weaker tribes around them before slowly, over the next several years, conquering the northern tribes and uniting them. In Year 729, they founded their own kingdom and named it Nelltherius, after themselves of course. Afterwards, Nelltherius had a small time of peace, before coming to a troubling realization: The many decades of violent fighting, made worse by battle mages hired as mercenaries by multiple tribes, coupled with the rocky earth of the native landscape, had made it so that little crops would actually grow in the devastated fields, some of which had more ash then they did soil.

The Nelltherian leaders sought few alternatives before deciding that they would have to take the land of more fertile kingdoms to the south. And so, in Year 740, the Nelltherian military began undergoing rapid improvements, building expansive foundries and cavernous mines to mass produce weapons and armor, as well as their battle mages practicing devastating magics. At the same time, spies were sent out to infiltrate each of the Nine Kingdoms, so as to know their battle strategies, and conquer them faster and with ease. Because the Nine Kingdoms were at peace, and had little knowledge of the reclusive kingdom of Nelltherius, the spies had little trouble infiltrating, and were soon hidden among the kingdoms' economic and military leaders.

In Year 755, the Nelltherian ruler, King Rolin, was assassinated, and his son, Prince Ducain, took the throne. Ducain was far harsher than his father, and some say he hired the assassins that took his fathers life. In Year 756, Nelltherius began their brutal conquest of the Nine Kingdoms, which concluded with the defeat of Etria and execution of their ruler, King Alphonse, in Year 760. Now, with the vast resources and troops they control, they keep the other kingdoms under martial law, holding them in cruel oppression, where even uttering a word out of line can result in a beating from the Nelltherian guards that police the streets.