Continuing on the project to gather together all the various maps and scraps together to build a complete set of poster maps to cover the western half of the continent of Durine, I'm working on finishing the Nicilan Kingdoms and the Northern Duchies of the Empire. Udaryaes is one of the three Nicila kingdoms on the continent and the most stand-offish of all. Humans are generally not welcome and other races are not treated warmly. The kingdom is generally ultra-conservative and the social structure is rather stratified with the various noble houses and military leaders have a stranglehold on the economy and politics. The kingship, once an important part of the ruling elite, is now largely a ceremonial figure head with several factions vying for control of kingdom and its mines ; silver and the metals used in smelting brass-wares are the major source of its wealth as the kingdom--due to its northern latitude being predominately pine forest and heathland--grows only enough food to feed itself with what surplus stashed away for times of bad harvest.

A couple of features to note:

The First are the line of ancient watchtowers along the eastern marches that jut out of the stony hills seemingly of solid stone created by magic in the days of the Second Kingdom. The towers have been re-occupied in recent decades and spellweavers within are attempting to regain control over the enchantments over that region of the Grimwood Forest as a barrier against any future conflict with the Empire (the Duchy of Salsmark to the east is made up of mostly the descendants of Northmen and during the brief kingdom period Salsmark invaded and controlled parts of the Nicilan Kingdom until the rise of King Klen). Of course the local fey aren't very happy and have at times made things difficult for the rangers stationed at the towers.

Second, the northeast region of the kingdom's name roughly translates to "The Shattered Strand" because the coastline is a series of cracked rocks and shoals though it had once been a fertile coast. Likewise, the shallow shoals located in Tolrhys Bay was once a populated island that once had the capital of the Second Kingdom until a series of powerful earthquakes caused the island and coast around the bay to subside. Local legends tell of the ancient city occasionally rising up from the waters on certain tides though the location is avoided by mariners; the rest of the shoals are prime fishing grounds. The subsidence also created the wide salt marsh wetlands on the other side of the bay known as the Salzmore Marshes that give Salsmark its name ("Land of Salt" ; yes they cook up the water from the marsh's brine pools to make sea salt for preservation and trade).

The City of Haulbeck is a major port with trading vessels heading north to Voron and east to Ruus in addition to its huge fishing fleet. Salt and pickled herring and other fish are traded south and westwards to the Medimere and the ports there. So important is the fishing that thirty years previously the duchy led the Lietzberg League in what became known as "the Great Herring War" against the Jarldoms of the Faelusian Islands (located just north of Udaryaes). Betty White and the Golden Girls notwithstanding the war was a battle over control of the shoals as well as show of strength against piracy coming out of the jarldoms (the islanders have a reputation for robbing ships and slave-taking, one not entirely undeserved) and nearly drew Udaryaes into the conflict before the Emperor decided to reign Salsmark in. The Duke himself also decided to halt the war after some hard losses of the Haulbeck fleet in a series of disasters at sea and at the siege of Ranburg.