Hkarzda is a de facto independent region in Thadria. Formerly known as Vitheoda when still a province of Viridia, the descendants of the orc janissaries who settled within the Silverwood Hills have declared independence from the empire. The region is currently in a state of low level civil war, as the more independence-minded population struggles against orcs who remain loyal to Viridia.
Geography, flora, and fauna
Hkarzda’s landscape is dominated by rough and rugged terrain, and in particular the Silverwood Hills. The Amasya River runs south along the east side of the region, and many lakes, both large and small, dot the landscape. Except for the coast around the city of Ninurta, Hkarzda is almost landlocked.
The climate of Hkarzda is generally fairly warm and arid - summers can be quite warm alongside mild winters, and the hills receive relatively little rainfall. Farther inland, and higher in the mountains, the environment is colder and receives more precipitation, especially winter snowfall.
Much of Hkarzda is covered by grasses and low shrubland, with more forest cover in the south and east, as well as within the northern mountains. Most trees in the mountains are pines and firs, while elsewhere they are mostly hornbeams, oaks, and chestnuts, among others. The Silverwood Hills are named after the unique silverwood trees that grow there. A type of hornbeam, silverwood trees are prized for their lumber, which when dry has a light gray, almost metallic appearance. Despite the difficulty of working this extremely hard wood, it is a valuable material for many purposes (though rarely used for carpentry due to cost).
Besides the small mammals common across Thadria, a number of larger creatures live in Hkarzda. The wildlife of Hkarzda is quite varied, and the following lists are by no means comprehensive. Deer and antelope are common on the hills and around the lakes and rivers, while chamois and mouflon live in the mountainous uplands. Caracals, polecats, bears, and wolves are also common. Jerboas are sometimes caught and kept as pets, but are also commonly eaten.
Bulettes are a significant threat to those that travel the less settled regions of Hkarzda. Heavily armored creatures with sharp claws and powerful jaws, bulettes are highly territorial and will aggressively pursue those that intrude on their territory.
An invasive creature introduced from the eastern Chaska, ankhegs are both a menace and a pest to the inhabitants of Hkarzda.
Barghests are known to dwell within Hkarzda, often as the leaders of goblin tribes.
Cockatrices are somewhat common in the hills of Hkarzda. Many estates keep large numbers of ordinary roosters that wander semi-freely, in order to scare or fight off these magical beasts.
At least eight unique green dragons have been noted to live in the forests of the mountains. There are more than likely a good number more, but most choose to avoid areas where the dragons are known to exist.
History
Viridia has long maintained a practice of granting large land grants in the Silverwood Hills as estates to retired janissaries, as a reward for their long and loyal service. A great many janissaries moved their families to the region as well. While there have never been large numbers of janissaries at any given time, through the generations and over the centuries the orcish population of the region has grown markedly. Some families that now inhabit the region are the descendants of janissaries many generations removed.
The region known as Hkarzda consists of most of the territory of the former Viridian province of Vitheoda. Though considered an integral part of the Dominion for centuries, there had long been a sense of unease and unrest among the orcish inhabitants of the Silverwood Hills, who viewed Viridian administrators as prioritizing the southern, mostly human, cities over the interests of the orc estates. This culminated in the declaration of a new orcish khanate, Hkarzda, in Y6932.
This separatist movement was not universally supported, however. Not only did the southern cities remain loyal to the dominion, as might be expected, but a very significant proportion of the Silverwood orcs rejected the movement as well. As a result, the region has been in a low-level state of civil war since Y6932 - while open battles are essentially unknown, minor skirmishes and raiding are commonplace. Allegiances are, by and large, not geographic - neighbors are frequently on somewhat hostile terms due to supporting opposing sides.
Despite supposedly being a khanate, no khan has ever been declared. Multiple individuals have attempted to claim the title for themselves, but lack of popular support and constant infighting have stopped anyone from gaining this position of authority.
Demographics
The population of Hkarzda is primarily orcish, with significant human, halfling, dwarf, half-orc, grippli, and goblin minorities. Smaller isolated communities of cyclops and lizardfolk also live in the region, largely separate from broader society.
Culture
Religious practices in Hkarzda are split between those that venerate the traditional orcish deities and those that have adopted the common pantheon. This divide is largely along political lines, with the most pro-independence families more commonly being devotees of the orc gods. Shrines and offerings to Dretha, Sezelrian, and Varg are particularly common. Among the less traditionalist, the worship of Gorum and Erastil are emphasized. The worship of Kurgess is common among the Viridian janissaries, and the god of bravery and competition has seen his faithful spread in Hkarzda as well. Religion in Hkarzda is largely unorganized. The southern cities are home to larger temples, but elsewhere most worship centers around small shrines, either in village centers or in the privacy of one’s own home.
Orcish is the dominant language within Hkarzda, though most orcs also understand Thadrian and Common. The Orcish spoken in the region is a unique dialect, often referred to as Hkarzda Orcish, that incorporates a great deal of influence from regional languages. In particular, Hkarzda Orcish replaces a large portion of its vocabulary with words of a Thadrian origin, whether the words are taken directly or used as a basis and then adapted to fit Orcish tongues. As a result, orcs from elsewhere frequently have difficulty understanding orcs from Hkarzda, and similarly foreigners not fluent in Orcish can sometimes have an easier time understanding what is being said. The non-orcish inhabitants of Hkarzda likewise mostly speak Orcish and Thadrian, alongside other relevant racial languages.
Hkarzdan cuisine has much more in common with the types of food prepared elsewhere in Thadria than with traditional Druzdan food, though there is often clear influence from traditional orcish dishes. There are a number of foods that are considered signatures of the region. Opinions of Hkarzdan cheeses can be divisive - strongly pungent and flavorful, they are popular within Hkarzda but often hard to stomach for those unaccustomed to them. Engastration is a common method involved in preparing meats, and the carcasses are often slow cooked in underground ovens.
The inhabitants of Hkarzda are quite diffuse, with a low population density. Tadarh, Mariyan, and Ninurta are the only major cities within the region. Even in comparison to the rest of Thadria, almost the entire population of Hkarzda is rural.
The orcish estates are not only home to one family, but are in effect villages in their own right. Though the layout and designs vary, estates have certain features that are common between them. The lord of the estate and their family usually live in a large manor, frequently located at a central, elevated point for visibility and protected by walls and other defensive measures. Around the manor is usually the homes of those that work the estates, including domestic and agricultural laborers as well as skilled craftspeople. The estate workers are free to leave, at least as long as the lord of the estate does not have tyrannical ambitions, but are not generally paid - rather, the fruits of their labor go to the manor, and are apportioned out by the lord. Surrounding the estate village is productive land - farms, pastures, lumber mills, or whatever else the estate in question focuses on. The architecture of the estates are similar to structures elsewhere in Thadria: stone and wood constructions, instead of the types of structures more commonly built by orcs elsewhere.
There are not a great deal of well-maintained roads through the Silverwood Hills, owing to the hilly terrain, long distances, and low population involved. Roads connect Ninurta, Tadarh, and Mariyan with each other and the Viridian cities to the south, but roads leaving Hkarzda are frequently the site of checkpoints by pro-independence orc militias who enact tributes or disallow travel entirely.
Despite the active civil war, day to day life in Hkarzda is fairly calm and peaceful. Conflict is more likely to take the form of raiding parties, where the participants are more interested in gaining access to and stealing from the stockpiles of other estates. Raiding parties are often preceded by shows of force and negotiations, which often results in the (relatively) peaceful surrender of supplies without bloodshed. While a great number of orcish families feel strongly about the state of the khanate, either pro- or anti-independence, an equal number has no real stake in the matter and are content to flip allegiances whenever it becomes convenient.
Government
Since the collapse of the Vitheodan provincial government, Hkarzda has been ruled by local families/clans, who are in effect petty warlords. Each family exercises control of its estates, sometimes including the surrounding regions. In many places, families have formed pacts with their neighbors, effectively turning their connected lands into a single, small feudal county. Aside from these pacts and loose alliances based on ideological grounds, Hkarzda has no central governance. Laws are loose and up to the whim and interpretation of local families.
Viridian administrators retain some level of control of the region, as many orc families remain loyal to the dominion. Retired janissaries are still granted estates in some parts of the Silverwood Hills, in areas where those loyal to Viridia can safely travel. Some view the continuation of this practice, despite all the dangers it carries, to be a Viridian attempt to slowly erode support for the khanate without becoming directly involved. Viridia is bound by law to grant a level of political autonomy to the Silverwood orcs - while declaring independence certainly far exceeds these rights, some believe direct military intervention would enrage the significant number of families that only marginally support the dominion and increase support for the khanate.
Economy
Though largely agrarian, Vitheoda also exported large amounts of mineral wealth from within the Silverwood Hills, along with the unique lumber of the silverwood trees. These exports have effectively ceased in the current instability. Most consider these operations to no longer be worth the risk in the present climate - even if one manages to navigate the region unharmed, the lands one must pass through are controlled by petty warlords who demand part of the production as tribute until none is left.
The armored plate of bulettes, widely prized around the world for use in crafting armor, is mostly sourced from within Hkarzda.
Like much of central Thadria, the region does not have a high degree of urbanization, and as a result industry tends to be highly diffuse. Craftspeople live and work to meet the needs of individual towns and estates, instead of any sort of mass production.