The Story So Far...
Among the various sentient races that populate the world, humans are the only ones that adapted to live in the cold and harsh mountains of the North. Living in spread out settlements, built around whatever farmable land they could find, humans lived in relative isolation from both other races and each other.
Relations between human villages were limited to trading and occasionally to form hunting parties in the winter, whenever farming was no longer enough to maintain each village.
Attacks from wild beasts or plundering groups of thieves were frequent, so a small number of men from each village were trained to fight, normally by their fathers, who were themselves part of the previous generation of warriors.
One day, Ingvar, son of a blacksmith, and a great warrior, decided to unify the human villages beneath one banner. Through his charismatic personality he managed to persuade the neighbouring villages to help in building a fortified city, a place where everyone could live in peace, protected by an organized group of soldiers. And so, the Citadel was born.
For the next few years, several villages joined under the rule of Ingvar. Attracted by the promise of protection and prosperity, more and more people started leaving the remote settlements and gathering near the safety of the Citadel.
Suddenly, something changed in Ingvar’s view of the world. Commerce with other races was eliminated, as Ingvar felt they were bad influences on the people of the Citadel, and were trying to conspire to bring it down. He declared the villages that wanted to remain independent as rebels, enemies of the Citadel, and ordered the military to attack them.
Those that either tried leaving the Citadel or voiced an opinion against its rule were swiftly dealt with. The growth of the kingdom continued on blood and ashes...