Jarldom of Vestar

The Jarldom of Vestar is a raider reliant kingdom, where the king's soldiers are used to raid the coasts of neighbouring kingdoms, using professional hit and run soldiers of a Nordic culture as raiders and pillagers. Its trading is poor however as it suffers from poor geography along the coast (The Hydra's Teeth) and no major trade routes come close to the southwestern parts of Clamund.

History
The history of Vestar has popularly known as one of Clamunds most violent rises to power. This is because the Jarldom’s predecessors were mainly seaborne raiders from a nearby continent that pillaged and raided the coast of Clamund. Many tribal inhabitants that settled in the region were killed and sold into slavery by raiders. This went on for a considerable amount of decades before the raiders began to settle on the south western coasts of Clamund.

Their colonies stretched as far as the western Free States, and at the time. Many could not do anything to combat their impeding progress of colonization. Years past and a majority of the present day Jarldom was tamed and an official government was established. But the situation in the Western Free States looked desperate as soldiers of the Holy Empire of Visimar were driving many Vestarian colonists out of the Free States borders. And after a few years of fighting. The Vestarians were forced into their already established borders in the western part of Clamund.

As time went on. The Vestar Jarldom has slowly became the nation is known as in the present day. But also, they slowly began to suffer when the trade boom in the Holy Empire of Visimar began to arise since there was no major trade route established near their Jarldom. The only trade they received is with minor merchants trading with northern border towns that hail from the Earldom of Flynn.

The Jarl of the time, Haki Reginsson (1192-1224) who was in power around 1203AD, was displeased with the trading boom as many kingdoms around him were beginning to flourish with wealth while he were taking the scraps. So he set out to train a massive army of Vestarian Raiders and ordered them to pillage the southern coast of Clamund. Most raiders were keen on attacking the nearby Free State coasts because of the increase in merchant activity dotting the area but some accounts of raiding go as far as the Petty Kingdom of Ive.

The fact that the kingdom's borders are being raided and the Jarldom of Vestar are to blame, especially after knowing the fact that many of the kingdom’s raider parties desert after long voyages do not go well with relations with these raiders in their courts. So because of this, many Vestarian Nobles were prone to becoming isolated within their own Jarldom. And it still appears to happen up to this day.

Culture
Vestarian culture is derived from Nordic culture. Most citizens grow up hunting and growing crops and when they are old enough. They join their village or town Raiding Party, which is a collection of hardy men that scour the area around their village or the coast on longboats if they live near the coast in order to find supplies and food for their town or village. These raids are usually carried out on an annual basis, times can vary between villages. Many of these raiding parties are not trained and usually flee when their odds of winning are not in their favour.

Many nobles take part in these raids as a way to kill the spare time they have when they are not collecting taxes from their citizens. Many villages and towns are under constant green-skin threat. This is because of an increase of orc and goblin hideouts that have been established in the recent south-western green-skin migration of 1275AD. Sometimes the threat is so large, that many of the Raiding Parties that swore to protect their villages, end up getting slaughtered or flee.

Military
Vestarian armies usually consist of professional raiding parties that pillage the coast of Clamund when they are not called to service, making them professional pirates. These raiders use two handed axes and greatswords, which makes them perfect for breaking the line as shock troops. The other portion of the Jarls army is citizen soldiers that are under an oath as per their feudal obligations. These obligations usually call for fit citizens to go and fight for the Jarl for a certain time of the year. Some go to battle clad in chain-mail while others fight in their civilian clothing. This is because Jarl does not pay for the citizen soldier's equipment. So many citizens rely on the use of farm equipment and basic military weapons such as spears and bills.

Mercenaries
The Jarldom of Vestar provides the rest of Clamund with a vast swath of professional warriors that have fought in any conflicts and participated in many raids. Many farmers and artisans that have lost their land to raids or battle usually rely on mercenary sellsword companies in the area to find work, and due to the ever increasing raids from the west as well as foreign invaders from other kingdoms, the amount of refugees with fighting experience swell the sellsword companies. Although many sell-swords lack armour, many come seeking jobs already equipped with spears and long knives from their raids.