Cybel

"'There might be trolls, and illithids, and all these damned mosquitos, but this is the heart of a beautiful land, and I'll fight anyone who'd call it rotten.' - Lord Bova Hamiota, Count of Cybel"The County of Cybel is one of the nine constituents of the region known as the Placid Realms. It is bordered by the Kingdom of Fife to the north, the March of Hunyad and County of Mamaros in the east, the County of Phraxos in the southeast, the March of Halynd and County of Brighton in the west, and the County of Hersek to the south. Cybel is undoubtedly the most marshy of the nine Realms, as well as one of the most perilous, but also serves as a major artery for trade between the Realms and their more northern neighbors.

A Humble Beginning
What would become the County of Cybel was originally the Bandon of Cyb, a military and administrative subdivision of the Theme of Placitum. Under the Suel Empire, it became apparent that this area was ripe with threats to the continued prosperity of the region due to the many monsters and savages that inhabited it. The original purpose of the site that became the City of Cybel was a fortified supply depot to maintain a standing military force to deploy outwards along the River Cyb to address these threats. In time, the region grew quiet with regular patrolling, with the most populous orc tribes and foulest of trolls culled by force of arms. During this period of pacification, settlers would both transform Cybel from a mere depot on the River Cyb into a growing city and settle smaller areas nearby to exploit natural resources. River travel running from the dwarfhold Karak Bolu in the north to the great Suel crossroads of Hersek in the south made Cybel grow.

Disorder and Decay
After the fall of the Suel Empire, the final military governor of the Bandon of Cyb, Alexian Hamiota, declared himself Alexian of House Hamiota, 1st Count of Cybel. As an independent ruler, Alexian focused inwardly on consolidating his authority, levying taxes and tariffs and expanding the City of Cybel to accommodate its new role as the center of a sovereign state. In the process, the coordinated military patrols of the Suel administration became increasingly infrequent, and once again the wild frontier emerged. Concentrating development was a common trend at this time across the newborn Realms, and contributed heavily to the stagnation of the region, as mines and quarries lay abandoned, once growing settlements became slow growing hamlets due to population movement, and threats were resurgent from the woods, the swamps, and the Underdark.

Thereafter, the County of Cybel has grown, but not developed. Population growth has occurred and people have struck out to form new settlements, but are still beholden to the same threats of the last 2,500 years. The Great War Against Tiamat came and went, the Great Deluge prompted by the Circle of Laurels centuries later sank countless small villages, and Cybel remained calm as ever. The most noteworthy event of recent memory was the return of the current count, Lord Bova VIII Hamiota. Long considered dead, in truth he had survived in the slave pits of the Underdark, first under the illithids and then traded to the drow. The whole affair was wrought with deceit and treachery from start to finish: as a youth, the would-be count was spirited away, secretly sold out by his uncle to the illithids to claim the County for himself as the new heir. While in the slave pits, Bova ingratied himself towards his tentacled masters, though his heart burned with hatred, and even grew to learn the rudiments of psionics at an early age under their watch. Spending years positioning himself as a dutiful servant, he conspired with the illithids to be sold to a group of drow, to then weaken them from within and prime them for an attack by the mind flayers. However, Bova betrayed his masters, telling the drow of the planned attack, then rather than simply slink away stayed in hiding to watch the fight. While the drow were defeated, the illithids suffered heavily as they did not expect prepared resistance, and Bova emerged suddenly to finish them off. Freeing the slaves of the drow he had been sold to, he led a group of what were to be his own subjects back to the surface, and reclaimed his birthright in spectacular fashion: feeding his uncle to an alligator in the middle of the River Cyb.

In the last decade, the County of Cybel has been largely quiet, with the only noteworthy change being the more vigilant patrol of known access points to the Underdark. County Guard patrols regularly scour certain caves and stomp out aberrations. Guardsmen have become more adept at fighting the horrors of the Underdark, and even produced rudimentary maps of some local cave networks, including the ruins of the old dwarven caravansary, Ungol Ruvalk Azul, which used to connect to the Underway in centuries past.

The Great River War, which was devastatingly ended by the Siege of Cybel, was over a tariff dispute regarding commerce on the River Cyb. Over the course of the war, the county treasury was largely depleted, and many peasants from the towns conscripted to fight. The only reason that the whole of the county was not absolutely devastated was the impassable terrain covering large swathes of territory. The large cavalry columns of the Kingdom of Fife were slowed horribly by swampland, and the initial, brutal fighting of the opening stages bought time for siege engineers to use the natural features of the region to frame an impressive defensive network of crude earthworks. At the peace proceedings, Lord Bova was almost forced to abdicate due to the charge that he was responsible for starting the war; however, the diplomatic intervention of King Jonne Rimeson of Varangia, who was considered a wise and impartial party, prevented this outrage, arguing that neither party was innocent nor at fault, but was rather acting in their own interest.

Religion
The County of Cybel, like the majority of the Placid Realms, is wholeheartedly Kordian. The Brawler is the supreme god of the average resident, and to him are prayers offered in daily labors as well as heroic endeavors. To the north and east, worship of Pelor becomes slightly more common, but still a minority religion. More rural regions may have shrines to Obad-Hai or Ehlonna, and almost every settlement larger than a hamlet has a modest shrine to Fharlanghn on the main thoroughfare, though many are not tended by a true cleric.

Marsh Metropole
The capital city, Cybel, is far and away the most populous and advanced city in the County. Resting upon the River Cyb, it runs from Karak Bolu in the north through Fife, and proceeds outwards in numerous tributaries. Some lead onward to other Realms, but many fan out and host scores of small villages hidden in the swamplands. From the time of Alexian, it has been the center of development, which, while slow, has nonetheless made it a world of its own compared to the periphery. While the attributes of swamp culture are present, they are a different fashion, more approaching high culture. Baby alligators (usually runts fated to die young) are caught and sold as exotic pets to curious travelers, bogberry wine is served in fine goblets to guests, and the usual fare of catfish and crustaceans are treated as delicacies rather than daily sustenance. While the swamp sits just across from the docks of Cybel, the city is relatively clean and dry. An ancient sewer, constructed as a payment for an owed debt in ages past by the dwarves, runs beneath the city, though it is in a state of questionable repair, and full maps do not exist.

Primitive Periphery
The lesser settlements of Cybel are significantly less refined. The other cities are of much lesser magnitude in all regards, being less populated, less developed, and less in touch with the wider world. The majority of the population, however, lives in towns and villages, usually strategically located near some sort of natural resource. Many feature dwellings built on stilts above the water, as the dry land will be reserved for growing crops. Quite often these places will seldom see visitors aside from the annual visit of the tax collector. Many adventurers start their lives in these small settlements, drawn away from their small homes by the allure of something grander than tending chickens. Often, though, village life will give them the experience they need, as it is no easy life; defending the local iron mine against kobolds or hunting boar to help feed the town are sometimes the first steps towards a heroic career.

Politics
The County of Cybel maintians cordial diplomatic relations with the other Placid Realms, including regular visits from dignitaries hailing from the neighboring Realms. Lord Bova, Count of Cybel, rules from his tower with a fair, if strong, hand. Many of his court are relative newcomers, lesser siblings of first choices or formerly irrelevant families, after his purge of those involved in his abduction as a youth. After executing his uncle, Lord Bova sentenced known co-conspirators to a fate known as the Grand Oubilette: exile in a dank reach of the Underdark to fend for themselves. This is essentially a death sentence, and the few other heinous criminals to receive such a sentence have never been heard from since. Lord Bova himself invented such a sentence, reasoning that the accused would eventually die, and hopefully take something horrible down with them.

Foreign relations are a minor affair. The Kingdom of Fife before the Great River War was another place to trade and send bright young minds to train at the Royal Fife War College before joining the County Guard. Karak Bolu was similarly viewed; rarely do dwarves make any non-commercial visit, though the few who do find Cybel charming in a rough way. Beyond that, foreign affairs are practically nonexistent, though the occasional Imperial family will settle in the region, integrating well and looking to leave the fast pace and pressures of the Sigmarite Empire behind.

Ecology
The County of Cybel is beyond a doubt a marshland at its core. Swamp creatures such as alligators are common, and the occasional stray lizardman tribe exists in the more remote regions. The giants commonly found in the rest of the Placid Realms are a bit less common in Cybel, with the exception of trolls, most especially the amphibious variant known as scrags. Goblinoids, kobolds, and orcs abound, despite being occasionally checked by County Guard or bold adventurers. Flora and fauna abound throughout the county, sometimes unchecked, sometimes nurtured by the Circle of Laurels.

The greatest of threats, and the most spectacular of creatures, lurk in the Underdark. The many caves, swamp coves, and caverns of the region are often links to this subterranean realm. Some are more benign, simply being routes by which aberrations occasionally stalk the surface before being exterminated or returning after feasting on a wandering woodsman. Others are decidedly more sinister, the secret passage from a drow camp or mind flayer city to the surface world. Strangest of all are those supposedly connected to mythical Tenebria, a sunless reflection of long lost Suel, though this is considered an explanation for hiding bandits or gnolls more than anything. In any event, the myriad paths into the earth have a great influence on the surface in Cybel.

Economy
As largely marshland, the economy of Cybel is driven largely by commerce and aquaculture. While mines and quarries exist, they produce enough for domestic consumption and hardly anything for export. Furthermore, skilled craftsmen and tradesmen tend to work for their regional villages rather than engage with any sort of larger economy. Often what little that is produced is some sort of agricultural product, such as grain or bogberry wine. Taxes and tariffs, however, power the economy. A steady flow of goods keeps the government wealthy without any egregious taxation of peasantry, and legally precious metal mines are considered personal property of the Count, ensuring a very modest but dependable source of income each year.

Military
The Cybel County Guard is an impressive fighting force, if scattered most of the time. Divided into companies of a hundred men each, the County Guard are often out on patrol, inspecting cave networks for threats from the Underdark. Typically dressed in leather armor and wielding longswords and shields, they represent a reliable answer to threats from all sides. Veterans typically have earned the right to studded leather, and company sergeants prefer hide, typically alligator. The elite Cybel County Guard 1st Company, also known as the Cybel Honor Guard, are entirely equipped with hide armor, longswords, and heavy shields, all of masterwork quality and led by the Master of the Guard. Additionally, a company of specialists in destroying the horrors of the Underdark exist. The Cybel County Guard 14th Company, known as Undermarines, are experts at storming the Underdark in search of prey, and often deploy in small squads of ten to track a particular quarry in an area. Most Undermarines are rangers by trade, and scour the dark reaches beneath the earth with taut bow or twin blades to exterminate aberrations. Usually they wear studded leather or exotic hides, blackened to better blend into their preferred theatre of war.

The Undermarines as well as the Honor Guard are both stationed in the city of Cybel, though the Undermarines garrison is seldom at full strength due to squads being on duty elsewhere in the county. In total, 14 companies of the Cybel County Guard exist, usually stationed in cities or large towns that used to be Suel barracks and tasked with securing the outlying regions. Before the Great River War, they were usually at near full strength and mostly men in the middle of their careers, as youths would either be small town guards or budding adventurers, and veterans of the County Guard would often either become more seasoned adventurers or guard captains in their hometowns. During the war, the full force of the County Guard was mobilized, usually leading much larger forces of conscripted peasants as the war went on.