The agricultural Kingdom of Carthonia has an inadequate military for its own defense and exists at the pleasure of the Empire of Roland and the Kingdom of Urssia. It is governed by a weak ruler and its people are generally uneducated and poor.
Rulers: King Neagard Partony IV (Fighter 12); Duke Otto Dreslen (Fighter 15); Prince Rolph Partony (Fighter 14); Duke Valentin Danz (Fighter 5); Duchess Corina Rilks (Fighter 18); Duke Franz Freida (Paladin 10). Capital: Elgin (12,000); Major Settlements: Dreslen (11,000), Rilks (4,500), Danz (4,000), Freida (2,500); Human population: 1,340,000; Demihuman population: Gnomes (12,000), Halflings (10,000), Dwarves (2,000), others; Humanoid population: Orcs (Azog-bull: 30,000, Black Skull: 20,000); Hobgoblins (Dogsofstrife: 40,000; Hell's Wind (5,000); Goblins (10,000), Kobolds (8,000), ogres, trolls, giants, others. Resources: Wheat, wool, wine, beer, salt, iron and tin.
During its golden age Carthonia enjoyed great prosperity as a trading and agricultural center, but a long succession of weak rulers and unsuccessful wars has left the kingdom ripe for invasion and its inhabitants broken. Present day Carthonia is ruled nominally by King Neagard IV. However, the king barely manages to collect the minimal tribute he requests from the noble lords. Rebellion among the noble houses is rife and the royal house has neither the influence nor the power to do anything about it. Should Urssia or Roland invade the kingdom, the king would be hard pressed to raise an army, let alone turn back the invaders. In fact, many of the noble lords are as likely to join forces with the enemy as to support their king. The king’s personal forces are hardly sufficient to maintain his personal demense, let alone the entire kingdom. However, he bolsters his position slightly by using the vast heridatry wealth of the monarchy for large gifts of tribute to both the Urssian king and the sorceror-king of Roland. Many of the noble houses are aware of the king's military weakness and know the tribute he pays is at best a temporary remedy to the monarch's problems. Many have taken it upon themselves to forge alliances through marriages and treaties with Urssia, Roland and other powers, hoping that if invasion should come they will be spared the loss of their lands, properties and lives. In addition to other troubles faced by the kingdom, large numbers of humanoids dwell in the Smoking Glass Desert, the Spineridge Mountains and its foothills. While these tribes are far less of a threat than Roland or Urssia, they are a consistent menace. However, King Neagard has never actively sought to exterminate these tribes because he sees them as a tool for keeping the armies of the ambitious and rebellious noble lords in check. King Neagard fully understands the dangerous circumstances within which his kingdom is now immersed, but does not have the intellect or experience to deal with them properly. He is not a stupid man, or in perspective, a terrible ruler. He is, however, a mediocre ruler lodged in a kingdom that has been falling apart for centuries. In other times, he quite possible could rule effectively, but circumstance beyond his control have made the present situation one to challenge even a great ruler. At best, he maintains a tedious balance of order upon a percipice which looks down into anarchy, rebellion and invasion. One of Carthonia’s greatest ills is the lack of education among the general populace. The policies of King Negard’s ancestors were typically designed to keep the peasant population from advancing. King Negard has taken a few small steps to remedy this problem, like repealing the edict which forbade peasants from attending schools or learning to read and write, but his attempts to correct a problem that has progessively worsened for years are too little and too late. One of the most pronounced results of the repression of the peasantry is that it has slowed the development of towns and cities. Fewer people learned crafts — crafts that could have provided valuable export goods and tax revenue — and few moved from peasantry to the middle class. Carthonia today is largely an agricultural kingdom with close to 90 percent of the population living on sustenance incomes on the lands of noble lords. Geographically, Carthonia is a large kingdom but much of this land is barren desert. With the exception of a small number of desert nomads, the people of Carthonia live in the more fertile coastal lands and hill regions of the kingdom. The primary products of Carthonia are wheat, wool, wine and beer. The kingdom also produces a limited supply of salt, iron and tin in sufficient quantities for export. King Neagard maintains a personal force of 3,000 troops and an elite cohort (600 soldiers) of personal bodyguards. The noble houses can field a force of 15 legions among them, however, the king can only depend on half these forces responding to his call to arms. Except for a short swoth of coastline, Carthonia is landlocked. The kingdom’s navy is small and inadequate even for defense of the its small coastal holdings, consisting of only 32 antiquated warships. Of these ships, ten are owned personally by the king. The remainder are under the control of noble lords.