Haense: The Frontier State

[Birdman 285]

HAENSE: THE FRONTIER STATE

 

 

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Can the character of an entire people be summed up in one sentence? At first glance, this task seems daunting- capturing the lives of thousands of men and women, each with their own unique hopes, fears, deeds and dreams, in mere written words feels absurd. But if one thinks about the problem a little further, it becomes plain that the task is not so troublesome as it appears. For if anything can be said to tie together all of these disparate individual lives, it must be an idea or characteristic so basic, so essential to their being, that it would be simple and clear enough to be understood by even a child. 

 

For example, ask yourself- what is a Kaedreni? The answer comes easily enough: a Kaedreni is a soldier. The Kaedreni people have served the Empire in countless ways, as warriors, stewards, statesmen, and even its leaders. But when one pictures the archetypal Kaedreni in his mind- a representative man for his entire people- one cannot help but picture a White Rose Orderman, built stronger and wound tighter than the loaded crossbow in his hands, ready to lay down his life to protect the good people of Oren.

 

What is a Horen? A Horen is a ruler of men. Can one even picture a Horen as anyone other? Anywhere but the head of the table, anything but the center in the Tapestry of Man? It is perverse to even think of. Indeed, when one looks upon the many cadet branches of the great House strewn throughout the gentry and petty noble classes, one cannot help but feel that they are incomplete, like a familiar dish missing a key ingredient. They lack that essential trait of Horens- their regality- the quality that makes the Horens who they are. Without it, these lesser cousins will always feel feeble and out of place when placed beside their kingly kin. To carry this point further- can one imagine a Norlander that did not feel a patriotic ache for rebellion against his fellow men in his heart? It is scarcely possible (though one might hope that were.) 

 

With this preamble now behind us, we are prepared to tackle the question at the heart of this piece: What is Haense?  

 

What is that essential quality that makes the Haeseni who they are?

 

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When the sun sets in the West, it can warm the coldest heart you see

And the Heartlanders have their fields and flowers, so beatiful, and gay

But when I look out at those misty pines, I know there is nowhere I’d rather be

For the North is my land, and it is so much more than clay

The beauty of other regions is ephemeral, oh sadly so

But not the glory of Haense, oh no

 

-Alister Wailer, Warrior-Poet of Haense

 

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Just over two centuries ago, the hussar-lords of the Atheran North gathered in the Hiebenhall keep and bent the knee to Karl Barbanov, the first Duke of Haense. How was this achieved? It is easy for the modern Haeseni burgher in his comfortable townhouse to forget; the realm that would one day become Haense was won with steel. 

 

 

Spoiler

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/122780-terms-for-the-dwarves-and-nord-lords/

 

 

In the year 1497, Andrik Vydra threw down his gauntlet on the bridge, and so began a long campaign to unify the disparate Northern peoples into one state and bring them into the Canonist fold. Accompanying the professional soldiers deployed by the Orenian Crown was a motley collection of less-than-professional troops: loggers, fur traders, prospectors, Raevir stranniks, bohemian characters disenfranchised from mainland Oren, and countless second sons looking to carve off a piece of the map for themselves. These hardy men and women fought viciously in battle on the Kingdom’s behalf, then built their homesteads on newly conquered land to complete Oren’s victory.

 

This early crop of settlers intermarried with those highlander clansmen that had adopted the Canon and migrated to Siegrad. From the ensuing mix came the first native Haeseni population, and the first notion of a distinctive Haeseni identity.

 

 Ask any man of Siegrad what his purpose for living, for breathing, for being was, and he would answer you confidently: “Settling the North, and making my own name.” What was meant by this?  “The North” was the Orenian frontier of those days- untamed, dangerous- but laden with untapped wealth and opportunity. Haense served as the gateway to that wild borderland, and as a facilitator to its exploration. 

 

 

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Adventurers and fortune-seekers left their homesteads and their past selves in the Orenian heartland behind, constructed new homes and new identities on brackish Northern soil, and called themselves Haensemen. Their new, rough-hewn existence, and self regard as pioneers, was tied inextricably to the backwoods state which was now their home: to Haense.

 

This was the Haeseni identity: the relationship between the individual man, his ambition, and the wilderness that was his home. A Haenseman was an individual who struck out to places yet unexplored- the proverbial the edge of the map- to find his fame, to find his fortune, and to find himself. 

 

Haense’s identity as the Orenian marchland, as a “Frontier State,” is the only stable identity it has ever possessed. Indeed; the only times that Haense has ever been master of its own destiny, ever truly “mounted the world,” have been when it fully embraced this immutable fact of its existence. 

 

Peter Barbanov and his court understood this- they conquered and colonized the vast Northern reaches of Axios in a quest to earn their royal pedigree.  King Stephen and Heinrik Bihar understood this- they rebuilt the Kingdom from a mound of ash, and made her a contender on the world stage. And of course, Karl Barbanov and his companion-founders understood this- for their works inspired all the rest.

 

For Haense is more than a sum of titles. The core of its identity lies somewhere beyond the scope of its heritage- in something greater than the mere addition of its Hansetian and Ruskan ancestry, or the influence of any Heartland realm. It unfolds itself in the lives of the Haeseni people, and is sustained by the faithful work they do on behalf of their great nation. 

 

What is Haense? Haense is the Frontier State.

 

It is the end of man’s reach, the last light before the darkness.

 

 It has always been so, and it will always be so. 

 

We only need to remember.

 

 

-From the pen of John Walker

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Birdman

[Burnsider 4542]

The Grand Lady of the Royal Courts of Hanseti-Ruska shook her head. "That is Haense's history, but it is not who we are. Haense is Freemen.

 

“To each freeman is his own life, to take it is to be a thief,

To each freeman his own time, to take it is to be a slaver,

To each freeman his own sword, to take it is to blind him,

To each freeman his own wife, to take it is to injure him,

And to each freeman his own farm, to take is to make him no man.”

[TH3GHOSTWAFFL3 489]

Dietrich struggles with the messages of the document. "Haense is not simply one large frontier... to frame it simply as such, as an extension of the crown lands of Helena, is the narrow view of a Heartlander. Of course, settling the farthest expanses of the farthest north is a dream for many Haensemen. But that is not who we are - we are not simply men who have come from pleasant lands to some backwater. We were born into a land that may be harsh, but which is plentiful and rich also, rather than simply a wild and unforgiving wasteland; the defining characteristic of what it is to be Haeseni, is rather the spirit of stubborn perseverance rather than that of an exploratory pioneer."

[yopplwasupxxx 5663]

“Ah, what an excellent treatise by Susanna’s boy, seems he learnt his letters after all.” Arthur remarked to Walker’s younger cousin, Malcolm Bray, of the Brays of Nobleton of Clan Bray of that ilk, “He was always the wild archetype, my nephew, and drove my sister nearly as dour. He lives with the Haeseni, I hear, even took one as a lover- if my sis is to be believed- where he lives a trappers life among the native Kvenoman pastorals and untamed wilderness. In truth, I am surprised he is alive! But, let us invite him to dinner, shall we?” 

 

At that, the senior senator instructed the younger Bray to write a letter to Mr John Walker containing an invitation for a dinner of mild civility and hospitality. Afterwards, both he and Malcolm left to the local inn, where they drank and discussed happenings of import.