Ulgarth

Ulgarth was a fertile kingdom located east of Durpar in southeast Faerûn.

Geography
Foreigners not familiar with the region were unaware that the realm existed and believed that the land it occupied was simply part of the vast grasslands of the Utter East. In truth, Ulgarth occupied an area off the coast of the Great Sea just before the plains of the Utter East began. With the Five Kingdoms, it acted as a buffer between Faerûn, Kara-Tur and Zakhara.

Climate
Ulgarth had a hot climate, but its closeness to the Golden Water and the Great Sea mitigated the temperature and made it habitable, even inland. Daytime temperatures were 80–100 °F (26–38 °C) but night in the winter rainy season saw the temperature decrease to less than 60 °F (15 °C). Conditions were generally humid and the land saw almost daily rainfall. As result, the fields were rich and highly fertile and crops were abundant.

Prehistory
Founded during the height of the Imaskar Empire (−7975 DR to −6788 DR), the realm of Ulgarth was annexed and then settled by the Imaskari. At the time, the lands around the Golden Water were fertile and home to nomadic human tribes like the ancient Durpari, and the Imaskari subjugated these peoples.

In −2488 DR, the empire of Imaskar collapsed, and without leadership all the subject-states of the Golden Water failed and descended into barbarism, with the Durpari reverting to a nomadic lifestyle. Like the other failed states of the empire, Ulgarth fell and suffered through centuries of dark barbarism. Several times, war-chiefs rose to power, uniting the country but only fighting numerous skirmishes and petty wars with rival barbarian tribes of the Shining South, particularly in the lands of Durpar and Var the Golden. In these dark ages, these was no commercial or technological development of note. Only the Durpari learned to defend themselves.

Early history
From the Year of Bitter Fruit, −83 DR, Ulgarthan barbarians started raiding the cities of the Durpari, who had civilized much earlier than the Ulgarthans. These raids would continue for the next thousand years.

The Mulan people, former slaves whose uprising had brought down Imaskar, had since founded their own empire, Mulhorand. For millennia, Mulhorand had launched genocidal wars against the southern tribes. In the Year of the Fanged Gauntlet, 202 DR, Mulhorandi forces came for the Ulgarthans, and nearly wiped out the barbarian tribes. All this fighting had cut the Ulgarthan population to a fraction of its former size, and at last they wearied of warfare, though skirmishes and raids into Durpar continued.

However, in the Year of the Dagger, 348 DR, a band of outlaws fleeing from Mulhorandi justice sought refuge in Ulgarth, finding it depopulated yet still fertile. They settled the area and began to grow crops and raise families. This new Ulgarthan society steadily grew stronger. However, it focused on agriculture, not warfare, nor trade and philosophy like Durpar. The Ulgarthans developed a highly structure caste system that, over time, evolved into a feudal monarchy.

Nevertheless, raids and skirmishes with Durpar continued until the two nations at last reached parity in power. Abandoning dreams of conquering each other, Ulgarth and Durpar negotiated an armed truce in the Year of the Heavenly Rock, 1002 DR. Remaining suspicious after a millennium of conflict, each nation built a well-defended border.

Eventually, the two nations learned to understand one another and warily began to pursue more peaceful relations by the 14th century DR. Trade between Ulgarth and the prosperous merchants of Durpar began, proving vital to both realms. King Drasna Bluemantle and his predecessor both pursued policies of non-aggression with Durpar.

Undated
At some point, King Caladorn the Wise decreed that priests should not be allowed to judge a person's worldly behavior and thus they could not serve as justices.

Government
Ulgarth consisted of six baronies whose leaders all reported directly to the king in Orvyltar. The barons had complete autonomy over their realms except in the case of war or justice, where they could only pronounce sentences on the peasantry and free men. Any nobles and/or appeals were presided over by men in the king's employ known as the king's justices.

Trade
As Ulgarth was surrounded on almost all sides by either empty land or water, most of its trade came from its only neighbor and former enemy, Durpar, which was fortunately one of the great mercantile empire of Faerûn. Despite their long history of conflict, Durpar saw Ulgarth as a potential trading partner. Ulgarth was also the only source of the rare and valued spice mingari, which helped good relations along. Through Durpar, Ulgarth also traded with the other nations of the Shining Lands; this was the source of almost all of the kingdom's commerce, trade, and prosperity, and was vital to both realms.

Ulgarth produced most of the items that Durpar traded to its more distant trading partners around the world, particularly mingari and foodstuffs from its crops, which were exported across southern Faerûn. In turn, Ulgarth imported more exotic items, both those produced in Durpar and those found by the Durpari further abroad. Durpar's wily merchants tended to get the best in any deal Ulgarth made with them, but the closeness of the two realms slashed overheads and travel costs, so Ulgarthan merchants tended to get the best prices the Durpari had to offer. By the mid–14th century DR, the Ulgarthans had staved off Durpar's repeated efforts to gain control over Ulgarth's economy.

Ulgarth's primary export was mingari, a strong cinnamon-like spice. It was the only place in the world that produced it and it used that monopoly to its advantage. Mingari was farmed in eastern Ulgarth, particularly around Kaspar and east of Kelazzan. It was traded through Orvyltar to Durpar, where the Karikal chaka in Morvar had a primary interest in the mingari trade. Mingari was in great demand in Durpar and by 1358 DR it had begun to be introduced to the rest of Faerûn. The Durpari shipped the mingari across the Shining South.

In return, through the far-reaching Durpari traders, Ulgarth received a variety of goods from Durpar and from around the known world. These ranged from Durpar's own foodstuffs, spices, and textiles, to the excellent horses of Dambrath, to luxuries like fine silks from Calimshan and even produce imported from distant Maztica.

Ulgarth minted its own currency, the lieko, a gold coin very much like the standard gold piece. These bore images of King Caladorn the Wise (the front) and a mounted knight (the back). However, thanks to heavy trade with Durpar, Ulgarthans also accepted as a basic currency the vellim, the silver trade bars of Durpar that were widely used across the Shining South.

Defense
Each of the six baronies supplied troops to Ulgarth's army as well as the king's own army. Together, these seven fighting forces were considered enough to defend against any invasion from the barbarian lands to the east, Dambrath, or one of the nations of the Shining Lands. The border between Ulgarth and Durpar was still incredibly heavily fortified, despite nearly four hundred years of peace between the two countries.

The general of the nation's combined military was Sinveri Trollkin, a renegade elf from Dambrath. Although one of her grandparents was a drow, Sinveri was a devout follower of Tyr and ably led the armies of the country.

Religion
Ulgarth was a feudal monarchy with many knights, so the most commonly worshiped deity of Ulgarth was Torm the True, patron of knights and duty. All Ulgarthan knights paid homage to the Loyal Fury. The largest temple in Ulgarth was the temple of Torm located in the capital Orvyltar, where the king himself prayed.

Other popular deities were Tymora, the Lady Luck, seen as patron of the adventurous; and Lathander the Morninglord, god of the dawn and renewal. Most of the large cities held temples to these deities. The clergies of Lathander and Tymora had excellent relations with the clergy of Torm, and with each other. Some important Ulgarthans worshiped Tyr the Just, seen as a god of war and justice. Ulgarth also tolerated many other non-evil gods.

However, religion did not dominate the society and culture of Ulgarth as it did across the Golden Water. Ulgarthans believed firmly in the separation of church and state, of the spiritual and the secular. As decreed by King Caladorn the Wise, priests could not judge a person's worldly behavior, and they took no active part in making and enforcing laws, only aiding the king's and barons' justices just as mages did.

People
The population of Ulgarth was primarily human. Although all the goodly races were welcomed, few others fit in well the feudal society, which halflings found restrictive, and dwarves, elves, and gnomes found uncomfortable. Elves and gnomes drew some stares from passers-by, particularly in the smaller communities. Nevertheless, a population of dwarves mined and prospected in the Galuil Mountains, but they rarely lingered long in Ulgarth. Gray dwarves dwelled deep below the heart of this range, and were likely to common into conflict with the surface dwarves when they met.

Goblinoids, on the other hand, were unwelcome and orcs were usually killed on sight. This was especially the case when rumors spread of an orc horde preparing to sweep down from the Dustwall Mountains.

Society
The feudal system could be restrictive, a relic of the former caste system employed here. Only valor on the battlefield was enough to make a serf into a free man. Despite this, the peasantry believed life in Ulgarth to be the best life there could be. They fervently espoused the notion that any man could rise above his station and that his success or failure was an accurate representation of his ability. In addition, peasants were treated better than in most feudal societies. The nobility all agreed on the opinion that every citizen of their country was important to its safety.

Attitudes
Ulgarthan knights were honor-bound to show chivalry and concern for women. Very few women of the kingdom and fewer half-elves became knights, yet two of the realm's finest knights were half-elf women: the adventurer Landswith Meilin and Sinveri Trollkin, general of the army.

Martial training
For the sake of the country's defense, no one was restricted from carrying a weapon, even the peasants. Nobles trained themselves in swordplay and organized regular drills and military training for their serfs, which both kept them busy and uncomplaining and kept a well-trained militia on hand. No noble neglected this training, whatever their views on the lower classes, simply because so many of their peers did the same.

Thus, those with skill at arms and instruction were always in high demand. Retired adventurers were especially sought after to serve as weapon-masters and train younger generations.

However, the hot and humid climate in Ulgarth could make wearing heavy armor uncomfortable to the point of being fatal. No knights wore metal armor. Even leather armor was uncommon among the knights of the realm, owing to the uncomfortable heat wearing it produced. Most went entirely unarmored. Only one, Landswith Meilin, was renowned for wearing full plate mail.

Fashion
Those with money spent it. The rich nobles were surrounded by luxury, and even the most exotic goods were taken for granted, all thanks to the far-reaching Durpari traders. Wealthy noblewomen were expected to wear the finest apparel and spent grand amounts on clothes simply in competition against one another.

Women also almost universally streaked their natural dark hair with a chalky white cosmetic substance called fiertallin, harvested locally from the river Xon. All men shaved regularly, if they could; nobles were always smooth-chinned, with neither bear nor mustache. To have any kind of facial hair was considered by all to be a mark of a peasant, of being someone who couldn't afford shaving equipment. Having a beard in the heat and humidity of Ulgarth could also be quite uncomfortable, making this a somewhat practical habit.

These customs and hair fashions made hairdressing the most well-paid job a peasant could do. A master hairdresser was highly prized to Ulgarth's society.

Adventurers
The Ulgarthan feudal system and national pride made foreign professional adventurers unwelcome: they were considered to be nothing more than common peasants or scurrilous rogues. Only a native Ulgarthan or a foreigner who defended the kingdom against its enemies would be treated as an equal. King Drasna himself had an early adventuring career, and one of the most notable was Landswith Meilin.

Paladins and priests of goodly gods, especially Torm, were always popular and made welcome. Mages were somewhat feared, and known thieves were shunned.

Languages
The language of Ulgarth was the Ulgarthic dialect of Devic. This was a Durpari tongue from Imaskari languages family, and was also spoken in the city of Solon. However, the chief language spoken by the majority of the Ulgarthan population was Common, the trade tongue of Faerûn.