Nolien

Nolien is a bustling province of small villages that are found mainly along the coast, with the inland mostly devoted to woodlands and small farming thorps. To the surprise of these visitors a handful of the villages are inhabited by goblins as well as Anuireans. These goblins are mostly the smaller goblinkind and are servants and laborers to craftsmen and proprietors of the villages - though a few of the goblin immigrants have gained some prominence. Although the treatment of most of the goblins is often lamentable, some travelers have noted that it is far better than the goblins face in their homeland of Thurazor where the larger goblins bully them mercilessly.

Nolien looks mostly to the sea for sustenance, although the inland farms produce a reasonable surplus. The fishermen of Nolien City, the largest town have prospered in the last decade in particular with little competition from Bjondrig and now dried and salted fish are sizable exports for the province under the guidance of Storm Holtson.

The Baroness controls the legal officials in the province, notably the sheriff as well as the Mayor of the city of Nolien. The Mayor is a compromise figure who is loyal to the Baroness and seeks the good of the realm, but also someone who believes that what is good for the guilds is good for the city. The tensions between the guilds and the Baroness often left him confused and indecisive and open to influence from whichever side had spoken to him most recently. The Mayor is a friend of the city's merchants and admires Deiniol Cooper, the Guilds-deputy of Stjordvik Traders.

Nolien is noted for the thick woolens knitted by the women of the province for use by their men-folk at sea. Dyed a deep blue in homage to Nesirie the woolens are very thick and formed of three layers of progressively finer weave to ward off the cruel sea winds.

Aedric Nolien is the Count of Nolien.

Gaelin Thuried, Lord of Thuraen.

Esbjorn Rosling, Lord of Rosborg.

Clumine Dhoesone, the court astrologer of Dhoesone controls the sources here.

The largest town in Nolien is also called Nolien, other population centers of interest include:

The village of Onyx-eye is noted for its near all-goblin militia, a legacy of the village once hiring a mercenary band of goblins from Thurazor to protect against sea-raiders. The village has a thriving, if compact, port and is noted for shrimp, lobsters and the occasional pearls found by its fishermen.

The maps show a smooth coast but the fishermen of Laera’s Leap know well the dangers of their treacherous waters. The folk of this dank town are notorious for looting the ships that stray to close to the rocks about the Leap itself – a rock that leans out from the cliff and is traditionally used by widows and others with a broken heart. Recently even darker rumors have spread than that of ship-wrecking, that of slavery. It is said that the folk of Laera’s Leap have kidnapped travelers and the like and sold them to the goblins across the water, this is hotly disputed by the locals who often profess their hatred of the goblins that ‘raid the town so often’ despite the fact that an increasing number of townsfolk are goblins themselves.

This smooth stone is revealed by low tides, and said to be where bizarre cultists once sacrificed youths to a great sea-beast. Locals warn their children from harvesting kelp and driftwood near the area and fishers avoid it like the plague. Several women have been executed in the area over the years for being a ‘sea witch’ although the baroness continued her father's tradition of hanging anyone who did so without the express consent of one of her agents.

This oxbow lake is just barely connected to the Ruide river, it is said that those who bathe in the lake by moonlight are blessed with knowledge of the land and are friend to all animals of the region. The risk of goblin raiders keeps many from testing this old fable but some of the less urban folk make annual pilgrimages to bathe in the waters.