“We guard what we grow.”
The motto of Southmarch
From North March to Southmarch
House Rook’s heirs came from the North March with veterans who had served one ruler after another while struggling to protect their own households. Their descendants settled Southmarch under a promise that service would never erase a family’s claim to its home. The pledge was strained as Corvaine’s campaigns grew longer. Veterans demanding the return of their fields later invoked the founders’ memory. Southmarch’s ancestral name recalls a frontier, but its oldest obligation concerns the lives waiting behind the line of spears.
The Fields Behind the Spears
Southmarch was shaped by service on the kingdom's marches. Its households farmed in times of peace and mustered when warning bells rang. Successive kings praised their readiness, but praise rarely replaced the hands lost at harvest or repaired a home abandoned for a campaign.
After one war, veterans returned to find their fields leased away to cover unpaid levies. They assembled at the citadel carrying both their weapons and the broken ploughs they had found at home. The resulting March Settlement restored their holdings and required future musters to account for the survival of the households supplying them.
With the royal line ended, rival lords seek Southmarch's seasoned soldiers. Its veterans are divided between those who dream of securing the whole realm and those who refuse another distant cause. A ruler can find courage here without difficulty. Convincing people that a campaign will leave them a life worth returning to is a harder task.
Every state carries its own history. In Law of Kings, players build cities, form alliances, and contest citadels within the same persistent realm. Read the citadel guide for gameplay rules.
Your chapter in Southmarch
The old history explains how this state reached a divided Corvaine. Your cities, decisions, and alliances will shape what follows.