state colours: green and yellow
Elector: Alberich Haupt-Anderssen
Provincial capital: Wurtbad
Stirland is one of the largest of the Imperial provinces, but it is certainly not among the more prosperous. Its economy is largely agrarian, and (mostly very good) wine is the only significant export.
The Emperor has been a Stirlander on many occasions – most recently from 2369, with the accession of Count Leopold on the death of Magnus the Pious, until 2429, when Dieter IV was deposed over the Marienburg secession. Stirland has often had influence, but it has never had wealth.
Many Stirlanders serve in Tilea as mercenary pikemen, and can also be found in the state army. The Stirland Free Foresters are a famous mercenary regiment originally recruited during the great war against Chaos as state militia. After the war, they decided to carry on as mercenaries instead of disbanding, and their fearsome two-handed axes are employed throughout the southern Empire and the Border Princes.
From the state regiments, one unit is particularly famous. The Scarlet Guard of Stirland played a decisive role in the battle of Hel Fen. Armed with halberds, the Guard held back a terrible onslaught by the Undead long enough for the Imperial knights to sweep in from the flank. This regiment is still in service today, wearing bright red uniforms rather than the standard green and yellow.
The Stir River Patrol are a portion of the state army dedicated to the policing of the river, a well-plied trade route and also the provincial border. The Patrol use boats of various sizes, armed with swivel-mounted blunderbuss and even cannon on the larger vessels. The crews are generally armed with bows, with which they are highly skilled. The River Patrol wear green and white uniforms instead of the state colours.
Stirlander generals are legendarily rash, often taking risks in battle that more prudent commanders wouldn’t dream of. Though this tendency towards impetuousness has at times resulted in disastrous defeat, there have been other times when it has paid off – the most dramatic of these was Count Martin’s defeat of Mannfred von Carstein at Hel Fen in 2145. Slaying the last of the vampire counts, and reclaiming Sylvania for Stirland, made Martin into a national hero. Statues and monuments in his honour can be found in all the towns in Stirland, and Martin’s name is invoked by those unlucky soldiers that face the walking dead in battle.
The cursed land of Sylvania is considered to be within Stirland’s territory, though it is more of a burden than a benefit. Nothing wholesome grows in the dead soil. Wraiths haunt the blasted hills, ghouls stalk the rotting forests. In the filthy, squalid villages the destitute peasants live in constant fear of things that do more than just go bump in the night. Even Waldenhof, Sylvania’s capital, is a decayed backwater forsaken by all but the most desperate. Many years ago, Sylvania had its own armies, uniformed in red, purple and black, but today it can barely provide a peasant militia. The Elector Count of Stirland sends his tax collectors in numbers that almost constitute armies, backed up by ogre mercenaries and crusader-priests of Sigmar and Morr – even then they sometimes do not return.
Crumbling castles litter the landscape, none more forbidding than the twin horrors of Vanhaldenscholsse and Castle Drakenhof. The former was the stronghold of the legendary necromancer Frederick van Hal. At the time of the Great Plague, Sylvania was hit by a star-fall of corrupting stones from the moon Morrsleib; within days the plague victims rose again in vast numbers, shambling through the land killing all they came across. It was van Hal who successfully imposed his will over this dead legion, and with it he built a kingdom for himself. Eventually he fell to the treachery of his apprentice, but the damage had been done. The dead would never again rest easy in Sylvania.
Drakenhof is more infamous yet, for it was the seat of the vampire counts of the von Carstein dynasty. Their story is well-known, so suffice it to say that for one hundred and thirty-five years, from the devastation of Ostermark by Vlad von Carstein to Mannfred’s death at Hel Fen, these blasphemous monsters ravaged The Empire. Castle Drakenhof is deserted now, but there are some who say an evil presence has returned.
A map of Stirland
A map of Sylvania
See also Ghost-Dance: a folk tale of Stirland
Text copyright JRT 2007, all rights reserved.