A New Nation
For 1000 years and across 1000 miles the purple banners of Essalim have flown over their empire. For 400 years they have flown over the small corner of the world known as Hilbensal, until the unthinkable happened 5 years ago.
There had never before been a people or a nation that made up Hilbensal. United only as an administrative unit within the Essalite Empire, the Hilben found their first common purpose in opposing the corruption of the colonial governor. When the local Essalite general Auderat Bersandi and his 10000 man army joined the rebels, it looked as if independence could come. But what would come were 5 years of chaos; mercenaries hired by both sides ran amuck victimizing the local population as often as they fought each other.
Bersandi and his army occupied the old Uhr Keep built by Essalim to protect against bandits and barbarians, it looked as if the Hilben were safe from invasion. The mighty Essalite navy threatened the coast, but with no Hilben navy to face they were useless. This left the former colonists free to try and stabilize their nation, but success in creating order has been spotty at best. Finding a true system of justice has been the most difficult administrative problem for the young nation. In it absence, bounty hunters have been employed to keep the order and find lawbreakers.
Six months ago, an army of 40,000 marched north from Essalim under the command of Tribune Atrox. Outnumbering Bersandi’s men 4 to 1 and better equipped, it looked like Hilbensal’s brief experiment in independence was doomed. Somehow, Bersandi managed to push the larger army into tight quarters, forcing them to engage in the narrow spit of land connecting it to the continent. Ignorant of the lay of the land and rushing to engage before winter fell, Atrox fell into Bersandi’s trap and his army was destroyed. The land bridge where he was defeated has now been re-dubbed Atroxes Neck to honor both his folly and his beheading. No further invasion followed. It looks as if independence is truly here.
You are a band of bounty hunters. Perhaps you are one of Hilbensal's human natives, or perhaps you are one of the many foreigners of all races brought here in hopes of glory and a payday. Either way, you and your compatriots are all the fledgling nation has to keep order. It's a homebrew world but one I've barely created, so feel free to use creativity in your character background (with the proviso that I'm imagining Dark Ages Earth).
This is a 5th edition D&D game set in a homebrew world. I'm hoping for good role-players. I'm new to 5th edition and not a rules horse by nature, so you may have to bear with my fumbling through the 5th edition rules.
