Harchong Successor States

Ok, questions here. When Harchong collapsed in the North, East Harchong was formed in Langhorne, Maddox, and Stene.

The United Provinces started in Boisseau and Cheshire, spreading to take over all or most of Bedard and western Omar, as well as plans to move into the former central provinces, and into Tiegelkamp.

The questions were, were they going to take all but the 3 provinces in East Harchong? Also, what about Malansath and Erech? Are they back in the Border States now as independents, as they once were? They are not part of EH or UP, and there is no way Charis/Dohlar/TL/Siddarmark would leave them in the hands of the old Harchong Empire. So, does anyone know?

Oh, I guess Malasanth and Erech could have puppet governments controlled by one of the great powers that one the war, or the TL???

My reading of this map is that neither place was part of the Empire to begin with: http://davidweber.net/files/downloads/s ... heTemp.jpg.

Don't recall any evidence to the contrary, and to the extent that the cartography is consistent showing Malansath as a Duchy doesn't fit with it being a province of Harchong. Unfortunately, there are more than enough inconsistencies on the maps that that notation may not mean what I think it does.

Isilith wrote:Oh, I guess Malasanth and Erech could have puppet governments controlled by one of the great powers that one the war, or the TL???

Louis R wrote:My reading of this map is that neither place was part of the Empire to begin with: http://davidweber.net/files/downloads/s ... heTemp.jpg.

Don't recall any evidence to the contrary, and to the extent that the cartography is consistent showing Malansath as a Duchy doesn't fit with it being a province of Harchong. Unfortunately, there are more than enough inconsistencies on the maps that that notation may not mean what I think it does.

They definitely were part of the Harchong Empire, take the location in A Mighty Fortress:


City of Fairstock,

Province of Malansath,

West Harchong Empire

The falling snow was so thick no one could see more than a ship’s length or two in any direction.

The Earl of Coris found that less than reassuring as Snow Lizard crept cautiously into the Fairstock roadstead. Captain Yuthain had furled his sail and gone to oars as soon as the leadsman in the bow found bottom at ten fathoms.


It was the city that he made landfall on Haven in, when he was summoned to the TL.

Which is evidence for Malansath but not Erech. At least, not directly. On the map, Fairstock is in the Earldom of Hayzor - which the text thus suggests is part of Malansath. In which case, Erech may well be also. Making your question 'what happened in Malansath?'

How to read the map is thus an issue: does it show an earlier conception of the political geography, later dropped either deliberately or inadvertently when that header was written? Or is it in fact the answer to your question: three [probably] recent acquisitions that had constituted the Province of Malansath reverting to independence when Imperial control collapsed? At the time the map supposedly depicts they should still have been in the Empire, but that is not how they're drawn. I think that for the sake of argument I'm going to posit that that part of the map is post-collapse. There is, of course, no justification for that position - but when has that ever bothered anybody around here?

As for the main part of your question, I don't have the impression that either the United Provinces or East Harchong _want_ to get involved with the central region. In the end, though, they probably don't have a choice, and will wind up partitioning it after the south starts making serious efforts to re-establish control there.

Isilith wrote:

Louis R wrote:My reading of this map is that neither place was part of the Empire to begin with: http://davidweber.net/files/downloads/s ... heTemp.jpg.

Don't recall any evidence to the contrary, and to the extent that the cartography is consistent showing Malansath as a Duchy doesn't fit with it being a province of Harchong. Unfortunately, there are more than enough inconsistencies on the maps that that notation may not mean what I think it does.

They definitely were part of the Harchong Empire, take the location in A Mighty Fortress:


City of Fairstock,

Province of Malansath,

West Harchong Empire

The falling snow was so thick no one could see more than a ship’s length or two in any direction.

The Earl of Coris found that less than reassuring as Snow Lizard crept cautiously into the Fairstock roadstead. Captain Yuthain had furled his sail and gone to oars as soon as the leadsman in the bow found bottom at ten fathoms.


It was the city that he made landfall on Haven in, when he was summoned to the TL.