Contents
Location
Hevgoss lies west of Paladia, across the mainland territories bordering the city-state. Its proximity places it in direct strategic opposition to Paladia and positions it as a dominant regional power capable of exerting pressure through military and economic means.
Description
Hevgoss is a militaristic state whose economy and armed forces rely heavily on an extensive prison system. Its prison population is vast and multigenerational, forming both the primary labor force and a significant portion of the military. Prisoners are divided into sectors, with sentences ranging from short-term labor to multi-generational imprisonment, in which servitude is passed down through families.
Low-ranking military units are frequently composed of sector one and two prisoners, who are promised pardons in exchange for successful service. Political prisoners, classified as sector four, are typically sentenced to multiple generations of incarceration. Although slavery is illegal on the Northern continent, Hevgoss effectively reinvents it through state-controlled penal labor and the rental of prisoners to external parties when expedient.
Hevgoss has a long history of provoking or exploiting crises in neighboring states in order to justify intervention. These interventions frequently result in governments that are economically or politically beholden to Hevgoss.
Relevance
Hevgoss represents a persistent external threat to Paladia. While Novis maintains historical ties to the Holdfasts, Hevgoss has spent decades seeking improved trade agreements with the guilds and positioning itself to benefit from Paladia’s instability.
During the war, Morrough travels into Hevgoss under heavy secrecy, accompanied by a significant portion of the Undying. Preparations for the visit are extensive, and the movement is known only to a limited number of individuals. Morrough enters into agreements with Hevgotian leadership, exchanging knowledge related to necromantic immortality in return for access to prisoners used in experimentation.
After the war, Hevgoss is implicated in sheltering Irmgard Stroud. Stroud is granted immunity in exchange for her research before later being found dead in a lake under circumstances officially attributed to a heart attack, prompting limited scrutiny of Hevgoss’s actions.
